COFFIN
Respected Broter
I now take my pen in hand to let you know that I am still on hand.
I am well at present.
Abul to do a hard day work as ever i could
I receved a letter
frum you which I red with great plasur as it was the first word that i have
heard frum you in two years
I am glad to heare of times being so good in you state; not that It is any
profit to me; but probely it is agreatdel to you land spectulaters
I have just ogt back wonce moure to missouri plat i have been a
prospecting for a bout tow mounths an i did not find a thing and spent one
houndred dolars
now i have come back to my ould Cabben and hire out at four dollars a day on
board my self
the wourking clask of men are douing better now than thay did last winter
June 3th 1854
[bottom of first page-pmf]
[second page]
provender [?] is vary cheap of California. flour is wourth $7-2/4 [or
2/11] pur houndred
ham 25 cts pur pound
baken 20 cts pur pound
potatoes 3 cts pur pound
beans 12-2/4 cts pur pound
butter 50 cts pur pound
orleans shugar 20 cts pur pound
Coffee 25 cts pur pound
greean hides varies
prices
if a man would settle down in darn good mining destrict an be contented with 4
dollars a day he could soon git a thousen scads [scaels] but it never was my
luck to wourk for small wages
4 dolars is conciderd small wages for California
in the states if a man could make 4 dollars a day with a 4 or 5 horse team he
would think he was maken money faster then the bigest farmer in states
[third page]
wal it now Sunday and I
want to go to placerville
so i wil dry up this epistel hoping you may right to me as often is you
can
an I will try an do the same
Johnathan F [T?] Coffin
Sylvester Coffin
Transcribed by Phyllis Miller Fleming from the papers of
Dorothy Barnard
Hutchison
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