Post mark Nov 8, 1882 Quanajuato E.U.M.
Senora J. A. Bodwell
Cinadad de Cambridgeport
Estado de Massachusetts
Estados Unidos de America
Calle de Main Numero 532
Mexico
Guanajuato Nov, 5th 1882
Dear little wife Pet
I will now write a few lines to you to let you know that I have returned all safe & sound & hope that this will find you the same. I have been away one week or six days & returned last night. I should of written a few words to you last night but was so tired that I was glad to go to bed for I have been in the saddle six days all the time and it is tiresome riding over these mountains. There are no roads, nothing but male Ass paths. They go up almost perpendicular and around the edges of precipices & if ones horse slips and misses his foot hold the rider & horse go to the bottom. Some of them are 1500 feet deep.
I have been to Silao, La Luce, San Pedro, Purisima, Mexiamoor, & Peregina, So you see I have been doing some pretty tall traveling. I have been on some very high mountains some of them have got snow on the tops of them. Both my horse and myself are tired enough today to take a rest which we are a doing.
Well my dear you ask me what I am a doing, well I am a Manager of three cities Quanajuato, Silao, & San Pedro. So I have got all the head work that I want to do. I guess that I can manage it for my head is pretty clear for I do not let rum or women trouble me. You ask me what kind of food I get now. Well we had a pretty fair dinner today or rather it would have been good if it had been cooked decent. We had strawberies for desert or for dulcie as the Spanish call it. I suppose it is too cold for strawberies there now but they are like all other fruit, here we can get fruit the year around. I have got about 60 subscribers here in Quanajuato but the other places I am just starting that is why I have been away to those cities for to make arrangement. I started from here with five men and left them all but one (my Moso) at the different places. I had my riding suit on when I received your letter and in changing I left your letter in the pockets so it is in my room. I am in the Office now so I must get your letter before I write much more so bye for the present my dear Pet.
Well now pet I will write you a few more lines. You ask me if I get anything to eat. The custom of the country is for breakfast a small cup of coffee and a little bread. I get two eggs in addition to the coffee but have to pay extra for it for dinner & supper. We have about the same as they have in the States but it is very poorly cooked for you know the people here do not know what a stove is. Everything is boiled or roasted for they can not bake anything, in boiling they mix forty 40 kinds of things together & then boil them and most always put a lot of peppers in with the rest which spoils the whole dish. It is a guess mixed up mess, anyhow there ain’t half of the dishes that I can eat so sometimes I fade pretty slim but I guess that I can stand it for I am getting pretty tough now.
You say that Buntie would be glad to see me, now you can just bet that I would be just as pleased to see you both as you would be to see me. Why don’t you write to me and tell me what things that I have sent to you that you have received. I have asked you to do this two or three times now, please send me a list of what you have received (everything).
Now if you do not get the things that I send to you, it is no use for me to send any more, so do not forget to tell me. I have sent Buntie a Doll and Pet a small Opal and I hope that you will both be pleased with them that is if you have got them which I hope you have.
You ask me when I am a coming home. I have told you as near as I can but if it should happen so that I could come sooner, I will write or telegraph to you. A telegram costs about $6.50 from here to there. I will write more before sending this so good night my Pets.
Love to you both & lots of kisses.
I received the leaf that my little Buntie Bun sent to me. Tell her I thank her for her kindness also for her thoughtfulness. The little Pet for in return for her leaf, I send her some drawings that one of my switch boys drew for me, They are scenes in a bull fight. They are very well drawn but perhaps you won’t like the style of them. The things sticking in the bull back are sharp irons with fancy paper flowers on them. They make the bulls very mad. I have been to quite a number of fights in hopes to see some of the men get killed but they don’t get killed (yes they do) but I have not seen one of them get killed as yet.
Am pleased to hear that father has been to see you and hope he will come often to see you. You keep telling me not to send you any money. What are you a going to do without money. I shall send you some whether you want it or not for you need not tell any one that you have got any. If you wish you can go to Mrs. Mallows to board and room. I will see that you get money enough to pay for it. I wish that you had not left there. I have not got my pay from the Quadalajara Co. yet but am expecting it every day. I have got some stock in the Quadalajara Co. and I expect that they will give me
The rest of this letter is missing. Ken Stacey