L DORADO COUNTY (October 2, 2023) – Dry Creek, California Oct 14th, 1850
Dear Father,
By my long silence you may have reason to think that I may have forgotten all about our friends at home, but such I assure you is not the case. The society of friends, the comforts and endearments of home have been often brought to remembrance amid the toils, privations and wanderings of the last half year of my life Not even the luxuries of life in California (as Elisha mentioned) have been able to make me forget home.
You have probably ere this received the few lines I sent by Mr. Barnes written upon our arrival. George has written twice since, one letter was directed to Fredrick Ormsby with the bad news of Mr. Hickox’s death, the other was written to Elisha from Nevada City about five weeks ago. If these have been received you are already acquainted with our doings and journeyings up to that date. A day or two after George wrote I was taken with bilious fever, was quite sick for four or five days but soon re-covered. We stayed at Nevada about ten days, but could find nothing that would pay to for working, the mines have been very rich about that place so that thousands have rushed in there and everything worth working is occupied and claims are held very high.
George and Charles worked a few days while I was sick but could not make more than three or four dollars each, per day, not being satisfied with such pay, we concluded to look for diggings elsewhere. So we sold our tools, took passage in a waggon to Sac. City and left. A drive of two days and a half brought us to the City, a place pleasantly situated on a beautiful stream and surrounded by a large extent of open country called the Valley of the Sacramento. In size it will compare to what Chicago was eight or ten years ago. In business it will vie with any place its size in the States. We here sold the horse, which was on a ranch five miles above the City. We got eighty dollars for him.
After remaining in the City a day or two we took passage on a loaded wagon for this place. We arrived here three weeks ago last night and have been to work here ever since. The mines here are not rich and consequently are not as badly crowded as they are in many other places. The miners here are making from three to eight dollars per day – we have not averaged more than five – some days we get but two or three dollars and some times eight or nine – small business indeed for those who expected to make a fortune of four or five thousand the first three months but as I was not quite as sanguine of success as some, the disappointment to me is not as great as it is to many others. People who have come to California this year find it altogether different than what they had pictureu in their imaginations, instead of a land so rich in gold that they had but to stoop to pick up a fortune – where gold was so plenty that it was impossible to miss it they have found a place where others have been before and made their fortunes and have merely left the gleanings for them. All the rich placers have either been worked out or are held by men who came in last year. Men who were in the mines last year supposed them to be inexhaustible, but of all who came here this year none are so much disappointed as those who were here last year; upon returning to their old diggings they find that others have discovered them and worked them out. There is scarcely a ravine, gulch, bar, or stream in California but what has been thoroughly prospected and every place that will pay well which has not been worked out is crowded with miners, and thousands of men are traveling in every direction over the country hunting for places to dig.
We have not yet determined where we shall work next winter- we have laid in our supplies and provisions and bought us a tent here – we bought six hundred lbs. of flour for which we paid nineteen and 1/4 dollars per pound . and half a barrel of pork at twenty-eight dollars, 65 lbs. of potatoes at 18 cts. per lb. The prospects for winter diggings here are rather poor. The creek is now nearly dry so that the Lies and bed of the stream can be worked, but after the rain commences these will have to be abandoned and mining operations will have to be confined to banks of streams, and ravines which are now dry. We intend to work here awhile yet, then look around some and if we can find a place where we think we can do better we shall move to it. But we find traveling and prospecting is too expensive – it is better to stay in one place and work for small wages than to spend time and money looking for rich diggings.
It cost us to travel from Hangtown to Nevada City, a distance of 70 miles, about 30 dollars each. Far too expensive – it is better to stay in one place and work for small wages than to spend time and money looking for rich diggings. It cost us to travel from Hangtown to Nevada City, a distance of 70 miles, about 30 dollars each. From Nevada to Sacramento, 80 miles, we paid 8 dollars for our passage – meals cost 75 cts. $1.50. For passage from Sacramento to this place we paid $10.00 each. Our winters provisions, tent and what we have eat since we have been here have cost us somewhere about eighty dollars each. Our tent (a very good one, about 12 feet square) cost us $50.00 It will take some time the way we are making money now to cover the costs of coming out here, getting back again and pay us for our time besides.
I want to stay here long enough to make that if I can and then, without I can see better prospects than I can now, I shall be satisfied to go home and stay there. While I was writing this a man by whom we had sent to the City for letters, arrived bringing a long and interesting letter from home. It is impossible to conceive with what pleasure a letter from distant home and is received and read, it makes me feel almost as though we were at home again. If I could have one to read every Sunday and some newspapers to read evenings I do not know but I should forget that I am in California 2500 miles from anyplace where a human being ought to live.
By the way, I wish you would send me a paper or two now and then, the smallest favors from home will be thankfully and gladly received. At all events do not neglect to write often to.
Your affectionate son
John T. Gridley
Give my love to mother and all the family.
[Part 1 – “Placerville, Aug 4, 1850“]
[Part 3 “Dry Creek, California Nov 14th, 1850“]
![Grizzly Flat [ca. 1851-1852]](http://www.inedc.com/23/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/GrizzlyFlats-1851-1852-350x250.webp)
