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[Illustration: Caroline Cowles Richards (From a daguerreotype taken
in 1860)]
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VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA
1852-1872
INCLUDING THE PERIOD OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR
AS TOLD IN THE DIARY OF A SCHOOL-GIRL
By
CAROLINE COWLES RICHARDS
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
MARGARET E. SANGSTER
NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1913
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Copyright, 1908, by CAROLINE RICHARDS CLARKE
Copyright, 1913, by HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
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To My dear brothers, JAMES AND JOHN, who, by precept and example, have
encouraged me, and to my beloved sister, ANNA, whose faith and affection
have been my chief inspiration, this little volume is lovingly
inscribed.
Naples, N. Y.
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CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction, by Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster ix
The Villages xiii
The Villagers xiv
1852.--Family Notes--Famous School--Girls--Hoop Skirts 1
1853.--Runaways--Bible Study--Essays--Catechism 10
1854.--Lake Picnic--Pyramid of Beauty--Governor Clark 20
1855.--Preachers--James and John--Votes for Women 43
1856.--the Fire--Sleighing and Prayer--Father's Advice 52
1857.--Truants and Pickles--Candle Stories--the Snuffers 77
1858.--Tableaux and Charades--Spiritual Seance 95
1859.--E. M. Morse--Letter from the North Pole 106
1860.--Gymnastics--Troublesome Comforts 118
1861.--President Lincoln's Inauguration--Civil War--School
Enthusiasm 130
1862.--Gough Lectures--President's Call for Three Hundred
Thousand Men--Mission Zeal 138
1863.--A Soldier's Death--General M'Clellan's Letter--President
Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg 148
1864.--Grandfather Beals' Death--Anna Graduates 162
1865.--President Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address--Fall of
Richmond--Murder of Lincoln 176
1866.--Freedman's Fair--General Grant and Admiral Farragut
Visit Canandaigua 200
1867.--Brother John and Wife Go to London--Lecture by
Charles Dickens 208
1871.--Hon. George H. Stuart Speaks in Canandaigua--A Large
Collection 210
1872.--Grandmother Beals' Death--Biography 211
1880.--Anna's Marriage 225
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Caroline Cowles Richards Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
Grandfather Beals 8
Grandmother Beals 8
Mr. Noah T. Clarke 30
Miss Upham 30
First Congregational Church 38
Rev. Oliver E. Daggett, D.D. 54
Judge Henry W. Taylor 54
Miss Zilpha Clark 54
"Frankie Richardson" 54
Horace Finley 54
Tom Eddy and Eugene Stone 66
"Uncle David Dudley Field" 66
Grandmother's Rocking Chair 88
The Grandfather Clock 88
Hon. Francis Granger 100
Mr. Gideon Granger 100
The Old Canandaicua Academy 124
The Ontario Female Seminary 132
"Old Friend Burling" 138
Madame Anna Bishop 138
"Abbie Clark and I Had Our Ambrotypes Taken To-day" 152
"Mr. Noah T. Clarke's Brother and I" 152
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PUBLISHERS' NOTE
After this book was in type, on March 29, 1913, the author, Mrs.
Caroline Richards Clarke, died at Naples, New York.
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INTRODUCTION
The Diary of Caroline Cowles Richards fell into my hands, so to speak,
out of space. I had no previous acquaintance with the author, and I sat
down to read the book one evening in no especial mood of anticipation.
From the first page to the last my attention was riveted. To call it
fascinating barely expresses the quality of the charm. Caroline Richards
and her sister Anna, having early lost their mother, were sent to the
home of her parents in Canandaigua, New York, where they were brought up
in the simplicity and sweetness of a refined household, amid Puritan
traditions. The children were allowed to grow as plants do, absorbing
vitality from the atmosphere around them. Whatever there was of gracious
formality in the manners of aristocratic people of the period, came to
them as their birthright, while the spirit of the truest democracy
pervaded their home. Of this Diary it is not too much to say that it is
a revelation of childhood in ideal conditions.
The Diary begins in 1852, and is continued until 1872. Those of us who
lived in the latter half of the nineteenth century recall the swift
transitions, the rapid march of science and various changes in social
customs, and as we meet allusions to these in the leaves of the girl's
Diary we live our past over again with peculiar pleasure.
Far more has been told us concerning the South during the Civil War than
concerning the North. Fiction has found the North a less romantic field,
and the South has been chosen as the background of many a stirring
novel, while only here and there has an author been found who has known
the deep-hearted loyalty of the Northern States and woven the story into
narrative form. The girl who grew up in Canandaigua was intensely
patriotic, and from day to day vividly chronicled what she saw, felt,
and heard. Her Diary is a faithful record of impressions of that stormy
time in which the nation underwent a baptism of fire. The realism of her
paragraphs is unsurpassed.
Beyond the personal claim of the Diary and the certainty to give
pleasure to a host of readers, the author appeals to Americans in
general because of her family and her friends. Her father and
grandfather were Presbyterian ministers. Her Grandfather Richards was
for twenty years President of Auburn Theological Seminary. Her brother,
John Morgan Richards of London, has recently given to the world the Life
and Letters of his gifted and lamented daughter, Pearl Mary-Terese
Craigie, known best as John Oliver Hobbes. The famous Field brothers and
their father, Rev. David Dudley Field, and their nephew, Justice David
J. Brewer, of the United States Supreme Court, were her kinsmen. Miss
Hannah Upham, a distinguished teacher mentioned in the Diary, belongs to
the group of American women to whom we owe the initiative of what we now
choose to call the higher education of the sex. She, in common with Mary
Lyon, Emma Willard, and Eliza Bayliss Wheaton, gave a forward impulse to
the liberal education of women, and our privilege is to keep their
memory green. They are to be remembered by what they have done and by
the tender reminiscences found here and there like pressed flowers in a
herbarium, in such pages as these.
