Dear Father, Mother, Brothers and Sisters:
James wrote you shortly after he came. We have not received your letter nevertheless I will write a few lines. We are all in good health at present. May we be thankful to the giver of all good for the many blessings we enjoy. I was sick most of the time Mr. Cowan was here I was sorry as I could not go round much with him. We were glad to see him. I know very little difference of him since I saw him before. He seems to like the looks of this country very much and I think if his family had been here he would not have gone back to Canada. Indeed, he was rather inclined to buy a farm and fetch them out here and I think was his opinion when he left here but he said he would leave it mostly to the boys as they would have most of the work to do. James had a letter from Tomi the other day. They were all well. Mr. Cowan had been sick for a while but is better. They had not bought any land then but I think it likely they will settle in Canada. But Mr. C. will often think about this country for he seemed to like it much, and we would have been glad to had them for neighbors.
James is with us still. He had the offer of a very good place at Lockport just when he came but he did not go as there had been several cases of Cholora in the village. We can find work enough for him till winter but like you can not afford to give him very much wages. For though our farm has paid up very well this last year our outlay has also been very considerable. Our farm work is well forward. We got a good price for our Indian corn and have sold the whole of last years crop. We got about 50c and some loads 521/2 c per bushel of 60lb. Last year the highest we got was 33c. We got 50 great wagon loads of hay, got our potatoes up, about 175 bushel. Last week we drew out the dung and threshed some and this week James and I are putting up a corn house, 24 by 14 by llft. 2 in. We raised the frame this after- noon. Tomorrow we are going to work on the roads. Agnes is nursing the baby, a girl, is 7 weeks old today. We sold 3,3 yr. old stots for 70 dollars for beef. These are the first cattle I have sold. They are high and of great demand. We think we can sell 4 or 5 every year now, and keep up our stock. We have 21 head to winter with the calves.
Our new meeting house is up but not finished inside. It is nearly 4 miles from us.
We are to have an election for President two weeks from now. The candidates are Scott, Whig; Pierce, Democrat; and Hale, Free Soil or Abolition; We will vote for Hale though he will not be elected. The others are pro-slavery. We can not tell which will gain it, you will see in the papers.
This part of the country has been generally healthy this summer and fall, tho there has been sudden deaths from typhoid fever (a very deadly disease) and a few cases of cholera in the cities and villages, and some deaths from it. It is though by many that this will become a permanent disease in this country. Indeed there has been more or less of it every year ever since it made its first appearance in the country.
James and I were at the first cattle show of the Will County Agriculture Society held at Joliet about two weeks since. It was a beginning. They were over seeing Findlay’s folks last week. Andrew has a son. They are all well. He wants James to plow two months. He can get two pounds a month. He will be here all winter. Anyway he seems to heft well. Some permanent place may cast up in the spring. Daniel is well.
The three boys are at school. Sally looks like a boy and is a great talker. The little one they say is like Robert.
We had wet weather until the middle of May then until the middle of September there was next to no rain. Hay was plenty, wheat and oats rather light. Potatoes very good and no rot. Indian corn is a fair average crop. It will be a month before we start to pick ours yet.
Archie Bell, a son of Tom of Guidepost was here two or three days. He went to find work on the railroad. We have not heard from him.
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