1871 Letter Vermont to Oakland - Great Chicago Fire, Life in Vermont, Calif Move For Sale

envelope addressed to Mr. John P. Brown in Oakland, California. It features a 3-cent George Washington postage stamp with circular black postmark. I used an app to translate (please see my images to verify content)Lyndon Centre Vt.Oct. 30, 1871.My dear Aunt & Uncle;I received your kind letter of the 12th inst. last Tuesday (24th). I was glad to learn that the money order reached you safely. I had been expecting your letter but feared it might have been lost in that awful Chicago fire. What a terrible calamity that was! How mysterious are the workings of God! It seems hard to think of so much suffering and destruction, and sometimes it is difficult, the Providence of our Heavenly Father, and to feel that \"He doeth all things well.\" Isn\'t this so?I had a letter from home lately, all well. Fred is tired of farming, wants to get into some other sort of business. Irving is working away at college, and is doing very well. I have heard very good reports about him. It\'s a great satisfaction and source of comfort to me to know that he became a Christian, before entering College. I know the snares and temptations of life there.I haven’t heard from Emeline in a long time. Spencer is doing well at carpentering in Prov. Evelyn’s husband is working with him. I am quite pleasantly situated here and am working on a good salary. But—I dread the cold winter that is soon coming on. The hill tops here already covered with snow and ice. (I am in northern Vermont you know). The White Mountains are plain in sight; and are mantled in snow and ice as in midwinter. It makes me shiver to look at them. So if I thought I could make a living in California I would “pull up” and go there this fall. What do you think about it? Give me advice in the matter. I am having a salary of $1200. and pay $3.00 per week for board. I would content myself with considerable less in the aggregate, if I could be in an agreeable climate. My health is not strong, and I value that more than money. Please write me soon, what you think of my coming, whether I could make a fair living in Cal. at anything.My fall term closes here in about a month. If I leave I should wish to do so then or about that time. The Committee of Trustees here expect me to stay through the year. and I have said nothing to them about leaving. They are, I know, entirely satisfied with me and would be disappointed to have me leave. I have injured my health, and now know its value. I propose to devote some time to recruiting it, as I ought to have done before but wasn\'t wise enough and didn\'t think I could afford the time & expense. All this I have written confidentially to you. Please write soon, telling cost of living economically, what wages I could get at teaching or at some light work.As EverJ.C. Hopkins.
code Jsb 328