Letter signed Bro. Alex [Badger], Ft. Vancouver Depot, W.T., to Sister Alice [E. Cayton], St. Louis. This is getting to be a dull place now that the rainy season has begun. Will and Parma [Cayton] are always wanting something or getting something or gathering trouble about them. The Major [Wallace] gave Will a big dog that would require a mint to feed, but thank goodness the dog wouldn’t stay. The Major intends fencing in a garden patch for them, and from rumors I should say there will be everything in that garden that the earth can produce. I am just beginning to think that I will never keep house or get married. We see Indians here most of the time. . . .They have long hair, coarse and bushy, go barefoot, make the squaws carry the bundles and live a lazy, vagabond life. There are several living in town, in a shanty, and every time I pass by the place I see them all out doors around a fire. They won’t have a fire inside, but must cook and live outside. Every day or two I see a canoe load of them come down the river to buy provisions and then go back to the woods. I was just thinking about a coal-oil lamp I got. I don’t see how I done without one so long. You must get one to sew and read by. If you should get one, get Dietz Patent, May 1859, and “straw colored” or clearest oil. We have all that you have in St. Louis and a great deal more. We have besides the usual meats, beef, pork, mutton, extras in the shape of elk, bear meat, ducks, geese, swan, prairie chicken, antelope, etc. To keep butter they make it into rolls and put it into muslin bags and then pack it into kegs and put brine enough in to cover it. I have sent “Ma” a pam of this country and marked the posts. It is a little bit nibbled by mice. If you paste it on a piece of muslin or cotton it will do first rate. Wet the map and use boiled paste. Individuals mentioned: Lucius and Mr. and Mrs. Couzzens., 1860 Nov 8-13

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.