Bidwell The Town at Bidwell's Bar

Preludes to Melvin Paden’s Christmas Day, 1852, letter to his wife Jane

Melvin Paden faithfully wrote to his wife while traveling west, and she may have likewise written to him, but in his August, 1852, letter he laments that he had not received a letter from her in the past six months. Now, to mail a letter he must travel four miles to Bidwell’s Bar or forty miles to Marysville. He is currently making four dollars a-day mining. He tells Jane he would “give almost one ounce* of gold to hear from you all once more and know how you are getting along.”

* A price list for the McWilliams & Tymeon Bank and Exchange in Oroville lists the price of gold paid to miners to be $17.60 in 1856. One undocumented source indicated the price in 1852 was $21.00 per ounce but this higher price may be for refined gold, a lower rate would have been paid to miners for raw gold.

An October 23rd letter was written by Edwin for both he and his brother Melvin. Since the August letter Melvin had been ill with ague (malaria). Melvin was well enough that he had recently been mining in the Oregon Branch area with a third bother Freeman. They were excited to have recently made $21 dollars in one day of mining. They have hope this letter will be delivered since they are sending it with a friend who is returning east. They were delighted to finally receive the first letter from home on Augusts 25th. The letter contained family information and generated questions about the details.

The November 9th letter was written by Melvin to his wife. He has received a letter from her the prior Sunday, the first he had received from her! He laments the mining prospects have not been good in the current locations and they plan to move further up the river, unfortunately it will be even more difficult to send and receive mail. He tells Jane he will be sending some money to her:

“ for I do not like to be a packing __ (number covered by fold in edge of paper) thousand dollars about in my coat pockets for it has tore my pockets and pulled the coat to pieces now the Company charges at Marysville three cents on the dollar for (sending) check home.”

He also describes the living conditions at his location:

“Jane times are different here from at home in the states. On the Sabbath the miners set that day to go to buy their provisions at Stringtown and Bidwell’s and there you can see some playing cards and some rolling at ten pins and the blacksmiths has many glowing fires and some a drinking, but I have not engaged in any such business yet. There are in general sailors there is a great many very intelligent men here from all parts of the states.”

Christmas Day, December 25, 1852.

Melvin has relocated to winter quarters at Ophir (Oroville) and provides his wife Jane an update on this current status:

I am well at present and all of us have been well. We have been hunting winter Diggin’s for some time and we have not found ___ ___ good yet. There is so ___ ___ here that will pay something if it can be found. It is so fine [the gold] that it is almost impossible to save it. We have not made anything for some time. I am a going to make a quick-silver machine and them I think we can do tolerable well. There is 4 men works one of these machines here and they make 3 ounces a day and sometimes more. Provisions is high, Flour is 30 and 40 cents a pound they say that this winter is very hard here where we are it is nothing but rain and the ground is soft so that hauling and packing they will mire almost any where I am afraid that there will be some men suffer in the mountains. The snow is very deep and the valley has been over flowed Marysville and Sacramento cities has been on flowed and Sacramento was burnt all up before the flood which has brought prices up Pork is 40 cents a pound, beans 17 cents a pound, beef 20 cents.

I am not going to go in the rain and snow to expose my health for all the gold in California. I expect to stay here until the last of February or the first of March and then we intend to go up on the mountains to a place called ___ (? Clare) diggings which is considered the best diggings in California which is about 60 miles from Bidwell’s Bar. I am about 8 miles from Bidwell’s now. I received a letter sometime ago from you stating that you would write some again. Edwin (got) one from David Paden telling that Winton had got thrown from a horse and had got hurt very bad and spooked off. Writing to get one from you or some one else. So although I had put it of long a enough. I understand that ___ has met with a great deal of trouble and is at home now.

Jane I want you to ___ ___ ___ the time and do the best you can for your self and the children and if I only make enough to fetch me home I will come home in the fall. Jane it is impossible for me to write often as I would wish for I am some times 20 miles from a post office there is nothing more than a express office here which comes once a month and charges one dollar per letter. Write often and write to Bidwell’s Bar California (Bidwell’s Bar has a regular Post Office) likewise let me know if you received one hundred and fifty dollars and my Father too hundred and twenty five from me.

No more at present only my best wishes and ___ of our friends.

Your Husband truly

Melvin Paden

Letters Home Before Town 1848-1852 Home Page