John Cornelius Lane of Frederick County, Maryland, used this volume as an account book and journal from 1835-1852. He recorded his accounts with individuals for farm produce and sundries, and composed daily diary entries about his life and work as a farmer in Frederick County.
Pages 1-86 and 356-401 contain accounts for the sale of dry goods and agricultural products. The earlier accounts (May 1835-December 1837) are organized by customer, and record Lane's sales of sundries and enumerated items, such as a barouche. The later accounts (August 1841-March 1844) are organized by product, such as cattle, corn, wheat, and flour. Many pages in the second group of accounts are blank. Receipts addressed to Lane are laid into the volume.
The remainder of the volume (pp. 96-354) is comprised of John C. Lane's daily diary, which he kept from September 28, 1841-December 31, 1852. Lane reported on farm work, travel to Boonsboro and Frederick, and family matters. Lane grew corn, wheat, potatoes, rye, and oats; he also sold logs to a sawmill and slaughtered hogs. Lane occasionally mentioned family visits, the health of his wife and children, and the births and deaths of his children. Other entries pertain to Lane's purchases of slaves and to the births and deaths of slave children. The Lane family lived in Mount Pleasant, Maryland, from September 1841-November 1846, and in Harmony, Maryland, from November 1846-December 1852.
John Cornelius Lane was born in Maryland around 1811, the son of Seth Lane, and worked as a farmer in Frederick County, Maryland. In 1838, he married Elizabeth Horine ("Betsy"), with whom he had six children: Mary C., Julia N., Clara Eliza (d. 1848), Charles Seth (1848-1916), John Clarence (1850-1914), and William Preston (b. 1851). After the death of John Cornelius Lane in 1855, Elizabeth Lane and her children moved to Boonsboro, Maryland.
