Letters Home From Gold Rush Stampeders

Letters Home From Gold Rush Stampeders


St. Michael, June 28, 1899
"Well wife I will converse a while with you this morning. I dream of
you and the children last night. How I would like to take you all in
my arms if only for a moment. I don't think any man ever thought
more of his wife and children than I do. I am not as demonstrative
as some but my every thought always has been to furnish all the
conveniences to make home life pleasant but so far I have never
been able to come up to my expectations. I think I will strike it rich
yet and then I think I would enjoy spending money on myself as well
as on home comforts, but I am going to give it a hard tussle and then
if I fail I will come home and take things as they come."

Robert J. Young, from a letter home. "Letters to Lizzie,"
by Evey Ruskin, "The Alaska Journal," 1984.

For most Gold Rush stampeders, letters from home were too few
and came too far in-between. Thousands of miles from home, the
smallest notes and gifts from their families and friends could raise
their spirits tremendously. Letters home from the stampeders often
expressed their feeling of loneliness, life hardship, as well as their
hope and determination.

In a letter home to his wife, Robert Young, a Gold Rush stampeder,
besides expressing his feeling of loneliness, showed his love to his
wife and children, talked about his ambition, his skepticism as well as
his determination.

Loneliness

“Well wife I will converse a while with you this morning. I dream of
you and the children last night.”

Love

“How I would like to take you all in my arms if only for a moment.
I don't think any man ever thought more of his wife and children
than I do.”

Ambition

“my every thought always has been to furnish all the conveniences to
make home life pleasant ……,I think I will strike it rich yet and then I
think I would enjoy spending money on myself as well as on home
comforts”

Skepticism

“but so far I have never been able to come up to my expectations”

Determination

“but I am going to give it a hard tussle and then if I fail I will come
home and take things as they come."


Yeh Tze