[CALIFORNIA - DROVING]. BRAINARD, William. A group of 5 autograph letters signed ("W. N. Brainard"), to R. Morehouse, Esq. Most written in a humorous tone, comprising:

Rochester, N.Y., 12 February 1853. 10 pages, 8vo. Writing about his travels, the weather, and business arrangements: "In my last letter I gave you a statement of the Gold dust matter -- say nothing about it for I intend if possible to get at the bottom of the leak."

La Salle, IL, 18 March 1853. 11/2 pages, 8vo. Writing about waiting for a steamboat, driving, and promising to write from Peoria: "We have barely time now to get ready and get our stock in as near our starting point as possible."

Peoria, IL, 22 March 1853. 3 pages, 8vo, addressed on integral leaf. Discussing the purchase of horses and oxen and drovers. "I understand that on the lines at Council Bluffs the drovers are hiring men to go, there are not a great many single men going to California the spring. Last winters news gave them a damper all over this country...You need not write to me after the middle of April for I mean to leave N. Y. for California 5th of June. Write to me to Panama."

Dowegiac, MI, 14 April 1853. 3 pages, 4to, addressed on an integral leaf. Discusses driving livestock to California, his return to New York and his attempt to find a wife: "I expect I am stuck for a wife. I have asked a girl & she says she will go it, life or die and if all signs don't fail I shall sleep with her before you get this letter."

Troy, NY, 30 April 1863. 3 pages, 4to, addresses on an integral leaf. Writes of his upcoming return to California: "Since I wrote to you last...I have been visiting & sparking & getting ready to go back to California 'the land of the free & home of the brave.'"

Property from the James Milgram, M.D., Collection of Broadsides, Ephemeral Americana, and Historical Documents