[Editor’s Note: Goodrich was still in Little Rock when he penned the following letter to James M. Mathews, his teaching colleague, who was then visiting his family in Kentucky:]
August 5, 1861 Little Rock [Arkansas]
Dear Friend. It has been about six weeks since you left & not a word have I nor anybody else in this town received [word] from you, though people almost daily receive letters from Kentucky. What’s the matter? You see by this [letter] that I am [still] here, but I did not expect to be when I wrote you before. I have failed to get Dr. Wheat’s school & in all probability that [teaching position] in Louisiana, so I am up a large stump.
My money is getting low & I can get nothing to do – so low (the money) that I could not get off [from here] if I wanted to. Faust wants to hear from you. His trip to the South I reckon was a fizzle. Have you heard from those checks? I think you can get letters here by addressing them to B. Whitesides, Franklin, Kentucky & he will forward them from Nashville. I enclose this in an envelope addressed to him in which I put 15 cents. That is according to advertisement.
Please write soon & relieve an anxious community. Yours respectfully, — R. L. Goodrich
Footnotes
Letter: to James M. Mathews from Ralph L. Goodrich of Little Rock, AR. Source: Box 1, Item 63, Ralph L. Goodrich Collection, Arkansas History Commission
