Letter addressed from Warrior's Mark, PA, and sent from the Huntingdon post office with a stamped postmark including the month and the day written in pen, for 18 3/4 cents postage. The paper is stained with red wax residue where it was sealed. A large section is torn out of the address page, and some arithmetic operations performed in pen near the address. William Gay Butler writes to his father Jonathan Butler in West Hartford on the birth of his daughter, indicating he enclosed a lock of her hair in the letter. The baby was born March 8 and weighed 8 lbs 2 oz., and William writes they think of calling her Lucy Joanna. Of his plans to secure horses and wagon for his brother Epaphras Butler, William writes that he heard from Epaphras three weeks ago that he would not be ready to go to Ohio after all. Epaphras proposed "that he would come on and git Waggon and Horses that he could make Money a hauling this Summer and would go on in the fall. I wrote him I did not think it advisable, that I wanted them on with me to sell realize the money, that he would wair out his Waggon, gears, and Horses, and realize nothin for them, and never see Ohio." William writes that he expected an answer in the mail that day, but was disappointed. He had a peddler's box made for his wagon to take to Ohio, and plans to load it with beds and bed clothes, and small wares including iron ware, pots, frying pan, griddle, tin and glass ware, signs, chains, pecks, axes, shovel, plow, etc. The other wagon, meant for Epaphras, is loaded up with iron to go to Pittsburgh. William traded a clock and $5 for iron work on both wagons. One of his mares will foal in 3 or 4 weeks, and he will take the colt and both wagons if Epaphras does not show up. He sold $2320 of inventory to S. (Smith) and Cunningham, although they left him with $120 to $150 of goods on hand he thought they would buy. He sold a clock to Jacob Van Fries and gave the other plus $20 for a mare with foal. William held a public sale of his furniture, keeping only enough to live on until he and Mary leave Warrior's Mark. He enumerates the inventory of the sale, amounting to $425. William will settle his debts to the local ironworks - $1036.40 to Bald Eagle Furnace, $450 to Huntingdon Furnace, $235 to Tyrone Forges, and $125 to Jackson Forge - by selling another 16 or 17 tons of iron before he leaves. The roads are good and full of wagons between Philadelphia and Baltimore; William writes that the fee for carriage from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh is $4. He paid $30 per ton of iron, but thinks it will drop to $24 soon. He writes that he intends to start from town on May 20 or 25, and leave what he must with Van Fries. William asks Jonathan to write to Epaphras and urge him to come to Ohio. William received a letter from Brownhelm including news of Graham's death. William wrote to his aunt Rhoda James about her interest in buying some land, and hopes she will defer it til he gets to Conencticut. In an addition dated March 15 in Huntingdon, William writes that he went to court that day. Babcock never showed, so the bail was used towards their debt.
