Letter signed Alex [Badger], Fort Vancouver, W.T., to Ma [Mrs. Alexander C. Badger]. Discussion of life at the Fort, weather, and money I will send home. Some emigrants recently attacked by the Snake Indians have been found by Capt. [Frederick T.?] Dent’s command, which was in search of them, nearly starved to death…so pushed by hunger as to have dug up those that were buried to eat them. One woman named “Chase” dug up the body of her husband who had been buried four days to eat. Yesterday I was presented with an apple weighing 2 ½ pounds and Will with a potato. They have started an opposition line on the steamship route via Panama and when the fare gets down low enough you can all come out. If you know of any girls that want to get married send ‘em out to California. They can get married at the “drop of a hat” and have it all their own way too., 1860 Oct 24

Item — Box: 1, Folder: 1

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

Collection contains material of the St. Louis-based Badger family, including letters of Capt. Alexander Badger, Sr. and Jr.; newsclippings; bonds; steamboat memoranda; a pilot certificate issued to William H. Cable in 1852; envelopes of Wells Fargo and Overland Mail; cards of steamboat Magnolia and a timetable of St. Louis railroads and steamships; material concerning the Badger, Cable and Cayton families; two Missouri defense bonds issued in 186-; and several letters of Alexander Badger, circa 1860, written from Fort Vancouver, Western Territory, and various places in the west, which describe everyday happenings.