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Tarryall Gulch Missoula County ND May the 3rd 1885 

Dear Wife

 I write you a few lines to let you know that I am well as common and at work on my mines -- but don't  think they show up any better than they did at first.  We have done work on them enough to hold them twelve months and will leave them for a while in a few days  for the mountains prospecting again and don't know when I will get back. We have bought a poney and will try to get another if we can so we can take a good  supply of grub if not only two of us will go. Our other partner Griswood is in Murray at work and will keep us in grub while we prospect. We will start  Tuesday or Wednesday so you can direct your letters after this to Murray, Shoshone County, Idaho Territory, for when we stop prospecting we will stop at Murray to get work for the winter. 

 I sent you twenty-five dollars over two weeks ago to Elgin by the Well Fargo Express Company and I hope you have got it before this time. I would have sent more but did not have it to send as it was the first money that I have made in the country and I sent you the biggest half. I don't know when I can send you any more but as soon as I get off this trip and get  work. Work is hard to get for times are dull in fact nothing doeing  in the mines although they are rich but the gold is high up on the rim rock whear thear is no water and the water will have to be brought 8 or 10 miles over gulches and mountains and it takes quite a large sum of money to bring the ditch but a company started up but fell through but thear is talk of its going through with it this summer if so times will be  good and I can make some money I hope you are all  well. I have not got a letter from any of  you since March although I know thear is letters in Murray for me as the post master at Thompson transferred my mail over thear and to send for it by men passing by it would be an accident if I ever got it. In your last  letter you sayed that Capt. Nash sayed that I owed him 30 or 40 dollars. I don't owe him a cent and don't you pay him a single cent and find out who he sold that cow to for he had no right to the cow or any authority from me to take or dispose of her. He had as well   have stole her and it is nothing more or less and I will see what can be done with him when I come home if he sold the cow anywhere in the county and you can find her go on send and get her for he has no right to her for Capt. Nash can't take my property and sell it with without my permission. He thinks as his son Horace did in taking Blanches  hogs that thear is no one to hinder him. I know thear is no Law for me or justice to be had in the dam county and Nash thinks so too or he would never have dared to have taken that cow. But I will show him that I will not stand to be robbed by him because he knows he has the advantage of my circumstances. He thinks I am afraid to come back or ask for my rights. He knows that I have always been a  friend of his although 

I always knew he was a dam rascal and many others knows so too. I hope the boys will make a good crop. Write soon. I think I will be in Murray in two or three weeks and will expect a letter. Hope Walter will stay at home if possible.

As ever,  FH McLemore

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