Transcription

Lorette Shepard & John Hamilton writings

May 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

 

5/1/1856 Thursday Cool & cloudy. Mr Buel came back to night.

JCH: Sowed about an acre of oats. Ploughed some in the meadow on the east part, very stony. Mr Buel came here to night.

 

5/2/1856 Friday Cold & rainy. We made Charlie a sun bonnet. Mr Knowlton went home tonight. Sarah here afternoon

JCH: It rained in the forenoon. Went up to the blacksmith shop had a shoe set. Paid Mr Getten for work. Drew out manure on the corn ground.

 

5/3/1856 Saturday Pleasant.  Hellen, Eliza & Frank called. John & I went down to Warren Putnams & aunt Quances. John took some scions for James. Mr Buel & son went home at night.

JCH: Pleasant most of the day. Made some quilt frames in the forenoon. Afternoon sowed some oats and went down to James Quances and set some scions, 34.

 

5/5/1856 Monday. Clear & cold. Austin Buel came back this morning, his father this afternoon.

JCH: Plowing for corn. Planted some potatoes and sowed some peas in the garden north of the house.

 

5/6/1856 Tuesday. Mary Brainard called this morning. Sarah here 3 times to day. Elizebeth here this afternoon to see about her tidy.

JCH: Plowing. Buel’s here. Cool and pleasant. Very stoney place that I am plowing. Made a milking stool.

 

5/7/1856 Wednesday. We moved from the bedroom & kitchen to the south rooms. Lorinda & Mary Brainard called. Sarah here this afternoon. Knowlton came back this evening.

JCH: Plowing again to day. Went down to the village in the evening. Tired.

 

5/8/1856 Thursday Rainy. Pa & John & James Quance took down the chimney in the kitchen, hard time. John sick at night with his throat. Lorinda here this afternoon. Sarah also.

JCH: Helped take down a chimney in the kitchen. A bad job. James Quance helped, a good many loads of stone in the bottom. A low day. Had a sore throat expect a hard time. Lorinda Bride was here.

 

5/9/1856 Friday. Rainy all day. John in house all day - not well, sore throat.

JCH: Plowed some in the forenoon. Rained hard in the afternoon. My throat is some worse to day.

 

5/10/1856 Saturday. Pleasant. John went up home gone all day. His throat about the same. Knowlton went home said not coming any more. Buel went home. Elizebeth & Lucy Quance called at night.

JCH: Went up home and stayed all day. Pleasant and some warmer. Throat about the same. Father gave me fifteen dollars for work last summer. Said he would give me a note of $460 dol.

 

5/11/1856 Sunday. Beautiful day. Towards night, John and I went up to Grandfather Showerman's to see Lorinda & her man. Like him very well. He came up yesterday. Uncle James Shepard & aunt called.

JCH: Pleasant and warm growing weather. Went up to Mr. Showermans to see Lorinda. She is about to go to the west, her husband was there Mr. Bride. Mr. Knowlton got his trunk.

 

5/12/1856 Monday. Pleasant. John’s throat no better. Melvin Buel came with his father to work here. Pa took up the floor in the kitchen.

JCH: Planted potatoes. About three quarters of an acre. Pleasant and warm. Throat not any better. Melvin Buell came here to day to work.

 

5/13/1856 Tuesday. Rainy all day. John went to village got some medicine of Dr. Baker for his throat.

JCH: A circus in Batavia. Went down to Dr. Baker's to get medicine for my sore throat. He gave me some. Saw a 40 horse team come in. Rainy.

 

5/14/1856 Wednesday. James Showerman plowing here for John. All the Buels went home at night.

JCH: James Showerman plowing for me. My throat is worse. Dotters B medicine did no good. Things are growing very fast.

 

5/15/1856 Thursday Thunderstorm. James Hamilton here to work for John. His throat is no better.

JCH: James Hamilton came down to work for me. My throat is very bad.

 

5/16/1856 Friday James Hamilton here at work. Johns throat better, broke last night.

