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ALS signed “L. Fitch, Jr.,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.75 x 9.75, August 22, 1852. Addressed from “Fosters Bar” in Yuba County, California, a handwritten letter to his father, Judge Luther Fitch in Portland, Maine, in part: “I am situated about the same as when I last wrote to you, excepting that my practice is some better. I had two claims in the river but being obliged to hire men to work them at six dollars per day, and the season being quite late, I have sold both, and am now relying upon practice entirely. We for the last two years have had rain in Sept. and if it should come at the same time this year, I shall have done well by disposing of my claims, if not, I think I shall get their full value. Our Bar is becoming to be quite a place. Stages have commenced running from Marysville to this place, bringing many new comers here. Some of them remain, and many go north, & as I think for the worse. The gold in the mountains is coarse and for this reason more difficult to find, whereas, they could make five or six dollars per day by remaining here.
I have just received a letter from Edward…He wants me to send him money…He think if he had a small sum he could make more by speculating, but speculations are very uncertain in any place, and in the west they have so liberal a way of tra[n]sacting business that if a man has not his wits about him, he is quite sure to be imposed upon…I have now concluded to start for home next March, not considering it wise to start in the fall after being in this country so long. If I can find anything to do by which I can gain a living at home, I should much prefer to remain there, if not, I must go where I can do so. I have had so hard a time in this country that I am inclined to think I can live anywhere now. I have had perfect health all the time, tho’ there has been much sickness in this vicinity this summer, and I have been exposed night and day attending upon them...
The prospect for mining is not very good at present in the river. I have bank claims which I think will pay very well, but cannot work them until winter, and therefore I wish also to remain until spring. Many are coming across the plains this season and in the train are fifteen thousand turkeys which will soon arrive, and the man who brings them will make his fortune. They are worth two dollars per hen in Marysville. They are said to bear travelling better than any other animals. We have several gardens on the bar, furnishing us with cucumbers, watermellons, radishes & and all the garden vegetables which we have at home.” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
Luther Fitch (1803-1877), of Portland, Maine, was a Judge of Probate who, with his wife, Rebecca, had seven children: daughters Mary, Caroline, Harriet, and Almira, and sons Andrew, Edward, and his namesake, Luther, the author of this letter. Luther, Jr. (b.1821) moved to California in 1850 and settled in Foster's Bar, Yuba County, where he mined for gold and ran a medical practice.
Foster’s Bar (or Cut Eye Foster’s Bar) was a Gold Rush-era mining settlement on the North Yuba River in Yuba County, California. Established around 1849 and named for miner-merchant William M. Foster, it became a small but active community serving local miners, with a post office operating from 1852 to 1866. The site was a well-known mining location and a regional landmark, even used in early boundary descriptions between Yuba and Sierra counties (notably in 1852). It is also associated with the outlaw Jim Stewart, whose notoriety ended when he was executed by vigilantes in 1851. Located about 5.5 miles southeast of Challenge at an elevation of roughly 1,900 feet, Foster’s Bar later disappeared when the Bullards Bar Reservoir flooded the area. Today, the former settlement lies submerged beneath the reservoir.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
