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What follows is a list of Early National and Antebellum diaries and journals from the North American manuscript holdings in the Department of Special Collections, University Libraries of Notre Dame. Diaries and diary groups included here date wholly or primarily from the years 1788 to 1860.
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WILLIAM KING JOURNAL. 1831-1842. 1 vol., 19 cm., 71 leaves, with 130 pages of manuscript in King's hand. A devotional journal kept by the young evangelical William King (1812-1881), of Franklin County, Ohio, between 1831 and 1842. The latter part of the book consists of journal entries, largely dedicated to King's experiences as a Methodist "exhorter" or lay preacher, dating from 1838 to 1842. The volume also includes some 38 verse compositions of King's, poems and lyrics, expressive of his evangelical beliefs. MSN/EA 8007-1-B.
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U.S.S. BONITA MEXICAN WAR JOURNAL. 1846-1847. 1 vol., 32 cm., 84 leaves, with 147 pages of entries in the author's hand; 2 hand-drawn maps laid in. A personal journal kept by the (unidentified) purser of the U.S.S. Bonita during the U.S.-Mexican War. Bonita, built in 1846, was a 59-foot schooner-gunboat with one 32-pound carronade and a crew of forty; she saw very active service along the Gulf coast of Mexico in 1846-47, as a member of the light-draft "mosquito fleet" attached to the Navy's Home Squadron. The journal contains daily entries running from 25 June 1846 (when the author came on board the Bonita at New York) to 25 July 1847 (when he returned home). The author was a young Brooklynite, educated and with literary tastes; as purser, he was responsible for maintaining the ship's stores, and for keeping her books. The journal is first and foremost a narrative of personal experience; the length of its entries varies substantially, with the perceived eventfulness of the day (the average length is perhaps 100 words, but there are entries of 500 words and more). The military content of the journal is significant. Most of the actions in which the Bonita participated were attacks on the cities of the Mexican Gulf coast. Among those described are: the second attack on Alvarado (15 October 1846); the first Tabasco expedition (16-27 October 1846); the capture of Tampico (14 November 1846); the capture of Laguna del Carmen (20 December 1846); the landings at Veracruz (9 March 1847); the bombardment of Veracruz (22-23 March 1847); the capture of Alvarado and the Alvarado River expedition (1-2 April 1847); the capture of Tuxpan (18 April 1847); and the second Tabasco expedition (14-22 June 1847). In May 1847 the author transferred to the frigate U.S.S. Raritan for the voyage home; before leaving, he served during the second Tabasco expedition as "acting volunteer Lieutenant" in the army. In addition to the journal entries, the volume contains two pages of poetry and a three-page "List and description of places visited." There are also two untitled (and unattributed) maps, drawn in ink and loosely inserted in the volume. The larger of these was probably copied by the author on 27 January 1847, and shows the Mexican coast around Tabasco. The second appears to be the plan of the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa at Veracruz. MSN/EA 8006-1-B to MSN/EA 8006-2-F3.
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ELISUR H. ROGERS JOURNAL. 1849. 1 vol., 26 cm., 57 leaves, with 113 pages of manuscript entries in Rogers' hand. A journal recording the gold rush experiences of Elisur (or Elizur) H. Rogers (1826-1849) of North Bristol, Hartford County, Connecticut. Rogers traveled to California as a member of a joint-stock company called the Montague Mining and Trading Association. His journal covers just under nine months, from the group's departure from New Haven aboard the schooner G. H. Montague (23 January 1849) to the apparent disbanding of the company the following October. About three-quarters of the content is dedicated to the five-month sea voyage to San Francisco, via Cape Horn. The venture proved a failure, as many of the company's members (including Rogers) contracted dysentery after ascending the Sacramento River. The journal ends abruptly with the entry for 15 October; Rogers died a month later. MSN/EA 8001-1-B.
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WILLIAM H. ZERBE DIARY. 1850-1852. 1 vol., 13 cm., 62 leaves, with 88 pages of manuscript entries in Zerbe's hand. A diary recording the experiences during the California gold rush of William H. Zerbe (1824-1894) of Berks County, Pennsylvania. At the time of the diary's first entry (1 July 1850) Zerbe was working a claim near Rough & Ready, California, in what is now Nevada County. By mid-August he had given up mining; he subsequently worked a host of odd jobs, mostly in San Francisco, until he was able to embark for home (2 November 1850). Entries for 1 July through 16 November 1850 are regular and often extended. Entries made thereafter, covering most of Zerbe's sea voyages home, are very sketchy. MSN/EA 8000-1.
