Middling Folk by Matthews Linda H.;

Author:Matthews, Linda H.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2012-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

Your loving sister,

Elizabeth McIntosh Hammill

Letters Home

To Mrs Elizabeth Hammill

c/o Mr Hugh Hammill, Occoquan Post Office, Virginia

From William Hammill, Sutter’s Mill, California

June 9th 1850

Dear Ma,

I take my pen in hand to inform you that one son of yours is alive and in this world and that is me but Ma you got to know your other son that’s Daniel Alexander, Ma he is not. And it wan’t Injuns nor Bandits did him in tho we got plenty of both, but it was the bad water he drunk bad water two-three weeks back and he laid in a feaver two-three weeks and last night he passed with just a shed roof over his head and one blanket to warm him. Ma I done what I could for him but it wan’t much it is a wild and rough place out here I couldn’t find no doctor nor nobody to take an interest for such is happening out here every day and more than once in the day it is rough out here Ma.

And all along he was talkin’ bout how he done wrong draggin’ me out here and he sure would like to go home. I think there at the end he thot he was home for he was talkin’ bout the river and them strawberries ole man Hanna has up in his field and he sure would like a plate of them strawberries. I was givin’ him boiled water in a spoon but it wan’t no strawberries and then he passed. Me and a coupla other fellows wrapped him up as good as we could in the blanket and we buried him this morning and put a stone on the place to keep the animals off but I don’t know Ma. And we said what bible verses we could recall because most any fellow can bring a few to mind if he trys, and we did try and we did the best we could, and now I am setting here wonderin’ what I ought to do next for it is mighty lonesome bein’ out here without Danny.

And now I will close and Ma I sure hope you get this letter I will write another soon as I can I will post it up to Sutter’s Mill where they got some kind of post office bout a day or two’s ride from here. It is rough out here you would not credit it Ma anything rough there is to see you see it here, I seen it all Ma but I ain’t seen any gold but a lot of mud and dirt and I am thinkin’ what to do next.

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