Placerville, Calif. Aug. 5, 1853 A.D.
Dear Wife:
I hardly know how to commence my letter it is so long since I heard from home still I do not charge you with neglect for I know you write.
I am well at present and hope this will find you enjoying the same blessings. I have had my health better this summer than I ever had in this country. Barten and Levi is well. Will McNeill is well. Will got a letter from J. Gary he makes himself very honest in regard to the postoffice. He maybe I know not - this I do know, I have wrote more than fifty letters you never got but whar they went I know not. Dear Juliet I hope it won't be long till our writing will be at an end and we will do all our talk by word of mouth. A few weeks and I bid adieu to California. When I left home I intended on being at home in two years but it is almost four. I have no excuse to offer except my desire to make money. All I can do is to ask your forgive-ness.
Dear Juliet, I intend to start home in October if I am alive and can get what is owing to me. Levi is going with me. Times is very dull here. The Emigration is coming in every day flat broke and can't get work, board high and nothing to do. I am working at anything I can get to do. Sometimes I am idle and some days I make eight dollars in one day. Dear Juliet be sure to write often and let me know what is going on. I have nothing that would interest you. Let me know how mother is and all the rest. Dear Juliet I could fill this letter with love. I will save that part till we meet which time is not far off. May God bless and keep you safe till my return. When I woke this morning I was sadly disappointed to find myself in this country. I was with you all night but found myself in Placerville this morning. I must stop. Farewell for a short time. Write soon no more but remain your loving husband till death.
William McClelland
To Juliet S. McClelland