Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This collection is made up of diary entries, letters, and prayers by a woman who lived in Morris County, New Jersey, in the early 19th century. She discussed her religious convictions and activities, her social activities, and daily life. Internal evidence suggests that the materials may have belonged to Abigail Harrison.

This collection is made up of 90 pages of diary entries, letters, and prayers written by a woman who lived in Morris County, New Jersey, between December 25, 1815, and January 1, 1820. She discussed her religious convictions and activities, her social activities, and daily life.

The collection includes 3 diaries (67 pages). The first has paper covers with engraved illustrations and a multiplication table. The author wrote about her Christian faith, particularly with respect to good and evil and deliverance from sin. Her religious activities included reading the Bible and published sermons, attending church services, and attending prayer meetings. A few entries contain personal reflections on the death of the author's husband (January 1, 1819, pages 31-32) and her conversion to Christianity (June 27, 1819, page 66, and others).

The diary entries occasionally refer to missionary work; one entry mentions an extract from the Boston Recorder about a schoolteacher working with Native Americans in the west (January 4, 1819, page 36). The journal includes two religious poems (pages 12-13 and 21), one of which is attributed to Mrs. Isabella Graham. Additional manuscripts include one letter addressed to a sister and several prayers.

The Phebe Plant collection is mostly made up of personal correspondence between Plant and her friend Martha Barnes, especially regarding their religious convictions, as well as letters to Plant's mother, Rebecca Hearsey. Other items include a religious diary and poetry.

The Phoebe Plant collection (53 items) is mostly made up of personal correspondence between Plant and her friend Martha Barnes, as well as letters to Plant's mother, Rebecca Hearsey. Martha Barnes wrote to Phebe Plant from 1814-1819, often discussing her religious convictions and, on one occasion, a religious experience with an auditory component (April 21, 1818; in letter dated April 16, 1818). In a letter dated March 1815, she discussed her reaction to a book about Harriet Newell. Plant's letters to Barnes are mainly contained in an 18-page set of retained copies, which includes entries dated from December 19, 1814-November 30, 1815. Plant wrote about her Christian convictions. Other items by Plant include a religious diary with infrequent entries (July 2, 1816-June 15, [1817], 12 pages) and a poem "composed on the death of a wife" (1818).

After Plant's death in 1819, Martha Barnes occasionally wrote to Plant's mother, Rebecca Hearsey, offering condolences and reflecting on her friendship with Plant. The collection also contains letters that Rebecca Hearsey received from members of the Judd family and others; an account about the estate of Joseph Plant of Southington, Connecticut; and an invoice addressed to the Hearsey family (June 12, 1815).