Letter from Louisa Cook to her sister Emma

Placerville [Idaho]
July 29 [1864]

Dear Sister Emma,

I received a letter from you last night, dated May 26th and was glad to hear from you, as it was the first line I have had from you since I wrote to you last fall. I think it was in Nov., but I have forgotten and may be mistaken in the month. My letter was mostly in relation to family affairs and I presume must have seriously offended you or you would have answered it long ago, but I will try to avoid that subject hereafter, although what I wrote was written with the best of motives. You seem anxious to sell your land and wish that I would buy it. I hardly know how to express my opinion on this subject without offending you, although I would like to.

As far as I am concerned (not speaking for my sisters or brother) I feel that father and mother worked hard to take care of their children, that they both earned and paid for that land and that as long as Ma lives she ought to have undisputed possession of it. If she can get the right to sell it (which I do not doubt she can) and wished to do it, I for one would never lift a finger against it. In the other hand, even if Ma could not dispose of it ever and I could buy your share and the rest, of what use would it be to me while I am out here. When I was at home I used to think I would like to have it, if I could have got a lawful right to it and when I come back home, if you can give a title for ten or fifteen acres of land, I will give you as much as any one will. If you think the only way you can ever get anything for your land will be by selling it to me, I will buy it or help you in any way I can, but you must have patience and wait till I come back. When I come away from Ohio I set my "home stake" at one thousand. I have nearly half of it now and have made it since last fall. If my life and health are spared, I hope in a year or two at the longest to see Ohio again. Well, enough of this. You will perhaps want to know what I am doing, etc.

Some time in April I commenced teaching the public school in Placerville City and taught six weeks when I was taken down with the measles and was very sick for about six weeks. I advised the people to get another teacher and assured them that my lungs was so much affected that I could not go into school again. But they did not believe me or for some reason they did not get any one else and at the end of the seventh week I went into school again. I asked them a hundred dollars per month in the first place, but day before yesterday the board met and raised my wages twenty-five dollars, so now I get $125 per month. It costs me about forty dollars per month to board myself and Mary. Uncle Robert lives about 6 miles from here and keeps a hotel. He has six cows, too, and sells about forty quarts of milk a day for 25 cts per quart. George Plumey has a store three blocks from my house on the same side of the street that I live on. He is a good steady fellow, not a bit like his brothers. He never gets drunk and that is more than they can say. I took a horseback ride with him last Saturday evening and enjoyed it real well. O, there are so many men here compared with the women. I presume in this basin there are fifty (some say a hundred) men to every marriageable female. Louis, Medger Plumey's nephew, is packing between here and Walla Walla. Mary goes to school every day and learns fast. She writes, studies geography, arithmetic, reading & spelling. She says she is going to write to you, but I am afraid she won't have her letter ready. She is quite tall now, but not as big around as when she left Ohio and if I am any judge, Mary Cook is a very different appearing girl from what Mary Galin used to be.

There are about half a dozen girls of her own age and all real good, well-behaved girls, too. The only trouble is the girls get old too fast by being taken into company so young. They make as much fuss about their dress and talk about their beaus more than a girl of sixteen ought to.

I want to get back with Mary, for I am afraid if I stay more than three or four years longer I should lose her. It is so fashionable for girls to get married at 12 or 13 years of ages. Well, I think I must close. I would like so much to have the photographs you spoke of. I would like to send you mine, but they charge six dollars for a single one and ten dollars a dozen here, so I think I will wait till I go below to Portland. Please send yours won't you. Give my best love to Mrs. Johnson and the children, also Mrs. French and Mrs. Bury, if you ever see her. Tell Mrs. Johnson I often think of her and hers and I would like so much to have their photographs.

With much love,
Your Sister
Louisa
[In pencil]
Mary sends you some gold dust which she panned out herself. There is about 90 cts.