Edmund Longyear

Title: Letter From a Potential Customer
Type: Letter
Date: July 1, 1901
Source: Minnesota Historical Society

Description: Prospectors on the Mesaba Range often asked Longyear to do some drilling for them. This is one of those requests.
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Activities:

1. The return address on this letter states a street address in the city of Chicago. The address given for Longyear is simply "Hibbing, Minn." Why do you think this would be?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Since Hibbing was still a fairly small town in 1901, and Longyear was well-known, it was probably not necessary for a street address to be given in order for the letter to reach him.
2. Why might the authors of this letter not be able to do the drilling work themselves?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: The author of this letter has inheritedthe land on which he wishes to drill and probably doesn't have the experience or the equipment to do it himself. Longyear was known to have some of the most advanced drilling equipment at the time and often was contracted to set up drills on test sites for landowners who could not afford the equipment or the time themselves.
3. Why would the author of this letter suggest that Longyear contact Mr. Olcott with questions about him?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Since Longyear and the author do not know each other, the author is providing Longyear with the name of a reference so he can makesure that the author is honest and will pay for any work Longyear would do for him.
4. What is Longyear's response to the letter and request? Why might we guess that Longyear did not actually write a response to the author himself?
   
   
   
   
   Answer: Longyear says that he cannot do the drilling at this time because he has too much other work to do. We can assume that Longyear had a secretary who wrote the actual response for him, since Longyear's note at the bottom asks someone else to "tell him" (the author of the letter) that Longyear can't accept the job.