Box 1, Folder 4: Diary 1811-1832

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4th December - A rainy day - spent my time reading5th - Another rainy day 6th - [illegible] finished reading McKensies [Mackenzie's] Voyages 7th - Went for the cow before breakfast - Worked on the canal in the forenoon - in the afternoon I went to Louisville to deliver the Engineer's estimate. 8th - Rainy - spent my time drawing on a plan of the locks 9th - Sunday - stayed at home 10th - Done some work on the canal & then went to Louisville on some family business. 11th - In the after-noon I worked on the canal & the rest of the day was spent in reading. 12th - Spent my time reading a book in Natural History. 13th - Went to Louisville in the morning to buy a barrell of flour - Commenced drawing a lock plan for the Directors 14th - Rainy - Worked a little on the canal - spent the rest of my time in drawing. 15th - Worked on my lock plan. 16th - Sunday - finished my plan of the locks 17th - Rainy - River very high. 18th - Commenced going to school at Louisville to Mr. Butler. It is just one year since I commenced going to him before I am now to go to school when there is nothing for me to do on the canal. 19th - Went to school. 20th - [Illegible] 21st - Rainy - Assisted in making the weekly estimate in the forenoon & took it to Louisville in the afternoon. 22nd - Nothing occurred 23- Sunday - The water is now 16 feet above low water at Louisville 24 - Spent my time in my room reading &c.

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25th Dec. - Spent my time in my room. Mr. Henry moved his office to a room in his tavern. - Bought two shirts. 26th - Took a long walk after our astray cow but did not find her. Sent [J.S. Detiste?] $100 27th - Spent my time in my room. 28th - High wind - a little snow this morning. Went to Louisville to carry the Engineer's estimate. Borrowed a thermometer of Mr. Goodman & commenced keeping a register of the temperature of the air. Received a letter from Prof. Silliman in answer to mine of the 13th Nov. Got my hair cut. Bought some shirt buttons. 29th - Made a Geological profile & a profile of the canal for Prof. Silliman to accompany my 'notice' &c. 30th - Sunday - Not much occurred. 31st - Answered Prof. Silliman's letter - Went to Louisville to see if Mr. Butler would subscribe for the back no's of the Journal.

1828

1st. January - Stayed in my room - reading & writing 2d - Stayed at home - weather rainy - roads muddy 3d - Stayed in my room drawing plants 4th - Spent my time in reading &c. - The Engineer made no weekly estimate. 5th - River rising - expect our village to be overflowed - stayed in my room. 6th - Sunday - Father wrote a letter to Darius, & on the same sheet I wrote to him also mentioning my 'notice' &c. 7th - Went to school - Received 3 letters from Darius, and one from D. Thomas for him.

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8th January - Worked about home, preparing for a flood in the river - Piled up wood &c. Water just begins to run over the old turnpike into the canal. 9th - Received the 2d No of Vol 13 of Silliman's Journal - River rising & now nearly surrounds our house. 10th - Studied Conchology & examined my collection of shells. 11th - River stopped rising 12th - Stayed in my room 13th - Sunday - Not much occurred 14th - Spent my time in my room river continues high 15th - Went to Louisville this morning. 16th - Commenced drawing a plan of a lock for Mr. Foot of Cincinnati. 17th - Worked on the plan of the locks 18th - River fell a foot last night and will now be away from our door - cold morning - Saw large flocks of pigeons - Spent part of my time nowadays studying botany. 19th - Not much occurred 20th - Sunday wrote a letter to Mr. C.A. [Laseuer?] of New Harmony for his work on fish (never was answered) 21st - Went to school 22nd - '' '' 23rd - '' '' Saw James Bucklin who had been engaged in the Miami Canal as Engineer, just below where I was. It is rumored that he was discharged. 24th - Went to school 25th - '' '' In the evening when I returned from school found that Darius had arrived from the Welland Canal

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26th - Stayed at home - not much occurred 27th - Sunday '' '' 28th - Went to school - Sent a small keg of minerals which I have collected in the vicinity to Prof. Silliman of New Haven 29th - Went to school 30th - Went to school - Pazzi left here today in the Steam Boat Ben. Franklin for Newark Ohio where he is to learn the printing business with Mr. Rufus Henry brother to the Engineer of the Canal. 31st - Went to school

