Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister | Page 3

be acted upon immediately. Camp is now at Governor's
Island, N.Y., and intends sailing soon for Oregon. If he is stopped he
may be induced to disgorge. Tell father to forward the account
immediately.
U.

[White Haven was the name of the Dent homestead near St. Louis.
Grant has rented out his own farm, and taken that of his father-in-law.
Written to his sister Mary.]
White Haven, March 21st, 1858.
DEAR SISTER:
Your letter was received one week ago last Tuesday, and I would have
answered it by the next mail but it so happened that there was not a
sheet of paper about the house, and as Spring has now set in, I do not
leave the farm except in cases of urgent necessity. Father's letter,
enclosing Mr. Bagley's relative to the Camp business, was received one
or two weeks earlier, and promptly answered. My reply was long,
giving a detailed account of my whole transactions with Camp, and a
copy of which Father can have to peruse when he comes along this way
next.
Julia and her children are all well and talk of making you a visit next
fall,--but I hardly think they will go. But if any of you, except Father,
should visit us this spring, or early summer, Julia says that Fred. may
go home with you to spend a few months. She says she would be afraid
to let him travel with Father alone; she has an idea that he is so
absent-minded that if he were to arrive in Cincinnati at night he would
be just as apt as not to walk out of the cars and be gone for an hour
before he would recollect that he had a child with him. I have no such
fears however. Fred does not read yet, but he will, I think, in a few
weeks. We have no school within a mile and a half, and that is too far

to send him in the winter season. I shall commence sending him soon
however. In the meantime I have no doubt but that he is learning faster
at home. Little Ellen is growing very fast, and talks now quite plainly.
Jesse R. is growing very rapidly, is very healthy and, they say, is the
best looking child among the four. I don't think however there is much
difference between them in that respect.
Emma Dent is talking of visiting her relatives in Ohio and Penn^a this
Summer, and if she does, she will stop a time with you. Any talk of any
of us visiting you, must not stop you from coming to see us. The whole
family here are fond of planning visits, but poor in the execution of
their plans. It may take two seasons yet before any of these visits are
made; in the meantime, we are anxious to see all of you. For my part I
do not know when I shall ever be able to leave home long enough for a
visit. I may possibly be able to go on a flying visit next fall. I am
anxious to make one more visit home before I get old.
This Spring has opened finely for farming and I hope to do well; but I
shall wait until the crops are gathered before I make any predictions. I
have now three negro men, two hired by the year and one of Mr. Dent's,
which, with my own help, I think, will enable me to do my farming
pretty well with assistance in harvest. I have however a large farm. I
shall have about twenty acres of potatoes, twenty of corn, twenty-five
of oats, fifty of wheat, twenty-five of meadow, some clover, Hungarian
grass and other smaller products, all of which require labor before they
are got into market, and the money realized upon them. You are aware,
I believe, that I have rented out my place and have taken Mr. Dent's.
There are about two hundred acres of ploughed land on it and I shall
have, in a few weeks, about two hundred and fifty acres of woods
pasture fenced up besides. Only one side of it and a part of another has
to be fenced to take the whole of it in, and the rails are all ready. I must
close with the wish that some of you would visit us as early as possible.
In your letter you ask when my note in bank becomes due. The
seventeenth of Apl. is the last day of grace when it must be paid.
Give Julia's, the children's, and my love to all at home and write soon.
Your Brother

ULYSSES.

[When a boy Grant suffered severely from fever and ague. This attack
now lasted a year and was probably a factor in