We have rented a room here and we do our own cooking. If there is anyone of my old acquaintances going to California tell them to start with plenty of money as the fare is very high and still raising. There is a great many here now that has no money. There is four hundred soldiers here now going to California. I would not advise any person to start late in the spring and come this way as it is very warm and sickly here in the summer.
Wages here is high.
Jacob is the Great Great Uncle of Mildred W. Hollander of Ames, Iowa. Thank you Mildred for sharing this part of your family history with us. This is an excerpt from a letter written by William Cottrell on September 23,1849, to his wife Anna back on the family farm in Marion County, Iowa. He had just arrived in Weaversville, California. I have at last arrived at the Diggins, generally known as the Weaver s diggins.