Miss Richards' marriage to Mr. Edmund C. Clarke occurred in 1866. Mr.
Clarke is a veteran of the Civil War and a Commander in the Grand Army
of the Republic. His brother, Noah T. Clarke, was the Principal of
Canandaigua Academy for the long term of forty years. The dignified,
amusing and remarkable personages who were Mrs. Clarke's contemporaries,
teachers, or friends are pictured in her Diary just as they were, so
that we meet them on the street, in the drawing-room, in church, at
prayer-meeting, anywhere and everywhere, and grasp their hands as if we,
too, were in their presence.
Wherever this little book shall go it will carry good cheer. Fun and
humor sparkle through the story of this childhood and girlhood so that
the reader will be cheated of ennui, and the sallies of the little
sister will provoke mirth and laughter to brighten dull days. I have
read thousands of books. I have never read one which has given me more
delight than this.
Margaret E. Sangster.
Glen Ridge, New Jersey,
June, 1911.
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THE VILLAGES
CANANDAIGUA, NEW YORK.--A beautiful village, the county seat of Ontario
County, situated at the foot of Canandaigua Lake, which is called "the
gem of the inland lakes" of Western New York, about 325 miles from New
York city.
NAPLES, NEW YORK.--A small village at the head of Canandaigua Lake,
famous for its vine-clad hills and unrivaled scenery.
GENEVA, NEW YORK.--A beautiful town about 16 miles from Canandaigua.
EAST BLOOMFIELD, NEW YORK.--An ideal farming region and suburban village
about 8 miles from Canandaigua.
PENN YAN, NEW YORK.--The county seat of Yates County, a grape center
upon beautiful Lake Keuka.
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK.--A nourishing manufacturing city, growing rapidly,
less than 30 miles from Canandaigua, and 120 miles from Niagara Falls.
AUBURN, NEW YORK.--Noted for its Theological Seminary, nearly one
hundred years old, and for being the home of William H. Seward and other
American Statesmen.
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THE VILLAGERS
Mr. and Mrs. THOMAS BEALS, Grandfather and Grandmother
CAROLINE and ANNA Grandchildren of Mr. and
JAMES and JOHN RICHARDS Mrs. Beals
"AUNT ANN"
"AUNT MARY" CARR Sons and daughters of
"AUNT GLORIANNA" Mr. and Mrs. Beals
"UNCLE HENRY"
"UNCLE THOMAS"
Rev. O. E. DAGGETT, D.D. Pastor of Canandaigua Congregational
Church
NOAH T. CLARKE Principal Canandaigua Academy for Boys
Hon. FRANCIS GRANGER Postmaster-General, U.S.A.
General JOHN A. GRANGER Of New York State Militia
GIDEON GRANGER Son of Hon. Francis
ALBERT GRANGER Son of General Granger
JOHN GREIG Wealthy Scotsman long time resident
of Canandaigua
MYRON H. CLARK Governor, State of New York
JUDGE H. W. TAYLOR Prominent lawyer and jurist
E. M. MORSE A leading lawyer in Canandaigua
Miss ZILPHA CLARKE School teacher of note
Miss CAROLINE CHESEBRO Well-known writers
Mrs. GEORGE WILLSON
Miss HANNAH UPHAM Eminent instructress and lady principal
of Ontario Female Seminary
Mr. FRED THOMPSON Prominent resident, married Miss
Mary Clark, daughter of Governor
Myron H. Clark.
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School Boys
WILLIAM T. SCHLEY
HORACE M. FINLEY
ALBERT MURRAY
S. GURNEY LAPHAM Residing with parents in
CHARLES COY Canandaigua
ELLSWORTH DAGGETT
CHARLIE PADDOCK
MERRITT C. WILLCOX
WILLIAM H. ADAMS Law Students
GEORGE N. WILLIAMS
WILLIS P. FISKE Teachers in Academy
EDMUND C. CLARKE
School Girls
LOUISA FIELD
MARY WHEELER
EMMA WHEELER
LAURA CHAPIN
JULIA PHELPS
MARY PAUL
BESSIE SEYMOUR
LUCILLA FIELD
MARY FIELD
ABBIE CLARK
SUSIE DAGGETT Residing with parents in
FRANKIE RICHARDSON Canandaigua
FANNY GAYLORD
MARY COY
HELEN COY
HATTIE PADDOCK
SARAH ANTES
LOTTIE LAPHAM
CLARA WILSON
FANNIE PALMER
RITIE TYLER
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VILLAGE LIFE IN AMERICA
1852
Canandaigua, N. Y.
_November_ 21, 1852.--I am ten years old to-day, and I think I will
write a journal and tell who I am and what I am doing. I have lived with
my Grandfather and Grandmother Beals ever since I was seven years old,
and Anna, too, since she was four. Our brothers, James and John, came
too, but they are at East Bloomfield at Mr. Stephen Clark's Academy.
Miss Laura Clark of Naples is their teacher.
