John Tyler, Sherwood Forest, Charles City County, Virginia, to Alexander Gardiner, New York, New York

Sherwood Forest April 24. 1849 My Dear Sir: I take advantage of a more direct communication with you, through Alice who is on a short visit to Richmond and who goes up to day to say to you that I have recievd a letter from Geo. Waggaman expressing a desire to own an interest in our coal lands and enquiring as to the price. What is your minimum? Write on without delay. The coal is the great element of value and the floods cannot reach that. From Finnie I have also a letter of the 30th March which was late to hand but which I answered the day after it reached me, asking the silly question whether the whole $10,000 was due- and enquiring with more pertinancy whether Judge Halliburton was alive as it was necessary to make him a party, as Tenant by the Curtesy. My reply has reachd him about this time, so that it depends upon the time of the Court's sitting whether I shall get a decree this spring. A delay for these causes would be vexatious. And now I turn to another topic. The result of my inquiries is, that the Father & Mother died leaving about $120,000 and that each child receivd about 40 or 50,000 My impression was and still is that it was larger. In Washington the matter was greatly exagerated and I gave you the Washington report. The estimate above furnished is nearer the truth. You will therefore know how to estimate contingencies. We are without advices from New York for more than a week, nay for ten days, and as cribe it to the disturbances to which all have been subjected by moving and arranging new quarters. Perhaps too, some [?] of the mails may have produced the difficulty. On to morrow we hope to hear that Mr Gardiner and Mrs Beckman are through all the vexations of breaking up housekeeping, and that you are taking your ease at your inn. If the same cold spell with which we have been visited as- sailed the ladies at East Hampton they must have suffered much. Winter in all its severity prevailed for more than a week accompanied with high winds, drought, and severe frosts. All the fruit is gone, the forest leaves all scard, the wheat on many estates seriously injured (we have pretty well escaped this last calamity) and the whole country thrown back for a fort night. I console myself for the loss of the fruit by the diminished susceptibility to cholera, and with this doleful summary I bid you adieu Sincerely Yrs John Tyler Alex. Gardiner Esqr J. Tyler Alexander Gardiner Esqr Clerk U.S.C. Court New York