Transcription

Lorette Shepard & John Hamilton writings

June 1856

Following is a verbatim transcription of the diaries penned by Lorette Shepard & John Hamilton about life in rural Genesee County, New York. People, places & events transcribed have been thoroughly researched unraveling family relationships & yielding rich insights. Research results are conveniently interspersed within the transcription & published in a footnote form.


Lorette Shepard's 1856 DiaryImage Credit: Daniel J. Shepard

 

6/1/1856 Sunday Rainy this forenoon. Attended church up south. Austin Buell called at night with Sarah Showerman. Mrs P Showerman helped me make a new rug carpet yesterday.

JCH: Attended meeting up south. It rained some in the forenoon. Attended meeting at the school house. Mr Buell called here with Sarah Showerman.

 

6/2/1856 Monday Pleasant & quite warm. Pa preparing for plastering. No workman to day. I called to Peter’s.

JCH: Warm, evening rain. Pulled tare in the forenoon. Went over to Mr. Bartholf lime kiln and got 78 bushels of lime. Dragged for beans. Great complaint of corn rotting.

 

6/3/1856 Tuesday. Showery & warm. Making a pair of foot valances. Grandmother & Olive &  Mrs. Azro Norton took dinner here. Ma & I visited to Peters, mistrusted Hellen.

JCH: Drew twenty barrels of apples to Batavia. Went up home and got a sample of my wheat. Not very good, think of selling it. Foggy and cloudy.

 

6/4/1856 Wednesday Very warm through the day. Cold at night. Elizabeth visited here. I helped Ma on a frock for Pa.

JCH: Pulling tare in the forenoon. Sorting apples, sold them at a dollar a barrel. A thunder shower in the afternoon.

 

6/5/1856 Thursday Our folks think of selling their wheat for seven & six pence. Ma painted some in her kitchen.

JCH: Drew twenty barrels of apples to Batavia. Went up home and got a sample of my wheat. Not very good, think of selling it.

 

6/6/1856 Friday. Pleasant most of the day. Pa drew off his wheat. 187 bushels. Ma & I painted some. John went up home.

JCH: We drew down 187 bushels of wheat to Batavia. Sold it for seven and six pence per bushel . Went up to fathers and cleaned up over one hundred more. Warm.

 

6/7/1856 Saturday. Pleasant with a fine shower this afternoon. Ira Chaddock visited here. Austin Buel here. John drew off his wheat, 83 bushels.

JCH: A heavy shower in the afternoon. Drew my wheat from fathers. Hoed about seventy two bushels fell short about four pounds on a bushel. Received a check for it. Ira Chaddock called here.

 

6/8/1856 Sunday Showery. At home all day, Pa went up south & heard a colored man preach. Uncle Asahel called.

JCH: Did not attend church to day. Showery. Father Shepard went up south. A negro preached. A considerable excitement about the Kansas disturbance.

 

6/9/1856 Monday Cloudy. Helped Ma some in taking up Charlie’s clothes. Sarah called. John paid Pa 70$ on the oats.

JCH: Drew out manure sixteen loads. Father Shepard went down to Batavia and got the money for the wheat. I paid him seventy dollars on his note. Cloudy and cool.

 

6/10/1856 Tuesday Pleasant. Sewing for Charlie. Aunt Julia Brainard visited here. Willard Quance worked for John.

JCH: Willard Quance here helping me draw out manure.

 

6/11/1856 Wednesday Quite warm. Willard here. Ma & I visited to grandmother Shepard’s, good visit.   Laura’s  health rather poor.

JCH: Willard here to day we are hoeing corn and potatoes. The potatoes look nice. The corn did not all come up. Plant over what we hoe.

 

6/12/1856 Thursday Very warm for June. Cloudy. Peter’s folks came home to day from  Sommerset.

JCH: Horses broke away. Osgood Putnam found them in his farm yard. Hoeing corn. Willard Quance here. Pleasant and warm. A shower in the eve.

 

6/13/1856 Friday. Asahel here plastering. John, Ma & I went to village. We got our window curtains, got trimming for my bonnet. Paid 2 $ for it. Alexander Reamer was buried today - consumption.

JCH: Drew out some ashes to put on the corn. Went down to Batavia with our folks. Sold 94 lbs of butter. Showery. Alexander Reamer was buried to day. He died of consumption.

 

Former residence of Alexander Reamer

The home (circa 2010) of Alexander Reamer at the time of his death, located at the corner of Cedar and Ellicott Streets in Batavia, New York. 
Image Credit: LJ Shepard Research

 

6/14/1856 Saturday. Pleasant. Uncle Asahel here this forenoon plastering. Willard here to work. Mother Hamilton and James here to dinner. Helped aunt Roxanny on her spread. I trimmed my bonnet. Heard Aunt Lydia Bradner was not expected to live, caused by sticking a carpet nail in her foot.

