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!
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 [...]
(1860) 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
New Years 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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 Clarke climbed up on a beam and recited part of Alexander Selkirk’s soliloquy: “I’m monarch of [...]
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. [...]
February 24, 1858.–The boarders at the Seminary had some tableaux last evening and invited a great many from the village. 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]