ALS signed “Edwin R. Bishop,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.5 x 9.5, December 23, 1850. Written from Placerville in El Dorado County, California, Bishop writes a lengthy letter to his wife and daughter, Mary and Paulina, offering a unique glimpse into the mundane and often brutal realities of life in California during the Gold Rush. The letter, in part (spelling and grammar retained): "I…was very sick for aspell it has been two months since I have been able to labor any. You can tell folks that want to come to California they had beter stay at home or they not be sick for after a person gets so he can eat a little they can’t find it to eat without paying fifty times as mutch as it is worth & 1/2 ounce for every visit of the doctor I got so I could prospect a little a few days ago & set a man to work for me and then I was taken with the Rhumatism & now done nothing since. Doctor Bill & my being not able to work has been six hundred Dollars damage to me for I did not get much dirt throwed up…if I could have my health a year I could make a little money but there is hundreds and hundreds that dont any mor than pay their way. I expect you hear of some making a pile that is tru once in a while; but jist take a look at the number of miners in this little town. it is estimated that there is six thousand here. the digins are dug over & over again." Bishop's account of the lynching: "The day after I maild my last leter there was a litle gambler cald Dick Staud another one of the miners took him a way from the Sherif & stretched his neck, they hung him to an oak limb & me could see the job done from our house." In fine condition, with light staining, and writing showing through from opposing sides.
