Village Life in America 1852-1872, Including the Period of the American Civil War
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Title: Village Life in America 1852-1872, Including the Period of the American Civil War
Author: Caroline Cowles Richards
Author of introduction, etc.: Margaret Elizabeth Munson Sangster
Release date: September 18, 2010 [eBook #33756]
Language: English
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[Illustration: Caroline Cowles Richards (From a daguerreotype taken
in 1860)]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA
1852-1872
INCLUDING THE PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
AS TOLD IN THE DIARY OF A SCHOOL-GIRL
By
CAROLINE COWLES RICHARDS
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
MARGARET E. SANGSTER
NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1913
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright, 1908, by CAROLINE RICHARDS CLARKE
Copyright, 1913, by HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
To My dear brothers, JAMES AND JOHN, who, by precept and example, have
encouraged me, and to my beloved sister, ANNA, whose faith and affection
have been my chief inspiration, this little volume is lovingly
inscribed.
Naples, N. Y.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction, by Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster ix
The Villages xiii
The Villagers xiv
1852.--Family Notes--Famous School--Girls--Hoop Skirts 1
1853.--Runaways--Bible Study--Essays--Catechism 10
1854.--Lake Picnic--Pyramid of Beauty--Governor Clark 20
1855.--Preachers--James and John--Votes for Women 43
1856.--the Fire--Sleighing and Prayer--Father's Advice 52
1857.--Truants and Pickles--Candle Stories--the Snuffers 77
1858.--Tableaux and Charades--Spiritual Seance 95
1859.--E. M. Morse--Letter from the North Pole 106
1860.--Gymnastics--Troublesome Comforts 118
1861.--President Lincoln's Inauguration--Civil War--School
Enthusiasm 130
1862.--Gough Lectures--President's Call for Three Hundred
Thousand Men--Mission Zeal 138
1863.--A Soldier's Death--General M'Clellan's Letter--President
Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg 148
1864.--Grandfather Beals' Death--Anna Graduates 162
1865.--President Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address--Fall of
Richmond--Murder of Lincoln 176
1866.--Freedman's Fair--General Grant and Admiral Farragut
Visit Canandaigua 200
1867.--Brother John and Wife Go to London--Lecture by
Charles Dickens 208
1871.--Hon. George H. Stuart Speaks in Canandaigua--A Large
Collection 210
1872.--Grandmother Beals' Death--Biography 211
1880.--Anna's Marriage 225
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Caroline Cowles Richards Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Grandfather Beals 8
Grandmother Beals 8
Mr. Noah T. Clarke 30
Miss Upham 30
First Congregational Church 38
Rev. Oliver E. Daggett, D.D. 54
Judge Henry W. Taylor 54
Miss Zilpha Clark 54
"Frankie Richardson" 54
Horace Finley 54
Tom Eddy and Eugene Stone 66
"Uncle David Dudley Field" 66
Grandmother's Rocking Chair 88
The Grandfather Clock 88
Hon. Francis Granger 100
Mr. Gideon Granger 100
The Old Canandaicua Academy 124
The Ontario Female Seminary 132
"Old Friend Burling" 138
Madame Anna Bishop 138
"Abbie Clark and I Had Our Ambrotypes Taken To-day" 152
"Mr. Noah T. Clarke's Brother and I" 152
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
After this book was in type, on March 29, 1913, the author, Mrs.
Caroline Richards Clarke, died at Naples, New York.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
The Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards fell into my hands, so to speak,
out of space. I had no previous acquaintance with the author, and I sat
down to read the book one evening in no especial mood of anticipation.
From the first page to the last my attention was riveted. To call it
fascinating barely expresses the quality of the charm. Caroline Richards
and her sister Anna, having early lost their mother, were sent to the
home of her parents in Canandaigua, New York, where they were brought up
in the simplicity and sweetness of a refined household, amid Puritan
traditions. The children were allowed to grow as plants do, absorbing
vitality from the atmosphere around them. Whatever there was of gracious
formality in the manners of aristocratic people of the period, came to
them as their birthright, while the spirit of the truest democracy
pervaded their home. Of this Diary it is not too much to say that it is
a revelation of childhood in ideal conditions.
The Diary begins in 1852, and is continued until 1872. Those of us who
lived in the latter half of the nineteenth century recall the swift
transitions, the rapid march of science and various changes in social
customs, and as we meet allusions to these in the leaves of the girl's
Diary we live our past over again with peculiar pleasure.
Far more has been told us concerning the South during the Civil War than
concerning the North. Fiction has found the North a less romantic field,
and the South has been chosen as the background of many a stirring
novel, while only here and there has an author been found who has known
the deep-hearted loyalty of the Northern States and woven the story into
narrative form. The girl who grew up in Canandaigua was intensely
patriotic, and from day to day vividly chronicled what she saw, felt,
and heard. Her Diary is a faithful record of impressions of that stormy
time in which the nation underwent a baptism of fire. The realism of her
paragraphs is unsurpassed.
Beyond the personal claim of the Diary and the certainty to give
pleasure to a host of readers, the author appeals to Americans in
general because of her family and her friends. Her father and
grandfather were Presbyterian ministers. Her Grandfather Richards was
for twenty years President of Auburn Theological Seminary. Her brother,
John Morgan Richards of London, has recently given to the world the Life
and Letters of his gifted and lamented daughter, Pearl Mary-Terese
Craigie, known best as John Oliver Hobbes. The famous Field brothers and
their father, Rev. David Dudley Field, and their nephew, Justice David
J. Brewer, of the United States Supreme Court, were her kinsmen. Miss
Hannah Upham, a distinguished teacher mentioned in the Diary, belongs to
the group of American women to whom we owe the initiative of what we now
choose to call the higher education of the sex. She, in common with Mary
Lyon, Emma Willard, and Eliza Bayliss Wheaton, gave a forward impulse to
the liberal education of women, and our privilege is to keep their
memory green. They are to be remembered by what they have done and by
the tender reminiscences found here and there like pressed flowers in a
herbarium, in such pages as these.
Miss Richards' marriage to Mr. Edmund C. Clarke occurred in 1866. Mr.
Clarke is a veteran of the Civil War and a Commander in the Grand Army
of the Republic. His brother, Noah T. Clarke, was the Principal of
Canandaigua Academy for the long term of forty years. The dignified,
amusing and remarkable personages who were Mrs. Clarke's contemporaries,
teachers, or friends are pictured in her Diary just as they were, so
that we meet them on the street, in the drawing-room, in church, at
prayer-meeting, anywhere and everywhere, and grasp their hands as if we,
too, were in their presence.
Wherever this little book shall go it will carry good cheer. Fun and
humor sparkle through the story of this childhood and girlhood so that
the reader will be cheated of ennui, and the sallies of the little
sister will provoke mirth and laughter to brighten dull days. I have
read thousands of books. I have never read one which has given me more
delight than this.
Margaret E. Sangster.
Glen Ridge, New Jersey,
June, 1911.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE VILLAGES
CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK.--A beautiful village, the county seat of Ontario
County, situated at the foot of Canandaigua Lake, which is called "the
gem of the inland lakes" of Western New York, about 325 miles from New
York city.
NAPLES, NEW YORK.--A small village at the head of Canandaigua Lake,
famous for its vine-clad hills and unrivaled scenery.
GENEVA, NEW YORK.--A beautiful town about 16 miles from Canandaigua.
EAST BLOOMFIELD, NEW YORK.--An ideal farming region and suburban village
about 8 miles from Canandaigua.
PENN YAN, NEW YORK.--The county seat of Yates County, a grape center
upon beautiful Lake Keuka.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.--A nourishing manufacturing city, growing rapidly,
less than 30 miles from Canandaigua, and 120 miles from Niagara Falls.
AUBURN, NEW YORK.--Noted for its Theological Seminary, nearly one
hundred years old, and for being the home of William H. Seward and other
American Statesmen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE VILLAGERS
Mr. and Mrs. THOMAS BEALS, Grandfather and Grandmother
CAROLINE and ANNA Grandchildren of Mr. and
JAMES and JOHN RICHARDS Mrs. Beals
"AUNT ANN"
"AUNT MARY" CARR Sons and daughters of
"AUNT GLORIANNA" Mr. and Mrs. Beals
"UNCLE HENRY"
"UNCLE THOMAS"
Rev. O. E. DAGGETT, D.D. Pastor of Canandaigua Congregational
Church
NOAH T. CLARKE Principal Canandaigua Academy for Boys
Hon. FRANCIS GRANGER Postmaster-General, U.S.A.
General JOHN A. GRANGER Of New York State Militia
GIDEON GRANGER Son of Hon. Francis
ALBERT GRANGER Son of General Granger
JOHN GREIG Wealthy Scotsman long time resident
of Canandaigua
MYRON H. CLARK Governor, State of New York
JUDGE H. W. TAYLOR Prominent lawyer and jurist
E. M. MORSE A leading lawyer in Canandaigua
Miss ZILPHA CLARKE School teacher of note
Miss CAROLINE CHESEBRO Well-known writers
Mrs. GEORGE WILLSON
Miss HANNAH UPHAM Eminent instructress and lady principal
of Ontario Female Seminary
Mr. FRED THOMPSON Prominent resident, married Miss
Mary Clark, daughter of Governor
Myron H. Clark.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
School Boys
WILLIAM T. SCHLEY
HORACE M. FINLEY
ALBERT MURRAY
S. GURNEY LAPHAM Residing with parents in
CHARLES COY Canandaigua
ELLSWORTH DAGGETT
CHARLIE PADDOCK
MERRITT C. WILLCOX
WILLIAM H. ADAMS Law Students
GEORGE N. WILLIAMS
WILLIS P. FISKE Teachers in Academy
EDMUND C. CLARKE
School Girls
LOUISA FIELD
MARY WHEELER
EMMA WHEELER
LAURA CHAPIN
JULIA PHELPS
MARY PAUL
BESSIE SEYMOUR
LUCILLA FIELD
MARY FIELD
ABBIE CLARK
SUSIE DAGGETT Residing with parents in
FRANKIE RICHARDSON Canandaigua
FANNY GAYLORD
MARY COY
HELEN COY
HATTIE PADDOCK
SARAH ANTES
LOTTIE LAPHAM
CLARA WILSON
FANNIE PALMER
RITIE TYLER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA
1852
Canandaigua, N. Y.
_November_ 21, 1852.--I am ten years old to-day, and I think I will
write a journal and tell who I am and what I am doing. I have lived with
my Grandfather and Grandmother Beals ever since I was seven years old,
and Anna, too, since she was four. Our brothers, James and John, came
too, but they are at East Bloomfield at Mr. Stephen Clark's Academy.
Miss Laura Clark of Naples is their teacher.
Anna and I go to school at District No. 11. Mr. James C. Cross is our
teacher, and some of the scholars say he is cross by name and cross by
nature, but I like him. He gave me a book by the name of "Noble Deeds of
American Women," for reward of merit, in my reading class. To-day, a
nice old gentleman, by the name of Mr. William Wood, visited our school.
He is Mrs. Nat Gorham's uncle, and Wood Street is named for him. He had
a beautiful pear in his hand and said he would give it to the boy or
girl who could spell "virgaloo," for that was the name of the pear. I
spelt it that way, but it was not right. A little boy, named William
Schley, spelt it right and he got the pear. I wish I had, but I can't
even remember now how he spelt it. If the pear was as hard as the name I
don't believe any one would want it, but I don't see how they happened
to give such a hard name to such a nice pear. Grandfather says perhaps
Mr. Wood will bring in a Seckle pear some day, so I had better be ready
for him.
Grandmother told us such a nice story to-day I am going to write it down
in my journal. I think I shall write a book some day. Miss Caroline
Chesebro did, and I don't see why I can't. If I do, I shall put this
story in it. It is a true story and better than any I found in three
story books Grandmother gave us to read this week, "Peep of Day," "Line
Upon Line," and "Precept Upon Precept," but this story was better than
them all. One night Grandfather was locking the front door at nine
o'clock and he heard a queer sound, like a baby crying. So he unlocked
the door and found a bandbox on the stoop, and the cry seemed to come
from inside of it. So he took it up and brought it into the dining-room
and called the two girls, who had just gone upstairs to bed. They came
right down and opened the box, and there was a poor little girl baby,
crying as hard as could be. They took it out and rocked it and sung to
it and got some milk and fed it and then sat up all night with it, by
the fire. There was a paper pinned on the baby's dress with her name on
it, "Lily T. LaMott," and a piece of poetry called "Pity the Poor
Orphan." The next morning, Grandfather went to the overseer of the poor
and he said it should be taken to the county house, so our hired man got
the horse and buggy, and one of the girls carried the baby and they took
it away. There was a piece in the paper about it, and Grandmother pasted
it into her "Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises," and showed it to us.
It said, "A Deposit After Banking Hours." "Two suspicious looking
females were seen about town in the afternoon, one of them carrying an
infant. They took a train early in the morning without the child. They
probably secreted themselves in Mr. Beals' yard and if he had not taken
the box in they would have carried it somewhere else." When Grandfather
told the clerks in the bank about it next morning, Mr. Bunnell, who
lives over by Mr. Daggett's, on the park, said, if it had been left at
some people's houses it would not have been sent away. Grandmother says
they heard that the baby was adopted afterwards by some nice people in
Geneva. People must think this is a nice place for children, for they
had eleven of their own before we came. Mrs. McCoe was here to call this
afternoon and she looked at us and said: "It must be a great
responsibility, Mrs. Beals." Grandmother said she thought "her strength
would be equal to her day." That is one of her favorite verses. She said
Mrs. McCoe never had any children of her own and perhaps that is the
reason she looks so sad at us. Perhaps some one will leave a bandbox and
a baby at her door some dark night.
_Saturday._--Our brother John drove over from East Bloomfield to-day to
see us and brought Julia Smedley with him, who is just my age. John
lives at Mr. Ferdinand Beebe's and goes to school and Julia is Mr.
Beebe's niece. They make quantities of maple sugar out there and they
brought us a dozen little cakes. They were splendid. I offered John one
and he said he would rather throw it over the fence than to eat it. I
can't understand that. Anna had the faceache to-day and I told her that
I would be the doctor and make her a ginger poultice. I thought I did it
exactly right but when I put it on her face she shivered and said:
"Carrie, you make lovely poultices only they are so cold." I suppose I
ought to have warmed it.
_Tuesday._--Grandfather took us to ride this afternoon and let us ask
Bessie Seymour to go with us. We rode on the plank road to Chapinville
and had to pay 2 cents at the toll gate, both ways. We met a good many
people and Grandfather bowed to them and said, "How do you do,
neighbor?"
We asked him what their names were and he said he did not know. We went
to see Mr. Munson, who runs the mill at Chapinville. He took us through
the mill and let us get weighed and took us over to his house and out
into the barn-yard to see the pigs and chickens and we also saw a colt
which was one day old. Anna just wrote in her journal that "it was a
very amusing site."
_Sunday._--Rev. Mr. Kendall, of East Bloomfield, preached to-day. His
text was from Job 26, 14: "Lo these are parts of his ways, but how
little a portion is heard of him." I could not make out what he meant.
He is James' and John's minister.
_Wednesday._--Captain Menteith was at our house to dinner to-day and he
tried to make Anna and me laugh by snapping his snuff-box under the
table. He is a very jolly man, I think.
_Thursday._--Father and Uncle Edward Richards came to see us yesterday
and took us down to Mr. Corson's store and told us we could have
anything we wanted. So we asked for several kinds of candy, stick candy
and lemon drops and bulls' eyes, and then they got us two rubber balls
and two jumping ropes with handles and two hoops and sticks to roll them
with and two red carnelian rings and two bracelets. We enjoyed getting
them very much, and expect to have lots of fun. They went out to East
Bloomfield to see James and John, and father is going to take them to
New Orleans. We hate to have them go.
_Friday._--We asked Grandmother if we could have some hoop skirts like
the seminary girls and she said no, we were not old enough. When we were
downtown Anna bought a reed for 10 cents and ran it into the hem of her
underskirt and says she is going to wear it to school to-morrow. I think
Grandmother will laugh out loud for once, when she sees it, but I don't
think Anna will wear it to school or anywhere else. She wouldn't want to
if she knew how terrible it looked.
I threaded a dozen needles on a spool of thread for Grandmother, before
I went to school, so that she could slip them along and use them as she
needed them. She says it is a great help.
Grandmother says I will have a great deal to answer for, because Anna
looks up to me so and tries to do everything that I do and thinks
whatever I say is "gospel truth." The other day the girls at school were
disputing with her about something and she said, "It is so, if it ain't
so, for Calline said so." I shall have to "toe the mark," as Grandfather
says, if she keeps watch of me all the time and walks in my footsteps.
We asked Grandmother this evening if we could sit out in the kitchen
with Bridget and Hannah and the hired man, Thomas Holleran. She said we
could take turns and each stay ten minutes by the clock. It gave us a
little change. I read once that "variety is the spice of life." They sit
around the table and each one has a candle, and Thomas reads aloud to
the girls while they sew. He and Bridget are Catholics, but Hannah is a
member of our Church. The girls have lived here always, I think, but I
don't know for sure, as I have not lived here always myself, but we have
to get a new hired man sometimes. Grandmother says if you are as good to
your girls as you are to yourself they will stay a long time. I am sure
that is Grandmother's rule. Mrs. McCarty, who lives on Brook Street
(some people call it Cat Alley but Grandmother says that is not proper),
washes for us Mondays, and Grandmother always has a lunch for her at
eleven o'clock and goes out herself to see that she sits down and eats
it. Mrs. McCarty told us Monday that Mrs. Brockle's niece was dead, who
lives next door to her. Grandmother sent us over with some things for
their comfort and told us to say that we were sorry they were in
trouble. We went and when we came back Anna told Grandmother that I
said, "Never mind, Mrs. Brockle, some day we will all be dead." I am
sure that I said something better than that.
_Wednesday_.--Mr. Cross had us speak pieces to-day. He calls our names,
and we walk on to the platform and toe the mark and make a bow and say
what we have got to say. He did not know what our pieces were going to
be and some of them said the same ones. Two boys spoke: "The boy stood
on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled." William Schley was
one, and he spoke his the best. When he said, "The flames that lit the
battle wreck shone round him o'er the dead," we could almost see the
fire, and when he said, "My father, must I stay?" we felt like telling
him, no, he needn't. He is going to make a good speaker. Mr. Cross said
so. Albert Murray spoke "Excelsior," and Horace Finley spoke nice, too.
My piece was, "Why, Phoebe, are you come so soon? Where are your
berries, child?" Emma Van Arsdale spoke the same one. We find them all
in our reader. Sometime I am going to speak, "How does the water come
down at Ladore?" Splashing and flashing and dashing and clashing and all
that--it rhymes, so it is easy to remember.
We played snap the whip at recess to-day and I was on the end and was
snapped off against the fence. It hurt me so, that Anna cried. It is not
a very good game for girls, especially for the one on the end.
[Illustration: Grandfather Beals, Grandmother Beals]
_Tuesday._--I could not keep a journal for two weeks, because
Grandfather and Grandmother have been very sick and we were afraid
something dreadful was going to happen. We are so glad that they are
well again. Grandmother was sick upstairs and Grandfather in the bedroom
downstairs, and we carried messages back and forth for them. Dr. Carr
and Aunt Mary came over twice every day and said they had the influenza
and the inflammation of the lungs. It was lonesome for us to sit down to
the table and just have Hannah wait on us. We did not have any blessing
because there was no one to ask it. Anna said she could, but I was
afraid she would not say it right, so I told her she needn't. We had
such lumps in our throats we could not eat much and we cried ourselves
to sleep two or three nights. Aunt Ann Field took us home with her one
afternoon to stay all night. We liked the idea and Mary and Louisa and
Anna and I planned what we would play in the evening, but just as it was
dark our hired man, Patrick McCarty, drove over after us. He said
Grandfather and Grandmother could not get to sleep till they saw the
children and bid them good-night. So we rode home with him. We never
stayed anywhere away from home all night that we can remember. When
Grandmother came downstairs the first time she was too weak to walk, so
she sat on each step till she got down. When Grandfather saw her, he
smiled and said to us: "When she will, she will, you may depend on't;
and when she won't she won't, and that's the end on't." But we knew all
the time that he was very glad to see her.
1853
_Sunday, March 20._--It snowed so, that we could not go to church to-day
and it was the longest day I ever spent. The only excitement was seeing
the snowplow drawn by two horses, go up on this side of the street and
down on the other. Grandfather put on his long cloak with a cape, which
he wears in real cold weather, and went. We wanted to pull some long
stockings over our shoes and go too but Grandmother did not think it was
best. She gave us the "Dairyman's Daughter" and "Jane the Young
Cottager," by Leigh Richmond, to read. I don't see how they happened to
be so awfully good. Anna says they died of "early piety," but she did
not say it very loud. Grandmother said she would give me 10 cents if I
would learn the verses in the New England Primer that John Rogers left
for his wife and nine small children and one at the breast, when he was
burned at the stake, at Smithfield, England, in 1555. One verse is, "I
leave you here a little book for you to look upon that you may see your
father's face when he is dead and gone." It is a very long piece but I
got it. Grandmother says "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
church." Anna learned
"In Adam's fall we sinned all.
