Belvidere
April 8th, 1860
Dear Brother John,
My father in law handed me a letter form you two or three
days ago. I am sorry to say that I have not heard from you since last fall sometime. I wrote to you when I moved here and did not
hear from you. I made up my mind that
you did not like my coming here to this place again. But, however, here I am and what I have been a
doing I don’t think I shall be able to tell at present.
Last fall I had a reaper for my work at Beloit. I brought it
down here to this place. I sold it to three men and I had the greatest time in
getting my pay that ever was. Now what
I came down here for was to run the steam mill once more and to make some
fanning mills as it was my intention then, but the partis [sic] that I was in
company with got ___ out and I sold out to them my interest in the ___ and
doors and I runed [sic] the engine for them for $50 per day. Then came the saw mill and Mr. Covey took it
in hand and made the awfulest [sic] work that ever was. He stayed two days sawing wedges. I didn’t go near him all this time, only to
get the slabs. He, towards night the
last day, said he would not touch it again and so it was left until two months
after. When it was proposed to me to
take the mill and pay what I could afford to and make it pay me, consequently I
went at it with the assistance of a man that came here from India, by the name
of Cohoon, to work with me. He is as
good a mechanic and also as a man that I ever worked with. Now we had the saw mill under our charge, some
of the time I would run the engine and some of the time the saw, and we done
very well out of it. We did not get much
money but we got considerable lumber and some flour, butter, ham, etc. Now we are going to start a machine shop in
my shop here on the other end of the lot from the house. My father in law bought us a house lot and
shop all complete, and so I thought as long as I had good shop that we had
better put in a lathe, etc., and go to work independent of anyone. This man, Cohoon, thought it best to have a
lathe that we could turn wood and iron in, and so he went to Indiana and bought
a lathe, part of which came here yesterday.
It is a very nice one. We are
going to run It with a horse power at present, and if it is going to pay, we
shall put in an engine, about six horse power.
Our house, if you recall where Hudson & Vernor’s lumber yard was, it
being corner lot south of that, it being 10 rods from the RR, and it will be
very convenient to the cars and a good place for a drop. I went out to the country the other day to get
a horse power with my father in law’s yoke of cattle, the first time that I
ever drove any.
I came very near going south this last winter, if hadn’t
been for this man coming here from Indiana.
I should have gon [sic]. It has
been very good times down there, while here it has been very hard and is yet. If the farmers don’t have a good crop this
year I don’t know what will become of the place. And if the crops is going to cut off this
year, I shall surely leave the place for parts unknown. Ballard left Beloit for St. Louis with all
his furniture, and all the reaper shops are laying still, and also at
Rockford. Mechanics are glad to work for
they’re Board [sic]. I am going to build
some of these fanning mills this spring.
The patent rights I have let go back and I am going to make a mill just
as good of my own. I shall give you a
pattern of the show on the other side of this paper. If you think it an object to build some, you
can do so. It will take all the oats out of the wheat and
also will make four separations at one time.
I have done nothing with my reaper on account of not having money to
carry it through. If I shall have good
luck this summer, I shall apply for a patent.
I must close for the
present in hopes this will find all well as I happy to say this leaves us all
well at present. Frances unites with me
in love to you all.
From your truly Brother,
Edwin
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