This letter was copied from a handwritten copy. The handwritten copy was received from Sara Leota Mutz, a granddaughter of Arthur Tyrrell. She copied it from a typewritten copy of the original.




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Stocktown, California
May 9th, 1850

Dear Friends

     I have now taken my pen to inform you that I am well and enjoying good health and wish you the same I am verry anxious to hear from you as I have not heard from you since I left home last spring I will now comence and tell you about my journey from Great Salt Lake to this place I arrived thare two days after I wrote to you last fall in October I found Nathan C Tinney and family well he hes three children and has buried one his Farther in law is thare allso well and dooing well I found Releaf Cram she is married to a man by the name of Melon Atwod she has one child I stopd with them one week and found them good friends but strong in the faith of Mormenism Releaf told me her Sister Abigail is in Council Bluff and about to be maried to aman by the name of Haven she will be his third wife now liveing Tinney and Atwod has but one a peas yet but believe it to be right to have more Amisa Lyman that preached thare in Illinois lived at Picatonica has seven I saw them all they live in two houses he stays at one a while then goes to the other Brigam Young has alot of them Tinney did not know how many he has some say sixty others say more but it is a fact they have more then one wife as many as they want if they can git them Atwods wife and Tinneys both told me that they wished their husbands would git one more and more if they want. Tinney is farming had good crops he lives twelve miles from the City Atwod is a mason by trade and lives in the City of Great Salt Lake wages was high money plenty that makes evry thig high I do not think much of the Valley I am willing the Mormons shood have it so good buy to it

     I will tel you more when I see you about it

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Nov 12th our company left Salt Lake and started the south rout to California about 700 miles without any inhabitents but Indians some of them hostile to the whites our company consisted of 27 ox teams and 3 horseteams and over 60 men 10 maried women and some yong women we moved on verry well seeing some Indians but all Friendly the mormons told us we would not have any snow but the 27th Nov at knight the snow fellabout 4 inches deep we had no more bare ground except in some very few places it had blowed for 250 miles it beeind verry cold and snowing frequently the snow was from 2 to 24 inches dep our cattle could git nothing to eat except what they picked out of the snow til the 20th Dec we come into a valley that the snow was mostly off we stoped 3 weeks and burnt coal and made shoes and shawd our oxen and horses cows and all we burnt wagons to git iron we had 3 blacksmiths in the Company. We frequently had to camp at knight whare thare was no watter and no wood but wilde sage to make fire and melt snow for watter before shoeing our cattle and after it the midle of January we crosed the rim of the basin onto the head of the Santa Clara River a branch of the Colrado the snow on the divide would averige 2 feet deep gowing down the south side of the mountain we soon came to bare ground we found some grass for our cattle or what was cattle wonce but now skin and bones a good many of them so weak that they could hardly go and the great desart yet to be Crosed whare thare is no grass for any thing to eat it was imposible to go back over the mountains through the snow go ahead we must but slow the indians killing or wounding our oxen so bad we had to kill them at diferent times Our provisions was geting short and the company divided into a number of companies so as to go faster Mr Rice Imus and a Mr Buckley was the rear company Imus teams was the nearest giveing out of any we had to throw away all most evry thing we had I kep part of my clothing and left the rest with my trunk

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on the desert for the Indians Mr Rice left one wagon Imus two Buckley one our provisions give out when an ox could go no further and laid down to die we then kiled them and eat them when we gut to the settlement Mr Rice had five oxen and two cows I had old Jim left makes eight head in all we left Illinois with twenty four head Imus sufered more loss acordingly then Rice. But we all had good health except Mrs Rice on the 9th of Dec she was confined and gave birth to a fine boy she calles him Boon Freemont we arived at Williams'es Rancho about 80 miles east of Puebla de los Angelos about the midle of March Mr Rice stoped at Rolens Rancho 15 miles from Puebla de los Angelos and went to makeing butter and cheese Rolens furnishes him as many cows as he is amind to milk I left him thare and started for the mines the 1st of April with Mr Buckley I am now at Stocktown start tomorrow for Sacramento City

Sacrimento City
May 15th 1850

I arived here last knight in good health but Oh it is the nastest place I ever saw I expect it is the nearest post office to whare I shal go to work direct your letters to this place ( Sacrimento City California) until further orders from me be shure and write as soon as you get this I have sent to San Francisco to the post master to have him forward any letters if thare for me I am verry anxious to hear from you and friends conections

Wages are high carpenters git from 16 to 20 dollars a day other labor is in proportion

I will write again as soon as i git to the mines and git to work

Yours with respect

Arthur Tyrrell


Our thanks to Ray W. Justus for contributing these letters to the Jo Daviess Co., IL USGenWeb