My Book and heart shall never part.
The Cat doth play and after slay.
The Dog doth bite a thief at night."
When she came to the end of it and said,
"Zaccheus he, did climb a tree, his Lord to see."
she said she heard some one say, "The tree broke down and let him fall
and he did not see his Lord at all." Grandmother said it was very wicked
indeed and she hoped Anna would try and forget it.
_April 1._--Grandmother sent me up into the little chamber to-day to
straighten things and get the room ready to be cleaned. I found a little
book called "Child's Pilgrim Progress, Illustrated," that I had never
seen before. I got as far as Giant Despair when Anna came up and said
Grandmother sent her to see what I was doing, and she went back and told
her that I was sitting on the floor in the midst of books and papers and
was so absorbed in "Pilgrim's Progress" that I had made none myself. It
must be a good book for Grandmother did not say a word. Father sent us
"Gulliver's Travels" and there is a gilt picture on the green cover, of
a giant with legs astride and little Lilliputians standing underneath,
who do not come up to his knees. Grandmother did not like the picture,
so she pasted a piece of pink calico over it, so we could only see the
giant from his waist up. I love the story of Cinderella and the poem,
"'Twas the night before Christmas," and I am sorry that there are no
fairies and no Santa Claus.
We go to school to Miss Zilpha Clark in her own house on Gibson Street.
Other girls who go are Laura Chapin, Julia Phelps, Mary Paul, Bessie
Seymour, Lucilla and Mary Field, Louisa Benjamin, Nannie Corson, Kittie
Marshall, Abbie Clark and several other girls. I like Abbie Clark the
best of all the girls in school excepting of course my sister Anna.
Before I go to school every morning I read three chapters in the Bible.
I read three every day and five on Sunday and that takes me through the
Bible in a year. Those I read this morning were the first, second and
third chapters of Job. The first was about Eliphaz reproveth Job;
second, Benefit of God's correction; third, Job justifieth his
complaint. I then learned a text to say at school. I went to school at
quarter to nine and recited my text and we had prayers and then
proceeded with the business of the day. Just before school was out, we
recited in "Science of Things Familiar," and in Dictionary, and then we
had calisthenics.
We go through a great many figures and sing "A Life on the Ocean Wave,"
"What Fairy-like Music Steals Over the Sea," "Lightly Row, Lightly Row,
O'er the Glassy Waves We Go," and "O Come, Come Away," and other songs.
Mrs. Judge Taylor wrote one song on purpose for us.
_May 1._--I arose this morning about the usual time and read my three
chapters in the Bible and had time for a walk in the garden before
breakfast. The polyanthuses are just beginning to blossom and they
border all the walk up and down the garden. I went to school at quarter
of nine, but did not get along very well because we played too much. We
had two new scholars to-day, Miss Archibald and Miss Andrews, the former
about seventeen and the latter about fifteen. In the afternoon old Mrs.
Kinney made us a visit, but she did not stay very long. In dictionary
class I got up sixth, although I had not studied my lesson very much.
_July._--Hiram Goodrich, who lives at Mr. Myron H. Clark's, and George
and Wirt Wheeler ran away on Sunday to seek their fortunes. When they
did not come back every one was frightened and started out to find them.
They set out right after Sunday School, taking their pennies which had
been given them for the contribution, and were gone several days. They
were finally found at Palmyra. When asked why they had run away, one
replied that he thought it was about time they saw something of the
world. We heard that Mr. Clark had a few moments' private conversation
with Hiram in the barn and Mr. Wheeler the same with his boys and we do
not think they will go traveling on their own hook again right off. Miss
Upham lives right across the street from them and she was telling little
Morris Bates that he must fight the good fight of faith and he asked her
if that was the fight that Wirt Wheeler fit. She probably had to make
her instructions plainer after that.
_July._--Every Saturday our cousins, Lucilla and Mary and Louisa Field,
take turns coming to Grandmother's to dinner. It was Mary's turn to-day,
but she was sick and couldn't come, so Grandmother told us that we could
dress up and make some calls for her. We were very glad. She told us to
go to Mrs. Gooding's first, so we did and she was glad to see us and
gave us some cake she had just made. Then we went on to Mr. Greig's. We
walked up the high steps to the front door and rang the bell and Mr.
Alexander came. We asked if Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin were at home and
he said yes, and asked us into the parlor. We looked at the paintings on
the wall and looked at ourselves in the long looking-glass, while we
were waiting. Mrs. Irving came in first. She was very nice and said I
looked like her niece, Julie Jeffrey. I hope I do, for I would like to
look like her. Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin came in and were very glad to
see us, and took us out into the greenhouse and showed us all the
beautiful plants. When we said we would have to go they said goodbye and
sent love to Grandmother and told us to call again. I never knew Anna to
act as polite as she did to-day. Then we went to see Mrs. Judge Phelps
and Miss Eliza Chapin, and they were very nice and gave us some flowers
from their garden. Then we went on to Miss Caroline Jackson's, to see
Mrs. Holmes. Sometimes she is my Sunday School teacher, and she says she
and our mother used to be great friends at the seminary. She said she
was glad we came up and she hoped we would be as good as our mother was.
That is what nearly every one says. On our way back, we called on Mrs.
Dana at the Academy, as she is a friend of Grandmother. She is Mrs. Noah
T. Clarke's mother. After that, we went home and told Grandmother we had
a very pleasant time calling on our friends and they all asked us to
come again.
_Sunday, August 15._--To-day the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was held
in our church, and Mr. Daggett baptized several little babies. They
looked so cunning when he took them in his arms and not one of them
cried. I told Grandmother when we got home that I remembered when
Grandfather Richards baptized me in Auburn, and when he gave me back to
mother he said, "Blessed little lambkin, you'll never know your
grandpa." She said I was mistaken about remembering it, for he died
before I was a year old, but I had heard it told so many times I thought
I remembered it. Probably that is the way it was but I know it happened.
_November 22._--I wrote a composition to-day, and the subject was,
"Which of the Seasons Is the Pleasantest?" Anna asked Grandmother what
she should write about, and Grandmother said she thought "A Contented
Mind" would be a very good subject, but Anna said she never had one and
didn't know what it meant, so she didn't try to write any at all.
A squaw walked right into our kitchen to-day with a blanket over her
head and had beaded purses to sell.
This is my composition which I wrote: "Which of the seasons is the
pleasantest? Grim winter with its cold snows and whistling winds, or
pleasant spring with its green grass and budding trees, or warm summer
with its ripening fruit and beautiful flowers, or delightful autumn with
its golden fruit and splendid sunsets? I think that I like all the
seasons very well. In winter comes the blazing fire and Christmas treat.
Then we can have sleigh-rides and play in the snow and generally get
pretty cold noses and toses. In spring we have a great deal of rain and
very often snow and therefore we do not enjoy that season as much as we
would if it was dry weather, but we should remember that April showers
bring May flowers. In summer we can hear the birds warbling their sweet
notes in the trees and we have a great many strawberries, currants,
gooseberries and cherries, which I like very much, indeed, and I think
summer is a very pleasant season. In autumn we have some of our choicest
fruits, such as peaches, pears, apples, grapes and plums and plenty of
flowers in the former part, but in the latter, about in November, the
wind begins to blow and the leaves to fall and the flowers to wither and
die. Then cold winter with its sleigh-rides comes round again." After I
had written this I went to bed. Anna tied her shoe strings in hard knots
so she could sit up later.
_November 23._--We read our compositions to-day and Miss Clark said mine
was very good. One of the girls had a Prophecy for a composition and
told what we were all going to be when we grew up. She said Anna
Richards was going to be a missionary and Anna cried right out loud. I
tried to comfort her and told her it might never happen, so she stopped
crying.
_November 24._--Three ladies visited our school to-day, Miss Phelps,
Miss Daniels and Mrs. Clark. We had calisthenics and they liked them.
_Sunday._--Mr. Tousley preached to-day. Mr. Lamb is Superintendent of
the Sunday School. Mr. Chipman used to be. Miss Mollie Bull played the
melodeon. Mr. Fairchild is my teacher when he is there. He was not there
to-day and Miss Mary Howell taught our class. I wish I could be as good
and pretty as she is. We go to church morning and afternoon and to
Sunday School, and learn seven verses every week and recite catechism
and hymns to Grandmother in the evening. Grandmother knows all the
questions by heart, so she lets the book lie in her lap and she asks
them with her eyes shut. She likes to hear us sing:
"'Tis religion that can give
Sweetest pleasure while we live,
'Tis religion can supply
Solid comfort when we die."
_December 1._--Grandfather asked me to read President Pierce's message
aloud to him this evening. I thought it was very long and dry, but he
said it was interesting and that I read it very well. I am glad he liked
it. Part of it was about the Missouri Compromise and I didn't even know
what it meant.
_December 8._--We are taking dictation lessons at school now. Miss Clark
reads to us from the "Life of Queen Elizabeth" and we write it down in a
book and keep it. She corrects it for us. I always spell "until" with
two l's and she has to mark it every time. I hope I will learn how to
spell it after a while.
_Saturday, December 9._--We took our music lessons to-day. Miss Hattie
Heard is our teacher and she says we are getting along well. Anna
practiced her lesson over sixty-five times this morning before breakfast
and can play "Mary to the Saviour's Tomb" as fast as a waltz.
We chose sides and spelled down at school to-day. Julia Phelps and I
stood up the last and both went down on the same word--eulogism. I don't
see the use of that "e." Miss Clark gave us twenty words which we had to
bring into some stories which we wrote. It was real fun to hear them.
Every one was different.
This evening as we sat before the fire place with Grandmother, she
taught us how to play "Cat's Cradle," with a string on our fingers.
_December 25._--Uncle Edward Richards sent us a basket of lovely things
from New York for Christmas. Books and dresses for Anna and me, a
kaleidoscope, large cornucopias of candy, and games, one of them being
battledore and shuttlecock. Grandmother says we will have to wait until
spring to play it, as it takes so much room. I wish all the little girls
in the world had an Uncle Edward.
1854
_January 1, 1854._--About fifty little boys and girls at intervals
knocked at the front door to-day, to wish us Happy New Year. We had
pennies and cakes and apples ready for them. The pennies, especially,
seemed to attract them and we noticed the same ones several times. Aunt
Mary Carr made lovely New Year cakes with a pretty flower stamped on
before they were baked.
_February_ 4, 1854.--We heard to-day of the death of our little
half-sister, Julia Dey Richards, in Penn Yan, yesterday, and I felt so
sorry I couldn't sleep last night so I made up some verses about her and
this morning wrote them down and gave them to Grandfather. He liked them
so well he wanted me to show them to Miss Clark and ask her to revise
them. I did and she said she would hand them to her sister Mary to
correct. When she handed them back they were very much nicer than they
were at first and Grandfather had me copy them and he pasted them into
one of his Bibles to keep.
_Saturday._--Anna and I went to call on Miss Upham to-day. She is a real
old lady and lives with her niece, Mrs. John Bates, on Gibson Street.
Our mother used to go to school to her at the Seminary. Miss Upham said
to Anna, "Your mother was a lovely woman. You are not at all like her,
dear." I told Anna she meant in looks I was sure, but Anna was afraid
she didn't.
_Sunday._--Mr. Daggett's text this morning was the 22nd chapter of
Revelation, 16th verse, "I am the root and offspring of David and the
bright and morning star." Mrs. Judge Taylor taught our Sunday School
class to-day and she said we ought not to read our S. S. books on
Sunday. I always do. Mine to-day was entitled, "Cheap Repository Tracts
by Hannah More," and it did not seem unreligious at all.
_Tuesday._--A gentleman visited our school to-day whom we had never
seen. Miss Clark introduced him to us. When he came in, Miss Clark said,
"Young ladies," and we all stood up and bowed and said his name in
concert. Grandfather says he would rather have us go to school to Miss
Clark than any one else because she teaches us manners as well as books.
We girls think that he is a very particular friend of Miss Clark. He is
very nice looking, but we don't know where he lives. Laura Chapin says
he is an architect. I looked it up in the dictionary and it says one who
plans or designs. I hope he does not plan to get married to Miss Clark
and take her away and break up the school, but I presume he does, for
that is usually the way.
_Monday._--There was a minister preached in our church last night and
some people say he is the greatest minister in the world. I think his
name was Mr. Finney. Grandmother said I could go with our girl, Hannah
White. We sat under the gallery, in Miss Antoinette Pierson's pew. There
was a great crowd and he preached good. Grandmother says that our mother
was a Christian when she was ten years old and joined the church and she
showed us some sermons that mother used to write down when she was
seventeen years old, after she came home from church, and she has kept
them all these years. I think children in old times were not as bad as
they are now.
_Tuesday._--Mrs. Judge Taylor sent for me to come over to see her
to-day. I didn't know what she wanted, but when I got there she said she
wanted to talk and pray with me on the subject of religion. She took me
into one of the wings. I never had been in there before and was
frightened at first, but it was nice after I got used to it. After she
prayed, she asked me to, but I couldn't think of anything but "Now I lay
me down to sleep," and I was afraid she would not like that, so I didn't
say anything. When I got home and told Anna, she said, "Caroline, I
presume probably Mrs. Taylor wants you to be a Missionary, but I shan't
let you go." I told her she needn't worry for I would have to stay at
home and look after her. After school to-night I went out into Abbie
Clark's garden with her and she taught me how to play "mumble te peg."
It is fun, but rather dangerous. I am afraid Grandmother won't give me a
knife to play with. Abbie Clark has beautiful pansies in her garden and
gave me some roots.
_April 1._--This is April Fool's Day. It is not a very pleasant day, but
I am not very pleasant either. I spent half an hour this morning very
pleasantly writing a letter to my Father but just as I had finished it,
Grandmother told me something to write which I did not wish to and I
spoke quite disrespectfully, but I am real sorry and I won't do so any
more.
Lucilla and Louisa Field were over to our house to dinner to-day. We had
a very good dinner indeed. In the afternoon, Grandmother told me that I
might go over to Aunt Ann's on condition that I would not stay, but I
stayed too long and got my indian rubbers real muddy and Grandmother did
not like it. I then ate my supper and went to bed at ten minutes to
eight o'clock.
_Monday, April 3._--I got up this morning at quarter before six o'clock.
I then read my three chapters in the Bible, and soon after ate my
breakfast, which consisted of ham and eggs and buckwheat cakes. I then
took a morning walk in the garden and rolled my hoop. I went to school
at quarter before 9 o'clock. Miss Clark has us recite a verse of
scripture in response to roll call and my text for the morning was the
8th verse of the 6th chapter of Matthew, "Be ye not therefore like unto
them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask
him." We then had prayers. I then began to write my composition and we
had recess soon after. In the afternoon I recited grammar, wrote my
dictation lesson and Dictionary lesson. I was up third in my Dictionary
class but missed two words, and instead of being third in the class, I
was fifth. After supper I read my Sunday School book, "A Shepherd's Call
to the Lambs of his Flock." I went to bed as usual at ten minutes to 8
o'clock.
_April_ 4.--We went into our new schoolroom to-day at Miss Clark's
school. It is a very nice room and much larger than the one we occupied
before. Anna and I were sewing on our dolls' clothes this afternoon and
we talked so much that finally Grandmother said, "the one that speaks
first is the worst; and the one that speaks last is the best." We kept
still for quite a while, which gave Grandmother a rest, but was very
hard for us, especially Anna. Pretty soon Grandmother forgot and asked
us a question, so we had the joke on her. Afterwards Anna told me she
would rather "be the worst," than to keep still so long again.
_Wednesday._--Grandmother sent Anna and me up to Butcher Street after
school to-day to invite Chloe to come to dinner. I never saw so many
black people as there are up there. We saw old Lloyd and black Jonathan
and Dick Valentine and Jerusha and Chloe and Nackie. Nackie was pounding
up stones into sand, to sell, to scour with. Grandmother often buys it
of her. I think Chloe was surprised, but she said she would be ready,
to-morrow, at eleven o'clock, when the carriage came for her. I should
hate to be as fat as Chloe. I think she weighs 300. She is going to sit
in Grandfather's big arm chair, Grandmother says.
We told her we should think she would rather invite white ladies, but
she said Chloe was a poor old slave and as Grandfather had gone to
Saratoga she thought it was a good time to have her. She said God made
of one blood all the people on the face of the earth, so we knew she
would do it and we didn't say any more. When we talk too much,
Grandfather always says N. C. (nuff ced). She sent a carriage for Chloe
and she came and had a nice dinner, not in the kitchen either.
Grandmother asked her if there was any one else she would like to see
before she went home and she said, "Yes, Miss Rebekah Gorham," so she
told the coachman to take her down there and wait for her to make a call
and then take her home and he did. Chloe said she had a very nice time,
so probably Grandmother was all right as she generally is, but I could
not be as good as she is, if I should try one hundred years.
_June._--Our cousin, George Bates, of Honolulu, came to see us to-day.
He has one brother, Dudley, but he didn't come. George has just
graduated from college and is going to Japan to be a doctor. He wrote
such a nice piece in my album I must copy it, "If I were a poet I would
celebrate your virtues in rhyme, if I were forty years old, I would
write a homily on good behavior; being neither, I will quote two
familiar lines which if taken as a rule of action will make you a good
and happy woman:
"Honor and shame from no condition rise,
Act well your part, there all the honor lies."
I think he is a very smart young man and will make a good doctor to the
heathen.
_Saturday._--Grandfather took us down street to be measured for some new
patten leather shoes at Mr. Ambler's. They are going to be very nice
ones for best. We got our new summer hats from Mrs. Freshour's millinery
and we wore them over to show to Aunt Ann and she said they were the
very handsomest bonnets she had seen this year.
_Tuesday._--When we were on our way to school this morning we met a lot
of people and girls and boys going to a picnic up the lake. They asked
us to go, too, but we said we were afraid we could not. Mr. Alex. Howell
said, "Tell your Grandfather I will bring you back safe and sound unless
the boat goes to the bottom with all of us." So we went home and told
Grandfather and much to our surprise he said we could go. We had never
been on a boat or on the lake before. We went up to the head on the
steamer "_Joseph Wood_" and got off at Maxwell's Point. They had a
picnic dinner and lots of good things to eat. Then we all went into the
glen and climbed up through it. Mr. Alex. Howell and Mrs. Wheeler got to
the top first and everybody gave three cheers. We had a lovely time
riding back on the boat and told Grandmother we had the very best time
we ever had in our whole lives.
_May 26._--There was an eclipse of the sun to-day and we were very much
excited looking at it. General Granger came over and gave us some pieces
of smoked glass. Miss Clark wanted us to write compositions about it so
Anna wrote, "About eleven o'clock we went out to see if it had come yet,
but it hadn't come yet, so we waited awhile and then looked again and it
had come, and there was a piece of it cut out of it." Miss Clark said it
was a very good description and she knew Anna wrote it all herself.
I handed in a composition, too, about the eclipse, but I don't think
Miss Clark liked it as well as she did Anna's, because it had something
in it about "the beggarly elements of the world." She asked me where I
got it and I told her that it was in a nice story book that Grandmother
gave me to read entitled "Elizabeth Thornton or the Flower and Fruit of
Female Piety, and other sketches," by Samuel Irenaeus Prime. This was
one of the other sketches: It commenced by telling how the moon came
between the sun and the earth, and then went on about the beggarly
elements. Miss Clark asked me if I knew what they meant and I told her
no, but I thought they sounded good. She just smiled and never scolded
me at all. I suppose next time I must make it all up myself.
There is a Mr. Packer in town, who teaches all the children to sing. He
had a concert in Bemis Hall last night and he put Anna on the top row of
the pyramid of beauty and about one hundred children in rows below. She
ought to have worn a white dress as the others did but Grandmother said
her new pink barege would do. I curled her hair all around in about
thirty curls and she looked very nice. She waved the flag in the shape
of the letter S and sang "The Star Spangled Banner," and all the others
joined in the chorus. It was perfectly grand.
_Monday._--When we were on our way to school this morning we saw General
Granger coming, and Anna had on such a homely sunbonnet she took it off
and hid it behind her till he had gone by. When we told Grandmother she
said, "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a
fall." I never heard of any one who knew so many Bible verses as
Grandmother. Anna thought she would be sorry for her and get her a new
sunbonnet, but she didn't.
_Sunday._--We have Sunday School at nine o'clock in the morning now.
