[1]    Sometime before the end of March 1865, Goodrich received the following letter from his mother: 

March 12, 1865   Owego [New York]  

My dear Ralph. We received your yesterday, just two weeks coming. Was glad to hear from you and that you had received the checks. I knew that you had been very sick as your hair would not all come out. Do you have to wear a wig or have you enough to keep your head warm without? Is it necessary for you to go without eating your regular 3 meals a day to keep from having the ague and fever, or does starving yourself prevent it? Are you in any business now, and how is your cook [Mary]? I hope better. Does the other woman [Emily]  cook for you and have you any boarders? Is Lucy Stratton’s friend married? Augusta, Sarah and John have gone to church today. It is a cold morning and very rough going. Our sleighing is gone and it is time, but the ground is still covered with snow except in the roads. We had a few warm days last week which made the snow melt & the lumbermen went to rafting. But Friday night put a stop to it. We have had a long cold winter and we all want to see spring come. The war has not come to a close yet and I do not see any prospect of closing either. They are expecting there will be another great battle at Richmond soon. The draft has been put off from week to week and now our paper says our quota is full. I hope it is. Our friends and neighbors about us I believe are all well. Your friend, Nathaniel W. Davis, Esq., has got rich out of this war and so has a great many others like him. We have not heard from James Goodrich in a long time but suppose he is at Junction City [ Kansas ] yet. Augusta expects [her husband]  James Griffing in about 3 weeks and he will stay one week [before they return to Kansas]. I cannot bear to think of her going back to live there again. It costs so much to go and come so far. And they have raised on the fare one or two cents now which will cost them more than it ever has before.  

A man that is in the shop where James Fiddis is has come to New York. James sent a box by him and this man has sent it to your Aunt Lucy [Fiddis] with shells, petrifaction, and coral, and other curiosities, one gold dollar, and some silver pieces. I have not seen them but the girls say they are beautiful. [Your cousin] Lucy [Fiddis] is still teaching but is getting tired of it. George Stratton boards there and Wilbur went home last week. His school that he has been to is out. Mr. Prindle commenced building on Front Street last fall. I have heard [it is built] with 3 front doors, and [he is] expecting to have several young men from the South to board and educate. I suppose he will furnish it soon. You have not written anything about your land lately. You do intend to let Stephen have it, I suppose. He has bought Augusta’s and gives her 26 dollars an acre. If you intend he shall have it, he will get a deed made out here and send you to sign, and you send it back and he will give you a mortgage or bond and mortgage, and have it recorded here. He will let you have one hundred dollars more this spring, and if he has good luck he can pay you another hundred another year and so on till it is all paid. I think your envelopes are very nice. I will have the girls enquire if they can go over tomorrow about how much we can get cloth for you a coat and pants for and if we can get Frank Taylor to come here & help Sarah make the coat, it would not cost near as much as it would to get them to make it. Frank has worked at Platt’s all winter on coats and perhaps we can get you some shirts. We must find out about if there is an agent here for Adams Express before we get them.  

The hair wash I told you of is half ounce of sugar of lead, one ounce of lac sulpher put in a bottle to one pint of bay rum, or soft water will answer. Shake it up for several days before you use it, and when you use it, pour off a little and then shake it up. Our girls have it with water. For a week or two it will make the hair stiff but after a while it will be soft. It made Augusta’s darker and softer. Herman Goodrich’s wife was sick with typhoid fever several weeks before last. Her hair all came out. She used this [and] her hair came in darker and softer and she thinks that if your head is bare, it may color your head. I use it on my hair for coloring. I send 2 papers with this. [Your mother]  

Goodrich also received the following letter from his sister Augusta:  

March 14, 1865   Owego [New York]  

Dear Brother Ralph. Sarah & I went to Owego yesterday & went to Platt’s clothing store. They still have your measure which they found after looking over the books for some time. We looked at cloth for coat, pants, & vest which they now wear alike here. It is $3.00 a yard and it will take 7 ½ yards for all, and the lining & trimmings would cost $12.00 more, making in all about $34.00.  Besides the making, which if Sarah can get someone to help her, will not cost very much more, but they charge $8.50 at the shop for making a coat. There is no agent here as they used to be of the Adam’s Express, but the one here will sent it as far as it goes & then if there is an Express going to Little Rock, it will be transferred to that company & sent to you. The company here say it is perfectly safe & the way packages are sent. Is there a company or agent at Little Rock and should you like to have a suit sent so? If so, please write immediately and Stephen will get what you want sent & pay for it & let it go towards the land. And if you want shirts or anything else, just write. I wish I was going to be here to help make them, but I expect to go back [to Kansas] in about three weeks. I was in hopes to see you before I left, but hope you can come & see me sometime.  

We send you [cloth] samples & please write which you like best. There was some black with a very little white mixed in but it was $3.50 a yard & these are newer goods. Write often to me. Ever your affectionate sister, -- Augusta