Box 1, Folder 4: Diary 1811-1832

[Left Page] 7th March — 21 years old today — went up the canal in the afternoon. 8th Returned to town — maple sugar! high water! — girls! — 9 & 10 In town — good weather Sunday — Quarterly meeting — Introduced to Mr Jesse Young from French Grant 12 Went up the canal with the level — set stakes for Coady & at Brush Creek — 13 Went up to McLanes & returned to town — Snow! — wind. 14 & 15 In town — 16 Went up the canal to Watson's & returned Met Cleveland & Price — came down with Waller — 17. Cold day — Sunday — Mr Johnson from Cincinnati 19. Went up to Brush creek — Stayed at McLochlin's — new house. Set stakes for Watson &c. Bradford returned. 20 Came down to town — set stakes for Coady — began to rain before we got home. Smoky. 21 — Fair again — Stayed in town — wrote a Love letter to Pazzi in answer to one I got from him last night — Williams 22 Went up the canal again. Set stake on 244 — 23 Came down to Bradford's — 24 Came to town — got a letter from Darius. Answered it sending one hundred dollars for the use of the farm

[Right Page] Portsmouth 1832 Mr. Ed. Hamilton's lecture on Political Economy — Geo McCaque returned. 25th Sunday — {Went to hear a funeral sermon at {Mo Lawson's in the country. then {Not much occurred — 26 — Went up the canal — set stakes for Watson. Cleveland passed us. 27 Went on to McLanes & then took the Estimate down to town. Mr Kelsy's lecture on English Grammer. Miss H.W. 28 Made out the estimate from the notes taken on the ground yesterday. 29 Went over the River quite early in the morning to lay out bridge embankment on Sec. 244. — In the afternoon joined a party of some dozen young gentlemen and ladies & walked to the top of the hill in Ky and to the ancient fort. Walked with Mis Wh. from Cincinnati. 30 — Caught cold in my tooth yesterday & my face was much swoln [swollen] to day — was obliged to have it tied with a handkerchief. Dr Farquher extracted the obnoxious dentum. Mr Williams here — Spoke of a situation for me as Draftsman in the Land Office at Washington. 31 — Getting better. — stayed in town — got a letter from Dr. Fitch one of the Directors of the Louisville canal very anxiously requesting me to send him a muscle shell! — 1 April Sunday — Answered it — Wrote an article for Sillimans Journal on the Primitive

[Left Page] Portsmouth 1832 Boulders of Ohio. The substanse [substance] of it was published a few weeks ago in a popular form in our News paper entitles The Stranger. 2d April. Went up the canal — saw Dr. Hempstead & went with him over to Louisville 3d — Went about 2 miles in the hills to get some petrified shells — found them in great numbers. Returned in the afternoon — Stage full — went on foot. Mr Peck's lecture on History 4 Went over to 244 & returned 5 Stayed in town — got a white vest — Recd. and Answered a letter from D. Carrol — He wants some papers which I have not got 6 Went up the canal to Brush creek, — which is now closed & the water running under the aqueduct. 7 — Went up to McLanes & returned to town Letter from Pazzi now at home 8 & 9 Stayed in town. 10 Went over to Bradford's — Mr Caswell's lecture 11 — Set stakes at Watsons and other places — returned to Bradfords. 12 Mr Garrisons wedding! Came over to town & then returned to Mr Greene's with Miss Jones — We were the attendants! Got back about 9 o'clock at night — 13 Set stakes for Coady & Ords. 14 Returned Weather hot & extremely dry.

[Right Page] April 1832 15th April Sunday — Stayed in town 16 Rainy but went up the canal in the after noon — Rode Mr Graves horse — found the Emb. at Brush Creek in some danger on account of the rise in the creek. 17 Returned to town — set stakes in the Cut & then went back to Brush creek with the level. 18 — Set stakes for Watson Eads & McLane 19 — Rainy — Tried bottom for Watson 20 Went up to McLanes & then returned to town met Cleveland on the line. 21 Went over to Bradford's set stakes for Moss &c. —

20th May — Darius married at Willmington to Miss Nancy L. Fallis and has gone to Cincinnatti where he is employed to take charge of the 9 locks, as assistant Engineer.