Grandfather loves to watch us when we walk off together down the street,
so he walks back and forth on the front walk till we come out, and gives
us our money for the contribution. This morning we had on our new white
dresses that Miss Rosewarne made and new summer hats and new patten
leather shoes and our mitts. When he had looked us all over he said,
with a smile, "The Bible says, let your garments be always white." After
we had gone on a little ways, Anna said: "If Grandmother had thought of
that verse I wouldn't have had to wear my pink barege dress to the
concert." I told her she need not feel bad about that now, for she sang
as well as any of them and looked just as good. She always believes
everything I say, although she does not always do what I tell her to.
Mr. Noah T. Clarke told us in Sunday School last Sunday that if we
wanted to take shares in the missionary ship, _Morning Star,_ we could
buy them at 10 cents apiece, and Grandmother gave us $1 to-day so we
could have ten shares. We got the certificate with a picture of the ship
on it, and we are going to keep it always. Anna says if we pay the
money, we don't have to go.
_Sunday._--I almost forgot that it was Sunday this morning and talked
and laughed just as I do week days. Grandmother told me to write down
this verse before I went to church so I would remember it: "Keep thy
foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to offer the sacrifice of fools." I will remember it now, sure. My feet
are all right any way with my new patten leather shoes on but I shall
have to look out for my head. Mr. Thomas Howell read a sermon to-day as
Mr. Daggett is out of town. Grandmother always comes upstairs to get the
candle and tuck us in before she goes to bed herself, and some nights we
are sound asleep and do not hear her, but last night we only pretended
to be asleep. She kneeled down by the bed and prayed aloud for us, that
we might be good children and that she might have strength given to her
from on high to guide us in the straight and narrow path which leads to
life eternal. Those were her very words. After she had gone downstairs
we sat up in bed and talked about it and promised each other to be good,
and crossed our hearts and "hoped to die" if we broke our promise. Then
Anna was afraid we would die, but I told her I didn't believe we would
be as good as that, so we kissed each other and went to sleep.
[Illustration: Mr. Noah T. Clarke, Miss Upham]
_Monday._--"Old Alice" was at our house to-day and Grandmother gave her
some flowers. She hid them in her apron for she said if she should meet
any little children and they should ask for them she would have to let
them go. Mrs. Gooding was at our house to-day and made a carpet. We went
over to Aunt Mary Carr's this evening to see the gas and the new
chandeliers. They are brontz.
_Tuesday._--My three chapters that I read this morning were about
Josiah's zeal and reformation; 2nd, Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar;
3rd, Jerusalem besieged and taken. The reason that we always read the
Bible the first thing in the morning is because it says in the Bible,
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these
things shall be added unto you." Grandmother says she hopes we will
treasure up all these things in our hearts and practice them in our
lives. I hope so, too. This morning Anna got very mad at one of the
girls and Grandmother told her she ought to return good for evil and
heap coals of fire on her head. Anna said she wished she could and burn
her all up, but I don't think she meant it.
_Wednesday._--I got up this morning at twenty minutes after five. I
always brush my teeth every morning, but I forget to put it down here. I
read my three chapters in Job and played in the garden and had time to
read Grandmother a piece in the paper about some poor children in New
York. Anna and I went over to Aunt Ann's before school and she gave us
each two sticks of candy apiece. Part of it came from New York and part
from Williamstown, Mass., where Henry goes to college. Ann Eliza is
going down street with us this afternoon to buy us some new summer
bonnets. They are to be trimmed with blue and white and are to come to
five dollars. We are going to Mr. Stannard's store also, to buy us some
stockings. I ought to buy me a new thimble and scissors for I carried my
sewing to school to-day and they were inside of it very carelessly and
dropped out and got lost. I ought to buy them with my own money, but I
haven't got any, for I gave all I had (two shillings) to Anna to buy
Louisa Field a cornelian ring. Perhaps Father will send me some money
soon, but I hate to ask him for fear he will rob himself. I don't like
to tell Grandfather how very careless I was, though I know he would say,
"Accidents will happen."
_Thursday._--I was up early this morning because a dressmaker, Miss
Willson, is coming to make me a new calico dress. It is white with pink
spots in it and Grandfather bought it in New York. It is very nice
indeed and I think Grandfather was very kind to get it for me. I had to
stay at home from school to be fitted. I helped sew and run my dress
skirt around the bottom and whipped it on the top. I went to school in
the afternoon, but did not have my lessons very well. Miss Clark excused
me because I was not there in the morning. Some girls got up on our
fence to-day and walked clear across it, the whole length. It is iron
and very high and has a stone foundation. Grandmother asked them to get
down, but I think they thought it was more fun to walk up there than it
was on the ground. The name of the little girl that got up first was
Mary Lapham. She is Lottie Lapham's cousin. I made the pocket for my
dress after I got home from school and then Grandfather said he would
take us out to ride, so he took us way up to Thaddeus Chapin's on the
hill. Julia Phelps was there, playing with Laura Chapin, for she is her
cousin. Henry and Ann Eliza Field came over to call this evening. Henry
has come home from Williams College on his vacation and he is a very
pleasant young man, indeed. I am reading a continued story in _Harper's
Magazine_. It is called Little Dorritt, by Charles Dickens, and is very
interesting.
_Friday, May._--Miss Clark told us we could have a picnic down to Sucker
Brook this afternoon and she told us to bring our rubbers and lunches by
two o'clock; but Grandmother was not willing to let us go; not that she
wished to deprive us of any pleasure for she said instead we could wear
our new black silk basks and go with her to Preparatory lecture, so we
did, but when we got there we found that Mr. Daggett was out of town so
there was no meeting. Then she told us we could keep dressed up and go
over to Aunt Mary Carr's and take her some apples, and afterwards
Grandfather took us to ride to see old Mrs. Sanborn and old Mr. and Mrs.
Atwater. He is ninety years old and blind and deaf, so we had quite a
good time after all.
Rev. Mr. Dickey, of Rochester, agent for the Seaman's Friend Society,
preached this morning about the poor little canal boy. His text was from
the 107th Psalm, 23rd verse, "They that go down into the sea in ships."
He has the queerest voice and stops off between his words. When we got
home Anna said she would show us how he preached and she described what
he said about a sailor in time of war. She said, "A ball came--and
struck him there--another ball came--and struck him there--he raised his
faithful sword--and went on--to victory--or death." I expected
Grandfather would reprove her, but he just smiled a queer sort of smile
and Grandmother put her handkerchief up to her face, as she always does
when she is amused about anything. I never heard her laugh out loud, but
I suppose she likes funny things as well as anybody. She did just the
same, this morning, when Grandfather asked Anna where the sun rose, and
she said "over by Gen. Granger's house and sets behind the Methodist
church." She said she saw it herself and should never forget it when any
one asked her which was east or west. I think she makes up more things
than any one I know of.
_Sunday._--Rev. M. L. R. P. Thompson preached to-day. He used to be the
minister of our church before Mr. Daggett came. Some people call him
Rev. "Alphabet" Thompson, because he has so many letters in his name. He
preached a very good sermon from the text, "Dearly beloved, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." I like to hear him preach,
but not as well as I do Mr. Daggett. I suppose I am more used to him.
_Thursday._--Edward Everett, of Boston, lectured in our church this
evening. They had a platform built even with the tops of the pews, so he
did not have to go up into the pulpit. Crowds and crowds came to hear
him from all over everywhere. Grandmother let me go. They say he is the
most eloquent speaker in the U. S., but I have heard Mr. Daggett when I
thought he was just as good.
_Sunday._--We went to church to-day and heard Rev. Mr. Stowe preach. His
text was, "The poor ye have with you always and whensoever ye will ye
may do them good." I never knew any one who liked to go to church as
much as Grandmother does. She says she "would rather be a doorkeeper in
the house of our God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." They
don't have women doorkeepers, and I know she would not dwell a minute in
a tent. Mr. Coburn is the doorkeeper in our church and he rings the bell
every day at nine in the morning and at twelve and at nine in the
evening, so Grandfather knows when it is time to cover up the fire in
the fireplace and go to bed. I think if the President should come to
call he would have to go home at nine o'clock. Grandfather's motto is:
"Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
_Tuesday._--Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin called to see us to-day.
Grandmother says that we can return the calls as she does not visit any
more. We would like to, for we always enjoy dressing up and making
calls. Anna and I received two black veils in a letter to-day from Aunt
Caroline Dey. Just exactly what we had wanted for a long while. Uncle
Edward sent us five dollars and Grandmother said we could buy just what
we wanted, so we went down street to look at black silk mantillas. We
went to Moore's store and to Richardson's and to Collier's, but they
asked ten, fifteen or twenty dollars for them, so Anna said she resolved
from now, henceforth and forever not to spend her money for black silk
mantillas.
_Sunday._--Rev. Mr. Tousley preached to-day to the children and told us
how many steps it took to be bad. I think he said lying was first, then
disobedience to parents, breaking the Sabbath, swearing, stealing,
drunkenness. I don't remember just the order they came. It was very
interesting, for he told lots of stories and we sang a great many times.
I should think Eddy Tousley would be an awful good boy with his father
in the house with him all the while, but probably he has to be away part
of the time preaching to other children.
_Sunday._--Uncle David Dudley Field and his daughter, Mrs. Brewer, of
Stockbridge, Mass., are visiting us. Mrs. Brewer has a son, David
Josiah, who is in Yale College. After he graduates he is going to be a
lawyer and study in his Uncle David Dudley Field's office in New York.
He was born in Smyrna, Asia Minor, where his father and mother were
missionaries to the Greeks, in 1837. Our Uncle David preached for Mr.
Daggett this afternoon. He is a very old man and left his sermon at home
and I had to go back after it. His brother, Timothy, was the first
minister in our church, about fifty years ago. Grandmother says she
came all the way from Connecticut with him on horseback on a pillion
behind him. Rather a long ride, I should say. I heard her and Uncle
David talking about their childhood and how they lived in Guilford,
Conn., in a house that was built upon a rock. That was some time in the
last century like the house that it tells about in the Bible that was
built on a rock.
_Sunday, August 10, 1854._--Rev. Mr. Daggett's text this morning was,
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Grandmother said she thought
the sermon did not do us much good for she had to tell us several times
this afternoon to stop laughing. Grandmother said we ought to be good
Sundays if we want to go to heaven, for there it is one eternal Sabbath.
Anna said she didn't want to be an angel just yet and I don't think
there is the least danger of it, as far as I can judge. Grandmother said
there was another verse, "If we do not have any pleasure on the Sabbath,
or think any thoughts, we shall ride on the high places of the earth,"
and Anna said she liked that better, for she would rather ride than do
anything else, so we both promised to be good. Grandfather told us they
used to be more strict about Sunday than they are now. Then he told us a
story, how he had to go to Geneva one Saturday morning in the stage and
expected to come back in the evening, but there was an accident, so the
stage did not come till Sunday morning. Church had begun and he told the
stage driver to leave him right there, so he went in late and the stage
drove on. The next day he heard that he was to come before the minister,
Rev. Mr. Johns, and the deacons and explain why he had broken the fourth
commandment. When he got into the meeting Mr. Johns asked him what he
had to say, and he explained about the accident and asked them to read a
verse from the 8th chapter of John, before they made up their minds what
to do to him. The verse was, "Let him that is without sin among you cast
the first stone." Grandfather said they all smiled, and the minister
said the meeting was out. Grandfather says that shows it is better to
know plenty of Bible verses, for some time they may do you a great deal
of good. We then recited the catechism and went to bed.
[Illustration: First Congregational Church]
_August 21._--Anna says that Alice Jewett feels very proud because she
has a little baby brother. They have named him John Harvey Jewett after
his father, and Alice says when he is bigger she will let Anna help her
take him out to ride in his baby-carriage. I suppose they will throw
away their dolls now.
_Tuesday, September_ 1.--I am sewing a sheet over and over for
Grandmother and she puts a pin in to show me my stint, before I can go
out to play. I am always glad when I get to it. I am making a sampler,
too, and have all the capital letters worked and now will make the small
ones. It is done in cross stitch on canvas with different color silks. I
am going to work my name, too. I am also knitting a tippet on some
wooden needles that Henry Carr made for me. Grandmother has raveled it
out several times because I dropped stitches. It is rather tedious, but
she says, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Some military
soldiers went by the house to-day and played some beautiful music.
Grandfather has a teter and swing for us in the back yard and we enjoy
them usually, but to-night Anna slid off the teter board when she was on
the ground and I was in the air and I came down sooner than I expected.
There was a hand organ and monkey going by and she was in a hurry to get
to the street to see it. She got there a good while before I did. The
other day we were swinging and Grandmother called us in to dinner, but
Anna said we could not go until we "let the old cat die." Grandmother
said it was more important that we should come when we are called.
_October._--Grandmother's name is Abigail, but she was always called
"Nabby" at home. Some of the girls call me "Carrie," but Grandmother
prefers "Caroline." She told us to-day, how when she was a little girl,
down in Connecticut in 1794, she was on her way to school one morning
and she saw an Indian coming and was so afraid, but did not dare run for
fear he would chase her. So she thought of the word sago, which means
"good morning," and when she got up close to him she dropped a curtesy
and said "Sago," and he just went right along and never touched her at
all. She says she hopes we will always be polite to every one, even to
strangers.
_November._--Abbie Clark's father has been elected Governor and she is
going to Albany to live, for a while. We all congratulated her when she
came to school this morning, but I am sorry she is going away. We will
write to each other every week. She wrote a prophecy and told the girls
what they were going to be and said I should be mistress of the White
House. I think it will happen, about the same time that Anna goes to be
a missionary.
_December._--There was a moonlight sleigh-ride of boys and girls last
night, but Grandfather did not want us to go, but to-night he said he
was going to take us to one himself. So after supper he told Mr. Piser
to harness the horse to the cutter and bring it around to the front
gate. Mr. Piser takes care of our horse and the Methodist Church. He
lives in the basement. Grandfather sometimes calls him Shakespeare to
us, but I don't know why. He doesn't look as though he wrote poetry.
Grandfather said he was going to take us out to Mr. Waterman Powers' in
Farmington and he did. They were quite surprised to see us, but very
glad and gave us apples and doughnuts and other good things. We saw Anne
and Imogene and Morey and one little girl named Zimmie. They wanted us
to stay all night, but Grandmother was expecting us. We got home safe
about ten o'clock and had a very nice time. We never sat up so late
before.
1855
_Wednesday, January_ 9.--I came downstairs this morning at ten minutes
after seven, almost frozen. I never spent such a cold night before in
all my life. It is almost impossible to get warm even in the
dining-room. The thermometer is 10 deg. below zero. The schoolroom was so
cold that I had to keep my cloak on. I spoke a piece this afternoon. It
was "The Old Arm Chair," by Eliza Cook. It begins, "I love it, I love
it, and who shall dare to chide me for loving that old arm chair?" I
love it because it makes me think of Grandmother. After school to-night
Anna and I went downtown to buy a writing book, but we were so cold we
thought we would never get back. Anna said she knew her toes were
frozen. We got as far as Mr. Taylor's gate and she said she could not
get any farther; but I pulled her along, for I could not bear to have
her perish in sight of home. We went to bed about eight o'clock and
slept very nicely indeed, for Grandmother put a good many blankets on
and we were warm.
_January_ 23.--This evening after reading one of Dickens' stories I
knit awhile on my mittens. I have not had nice ones in a good while.
Grandmother cut out the ones that I am wearing of white flannel, bound
round the wrist with blue merino. They are not beautiful to be sure, but
warm and will answer all purposes until I get some that are better. When
I came home from school to-day Mrs. Taylor was here. She noticed how
tall I was growing and said she hoped that I was as good as I was tall.
A very good wish, I am sure.
_Sunday, January_ 29.--Mr. Daggett preached this morning from the text,
Deut. 8: 2: "And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God
led thee." It is ten years to-day since Mr. Daggett came to our church,
and he told how many deaths there had been, and how many baptisms, and
how many members had been added to the church. It was a very interesting
sermon, and everybody hoped Mr. Daggett would stay here ten years more,
or twenty, or thirty, or always. He is the only minister that I ever
had, and I don't ever want any other. We never could have any one with
such a voice as Mr. Daggett's, or such beautiful eyes. Then he has such
good sermons, and always selects the hymns we like best, and reads them
in such a way. This morning they sang: "Thus far the Lord has led me on,
thus far His power prolongs my days." After he has been away on a
vacation he always has for the first hymn, and we always turn to it
before he gives it out:
"Upward I lift mine eyes,
From God is all my aid;
The God that built the skies,
And earth and nature made.
"God is the tower
To which I fly
His grace is nigh
In every hour."
He always prays for the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness.
_January,_ 1855.--Johnny Lyon is dead. Georgia Wilkinson cried awfully
in school because she said she was engaged to him.
_April._--Grandmother received a letter from Connecticut to-day telling
of the death of her only sister. She was knitting before she got it and
she laid it down a few moments and looked quite sad and said, "So sister
Anna is dead." Then after a little she went on with her work. Anna
watched her and when we were alone she said to me, "Caroline, some day
when you are about ninety you may be eating an apple or reading or doing
something and you will get a letter telling of my decease and after you
have read it you will go on as usual and just say, 'So sister Anna is
dead.'" I told her that I knew if I lived to be a hundred and heard that
she was dead I should cry my eyes out, if I had any.
_May._--Father has sent us a box of fruit from New Orleans. Prunes,
figs, dates and oranges, and one or two pomegranates. We never saw any
of the latter before. They are full of cells with jelly in, very nice.
He also sent some seeds of sensitive plant, which we have sown in our
garden.
This evening I wrote a letter to John and a little "poetry" to Father,
but it did not amount to much. I am going to write some a great deal
better some day. Grandfather had some letters to write this morning, and
got up before three o'clock to write them! He slept about three-quarters
of an hour to-night in his chair.
_Sunday._--There was a stranger preached for Dr. Daggett this morning
and his text was, "Man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord
looketh on the heart." When we got home Anna said the minister looked as
though he had been sick from birth and his forehead stretched from his
nose to the back of his neck, he was so bald. Grandmother told her she
ought to have been more interested in his words than in his looks, and
that she must have very good eyes if she could see all that from our
pew, which is the furthest from the pulpit of any in church, except Mr.
Gibson's, which is just the same. Anna said she couldn't help seeing it
unless she shut her eyes, and then every one would think she had gone to
sleep. We can see the Academy boys from our pew, too.
Mr. Lathrop, of the seminary, is superintendent of the Sunday School now
and he had a present to-day from Miss Betsey Chapin, and several
visitors came in to see it presented: Dr. Daggett, Mr. and Mrs. Alex.
Howell, Mr. Tousley, Mr. Stowe, Mr. and Mrs. Gideon Granger and several
others. The present was a certificate of life membership to something; I
did not hear what. It was just a large piece of parchment, but they said
it cost $25. Miss Lizzie Bull is my Sunday School teacher now. She asked
us last Sunday to look up a place in the Bible where the trees held a
consultation together, to see which one should reign over them. I did
not remember any such thing, but I looked it up in the concordance and
found it in Judges 9: 8. I found the meaning of it in Scott's Commentary
and wrote it down and she was very much pleased, and told us next Sunday
to find out all about Absalom.
_July._--Our sensitive plant is growing nicely and it is quite a
curiosity. It has fern-like leaves and when we touch them, they close,
but soon come out again. Anna and I keep them performing.
_September_ 1.--Anna and I go to the seminary now. Mr. Richards and Mr.
Tyler are the principals. Anna fell down and sprained her ankle to-day
at the seminary, and had to be carried into Mrs. Richards' library. She
was sliding down the bannisters with little Annie Richards. I wonder
what she will do next. She has good luck in the gymnasium and can beat
Emma Wheeler and Jennie Ruckle swinging on the pole and climbing the
rope ladder, although they and Sarah Antes are about as spry as
squirrels and they are all good at ten pins. Susie Daggett and Lucilla
Field have gone to Farmington, Conn., to school.
_Monday._--I received a letter from my brother John in New Orleans, and
his ambrotype. He has grown amazingly. He also sent me a N. O. paper and
it gave an account of the public exercises in the school, and said John
spoke a piece called "The Baron's Last Banquet," and had great applause
and it said he was "a chip off the old block." He is a very nice boy, I
know that. James is sixteen years old now and is in Princeton College.
He is studying German and says he thinks he will go to Germany some day
and finish his education, but I guess in that respect he will be very
much disappointed. Germany is a great ways off and none of our relations
that I ever heard of have ever been there and it is not at all likely
that any of them ever will. Grandfather says, though, it is better to
aim too high than not high enough. James is a great boy to study. They
had their pictures taken together once and John was holding some flowers
and James a book and I guess he has held on to it ever since.
_Sunday._--Polly Peck looked so funny on the front seat of the gallery.
She had on one of Mrs. Greig's bonnets and her lace collar and cape and
mitts. She used to be a milliner so she knows how to get herself up in
style. The ministers have appointed a day of fasting and prayer and Anna
asked Grandmother if it meant to eat as fast as you can. Grandmother was
very much surprised.
