In his letters, Rudolf Appenzeller includes several itemezed bills/receipts and writes about hundreds of French francs, thus suggesting that he managed a business of considerable income and/or expenses. Four of the letters are addressed to a "Lieber Jager" and employ the informal "du" form of the 2nd person pronoun. The 5th letter is addressed to "Liebe Fraülein und Frau [name illegible]." The first four letters were dated from Höngg, a borough of Zurich, Switzerland. The 4th letter of 1854 includes mention of a Mr. Charles Leihy in Baltimore, Maryland. Other places mentioned in the letters include Luzern, Paris, Cincinate [sic], Pittsburg, California and Martinique. "Emigration" is mentioned several times in the sense of "go to America." Written during the period of the California gold rush, it is possible that the last letter, sent from "Astoria", referred in fact to Astoria, Oregon, and that Appenzeller had emigrated to the United States. Accounting and various currencies (French francs, schillings, dollars and cents) are recurrent themes in the letters, suggesting the possibility of involvement in banking operations.