1st February - Went to school 2d - No school - made some chemical experiments. 3d - Sunday stayed in my room reading 4th - Did not go to school 5th - Went to school accompanied by Darius, Mary, and William 6th - Rainy - stayed at home 7th - Went to school 8th - '' '' This season is one month earlier than last 9th - Spent my time in my room 10th - Sunday - stayed at home 11th -Went to school - received letter from Pazzi 12th - '' '' 13th - '' '' 14th - Did not go to school on account of rainy weather &c. 15th - Ditto - Attempted an analysis of water limestone 16th - Worked a little on the canal 17th - Amelia Lapham born - stayed at home 18th - Worked on the canal all day - Darius wrote a letter to Miss [Phebe] Allen a cousin, of Lockport &...

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...Father wrote another to Mr. B.W. Taylor of Ohio. 20th - February- Worked in Mr. Henry's office all day 21st - Went to Louisville to carry to the Directors an inventory of property belonging to Collins Chapman &c. (the contractors on the Louisville canal) 22d - Worked in the office a little time & then wrote a letter to Pazzi - Father is employed in making a [model?] for an iron gate 23d - Made some chemical experiments on a science of minerals of lime. 24th - Sunday - Stayed at home all day 25th - Went to school 26th - Rainy - did not go to school. 27th - '' '' 28th - Went to school - a very cold morning 29th - '' '' - river very high

1st March - Darius & myself were engaged in making calculations of the lateral pressure on lock gates and the weight of a cast iron gate for the Louisville Canal 2d Sunday - We spent our time in making calculations & estimates of iron gates 3d - Went to Louisville in the morning and burrowed a compass of Mr. Price and in the afternoon Mr. Henry & myself commenced a survey of a tract of land containing 2000 acres belonging to the U.S. Branch Bank and lying south of this place & Portland 4th - Spent all this day in making the survey - 5th - After doing some work on the canal I drew a map of the land we have been surveying 6th - Finished the map this morning - then worked...

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...a little on the canal; after which I spent my time in reading Eaton's Geological Survey. 7th - Birth day - 17 years old - In the forenoon I did some writing in the office; In the afternoon I went to Louisville (now an incorporated City!) and returned Mr. Price's compass. 8th - Done some work on the canal but spent spent spent most of the day in my room. 9th - Sunday - Darius wrote a letter to Mr. Barret who is now Engineer of the Welland Canal. 10th - Done some work on the canal although it was a rainy day. 11th - Spent my time in my room - We have some 'Water puppies' & 'soft shelled turtles' in a tub 12th - Rainy - Stayed in my room 13th - Worked on the canal in the forenoon and in the office the rest of the day. Darius was drawing in perspective. 14th - Assisted Mr. Henry in making up his weekly report from the contractors bills in the forenoon. Read in Hall's Voyages in the afternoon. 15th - Spent the whole day in my room reading. 16th Sunday - Stayed at home except when I was taking a walk with Darius to the woods. 17th - Worked a little on the canal. 18th - Went to school. 19th - '' '' 20th - Judge Bates arrived - spent my time on the canal 21st - Worked in the office in the fore noon and in the afternoon on the canal.

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22d March - Spent most of my time in drawing two plans for a bridge over the canal. My meteorological table appeared in a News paper. 23d Sunday - Judge Bates kept me drawing plans for the bridge, by requiring a nd plan for each alteration suggested. I have already drawn three different plans. 24th - Assisted Judge Bates & Mr. Henry in the examination of patterns for the arch stone ([measures?]) of the new stone bridge. Received a letter from Pazzi. 25th - Two more bridge plans to be drawn today! But as I had exhausted my stock of drawing paper I went to Louisville to get more. G.S. Bates made me a present of $5.00 this evening. 26th - Was awakened this morning by Judge Bates who has discovered an error in one of my bridge plans so I had to draw another! Spent the rest of the time in watching the masons on the lock. The plan of making iron gates instead of wood is now adopted & has thrown father out of business except the small job of making patterns for the heel & mitre ports which are to be of cast iron. The rest of the gate is to be of sheet or [boiler?] iron. 27th - Rainy - Went up the canal in the morning & then worked in the office. 28th - Drew another bridge plan for Mr. Bentham. Spent the rest of the day on the lock. Received a letter from Pazzi describing some artificial works near Newark. 29th - Stayed on the lock in the fore noon and in the afternoon (thanks to the rain) in my room.

