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ALS signed “Your Loving & Affectionate Son, William Wilson,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.25 x 9, April 23, 1843. Handwritten letter to his mother in Glasgow, Scotland, relating his plans to work as a carpenter for the American Fur Company traveling up the Missouri and into the Rocky Mountains. At the top, he sketches a charming drawing of a man driving six oxen pulling a Conestoga wagon. Rich in small details, the sketch also depicts a gravestone by the side of the trail, a familiar sight to travelers on the Great Plains.
In part: "I have engaged as Carpenter for 15 months to a coarse but healthy life. I am going up the Rocky Mountains with the American Fur Company. I will only have $10 pr month but I am takeing up a lott of jewelry, beads and ribands to traid with the Indians on my own account, by which I expect to make a little. The company will start on the Omega steamer tomorrow, we will call on all the different towns and forts on the Missouri River, saill up as farr as it is navigable that is 5 miles up the Yellow-Stone River. About 2000 miles then on mules I expect above one thousand miles through the different Indian Nations, feed on nothing but bufflo meet 3 times a day. Traid is very dull in St. Louis, if it is not better when I come down I will either come home or go to South America." He notes that he has sent a parcel along for the family containing various gifts, including "Indian shoes decorated with beads for my Uncle Williams, a little silk parrasoll for my Sister and a book for my brother John." In very good condition, with small old tape repairs throughout.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