_November_ 25.--I helped Grandmother get ready for Thanksgiving Day by
stoning some raisins and pounding some cloves and cinnamon in the mortar
pestle pounder. It is quite a job. I have been writing with a quill pen
but I don't like it because it squeaks so. Grandfather made us some
to-day and also bought us some wafers to seal our letters with, and some
sealing wax and a stamp with "R" on it. He always uses the seal on his
watch fob with "B." He got some sand, too. Our inkstand is double and
has one bottle for ink and the other for sand to dry the writing.
_December_ 20, 1855.--Susan B. Anthony is in town and spoke in Bemis
Hall this afternoon. She made a special request that all the seminary
girls should come to hear her as well as all the women and girls in
town. She had a large audience and she talked very plainly about our
rights and how we ought to stand up for them, and said the world would
never go right until the women had just as much right to vote and rule
as the men. She asked us all to come up and sign our names who would
promise to do all in our power to bring about that glad day when equal
rights should be the law of the land. A whole lot of us went up and
signed the paper. When I told Grandmother about it she said she guessed
Susan B. Anthony had forgotten that St. Paul said the women should keep
silence. I told her, no, she didn't for she spoke particularly about St.
Paul and said if he had lived in these times, instead of 1800 years ago,
he would have been as anxious to have the women at the head of the
government as she was. I could not make Grandmother agree with her at
all and she said we might better all of us stayed at home. We went to
prayer meeting this evening and a woman got up and talked. Her name was
Mrs. Sands. We hurried home and told Grandmother and she said she
probably meant all right and she hoped we did not laugh.
_Monday._--I told Grandfather if he would bring me some sheets of
foolscap paper I would begin to write a book. So he put a pin on his
sleeve to remind him of it and to-night he brought me a whole lot of it.
I shall begin it to-morrow. This evening I helped Anna do her Arithmetic
examples, and read her Sunday School book. The name of it is "Watch and
Pray." My book is the second volume of "Stories on the Shorter
Catechism."
_Tuesday._--I decided to copy a lot of choice stories and have them
printed and say they were "compiled by Caroline Cowles Richards," it is
so much easier than making them up. I spent three hours to-day copying
one and am so tired I think I shall give it up. When I told Grandmother
she looked disappointed and said my ambition was like "the morning cloud
and the early dew," for it soon vanished away. Anna said it might spring
up again and bear fruit a hundredfold. Grandfather wants us to amount to
something and he buys us good books whenever he has a chance. He bought
me Miss Caroline Chesebro's book, "The Children of Light," and Alice and
Phoebe Cary's _Poems_. He is always reading Channing's memoirs and
sermons and Grandmother keeps "Lady Huntington and Her Friends," next to
"Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises" and her Testament. Anna told
Grandmother that she saw Mrs. George Willson looking very steadily at us
in prayer meeting the other night and she thought she might be planning
to "write us up." Grandmother said she did not think Mrs. Willson was so
short of material as that would imply, and she feared she had some other
reason for looking at us. I think dear Grandmother has a little grain of
sarcasm in her nature, but she only uses it on extra occasions. Anna
said, "Oh, no; she wrote the lives of the three Mrs. Judsons and I
thought she might like for a change to write the biographies of the 'two
Miss Richards.'" Anna has what might be called a vivid imagination.
1856
_January_ 23.--This is the third morning that I have come down stairs at
exactly twenty minutes to seven. I went to school all day. Mary Paul and
Fannie Palmer read "_The Snow Bird_" to-day. There were some funny
things in it. One was: "Why is a lady's hair like the latest news?
Because in the morning we always find it in the papers." Another was:
"One rod makes an acher, as the boy said when the schoolmaster flogged
him."
This is Allie Field's birthday. He got a pair of slippers from Mary with
the soles all on; a pair of mittens from Miss Eliza Chapin, and Miss
Rebecca Gorham is going to give him a pair of stockings when she gets
them done.
_January_ 30.--I came home from school at eleven o'clock this morning
and learned a piece to speak this afternoon, but when I got up to school
I forgot it, so I thought of another one. Mr. Richards said that he must
give me the praise of being the best speaker that spoke in the
afternoon. Ahem!
_February_ 6.--We were awakened very early this morning by the cry of
fire and the ringing of bells and could see the sky red with flames and
knew it was the stores and we thought they were all burning up. Pretty
soon we heard our big brass door knocker being pounded fast and
Grandfather said, "Who's there?" "Melville Arnold for the bank keys," we
heard. Grandfather handed them out and dressed as fast as he could and
went down, while Anna and I just lay there and watched the flames and
shook. He was gone two or three hours and when he came back he said that
Mr. Palmer's hat store, Mr. Underhill's book store, Mr. Shafer's tailor
shop, Mrs. Smith's millinery, Pratt & Smith's drug store, Mr.
Mitchell's dry goods store, two printing offices and a saloon were
burned. It was a very handsome block. The bank escaped fire, but the
wall of the next building fell on it and crushed it. After school
to-night Grandmother let us go down to see how the fire looked. It
looked very sad indeed. Judge Taylor offered Grandfather one of the
wings of his house for the bank for the present but he has secured a
place in Mr. Buhre's store in the Franklin Block.
_Thursday, February_ 7.--Dr. and Aunt Mary Carr and Uncle Field and Aunt
Ann were over at our house to dinner to-day and we had a fine fish
dinner, not one of Gabriel's (the man who blows such a blast through the
street, they call him Gabriel), but one that Mr. Francis Granger sent to
us. It was elegant. Such a large one it covered a big platter. This
evening General Granger came in and brought a gentleman with him whose
name was Mr. Skinner. They asked Grandfather, as one of the trustees of
the church, if he had any objection to a deaf and dumb exhibition there
to-morrow night. He had no objection, so they will have it and we will
go.
_Friday_.--We went and liked it very much. The man with them could talk
and he interpreted it. There were two deaf and dumb women and three
children. They performed very prettily, but the smartest boy did the
most. He acted out David killing Goliath and the story of the boy
stealing apples and how the old man tried to get him down by throwing
grass at him, but finding that would not do, he threw stones which
brought the boy down pretty quick. Then he acted a boy going fishing and
a man being shaved in a barber shop and several other things. I laughed
out loud in school to-day and made some pictures on my slate and showed
them to Clara Willson and made her laugh, and then we both had to stay
after school. Anna was at Aunt Ann's to supper to-night to meet a little
girl named Helen Bristol, of Rochester. Ritie Tyler was there, too, and
they had a lovely time.
[Illustration: Judge Henry W. Taylor, Miss Zilpha Clark,
Rev. Oliver E. Daggett, D.D., "Frankie Richardson", Horace Finley]
_February_ 8.--I have not written in my journal for several days,
because I never like to write things down if they don't go right. Anna
and I were invited to go on a sleigh-ride, Tuesday night, and
Grandfather said he did not want us to go. We asked him if we could
spend the evening with Frankie Richardson and he said yes, so we went
down there and when the load stopped for her, we went too, but we did
not enjoy ourselves at all and did not join in the singing. I had no
idea that sleigh-rides could make any one feel so bad. It was not very
cold, but I just shivered all the time. When the nine o'clock bell rang
we were up by the "Northern Retreat," and I was so glad when we got near
home so we could get out. Grandfather and Grandmother asked us if we had
a nice time, but we got to bed as quick as we could. The next day
Grandfather went into Mr. Richardson's store and told him he was glad he
did not let Frankie go on the sleigh-ride, and Mr. Richardson said he
did let her go and we went too. We knew how it was when we got home from
school, because they acted so sober, and, after a while, Grandmother
talked with us about it. We told her we were sorry and we did not have a
bit good time and would never do it again. When she prayed with us the
next morning, as she always does before we go to school, she said,
"Prepare us, Lord, for what thou art preparing for us," and it seemed as
though she was discouraged, but she said she forgave us. I know one
thing, we will never run away to any more sleigh-rides.
_February_ 20.--Mr. Worden, Mrs. Henry Chesebro's father, was buried
to-day, and Aunt Ann let Allie stay with us while she went to the
funeral. I am going to Fannie Gaylord's party to-morrow night.
I went to school this afternoon and kept the rules, so to-night I had
the satisfaction of saying "perfect" when called upon, and if I did not
like to keep the rules, it is some pleasure to say that.
_February_ 21.--We had a very nice time at Fannie Gaylord's party and a
splendid supper. Lucilla Field laughed herself almost to pieces when she
found on going home that she had worn her leggins all the evening. We
had a pleasant walk home but did not stay till it was out. Some one
asked me if I danced every set and I told them no, I set every dance. I
told Grandmother and she was very much pleased. Some one told us that
Grandfather and Grandmother first met at a ball in the early settlement
of Canandaigua. I asked her if it was so and she said she never had
danced since she became a professing Christian and that was more than
fifty years ago.
Grandfather heard to-day of the death of his sister, Lydia, who was Mrs.
Lyman Beecher. She was Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher's third wife. Grandmother
says that they visited her once and she was quite nervous thinking about
having such a great man as Dr. Lyman Beecher for her guest, as he was
considered one of the greatest men of his day, but she said she soon got
over this feeling, for he was so genial and pleasant and she noticed
particularly how he ran up and down stairs like a boy. I think that is
very apt to be the way for "men are only boys grown tall."
There was a Know Nothing convention in town to-day. They don't want any
one but Americans to hold office, but I guess they will find that
foreigners will get in. Our hired man is an Irishman and I think he
would just as soon be "Prisidint" as not.
_February_ 22.--This is such a beautiful day, the girls wanted a
holiday, but Mr. Richards would not grant it. We told him it was
Washington's birthday and we felt very patriotic, but he was inexorable.
We had a musical review and literary exercises instead in the afternoon
and I put on my blue merino dress and my other shoes. Anna dressed up,
too, and I curled her hair. The Primary scholars sit upstairs this term
and do not have to pay any more. Anna and Emma Wheeler like it very
much, but they do not sit together. We are seated alphabetically, and I
sit with Mary Reznor and Anna with Mittie Smith. They thought she would
behave better, I suppose, if they put her with one of the older girls,
but I do not know as it will have the "desired effect," as Grandmother
says. Miss Mary Howell and Miss Carrie Hart and Miss Lizzie and Miss
Mollie Bull were visitors this afternoon. Gertrude Monier played and
sang. Mrs. Anderson is the singing teacher. Marion Maddox and Pussie
Harris and Mary Daniels played on the piano. Mr. Hardick is the teacher,
and he played too. You would think he was trying to pound the piano all
to pieces but he is a good player. We have two papers kept up at school,
_The Snow Bird_ and _The Waif_--one for the younger and the other for
the older girls. Miss Jones, the composition teacher, corrects them
both. Kate Buell and Anna Maria Chapin read _The Waif_ to-day and Gusta
Buell and I read _The Snow Bird_. She has beautiful curls and has two
nice brothers also, Albert and Arthur, and the girls all like them. They
have not lived in town very long.
_February_ 25.--I guess I won't fill up my journal any more by saying I
arose this morning at the usual time, for I don't think it is a matter
of life or death whether I get up at the usual time or a few minutes
later and when I am older and read over the account of the manner in
which I occupied my time in my younger days I don't think it will add
particularly to the interest to know whether I used to get up at 7 or at
a quarter before. I think Miss Sprague, our schoolroom teacher, would
have been glad if none of us had got up at all this morning for we acted
so in school. She does not want any noise during the three minute
recess, but there has been a good deal all day. In singing class they
disturbed Mr. Kimball by blowing through combs. We took off our round
combs and put paper over them and then blew--Mary Wheeler and Lottie
Lapham and Anna sat nearest me and we all tried to do it, but Lottie was
the only one who could make it go. He thought we all did, so he made us
come up and sit by him. I did not want to a bit. He told Miss Sprague of
us and she told the whole school if there was as much noise another day
she would keep every one of us an hour after half-past 4. As soon as she
said this they all began to groan. She said "Silence." I only made the
least speck of a noise that no one heard.
_February_ 26.--To-night, after singing class, Mr. Richards asked all
who blew through combs to rise. I did not, because I could not make it
go, but when he said all who groaned could rise, I did, and some others,
but not half who did it. He kept us very late and we all had to sign an
apology to Miss Sprague.
Grandfather made me a present of a beautiful blue stone to-day called
Malachite. Anna said she always thought Malachite was one of the
prophets.
_March_ 3, 1856.--Elizabeth Spencer sits with me in school now. She is
full of fun but always manages to look very sober when Miss Chesebro
looks up to see who is making the noise over our way. I never seem to
have that knack. Anna had to stay after school last night and she wrote
in her journal that the reason was because "nature will out" and because
"she whispered and didn't have her lessons, etc., etc., etc." Mr.
Richards has allowed us to bring our sewing to school but now he says we
cannot any more. I am sorry for I have some embroidery and I could get
one pantalette done in a week, but now it will take me longer.
Grandmother has offered me one dollar if I will stitch a linen shirt
bosom and wrist bands for Grandfather and make the sleeves. I have
commenced but, Oh my! it is an undertaking. I have to pull the threads
out and then take up two threads and leave three. It is very particular
work and Anna says the stitches must not be visible to the naked eye. I
have to fell the sleeves with the tiniest seams and stroke all the
gathers and put a stitch on each gather. Minnie Bellows is the best one
in school with her needle and is a dabster at patching. She cut a piece
right out of her new calico dress and matched a new piece in and none of
us could tell where it was. I am sure it would not be safe for me to try
that. Grandmother let me ask three of the girls to dinner Saturday,
Abbie Clark, Mary Wheeler and Mary Field. We had a big roast turkey and
everything else to match. Good enough for Queen Victoria. That reminds
me of a conundrum we had in _The Snow Bird:_ What does Queen Victoria
take her pills in? In cider. (Inside her.)
_March_ 7.--The reports were read at school to-day and mine was,
Attendance 10, Deportment 8, Scholarship 7 1/2, and Anna's 10, 10 and 7.
I think they got it turned around, for Anna has not behaved anything
uncommon lately.
_March_ 10.--My teacher Miss Sprague kept me after school to-night for
whispering, and after all the others were gone she came to my seat and
put her arm around me and kissed me and said she loved me very much and
hoped I would not whisper in school any more. This made me feel very
sorry and I told her I would try my best, but it seemed as though it
whispered itself sometimes. I think she is just as nice as she can be
and I shall tell the other girls so. Her home is in Glens Falls.
Anna jumped the rope two hundred times to-day without stopping, and I
told her that I read of a girl who did that and then fell right down
stone dead. I don't believe Anna will do it again. If she does I shall
tell Grandmother.
_April_ 5.--I walked down town with Grandfather this morning and it is
such a beautiful day I felt glad that I was alive. The air was full of
tiny little flies, buzzing around and going in circles and semicircles
as though they were practising calisthenics or dancing a quadrille. I
think they were glad they were alive, too. I stepped on a big bug
crawling on the walk and Grandfather said I ought to have brushed it
aside instead of killing it. I asked him why and he said, "Shakespeare
says, 'The beetle that we tread upon feels a pang as great as when a
giant dies.'"
A man came to our door the other day and asked if "Deacon" Beals was at
home. I asked Grandmother afterwards if Grandfather was a Deacon and she
said no and never had been, that people gave him the name when he was a
young man because he was so staid and sober in his appearance. Some one
told me once that I would not know my Grandfather if I should meet him
outside the Corporation. I asked why and he said because he was so
genial and told such good stories. I told him that was just the way he
always is at home. I do not know any one who appreciates real wit more
than he does. He is quite strong in his likes and dislikes, however. I
have heard him say,
"I do not like you, Dr. Fell,
The reason why, I cannot tell;
But this one thing I know full well,
I do not like you, Dr. Fell."
Bessie Seymour wore a beautiful gold chain to school this morning and I
told Grandmother that I wanted one just like it. She said that outward
adornments were not of as much value as inward graces and the ornament
of a meek and quiet spirit, in the sight of the Lord, was of great
price. I know it is very becoming to Grandmother and she wears it all
the time but I wish I had a gold chain just the same.
Aunt Ann received a letter to-day from Lucilla, who is at Miss Porter's
school at Farmington, Connecticut. She feels as if she were a Christian
and that she has experienced religion.
Grandfather noticed how bright and smart Bentley Murray was, on the
street, and what a business way he had, so he applied for a place for
him as page in the Legislature at Albany and got it. He is always
noticing young people and says, "As the twig is bent, the tree is
inclined." He says we may be teachers yet if we are studious now. Anna
says, "Excuse me, please."
Grandmother knows the Bible from Genesis to Revelation excepting the
"begats" and the hard names, but Anna told her a new verse this morning,
"At Parbar westward, four at the causeway and two at Parbar."
Grandmother put her spectacles up on her forehead and just looked at
Anna as though she had been talking in Chinese. She finally said, "Anna,
I do not think that is in the Bible." She said, "Yes, it is; I found it
in 1 Chron. 26: 18." Grandmother found it and then she said Anna had
better spend her time looking up more helpful texts. Anna then asked her
if she knew who was the shortest man mentioned in the Bible and
Grandmother said "Zaccheus." Anna said that she just read in the
newspaper, that one said "Nehimiah was" and another said "Bildad the
Shuhite" and another said "Tohi." Grandmother said it was very wicked to
pervert the Scripture so, and she did not approve of it at all. I don't
think Anna will give Grandmother any more Bible conundrums.
_April_ 12.--We went down town this morning and bought us some shaker
bonnets to wear to school. They cost $1 apiece and we got some green
silk for capes to put on them. We fixed them ourselves and wore them to
school and some of the girls liked them and some did not, but it makes
no difference to me what they like, for I shall wear mine till it is
worn out. Grandmother says that if we try to please everybody we please
nobody. The girls are all having mystic books at school now and they are
very interesting to have. They are blank books and we ask the girls and
boys to write in them and then they fold the page twice over and seal it
with wafers or wax and then write on it what day it is to be opened.
Some of them say, "Not to be opened for a year," and that is a long time
to wait. If we cannot wait we can open them and seal them up again. I
think Anna did look to see what Eugene Stone wrote in hers, for it does
not look as smooth as it did at first. We have autograph albums too and
Horace Finley gave us lots of small photographs. We paste them in the
books and then ask the people to write their names. We have got Miss
Upham's picture and Dr. and Mrs. Daggett, General Granger's and Hon.
Francis Granger's and Mrs. Adele Granger Thayer and Friend Burling, Dr.
Jewett, Dr. Cheney, Deacon Andrews and Dr. Carr, and Johnnie Thompson's,
Mr. Noah T. Clarke, Mr. E. M. Morse, Mrs. George Willson, Theodore
Barnum, Jim Paton's and Will Schley, Merritt Wilcox, Tom Raines, Ed.
Williams, Gus Coleman's, W. P. Fisk and lots of the girls' pictures
besides. Eugene Stone and Tom Eddy had their ambrotypes taken together,
in a handsome case, and gave it to Anna. We are going to keep them
always.
_April_.--The Siamese twins are in town and a lot of the girls went to
see them in Bemis Hall this afternoon. It costs 10 cents. Grandmother
let us go. Their names are Eng and Chang and they are not very handsome.
They are two men joined together. I hope they like each other but I
don't envy them any way. If one wanted to go somewhere and the other one
didn't I don't see how they would manage it. One would have to give up,
that's certain. Perhaps they are both Christians.
_April_ 30.--Rev. Henry M. Field, editor of the _New York Evangelist,_
and his little French wife are here visiting. She is a wonderful woman.
She has written a book and paints beautiful pictures and was teacher of
art in Cooper Institute, New York. He is Grandmother's nephew and he
brought her a picture of himself and his five brothers, taken for
Grandmother, because she is the only aunt they have in the world. The
rest are all dead. The men in the picture are Jonathan and Matthew and
David Dudley and Stephen J. and Cyrus W. and Henry M. They are all very
nice looking and Grandmother thinks a great deal of the picture.
_May_ 15.--Miss Anna Gaylord is one of my teachers at the seminary and
when I told her that I wrote a journal every day she wanted me to bring
her my last book and let her read it. I did so and she said she enjoyed
it very much and she hoped I would keep them for they would be
interesting for me to read when I am old. I think I shall do so. She has
a very particular friend, Rev. Mr. Beaumont, who is one of the teachers
at the Academy. I think they are going to be married some day. I guess I
will show her this page of my journal, too. Grandmother let me make a
pie in a saucer to-day and it was very good.
_May_.--We were invited to Bessie Seymour's party last night and
Grandmother said we could go. The girls all told us at school that they
were going to wear low neck and short sleeves. We have caps on the
sleeves of our best dresses and we tried to get the sleeves out, so we
could go bare arms, but we couldn't get them out. We had a very nice
time, though, at the party. Some of the Academy boys were there and they
asked us to dance but of course we couldn't do that. We promenaded
around the rooms and went out to supper with them. Eugene Stone and Tom
Eddy asked to go home with us but Grandmother sent our two girls for us,
Bridget Flynn and Hannah White, so they couldn't. We were quite
disappointed, but perhaps she won't send for us next time.
