Letter from John Winthrop to Daniel D. Avery, September 30, 1865

Avery Family Papers, Records of the Antebellum Southern Plantations, Series J, Part 5, Reel 11, Frames 693-695

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Newport Sept. 30, 1865

My dear Dan, We were delighted to receive a long & satisfactory letter from dear "Bullee" showing that you were once more at yr. plantation home & surrounded by your family. I most heartily unite with Kate in congratulating you upon this auspicious event, although accomplished under very different circumstances from those we could have wished. But as it seems worse than useless to lament, or even to moralise over the past, I propose to write more particularly of the future. Sarah has rightly interpreted our feeling, when she supposes that we do not wish to settle ourselves permanently in this section of the country, & it was principally in deference to this feeling that I conceived the project of joining Dr. Givin in Sonora. But I am as yet without any advices from him, and I wish to form some plan, in case that should fail, for the approaching winter. Our inclinations both turn towards Attakapas, and as I intimated to Bullie in a letter sent through Pemberton at New Orleans, it has occurred to me that we might do something together with your salt mine, the working of which, it seems is now in a state of abeyance, the necessary capital being furnished by me, in such excess, over any you might be able to put in, as to make a fair & reasonable arrangement between us. If labor cannot be obtained with you, it can certainly be procured from the city, with money, & I could doubtless form such a connection in New Orleans, as to afford all the facilities for successfully carrying on the business. My ideas about it are of course crude & confused, as my information upon the subject is so limited. I presume this can be no difficulty about getting the sale to market, or selling it when put in market. Means of transportation to a shipping point will of course have to be provided & provisions for the laborers furnished, for which the steamers willno doubt be at hand as of old. I shall await your reply with much interest, & if you think favorably of the project, would like further to know whether we can probably make some arrangement to live with Henshaw for some months, upon the condition only, of pay, viz our proportion of the Expenses. Could you ascertain this, or should I write him? Please give me your ideas upon this subject, & let me know, about what sum would be required in cash to push the matter at once into activity, for it any thing be done, 'twere well it were done quickly.

I suppose that we shall remain here, until towards the close of this month.