[Note: The original letter contains spelling errors which have been preserved during transcription. Some punctuation symbols have been added. Changes are indicated by [ ].]

Lieut.¹ Tho. Baker

My Dear Father,

Your very welcome and highly esteemed epistle bearing date of June 21st reached me last evening[;] it gave me great satisfaction to hear of your good health as well as that of Mrs. B. and Dear little Mary and little less to find that although I have long neglected my duty and shown any thing [sic] but a feeble affection that still your paternal love remains unaltered, and I can assure that if diligence [,] sobriety and integrity pave the way to "the Hill of fame?" my fate shall ever remain strangers to the "ways of vice"[.] I trust you will receive my sincere thanks for your good advice which was duly received and duly appreciated. The land in this Country has not come in market yet nor do I think it will for another year when it does it will cost $1.25c per acre the price of all Government Land throughout the U.S.

Next week I will endeavour to survey my Claim and then I will send you a platt [sic]² of it. I should have done it before but I have been very busy hoeing corn and potatoes. The weather has been very favourable and I have been very industrious so that I have got in 2 acres of corn and nearly 3 of potatoes [.] I expect to have got in about 20 acres but I could not get teams to break [.] For what I did get done I had to pay $6.00 per day for each yoke of cattle 50c a day for a plow $2.00 per box for seed and $4.00 a week for board, but I have got a set of house logs cut and in a few days I shall get a house raised and then I shall commence keeping "batchellors [sic] troll,"³ dont [sic] you envy me, but never mind when I get old enough I am going to get a cook of my own.

The sod on the prairie is very tough and requires from 3 to 6 yoke of cattle to plow the first time, after which it is the easiest tilled land in the world and so rich that it is impossible to wear it out [;] the soil is generally a black, sandy loam which is usually 4 feet deep. I have seen fields that have been croped [sic] for 20 years in succession without any visable [sic] diminution. There is no doubt but what Alfred⁴ would make a fortune here in a few years [.] Potatoes are allways [sic] worth from a dollar to a dollar & a half and corn the same price and there are so many Indians to be fed by Government and so many Emigrants rushing in that such prices will increase rather than diminish and to start a farm is so little trouble that he could have 100 acres under cultivation the 2^nd year.

But it is quite impossible to give you a description of the great west in this letter but I will write you a good one and bring it myself in 4 or 5 months, I think about the first of January next you may expect to see your long lost boy early some cold morning standing in front of your house with a piece of Buffalo rump under his arm waiting for admittance. Remember me to Mrs. Baker, Mary and all inquiring friends.

And believe me, I remain

Your afect. son

D.B. [David Bogue] Baker⁵

¹ Rev. Thomas Baker had been a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy before he became a minister.

² Plat, plan or map (WNCD).

³ The writer likely means that he will begin trolling for a wife. "According to the folk tales, the trolls who abduct princesses are bachelors." members.xoom.virgilio.it/norvegianet/IB17-Trolls.pdf-

⁴ Likely, David's brother James Alfred Baker.

⁵ In 1851, David left for the states unexpectedly and without asking his father's permission. See W2896.