Gamble Letter #1

There are a couple of letters prior to 1878. They are when the Gambles are just arriving in the area; as stated before, I'll be transcribing the letters 'as is', meaning as written, mistakes and all...

Emerson
Friday, June 2, 1877

Dear father and Mother We landed hear on yestarday at three aclack Thursday so that you see we were one week it was thursday we left your place and thursday we came heare We had no Delay At all I got the boat on Friday after I left you at arillia for Duluth I got our passage for sixty Dollers it wantd have been seventy only I pleaded poverty I told them I would have to go home agin but they would not hear of that We were four days and four nights on the boat till we got to duluth and that was only half way this is going to be a grand country yet there is as good accomodation here as in toronto and as good buildings I like the apperance of everything heare Alick is much thought of heare there is lots of fish in the read river the place where we are living is only a rifle shot from read river Where the steamers runs thats down the street and up the street about the same Distance is the states with the line fence between Canada and it minsata the states soldirs rids past the door every day We are going to get five acers breaked on our place next week We could take up land for you three hundred and forty ackers by paying thirty Dollars that is not the land but office fees and you get a printed recept and you need not do any thing on it for one year every one gets a town lot here for nothing to build on the people says you would have more off one half ackere here than you would of to acckers there you never seen such land in your life the best on Walles farm could not be [?] to it it is like a onion bed that was manured for years Alick went to see Corrigan when he was in winnipeg and he is as comfortable and better of as he was in thora girls is very much thought of here not like dirty Beaverton I think any one that would mind themselves they could get along here they are a different clas of people here We waunt to go on our own place till next spring and then it will be ready for crop We ill get a lot and build a house on it and then rent it when we go on the land in a few years from now the land will be scarse as in thorah but any body that had about five hundread Dollers they could get good chances I am telling you the truth I had not much time to see any thing yet but I can tell you more the next time Alick had to go to help a man or he would have wrote so that is the reason I done it we new yous would be uneasy about us Write when you ge tthis and let us know what they said when they found we were away everyone used us well on the way there was men at every stoping place to look after us I took a room on the Collingwood boat the children would not get along on deck I paid five dollers for it with good beds in it We were four days on it and to the train and the rest on read river I could never begin to tell yous all I seen the grandist sights ever you seen mounten as high ten of the hamilton house we seen the Deers runing wild on the moution Alick wants you to keep the reels and shuttles an cabins for him people tells him if he could manufacture cloth he would make a fortune the children joins us in sending their kind love to maggy and granny Alice wants all the time to go home to gran she likes him Best

We will send you More Particulars Next time

Maryann Gamble

Hamilton House (Beaverton, ON)
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