Search

Andrew Robinson Giddinge , a Pejepscot, Maine, innkeeper, kept this diary between January 1 and February 28, 1835. His descriptive entries pertain to everyday aspects of his life, such as household chores, Christian Bible reading, newspaper and periodical reading, hearing difficulties, trips to New Gloucester, and visits with friends and family. Giddinge filled the margins of this diary with numerous small sketches pertinent to their accompanying entries.

Andrew Robinson Giddinge, a Pejepscot, Maine, innkeeper, kept this diary between January 1 and February 28, 1835. His descriptive entries pertain to everyday aspects of his life, such as household chores, Christian Bible reading, newspaper and periodical reading, hearing difficulties, trips to New Gloucester, and visits with friends and family. Giddinge filled the margins of this diary with numerous small sketches pertinent to their accompanying entries.

Andrew Giddinge's frequent visits with neighbors and family, including Parsons in-laws and daughter Anna (married to Nathan Ingersoll), sometimes included helping neighbors with tasks such as chopping wood or shaving a disabled friend. He also recorded the illnesses and deaths of persons in his family and social circles. On January 6, 1835, Andrew took wheat to be ground in Lewiston for a "Graham" meal (Sylvester Graham's regimen was also used by a family he visited on January 14, 1835). His discussions of family dynamics included reflections on whether or not callers came to see him or his son's wife Deborah Tarbox Giddinge, and whether or not he was "at home" or merely enjoying the hospitality of others. Giddinge also commented regularly on postal deliveries, with hopes for letters from his son George, who lived in Kentucky. He discussed different periodicals and interspersed quotes from works he read.

His descriptive entries include weather notations, and small sketches related to the day's entries fill the margins. Among the illustrations are razors, scissors, irons, buckets, a casket, manicules, clothing, people warming feet in hot water, clothes being washed, barrels, the moon, a mole, a musical instrument, an ax and grinder, kettles, wash tubs, baking and food, a goat, letters, logs being pulled, a butchered calf and a fish, a hearth, an umbrella, a heart with arrows, a copy of an illustration of scene from Tristram Shandy, and others.

Jacob van Zwaluwenburg's memoir contains a discussion of his experiences during the Civil War along with an account of his childhood in the Netherlands and America.

Jacob van Zwaluwenburg's autobiography contains discussion of his experiences during the Civil War along with an account of his childhood in the Netherlands and America. He discusses his family, schooling, and religious upbringing in the Hervormde Kerk (Reformed Church in the Netherlands). He describes the ocean voyage and Erie Canal journey which brought the family to Michigan.

Van Zwaluwenburg describes his wartime experiences in the 16th U.S. Infantry, from his humorous efforts to volunteer through the end of his enlistment. He provides particularly detailed descriptions of the battles of Shiloh and Stones River and the fighting around Chattanooga. His account centers on the experiences of a private and strays little into the fields of politics and the evaluation of generals. Although there are a few geographical and chronological errors, the account provides an interesting view of the common soldier in the regular army.

The journal is in both manuscript and typescript; however, the two are not entirely the same. The typescript copy, 36 pages long, follows the manuscript copy, 33 pages long, with only minor differences until page 18 of the manuscript and page 22 of the typescript. From this point the copies differ greatly, although they cover roughly the same events. The manuscript is incomplete, lacking an ending.

This account book kept largely by Jacob, Anne, and Anna True consists of records relating to their family business in Salisbury, Massachusetts. The True family ran a multi-purpose organization and operated it as a tavern, inn, bank, and store for foodstuffs and other goods. The volume also contains a narration and history of the extended True family, a study of the Webster family, and a 16-page recounting of the American Revolutionary War naval battle between the Bonhomme Richard and the HMS Serapis.

This account book kept largely by Jacob, Anne, and Anna True consists of records relating to their family business in Salisbury, Massachusetts. The True family ran a multi-purpose organization and operated it as a tavern, inn, bank, and store for foodstuffs and other goods. The volume also contains a narration and history of the extended True family, a study of with the Webster family, and a 16-page recounting of the American Revolutionary War naval battle between the Bonhomme Richard and the HMS Serapis.

The volume's double-entry bookkeeping includes the name of the client, with running lists of the costs and dates of purchases of goods and services, as well as records of account credits. Sales of alcoholic beverages include rum (occasionally identified as New England or West Indies), toddies, and brandy. Rum seems to be the most frequent item offered by the Trues; at times the drink is not listed by measurement, but instead as variants of "Rum and Drink at Time Taken from the Score." They sold foods, including veal, salt, sugar, molasses, turnips, pork, fish, and more. They sold cloth, linens, and clothing, such as handkerchiefs, swanskin, sheeting, silks, thread, oznabriggs, buttons, blankets, muslin, bearskin, ribbon, "ferrit," combs, sole leather, and more. The Trues also offered services, such as augur maintenance, chair repair, clothing and shoe mending, and more.

One atypical entry is an account for debtors William Temple and Capt. Edward Emerson in 1761, pertinent to expenses for the wreck of a brig, including costs associated with ballast, clearing lumber and pumping out the ship, moving the ship to Newbury, "a Treat to the people that went Down in ye Ship," temporarily storing Naval stores, taking care and sending on the ship three weeks later, and other itemizations.

Clients paid by cash, labor, or barter. Services rendered include ship work such as planking, boring holes, and caulking, raising, and framing; a "day's work," butchering. Goods offered in trade include timber, codfish, corn, silver shoe buckles, lamb, cider, charcoal, and more. Many transactions conclude with a "Settlement" statement and the signature of Jacob, Anne, or Anna True, with the purchaser's sign-off.

The volume includes a list of the crew on board the Bonhomme Richard, including Jacob and Anne's son Jacob, along with a recounting of the engagement of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. A few printed newspaper illustrations were pasted into the volume, including an engraving showing the battle and framed by snakes and a "Don't Tread on Me" banner. Another shows "The Emperor Napoleon in his Coffin."

The final pages of the volume contain genealogical information respecting the Webster family.