Addressed to…
Mrs. Mary L. Buswell, R.F.D. #1, Sioux Falls, SD

Toppenish, Wash. • Oct. 4 – 08
Dear Mother,

I received your letter of the 27th relt [?]. I did not send that magazine I spoke of as I had not read it all and I mislaid it and forgot it. But will send it before long. Please send the C&B and Review, for which I will send you stamps. I am sending you that special edition of the Review that I spoke of. They only got it out yesterday.

I boarded several weeks at Mrs. Rowland’s house (shown in the picture) while working on the canal last winter. Mrs. R. is a very nice lady. I worked for the Cascade Lumber Co. this week building a fence around their new yard.

I went to the fair at N. Yakima one day this week. It was a good exhibit but not as large as the fair used to be in Sioux Falls. The exhibits were of course, principally fruit and poultry second. Hogs showed that they did not live in corn country.

Do you remember the acc’ts in the paper about the old man Ezra Meeker who went from Tacoma to Wash. D.C. & N.Y. with an ox team last year? He was interested in having the gov’t erect monuments to mark the places where the early settlers lived and the principal points of the road where they traveled west. He came west in 1852.

He was at the fair at N.Y. selling some books giving acc’ts of the trip. Had the oxen and wagon there too. The wagon box was made to be used as a boat and he says that he crossed the rivers when coming west in a worse one. He also wrote a book about the early settlers on Puget Sound. I got one of the books about the trip made last year.

The Indians are going to hold a fair in Toppenish this week & next. The expect Indians from 10 tribes in the N.W. The features will be principally horse racing & war dancing.

I do not expect to build a house unless I can rent it, until they begin to build the R.R. Mr. Miller told me that two school teachers wanted to rent his 3-room house at $10 per mo. and let it stand empty thru vacation so they would have it when school began, but he had already rented it. I suppose they are paying 5 or 6 dollars each per week for board & room at a private house, so it would be a big saving.

Mr. Fitts the butcher — (Fitts & Thomas, see special edition, they both boarded where I did last month) told me that they knew of 2 or 3 parties who would rent a house if they could. So I think there will be no difficulty about that.

I have been thinking that it would be a good scheme to buy a lot in this town to save paying rent. The money that I would pay for rent would make the first payment, and in 2 years after the reservation opened I could sell for several times what it cost, 2 or 3 at  least.

I can get lots for $125 to $250 each, pay 1/3 down, 8% int. on balance for as long a time as I want. I can build a house big enough for myself and warmer than this for $20, and when I am ready will make it part of a larger one for rent or sale.

The papers are at the bank ready for delivery and when Mr. Miller comes I will get my deed & abstract. I will send them in a large envelope and you may put them in my box without opening it, unless you want to read them. Will also enclose the paid up policy for 8.80 cents which I received for my dividend.

Do you know that next Feb. is the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth! You may have this Canada 5¢ stamp. The town has a new gasoline fire engine with 2000 feet of hose.

Your loving son,
W.J. Buswell