Mitchell, Elisha, 1793-1857
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University of NCa., Dec. 19th 1836
To Charles Manly Esqr
Treasurer of the University
Dear Sir
I wished to send down at one time all the accounts I have to present to you and it has not been
in my power to finish them until this time because I could not get some of the items rendered
sooner. I beg leave to call your attention to some 5 or 6 items of business.
1. On the top of the first page of the inclosed sheet you will find an account of my receipts
of Tuition monies and Room Rent for the past session and of my disbursements of the same. You
may perhaps be struck with some surprise that an intimate and dear friend of mine
E. Mitchell
by name should have
shared more largely than his associates in the good things paid in m by the students. The fact
does not perhaps admit of a good defence but it may be pleaded in extenuation that there was a
resolution of the board last winter directing that the house in which I live should be put in
good repair. I have been proceeding in this business and paying the bills as they came in but
supposing it would be most agreeable to you to have the tuition monies stand altogether as an
offset to the salaries of the Faculty. I have therefore charged whatever has been disbursed in
this way to my own salary and left the bills apparently unpaid.
2. There follows next a copy of bills created by the executor of the Repairs above referred to
amounting to. In regards to this sum I have to remark, that the house being old had fallen much
to decay. The fences were in ruins, the piazza in front of the house could hardly be supported
by all the props we could collect about it, the rain came in through the roof so that it
required no little skill to select a place in our sleeping apartment where one could keep dry of
a rainy night. The repairs were therefore commenced as far back as 1833 and have been proceeding
slowly ever since. It was recommended to me and
Dr.
Webb approved to include those earlier operations (the putting new sills and floor to the
piazza and shingling one side
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of the house were of the number) to
include these also in the bills that should be made out.
They are
therefore included by way of experiment to see what the Committee will say to them. If I
am thought to be pushing too far I give you authority to amputate at whatever joint shall seem
to you most decent. The bills of the carpenters are copied, I retain the originals as vouchers.
I believe them to be reasonable. I am not so clear about the lumber where the articles for
college work, for the work done at the expence of the
Trustees on my house and for my own private account are a
good deal jumbled together. The house where I live still wants about 50 dollars laid out upon
it.
3. On the third and fourth pages of the sheet is an account of the disbursement of one hundred
dollars that you entrusted to me last summer. Finding the Theodolite,
Lanes
,
Pikes, Collins's
1 and
Smith and
Hodgson's bills with the transportation amount to nearly an hundred. I have made out
the round sum with small bills here giving
Barbees
at
a venture to make just an hundred and have left out a pair of brass reflectors with their
appurtenances that I purchased also last summer. I mention them by way of protest that if I
should drop away suddenly they should not because they have made their appearance at the
Laboratory be considered as other than my private property.
4. I was instructed by the Committee last winter to rent a certain house in this place for the
use of the President till another should be prepared. This I did for 75 dollars if I do not
mistake. The President never used the house but Christmas the contractor for the brick came in
and occupied it in March or April (Waitt knows). The Trustees are out of pocket in the business about 18
dollars. But they are responsible to the owner and renter of the house the whole 75. This claim
on them has been conveyed to me.
5. I shall after the expiration of two days have my bursar accounts ready and it seems to be
due to all parties to have them audited. Also if there should be any person in the Committee, in
the Board generally, or
elsewhere who delight in auditing accounts there are sundry old papers of the ci divast
Superintendents in which he may enjoy himself ad libitum. I am intending to start soon on a
geological excurson and it will be most convenient to me to postpone this business till near the
close of the vacation. But I will attend promptly to any mandate I may receive from you.
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6. If you can from any or all of the sources indicated in this communication — Salary
still due — liquidation of bills for the repair of the house where I am writing
— or rent due for that engaged for the President — put me in funds for the
amount of some 300 dollars I shall be much rejoiced. Can you command leisure to drop me a line
in relation to these and other matters?
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