Anna and I go to school at District No. 11. Mr. James C. Cross is our
teacher, and some of the scholars say he is cross by name and cross by
nature, but I like him. He gave me a book by the name of "Noble Deeds of
American Women," for reward of merit, in my reading class. To-day, a
nice old gentleman, by the name of Mr. William Wood, visited our school.
He is Mrs. Nat Gorham's uncle, and Wood Street is named for him. He had
a beautiful pear in his hand and said he would give it to the boy or
girl who could spell "virgaloo," for that was the name of the pear. I
spelt it that way, but it was not right. A little boy, named William
Schley, spelt it right and he got the pear. I wish I had, but I can't
even remember now how he spelt it. If the pear was as hard as the name I
don't believe any one would want it, but I don't see how they happened
to give such a hard name to such a nice pear. Grandfather says perhaps
Mr. Wood will bring in a Seckle pear some day, so I had better be ready
for him.
Grandmother told us such a nice story to-day I am going to write it down
in my journal. I think I shall write a book some day. Miss Caroline
Chesebro did, and I don't see why I can't. If I do, I shall put this
story in it. It is a true story and better than any I found in three
story books Grandmother gave us to read this week, "Peep of Day," "Line
Upon Line," and "Precept Upon Precept," but this story was better than
them all. One night Grandfather was locking the front door at nine
o'clock and he heard a queer sound, like a baby crying. So he unlocked
the door and found a bandbox on the stoop, and the cry seemed to come
from inside of it. So he took it up and brought it into the dining-room
and called the two girls, who had just gone upstairs to bed. They came
right down and opened the box, and there was a poor little girl baby,
crying as hard as could be. They took it out and rocked it and sung to
it and got some milk and fed it and then sat up all night with it, by
the fire. There was a paper pinned on the baby's dress with her name on
it, "Lily T. LaMott," and a piece of poetry called "Pity the Poor
Orphan." The next morning, Grandfather went to the overseer of the poor
and he said it should be taken to the county house, so our hired man got
the horse and buggy, and one of the girls carried the baby and they took
it away. There was a piece in the paper about it, and Grandmother pasted
it into her "Jay's Morning and Evening Exercises," and showed it to us.
It said, "A Deposit After Banking Hours." "Two suspicious looking
females were seen about town in the afternoon, one of them carrying an
infant. They took a train early in the morning without the child. They
probably secreted themselves in Mr. Beals' yard and if he had not taken
the box in they would have carried it somewhere else." When Grandfather
told the clerks in the bank about it next morning, Mr. Bunnell, who
lives over by Mr. Daggett's, on the park, said, if it had been left at
some people's houses it would not have been sent away. Grandmother says
they heard that the baby was adopted afterwards by some nice people in
Geneva. People must think this is a nice place for children, for they
had eleven of their own before we came. Mrs. McCoe was here to call this
afternoon and she looked at us and said: "It must be a great
responsibility, Mrs. Beals." Grandmother said she thought "her strength
would be equal to her day." That is one of her favorite verses. She said
Mrs. McCoe never had any children of her own and perhaps that is the
reason she looks so sad at us. Perhaps some one will leave a bandbox and
a baby at her door some dark night.
_Saturday._--Our brother John drove over from East Bloomfield to-day to
see us and brought Julia Smedley with him, who is just my age. John
lives at Mr. Ferdinand Beebe's and goes to school and Julia is Mr.
Beebe's niece. They make quantities of maple sugar out there and they
brought us a dozen little cakes. They were splendid. I offered John one
and he said he would rather throw it over the fence than to eat it. I
can't understand that. Anna had the faceache to-day and I told her that
I would be the doctor and make her a ginger poultice. I thought I did it
exactly right but when I put it on her face she shivered and said:
"Carrie, you make lovely poultices only they are so cold." I suppose I
ought to have warmed it.
_Tuesday._--Grandfather took us to ride this afternoon and let us ask
Bessie Seymour to go with us. We rode on the plank road to Chapinville
and had to pay 2 cents at the toll gate, both ways. We met a good many
people and Grandfather bowed to them and said, "How do you do,
neighbor?"
We asked him what their names were and he said he did not know. We went
to see Mr. Munson, who runs the mill at Chapinville. He took us through
the mill and let us get weighed and took us over to his house and out
into the barn-yard to see the pigs and chickens and we also saw a colt
which was one day old. Anna just wrote in her journal that "it was a
very amusing site."
_Sunday._--Rev. Mr. Kendall, of East Bloomfield, preached to-day. His
text was from Job 26, 14: "Lo these are parts of his ways, but how
little a portion is heard of him." I could not make out what he meant.
He is James' and John's minister.
_Wednesday._--Captain Menteith was at our house to dinner to-day and he
tried to make Anna and me laugh by snapping his snuff-box under the
table. He is a very jolly man, I think.
_Thursday._--Father and Uncle Edward Richards came to see us yesterday
and took us down to Mr. Corson's store and told us we could have
anything we wanted. So we asked for several kinds of candy, stick candy
and lemon drops and bulls' eyes, and then they got us two rubber balls
and two jumping ropes with handles and two hoops and sticks to roll them
with and two red carnelian rings and two bracelets. We enjoyed getting
them very much, and expect to have lots of fun. They went out to East
Bloomfield to see James and John, and father is going to take them to
New Orleans. We hate to have them go.
_Friday._--We asked Grandmother if we could have some hoop skirts like
the seminary girls and she said no, we were not old enough. When we were
downtown Anna bought a reed for 10 cents and ran it into the hem of her
underskirt and says she is going to wear it to school to-morrow. I think
Grandmother will laugh out loud for once, when she sees it, but I don't
think Anna will wear it to school or anywhere else. She wouldn't want to
if she knew how terrible it looked.