[Illustration: Tom Eddy and Eugene Stone, "Uncle David Dudley Field"]
_May._--Grandmother is teaching me how to knit some mittens now, but if
I ever finish them it will be through much tribulation, the way they
have to be raveled out and commenced over again. I think I shall know
how to knit when I get through, if I never know how to do anything else.
Perhaps I shall know how to write, too, for I write all of Grandmother's
letters for her, because it tires her to write too much. I have sorted
my letters to-day and tied them in packages and found I had between 500
and 600. I have had about two letters a week for the past five years and
have kept them all. Father almost always tells me in his letters to read
my Bible and say my prayers and obey Grandmother and stand up straight
and turn out my toes and brush my teeth and be good to my little sister.
I have been practising all these so long I can say, as the young man did
in the Bible when Jesus told him what to do to be saved, "all these have
I kept from my youth up." But then, I lack quite a number of things
after all. I am not always strictly obedient. For instance, I know
Grandmother never likes to have us read the secular part of the _New
York Observer_ on Sunday, so she puts it in the top drawer of the
sideboard until Monday, but I couldn't find anything interesting to read
the other Sunday so I took it out and read it and put it back. The jokes
and stories in it did not seem as amusing as usual so I think I will not
do it again.
Grandfather's favorite paper is the _Boston Christian Register._ He
could not have one of them torn up any more than a leaf of the Bible. He
has barrels of them stored away in the garret.
I asked Grandmother to-day to write a verse for me to keep always and
she wrote a good one: "To be happy and live long the three grand
essentials are: Be busy, love somebody and have high aims." I think,
from all I have noticed about her, that she has had this for her motto
all her life and I don't think Anna and I can do very much better than
to try and follow it too. Grandfather tells us sometimes, when she is
not in the room, that the best thing we can do is to be just as near
like Grandmother as we can possibly be.
_Saturday, May_ 30.--Louisa Field came over to dinner to-day and brought
Allie with her. We had roast chickens for dinner and lots of other nice
things. Grandmother taught us how to string lilac blossoms for necklaces
and also how to make curls of dandelion stems. She always has some
things in the parlor cupboard which she brings out on extra occasions,
so she got them out to-day. They are some Chinamen which Uncle Thomas
brought home when he sailed around the world. They are wooden images
standing in boxes, packing tea with their feet.
Last week Jennie Howell invited us to go up to Black Point Cabin with
her and to-day with a lot of grown-up people we went and enjoyed it.
There was a little colored girl there who waits on the table and can row
the boats too. She is Polly Carroll's granddaughter, Mary Jane. She sang
for us,
"Nellie Ely shuts her eye when she goes to sleep,
When she opens them again her eyes begin to peep;
Hi Nellie, Ho Nellie, listen love to me,
I'll sing for you, I'll play for you,
A dulcet melody."
She is just as cute as she can be. She said Mrs. Henry Chesebro taught
her to read.
_Sunday, June_ 1.--Rev. Dr. Shaw, of Rochester, preached for Dr. Daggett
to-day and his text was: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst." He said by this water he meant the pleasures of this
life, wealth and fame and honor, of which the more we have the more we
want and are never satisfied, but if we drink of the water that Christ
can give us we will have happiness here and forever. It was a very good
sermon and I love to hear him preach. Grandmother never likes to start
for church until after all the Seminary girls and Academy boys have gone
by, but this morning we got to the gate just as the boys came along.
When Grandmother saw five or six hats come off and knew they were bowing
to us, she asked us how we got acquainted with them. We told her that
almost all the girls knew the Academy boys and I am sure that is true.
_Tuesday, June_ 8.--We are cleaning house now and Grandmother asked Anna
and me to take out a few tacks in the dining-room carpet. We did not
like it so very well but we liked eating dinner in the parlor, as the
table had to be set in there. Anna told us that when she got married we
could come to visit her any time in the year as she was never going to
clean house. We went down street on an errand to-night and hurried right
back, as Grandmother said she should look at the clock and see how long
we were gone. Emma Wheeler went with us. Anna says she and Emma are as
"thick as hasty pudding."
_June._--Rev. Frederick Starr, of Penn Yan, had an exhibition in Bemis
Hall to-day of a tabernacle just like the children of Israel carried
with them to the Promised Land. We went to see it. He made it himself
and said he took all the directions from the Bible and knew where to put
the curtains and the poles and everything. It was interesting but we
thought it would be queer not to have any church to go to but one like
that, that you could take down and put up and carry around with you
wherever you went.
_June._--Rev. Mr. Kendall is not going to preach in East Bloomfield any
more. The paper says he is going to New York to live and be Secretary of
the A.B.C.F.M. I asked Grandmother what that meant, and she said he
would have to write down what the missionaries do. I guess that will
keep him busy. Grandfather's nephew, a Mr. Adams of Boston and his wife,
visited us about two weeks ago. He is the head of the firm Adams'
Express Co. Anna asked them if they ever heard the conundrum "What was
Eve made for?" and they said no, so she told them the answer, "for
Adam's express company." They thought it was quite good. When they
reached home, they sent us each a reticule, with scissors, thimble,
stiletto, needle-case and tiny penknife and some stamped embroidery.
They must be very rich.
_Saturday Night, July._--Grandfather was asking us to-night how many
things we could remember, and I told him I could remember when Zachary
Taylor died, and our church was draped in black, and Mr. Daggett
preached a funeral sermon about him, and I could remember when Daniel
Webster died, and there was service held in the church and his last
words, "I still live," were put up over the pulpit. He said he could
remember when George Washington died and when Benjamin Franklin died. He
was seven years old then and he was seventeen when Washington died. Of
course his memory goes farther back than mine, but he said I did very
well, considering.
_July._--I have not written in my journal for several days because we
have been out of town. Grandfather had to go to Victor on business and
took Anna and me with him. Anna says she loves to ride on the cars as it
is fun to watch the trees and fences run so. We took dinner at Dr.
Ball's and came home on the evening train. Then Judge Ellsworth came
over from Penn Yan to see Grandfather on business and asked if he could
take us home with him and he said yes, so we went and had a splendid
time and stayed two days. Stewart was at home and took us all around
driving and took us to the graveyard to see our mother's grave. I copied
this verse from the gravestone:
"Of gentle seeming was her form
And the soft beaming of her radiant eye
Was sunlight to the beauty of her face.
Peace, sacred peace, was written on her brow
And flowed in the low music of her voice
Which came unto the list'ner like the tones of soothing Autumn winds.
Her hands were full of consolations which she scattered free to
all--the poor, the sick, the sorrowful."
I think she must have been exactly like Grandmother only she was 32 and
Grandmother is 72.
Stewart went to prayer meeting because it was Wednesday night, and when
he came home his mother asked him if he took part in the meeting. He
said he did and she asked him what he said. He said he told the story of
Ethan Allen, the infidel, who was dying, and his daughter asked him
whose religion she should live by, his or her mother's, and he said,
"Your mother's, my daughter, your mother's." This pleased Mrs. Ellsworth
very much. Stewart is a great boy and you never can tell whether he is
in earnest or not. It was very warm while we were gone and when we got
home Anna told Grandmother she was going to put on her barege dress and
take a rocking-chair and a glass of ice water and a palm leaf fan and go
down cellar and sit, but Grandmother told her if she would just sit
still and take a book and get her mind on something else besides the
weather, she would be cool enough. Grandmother always looks as cool as a
cucumber even when the thermometer is 90 in the shade.
_Sunday, August._--Rev. Anson D. Eddy preached this morning. His text
was from the sixth chapter of John, 44th verse. "No man can come to me,
except the Father which hath sent me, draw him." He is Tom Eddy's
father, and very good-looking and smart too. He used to be one of the
ministers of our church before Mr. Daggett came. He wrote a book in our
Sunday School library, about Old Black Jacob, and Grandmother loves to
read it. We had a nice dinner to-day, green peas, lemonade and
gooseberry pie. We had cold roast lamb too, because Grandmother never
has any meat cooked on Sunday.
_Sunday._--Mr. Noah T. Clarke is superintendent of our Sunday School
now, and this morning he asked, "What is prayer?" No one answered, so I
stood up and gave the definition from the catechism. He seemed pleased
and so was Grandmother when I told her. Anna said she supposes she was
glad that "her labor was not in vain in the Lord." I think she is trying
to see if she can say Bible verses, like grown-up people do.
Grandfather said that I did better than the little boy he read about
who, when a visitor asked the Sunday School children what was the
ostensible object of Sabbath School instruction, waited till the
question was repeated three times and then stood up and said, "Yes,
sir."
_Wednesday._--We could not go to prayer meeting to-night because it
rained, so Grandmother said we could go into the kitchen and stand by
the window and hear the Methodists. We could hear every word that old
Father Thompson said, and every hymn they sung, but Mr. Jervis used such
big words we could not understand him at all.
_Sunday._--Grandmother says she loves to look at the beautiful white
heads of Mr. Francis Granger and General Granger as they sit in their
pews in church. She says that is what it means in the twelfth chapter of
Ecclesiastes where it says, "And the almond tree shall flourish." I
don't know exactly why it means them, but I suppose she does. We have
got a beautiful almond tree in our front yard covered with flowers, but
the blossoms are pink. Probably they had white ones in Jerusalem, where
Solomon lived.
_Monday._--Mr. Alex. Jeffrey has come from Lexington, Ky., and brought
Mrs. Ross and his three daughters, Julia, Shaddie and Bessie Jeffrey.
Mrs. Ross knows Grandmother and came to call and brought the girls. They
are very pretty and General Granger's granddaughters. I think they are
going to stay all summer.
_Thanksgiving Day._--We all went to church and Dr. Daggett's text was:
"He hath not dealt so with any nation." Aunt Glorianna and her children
were here and Uncle Field and all their family and Dr. Carr and all his
family. There were about sixteen of us in all and we children had a
table in the corner all by ourselves. We had roast turkey and everything
else we could think of. After dinner we went into the parlor and Aunt
Glorianna played on the piano and sang, "Flow gently, sweet Afton, among
thy green braes," and "Poor Bessie was a sailor's wife." These are
Grandfather's favorites. Dr. Carr sang "I'm sitting on the stile, Mary,
where we sat side by side." He is a beautiful singer. It seemed just
like Sunday, for Grandmother never likes to have us work or play on
Thanksgiving Day, but we had a very good time, indeed, and were sorry
when they all went home.
_Saturday, December_ 20.--Lillie Reeve and her brother, Charlie, have
come from Texas to live. He goes to the Academy and she boards with Miss
Antoinette Pierson. Miss Pierson invited me up to spend the afternoon
and take tea with her and I went and had a very nice time. She told me
about their camp life in Texas and how her mother died, and her little
baby sister, Minnie, lives with her Grandmother Sheppard in Dansville.
She is a very nice girl and I like her very much, indeed.
1857
_January_ 8.--Anna and Alice Jewett caught a ride down to the lake this
afternoon on a bob-sleigh, and then caught a ride back on a load of
frozen pigs. In jumping off, Anna tore her flannel petticoat from the
band down. I did not enjoy the situation as much as Anna, because I had
to sit up after she had gone to bed, and darn it by candle light,
because she was afraid Grandmother might see the rent and inquire into
it, and that would put an end to bobsled exploits.
_March_ 6.--Anna and her set will have to square accounts with Mr.
Richards to-morrow, for nine of them ran away from school this
afternoon, Alice Jewett, Louisa Field, Sarah Antes, Hattie Paddock,
Helen Coy, Jennie Ruckel, Frankie Younglove, Emma Wheeler and Anna. They
went out to Mr. Sackett's, where they are making maple sugar. Mr. and
Mrs. Sackett were at home and two Miss Sacketts and Darius, and they
asked them in and gave them all the sugar they wanted, and Anna said
pickles, too, and bread and butter, and the more pickles they ate the
more sugar they could eat. I guess they will think of pickles when Mr.
Richards asks them where they were. I think Ellie Daggett and Charlie
Paddock went, too, and some of the Academy boys.
_March 7._--They all had to stay after school to-night for an hour and
copy Dictionary. Anna seems reconciled, for she just wrote in her
journal: "It was a very good plan to keep us because no one ever ought
to stay out of school except on account of sickness, and if they once
get a thing fixed in their minds it will stay there, and when they grow
up it will do them a great deal of good."
_April._--Grandfather gave us 10 cents each this morning for learning
the 46th Psalm and has promised us $1 each for reading the Bible through
in a year. We were going to any way. Some of the girls say they should
think we would be afraid of Grandfather, he is so sober, but we are not
the least bit. He let us count $1,000 to-night which a Mr. Taylor, a
cattle buyer, brought to him in the evening after banking hours. Anybody
must be very rich who has all that money of their own.
_Friday._--Our old horse is dead and we will have to buy another. He was
very steady and faithful. One day Grandfather left him at the front gate
and he started along and turned the corner all right, down the Methodist
lane and went way down to our barn doors and stood there until Mr. Piser
came and took him into the barn. People said they set their clocks by
him because it was always quarter past 12 when he was driven down to the
bank after Grandfather and quarter of 1 when he came back. I don't think
the clocks would ever be too fast if they were set by him. We asked
Grandfather what he died of and he said he had run his race but I think
he meant he had walked it, for I never saw him go off a jog in my life.
Anna used to say he was taking a nap when we were out driving with
Grandfather. I have written some lines in his memory and if I knew where
he was buried, I would print it on his head board.
Old Dobbin's dead, that good old horse,
We ne'er shall see him more,
He always used to lag behind
But now he's gone before.
It is a parody on old Grimes is dead, which is in our reader, only that
is a very long poem. I am not going to show mine to Grandfather till he
gets over feeling bad about the horse.
_Sunday._--Grandmother gave Anna, Doddridge's "Rise and Progress of
Religion in the Soul" to read to-day. Anna says she thinks she will have
to rise and progress a good deal before she will be able to appreciate
it. Baxter's "Saints Rest" would probably suit her better.
_Sunday, April_ 5.--An agent for the American Board of Foreign Missions
preached this morning in our church from Romans 10: 15: "How shall they
hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent."
An agent from every society presents the cause, whatever it is, once a
year and some people think the anniversary comes around very often. I
always think of Mrs. George Wilson's poem on "A apele for air, pewer
air, certin proper for the pews, which, she sez, is scarce as piety, or
bank bills when ajents beg for mischuns, wich sum say is purty often,
(taint nothin' to me, wat I give aint nothin' to nobody)." I think that
is about the best poem of its kind I ever read.
Miss Lizzie Bull told us in Sunday School to-day that she cannot be our
Sunday School teacher any more, as she and her sister Mary are going to
join the Episcopal Church. We hate to have her go, but what can't be
cured must be endured. Part of our class are going into Miss Mary
Howell's class and part into Miss Annie Pierce's. They are both splendid
teachers and Miss Lizzie Bull is another. We had preaching in our church
this afternoon, too. Rev. Samuel Hanson Cox, of Le Roy Female Seminary,
preached. He is a great man, very large, long white hair combed back. I
think if a person once saw him they would never forget him. He preached
about Melchisidek, who had neither "beginning of days or end of life."
Some people thought that was like his sermon, for it was more than one
hour long. Dr. Cox and Mrs. Taylor came to call and asked Grandfather to
let me go to Le Roy Female Seminary, but Grandfather likes Ontario
Female Seminary better than any other in the world. We wanted
Grandmother to have her picture taken, but she did not feel able to go
to Mr. Finley's, so he came up Tuesday and took it in our dining-room.
She had her best cap on and her black silk dress and sat in her high
back rocking chair in her usual corner near the window. He brought one
up to show us and we like it so much. Anna looked at it and kissed it
and said, "Grandmother, I think you are perfectly beautiful." She smiled
and very modestly put her handkerchief up to her face and said, "You
foolish child," but I am sure she was pleased, for how could she help
it? A man came up to the open window one day where she was sitting, with
something to sell, and while she was talking to him he said, "You must
have been handsome, lady, when you were young." Grandmother said it was
because he wanted to sell his wares, but we thought he knew it was so.
We told her she couldn't get around it that way and we asked Grandfather
and he said it was true. Our Sunday School class went to Mr. Finley's
to-day and had a group ambrotype taken for our teacher, Miss Annie
Pierce; Susie Daggett, Clara Willson, Sarah Whitney, Mary Field and
myself. Mary Wheeler ought to have been in it, too, but we couldn't get
her to come. We had very good success.
_Thursday_.--We gave the ambrotype to Miss Pierce and she liked it very
much and so does her mother and Fannie. Her mother is lame and cannot go
anywhere so we often go to see her and she is always glad to see us and
so pleasant.
_May_ 9.--Miss Lizzie Bull came for me to go botanising with her this
morning and we were gone from 9 till 12, and went clear up to the orphan
asylum. I am afraid I am not a born botanist, for all the time she was
analysing the flowers and telling me about the corona and the corolla
and the calyx and the stamens and petals and pistils, I was thinking
what beautiful hands she had and how dainty they looked, pulling the
blossoms all to pieces. I am afraid I am commonplace, like the man we
read of in English literature, who said "a primrose by the river brim, a
yellow primrose, was to him, and it was nothing more."
Mr. William Wood came to call this afternoon and gave us some
morning-glory seeds to sow and told us to write down in our journals
that he did so. So here it is. What a funny old man he is. Anna and Emma
Wheeler went to Hiram Tousley's funeral to-day. She has just written in
her journal that Hiram's corpse was very perfect of him and that Fannie
looked very pretty in black. She also added that after the funeral
Grandfather took Aunt Ann and Lucilla out to ride to Mr. Howe's and just
as they got there it sprinkled. She says she don't know "weather" they
got wet or not. She went to a picnic at Sucker Brook yesterday
afternoon, and this is the way she described it in her journal. "Miss
Hurlburt told us all to wear rubbers and shawls and bring some cake and
we would have a picnic. We had a very warm time. It was very warm indeed
and I was most roasted and we were all very thirsty indeed. We had in
all the party about 40 of us. It was very pleasant and I enjoyed myself
exceedingly. We had boiled eggs, pickles, Dutch cheese and sage cheese
and loaf cake and raisin cake, pound cake, dried beef and capers, jam
and tea cakes and gingerbread, and we tried to catch some fish but we
couldn't, and in all we had a very nice time. I forgot to say that I
picked some flowers for my teacher. I went to bed tired out and worn
out."
Her next entry was the following day when she and the other scholars
dressed up to "speak pieces." She says, "After dinner I went and put on
my rope petticoat and lace one over it and my barege de laine dress and
all my rings and white bask and breastpin and worked handkerchief and
spoke my piece. It was, 'When I look up to yonder sky.' It is very
pretty indeed and most all the girls said I looked nice and said it
nice. They were all dressed up, too."
_Thursday_.--I asked Grandfather why we do not have gas in the house
like almost every one else and he said because it was bad for the eyes
and he liked candles and sperm oil better. We have the funniest little
sperm oil lamp with a shade on to read by evenings and the fire on the
hearth gives Grandfather and Grandmother all the light they want, for
she knits in her corner and we read aloud to them if they want us to. I
think if Grandfather is proud of anything besides being a Bostonian, it
is that everything in the house is forty years old. The shovel and tongs
and andirons and fender and the haircloth sofa and the haircloth rocking
chair and the flag bottomed chairs painted dark green and the two old
arm-chairs which belong to them and no one else ever thinks of touching.
There is a wooden partition between the dining-room and parlor and they
say it can slide right up out of sight on pulleys, so that it would be
all one room. We have often said that we wished we could see it go up
but they say it has never been up since the day our mother was married
and as she is dead I suppose it would make them feel bad, so we probably
will always have it down. There are no curtains or even shades at the
windows, because Grandfather says, "light is sweet and a pleasant thing
it is to behold the sun." The piano is in the parlor and it is the same
one that our mother had when she was a little girl but we like it all
the better for that. There are four large oil paintings on the parlor
wall, De Witt Clinton, Rev. Mr. Dwight, Uncle Henry Channing Beals and
Aunt Lucilla Bates, and no matter where we sit in the room they are
watching and their eyes seem to move whenever we do. There is quite a
handsome lamp on a mahogany center table, but I never saw it lighted. We
have four sperm candles in four silver candlesticks and when we have
company we light them. Johnnie Thompson, son of the minister, Rev. M. L.
R. P., has come to the academy to school and he is very full of fun and
got acquainted with all the girls very quick. He told us this afternoon
to have "the other candle lit" for he was coming down to see us this
evening. Will Schley heard him say it and he said he was coming too. His
mother says she always knows when he has been at our house, because she
finds sperm on his clothes and has to take brown paper and a hot
flatiron to get it out, but still I do not think that Mrs. Schley cares,
for she is a very nice lady and she and I are great friends. I presume
she would just as soon he would spend part of his time with us as to be
with Horace Finley all the time. Those boys are just like twins. We
never see one without being sure that the other is not far away.
