Nathan Sprague to Frederick Douglass, March 10, 1868

NATHAN SPRAGUE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Omaha, [Neb.] 10 March 1868.

MY DEAR FATHER

I would have written to you befor, but did not know how to get a letter to you. I got a letter from Rosa^{1Rosetta Douglass Sprague.} to day, saying that you had been quite sick.^{2The editors can neither confirm nor deny that Douglass had recently been ill. In a letter to his father dated 24 February 1868, Charles R. Douglass mentions that he has read his sister Rosetta’s recent letter to their brother Lewis, in which she indicated that all the family back in Rochester were well. But Douglass’s known itinerary indicates that he had no public speaking engagements between 10 February and 6 March 1868, so it is also possible that ill health might have played some role in Douglass’s somewhat lengthy absence from the public forum. Douglass Papers, ser. 1, 4: xxiv; Charles R. Douglass to Douglass, 24 February 1868, General Correspondence, reel 2, frames 347– 48, FD Papers, DLC.} I have got work and I am glad to have it to day. I hope to make <my> way here befor I come home[.] I have got much to think of, my pay is not much. I am getting 48 dollars a month[.] I have paid for board here 8 dollars a week. I think I will stop here and see what I can do I think I can make money here I hope for if I donot I am gone up.^{3Early in 1868, Nathan Sprague moved to Omaha, Nebraska, in search of work, leaving his pregnant wife Rosetta and two small children (Annie and Harriet) in the care of her parents in Rochester. He unsuccessfully attempted once again to drive a hack; after that, he tried his hand at running a boardinghouse, only to fail at that as well. Finally, after months of trying and failing to establish a successful business in Omaha, he returned to Rochester in time for the birth of his third daughter, Alice, in mid-October. Blight, Prophet of Freedom, 500, 829n; Fought, Women, 208–09; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 297.}

[So is] This is quite a city it is made up [illegible] fast men and women, they have the money in hand. I canot cannot make any thing here working buy the day. I cannot get any more here working buy the day then I can home. I think I will go in to keeping a boarding house. They have nothing of that kind here for a back man. I think it will pay.

father <I cannot> forget you for your kinness to me[.] if I donot make it is not becose you have not did all <you> could to hilp me. I cannot for get it. I come here to make money and I will have it be for I come home[.] a man can make money here if he save it, and that I will do

I will let you know soon what I am doing. This is just such a town as Lockport.^{4Settled in 1821 and incorporated in 1865, Lockport, in Niagara County, New York, was built on the Erie Canal around a series of locks. Lockport served as a significant manufacturing center, and the area was also rich in fruit and dairy production in the early nineteenth century. Seltzer, Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer, 1072.} I think it will be a good place to live but not yet. I have not sent any money home yet. I will soon. I have been here five weeks to day. I [illegible] saw a man this morning that saw fred^{5Sprague appears to be a little out of touch with his brother-in-law’s activities. Frederick Douglass, Jr., along with his brother Lewis, moved to Denver, Colorado, in August 1866. The Douglass brothers were aided in their efforts to find employment by their father’s old friend Henry O. Wagoner, and within a short time, both were working for the Red, White, and Blue Mining Company. While living in Denver, Frederick Douglass, Jr., participated in efforts to desegregate the Denver public school system; in 1867 he moved to Cheyenne, in the Wyoming Territory, to take a job with the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1868 he briefly returned to Rochester, New York, before permanently moving to Washington, D.C. While it is possible that Frederick Douglass, Jr., might have been out of work or between jobs in March 1868, he had long since moved from Denver. Bernier and Taylor, If I Survive, 27, 633; Blight, Prophet of Freedom, 497–98; McFeely, Frederick Douglass, 248–49.} in Denver[.] he say that he is brock. I hope that will not be my case after being from home tow years. Father I hope <to> write better then this sum day. I will write soon again

Yours

[NATHA] NATHAN SPRAGUE

[P.S.] I will be glad to hare from you soon

ALS: General Correspondence File, reel 2, frames 353–54, FD Papers, DLC.

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