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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California, Sept. 15th 1850

Dear Friends

     I have again taken my pen to inform you that my health is good and has bin all summer.   I can boast of nothing more only I have plenty to eat drink and ware at present    I received a letter in July from you dated the 11th of April.    it was the first I heard from home after I left and it has bin the last   only a week after the letter Mr. Baily from White Oak Springs came along    he told me all he knew respecting you and the rest of the friends as far as he knew    he stoped and worked with me three weeks    he come through behind Miles and Lepper.    he come acrost them the same as he did me    they was at that time about thirty miles from me    they told him they had not heard from me and did not know where I was    I calculated to go and see them but Bailey said it was no use they was going to leave that place and did not know Whare thay shoud go    it is all I have to say about them only they was in California and well    the balance you wrote was coming    I have not heard about whether they have come or not     I have enquired a great many times of emigrants that has come through this season but can git no news of them nor of Miles and Lepper Slace Baley left me    I dont know whare he is now

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he started from White Oak Springs with seven horses and wagan lost all but one horse before he got through    from reports thare is hard times this year as well as last and worse for the time of year    if any is as late as we were last year they will be ketched no mistake    I will tell you as well as I can whare I am    I am about 3 miles above Kelys Bar situated on the north fork of the American River 50 miles from Sacramento City    I arived at Kelleys Bar the last of May and have bin in this section sence    every thing is high. but called cheap    I will give you the prices of some things at the stores or the places whare they kept it to sell    at Kelleys Bar Flower 18 to 25 cornmeal 25 to 35 Rice 30 to 40 Hard bread or sea bread 30 to 60 Butter 1.25 cheese 1.00 to 1.25 Sugar 45 to 60 Tea 1.00 to 1.50 coffee 50 to 75 chocolate 75 to 100 Saleratus 75 to 1.00 salt 37 to 50 Beans and peas 40 to 60 potatoes 25 to 35 onions 1.00 Barley for horse feed 25 to 30 all the above prices is so much per pound according to the amount the merchants have on hand    dried apples and peaches 50 to 60 Dried pears 75 to 100 per pound Raisins currants figs Plumbs pepper spice ginger all 1.00 per pound    Clothing is high Boots 12 to 30 dollars per pare shoes 4 to seven dollars per pare Pantaloons 5 to 10 Shirts 2 to 3 dollars a peace Steel shovels 5 to 10 Iron shovels 4 to 6

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picks 5 to 6 dollars apeace the common wooden bucket sells 2 to 350 cents each tin pans 2 to 3 dollars each the cradle or rocker is made simular to a cradle to rock babies in and new ones sells from 30 to 60 dollars a common mechanic can make one in a day but as high as the prices is some men here is getting rich fast others are only makeing a living many a man I have seen that spent all they had to git to California that curs the country and wish themselves back home any man can make money here that has his health and works and goes into no speculation trying to git more it is a little like a lottery last week aman got 150 dollars in one bucket of dirt not 10 rods from whare I work and I cant git over 8 cents to the bucket all along between that man and me the men that own the claimes have bin making from 50 to 100 dollars a day for the last six weeks John Custace and I are together yet we bot the claim paid three hundred dollars fore it to men can wash from 50 to 150 buckets in a day sometimes more and sometimes less I have not made up my mind whare I shall winter yet. I have not seen nor heard from Mr Rice since I left him last spring near Puebla de Los Angeles about seven hundred miles from whare I now am

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I expect he is somewhare in the neighborhood of Stocktown about 150 miles from me If I go to hunt him up I think I shal start be be fore many days I would like to find Miles and Lepper or Hierum and Leonard if they have come into the country or any of my old neighbors Martin Millet Pickering & Co Bailey is the only man that I was acquainted with that I have seen all summer he seemed all most like a brother to me he told me Leppers wife was dead I saw the letter did not mention her name and did the other three I felt curious the time I red it and I inquired of him whare she was Write to me the particulars of her death Bailey could not tell me and what Lepper done with John I would like to hear all about it. If you receive this letter I want you to write to me every month after till I come home write the first of every month without fail I intend to write oftener after this when you receive this direct your letters to San Francisco as I do not know where I shall be I can git them from thare better than sacremento

Tell Mother I have one favour to ask of her that is not to think I have forgotten her

Give my respects to all inquireing friends tell all to come that want to come and cannot be satisfied without For my part I have seen the elephant

Thare is goldhere and anyone that is lucky can git it. No more at present

Arthur Tyrrell


Compliments of:
Ray W. Justus
1331 West Folley Street
Chandler, AZ 85224-7511
(602) 963-4811

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