New Hampshire
United States
America
October 29, 1949
My dr Elizabeth,
I now take the pleasure of writing these few lines to you in
hopes they will find you enjoying the very best of health as I am happy to say
that this leaves me quite well, thanks be to the almighty for his kind and
generous blessings towards me at all times.
I received a letter from home and one from Mr. Gleave on Saturday last acquainting
me of the numerous deaths at Flint by cholera, which I really feel sorry to
hear of. I hope and trust that you and
your relatives have escaped it and that it has disappeared altogether from your
neighborhood. I hope it will be the
means of leaving a deep impression upon the hearts of many of the Flint people and
of leading many to God. I was very sorry
to hear of the illness of Mrs. Floyd. I
hope that in this she quite recovered again and that matters are settled with
her father, which I am sure she must of felt very bad on that account. I hope that he is sober and steady without
which he will never prosper in this world.
I want to tell you the reason for my delay in not writing to
you sooner as I thought as you spoke of going to Manchester that you would not
of been at home to receive it. I hope If
you have been to visit your friends there that you and your cousin Miss Whitley
was highly pleased with the out to Manchester, which I am sure it would be a
great treat for you to go from home a little and that with this you have
arrived safe once more at the famed old town of Flint. The interest of home of its people I have at
heart in regard to you going to live with either of your brothers. I scarcely know what to say on the
subject when I see that your father
wishes you to stop at home, although Flint is no place for anybody to gain his
or her character in state as I am quite undecided as yet whether I should stop
in this place or move. If I do move it
will be to the western states to settle down or I shall go to California and
then return to old England for the remainder of my days. If I do go to the gold mines, I shall require
a great deal of money to go with, say about L100, which it will take to provide
myself with everything that I shall want for the voyage and the fare
inclusive. Now my dr Elizabeth I hope
that you will not mention a single word about this to anyone as I have not said anything about
it to anybody and I do not intend to do until I am ready to start. That is, if I do, for there is a great many
from about here gone there and there is some more getting ready to go very
soon. There is four or five from here
has been there and have returned back with a great deal of money, one with
forty thousand dollars and another fifteen thousand dollars worth of gold
dust. The others I do not know the exact
amount of their money. I shall let you
know soon how I am decided and if I go to California I shall have to appeal to
you for some of your money. By sacrificing
a little money it may be a means of making us both happy & independent for
life, if God in his mercy will think it proper to bless the feeble efforts
& the struggles I have to go through in this world of trouble and woe,
which I have no doubt he will do so if I submit myself unto him and lead a
righteous life in this world.
I received a letter from Mr. Williams the next week after I
got yours which I assure you that nothing in this world gives me more pleasure
than to hear from my dearest Lizzy. I
also received the paper you sent me for which I now thank you kindly. Since I have been here I have never spent one
hour to compare to the many many happy hours which I spent with you in your
parlor which often occurs to my mind as fresh as yesterday and it will never be
forgotten.
I have got acquainted with about one hundred English people
here which are all very kind to me as also is the Yankees. They are all very kind to me both at the shop
and in the board house. The Yankees
generally are very kind and polite in their manner but they are very
inquisitive. After Friday everybody’s
business is --- by any trains they can do.
This letter will have to go to Caerwys before you get it as
I am writing to my cousin there and enclosing you in haste in his letter hoping
to have little more time to write a long letter next time to you.
Give my kind regards to your brother & sister & accept
of my best love to yourself and believe me my dearest Elizabeth to remain yours
most truly,
John Benjamin
I will haste a letter soon
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