April 1848. Dahlonega, Georgia.
“I was born in Vermont. I came into this Southern country twenty-four years ago as a clock-peddler, where I drove a good business. I used to spend my summers among the mountains of the Cherokee country, partly to avoid the fever, and partly with a view of living over again the days of my boyhood, which were spent among the Green Mountains. I made some money, and when the gold fever commenced I took it and went to speculating in gold lots, though I spent many years without finding lots of gold! I associated with bear hunters, and explored every corner and stream of this great mountain land, away to the north, and have seen more glorious scenery than any other live man. I’m forty years old, unmarried, love good liquor, and go in for having fun. ‘Bout four years ago, it came into my thinking mug that there must be plenty of gold in the bed of Coosa Creek which runs into Coosa River. I traded for a lot and went to work. I found a deposit, gave up work, and went to leasing small sections, which are now worked by a good many men, and give me a decent living. I have had all sorts of luck in my day—good luck and bad luck. When I’m prosperous I always hope to be more prosperous still, and when I have bad luck, I always wish for worse luck if it’ll only come. I never allow myself to be disappointed. The longer I live the more anxious am I to do some good to my fellow men. I’ve passed the blossom of my life, and I don’t expect to live many years longer. I haven’t lived as I ought to have lived, but I hope it’ll be well with me when I come to take my final sleep. But enough. I’m going out to my mine on a visit tomorrow, and if you’ll go with me, I’ll show you some real Vermont trout, and mountain peaks which would shame the camel hump of old Yankee land.”
/s/Lorenzo Dow.
Source: Lorenzo Dow of Dahlonega, Georgia in Letters from the Alleghany Mountains by Charles Lanman (1849).