I threaded a dozen needles on a spool of thread for Grandmother, before
I went to school, so that she could slip them along and use them as she
needed them. She says it is a great help.
Grandmother says I will have a great deal to answer for, because Anna
looks up to me so and tries to do everything that I do and thinks
whatever I say is "gospel truth." The other day the girls at school were
disputing with her about something and she said, "It is so, if it ain't
so, for Calline said so." I shall have to "toe the mark," as Grandfather
says, if she keeps watch of me all the time and walks in my footsteps.
We asked Grandmother this evening if we could sit out in the kitchen
with Bridget and Hannah and the hired man, Thomas Holleran. She said we
could take turns and each stay ten minutes by the clock. It gave us a
little change. I read once that "variety is the spice of life." They sit
around the table and each one has a candle, and Thomas reads aloud to
the girls while they sew. He and Bridget are Catholics, but Hannah is a
member of our Church. The girls have lived here always, I think, but I
don't know for sure, as I have not lived here always myself, but we have
to get a new hired man sometimes. Grandmother says if you are as good to
your girls as you are to yourself they will stay a long time. I am sure
that is Grandmother's rule. Mrs. McCarty, who lives on Brook Street
(some people call it Cat Alley but Grandmother says that is not proper),
washes for us Mondays, and Grandmother always has a lunch for her at
eleven o'clock and goes out herself to see that she sits down and eats
it. Mrs. McCarty told us Monday that Mrs. Brockle's niece was dead, who
lives next door to her. Grandmother sent us over with some things for
their comfort and told us to say that we were sorry they were in
trouble. We went and when we came back Anna told Grandmother that I
said, "Never mind, Mrs. Brockle, some day we will all be dead." I am
sure that I said something better than that.
_Wednesday_.--Mr. Cross had us speak pieces to-day. He calls our names,
and we walk on to the platform and toe the mark and make a bow and say
what we have got to say. He did not know what our pieces were going to
be and some of them said the same ones. Two boys spoke: "The boy stood
on the burning deck, whence all but him had fled." William Schley was
one, and he spoke his the best. When he said, "The flames that lit the
battle wreck shone round him o'er the dead," we could almost see the
fire, and when he said, "My father, must I stay?" we felt like telling
him, no, he needn't. He is going to make a good speaker. Mr. Cross said
so. Albert Murray spoke "Excelsior," and Horace Finley spoke nice, too.
My piece was, "Why, Phoebe, are you come so soon? Where are your
berries, child?" Emma Van Arsdale spoke the same one. We find them all
in our reader. Sometime I am going to speak, "How does the water come
down at Ladore?" Splashing and flashing and dashing and clashing and all
that--it rhymes, so it is easy to remember.
We played snap the whip at recess to-day and I was on the end and was
snapped off against the fence. It hurt me so, that Anna cried. It is not
a very good game for girls, especially for the one on the end.
[Illustration: Grandfather Beals, Grandmother Beals]
_Tuesday._--I could not keep a journal for two weeks, because
Grandfather and Grandmother have been very sick and we were afraid
something dreadful was going to happen. We are so glad that they are
well again. Grandmother was sick upstairs and Grandfather in the bedroom
downstairs, and we carried messages back and forth for them. Dr. Carr
and Aunt Mary came over twice every day and said they had the influenza
and the inflammation of the lungs. It was lonesome for us to sit down to
the table and just have Hannah wait on us. We did not have any blessing
because there was no one to ask it. Anna said she could, but I was
afraid she would not say it right, so I told her she needn't. We had
such lumps in our throats we could not eat much and we cried ourselves
to sleep two or three nights. Aunt Ann Field took us home with her one
afternoon to stay all night. We liked the idea and Mary and Louisa and
Anna and I planned what we would play in the evening, but just as it was
dark our hired man, Patrick McCarty, drove over after us. He said
Grandfather and Grandmother could not get to sleep till they saw the
children and bid them good-night. So we rode home with him. We never
stayed anywhere away from home all night that we can remember. When
Grandmother came downstairs the first time she was too weak to walk, so
she sat on each step till she got down. When Grandfather saw her, he
smiled and said to us: "When she will, she will, you may depend on't;
and when she won't she won't, and that's the end on't." But we knew all
the time that he was very glad to see her.
1853
_Sunday, March 20._--It snowed so, that we could not go to church to-day
and it was the longest day I ever spent. The only excitement was seeing
the snowplow drawn by two horses, go up on this side of the street and
down on the other. Grandfather put on his long cloak with a cape, which
he wears in real cold weather, and went. We wanted to pull some long
stockings over our shoes and go too but Grandmother did not think it was
best. She gave us the "Dairyman's Daughter" and "Jane the Young
Cottager," by Leigh Richmond, to read. I don't see how they happened to
be so awfully good. Anna says they died of "early piety," but she did
not say it very loud. Grandmother said she would give me 10 cents if I
would learn the verses in the New England Primer that John Rogers left
for his wife and nine small children and one at the breast, when he was
burned at the stake, at Smithfield, England, in 1555. One verse is, "I
leave you here a little book for you to look upon that you may see your
father's face when he is dead and gone." It is a very long piece but I
got it. Grandmother says "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
church." Anna learned
"In Adam's fall we sinned all.
My Book and heart shall never part.
