The Fassett Letters

Dear Mother
When I wrote to you in Sept, I little thought my next would be dated in Dec, I waited till the last of Oct. without writing to let you know what we decided upon doing this winter. Just as I was ready to write I was taken with the chill & fever. I took some pills & bitters & thought I would get better (quinine was so high I tried to do without only 12 ½ cents a grain.) but kept getting worse till it was a fever. then Parker got some blue mass, & quinine, that helped me but my mouth became very sore all at once. Parker & Chittenden said I was salivated but it proved to be just a sore mouth as Parker had for about 2 months after we came here. It was swelled under my jaws in large lumps & one cheek was swelled some time. inside it was a perfect canker. my gums were white all around my teeth. I was afraid I would lose all my teeth. it hurt me very much to speak and was very painful. I had no doctor at all. Parker made a wash of citrate of silver for me. It took off chunks of flesh every time I used it. It is not quite well yet but I am well enough to do the cooking & help P. wash. I wrote to you that we talked of buying here. They bought a frame, finished it off for a dwelling house & shop & were going to have a grocery or provision store connected with the meat shop. I was to bake & we would keep bread, pies, & cakes for sale (a very profitable business here. by buying at the city the materials only cost about 12 ½ cents a pie & they sell at 50 & sell 20 & 50 per day.) Chit went down to Brown’s the day after I was taken sick, got 400 dollars for a yoke of oxen & our waggon, came back to Sacramento, bought 300 dollars worth of groceries & a very nice cooking stove for me to bake pies in for 65 dollars. This was Saturday he knew I was sick. Guy was quite sick & Parker to tend the shop, make about 50 lbs of sausage every day, take care of us & do the work, so he came home Sunday. We are 50 miles from the city & everything must be hauled from there. he wanted to send Monday but waited till Tuesday for a man that owed them to go, & Tuesday night Sacramento burnt up & with it all our little fortune. If the team had started Monday it would have got there and got loaded Tuesday afternoon and the goods would have doubled the money in 2 weeks. Their beef was brought to them every night (half a beef.) but it would not pay a for spending all their time so when the grocery business failed they gave up the shop, & last week they commenced mining for a living. They did not make their board, but to day they have gone to a new claim in hopes to do better. they stay all day & Dwight carries their dinner. they are now 2 mile from here, last week they were 1 ½. in a grocery here they keep all kinds of family supplies including flour, meat, pork, all kinds of vegetables &c. The season so far has been very wet the rains set in the first of Nov. & the roads are very bad. hauling is 10 cents per pound, flour 30 cts per lb, salt pork 40, fresh 50, beef a 5 £ 30, potatoes 14 cts per pound, meal 17, &c. milk 2 dollars per gallon and so on. As I sit here facing my window I can look up to the top pane of glass & see the top of a hill or mountain with green grass springing up all over it. Parker has seen 2 or 3 gardens lately with vegetables just up out of the ground. Parker & Chit are very healthy. P. weighs 142, & C. 146. the children are very well. Clara has grown so much Parker says you would not know her. They talk about you all every day, & Dwight says if he would go to Grandpa’s now Grandma would give him some bread and milk (a very great rarity here) and some apples. (do run in with a big bellflower for me, I dont see an apple here.) We are looking for a letter all the time, have had only 2 July & August. Chit thinks you dont write so he is spunky & wont write to you. I have scolded him & said all I could but I cant make him write. You may depend on my writing all I can whether I hear from you or not as I know you will & do write. I should be glad to write many things about our trip here but cannot get time. I think our present prospects will interest you most now & that is why I write so many little particulars. I live about as near Mary Ann as you do to Mr. Britell but have not been well enough to go there since Oct. she comes here often as she can, the last time, came in the morning with the children & stayed all day. She treats me like a sister, says she knows she never was so glad in her life as she was to see me come. they are all well. I take lots of comfort visiting with her. many thanks to Miss Sarah for her long letter. would be glad to answer it but pressing business demands my attention. Mother dont scold because I dont fill a sheet, I am very tired writing this much. You must not be uneasy if you dont hear often for Parker & Chit will write if there is anything serious the matter. write often & long all of you. Much love to Father, Mother, & all.