William R. Olden

out of them. My Partner is a man of Sterling integrity & good business habits & can comand [command] any amt [amount] of consignments & as we get them from first hands, we will be able to Supply the merchants of Marysville as cheap as they can buy them below. I think it is a reasonable calculation to buy our subs at from $5 to $10,000 per week after the first month my business has brought me in contact with all the merchants in Mville [Marysville] & there is no disguising the fact that I am very popular among them. The D^r [Doctor] (he does not practice) is almost equally well known & liked he owns a valuable Ranch about 1 1/2 miles from town on which he lives. My share of the lot will cost me $1000. I buy out his former partner the lot that cost them $300 six months ago is now worth $2000 in two years it will be worth ten thousand. Lots of the half the sise [size] one hundred yards off no better situated are worth 4000 cash by the end of the next 3 months at least $500,000. Will have been expended in fire proof Brick Buildings which when finished with the lots will be worth one million of dollars!!! Three years & a half ago this town contained one adobe house. The Buildings now going up are strictly fire proof & would be a credit to any part of Phila Philadelphia or New York. The Bricks are the Best I ever saw. Our merchants have established themselves on such a firm Basis that in San Francisco this place is considered the first of the Interim towns. She is not quite So large but her credit is much better than Sacremento Sacramento in spite of the enterprise of the latter floods & fire have nearly wrought her ruin another fire will nearly wipe her

out of Existence as there was not a dosen [dozen] fire proof Buildings in the place.

Our own Building will be of wood but as it is entirely detached from the frame part of the of the town the risk from fire amounts to nothing at all. Our Stock will be almost entirely of consigned goods & consequently personally we will run very little risk. We will do little or no credit business an [and] avoid that risk. The business will pay from the first if properly managed will grown into something handsome. There is Scarcely a man who has been in doing business here for the past two years that has not made a fortune ie 30 to 50000.

I have been taught caution by experience, & I have viewed my present enterprise in every light & cannot See any reason why it Should not Succeed on the contrary every thing seems favorable to Success as the Drs [Doctor's] health is not very Strong the Bulk of the Business will fall to my Share & if the amt [amount] comes up to my expectations. I will have more than I can attend to & it is part of my calculation to send for Charles G. Israel to come out with Sara[ & the children & take the Steamboat agency off of my hands. I Shall also have an opportunity of repaying the debt of gratitude that I owe to Captain George R. Barclay of the Camanche by throwing a large amt [amount] of frt [freight] in his way for I owe all my present Success to his kindness in getting me the Situation after the C. slept coming here he got me the agency of the small Boat he connected with. There was policy in it, he

Knew that the interests of the C would be much safer in my hands than in any other person if I had owned the Boat I would not have taken a greater interest in her Success this last Berth was offered me without any Solicitation on my part.

Our merchants are as knowable [knowledgeable] & enterprising a Body as can be found in any town of the same Size in the world (our population is 10,000) and several of them are men of mark any where. I have not detected one of them in an act of intentional dishonesty. Since I have been here & I have the Best chance in the world to discover Such things.

I spent three days at the Bay abot [about] two weeks ago & met Malcom Breck there he was down down from Oregon. Buying goods he seemed in good Spirits had made about $10,000 in the last Six months he had been somewhat unfortunate before, but has got it all back and is now doing well. He expects to be at home on Christmas next to get married, he came up the River with me to Marysville & it was really rich to see the astonished expression of his face as he came in sight of the town with its Splendid Blocks of Brick Buildings as we walked through the town his amazement rather increased. Then diminished as he had never been in the mines. I drove him up to Parks Bar some Sixteen miles (This is & has been the Richest Place in Cal [California]) & Showed him the various modes of working. They were just preparing to flume the River but had not yet got it turned. When he comes down again next month he intends to come up and see them in full operation. Give my love to Aunt Sue Murray the children & my friends generally

I intend to write a few lines to Mr Breck, I wrote a leter [letter] of congratulations to Lucy

Your affect [affectionate] Brother

William R. Olden

Marysville Sept [September] 25 1853

My Dear Sister

By the two last Mails I have I have reced [received] the Bucks County Inteligencer [Intelligencer] in which I found a great Deal to interest me. That Rail Road from Attleboro, Massachusetts will rather astonish Some of the old fogies in old Buck & by the last I see you are going to have a Steamboat on the Neshaminy [Neshaminy Creek]. I rather think that she will have to be pretty light Draft to go above the ford at low tide. I do not think that the Steamboat will do much. The Rail Road may amount to something it seems Singular to me to talk of Building Rail Roads and such things in that quiet old neighborhood it may be done but in my recollections it will be always the same old Place they may alter it as much as they will it will always seem the same to me.

I suppose ere this reaches you Will Ruan will have gone South again. I wrote him a letter by the last Mail in which I Strongly urged him to come to California provided he could either get a certainty or bring some two thousand as upwards of capital he could do better in five years here than in twenty five in Florida.

How I wish Murray would Sell Flushing

and bring you out here with the money that could be got for it a fortune could be made here in three or four years either in business or farming. The lands around the Bay and along the Coast are so productive that the farmers are realizing fortunes and what is Singular the price of labour, falls faster than, that of provisions and consequently the farmers are making more money than they did when prices were higher. There are plenty of Branches of Business that he could carry on that would pay handsomely without the Slightest chance of loss business is not done in the wild harem Scarem [Harum-scarum] Style it was formerly. Things have become Settled into Regular Channels our Stores are generally fire proof that risk is avoided and a man who is disposed to be prudent can do business without running any risk whatever any one willing to sell for a Small proffit [profit] can always find plenty of cash customers.

Speculations in fruit trees have paid very well. A man in Marysville had a large lot Sent out to him from the States. They were packed in the usual manner and covered entirely with matting every tree lived and next year will commence to bear and the year after the crop will be worth Something. Peach trees bear large crops the second year from planting. The man who brings out and plants a well selected Peach orchard in this country will make