The Cat doth play and after slay.
The Dog doth bite a thief at night."
When she came to the end of it and said,
"Zaccheus he, did climb a tree, his Lord to see."
she said she heard some one say, "The tree broke down and let him fall
and he did not see his Lord at all." Grandmother said it was very wicked
indeed and she hoped Anna would try and forget it.
_April 1._--Grandmother sent me up into the little chamber to-day to
straighten things and get the room ready to be cleaned. I found a little
book called "Child's Pilgrim Progress, Illustrated," that I had never
seen before. I got as far as Giant Despair when Anna came up and said
Grandmother sent her to see what I was doing, and she went back and told
her that I was sitting on the floor in the midst of books and papers and
was so absorbed in "Pilgrim's Progress" that I had made none myself. It
must be a good book for Grandmother did not say a word. Father sent us
"Gulliver's Travels" and there is a gilt picture on the green cover, of
a giant with legs astride and little Lilliputians standing underneath,
who do not come up to his knees. Grandmother did not like the picture,
so she pasted a piece of pink calico over it, so we could only see the
giant from his waist up. I love the story of Cinderella and the poem,
"'Twas the night before Christmas," and I am sorry that there are no
fairies and no Santa Claus.
We go to school to Miss Zilpha Clark in her own house on Gibson Street.
Other girls who go are Laura Chapin, Julia Phelps, Mary Paul, Bessie
Seymour, Lucilla and Mary Field, Louisa Benjamin, Nannie Corson, Kittie
Marshall, Abbie Clark and several other girls. I like Abbie Clark the
best of all the girls in school excepting of course my sister Anna.
Before I go to school every morning I read three chapters in the Bible.
I read three every day and five on Sunday and that takes me through the
Bible in a year. Those I read this morning were the first, second and
third chapters of Job. The first was about Eliphaz reproveth Job;
second, Benefit of God's correction; third, Job justifieth his
complaint. I then learned a text to say at school. I went to school at
quarter to nine and recited my text and we had prayers and then
proceeded with the business of the day. Just before school was out, we
recited in "Science of Things Familiar," and in Dictionary, and then we
had calisthenics.
We go through a great many figures and sing "A Life on the Ocean Wave,"
"What Fairy-like Music Steals Over the Sea," "Lightly Row, Lightly Row,
O'er the Glassy Waves We Go," and "O Come, Come Away," and other songs.
Mrs. Judge Taylor wrote one song on purpose for us.
_May 1._--I arose this morning about the usual time and read my three
chapters in the Bible and had time for a walk in the garden before
breakfast. The polyanthuses are just beginning to blossom and they
border all the walk up and down the garden. I went to school at quarter
of nine, but did not get along very well because we played too much. We
had two new scholars to-day, Miss Archibald and Miss Andrews, the former
about seventeen and the latter about fifteen. In the afternoon old Mrs.
Kinney made us a visit, but she did not stay very long. In dictionary
class I got up sixth, although I had not studied my lesson very much.
_July._--Hiram Goodrich, who lives at Mr. Myron H. Clark's, and George
and Wirt Wheeler ran away on Sunday to seek their fortunes. When they
did not come back every one was frightened and started out to find them.
They set out right after Sunday School, taking their pennies which had
been given them for the contribution, and were gone several days. They
were finally found at Palmyra. When asked why they had run away, one
replied that he thought it was about time they saw something of the
world. We heard that Mr. Clark had a few moments' private conversation
with Hiram in the barn and Mr. Wheeler the same with his boys and we do
not think they will go traveling on their own hook again right off. Miss
Upham lives right across the street from them and she was telling little
Morris Bates that he must fight the good fight of faith and he asked her
if that was the fight that Wirt Wheeler fit. She probably had to make
her instructions plainer after that.
_July._--Every Saturday our cousins, Lucilla and Mary and Louisa Field,
take turns coming to Grandmother's to dinner. It was Mary's turn to-day,
but she was sick and couldn't come, so Grandmother told us that we could
dress up and make some calls for her. We were very glad. She told us to
go to Mrs. Gooding's first, so we did and she was glad to see us and
gave us some cake she had just made. Then we went on to Mr. Greig's. We
walked up the high steps to the front door and rang the bell and Mr.
Alexander came. We asked if Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin were at home and
he said yes, and asked us into the parlor. We looked at the paintings on
the wall and looked at ourselves in the long looking-glass, while we
were waiting. Mrs. Irving came in first. She was very nice and said I
looked like her niece, Julie Jeffrey. I hope I do, for I would like to
look like her. Mrs. Greig and Miss Chapin came in and were very glad to
see us, and took us out into the greenhouse and showed us all the
beautiful plants. When we said we would have to go they said goodbye and
sent love to Grandmother and told us to call again. I never knew Anna to
act as polite as she did to-day. Then we went to see Mrs. Judge Phelps
and Miss Eliza Chapin, and they were very nice and gave us some flowers
from their garden. Then we went on to Miss Caroline Jackson's, to see
Mrs. Holmes. Sometimes she is my Sunday School teacher, and she says she
and our mother used to be great friends at the seminary. She said she
was glad we came up and she hoped we would be as good as our mother was.
That is what nearly every one says. On our way back, we called on Mrs.
Dana at the Academy, as she is a friend of Grandmother. She is Mrs. Noah
T. Clarke's mother. After that, we went home and told Grandmother we had
a very pleasant time calling on our friends and they all asked us to
come again.
