been all the time since I came from down below. I was over at Isaac's a few days ago and found them all well. I told the boys they must write to you. They say they will but Vint is slow and easy you know. And Arthur is much absorbed with Military. He belongs to the company of Zouaves in San Jose and goes two and three times a week to drill. So with other matters his time is much engrossed. When I shall make you a visit I cannot now determine. My time and attention is now taken up with affairs on the ranch. I have twenty head of steers that I am feeding and market is low for beef at present and probably I shall not be able to dispose of them until March to advantage. If beef bears a price at Columbia that is or may be inviting I might think it advisable to drive up there and visit you at the same time. Give my love to William and Mary. Not time to write any more at present. So goodbye for the present. Your affectionate Father, Right face, march! Glory hallelujah, Mary! aunt a good "tannin'" and charge it to me. I. Foster. Give your LETTER Isaac Foster to Mary Olmsted and Mariett Cummings Dear Mary— So long a time has elapsed since I wrote to you that I cannot remember when it was but you must excuse for being so negligent for I felt as though I had nothing worth perusing to communicate. But lest you have reason to think I am losing my regard for you and my interest in you I take this opportunity to assure you that they are not in the least diminished or abated. You are to me as a child whose welfare is ever near my heart. I feel a deep solicitude for your present, future and eternal welfare. I am exceedingly desirous that you should always be happy and loved by all good beings that may behold you, and in order to be thus let me advise you how to achieve the object and 1st: Fix in your mind that your inner life is everything comparatively to yourself and all others that behold you. It is your mind that moulds even your outward features which are only an index to your true character. It is by your face and figure that intelligent human beings judge of your true worth. That is, of your mind. Be assured, my dear girl, that it is only a lovely mind that makes a lovely face and features. It is an hypothesis that I lay down as true in nature. That a youth in the possession of the means of a right and thorough education may so apply and use them as to develop a beautiful exterior, or physique. In order to do this, my dear child, begin at the foundation to build the superstructure. Do not begin to decorate your body particularly, though I approve of good taste in dress, but dress your mind, so to speak, or train it. Let love be the governing principle toward everybody and everything that God hath made. Hate only evils. Keep a conscience void of offense toward God and man and then you will be always joyful and beautiful. Under whatever circumstances you find yourself let nothing disturb the harmony of your mind. Let the mind assert and under all the circumstances of life maintain inviolable its right and determination every part of your being on the principles of truth and virtue. Always make all the members with all their propensities and passions feel and know that they of right ought to be only the servants of a virtuous mind. Cultivate that mind by all the means within your reach in knowledge and virtue and it will exhibit itself in charming graces within and without, delightful to every beholder in Heaven and on Earth. I will not at this time weary you with a long stricture on moral ethics. I hope to come and visit by the leave of Providence by and by but at this time I cannot tell when. I got a long letter the other day from Mary Foster giving me lots of news from the east. Our connections are about as usual. I should infer from her letter that Woolworth is dead, as she says Fanny is left poor with a home and that her brother Alfred who is very wealthy helps her. Alexander Foster has been to the war and come home disabled for life by the breaking of his shoulder. The oldest son of William Hemenway is in the army, crippled by losing the use of his right arm; is a lieutenant and still in the war as well as his brother younger. James Sowden Jr. has been married five years; married Mary Shoemaker. I got a letter from your father the other day. All well. They have discovered what they think a rich copper and silver lead up the Santa Rosa creek not a great ways from them. He says to us, "Come down immediately and make your fortunes.’ The boys will go down soon as they have to drive up some stock to winter for the want of feed down there. I do not know but that I shall go also if my health will admit of it. It is pretty good now but not exactly right. We have a great plenty of all kinds of fruits at very low prices. It is the most of my living. Write often. Your affectionate Grandpa, Dear Mariett : Isaac Foster. I thank you for your kind letter and remembrance of me always. It seems a great trial to be deprived of your affectionate sympathies and kindness. I often think that the evening and decline of life would be smoothed better by your kind hand than any other. I sometimes feel lonesome and downspirited when sick as I frequently am. No one to nurse me or is fit to take care of me that tends to alleviate my distress. Then I think if I had my dear Mariett near me I should feel relief but the I will of the Lord be done. Give my love to Will. God bless you all. Yours forever, I. Foster. THIRD CROSSING ISAAC G. FOSTER'S JOURNEY (From an Interview with Mrs. L. Chittenden, Santa Barbara) When Isaac G. Foster and his family crossed the plains in 1854, they were part of a vast caravan. There were, in the main train to which their wagon belonged, about 500 vehicles. But these were not all in one compact and continuous procession. On the contrary they were strung out for many miles over the prairie. The main train was divided into many groups or units, ranging from a half-dozen to twenty or thirty wagons. Because of the dust, which rose in stifling clouds from the pounding of hoofs and the churning of wheels, the units sometimes were separated by considerable distances. Thus it was possible for a band of hostile Indians to swoop down on one of them when other units, ahead and behind, were only a few miles away. Each of the small groups was independent in the matter of protection at night. The camp was never left unguarded. The night was usually divided into two watches-from nightfall until midnight; and from midnight until dawn. The guards were always on the alert for an Indian attack and for a possible stampede by the animals. Stampedes usually took place before or during a storm of unusual violence. When the groups were small, the night watch was burdensome, because it fell too frequently on the men of the party. The speed of the groups varied. Some would lay up for a day or two while the main train went on. The majority preferred to let the roads dry out after a storm, but those having vigorous stock usually struck out despite bad weather. They were anxious to reach California and the gold diggings. But there was also an advantage to be gained in being first: Water for drinking and cooking was more plentiful and less likely to be polluted; and feed was more plentiful. One of the units in the train with which Isaac G. Foster crossed was the Burrell party. It consisted of Mrs. Mary Burrell, her daughter Mary, aged nineteen; her son, Edward, and the latter's wife; Mrs. Edward Burrell's parents, English people by the name of Hannibal; Isaac Harter and Putnam Robson, two young men who afterwards figured prominently in the social, political and business life of San Francisco; Wesley Tonner, who was engaged to young Mary Burrell; Silas |