Chicago
Oct. 25, 1868
Dear Brother & Sister,
I suppose that ere this you may begin to think that I am not
going to write to you again, but our present excuse is for I have been very
busy to get our new mill engine. We have
built a very large mill with a seventy horse power engine and ___ in it, and
commenced running last Tuesday, and I can assure you I have been very busy over
time. We started to build and we are running
the old one at the same time. The saw
mill we consider worth about twenty thousand dollars. It is three stories high with six feet above
the ground for the shafting to run under the floor. We have two lines of shafting of > 2 feet each. The lower is 2 ¾ inch diameter and the upper 1
¾ inch dim on the lower floor, and we have five planers and two resawing
machines, and I am about building a machine for drawing lattice work and
roofing strips with four, and consequently it will saw four strips at a time,
and all this to feed itself (self feeder).
Our building is 32 x 10 feet long and with a ___ house of brick 24 x 26
with chimney 50 feet high, 4 feet in the clear at the bottom and 2 feet 8 in.
clear at the top. Our boiler is 16 ft.
long, 5 ft. in dia with 54 + in. flus and large mud drum. The boiler
___ ____ ____ ____ cost___ two thousand one hundred dollars ($2,100). The engine is made from a new pattern and
I had ___ made to suit us and ___ got all the castings for it, and I hired a
Scotchman here to build it by the name of Teatie, and I must say he has make a good job
of it too. It is 16 inch bore by 24
inch stroke and is making 100 revs per minute and works like a watch. It has such good bearings all over and would start
to make 200 rev per minute.
We had a grand opening of the whole concern last Monday
evening and we had a great many engines and machinists to OK the
engineering. We had it running till
after 9 o’clock in the evening. There
was something over 100 people there and they all had good time.
And now what is the reason you couldn’t come here this
winter to visit us? And I tell you first
what I will do if you will come. I will
pay your fare one way and I will come next summer to visit you. And now you must come and I will do all that
lies in my power to make your stay pleasant, and I know you will be very much profited
by the journey to our great city, for such I must call it. And I know that you can come just as well as
not , and I think that after that we can visit one another often, for I can
assure you that the ___ of my life is not going to be such a dull one. I am going to see all my friends and that
often.
Richard is going to send some money home tomorrow. We have not heard from home for a month but
I expect perhaps they won’t write again until they hear from us. Richard had a very nice letter from Richard
Davis’s daughter about five weeks ago. She
did not say anything about her father, but I suppose she will in her next. I hear from most all the old settlers
through Richard. Some are prospering and
others are getting poorer. I believe
that father said in his last letter that he had not heard from you for some time. I think that both father and mother will get
along better now for Richard is doing well and he is anxious to help them all
he can. He saves all his money and is
very steady. He has no bad habits. He puts his money in the savings bank every Saturday
night, for we pay all of our men on Saturday.
And forgot to tell you we employ about 70 men and boys. It takes from four to five hundred dollars
per week to pay them; four hundred and fifty dollars last night. Our business amounts to from five to seven
thousand dollars per month.
I must close for this time in hopes that this will find you
all well as I am happy to say that we are all well. Hattie has gone to Belvidere to visit her
grandpa and gramma. They have just returned
from the east on a visit and Hattie went home with them.
Yours truly,
Edwin
(Write soon and come yourself)
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