_Sunday, August 15._--To-day the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was held
in our church, and Mr. Daggett baptized several little babies. They
looked so cunning when he took them in his arms and not one of them
cried. I told Grandmother when we got home that I remembered when
Grandfather Richards baptized me in Auburn, and when he gave me back to
mother he said, "Blessed little lambkin, you'll never know your
grandpa." She said I was mistaken about remembering it, for he died
before I was a year old, but I had heard it told so many times I thought
I remembered it. Probably that is the way it was but I know it happened.
_November 22._--I wrote a composition to-day, and the subject was,
"Which of the Seasons Is the Pleasantest?" Anna asked Grandmother what
she should write about, and Grandmother said she thought "A Contented
Mind" would be a very good subject, but Anna said she never had one and
didn't know what it meant, so she didn't try to write any at all.
A squaw walked right into our kitchen to-day with a blanket over her
head and had beaded purses to sell.
This is my composition which I wrote: "Which of the seasons is the
pleasantest? Grim winter with its cold snows and whistling winds, or
pleasant spring with its green grass and budding trees, or warm summer
with its ripening fruit and beautiful flowers, or delightful autumn with
its golden fruit and splendid sunsets? I think that I like all the
seasons very well. In winter comes the blazing fire and Christmas treat.
Then we can have sleigh-rides and play in the snow and generally get
pretty cold noses and toses. In spring we have a great deal of rain and
very often snow and therefore we do not enjoy that season as much as we
would if it was dry weather, but we should remember that April showers
bring May flowers. In summer we can hear the birds warbling their sweet
notes in the trees and we have a great many strawberries, currants,
gooseberries and cherries, which I like very much, indeed, and I think
summer is a very pleasant season. In autumn we have some of our choicest
fruits, such as peaches, pears, apples, grapes and plums and plenty of
flowers in the former part, but in the latter, about in November, the
wind begins to blow and the leaves to fall and the flowers to wither and
die. Then cold winter with its sleigh-rides comes round again." After I
had written this I went to bed. Anna tied her shoe strings in hard knots
so she could sit up later.
_November 23._--We read our compositions to-day and Miss Clark said mine
was very good. One of the girls had a Prophecy for a composition and
told what we were all going to be when we grew up. She said Anna
Richards was going to be a missionary and Anna cried right out loud. I
tried to comfort her and told her it might never happen, so she stopped
crying.
_November 24._--Three ladies visited our school to-day, Miss Phelps,
Miss Daniels and Mrs. Clark. We had calisthenics and they liked them.
_Sunday._--Mr. Tousley preached to-day. Mr. Lamb is Superintendent of
the Sunday School. Mr. Chipman used to be. Miss Mollie Bull played the
melodeon. Mr. Fairchild is my teacher when he is there. He was not there
to-day and Miss Mary Howell taught our class. I wish I could be as good
and pretty as she is. We go to church morning and afternoon and to
Sunday School, and learn seven verses every week and recite catechism
and hymns to Grandmother in the evening. Grandmother knows all the
questions by heart, so she lets the book lie in her lap and she asks
them with her eyes shut. She likes to hear us sing:
"'Tis religion that can give
Sweetest pleasure while we live,
'Tis religion can supply
Solid comfort when we die."
_December 1._--Grandfather asked me to read President Pierce's message
aloud to him this evening. I thought it was very long and dry, but he
said it was interesting and that I read it very well. I am glad he liked
it. Part of it was about the Missouri Compromise and I didn't even know
what it meant.
_December 8._--We are taking dictation lessons at school now. Miss Clark
reads to us from the "Life of Queen Elizabeth" and we write it down in a
book and keep it. She corrects it for us. I always spell "until" with
two l's and she has to mark it every time. I hope I will learn how to
spell it after a while.
_Saturday, December 9._--We took our music lessons to-day. Miss Hattie
Heard is our teacher and she says we are getting along well. Anna
practiced her lesson over sixty-five times this morning before breakfast
and can play "Mary to the Saviour's Tomb" as fast as a waltz.
We chose sides and spelled down at school to-day. Julia Phelps and I
stood up the last and both went down on the same word--eulogism. I don't
see the use of that "e." Miss Clark gave us twenty words which we had to
bring into some stories which we wrote. It was real fun to hear them.
Every one was different.
This evening as we sat before the fire place with Grandmother, she
taught us how to play "Cat's Cradle," with a string on our fingers.
_December 25._--Uncle Edward Richards sent us a basket of lovely things
from New York for Christmas. Books and dresses for Anna and me, a
kaleidoscope, large cornucopias of candy, and games, one of them being
battledore and shuttlecock. Grandmother says we will have to wait until
spring to play it, as it takes so much room. I wish all the little girls
in the world had an Uncle Edward.
1854
_January 1, 1854._--About fifty little boys and girls at intervals
knocked at the front door to-day, to wish us Happy New Year. We had
pennies and cakes and apples ready for them. The pennies, especially,
seemed to attract them and we noticed the same ones several times. Aunt
Mary Carr made lovely New Year cakes with a pretty flower stamped on
before they were baked.
_February_ 4, 1854.--We heard to-day of the death of our little
half-sister, Julia Dey Richards, in Penn Yan, yesterday, and I felt so
sorry I couldn't sleep last night so I made up some verses about her and
this morning wrote them down and gave them to Grandfather. He liked them
so well he wanted me to show them to Miss Clark and ask her to revise
them. I did and she said she would hand them to her sister Mary to
correct. When she handed them back they were very much nicer than they
were at first and Grandfather had me copy them and he pasted them into
one of his Bibles to keep.
