EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF
WILLIAM C. LOBENSTINE
[Illustration: WILLIAM C. LOBENSTINE]
Extracts from the Diary of
William C. Lobenstine
December 31, 1851-1858
Biographical Sketch by
Belle W. Lobenstine
Printed Privately
1920
COPYRIGHT 1920 BY
BELLE W. LOBENSTINE
In Loving Memory of
My Father
WILLIAM C. LOBENSTINE
That those of us who follow after
may honor and love his memory and
live worthy of his name
FOREWORD
This book does not in any sense purport to be a biography. Often during
Father's lifetime, on our long walks together or during long quiet
evenings at home, he would tell of his early life, repeating over and
over certain incidents which had impressed him deeply and so—when after
he had gone we found among his papers two closely written diaries
bound in calf, telling of his trip to California and the return from
there—it seemed most natural to work over these diaries, to try to make
out their closely penciled pages and, when that was done, with as few
changes as possible, to publish these, together with a brief sketch of
his early life and a few explanatory notes, for his family, friends,
and any others who may be interested in these early experiences of one
who came seeking the best in this country.
The construction has been left unchanged and is very suggestive of the
German, while the use of words, if at times inaccurate and somewhat
flowery, is remarkable when one considers that but three years before
he had come to this country an immigrant boy, knowing no English
whatever. He was constantly reading, both books and the daily papers
(has spoken often of how, later on, he took the _New York Tribune_ to
study the editorials by Horace Greeley), and then trying to use the
new words which he found—doubtless keeping his diary partly for that
purpose. On the whole it would seem that he has succeeded in making
his thoughts remarkably clear. Some of these are very characteristic
of him as we knew him in later years—but in religious matters he
had reacted from the despotism of a strong established church and
of a narrow-minded bigotry without as yet knowing the deep personal
religious experience which was afterwards his. As to his political
views—it is hard to believe that they were written in 1852 when they
might equally well have been expressed at any time since 1914.