C.[Ramsey?] Autograph Letter Signed. [Placerville, Calif.]. Undated, ca. 1852. 2pp. To “Doctor [John] Russell”, [Mt.Vernon, Ohio].
The writer was a young man from central Ohio, north east of Columbus, who had gone off to the gold fields – apparently as a prospector – staked by Dr. John Russell, of Mt.Vernon, Ohio (a man of great generosity, who, about the time he received this letter, hired as apprentice a handicapped, nearly-blind young woman who became one of the first female Doctors in America.)
Ramsey was then in Placerville, but unsure if he would remain there, as “provisions are high and on the rise, boarding is worth from 12 to 20 dollars per week and will soon be more…there is three large hotels and many small ones and each is used for a gambling house. And some of the finest music in the world, at night the ladies are serenaded and at twilight I can set in the back door of the store where I am and see and hear a very pretty young lady play on the accordion. Do you think I could keep cool under those circumstances. Hardly, I hear you say.” Ramsey had had a “hard time” since crossing the Isthmus, but “I have been amply paid for it in the scenery, I enjoyed so finely…” He hoped to reimburse the Doctor, “if it takes the last cent I have when I get home… As for sending any more hands here I think we will need no more unless things change very much.”