_Saturday._--Anna and I went to call on Miss Upham to-day. She is a real
old lady and lives with her niece, Mrs. John Bates, on Gibson Street.
Our mother used to go to school to her at the Seminary. Miss Upham said
to Anna, "Your mother was a lovely woman. You are not at all like her,
dear." I told Anna she meant in looks I was sure, but Anna was afraid
she didn't.
_Sunday._--Mr. Daggett's text this morning was the 22nd chapter of
Revelation, 16th verse, "I am the root and offspring of David and the
bright and morning star." Mrs. Judge Taylor taught our Sunday School
class to-day and she said we ought not to read our S. S. books on
Sunday. I always do. Mine to-day was entitled, "Cheap Repository Tracts
by Hannah More," and it did not seem unreligious at all.
_Tuesday._--A gentleman visited our school to-day whom we had never
seen. Miss Clark introduced him to us. When he came in, Miss Clark said,
"Young ladies," and we all stood up and bowed and said his name in
concert. Grandfather says he would rather have us go to school to Miss
Clark than any one else because she teaches us manners as well as books.
We girls think that he is a very particular friend of Miss Clark. He is
very nice looking, but we don't know where he lives. Laura Chapin says
he is an architect. I looked it up in the dictionary and it says one who
plans or designs. I hope he does not plan to get married to Miss Clark
and take her away and break up the school, but I presume he does, for
that is usually the way.
_Monday._--There was a minister preached in our church last night and
some people say he is the greatest minister in the world. I think his
name was Mr. Finney. Grandmother said I could go with our girl, Hannah
White. We sat under the gallery, in Miss Antoinette Pierson's pew. There
was a great crowd and he preached good. Grandmother says that our mother
was a Christian when she was ten years old and joined the church and she
showed us some sermons that mother used to write down when she was
seventeen years old, after she came home from church, and she has kept
them all these years. I think children in old times were not as bad as
they are now.
_Tuesday._--Mrs. Judge Taylor sent for me to come over to see her
to-day. I didn't know what she wanted, but when I got there she said she
wanted to talk and pray with me on the subject of religion. She took me
into one of the wings. I never had been in there before and was
frightened at first, but it was nice after I got used to it. After she
prayed, she asked me to, but I couldn't think of anything but "Now I lay
me down to sleep," and I was afraid she would not like that, so I didn't
say anything. When I got home and told Anna, she said, "Caroline, I
presume probably Mrs. Taylor wants you to be a Missionary, but I shan't
let you go." I told her she needn't worry for I would have to stay at
home and look after her. After school to-night I went out into Abbie
Clark's garden with her and she taught me how to play "mumble te peg."
It is fun, but rather dangerous. I am afraid Grandmother won't give me a
knife to play with. Abbie Clark has beautiful pansies in her garden and
gave me some roots.
_April 1._--This is April Fool's Day. It is not a very pleasant day, but
I am not very pleasant either. I spent half an hour this morning very
pleasantly writing a letter to my Father but just as I had finished it,
Grandmother told me something to write which I did not wish to and I
spoke quite disrespectfully, but I am real sorry and I won't do so any
more.
Lucilla and Louisa Field were over to our house to dinner to-day. We had
a very good dinner indeed. In the afternoon, Grandmother told me that I
might go over to Aunt Ann's on condition that I would not stay, but I
stayed too long and got my indian rubbers real muddy and Grandmother did
not like it. I then ate my supper and went to bed at ten minutes to
eight o'clock.
_Monday, April 3._--I got up this morning at quarter before six o'clock.
I then read my three chapters in the Bible, and soon after ate my
breakfast, which consisted of ham and eggs and buckwheat cakes. I then
took a morning walk in the garden and rolled my hoop. I went to school
at quarter before 9 o'clock. Miss Clark has us recite a verse of
scripture in response to roll call and my text for the morning was the
8th verse of the 6th chapter of Matthew, "Be ye not therefore like unto
them; for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask
him." We then had prayers. I then began to write my composition and we
had recess soon after. In the afternoon I recited grammar, wrote my
dictation lesson and Dictionary lesson. I was up third in my Dictionary
class but missed two words, and instead of being third in the class, I
was fifth. After supper I read my Sunday School book, "A Shepherd's Call
to the Lambs of his Flock." I went to bed as usual at ten minutes to 8
o'clock.
_April_ 4.--We went into our new schoolroom to-day at Miss Clark's
school. It is a very nice room and much larger than the one we occupied
before. Anna and I were sewing on our dolls' clothes this afternoon and
we talked so much that finally Grandmother said, "the one that speaks
first is the worst; and the one that speaks last is the best." We kept
still for quite a while, which gave Grandmother a rest, but was very
hard for us, especially Anna. Pretty soon Grandmother forgot and asked
us a question, so we had the joke on her. Afterwards Anna told me she
would rather "be the worst," than to keep still so long again.
_Wednesday._--Grandmother sent Anna and me up to Butcher Street after
school to-day to invite Chloe to come to dinner. I never saw so many
black people as there are up there. We saw old Lloyd and black Jonathan
and Dick Valentine and Jerusha and Chloe and Nackie. Nackie was pounding
up stones into sand, to sell, to scour with. Grandmother often buys it
of her. I think Chloe was surprised, but she said she would be ready,
to-morrow, at eleven o'clock, when the carriage came for her. I should
hate to be as fat as Chloe. I think she weighs 300. She is going to sit
in Grandfather's big arm chair, Grandmother says.