_Later_.--The boys came and we had a very pleasant evening but when the
9 o'clock bell rang we heard Grandfather winding up the clock and
scraping up the ashes on the hearth to cover the fire so it would last
till morning and we all understood the signal and they bade us
good-night. "We won't go home till morning" is a song that will never be
sung in this house.
_June_ 2.--Abbie Clark wrote such a nice piece in my album to-day I am
going to write it in my journal. Grandfather says he likes the sentiment
as well as any in my book. This is it: "It has been said that the
friendship of some people is like our shadow, keeping close by us while
the sun shines, deserting us the moment we enter the shade, but think
not such is the friendship of Abbie S. Clark." Abbie and I took supper
at Miss Mary Howell's to-night to see Adele Ives. We had a lovely time.
_Tuesday_.--General Tom Thumb was in town to-day and everybody who
wanted to see him could go to Bemis Hall. Twenty-five cents for old
people, and 10 cents for children, but we could see him for nothing when
he drove around town. He had a little carriage and two little bits of
ponies and a little boy with a high silk hat on, for the driver. He sat
inside the coach but we could see him looking out. We went to the hall
in the afternoon and the man who brought him stood by him and looked
like a giant and told us all about him. Then he asked Tom Thumb to make
a speech and stood him upon the table. He told all the ladies he would
give them a kiss if they would come up and buy his picture. Some of them
did.
_Friday, July._--I have not kept a journal for two weeks because we have
been away visiting. Anna and I had an invitation to go to Utica to visit
Rev. and Mrs. Brandigee. He is rector of Grace Episcopal church there
and his wife used to belong to Father's church in Morristown, N. J. Her
name was Miss Condict. Rev. Mr. Stowe was going to Hamilton College at
Clinton, so he said he would take us to Utica. We had a lovely time. The
corner stone of the church was laid while we were there and Bishop De
Lancey came and stayed with us at Mr. Brandigee's. He is a very nice man
and likes children. One morning they had muffins for breakfast and Anna
asked if they were ragamuffins. Mr. Brandigee said, "Yes, they are made
of rags and brown paper," but we knew he was just joking. When we came
away Mrs. Brandigee gave me a prayer book and Anna a vase, but she
didn't like it and said she should tell Mrs. Brandigee she wanted a
prayer book too, so I had to change with her. When we came home Mr.
Brandigee put us in care of the conductor. There was a fine soldier
looking man in the car with us and we thought it was his wife with him.
He wore a blue coat and brass buttons, and some one said his name was
Custer and that he was a West Point cadet and belonged to the regular
army. I told Anna she had better behave or he would see her, but she
would go out and stand on the platform until the conductor told her not
to. I pulled her dress and looked very stern at her and motioned toward
Mr. Custer, but it did not seem to have any impression on her. I saw Mr.
Custer smile once because my words had no effect. I was glad when we got
to Canandaigua. I heard some one say that Dr. Jewett was at the depot to
take Mr. Custer and his wife to his house, but I only saw Grandfather
coming after us. He said, "Well, girls, you have been and you have got
back," but I could see that he was glad to have us at home again, even
if we are "troublesome comforts," as he sometimes says.
_July_ 4.--Barnum's circus was in town to-day and if Grandmother had not
seen the pictures on the hand bills I think she would have let us go.
She said it was all right to look at the creatures God had made but she
did not think He ever intended that women should go only half dressed
and stand up and ride on horses bare back, or jump through hoops in the
air. So we could not go. We saw the street parade though and heard the
band play and saw the men and women in a chariot, all dressed so fine,
and we saw a big elephant and a little one and a camel with an awful
hump on his back, and we could hear the lion roar in the cage, as they
went by. It must have been nice to see them close to and probably we
will some day.
[Illustration: Grandmother's Rocking Chair, "The Grandfather Clock"]
_August_ 8.--Grandfather has given me his whole set of Waverley novels
and his whole set of Shakespeare's plays, and has ordered Mr. Jahn, the
cabinetmaker, to make me a black walnut bookcase, with glass doors and
three deep drawers underneath, with brass handles. He is so good. Anna
says perhaps he thinks I am going to be married and go to housekeeping
some day. Well, perhaps he does. Stranger things have happened. "Barkis
is willin'," and I always like to please Grandfather. I have just read
David Copperfield and was so interested I could not leave it alone till
I finished it.
_September_ 1.--Anna and I have been in Litchfield, Conn., at Father's
school for boys. It is kept in the old Beecher house, where Dr. Lyman
Beecher lived. We went up into the attic, which is light and airy, where
they say he used to write his famous sermons. James is one of the
teachers and he came for us. We went to Farmington and saw all the
Cowles families, as they are our cousins. Then we drove by the Charter
Oak and saw all there is left of it. It was blown down last year but the
stump is fenced around. In Hartford we visited Gallaudet's Institution
for the deaf and dumb and went to the historical rooms, where we saw
some of George Washington's clothes and his watch and his penknife, but
we did not see his little hatchet. We stayed two weeks in New York and
vicinity before we came home. Uncle Edward took us to Christie's
Minstrels and the Hippodrome, so we saw all the things we missed seeing
when the circus was here in town. Grandmother seemed surprised when we
told her, but she didn't say much because she was so glad to have us at
home again. Anna said we ought to bring a present to Grandfather and
Grandmother, for she read one time about some children who went away and
came back grown up and brought home "busts of the old philosophers for
the sitting-room," so as we saw some busts of George Washington and
Benjamin Franklin in plaster of paris we bought them, for they look
almost like marble and Grandfather and Grandmother like them. Speaking
of busts reminds me of a conundrum I heard while I was gone. "How do we
know that Poe's Raven was a dissipated bird? Because he was all night on
a bust." Grandfather took us down to the bank to see how he had it made
over while we were gone. We asked him why he had a beehive hanging out
for a sign and he said, "Bees store their honey in the summer for winter
use and men ought to store their money against a rainy day." He has a
swing door to the bank with "Push" on it. He said he saw a man studying
it one day and finally looking up he spelled p-u-s-h, push (and
pronounced it like mush). "What does that mean?" Grandfather showed him
what it meant and he thought it was very convenient. He was about as
thick-headed as the man who saw some snuffers and asked what they were
for and when told to snuff the candle with, he immediately snuffed the
candle with his fingers and put it in the snuffers and said, "Law sakes,
how handy!" Grandmother really laughed when she read this in the paper.
_September_.--Mrs. Martin, of Albany, is visiting Aunt Ann, and she
brought Grandmother a fine fish that was caught in the Atlantic Ocean.
We went over and asked her to come to dinner to-morrow and help eat it
and she said if it did not rain pitchforks she would come, so I think we
may expect her. Her granddaughter, Hattie Blanchard, has come here to go
to the seminary and will live with Aunt Ann. She is a very pretty girl.
Mary Field came over this morning and we went down street together.
Grandfather went with us to Mr. Nat Gorham's store, as he is selling off
at cost, and got Grandmother and me each a new pair of kid gloves. Hers
are black and mine are green. Hers cost six shillings and mine cost five
shillings and six pence; very cheap for such nice ones. Grandmother let
Anna have six little girls here to supper to-night: Louisa Field, Hattie
Paddock, Helen Coy, Martha Densmore, Emma Wheeler and Alice Jewett. We
had a splendid supper and then we played cards. I do not mean regular
cards, mercy no! Grandfather thinks those kind are contagious or
outrageous or something dreadful and never keeps them in the house.
Grandmother said they found a pack once, when the hired man's room was
cleaned, and they went into the fire pretty quick. The kind we played
was just "Dr. Busby," and another "The Old Soldier and His Dog." There
are counters with them, and if you don't have the card called for you
have to pay one into the pool. It is real fun. They all said they had a
very nice time, indeed, when they bade Grandmother good-night, and said:
"Mrs. Beals, you must let Carrie and Anna come and see us some time,"
and she said she would. I think it is nice to have company.
_Christmas_.--Grandfather and Grandmother do not care much about making
Christmas presents. They say, when they were young no one observed
Christmas or New Years, but they always kept Thanksgiving day. Our
cousins, the Fields and Carrs, gave us several presents and Uncle Edward
sent us a basket full from New York by express. Aunt Ann gave me one of
the Lucy books and a Franconia story book and to Anna, "The Child's Book
on Repentance." When Anna saw the title, she whispered to me and said if
she had done anything she was sorry for she was willing to be forgiven.
I am afraid she will never read hers but I will lend her mine. Miss Lucy
Ellen Guernsey, of Rochester, gave me "Christmas Earnings" and wrote in
it, "Carrie C. Richards with the love of the author." I think that is
very nice. Anna and I were chattering like two magpies to-day, and a man
came in to talk to Grandfather on business. He told us in an undertone
that children should be seen and not heard. After he had gone I saw Anna
watching him a long time till he was only a speck in the distance and I
asked her what she was doing. She said she was doing it because it was a
sign if you watched persons out of sight you would never see them again.
She does not seem to have a very forgiving spirit, but you can't always
tell.
Mr. William Wood, the venerable philanthropist of whom Canandaigua has
been justly proud for many years, is dead. I have preserved this poem,
written by Mrs. George Willson in his honor:
Mr. Editor,--The following lines were written by a lady of this village,
and have been heretofore published, but on reading in your last paper
the interesting extract relating to the late William Wood, Esq., it was
suggested that they be again published, not only for their merit, but
also to keep alive the memory of one who has done so much to ornament
our village.
When first on this stage of existence we come
Blind, deaf, puny, helpless, but not, alas, dumb,
What can please us, and soothe us, and make us sleep good?
To be rocked in a cradle;--and cradles are wood.
When older we grow, and we enter the schools
Where masters break rulers o'er boys who break rules,
What can curb and restrain and make laws understood
But the birch-twig and ferule?--and both are of wood.
When old age--second childhood, takes vigor away,
And we totter along toward our home in the clay,
What can aid us to stand as in manhood we stood
But our tried, trusty staff?--and the staff is of wood.
And when from this stage of existence we go,
And death drops the curtain on all scenes below,
In our coffins we rest, while for worms we are food,
And our last sleeping place, like our first, is of wood.
Then honor to wood! fresh and strong may it grow,
'Though winter has silvered its summit with snow;
Embowered in its shade long our village has stood;
She'd scarce be Canandaigua if stripped of her Wood.
Stanza added after the death of Mr. Wood
The sad time is come; she is stript of her Wood,
'Though the trees that he planted still stand where they stood,
Still with storms they can wrestle with arms stout and brave;
Still they wave o'er our dwellings--they droop o'er his grave!
Alas! that the life of the cherished and good
Is more frail and more brief than the trees of the wood!
1858
_February_ 24, 1858.--The boarders at the Seminary had some tableaux
last evening and invited a great many from the village. As we went in
with the crowd, we heard some one say, "Are they going to have tableaux?
Well, I thought I smelt them!" They were splendid. Mr. Chubbuck was in
nearly all of them. The most beautiful one was Abraham offering up
Isaac. Mr. Chubbuck was Abraham and Sarah Ripley was Isaac. After the
tableaux they acted a charade. The word was "Masterpiece." It was fine.
After the audience got half way out of the chapel Mr. Richards announced
"The Belle of the Evening." The curtain rose and every one rushed back,
expecting to see a young lady dressed in the height of fashion, when
immediately the Seminary bell rang! Mr. Blessner's scholars gave all the
music and he stamped so, beating time, it almost drowned the music. Some
one suggested a bread and milk poultice for his foot. Anna has been
taking part in some private theatricals. The play is in contrast to "The
Spirit of '76" and the idea carried out is that the men should stay at
home and rock the cradles and the women should take the rostrum.
Grandmother was rather opposed to the idea, but every one wanted Anna to
take the part of leading lady, so she consented. She even helped Anna
make her bloomer suit and sewed on the braid for trimming on the skirt
herself. She did not know that Anna's opening sentence was, "How are
you, sir? Cigar, please!" It was acted at Mrs. John Bates' house on
Gibson Street and was a great success, but when they decided to repeat
it another evening Grandmother told Anna she must choose between going
on the stage and living with her Grandmother, so Anna gave it up and
some one else took her part.
_March_.--There is a great deal said about spirits nowadays and a lot of
us girls went into one of the recitation rooms after school to-night and
had a spiritual seance. We sat around Mr. Chubbuck's table and put our
hands on it and it moved around and stood on two legs and sometimes on
one. I thought the girls helped it but they said they didn't. We heard
some loud raps, too, but they sounded very earthly to me. Eliza Burns,
one of the boarders, told us if we would hold our breath we could pick
up one of the girls from the floor and raise her up over our heads with
one finger of each hand, if the girl held her breath, too. We tried it
with Anna and did it, but we had such hard work to keep from laughing I
expected we would drop her. There is nothing very spirituelle about any
of us. I told Grandmother and she said we reminded her of Jemima
Wilkinson, who told all her followers that the world was to come to an
end on a certain day and they should all be dressed in white and get up
on the roofs of the houses and be prepared to ascend and meet the Lord
in the air. I asked Grandmother what she said when nothing happened and
she said she told them it was because they did not have faith enough. If
they had, everything would have happened just as she said. Grandmother
says that one day at a time has always been enough for her and that
to-morrow will take care of the things of itself.
_May,_ 1858.--Several of us girls went up into the top of the new Court
House to-day as far as the workmen would allow us. We got a splendid
view of the lake and of all the country round. Abbie Clark climbed up on
a beam and recited part of Alexander Selkirk's soliloquy:
"I'm monarch of all I survey,
My rights there are none to dispute:
From the center, all round to the sea,
I'm lord of the fowl and brute."
I was standing on a block and she said I looked like "Patience on a
monument smiling at Grief." I am sure she could not be taken for
"Grief." She always has some quotation on her tongue's end. We were down
at Sucker Brook the other day and she picked her way out to a big stone
in the middle of the stream and, standing on it, said, in the words of
Rhoderick Dhu,
"Come one, come all, this rock shall fly
From its firm base, as soon as I."
Just then the big stone tipped over and she had to wade ashore. She is
not at all afraid of climbing and as we left the Court House she said
she would like to go outside on the cupola and help Justice balance the
scales.
A funny old man came to our house to-day as he wanted to deposit some
money and reached the bank after it was closed. We were just sitting
down to dinner so Grandfather asked him to stay and have "pot luck" with
us. He said that he was very much "obleeged" and stayed and passed his
plate a second time for more of our very fine "pot luck." We had boiled
beef and dumplings and I suppose he thought that was the name of the
dish. He talked so queer we couldn't help noticing it. He said he
"heered" so and he was "afeered" and somebody was very "deef" and they
"hadn't ought to have done it" and "they should have went" and such
things. Anna and I almost laughed but Grandmother looked at us with her
eye and forefinger so we sobered down. She told us afterwards that there
are many good people in the world whose verbs and nouns do not agree,
and instead of laughing at them we should be sure that we always speak
correctly ourselves. Very true. Dr. Daggett was at the Seminary one day
when we had public exercises and he told me afterwards that I said
"sagac-ious" for "saga-cious" and Aunt Ann told me that I said
"epi-tome" for "e-pit-o-me." So "people that live in glass houses
shouldn't throw stones."
_Sunday._--Grandfather read his favorite parable this morning at
prayers--the one about the wise man who built his house upon a rock and
the foolish man who built upon the sand. He reads it good, just like a
minister. He prays good, too, and I know his prayer by heart. He says,
"Verily Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel
acknowledge us not," and he always says, "Thine arm is not shortened
that it cannot save, or Thine ear heavy that it cannot hear." I am glad
that I can remember it.
_June._--Cyrus W. Field called at our house to-day. He is making a trip
through the States and stopped here a few hours because Grandmother is
his aunt. He made her a present of a piece of the Atlantic cable about
six inches long, which he had mounted for her. It is a very nice
souvenir. He is a tall, fine looking man and very pleasant.
_Sunday, July_ 4, 1858.--This is Communion Sunday and quite a number
united with the church on profession of their faith. Mr. Gideon Granger
was one of them. Grandmother says that she has known him always and his
father and mother, and she thinks he is like John, the beloved disciple.
I think that any one who knows him, knows what is meant by a gentle-man.
I have a picture of Christ in the Temple with the doctors, and His face
is almost exactly like Mr. Granger's. Some others who joined to-day were
Miss Belle Paton, Miss Lottie Clark and Clara Willson, Mary Wheeler and
Sarah Andrews. Dr. Daggett always asks all the communicants to sit in
the body pews and the noncommunicants in the side pews. We always feel
like the goats on the left when we leave Grandfather and Grandmother and
go on the side, but we won't have to always. Abbie Clark, Mary Field and
I think we will join at the communion in September. Grandmother says she
hopes we realize what a solemn thing it is. We are fifteen years old so
I think we ought to. No one who hears Dr. Daggett say in his beautiful
voice, "I now renounce all ways of sin as what I truly abhor and choose
the service of God as my greatest privilege," could think it any
trifling matter. I feel as though I couldn't be bad if I wanted to be,
and when he blesses them and says, "May the God of the Everlasting
Covenant keep you firm and holy to the end through Jesus Christ our
Lord," everything seems complete. He always says at the close, "And when
they had sung an hymn they went out into the Mount of Olives." Then he
gives out the hymn, beginning:
"According to Thy gracious word,
In deep humility,
This will I do, my dying Lord
I will remember Thee."
And the last verse:
"And when these failing lips grow dumb,
And mind and memory flee,
When in Thy kingdom Thou shalt come,
Jesus remember me."
[Illustration: Hon. Francis Granger, Mr. Gideon Granger]
Deacon Taylor always starts the hymn. Deacon Taylor and Deacon Tyler sit
on one side of Dr. Daggett and Deacon Clarke and Deacon Castle on the
other. Grandfather and Grandmother joined the church fifty-one years ago
and are the oldest living members. She says they have always been glad
that they took this step when they were young.
_August_ 17.--There was a celebration in town to-day because the Queen's
message was received on the Atlantic cable. Guns were fired and church
bells rung and flags were waving everywhere. In the evening there was a
torchlight procession and the town was all lighted up except Gibson
Street. Allie Antes died this morning, so the people on that street kept
their houses as usual. Anna says that probably Allie Antes was better
prepared to die than any other little girl in town. Atwater hall and the
academy and the hotel were more brilliantly illuminated than any other
buildings. Grandfather saw something in a Boston paper that a minister
said in his sermon about the Atlantic cable and he wants me to write it
down in my journal. This is it: "The two hemispheres are now
successfully united by means of the electric wire, but what is it, after
all, compared with the instantaneous communication between the Throne of
Divine Grace and the heart of man? Offer up your silent petition. It is
transmitted through realms of unmeasured space more rapidly than the
lightning's flash, and the answer reaches the soul e're the prayer has
died away on the sinner's lips. Yet this telegraph, performing its
saving functions ever since Christ died for men on Calvary, fills not
the world with exultation and shouts of gladness, with illuminations and
bonfires and the booming of cannon. The reason is, one is the telegraph
of this world and may produce revolutions on earth; the other is the
sweet communication between Christ and the Christian soul and will
secure a glorious immortality in Heaven." Grandfather appreciates
anything like that and I like to please him.
Grandfather says he thinks the 19th Psalm is a prophecy of the electric
telegraph. "Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words
to the end of the world." It certainly sounds like it.
_Sunday_.--Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is staying at Judge Taylor's and came
with them to church to-day. Everybody knew that he was here and thought
he would preach and the church was packed full. When he came in he went
right to Judge Taylor's pew and sat with him and did not preach at all,
but it was something to look at him. Mr. Daggett was away on his
vacation and Rev. Mr. Jervis of the M. E. church preached. I heard some
people say they guessed even Mr. Beecher heard some new words to-day,
for Mr. Jervis is quite a hand to make them up or find very long hard
ones in the dictionary.
_August_ 30, 1858.--Rev. Mr. Tousley was hurt to-day by the falling of
his barn which was being moved, and they think his back is broken and if
he lives he can never sit up again. Only last Sunday he was in Sunday
School and had us sing in memory of Allie Antes:
"A mourning class, a vacant seat,
Tell us that one we loved to meet
Will join our youthful throng no more,
'Till all these changing scenes are o'er."
And now he will never meet with us again and the children will never
have another minister all their own. He thinks he may be able to write
letters to the children and perhaps write his own life. We all hope he
may be able to sit up if he cannot walk.
We went to our old home in Penn Yan visiting last week and stayed at
Judge Ellsworth's. We called to see the Tunnicliffs and the Olivers,
Wells, Jones, Shepards, Glovers, Bennetts, Judds and several other
families. They were glad to see us for the sake of our father and
mother. Father was their pastor from 1841 to 1847.
Some one told us that when Bob and Henry Antes were small boys they
thought they would like to try, just for once, to see how it would seem
to be bad, so in spite of all of Mr. Tousley's sermons they went out
behind the barn one day and in a whisper Bob said, "I swear," and Henry
said, "So do I." Then they came into the house looking guilty and quite
surprised, I suppose, that they were not struck dead just as Ananias and
Sapphira were for lying.
