Excerpts of a letter from Sara Jane Pierce to her husband Hiram Dwight Pierce

http://www.glittering.com/letters/pierce2.html


This is a letter from Sara Jane Pierce to her husband Hiram Dwight Pierce.  Hiram went to California in 1848 during the great gold rush to try and make his fortune. When Sara writes this letter he has been gone a year. She is very worried as she has not heard from him for a while and understandable fears the worse. She writes how everyone has him in their prayers and wishes him home safely. Even in this state of 'panic' she still writes to him about how the family are doing.

She writes that she is "Tired of repetition" she is clearly frustrated at the lack of reply from her husband and the fact that every letter that she sends is full of pain and sorrow because of the lack of knowledge of his whereabouts.

In the last paragraph she writes "permit you soon to return, is the earnest prayer of your ever faithful wife.". I feel that here she has put the line about her being faithful because during the Gold rush, many American men actually stayed in California and started a family. She is simply stating that she is waiting for him to return, and will always be. Maybe trying to persuade him to return to his faithful, loving wife and family