We told her we should think she would rather invite white ladies, but
she said Chloe was a poor old slave and as Grandfather had gone to
Saratoga she thought it was a good time to have her. She said God made
of one blood all the people on the face of the earth, so we knew she
would do it and we didn't say any more. When we talk too much,
Grandfather always says N. C. (nuff ced). She sent a carriage for Chloe
and she came and had a nice dinner, not in the kitchen either.
Grandmother asked her if there was any one else she would like to see
before she went home and she said, "Yes, Miss Rebekah Gorham," so she
told the coachman to take her down there and wait for her to make a call
and then take her home and he did. Chloe said she had a very nice time,
so probably Grandmother was all right as she generally is, but I could
not be as good as she is, if I should try one hundred years.
_June._--Our cousin, George Bates, of Honolulu, came to see us to-day.
He has one brother, Dudley, but he didn't come. George has just
graduated from college and is going to Japan to be a doctor. He wrote
such a nice piece in my album I must copy it, "If I were a poet I would
celebrate your virtues in rhyme, if I were forty years old, I would
write a homily on good behavior; being neither, I will quote two
familiar lines which if taken as a rule of action will make you a good
and happy woman:
"Honor and shame from no condition rise,
Act well your part, there all the honor lies."
I think he is a very smart young man and will make a good doctor to the
heathen.
_Saturday._--Grandfather took us down street to be measured for some new
patten leather shoes at Mr. Ambler's. They are going to be very nice
ones for best. We got our new summer hats from Mrs. Freshour's millinery
and we wore them over to show to Aunt Ann and she said they were the
very handsomest bonnets she had seen this year.
_Tuesday._--When we were on our way to school this morning we met a lot
of people and girls and boys going to a picnic up the lake. They asked
us to go, too, but we said we were afraid we could not. Mr. Alex. Howell
said, "Tell your Grandfather I will bring you back safe and sound unless
the boat goes to the bottom with all of us." So we went home and told
Grandfather and much to our surprise he said we could go. We had never
been on a boat or on the lake before. We went up to the head on the
steamer "_Joseph Wood_" and got off at Maxwell's Point. They had a
picnic dinner and lots of good things to eat. Then we all went into the
glen and climbed up through it. Mr. Alex. Howell and Mrs. Wheeler got to
the top first and everybody gave three cheers. We had a lovely time
riding back on the boat and told Grandmother we had the very best time
we ever had in our whole lives.
_May 26._--There was an eclipse of the sun to-day and we were very much
excited looking at it. General Granger came over and gave us some pieces
of smoked glass. Miss Clark wanted us to write compositions about it so
Anna wrote, "About eleven o'clock we went out to see if it had come yet,
but it hadn't come yet, so we waited awhile and then looked again and it
had come, and there was a piece of it cut out of it." Miss Clark said it
was a very good description and she knew Anna wrote it all herself.
I handed in a composition, too, about the eclipse, but I don't think
Miss Clark liked it as well as she did Anna's, because it had something
in it about "the beggarly elements of the world." She asked me where I
got it and I told her that it was in a nice story book that Grandmother
gave me to read entitled "Elizabeth Thornton or the Flower and Fruit of
Female Piety, and other sketches," by Samuel Irenaeus Prime. This was
one of the other sketches: It commenced by telling how the moon came
between the sun and the earth, and then went on about the beggarly
elements. Miss Clark asked me if I knew what they meant and I told her
no, but I thought they sounded good. She just smiled and never scolded
me at all. I suppose next time I must make it all up myself.
There is a Mr. Packer in town, who teaches all the children to sing. He
had a concert in Bemis Hall last night and he put Anna on the top row of
the pyramid of beauty and about one hundred children in rows below. She
ought to have worn a white dress as the others did but Grandmother said
her new pink barege would do. I curled her hair all around in about
thirty curls and she looked very nice. She waved the flag in the shape
of the letter S and sang "The Star Spangled Banner," and all the others
joined in the chorus. It was perfectly grand.
_Monday._--When we were on our way to school this morning we saw General
Granger coming, and Anna had on such a homely sunbonnet she took it off
and hid it behind her till he had gone by. When we told Grandmother she
said, "Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a
fall." I never heard of any one who knew so many Bible verses as
Grandmother. Anna thought she would be sorry for her and get her a new
sunbonnet, but she didn't.
_Sunday._--We have Sunday School at nine o'clock in the morning now.
Grandfather loves to watch us when we walk off together down the street,
so he walks back and forth on the front walk till we come out, and gives
us our money for the contribution. This morning we had on our new white
dresses that Miss Rosewarne made and new summer hats and new patten
leather shoes and our mitts. When he had looked us all over he said,
with a smile, "The Bible says, let your garments be always white." After
we had gone on a little ways, Anna said: "If Grandmother had thought of
that verse I wouldn't have had to wear my pink barege dress to the
concert." I told her she need not feel bad about that now, for she sang
as well as any of them and looked just as good. She always believes
everything I say, although she does not always do what I tell her to.
Mr. Noah T. Clarke told us in Sunday School last Sunday that if we
wanted to take shares in the missionary ship, _Morning Star,_ we could
buy them at 10 cents apiece, and Grandmother gave us $1 to-day so we
could have ten shares. We got the certificate with a picture of the ship
on it, and we are going to keep it always. Anna says if we pay the
money, we don't have to go.