JCH: Hoed in corn. Willard here. Mother and James called here. Lorette trimmed her bonnet.

 

Lydia Powell Bradner

Lydia Powell Bradner 1793-1861, wife of John Bradner, Barre, Orleans County, New York.
Image Credit: Ancestry.com Public Member Photos & Scanned Documents

 

6/15/1856 Sunday. Showery. I was not well all day quite sick at night. Called Dr. Whitney. Heard that aunt Bradner was a little better.

JCH: Lorette was taken sick this morning. She was very sick all day and night. Called in doctor Whitney to see her. Showery.

 

6/16/1856 Monday. Pleasant. I was better this morning. Dr. Whitney called. Sarah Showerman helped Ma to day. Austin Buell called. Uncle Asahel here afternoon plastering. This day will be remembered by us.

JCH: Lorette was better this morning. The doctor called again to day. I was hoeing corn. Warm. This day remembered by us.

 

6/17/1856 Tuesday Eunice helped Ma wash to day, went home afternoon. Commenced making our window curtains.

JCH: Finished hoeing corn the first time. Asahel Shepard here to day and father Shepard went down to Batavia with him.

 

6/18/1856 Wednesday. Rainy. Eunice here cleaning house this afternoon. John bought a new stove paid 24$ for it, very good bargain. They worked on the road.

JCH: Showery and cool. I went down to Batavia and bought a stove called the Governor for twenty four dollars with the furniture. Eunice Lyons here cleaning house.

 

6/19/1856 Thursday Mary Brainard called. Ma & Eunice cleaned the north chamber.

JCH: At work on the road this forenoon. Sowed my buckwheat in part of it to day. Willard dragging it in.

 

6/20/1856 Friday. Eunice here cleaning house. Uncle Asahel here building chimney. Willard went home to night.

JCH: Finished sowing buckwheat and hoeing potatoes. Painted in the afternoon, Willard pulled tare.

 

6/21/1856 Saturday Pleasant. Eunice here cleaning. Asahel here this afternoon & finishing on chimney. John helped shear sheep for his father.

JCH: Went up home and helped father check sheep. Father lent me eight dollars and a half.

 

6/22/1856 Sunday. Very warm. Attended church up south. Came back by Father Hamilton & took supper. Miss Stevens called. She is teaching our school. Austin came this way.

JCH: Attended meeting up south. Mr. Armstrong preached. Quite warm and a little rain. Miss Stevens called here she is teaching in our district.

 

6/23/1856 Monday Pleasant & cool. We did not wash. Eunice obliged to stay at home to day. I called there.

JCH: Plowing for wheat, sent down to Batavia Charles Lamkin to get two plough points. We paid one dollar for them.

 

6/24/1856 Tuesday Pleasant. Eunice here, washing. Mrs P Showerman called. We cut the paper for my kitchen.

JCH: Plowing. It plows hard it is so dry. Eunice here at work.

 

6/25/1856 Wednesday. Quite warm. Eunice here & we papered my kitchen this afternoon. Very good luck. Olive here visiting. Lucy & Sally called. Charlie has one upper tooth and two under ones.

JCH: Plowing. Broke a clevis and went down to the black smith shop and had it mended. Willard called here and I paid him for work. Pleasant.

 

6/26/1856 Thursday Very warm. Eunice here, we cleaned my buttery. Pa painted the north room. John plowing the summer fodder.

JCH: Plowing. Broke the clevis just at night. Drove a cow down to My Lymans, Lorettes cow.

 

6/27/1856 Friday Pleasant. Eunice & I papered Ma’s bedroom.

JCH: Plowing. Bought twenty yearling lambs of Asahel Shepard at ten shillings apiece. Warm and getting dry.

 

6/28/1856 Saturday Very warm. Eunice here she & Ma papered the hall. Sarah took care of Charlie a while.

JCH: Plowing. Warm. Eunice Lyons here at work. Frank Shepard left my paper here.

 

6/29/1856 Sunday. Very warm a shower at night. Attended meeting at the school house. Mr. Williams preached. We called to Grandmother Shepard. Mr. Leonard & Maria were there.

JCH: Attended meeting at the school house. Called at Grandmother Shepards. Mr Leonard and wife were there.

 

6/30/1856 Monday Cloudy cool. Ma & I washed alone. Eunice came here this afternoon., we cleaned Ma’s bedroom & closet & my closet. John went up home to take Father Hamilton’s horse up there, he had bad ploughing with him.

