Lorette
In the spring of 1855, only child Lorette Shepard began writing a diary. It looked to be an exciting year for the nineteen-year-old as she had plans to marry John Hamilton and was expecting a sibling to be born in a few months. She continued to write in her diary every day for the next 50 years - the events of the day, people she interacted with, births, marriages, deaths, politics, travel, farm life, and more. John Hamilton also kept a diary up until the end of the Civil War.