(TEXAS) Brooks Sylvester Three letters from a convalescent s

Sale 2517 - Lot 215

Price Realized: $ 375

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750

(TEXAS.) Brooks, Sylvester. Three letters from a convalescent settler on Galveston Bay. Autograph Letters Signed to Luther Boardman of East Haddam, CT. Each 4 pages, about 10 x 8 inches, on a folding sheet, the final letter with address panel bearing inked Galveston postmark and "10" stamp; minor wear. With typed transcript. Goose Creek, TX, December 1846 to May 1847

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Sylvester Brooks (1787-1859?) was a laborer at a spoon factory in Haddam, CT, and went south to join his brother in Texas in 1846, apparently for his health. He settled at Goose Creek on Galveston Bay. These three letters were written to his old employer. His first letter describes his journey--"Just look at me rowing up Goose Creek in the fogg all alone"--and notes "quite a change in Texas since I was here before in some respects. There is a large quantity of goods of all kinds in the country, and they are selling very low. . . . I think Texas will be quite a country yet." In March 1847 he notes "Texas is not as healthy this winter as it was when I was out here before. Almost every family have more or less sickness in them." Finally, in May he writes "I have concluded to spend another year in Texas if I should live. . . . There is no place that seems to me so much like home as the spoon shop."