On May 20, 1842, Robert Camp­bell wrote his busi­ness part­ner William Sub­lette, who was in Inde­pen­dence, MO.  He focus­es on busi­ness, stat­ing that the debts Sub­lette col­lects are incred­i­bly impor­tant to Sub­lette & Camp­bell — “I have been doing very lit­tle busi­ness since you left — still I have sold a few goods and gen­er­al­ly get paid for them.… I will only repeat what I have already said that we can­not expect to get any mon­ey from any oth­er quar­ter than where you now are and I hope you will not lose the oppor­tu­ni­ty of secur­ing every dol­lar due us — mon­ey is now more impor­tant than it has even been on any for­mer occa­sion to us and I hope you will use pro­por­tion­ate exer­tions — scarce as mon­ey is it will be eas­i­er col­lect­ing it now than in the fall.”  Like today, the econ­o­my must have not been doing so well in 1842!

This let­ter was pub­lished by the Mis­souri His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety in “Glimpses of the Past: Cor­re­spon­dence of Robert Camp­bell 1834–1845”

Saint Louis May 20th 1842
Dear Sublette
I reed your let­ter writ­ten by mail from Inde­pen­dence post
marked 12th inst. giv­ing me an account of your proceedings
in attach­ment of the prop­er­ty of Gid­dings & Gen­try which I
think was remark­ably well done — I hope it will enable us
to get our pay — I think you might have the Beaver ap-
praised and by con­sent of S. C. Owens & Co. have it sold -
if sent down we could real­ize a cer­tain por­tion of our pay
soon­er in that way.
I reed. yes­ter­day $100 from Lewis Franklin through Crow,
Tevis & McCreery — N. E. Har­rel­son also paid his account
in full — this is all the mon­ey we have received.
I learn from Vasques that you had sent by Mr. McCarty
some specie but he has not arrived yet. I am most anxious
to pay the Mer­chants & Mechan­ic ‘s Bank.
I think Mr. Heylin will levy an attach­ment to secure what-
ever may be left after pay­ing us out of the mules. — J. J.
Ander­son trans­ferred to him a note of Gid­dings & Gen­try for
some $950.00 he will I think place the papers in the hands
of [Addi­son] Reese to take out the attachment.
I have been doing very lit­tle busi­ness since you left — still
I have sold a few goods and gen­er­al­ly get paid for them.…
I will only repeat what I have already said that we can­not expect to get any mon­ey from any oth­er quar­ter than where
you now are and I hope you will not lose the oppor­tu­ni­ty of
secur­ing every dol­lar due us — mon­ey is now more important
than it has even been on any for­mer occa­sion to us and I hope
you will use pro­por­tion­ate exer­tions — scarce as mon­ey is it
will be eas­i­er col­lect­ing it now than in the fall.
At the farm every thing goes on well. Mrs. Cook was in
two days ago. We have had a fine rain and crops look prom-
ising — the army worm has done some mis­chief but I under-
stand your farm has not suf­fered much.
Vir­ginia and the Boy(footnote 21) are get­ting along fine­ly — nothing
new.
Kings­land & Light­ner made an assign­ment and it is ex-
pect­ed that H. N. Davis will go with them — such is my own
impres­sion — Swearinger [A. S. & Co.] is also broke up and
some oth­ers it is thought will follow.
Yours
Robert Campbell
Col. W. L. Sublette
Inde­pen­dence, Mo.

Foot­note:
21 This was the James Alexan­der Camp­bell, born May 14, 1842, and
died June 18, 1849