JCH: My throat is better this morning. It broke last night.

 

5/18/1856 Sunday. Rainy. Wm. Stewart called. At home all day. Cooked up a hen & chicken. Our folks called to Israel Quances. Lyman Quance & family moved back from Michigan yesterday. Heard that aunt Nancy Johnson was to be married today.

JCH: Warm. At home all day. William Stewart called here to see how my throat was.

 

5/19/1856 Monday Pleasant. Fine growing time. Mr Buel & two sons came back this morning. Sarah called.

JCH: The Buells came here this morning. Planting corn. Very pleasant and warm.

 

5/20/1856 Tuesday. Pleasant. John planting corn. Ma & I called to Peter Showermans. Found Mr. & Mrs. Vorus, she that was Ann Lyons, there. Melvin Buel went home.

JCH: Planting corn. Planted about two acres and a half. Daniel Shepard took away my calf.

 

5/21/1856 Wednesday Pleasant. Grandmother Showerman here all day. Commenced making John a frock.

JCH: Finished planting corn. Sowed some carrots next to Elder Short line. Laid a fence on the south side of the meadow. Pleasant.

 

5/22/1856 Thursday Quite warm.  Mr & Mrs Calvin Loomis called, also Lucy Quance, Sarah Showerman here.

JCH: Drew some rails and finished the fence pulled pulled tare the rest of the day. Mr Loomis and wife called here.

 

5/23/1856 Friday Very warm. I visited to Elizabeths this afternoon, had Charlie with me, he was a good boy. John went to the village.

JCH: A circus in Batavia pulled tare in the forenoon. Set a pair of bar posts and built some fence in the afternoon. Went down to the village

 

5/24/1856 Saturday. Warm. The Buels finished their job. Had green currants for supper

JCH: Plowed for oats sowed them in the afternoon. The Buells finished their job. Settled with Israel Quance for the sow and pigs.

 

5/25/1856 Sunday Cool & cloudy. Attended a quarterly meeting up south, house full. Ma went with us.

JCH: Attended a quarterly meeting at the south church. The house was full.  A negro was there to raise funds to send a missionary to Canada.

 

5/26/1856 Monday. Pleasant. Mr. Buel & Austin worked here to-day, both finished. Mr. Buel went away. Heard that Deacon Norton died last night very sudden, saw him at church yesterday.

JCH: Plowing in the corn lot up by the woods. Very bad piece to plow very stoney. Went down to the village in the evening.

 

5/27/1856 Tuesday Cool & pleasant. Austin left this morning. Commenced binding a bed quilt. Ma & I called to Israels. I went down to James Quance got her wagon for Charley. Ma pays her 12 shillings for it.

JCH: Plowing for buckwheat. A hard job. It commenced raining just at night. Austin Buell left his morning. They have got through their job.

 

5/28/1856 Wednesday. Rainy. Lyman Quance here to work for Pa on the house. Milton Powers here to dinner. Austin Buell called tonight.

JCH: Raining in the forenoon, did not plow much. Mr. Lyman Quance was here at work to day. Plowing in the afternoon.

 

5/29/1856 Thursday. Rained all day. John painting window blinds. I finished binding my quilt & comfortable. Mrs. P. Showerman here afternoon. Lucy Quance here for supper. Snowed a little all night.

JCH: Plowed some in the morning when it commenced to rain and rained all day. Painted window blinds. Mr Quance here, made a bed room up stairs.

 

5/30/1856 Friday  Snow this morning , cold. Lyman Quance here Ma & I called to Peters.

JCH: Snow this morning. Painting in the forenoon. Afternoon finished plowing in the corn lot and painted some window blinds. Mr Quance here.

 

5/31/1856 Saturday Pleasant. John & I went to village, bought 12 pans.

JCH: Finished painting the blinds over the first time a lead color. Mr Quance here. Went down to the village bought a dozen pans.

 

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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

Handwritten diary pages

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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