Page:Hill's manual of social and business forms.djvu/132

Rh We are in usual health, and I hope this note will find your family all well, With kind regards to Mr. Webster and love to children, I remain, Your Sincere Friend, HELEN D. WELLS.

Requesting Settlement of Account. , Oct. 9, 18—.

Sir:

I enclose your account. I shall feel obliged by your settlement at an early date, as I have several heavy payments to make.

Trusting that you will excuse my troubling you, I am, Yours Respectfully, DELOS HARTWELL.

Reply to the Preceding. , Oct. 12, 18—.

Sir:

As I am unable to send you the money for settlement of our account, without inconvenience, I enclose my acceptance for thirty days, which I trust you will be able to use. Yours Truly, HIRAM BAXTER.

Urging Payment of Rent. , March 11, 18—. Dear Sir:

I have waited patiently for your convenience in the payment of rent for the house you are at present occupying. As, however, you have now been my tenant for four months without meeting any of the payments, which were to be made monthly, I feel obliged to remind you of the fact that there are now $80 due to me. Trusting that you will give the subject your immediate attention, I am, Yours Truly, WEBSTER GREEN.

Letter to a Pioneer Settler in the West. , July 9, 18—.

Dear Sir:

I take the liberty, though a stranger, of addressing you a few lines relative to the inducements for new settlers in your section of the country, having been recommended to do so through our mutual friend, Artemas Carter.

As I have sold out my business in this city for ten thousand dollars, I am anxious to invest the proceeds in a large farm in a young State, feeling satisfied that a new country, like that you are now in, offers attractions for young and energetic men not found in the old cities.

You will much oblige me by giving information concerning climate, soil, water, timber, and other inducements for settling in your vicinity. Trusting that doing so will not seriously trouble you, and that I may hear from you soon, I remain, Yours, Very Respectfully, CHAS. W. CANFIELD.

Answer to the Foregoing.

, Aug. 15, 18—.

Dear Sir: Your welcome letter was received yesterday. I can assure you that I will be only too happy to furnish you all the information you desire relative to the prospects in this portion of Uncle Sam's domains.

I have now been two years in this place, and I can truly say that these years have been the happiest of my life. True, we have endured some hardships incident to pioneer life; but the glorious freedom from the frivolities of fashion and the formalities of aristocratic life, common to the old towns in the East, together with the pleasure one takes in making new improvements, all have combined to render our family perfectly delighted with the country.

For a quarter of the money in your possession, you can purchase all the land you will desire to cultivate; the remainder you can loan hereabouts, on bond and mortgage, at good interest.

The climate here is healthy and invigorating; the soil good, with running streams in sufficient abundance to water most of the farms. Plenty of building material and fuel can be had in the timber skirting the streams; and the prospect for the ultimate opening of the land in this section to a ready market, through several lines of railway now in contemplation, is very flattering. At present, however, the nearest station to my farm, on the stage route, is Chesterfield, thirty-four miles distant, at which place I will take great pleasure in meeting you, with my team, at any time you may appoint.

A very excellent farm, adjoining mine, can be bought for five dollars ($5) per acre. One corner of the land is crossed by a never-failing stream, with considerable timber along the same.

You will have to rough it for a little while after you arrive; but the neighbors will all turn out to aid in getting up your log house, after which you will be at home "under your own vine and fig-tree."

We have two rooms in our house, and, till your house is completed, we will give one of them to your family. It will seem a little odd, at first, for a fashionable family of six or eight persons to occupy one room, with wolf and deer skins for quilts and coverlets; but, by-and-by, when the young ladies find they are in just as good style as anybody else, they will dismiss their fastidiousness, and think it jolly fun. These privations that we at first endure are necessary, perhaps, to enable us to appreciate the fine homes which we all expect to have in the good time coming. Hoping to have the pleasure of welcoming yourself and family as neighbors, I am,

Yours, Very Truly, MARTIN FULLER.