Sacramento Jan 4, 1856

Dear Brother,

Your letter of April I received upon going down to Sacramento some two months since. I certainly ought to have written much oftener through the Summer and Fall than I have done but from some cause and another have been much more remiss and neglectful than I ever thought I should be but I have nothing of interest to write. The Winter so far has been very cold in fact it would almost do for a wild East Tennessee winter. There has been considerable rain. Enough if the weather had have been as mild as usual for mining purposes but the freezes have been so frequent in the mountains that streams until the last few days have been almost as low as they are in summer. Consequently times are distressing and money scarcer than I ever knew it to be. The winter has been a very severe one upon stock. Usually stock keep in good order all winter. The old grass dries up and having no rain upon it until the rainy season sets in. It makes good hay in a few weeks usually after the rains commence. The new grass springs up and stock have fine grazing almost the year around especially in the valleys. This winter the weather has been so cold that there is now scarcely any appearance of grass and hay crops last year being very light on account of the destruction of the Grasshoppers. Stock has suffered more than any winter since I come into the country and not a few have died. Some three weeks since I traveled through Suisun, Nappa, Sonoma and Russian River Valleys. These all border upon the Bay and extend up in the coast, range and are all beautiful Valleys, reminding me very much of the Valleys in old Mexico. Most of them are pretty thickly settled but not well improved owing to the unsettled state of Land Titles. You have scarcely any conception of the deep rascality in reference to the Mexican Grants that have been played off. There is scarcely any valuable portion of farming country except the small valleys scattered through the mountains that is not covered by Spanish Grants, many of them unquestionably manufactured within the last six years and scarcely without an exception passing through the hands of the Land Commissioners when there was money to back them. One of these confirmed grants conveying a beautiful section of country held by a man that it is said can be proved to have been living in Mississippi at the time it was said to be issued and written upon paper that by the mark upon it was made in forty seven. I might mention others of a darker hue but you no doubt see specimens enough of California honesty. However, I believe there is less petty thieving for the same opportunities than there is in the states. As long as I have been teaming I have not lost more than thirty or forty dollars out of my waggon and frequently leave it away from any house. But I meant to tell you something more of the coast valleys I was through. They are generally of a good soil surrounded mostly by beautiful hills green with grass and wild oats. The climate too is much milder in the winter and cooler in the summer than in the Sacramento Valley and though society is not good yet other things considered I do not know a more desirable country to live in and only regret that I had not have settled down in some of them when I first come into the country. You seem anxious to know in your last letter what I intend doing. Whether I intend giving up entirely my profession. You may be sure I have no idea of doing so with the field that is presented in this country. I have waited and struggled along year after year hoping my eyes would get so I could go to reading until it seems hopeless for me to do so any longer. They have as usual got better since cold weather set in but I have little reason to base hopes on their remaining so when the heat of Summer comes on. I am much better reconciled to live here than I ever have been though I have made and have but little prospect of making money. I was at considerable expense last summer for a man cannot be otherwise here let him be as economical as he may be. This fall and winter times have been so close that I have made but little. I was hoping considerably on a late crop of cabbage but the freezing cold winter we have had has pretty much dried it up so I stand nearly "status quo". I would give you and account of my last trip to the mountains through the wind and snow three and four feet deep but Molly would say, "another of his misadventures that his letters are constantly filled up with". It is enough to say it paid beautifully over the lift. Not even the chicken and egg trade could save me all went over to the tune of some thirty or forty dollars. After such a weeks work through mud and snow as you housed up featherbedded chicken fed and if I wasnt afraid to offend Molly I might add "contain lectured" dearies never dreamed of. I have got so used to such things that I find it just as well to laugh over them as otherwise and they have become so frequent that it is almost as easy to do it. I do not know what I shall do between this and Spring. I ought to have sold my team in the summer but I hoped to make something by hauling up my crop of cabbage. If grass was good I would turn them out and let them get fat and go to mining until Spring and then sell them for what they would bring. Let the sacrifice be what it may for there is no kind of property you can hope to get your money back in unless it be city lots. I will either do this or divide my team and run fish up to Downieville & Forest City. My health has not been so good for the last three or four months as usual but I think it nothing more than dyspepsia caused no doubt by the clever Hotel diet we have in this country. At a pace every meal you may be sure I gobble down all I can and do my best to "get my money back". I am very anxious to come home in the Spring but will make no promises to do so as much as I wish to see you all and especially Mother. It is so far and so expensive to go and I am sure I should be dissatisfied that unless Molly can give me security "I can make it pay" to do so probably I had better remain where I am as I am sure by being here as long as I have I am utterly disqualified for any business at home. You no doubt have learned that Sam McClelland is dead. I saw Billy Smith and one of the Mills the other day. Mills wishes to know if that indictment against him in Johnson County is dropped yet or not. I trust you will all look over me for one more time for not writing. It is disagreeable to do so when I have nothing more encouraging to write. However your letter of April is the only news I have had from home. Tell Dick I shall certainly write to him soon.

P.S. I have come down to Sacramento since writing. The weather is now warm and it is raining copiously. I hope there is a better time coming.

My love to Mother, Mary & children and all of you write very soon.

Your Brother

R.D. Powel

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