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30th March - Sunday - Wrote a letter to Pazzi - In the afternoon made a 'Botanical excursion' to the woods - found several interesting plants in flower which I collected for my herbarium. 31st - Watched the masons then went up the canal - In the afternoon went out with Darius (Mr. Henry having some more important business on hand) to set some slope stakes for the contractors at the lower curve of the south branch. 1st April - Went to the City this morning to get some drawing paper & to give my meteorological table to the printer. Darius had a fit of the fever and ague. 2d - Worked on the lock all day. 3d - Went up the canal in the morning to get the time lists for the week then staked out the basin at the lock. 4th - Snow last night 1/2 inch deep - Copied Mr. Henry's estimate & report &c. and went up the canal. Got an order for $100 the amount of my wages up to the 23d of March. 5th - Snow again 1/2 inch deep remained on the ground until noon - At Mr. Henry's request commenced drawing a plan of the locks. 6th Sunday - Cold windy day. Stayed in my room. 7th - Finished my plan of the locks & drew a bridge plan. Father went to New Albany. 8th - Done some work on the canal this morning & then went to Louisville to get the school books. Bought some Corrosive Sublimate for my Herbarium. Afternoon stayed on the locks.

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9th April - Commenced drawing a plan of the locks and bridge for Mr. Dan Carrol 10th - Went up the canal to get the time lists for Mr. Henry's report - In the afternoon Father, Darius & myself went over to Gravel Island 11th - Spent the forenoon in Mr. Henry's office copying his estimates, reports &c - in the afternoon I stayed part of the time on the lock, and the rest drawing the above plan. 12th - Mr. Henry tood some medicine this morning & I stayed with him a few hours - then went to Louisville to get some drawing paper. On my return I kept to the south which brought me in the woods for the purpose of getting plants in flower. In the afternoon I received that No. of Silliman's Journal which contains my 'Notices of the Canal & the Geology of the Vicinity' Also a description of the Welland Canal by Mr. Merritt. 13th Sunday - Father, Darius, & Myself went over to New Albany on a botanical excursion. We went by the Borling Spring & set the gas on fire - found many new and interesting plants in flower! And there came on a rain storm before we got home. 14th - Finished the lock plan for Dr. Carrol and in the afternoon I took a short walk. 15th - Worked on the canal most of the time 16th - In the forenoon Darius & Myself took a walk to the woods for plants and in the afternoon I worked on the canal.

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17th April - In the forenoon I went up the canal to get the time lists of the different overseers; the rest of the time I spent in the office copying the names of the labourers in alphabetical order. 18th - Was imployed in the forenoon in copying Mr. Henry's estimate & reports - Rainy 19th - Rainy - Read in Silliman's journal 20th Sunday - Stayed in my room - The river has risen very high but is now falling. 21st - Went to Louisville - bought a pen knife with 2 blades, price of $1.12 and 1/2 22nd - Mr. Henry explained the use of Hadleys Quadrant. Worked on the canal in the after noon. 23d - Went to the City and got a blank book in which to write memorandums &c. relating to canals, rail roads &c. - Got a letter for Darius from one Mr. Gooding from the Welland Canal also the Report of the President & Directors of that canal accompanied by the report of the Engineer Mr. Alfred Barret. 24th - Went up the canal to get the 'timelists' & spent the rest of the forenoon in copying them. In the afternoon I worked in the offices. 25th - In the forenoon I worked in the office copying the estimates, reports, &c. of the Engineer and in the afternoon I was drawing a bridge plan. 26th - In the forenoon finished my plan of the bridge - In the afternoon I went to Louisville to give it to the directors - Hail Storm last night - Went to the wood, found several new plants in flower 27th Sunday - Spent most of my time reading Mr. Mertie's...