21st July — Business on the line being not very pressing went to Cincinnatti to see Darius & his wife 22d Sunday. Saw him but his wife was at her Mother's. Got acquainted with C. Farquhar his Brother-in-Law. 23 - &4 Returned to Portsmouth S.B. Guyandotte

1 Aug. Pazzi also Married! at home to Ann Maria Bennet — of Logan County.

[Left Page] 160 Ports. Dec. 1832 19th Aug. Went up the canal to Waverly to see when the water would be let into our part of the canal. Poor prospect 1 Sept. Sent home $55.00 which makes in all since I came to Portsmouth $572.25 Darius has put into the farm $672. — 5th Got a horse of Bradford and went up to Piketon where I stayed. 6th Went on foot to Waverly (4 1/2 miles) where we had a splendid celebration of the completion of the canal. Two boats arrived from Chillicothe — owing to a breach in the dam near Chillicothe the canal cannot be filled to Portsmouth for some time. 7th Returned with Mr W. Walter

14th December — Got on my horse & started for Home — Went up the canal to Bear creek where I turned to the west through the hilly country. Rainy in the afternoon Stayed at Andersons Mills on Sunfish creek 27 miles from Portsmouth. 15 — Rainy with some snow. My road lay along the valley of the creek to its source — here I crossed the Dividing ridge & descended in to the valley of Point creek at Bainbridge. As the creek was too high to be crossed I had to ride 5 miles out of the direct road to get to Greenfield on the West

[Right Page] 161 Journey Home Dec 1832 Side. — Rode 32 miles from Andersons. Crossed the Rocky fork on an old bridge which must soon fall; and the Rattlesnake fork on a good new bridge. 16 Sunday — Rode to Washington (14 miles) over a new road before breakfast constant rain. Stayed at Stagdale's tavern the remainer of the day 17th In going to Charleston to day I lost my way & rode several miles before I got on to the right track. Getting colder — slight rain. 24 m. 18 — Went to Urbana (22 m.). Saw Passi & Wife Ana Maria. Stayed with them slept on the floor. — Froze last night 19 — Every thing froze up solid 3 inches snow. Rode up home to the farm on Kings creek 10 miles north of Urbana. Found father & Mother, William, Hannah, Lorana, & Amelia. — All in good health & spirits. They have 85 acres of land 70 cleared. Live in a double log house — one half made by Father. Have raised a large quantity of silk & mother has made some sewing-silk. They have a horse — 2 yokes cattle, 50 hogs, plenty of potatoes, beets rutabago &c but little corn — Large quantity of clover hay — stocked & salted.

[Left Page] 164 Columbus June 1833 23d April 1833 — Rode to Franklin in a small waggon — then returned by canal to Cincinnatti — Saw Mr B. Sayre an old acquaintance 29th Monday — Took lieve [leave] of my friends at Cincinnati and embarked on the Steam boat Guyandotte for Portsmouth. About 30 miles above Cincinnati we run foul of a snag and sunk! — 30. S. Boat Rambles came along and took us from the wreck, and landed us at Portsmouth just at night. 1 May. Stayed in town. 2 — Went to Chillicothe in the stage. 3 — Stayed in Chillicothe 4 Rode up to Columbus, and entered on my new duties — Stayed at Nobles National Hotel 1 June — Bought a bed which I rigged up in the office, and slept on it. Commenced boarding with Mr Medberry the Superintendant of the New Penitentiary. 24 June made an engagement with Mr Henry Brown Treasurer of state to sleep in his office & guarde [guard] the Public funds, as well as to do some little business for him. He is to pay me for it at the rate of $100 pr year.

[Right Page] 165 14th July — A death in town by Cholera! 8 " Have an offer from M.T. Williams Surveyor General, Cincinatti to engage in his office for 550 dollars per year with some extra jobs which will probably be worth 50 or 60 more. concluded to accept of it if he could wait until the middle of August as I could not leave here until that time. 23 — July — Two fatal cases of Cholera at our house (Mr Medberrys) viz — Mrs. Mills & Mrs. Wood 27 — Cholera so bad that I concluded to leave here — accordingly I went in the Stage this morning to Springfield — Had to wait there till Monday (29th) before I could go up to Urbana. 28 Sunday — Saw Dr Rodgers from Portsmouth & his lady. 29 rode up to Urbana where I styated with Passi till 1 Aug. Went up home. Found there Father, - Mother, - Mary, - William Hannah, - Lorana, - & Amelia, all well! — 5 Aug Went down to Urbana — Got a long letter from Darius — 6 Went home again by way of West Liberty where I saw Dr Jones & talked along time about his late conduct in separating from his wife &c &c.

[Left Page] 8th Aug. Went to W. Liberty again with Mary. 10 — Commenced my journey back to Columbus. Got as far as Springfield. — 11 Went to Columbus — Found the health of the place rather worse than when I left. From 3 to 5 deaths daily. 22d Aug. Parzzi arrived here with his family from Urbana. — 24th He rented a small house of Mr Crosby and on the 26 I commenced living with him. He is engaged in J. Pike &c's new printing office at $7 per week.

Oct 5th 1833 — M. H. Brown signed my note (as security) to Oliver Wells & Co. for $450. [illegible] 14th April 1834 for Parzzi's paper

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