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WILLIAM SHEPHERD DIARIES. 1851-1862. 4 vols., 24, 75, 72, and 201 leaves, with 40, 132, 131, and 367 pages of manuscript entries in Shepherd's hand, and numerous newspaper clippings tipped or laid in. Three of the four items in this group are pocket diaries of the daily calendar type, kept for the years 1854, 1855, and 1859 by William Shepherd (b. 1794) of Blackstone, Worcester County, Massachusetts. From 1851 Shepherd was employed at the Millville, Massachusetts textile factory of E. S. Hall & Co, a maker of fancy cassimeres; the 1860 Census identifies him as a wool sorter. Shepherd maintained his diary quite faithfully; taken together, the three volumes bear entries for all but 23 days. Individual entries typically run from 25 to 40 words, though many are shorter and a few longer. The writing is literate, opinionated, and deeply colored by the author's Episcopal faith. Many of the entries treat the immediate events of Shepherd's life: his health, work, and occasional trips to Boston; news of his grown children and other acquaintances; memorable local events; the weather and other aspects of nature. There are also a good many observations on state and national politics, informed as a rule by Shepherd's own sympathies (he aligned himself with the Know Nothings and later with the Republicans, and was an ardent Abolitionist). Much of this commentary is supplemented by clippings pasted or inserted into the volumes. Finally, the diaries contain a good deal that is essentially introspective; most of this content is of a religious nature, bearing on themes of sin, salvation, and death. The diaries were also used for accounts and other personal financial data. The fourth volume in the group (1851-56) seems to be a kind of mourning notebook, with entries and clippings on the deaths of local and national figures. MSN/EA 8005-1 to MSN/EA 8005-4.
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JANE ELWELL GREGORY DIARY. 1852-1858. 1 vol., 20 cm., 91 leaves, with 141 pages of manuscript entries in Gregory's hand. A diary kept by Jane Elwell Gregory (1836-1912) of Shelby, Orleans County, New York, with dated entries ranging from 24 December 1852 to 31 December 1858. The diary commences with the author yet in school, and continues following her marriage, on 31 May 1854, to Sylvester Gregory of Shelby. Individual entries are brief, seldom exceeding 25 words in length, and typically confine themselves to enumerating particulars of the day's activities: chores, social visits, church events, and the like. The only appreciable chronological gaps occur in the summers of 1854 and 1855. MSN/EA 8002-1-B.
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JACOB P. RUSSEL DIARY. 1857-1859. 1 vol., 18 cm., 190 leaves, with 233 pages of manuscript entries in Russel's hand and 29 newspaper clippings tipped or laid in. Jacob Pyle Russel was born on 29 October 1836 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. His father, Alexander Russel, worked at various times as a farmer and blacksmith. From 1853 the younger Russel was apprenticed to or employed by a number of different urban tradesmen, before finding work with G. T. Shoemaker, a Philadelphia druggist; this was his situation at the beginning of the period chronicled by the diary. The volume contains regular daily entries running from 29 October 1857 (Russel's 21st birthday) to 7 February 1859. Entries range from fewer than 20 to more than 100 words; the most typical are 40 or 50 words. The diary is first and foremost a chronicle of Russel's leisure activities and social life; among the most frequently mentioned are churchgoing, attending lectures and other public events, visiting (and carousing) with friends, and courting his future wife, Anna Emery. Nor is the diary without its confessional aspects, especially with regard to Russel's sexual activities. There is less content relating to Russel's work life, and only occasionally does he comment on events in the world at large. Russel enjoyed (and wrote) verse, and clippings of popular verse from Philadelphia newspapers are pasted into the diary. MSN/EA 8003-1-B.
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OSTROM STEPHEN LONT DIARY. 1860. 1 vol., 14 cm., 88 leaves, with 172 pages of manuscript entries in Lont's hand. Ostrom Stephen Lont, M.D., was born in Lebanon, Madison County, New York in 1821. He was not college educated, having earned his medical license following two years' study with a Madison County doctor. In 1856 Lont moved west, to the prairie town of Mazeppa in Wabasha County, Minnesota, where he provided medical services to the surrounding population. Lont's diary contains regular daily entries running from 1 January to 31 December 1860. Individual entries are brief, seldom exceeding 50 words and sometimes consisting of fewer than ten. Lont writes of the weather and other natural phenomena, of patients treated, of social activities and work around his property. In September Lont travelled to Madison and Otsego counties, New York, where he spent the remainder of the year. MSN/EA 8004-1-B.
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