_September_.--I read in a New York paper to-day that Hon. George
Peabody, of England, presented Cyrus W. Field with a solid silver tea
service of twelve pieces, which cost $4,000. The pieces bear likenesses
of Mr. Peabody and Mr. Field, with the coat of arms of the Field family.
The epergne is supported by a base representing the genius of America.
We had experiments in the philosophy class to-day and took electric
shocks. Mr. Chubbuck managed the battery which has two handles attached.
Two of the girls each held one of these and we all took hold of hands
making the circuit complete. After a while it jerked us almost to pieces
and we asked Mr. Chubbuck to turn it off. Dana Luther, one of the
Academy boys, walked up from the post-office with me this noon. He lives
in Naples and is Florence Younglove's cousin. We went to a ball game
down on Pleasant Street after school. I got so far ahead of Anna coming
home she called me her "distant relative."
1859
_January_, 1859.--Mr. Woodruff came to see Grandfather to ask him if we
could attend his singing school. He is going to have it one evening each
week in the chapel of our church. Quite a lot of the boys and girls are
going, so we were glad when Grandfather gave his consent. Mr. Woodruff
wants us all to sing by note and teaches "do re me fa sol la si do" from
the blackboard and beats time with a stick. He lets us have a recess,
which is more fun than all the rest of it. He says if we practise well
we can have a concert in Bemis Hall to end up with. What a treat that
will be!
_February_.--Anna has been teasing me all the morning about a verse
which John Albert Granger Barker wrote in my album. He has a most
fascinating lisp when he talks, so she says this is the way the verse
reads:
"Beauty of perthon, ith thertainly chawming
Beauty of feachure, by no meanth alawming
But give me in pwefrence, beauty of mind,
Or give me Cawwie, with all thwee combined."
It takes Anna to find "amuthement" in "evewything."
Mary Wheeler came over and pierced my ears to-day, so I can wear my new
earrings that Uncle Edward sent me. She pinched my ear until it was numb
and then pulled a needle through, threaded with silk. Anna would not
stay in the room. She wants hers done but does not dare. It is all the
fashion for girls to cut off their hair and friz it. Anna and I have cut
off ours and Bessie Seymour got me to cut off her lovely long hair
to-day. It won't be very comfortable for us to sleep with curl papers
all over our heads, but we must do it now. I wanted my new dress waist
which Miss Rosewarne is making, to hook up in front, but Grandmother
said I would have to wear it that way all the rest of my life so I had
better be content to hook it in the back a little longer. She said when
Aunt Glorianna was married, in 1848, it was the fashion for grown up
women to have their waists fastened in the back, so the bride had hers
made that way but she thought it was a very foolish and inconvenient
fashion. It is nice, though, to dress in style and look like other
people. I have a Garibaldi waist and a Zouave jacket and a balmoral
skirt.
_Sunday_.--I asked Grandmother if I could write a letter to Father
to-day, and she said I could begin it and tell him that I went to church
and what Mr. Daggett's text was and then finish it to-morrow. I did so,
but I wish I could do it all after I began. She said a verse from the
Tract Primer:
"A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content
And strength for the toil of to-morrow,
But a Sabbath profaned, whatever be gained,
Is a certain forerunner of sorrow."
_Monday_.--We dressed up in new fangled costumes to-day and wore them to
school. Some of us wore dresses almost up to our knees and some wore
them trailing on the ground. Some wore their hair twisted in knots and
some let theirs hang down their backs. I wore my new waterfall for the
first time and Abbie Clark said I looked like "Hagar in the Wilderness."
When she came in she looked like a fashion plate, bedecked with bows and
ribbons and her hair up in a new way. When she came in the door she
stopped and said solemnly: "If you have tears prepare to shed them now!"
Laura Chapin would not participate in the fun, for once. She said she
thought "Beauty unadorned was the dorndest." We did not have our lesson
in mental philosophy very well so we asked Mr. Richards to explain the
nature of dreams and their cause and effect. He gave us a very
interesting talk, which occupied the whole hour. We listened with
breathless attention, so he must have marked us 100.
There was a lecture at the seminary to-night and Rev. Dr. Hibbard, the
Methodist minister, who lives next door above the Methodist church, came
home with us. Grandmother was very much pleased when we told her.
_March_ 1.--Our hired man has started a hot bed and we went down behind
the barn to see it. Grandfather said he was up at 6 o'clock and walked
up as far as Mr. Greig's lions and back again for exercise before
breakfast. He seems to have the bloom of youth on his face as a reward.
Anna says she saw "Bloom of youth" advertised in the drug store and she
is going to buy some. I know Grandmother won't let her for it would be
like "taking coal to Newcastle."
_April._--Anna wanted me to help her write a composition last night, and
we decided to write on "Old Journals," so we got hers and mine both out
and made selections and then she copied them. When we were on our way to
school this morning we met Mr. E. M. Morse and Anna asked him if he did
not want to read her composition that Carrie wrote for her. He made a
very long face and pretended to be much shocked, but said he would like
to read it, so he took it and also her album, which she asked him to
write in. At night, on his way home, he stopped at our door and left
them both. When she looked in her album, she found this was what he had
written:
"Anna, when you have grown old and wear spectacles and a cap, remember
the boyish young man who saw your fine talents in 1859 and was certain
you would add culture to nature and become the pride of Canandaigua. Do
not forget also that no one deserves praise for anything done by others
and that your progress in wisdom and goodness will be watched by no one
more anxiously than by your true friend,
E. M. Morse."
I think she might as well have told Mr. Morse that the old journals were
as much hers as mine; but I think she likes to make out she is not as
good as she is. Sarah Foster helped us to do our arithmetic examples
to-day. She is splendid in mathematics.
Much to our surprise Bridget Flynn, who has lived with us so long, is
married. We didn't know she thought of such a thing, but she has gone.
Anna and I have learned how to make rice and cornstarch puddings. We
have a new girl in Bridget's place but I don't think she will do.
Grandmother asked her to-day if she seasoned the gravy and she said,
either she did or she didn't, she couldn't tell which. Grandfather says
he thinks she is a little lacking in the "upper story."
_June._--A lot of us went down to Sucker Brook this afternoon. Abbie
Clark was one and she told us some games to play sitting down on the
grass. We played "Simon says thumbs up" and then we pulled the leaves
off from daisies and said,
"Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief,
Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief,"
to see which we would marry. The last leaf tells the story. Anna's came
"rich man" every time and she thinks it is true because Eugene Stone has
asked to marry her and he is quite well off. She is 13 and he is 17. He
is going now to his home in St. Paul, Minn., but he is coming back for
her some day. Tom Eddy is going to be groomsman and Emma Wheeler
bridesmaid. They have all the arrangements made. She has not shown any
of Eugene Stone's notes to Grandmother yet for she does not think it is
worth while. Anna broke the seal on Tom Eddy's page in her mystic book,
although he wrote on it, "Not to be opened until December 8, 1859." He
says:
Dear Anna,--
I hope that in a few years I will see you and Stone living on the banks
of the Mississippi, in a little cottage, as snug as a bug in a rug,
living in peace, so that I can come and see you and have a good
time.--Yours,
Thos. C. Eddy."
Anna says if she does marry Eugene Stone and he forgets, after two or
three years to be as polite to her as he is now she shall look up at him
with her sweetest smile and say, "Miss Anna, won't you have a little
more sugar in your tea?" When I went to school this morning Juliet
Ripley asked, "Where do you think Anna Richards is now? Up in a cherry
tree in Dr. Cheney's garden." Anna loves cherries. We could see her from
the chapel window.
_June_ 7.--Alice Jewett took Anna all through their new house to-day
which is being built and then they went over to Mr. Noah T. Clarke's
partly finished house and went all through that. A dog came out of Cat
Alley and barked at them and scared Anna awfully. She said she almost
had a conniption fit but Emma kept hold of her. She is so afraid of
thunder and lightning and dogs.
Old Friend Burling brought Grandfather a specimen of his handwriting
to-day to keep. It is beautifully written, like copper plate. This is
the verse he wrote and Grandfather gave it to me to paste in my book of
extracts:
DIVINE LOVE.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
Was the whole earth of parchment made,
Was every single stick a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could that scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Transcribed by William S. Burling, Canandaigua, 1859, in the 83rd year
of his age.
_Sunday, December_ 8, 1859.--Mr. E. M. Morse is our Sunday School
teacher now and the Sunday School room is so crowded that we go up into
the church for our class recitation. Abbie Clark, Fannie Gaylord and
myself are the only scholars, and he calls us the three Christian
Graces, faith, hope and charity, and the greatest of these is charity. I
am the tallest, so he says I am charity. We recite in Mr. Gibson's pew,
because it is farthest away and we do not disturb the other classes. He
gave us some excellent advice to-day as to what was right and said if we
ever had any doubts about anything we should never do it and should
always be perfectly sure we are in the right before we act. He gave us
two weeks ago a poem to learn by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It is an
apostrophe to God and very hard to learn. It is blank verse and has 85
lines in it. I have it committed at last and we are to recite it in
concert. The last two lines are, "Tell thou the silent sky and tell the
stars and tell yon rising sun, Earth with its thousand voices praises
God." Mr. Morse delivered a lecture in Bemis Hall last Thursday night.
The subject was, "You and I." It was splendid and he lent me the
manuscript afterwards to read. Dick Valentine lectured in the hall the
other night too. His subject was "Prejudice." There was some difference
in the lectures and the lecturers. The latter was more highly colored.
_Friday._--The older ladies of the town have formed a society for the
relief of the poor and are going to have a course of lectures in Bemis
Hall under their auspices to raise funds. The lecturers are to be from
the village and are to be: Rev. O. E. Daggett, subject, "Ladies and
Gentlemen"; Dr. Harvey Jewett, "The House We Live In"; Prof. F. E. R.
Chubbuck, "Progress"; Hon. H. W. Taylor, "The Empty Place"; Prof. E. G.
Tyler, "Finance"; Mr. N. T. Clark, "Chemistry"; E. M. Morse, "Graybeard
and His Dogmas." The young ladies have started a society, too, and we
have great fun and fine suppers. We met at Jennie Howell's to organize.
We are to meet once in two weeks and are to present each member with an
album bed quilt with all our names on when they are married. Susie
Daggett says she is never going to be married, but we must make her a
quilt just the same. Laura Chapin sang, "Mary Lindsey, Dear," and we got
to laughing so that Susie Daggett and I lost our equilibrium entirely,
but I found mine by the time I got home. Yesterday afternoon Grandfather
asked us if we did not want to go to ride with him in the big two seated
covered carriage which he does not get out very often. We said yes, and
he stopped for Miss Hannah Upham and took her with us. She sat on the
back seat with me and we rode clear to Farmington and kept up a brisk
conversation all the way. She told us how she became lady principal of
the Ontario Female Seminary in 1830. She was still telling us about it
when we got back home.
_December_ 23.--We have had a Christmas tree and many other attractions
in Seminary chapel. The day scholars and townspeople were permitted to
participate and we had a post office and received letters from our
friends. Mr. E. M. Morse wrote me a fictitious one, claiming to be
written from the north pole ten years hence. I will copy it in my
journal for I may lose the letter. I had some gifts on the Christmas
tree and gave some. I presented my teacher, Mr. Chubbuck, with two large
hemstitched handkerchiefs with his initials embroidered in a corner of
each. As he is favored with the euphonious name of Frank Emery Robinson
Chubbuck it was a work of art to make his initials look beautiful. I
inclosed a stanza in rhyme:
Amid the changing scenes of life
If any storm should rise,
May you ever have a handkerchief
To wipe your weeping eyes.
Here is Mr. Morse's letter:
North Pole, 10 _January_ 1869.
Miss Carrie Richards,
"My Dear Young Friend.--It is very cold here and the pole is covered
with ice. I climbed it yesterday to take an observation and arrange our
flag, the Stars and Stripes, which I hoisted immediately on my arrival
here, ten years ago. I thought I should freeze and the pole was so
slippery that I was in great danger of coming down faster than was
comfortable. Although this pole has been used for more than 6,000 years
it is still as good as new. The works of the Great Architect do not wear
out. It is now ten years since I have seen you and my other two
Christian Graces and I have no doubt of your present position among the
most brilliant, noble and excellent women in all America. I always knew
and recognized your great abilities. Nature was very generous to you all
and you were enjoying fine advantages at the time I last knew you. I
thought your residence with your Grandparents an admirable school for
you, and you and your sister were most evidently the best joy of their
old age. You certainly owe much to them. At the time that I left my
three Christian Graces, Mrs. Grundy was sometimes malicious enough to
say that they were injuring themselves by flirting. I always told the
old lady that I had the utmost confidence in the judgment and discretion
of my pupils and that they would be very careful and prudent in all
their conduct. I confessed that flirting was wrong and very injurious to
any one who was guilty of it, but I was very sure that you were not. I
could not believe that you would disappoint us all and become only
ordinary women, but that you would become the most exalted characters,
scorning all things unworthy of ladies and Christians and I was right
and Mrs. Grundy was wrong. When the ice around the pole thaws out I
shall make a flying visit to Canandaigua. I send you a tame polar bear
for a playfellow. This letter will be conveyed to you by Esquimaux
express.--Most truly yours,
E. M. Morse."
I think some one must have shown some verses that we girls wrote, to
Mrs. Grundy and made her think that our minds were more upon the young
men than they were upon our studies, but if people knew how much time we
spent on Paley's "Evidences of Christianity" and Butler's Analogy and
Kames' Elements of Criticism and Tytler's Ancient History and Olmstead's
Mathematical Astronomy and our French and Latin and arithmetic and
algebra and geometry and trigonometry and bookkeeping, they would know
we had very little time to think of the masculine gender.
1860
_New Year's Day._--We felt quite grown up to-day and not a little scared
when we saw Mr. Morse and Mr. Wells and Mr. Mason and Mr. Chubbuck all
coming in together to make a New Year's call. They made a tour of the
town. We did not feel so flustrated when Will Schley and Horace Finley
came in later. Mr. Oliver Phelps, Jr., came to call upon Grandmother.
Grandfather made a few calls, too.
_January_ 5.--Abbie Clark and I went up to see Miss Emma Morse because
it is her birthday. We call her sweet Miss Emma and we think Mr. Manning
Wells does, too. We went to William Wirt Howe's lecture in Bemis Hall
this evening. He is a very smart young man.
Anna wanted to walk down a little ways with the girls after school so
she crouched down between Helen Coy and Hattie Paddock and walked past
the house. Grandmother always sits in the front window, so when Anna
came in she asked her if she had to stay after school and Anna gave her
an evasive answer. It reminds me of a story I read, of a lady who told
the servant girl if any one called to give an evasive answer as she did
not wish to receive calls that day. By and by the door bell rang and the
servant went to the door. When she came back the lady asked her how she
dismissed the visitor. She said, "Shure ye towld me to give an evasive
answer, so when the man asked if the lady of the house was at home I
said, 'Faith! is your grandmother a monkey!'" We never say anything like
that to our "dear little lady," but we just change the subject and
divert the conversation into a more agreeable channel. To-day some one
came to see Grandmother when we were gone and told her that Anna and
some others ran away from school. Grandmother told Anna she hoped she
would never let any one bring her such a report again. Anna said she
would not, if she could possibly help it! I wonder who it was. Some one
who believes in the text, "Look not every man on his own things, but
every man also on the things of others." Grandfather told us to-night
that we ought to be very careful what we do as we are making history
every day. Anna says she shall try not to have hers as dry as some that
she had to learn at school to-day.
_February_ 9.--Dear Miss Mary Howell was married to-day to Mr.
Worthington, of Cincinnati.
_February_ 28.--Grandfather asked me to read Abraham Lincoln's speech
aloud which he delivered in Cooper Institute, New York, last evening,
under the auspices of the Republican Club. He was escorted to the
platform by David Dudley Field and introduced by William Cullen Bryant.
The _New York Times_ called him "a noted political exhorter and Prairie
orator." It was a thrilling talk and must have stirred men's souls.
_April_ 1.--Aunt Ann was over to see us yesterday and she said she made
a visit the day before out at Mrs. William Gorham's. Mrs. Phelps and
Miss Eliza Chapin also went and they enjoyed talking over old times when
they were young. Maggie Gorham is going to be married on the 25th to Mr.
Benedict of New York. She always said she would not marry a farmer and
would not live in a cobblestone house and now she is going to do both,
for Mr. Benedict has bought the farm near theirs and it has a
cobblestone house. We have always thought her one of the jolliest and
prettiest of the older set of young ladies.
_June._--James writes that he has seen the Prince of Wales in New York.
He was up on the roof of the Continental Fire Insurance building, out on
the cornice, and looked down on the procession. Afterwards there was a
reception for the Prince at the University Law School and James saw him
close by. He says he has a very pleasant youthful face. There was a ball
given for him one evening in the Academy of Music and there were 3,000
present. The ladies who danced with him will never forget it. They say
that he enters into every diversion which is offered to him with the
greatest tact and good nature, and when he visited Mount Vernon he
showed great reverence for the memory of George Washington. He attended
a literary entertainment in Boston, where Longfellow, Holmes, Emerson,
Thoreau, and other Americans of distinction were presented to him. He
will always be a favorite in America.
_June._--Mrs. Annie Granger asked Anna and me to come over to her house
and see her baby. We were very eager to go and wanted to hold it and
carry it around the room. She was willing but asked us if we had any
pins on us anywhere. She said she had the nurse sew the baby's clothes
on every morning so that if she cried she would know whether it was
pains or pins. We said we had no pins on us, so we stayed quite a while
and held little Miss Hattie to our heart's content. She is named for her
aunt, Hattie Granger. Anna says she thinks Miss Martha Morse will give
medals to her and Mary Daggett for being the most meddlesome girls in
school, judging from the number of times she has spoken to them to-day.
Anna is getting to be a regular punster, although I told her that
Blair's Rhetoric says that punning is not the highest kind of wit. Mr.
Morse met us coming from school in the rain and said it would not hurt
us as we were neither sugar nor salt. Anna said, "No, but we are
'lasses." Grandmother has been giving us sulphur and molasses for the
purification of the blood and we have to take it three mornings and then
skip three mornings. This morning Anna commenced going through some sort
of gymnastics and Grandmother asked her what she was doing, and she said
it was her first morning to skip.
Abbie Clark had a large tea-party this afternoon and evening--Seminary
girls and a few Academy boys. We had a fine supper and then played
games. Abbie gave us one which is a test of memory and we tried to learn
it from her but she was the only one who could complete it. I can write
it down, but not say it:
A good fat hen.
Two ducks and a good fat hen.
Three plump partridges, two ducks and a good fat hen.
Four squawking wild geese, three plump partridges, etc.
Five hundred Limerick oysters.
Six pairs of Don Alfonso's tweezers.
Seven hundred rank and file Macedonian horsemen drawn up in line of
battle.
Eight cages of heliogabalus sparrow kites.
Nine sympathetical, epithetical, categorical propositions.
Ten tentapherical tubes.
Eleven flat bottom fly boats sailing between Madagascar and Mount
Palermo.
Twelve European dancing masters, sent to teach the Egyptian mummies how
to dance, against Hercules' wedding day.
Abbie says it was easier to learn than the multiplication table. They
wanted some of us to recite and Abbie Clark gave us Lowell's poem, "John
P. Robinson, he, says the world'll go right if he only says Gee!" I gave
another of Lowell's poems, "The Courtin'." Julia Phelps had her guitar
with her by request and played and sang for us very sweetly. Fred
Harrington went home with her and Theodore Barnum with me.
_Sunday._--Frankie Richardson asked me to go with her to teach a class
in the colored Sunday School on Chapel Street this afternoon. I asked
Grandmother if I could go and she said she never noticed that I was
particularly interested in the colored race and she said she thought I
only wanted an excuse to get out for a walk Sunday afternoon. However,
she said I could go just this once. When we got up as far as the
Academy, Mr. Noah T. Clarke's brother, who is one of the teachers, came
out and Frank said he led the singing at the Sunday School and she said
she would give me an introduction to him, so he walked up with us and
home again. Grandmother said that when she saw him opening the gate for
me, she understood my zeal in missionary work. "The dear little lady,"
as we often call her, has always been noted for her keen discernment and
wonderful sagacity and loses none of it as she advances in years. Some
one asked Anna the other day if her Grandmother retained all her
faculties and Anna said, "Yes, indeed, to an alarming degree."
Grandmother knows that we think she is a perfect angel even if she does
seem rather strict sometimes. Whether we are 7 or 17 we are children to
her just the same, and the Bible says, "Children obey your parents in
the Lord for this is right." We are glad that we never will seem old to
her. I had the same company home from church in the evening. His home is
in Naples.
_Monday._--This morning the cook went to early mass and Anna told
Grandmother she would bake the pancakes for breakfast if she would let
her put on gloves. She would not let her, so Hannah baked the cakes. I
was invited to Mary Paul's to supper to-night and drank the first cup of
tea I ever drank in my life. I had a very nice time and Johnnie Paul
came home with me.
