Page 37 - People & Places In Time

Jamestown to Tulare County
There was no way for me to know my great grandfather Adolphus, his wife Susan or his brother Ozro. My mother did know them, and I failed to ask. I’m left to speculate on their lives through their letters to family back in Missouri.
The Central Valley that the Mitchell brothers arrived to during the 1850’s was still a broad unfenced grassland though changed from seventy-five years prior when the Spanish had decimated the Yokut Indian population, the herds of Elk and Ante- lope. The Tulare Lake still remained in wet years the largest lake by surface area in the west. In the wettest of years, the water lapping at the southern
edge of the Mitchell land. The constant cycle of wet and dry
presented as much a difficulty then, as now.
An excerpt from a letter from Adolphus to his mother:
“It has not rained enough here this winter to do any good, though I hope we will have some rain yet. The snow is rather scarce back in the mountains, and I fear it will not be enough to overflow our creeks to irrigate. I am going up above a mile or two to
on the ditch the water is coming down, and if the snow does not fall too quick, I think we will get water enough to irrigate considerable yet.”
A letter from Ozro to his father and mother in 1860:
“the only objection I have to this country (referring to Tulare county) is that the seasons are too much the same. It makes a mind too dull . . . . he has not got the energy about him he should have. A person can find almost any climate he wished in some point in this state. [Still] this valley in which I live is remarkable for cultiva- tion”.
A letter from Adolphus to his mother in Missouri:
Now Mother I know you would be glad to see us all; we also would like to see you. But you know as a natural consequence, children must many times leave their parents for the better. And you know that it is not natural or possible for all children to remain with their parents for that would confine all people of one kindred to one
A letter from Ozro to his sister Amanda Roseberry:
I seat myself after reading your letter of February 10. I was much relieved to hear of your condition being no worse than it was. We have peace and quietude in our state, yet, though I hear there was some rioting in San Francisco when the dispatch was received that announced the death of President Lincoln. There were four Democratic presses destroyed
by a mob and I see the Governor has proclaimed they shall not be re-established. So, you can see how military power is in advance of the law in our state. I shall say no more on
politics at present more than inquire of your politics. Which I wish you to give me in your next letter. I wish you to wright me which side Roseberry thinks is right.
As to the general news of our country, I have but little to say. Times has been very dull here for the last two years, though now times is beginning to look up. Stock of all kinds is a fair price. I have been on horseback for the last thirty days gather- ing cattle. I expect to rest about five days then commence again. I am going to follow trading in stock the balance of the time
I stay in this country. I have been growing stock most of my time I’ve been in this country. I have not done well for the last two years on account of the drought which caused thousands of cattle to starve. This is the most fluctuating place of all kinds of business in the world which makes it a splendid place for a man to speculate in property. One of my neighbors offered his stock of hogs one year ago for $500 and I was aiming to buy them but did not have the means on hand. This spring he sold the same hogs for $5,000. I am going to buy some beef steers in a few days which will cost me $15 per head or 3 cents per lb. I will sell them for $50 or $60 each. Steers one year ago in spring sold for $10 per head, last winter the same steers sold
in San Francisco for $120. This is owing to cattle dying and becoming poor from the drought.
I will now, John, tell you my opinion about your boys that is in the service. From what you all wright and from what people say, that I see from that part of Missouri. It will be
a poor place to live even after the war is over. I should advise them to come to this part of the country. This is good country
for a man to settle in, a very healthy country. From what you wright about that country, it will be many years before people will be safe to live there even after peace is made.
Transcribing these letters is difficult; the gaps are for indecipherable words. Syntax is not always good so I’ve tried some intervention to help without changing the intent. Still, reading from their own words I wish that I could have met these strong, determined relatives.
place. Consequentially there could be no you your feelings by remembering country and a healthy country.
or socialization. So, we are in a good
We are satisfied and doing well. We have a good many good and interesting friends. We have extensive acquittances and influential friends. Remember we are living for a high minded and ennobling purpose. We do not yield to temptation or dissipation. We are saving and economical and we can make a living in this country very easily. We do not have to undergo so much hard labor on such a ridged climate (referring to back in Missouri). This is a beautiful mild climate country. Stock of all kinds keep fat here year-round.
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