Port Townsend Dec 5th/52

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Sister T

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I now sit down to write the second letter home since my arrival in Oregon. When I wrote before I was in Portland on the Willamette river but now I’m at Port Townsend on Admiralty inlet, Puget Sound. Since writing before I’ve been sick - very sick so that I’ve not been able to do anything. The ague and fever and a complication of disease, kept me on my back for three weeks and came near sending me to my grave. I was then weak, very thin, and almost discouraged but now for six weeks I have been gradually gaining strength and begin to work.

Wages are very low here and I shall not be able to earn over about $50 per month this winter. I missed it in coming here - I should have went to California or the mines but I had heard this country so highly extolled that I concluded to come and see it and I doubt not but it is a good place to settle in but it is so new that not much business is done, in fact scarcely any but lumbering, and unless there is a great change for the better I shall visit California in the spring.

I’ve often almost regretted that I left home. By doing so I’ve caught the ague, suffered privations of almost every kind and endured hardships which nothing but a strong constitution has carried me through, and losing a seasons labor, have as yet earned nothing and the rainy season is setting in.

When the spring opens however, I can at least earn $100 per month at my trade and perhaps more and I think I can do better still in the mines and when the ague entirely leaves my system I think I shall enjoy myself better than I have up to do this date.

I propose returning home after two or three years and think I shall then be content to remain if I can procure money enough to situate myself anyway decently. The climate of Oregon I think from what I’ve seen must be very pleasant with the exception perhaps of two or three months in winter when the rains make it rather disagreeable. We have had quite a number of frosty mornings, several of which froze ice but as yet we’ve had but few rainy days and no snow - only a few scattering flakes. Cattle here require no feeding during winter for though it sometimes snows so as to cover the ground yet it soon melts and leaves the grass green. The soil too in Western Oregon is generally fertile and on the river bottoms very rich but these are liable to overflow in a season so as to destroy the crops, and in the valleys of the large streams agues and fevers are prevalent, a thing which I think is not often mentioned in the glowing descriptions of the country we receive at home, at least I had no suspicion of it until I saw people shaking with it on the bank of the Columbia.

As yet there is no fruit in the country owing to orchards not being planted but they say apple trees flourish and peaches can be raised in abundance if planted. There are some kinds of wild fruit such as berries but I think there are not as many varieties as at home. The forests consist almost entirely of evergreen trees, as fir, cedar and hemlock, but there is no pine in Western Oregon at which I was surprised for I’ve heard of their growing enormously great and to the height of 100 yards. Fir and cedar however grow very large and very tall. There are a few oaks on the skirts of the prairies on the upland and a few cotton wood or balm of Giliad and a few alder and a sort of vine maple and beach and birch and ash and walnuts are not here, in fact there are no nuts in Oregon.

So you see there are many things that are for ones comfort there which this country does not afford. At another time probably I shall describe farther to you this great country and its resources but now I must refer to other matters. Where are all the folks? Is Mary at Holyoke? Is Ade yet in the West? Where is Barlow? Is Lucius yet with him? If he is at home tell him he had better purchase the place Warren owned and when I come home I will go into business with him. How does Pa get along farming it alone?

Tell me the entire news and write immediately on the receipt of, so that I can receive an answer before leaving this place. I wrote to Ade not long ago and told her that you might write to San Francisco. I care not how many letters you direct to that place as undoubtedly I shall go there in the spring. Yet I think I shall stay here long enough so that letters can reach me from home. I always write in a hurry and that is one reason why my writing looks so bad. On this occasion I have another excuse which is the poor quality of my paper. It is English stuff which I sent to Victoria for, a town on Vancouver Island in Her Majesty’s possession.

From your brother Whit Chase

 

Direct your letters to Olympia, Puget Sound, as that is the only post office on the sound and that is 100 miles or over from here which is one reason I have not written before since coming here. I’ve sent within a note against Hank Houghton and if Pa can find where he is he may write to him to pay it. I think of nothing more now to write which is urgent so will close for the present.