Imogen Power and I went down together Friday afternoon to buy me a
Meteorology. We are studying that and Watts on the Mind, instead of
Philosophy.
_Tuesday._--I went with Fanny Gaylord to see Mrs. Callister at the hotel
to-night. She is so interested in all that we tell her, just like "one
of the girls."
[Illustration: The Old Canandaigua Academy]
I was laughing to-day when I came in from the street and Grandmother
asked me what amused me so. I told her that I met Mr. and Mrs. Putnam on
the street and she looked so immense and he so minute I couldn't help
laughing at the contrast. Grandmother said that size was not everything,
and then she quoted Cowper's verse:
"Were I so tall to reach the skies or grasp the ocean in a span,
I must be measured by my soul, the mind is the stature of the man."
I don't believe that helps Mr. Putnam out.
_Friday._--We went to Monthly Concert of prayer for Foreign Missions
this evening. I told Grandmother that I thought it was not very
interesting. Judge Taylor read the _Missionary Herald_ about the
Madagascans and the Senegambians and the Terra del Fuegans and then
Deacon Tyler prayed and they sang "From Greenland's Icy Mountains" and
took up a collection and went home. She said she was afraid I did not
listen attentively. I don't think I did strain every nerve. I believe
Grandmother will give her last cent to Missions if the Boards get into
worse straits than they are now.
In Latin class to-day Anna translated the phrase Deo Volente "with
violence," and Mr. Tyler, who always enjoys a joke, laughed so, we
thought he would fall out of his chair. He evidently thought it was the
best one he had heard lately.
_November_ 21.--Aunt Ann gave me a sewing bird to screw on to the table
to hold my work instead of pinning it to my knee. Grandmother tells us
when we sew or read not to get everything around us that we will want
for the next two hours because it is not healthy to sit in one position
so long. She wants us to get up and "stir around." Anna does not need
this advice as much as I do for she is always on what Miss Achert calls
the "qui vive." I am trying to make a sofa pillow out of little pieces
of silk. Aunt Ann taught me how. You have to cut pieces of paper into
octagonal shape and cover them with silk and then sew them together,
over and over. They are beautiful, with bright colors, when they are
done. There was a hop at the hotel last night and some of the girls went
and had an elegant time. Mr. Hiram Metcalf came here this morning to
have Grandmother sign some papers. He always looks very dignified, and
Anna and I call him "the deed man." We tried to hear what he said to
Grandmother after she signed her name but we only heard something about
"fear or compulsion" and Grandmother said "yes." It seems very
mysterious. Grandfather took us down street to-day to see the new Star
Building. It was the town house and he bought it and got Mr. Warren
Stoddard of Hopewell to superintend cutting it in two and moving the
parts separately to Coach Street. When it was completed the shout went
up from the crowd, "Hurrah for Thomas Beals, the preserver of the old
Court House." No one but Grandfather thought it could be done.
_December._--I went with the girls to the lake to skate this afternoon.
Mr. Johnson, the colored barber, is the best skater in town. He can
skate forwards and backwards and cut all sorts of curlicues, although he
is such a heavy man. He is going to Liberia and there his skates won't
do him any good. I wish he would give them to me and also his skill to
use them. Some one asked me to sit down after I got home and I said I
preferred to stand, as I had been sitting down all the afternoon! Gus
Coleman took a load of us sleigh-riding this evening. Of course he had
Clara Willson sit on the front seat with him and help him drive.
_Thursday._--We had a special meeting of our society this evening at
Mary Wheeler's and invited the gentlemen and had charades and general
good time. Mr. Gillette and Horace Finley made a great deal of fun for
us. We initiated Mr. Gillette into the Dorcas Society, which consists in
seating the candidate in a chair and propounding some very solemn
questions and then in token of desire to join the society, you ask him
to open his mouth very wide for a piece of cake which you swallow,
yourself, instead! Very disappointing to the new member!
We went to a concert at the Seminary this evening. Miss Mollie Bull sang
"Coming Through the Rye" and Miss Lizzie Bull sang "Annie Laurie" and
"Auld Lang Syne." Jennie Lind, herself, could not have done better.
_December_ 15.--Alice Jewett, Emma Wheeler and Anna are in Mrs.
Worthington's Sunday School class and as they have recently united with
the church, she thought they should begin practical Christian work by
distributing tracts among the neglected classes. So this afternoon they
ran away from school to begin the good work. It was so bright and
pleasant, they thought a walk to the lake would be enjoyable and they
could find a welcome in some humble home. The girls wanted Anna to be
the leader, but she would only promise that if something pious came into
her mind, she would say it. They knocked at a door and were met by a
smiling mother of twelve children and asked to come in. They sat down
feeling somewhat embarrassed, but spying a photograph album on the
table, they became much interested, while the children explained the
pictures. Finally Anna felt that it was time to do something, so when no
one was looking, she slipped under one of the books on the table, three
tracts entitled "Consolation for the Bereaved," "Systematic Benevolence"
and "The Social Evils of dancing, card playing and theater-going." Then
they said goodbye to their new friends and started on. They decided not
to do any more pastoral work until another day, but enjoyed the outing
very much.
_Christmas._--We all went to Aunt Mary Carr's to dinner excepting
Grandmother, and in the evening we went to see some tableaux at Dr.
Cook's and Dr. Chapin's at the asylum. We were very much pleased with
the entertainment. Between the acts Mr. del Pratt, one of the patients,
said every time, "What next!" which made every one laugh.
Grandfather was requested to add his picture to the gallery of portraits
of eminent men for the Court Room, so he has had it painted. An artist
by the name of Green, who lives in town, has finished it after numerous
sittings and brought it up for our approval. We like it but we do not
think it is as good looking as he is. No one could really satisfy us
probably, so we may as well try to be suited.
I asked Grandmother if Mr. Clarke could take Sunday night supper with us
and she said she was afraid he did not know the catechism. I asked him
Friday night and he said he would learn it on Saturday so that he could
answer every third question any way. So he did and got along very well.
I think he deserved a pretty good supper.
1861
_March_ 4, 1861.--President Lincoln was inaugurated to-day.
_March_ 5.--I read the inaugural address aloud to Grandfather this
evening. He dwelt with such pathos upon the duty that all, both North
and South, owe to the Union, it does not seem as though there could be
war!
_April._--We seem to have come to a sad, sad time. The Bible says, "A
man's worst foes are those of his own household." The whole United
States has been like one great household for many years. "United we
stand, divided we fall!" has been our watchword, but some who should
have been its best friends have proven false and broken the bond. Men
are taking sides, some for the North, some for the South. Hot words and
fierce looks have followed, and there has been a storm in the air for a
long time.
_April_ 15.--The storm has broken upon us. The Confederates fired on
Fort Sumter, just off the coast of South Carolina, and forced her on
April 14 to haul down the flag and surrender. President Lincoln has
issued a call for 75,000 men and many are volunteering to go all around
us. How strange and awful it seems.
_May,_ 1861.--Many of the young men are going from Canandaigua and all
the neighboring towns. It seems very patriotic and grand when they are
singing, "It is sweet, Oh, 'tis sweet, for one's country to die," and we
hear the martial music and see the flags flying and see the recruiting
tents on the square and meet men in uniform at every turn and see train
loads of the boys in blue going to the front, but it will not seem so
grand if we hear they are dead on the battlefield, far from home. A lot
of us girls went down to the train and took flowers to the soldiers as
they were passing through and they cut buttons from their coats and gave
to us as souvenirs. We have flags on our paper and envelopes, and have
all our stationery bordered with red, white and blue. We wear little
flag pins for badges and tie our hair with red, white and blue ribbon
and have pins and earrings made of the buttons the soldiers gave us. We
are going to sew for them in our society and get the garments all cut
from the older ladies' society. They work every day in one of the rooms
of the court house and cut out garments and make them and scrape lint
and roll up bandages. They say they will provide us with all the
garments we will make. We are going to write notes and enclose them in
the garments to cheer up the soldier boys. It does not seem now as
though I could give up any one who belonged to me. The girls in our
society say that if any of the members do send a soldier to the war they
shall have a flag bed quilt, made by the society, and have the girls'
names on the stars.
_May_ 20.--I recited "Scott and the Veteran" to-day at school, and Mary
Field recited, "To Drum Beat and Heart Beat a Soldier Marches By"; Anna
recited "The Virginia Mother." Every one learns war poems nowadays.
There was a patriotic rally in Bemis Hall last night and a quartette
sang, "The Sword of Bunker Hill" and "Dixie" and "John Brown's Body Lies
a Mouldering in the Grave," and many other patriotic songs. We have one
West Point cadet, Albert M. Murray, who is in the thick of the fight,
and Charles S. Coy represents Canandaigua in the navy.
[Illustration: The Ontario Female Seminary]
_June,_ 1861.--At the anniversary exercises, Rev. Samuel M. Hopkins of
Auburn gave the address. I have graduated from Ontario Female Seminary
after a five years course and had the honor of receiving a diploma from
the courtly hands of General John A. Granger. I am going to have it
framed and handed down to my grandchildren as a memento, not exactly of
sleepless nights and midnight vigils, but of rising betimes, at what
Anna calls the crack of dawn. She likes that expression better than
daybreak. I heard her reciting in the back chamber one morning about 4
o'clock and listened at the door. She was saying in the most nonchalant
manner: "Science and literature in England were fast losing all traces
of originality, invention was discouraged, research unvalued and the
examination of nature proscribed. It seemed to be generally supposed
that the treasure accumulated in the preceding ages was quite sufficient
for all national purposes and that the only duty which authors had to
perform was to reproduce what had thus been accumulated, adorned with
all the graces of polished style. Tameness and monotony naturally result
from a slavish adherence to all arbitrary rules and every branch of
literature felt this blighting influence. History, perhaps, was in some
degree an exception, for Hume, Robertson and more especially Gibbon,
exhibited a spirit of original investigation which found no parallel
among their contemporaries." I looked in and asked her where her book
was, and she said she left it down stairs. She has "got it" all right, I
am sure. We helped decorate the seminary chapel for two days. Our motto
was, "Still achieving, still pursuing." Miss Guernsey made most of the
letters and Mr. Chubbuck put them up and he hung all the paintings. It
was a very warm week. General Granger had to use his palm leaf fan all
the time, as well as the rest of us. There were six in our class, Mary
Field, Lucy Petherick, Kate Lilly, Sarah Clay, Abby Scott and myself.
Abbie Clark would have been in the class, but she went to Pittsfield,
Mass., instead. General Granger said to each one of us, "It gives me
great pleasure to present you with this diploma," and when he gave Miss
Scott hers, as she is from Alabama, he said he wished it might be as a
flag of truce between the North and the South, and this sentiment was
loudly cheered. General Granger looked so handsome with his black dress
suit and ruffled shirt front and all the natural grace which belongs to
him. The sheepskin has a picture of the Seminary on it and this
inscription: "The Trustees and Faculty of the Ontario Female Seminary
hereby certify that __________ has completed the course of study
prescribed in this Institution, maintained the requisite scholarship and
commendable deportment and is therefore admitted to the graduating
honors of this Institution. President of Board, John A. Granger;
Benjamin F. Richards, Edward G. Tyler, Principals." Mr. Morse wrote
something for the paper:
"To the Editor of the Repository:
"Dear Sir--June roses, etc., make our loveliest of villages a paradise
this week. The constellations are all glorious and the stars of earth
far outshine those of the heavens. The lake shore, 'Lovers' Lane,' 'Glen
Kitty' and the 'Points' are full of romance and romancers. The yellow
moon and the blue waters and the dark green shores and the petrified
Indians, whispering stony words at the foot of Genundewah, and Squaw
Island sitting on the waves, like an enchanted grove, and 'Whalesback'
all humped up in the East and 'Devil's Lookout' rising over all, made
the 'Sleeping Beauty' a silver sea of witchery and love; and in the
cottages and palaces we ate the ambrosia and drank the nectar of the
sweet goddesses of this new and golden age.
"I may as well say to you, Mr. Editor, that the Ontario Female Seminary
closed yesterday and 'Yours truly' was present at the commencement.
Being a bachelor I shall plead guilty and appeal to the mercy of the
Court, if indicted for undue prejudice in favor of the charming young
orators. After the report of the Examining Committee, in which the
scholarship of the young ladies was not too highly praised, came the
Latin Salutatory by Miss Clay, a most beautiful and elegant production
(that sentence, sir, applies to both salutatory and salutatorian). The
'Shadows We Cast,' by Miss Field, carried us far into the beautiful
fields of nature and art and we saw the dark, or the brilliant shades,
which our lives will cast, upon society and history. Then 'Tongues in
Trees' began to whisper most bewitchingly, and 'Books in the Running
Brooks' were opened, and 'Sermons in Stones' were preached by Miss
Richards, and this old bachelor thought if all trees would talk so well,
and every brook would babble so musically, and each precious stone would
exhort so brilliantly, as they were made to do by the 'enchantress,'
angels and dreams would henceforth be of little consequence; and whether
the orator should be called 'Tree of Beauty,' 'Minnehaha' or the
'Kohinoor' is a 'vexata questio.'
"In the evening Mr. Hardick, 'our own,' whose hand never touches the
piano without making delicious music, and Misses Daggett and Wilson,
also 'our own,' and the musical pupils of the Institution, gave a
concert. 'The Young Volunteer' was imperatively demanded, and this for
the third time during the anniversary exercises, and was sung amid
thunders of applause, 'Star of the South,' Miss Stella Scott, shining
meanwhile in all her radiant beauty. May her glorious light soon rest on
a Union that shall never more be broken.--Soberly yours,
A Very Old Bachelor."
_June,_ 1861.--There was a patriotic rally this afternoon on the campus
of Canandaigua Academy and we Seminary girls went. They raised a flag on
the Academy building. General Granger presided, Dr. Coleman led the
choir and they sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Mr. Noah T. Clarke made
a stirring speech and Mr. Gideon Granger, James C. Smith and E. M. Morse
followed. Canandaigua has already raised over $7,000 for the war. Capt.
Barry drills the Academy boys in military tactics on the campus every
day. Men are constantly enlisting. Lester P. Thompson, son of "Father
Thompson," among the others.
A young man asked Anna to take a drive to-day, but Grandmother was not
willing at first to let her go. She finally gave her consent, after
Anna's plea that he was so young and his horse was so gentle. Just as
they were ready to start, I heard Anna run upstairs and I heard him say,
"What an Anna!" I asked her afterwards what she went for and she said
she remembered that she had left the soap in the water.
_June._--Dr. Daggett's war sermon from the 146th Psalm was wonderful.
_December_ 1.--Dr. Carr is dead. He had a stroke of paralysis two weeks
ago and for several days he has been unconscious. The choir of our
church, of which he was leader for so long, and some of the young people
came and stood around his bed and sang, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." They
did not know whether he was conscious or not, but they thought so
because the tears ran down his cheeks from his closed eyelids, though he
could not speak or move. The funeral was from the church and Dr.
Daggett's text was, "The Beloved Physician."
1862
_January_ 26.--We went to the Baptist Church this evening to hear Rev.
A. H. Lung preach his last sermon before going into the army.
_February_ 17.--Glorious news from the war to-day. Fort Donelson is
taken with 1,500 rebels. The right and the North will surely triumph!
_February_ 21.--Our society met at Fanny Palmer's this afternoon. I went
but did not stay to tea as we were going to Madame Anna Bishop's concert
in the evening. The concert was very, very good. Her voice has great
scope and she was dressed in the latest stage costume, but it took so
much material for her skirt that there was hardly any left for the
waist.
[Illustration: "Old Friend Burling", Madame Anna Bishop]
_Washington's Birthday._--Patriotic services were held in the
Congregational Church this morning. Madame Anna Bishop sang, and
National songs were sung. Hon. James C. Smith read Washington's Farewell
Address. In the afternoon a party of twenty-two, young and old, took a
ride in the Seminary boat and went to Mr. Paton's on the lake shore
road. We carried flags and made it a patriotic occasion. I sat next to
Spencer F. Lincoln, a young man from Naples who is studying law in Mr.
Henry Chesebro's office. I never met him before but he told me he had
made up his mind to go to the war. It is wonderful that young men who
have brilliant prospects before them at home, will offer themselves upon
the altar of their country. I have some new patriotic stationery. There
is a picture of the flag on the envelope and underneath, "If any one
attempts to haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot.--
John A. Dix."
_Sunday, February_ 23.--Everybody came out to church this morning,
expecting to hear Madame Anna Bishop sing. She was not there, and an
"agent" made a "statement." The audience did not appear particularly
edified.
_March_ 4.--John B. Gough lectured in Bemis Hall last night and was
entertained by Governor Clark. I told Grandfather that I had an
invitation to the lecture and he asked me who from. I told him from Mr.
Noah T. Clarke's brother. He did not make the least objection and I was
awfully glad, because he has asked me to the whole course. Wendell
Phillips and Horace Greeley, E. H. Chapin and John G. Saxe and Bayard
Taylor are expected. John B. Gough's lecture was fine. He can make an
audience laugh as much by wagging his coat tails as some men can by
talking an hour.
_March_ 26.--I have been up at Laura Chapin's from 10 o'clock in the
morning until 10 at night, finishing Jennie Howell's bed quilt, as she
is to be married very soon. Almost all of the girls were there. We
finished it at 8 p. m. and when we took it off the frames we gave three
cheers. Some of the youth of the village came up to inspect our
handiwork and see us home. Before we went Julia Phelps sang and played
on the guitar and Captain Barry also sang and we all sang together, "O!
Columbia, the gem of the ocean, three cheers for the red, white and
blue."
_June_ 19.--Our cousin, Ann Eliza Field, was married to-day to George B.
Bates at her home on Gibson Street. We went and had an elegant time.
Charlie Wheeler made great fun and threw the final shower of rice as
they drove away.
_June._--There was great excitement in prayer meeting last night, it
seemed to Abbie Clark, Mary Field and me on the back seat where we
always sit. Several people have asked us why we sit away back there by
old Mrs. Kinney, but we tell them that she sits on the other side of the
stove from us and we like the seat, because we have occupied it so long.
I presume we would see less and hear more if we sat in front. To-night
just after Mr. Walter Hubbell had made one of his most beautiful prayers
and Mr. Cyrus Dixon was praying, a big June bug came zipping into the
room and snapped against the wall and the lights and barely escaped
several bald heads. Anna kept dodging around in a most startling manner
and I expected every moment to see her walk out and take Emma Wheeler
with her, for if she is afraid of anything more than dogs it is June
bugs. At this crisis the bug flew out and a cat stealthily walked in. We
knew that dear Mrs. Taylor was always unpleasantly affected by the sight
of cats and we didn't know what would happen if the cat should go near
her. The cat very innocently ascended the steps to the desk and as Judge
and Mrs. Taylor always sit on the front seat, she couldn't help
observing the ambitious animal as it started to assist Dr. Daggett in
conducting the meeting. The result was that Mrs. Taylor just managed to
reach the outside door before fainting away. We were glad when the
benediction was pronounced.
_June._--Anna and I had a serenade last night from the Academy Glee
Club, I think, as their voices sounded familiar. We were awakened by the
music, about 11 p. m., quite suddenly and I thought I would step across
the hall to the front chamber for a match to light the candle. I was
only half awake, however, and lost my bearings and stepped off the
stairs and rolled or slid to the bottom. The stairs are winding, so I
must have performed two or three revolutions before I reached my
destination. I jumped up and ran back and found Anna sitting up in bed,
laughing. She asked me where I had been and said if I had only told her
where I was going she would have gone for me. We decided not to strike a
light, but just listen to the singing. Anna said she was glad that the
leading tenor did not know how quickly I "tumbled" to the words of his
song, "O come my love and be my own, nor longer let me dwell alone," for
she thought he would be too much flattered. Grandfather came into the
hall and asked if any bones were broken and if he should send for a
doctor. We told him we guessed not, we thought we would be all right in
the morning. He thought it was Anna who fell down stairs, as he is never
looking for such exploits in me. We girls received some verses from the
Academy boys, written by Greig Mulligan, under the assumed name of Simon
Snooks. The subject was, "The Poor Unfortunate Academy Boys." We have
answered them and now I fear Mrs. Grundy will see them and imagine
something serious is going on. But she is mistaken and will find, at the
end of the session, our hearts are still in our own possession.
When we were down at Sucker Brook the other afternoon we were watching
the water and one of the girls said, "How nice it would be if our lives
could run along as smoothly as this stream." I said I thought it would
be too monotonous. Laura Chapin said she supposed I would rather have an
"eddy" in mine.
We went to the examination at the Academy to-day and to the gymnasium
exercises afterwards. Mr. Noah T. Clarke's brother leads them and they
do some great feats with their rings and swings and weights and ladders.
We girls can do a few in the bowling alley at the Seminary.
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