Creator
E[mily] O. P[elton]
Recipient
John Muir
Transcription
Brownsville, Yuba Co., Cal.,
Feb. 26th, 1881.
Dear brother John,
Are you wondering what has become of your mountain friends and if they are washed down onto the plains? Maybe you have been looking for some of us to float past on our way to the sea. Brownsville has kept its head out of water some of the time, though it gets a washing now and then. Just think what a big one it got that Thursday before the high water on the plains. I never saw so much water here as on that day. No doubt you are wondering where I have spent the time since that ten minutes' visit you made me in Oakland, and why I passed by so silently after promising -- or partly so -- to make you a call on my way up here.
I took a wretched cold the week I came away and felt too miserable to visit with strangers, and so came direct to Marysville, where I stayed a week, feeling too sick to go anywhere. Then, Mr.Knox's team coming down, I came here, where I have been since December, excepting a brief visit to Strawberry and Forbestown.
The roads have been so rough and watery I have not made the visit to Chico that I intended to make long ago, but may go over there in March if the weather permits. I had a delightful little letter from Mrs. Bidwell this winter in which she made many inquiries about you. have not answered it yet. I had sent her a few flowers and sea mosses which she felt compelled, I suppose, to acknowledge.
I am going to spend the summer in Strawberry Valley, if the heat does not drive me away. I have taken the school there and will be with my old friends the Drakes, beginning school in April, near the first, if the weather permits.
The school here is in quite a flourishing condition, nineteen pupils boarding and some forty-nine in the school. Mr. Hill and his wife are teaching, and this winter they are assisted by a sister. There is a new music teacher here now, a Miss Hanna from San Francisco.
Mrs. Knox often speaks of you and the lecture you promised the institute when it was started.
Will we ever see you up this way again, think you? Mrs. Knox would give you and your wife a warm welcome were you to come.
Mr. Phelps is putting up a store here and will move up in April. Cousin Jessie is at home studying painting and music.
Hoping to hear from you soon, I am as ever,
Your friend and sister,
E[mily] O. P[elton]
194
Location
Brownsville, Yuba Co., Cal.
Date Original
1881 Feb 26
Source
Original letter dimensions: 20 x 25 cm.
Recommended Citation
Pelton, Emily O., "Letter from E[mily] O. P[elton] to John Muir, 1881 Feb 26." (1881). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 614.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/614
Resource Identifier
muir04_0447-md-1.pdf
File Identifier
Reel 04, Image 0446
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Pages
3 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