JCH: Drove my cow down to Mr Lymans. Finished plowing in the middle lot. Went up to fathers and stayed all night.

 

Samuel Warner Lyman (1812-1864), married to Charlotte Williamson, lived on Ellicott Street Road, Batavia

Samuel Warner Lyman (1812-1864), married to Charlotte Williamson, lived on Ellicott Street Road, Batavia
Image Credit: Ancestry.com Public Member Photos & Scanned Documents

 

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1856 Diary Summary

Lorette is nineteen years old. Husband John is busy with political events and news, such as the election of a new president and the anti-slavery fight. He spends time "sugaring off" to make maple syrup and sugar. Lorette’s grandfather John Shepard Sr. dies, along with young Joel Rogers, Leverett Richmond, and William Johnson. Her cousin Lorinda marries and heads to Iowa with her new husband. Lorette completes her star quilt, and she and John attend teas, political meetings, and church. They are living with her parents and infant brother Charles, in Batavia.

1856 Surnames Mentioned

Armstrong, Baker, Banks, Barney, Bartholf, Beecher, Belamy, Benedict, Bostwick, Boylan, Bradner, Brainard, Breckenridge, Bride, Brooks, Brown, Bryan, Buchanon, Buell, Butler, Calkins, Chaddock, Chafee, Charles, Clark, Cole, Conklin, Cortes, Covell, Craig, Crane, Dascomb, Dayton, Denton, Donaldson, Dorman, Dunbar, Dyer, Foster, Franklin, Fremont, Frisbe, Fuller, Getten, Grover, Hamilton, Hatch, Hawley, Holden, Hurty, Johnson, Kendall, King, Knowlton, Kremer, Lamkin, Lane, Lawrence, Leonard, Levings, Lincoln, Loomis, Lord, Ludden, Lyman, Lyons, Mallison, Markley, Marsh, McCall, Moore, Morgan, Muhaly, Newton, Nichols, Northrup, Norton, Nott, Odion, Orcutt, Powell, Powers, Preston, Prindle, Putnam, Quance, Rawlin, Reamer, Richmond, Rogers, Rolfe, Shaw, Shepard, Short, Showerman, Smith, Sprague, Stevens, Stewart, Sweetland, Tabor, Thompson, Thorn, Vorus, Vrooman, Ware, West, Whitney, Wilkes, Williams, Winks, Winthrop

Life as Lorette

Life as Lorette presents the journey from diary discovery to revealing pioneers of Genesee County, New York.

World Events of 1856

  • A telephone line between Newfoundland and New York City goes into service
  • Russia signed Peace of Paris ending the Crimean War
  • An 1856 one-cent British Guiana stamp was purchased in 1980 for $935,000 by chemical heir John E. DuPont
  • Gustave Flaubert published in a Paris journal, his masterpiece, Madame Bovary, a novel portraying the love affairs of a romantic young woman married to a dull provincial doctor

National Events of 1856

  • Virginia senator R. M. T. Hunter defends slavery in an address in Poughkeepsie
  • The Buffalo and Lake Huron Railroad opens from Fort Erie to Stratford, Ontario
  • Violence in the territory of Kansas costs 200 lives in a struggle to decide if slavery will be allowed in Kansas when it becomes a state
  • John Brown & a band of abolitionists killed five proslavery settlers near Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas
  • More than 200 Mormons died near Martin’s Cove, Wyoming, as they migrated West using handcarts
  • Democrat James Buchanan was elected US president
  • Tin-type camera was patented by Hamilton Smith in Gambier, Ohio

New York State Events in 1856

  • Oswego gets close to six feet of snow
  • The Western Union Telegraph Company is founded in Rochester
  • 300,000 Catholic immigrants arrive in New York City during the year
  • John Alsop King is elected the state's first Republican governor
  • The Montezuma Aqueduct, carrying the Erie over the Seneca River, is completed at a cost of $150K

Local Events in 1856

  • Niagara University is founded at Niagara Falls
  • Portions of Allegany County are made part of Livingston County
  • Commissioners are appointed from NY and CT in attempt to pin down an acceptable common border
  • Abolitionist Rev. Samuel Cox becomes the first president of Ingham University for Women in LeRoy
  • The Rural Academy at East Pembroke was incorporated by the Regents of New York State; Rev. Mr. Horton, a Presbyterian minister, was its founder, donating land for the purpose
  • Henry and daughter Frances Hoag died during the summer in the Town of Alabama, Genesee County; Polly, Henry's wife, would later be charged with their deaths
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