Sufferings of overland emigrants

              Virgina City U.T. Jan 12th, 1860
Dear Wife,
It is a long time since I have heard from you  I expect my letters have been misscarried   I have been well  since I wrote last and hope you can all say the same  we are having very hard winter here  the snow has been deep for two months and very cold  most of the time a number of people have frozen their feet and some have died from cold most of the people here live in cloth tents or holes in the ground .  I have got a very warm stone cabin a good stove and plenty wood for the present & provisions to last us until  spring or till the roads open over the mountains  The richest [illegible] ever discovered are here  They are most valued for silver although gold is plenty on some claims  one sett of claims owned by six persons has been sold for two hundred and forty thousand dollars 240,000.   I might have had an intrest in the same lo for a trifle when I first came