all have presents. I am coming home in the fall if no preventing Providence. Good bye.
Your Son
Dear Father and Mother,
... We have some very warm weather at present. Thermometer 104 yesterday. The spring ... has been very cool ... which has made the crops backward for the season. Harvest will come off in about ten days. Crops look well, and would have turned out excellent but for one thing, that is the grasshoppers. ... All the wheat we have sowed on the shares will turn out an average crop for the valley, say twenty bu to the acre. We have been at work steady this spring and have made some money. We are laying up at the present, resting. ... But I will start again with the train soon, and Andy will stay and take care of our grain.
We are boarding with a family by the name of Wright, with Mr. Hoffman within one mile of us. Mr. Wright has three girls, and a host of them at Hoffman's which makes us good company. ... May[1] has had one school and is going to take another in one week from today.... I think Julia is a pretty girl. Wes McGonigal is carrying Express from this place to Yreka and is doing well. ...
I suppose you think when am I coming home. Well, just as soon as our grain is cut and we get a market for it. The rest of our business we can close in a short time. ... I am getting homesick. ... I see openings every day ... but I am not going into any spec[ulation] now for I am coming home this fall.
Your affectionate Son
Apparently, Tice's parents were grieving because of his long absence. Tice evidently wished to return, but felt financially unable to do this. Late in November, 1854, he wrote rather briefly to his father and mother.
- ↑ May Hoffman was afterwards Mrs. Vining, and Julia married C. C. Beekman.
