William Gay Butler letter to Jonathan Butler 2nd, 1822 June 10
Paged Content
Handle |
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/11134/690002:215
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Persons |
Persons
Correspondent (crp): Butler, William Gay, 1799-1857
|
||||
Title |
Title
Title
William Gay Butler letter to Jonathan Butler 2nd, 1822 June 10
|
||||
Origin Information |
Origin Information
|
||||
Parent Item |
Parent Item
|
||||
Resource Type |
Resource Type
|
||||
Digital Origin |
Digital Origin
reformatted digital
|
||||
Description |
Description
Letter written from Harrisburg, PA, on a half sheet of paper with no attendant envelope, address information, or indication of postage. William Gay Butler writes to his father Jonathan Butler in West Hartford about a detour he is taking to Kingston before returning to Philadelphia, on one of his excursions peddling wares. He writes that he mentioned the trip in a letter to his sister Maria Butler of the last of April, and that he will be well rewarded for his time. William and Hiram Roberts left Philadelphia April 24 and met up in Harrisburg three weeks later, on May 15. In the interval, he sold $1200 worth of goods and cleared a $110 profit. Hiram Roberts sold $1500 worth of goods. William then took some of Hiram's remaining load and traveled up the Juniata River to Lewistown and from there across the river to Milton on the west branch, where he stayed with Lemuel B. Stoughton for two nights. From there he traveled to Wilkes Barre ("Wilksburg") and Kingston, but did not locate his brother Epaphras Butler there, but learned he lives 60 miles up the river from Kingston. William left his wagon in Kingston and rode his horse up the river. He visited his uncle Ebenezer Gay in the afternoon, at the mouth of Mehoopany Creek, 20 miles from Kingston. The next day William went to Epaphras' house and stayed with him two nights and a day before returning to Uncle Urias Hollenbeck's, about a mile and a half from Ebenezer Gay in Mehoopany. The next afternoon William returned to Kingston. He describes Epaphras' situation: he lives in Franklin Township in the new Bradford County, 8 miles up Towanda Creek from Meansville, the County seat. Epaphras lives on the state's land, having bought an improvement. He has 345 acres with about 50 cleared. William writes that Epaphras is doing well, and living alone with another young man. He writes that he found Granmamma (Eunice Gay, Urias Hollenbeck's wife) and all of their friends well, though Cousin William Swetland had left home for New York. Charles Hopkins Wells is tending store for Gould Phinney. He was very sick but has recovered enough to work the store. William traveled directly from Wilkes Barre to Harrisburg and got in the previous Friday afternoon, having been gone 3 weeks and traveled more than 400 miles, though he sold few goods and barely cleared his expenses. On Saturday afternoon, he received $1100 worth of goods from Philadelphia from Hiram Roberts, refilling his load to about $1200 worth. He finished loading the goods in his wagon that morning and sold $100 or $125 of them that afternoon. William writes that he expects to leave town tomorrow and go to Lancaster, Columbia, Chambersberg, back to Harrisburg and on to Philadelphia by July 4. Then he planned to head home to Hartford, although he writes that he may stay if he has many goods left to sell. Hiram Roberts has sold his wagon and is headed home for sure.
|
||||
Held By | |||||
Rights Statement |
Rights Statement
|
||||
Note |
Note
|
||||
Local Identifier |
Local Identifier
79.23.814
|