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This commonplace book belonged to Emile M. Tauzin of Natchitoches, Louisiana, and at least one other author in the 1850s and 1860s. The volume contains French poetry and horoscopes, parlor games, and a letter draft about a Natchitoches resident's experiences during the Civil War.

This commonplace book (37 pages) belonged to Emile M. Tauzin of Natchitoches, Louisiana, and at least one other author in the 1850s and 1860s. The volume contains French poetry and horoscopes, parlor games, and a letter draft about a Natchitoches resident's experiences during the Civil War.

Four French poems (pages 1-2 and 34-36) include a tribute to the state of Louisiana, a poem dedicated to the author's father (dated September 6, 1854), and a poem about a small fowl. One poem, entitled "Tous les Braves," is attributed to Charles D. Paradis, who dedicated the poem to Tauzin. Horoscopes for men and women, also in French, appear on pages 19-29; the men's horoscopes are incomplete. One owner used the book to record several questions for a parlor game (pp. 3-18), each accompanied by 40 possible answers, both humorous and serious. The questions are supposed to foretell topics such as personality, marriage, future disposition, and the number of slaves the respondent would own.

A later owner used the volume for a draft letter to his or her aunts Mary and Josephine (pages 30-37). The letter begins on page 32, and is written over the French poetry on pages 34, 35, and 36. After expressing pleasure about hearing that the recipients also sympathized with the Confederacy, the author recounted his or her experiences during the Union Army's occupation of Natchitoches during the Civil War. According to the letter, federal troops raided stores for goods to distribute to former slaves, threatened to shell the town, and disinterred a child's body to search for valuables.

This collection contains one receipt, two letters to Philadelphian Emma M. Biddle from her husband Charles J. Biddle, one to Emma from her niece Agnes, and one from Ann S. Biddle to Charles Biddle, all dating between 1861 and 1862. The letters from Charles Biddle provide news about his life with the U.S. Army at Camp Pierpont, Virginia, and as a senator in Washington, D.C. The letter from Agnes is a request for Emma to pick up photographs from the McClees studio. Ann Biddle recommended an acquaintance to Charles for a military appointment. One additional item is a receipt for a payment made by Emma Biddle to a Philadelphia hoop skirt maker.

This collection contains one receipt, two letters to Emma M. Biddle from her husband Charles J. Biddle, one to Emma from her niece Agnes, and one from Ann S. Biddle to Charles Biddle, all dating between 1861 and 1862. The letters from Charles Biddle provide news about his life with the U.S. Army at Camp Pierpont, Virginia, and as a senator in Washington, D.C. The letter from Agnes is a request for Emma to pick up photographs from the McClees studio. Ann Biddle recommended an acquaintance to Charles for a military appointment. One additional item is a receipt for a payment made by Emma Biddle to a Philadelphia hoop skirt maker.

Please see the box and folder listing below for details about each item.

This collection contains correspondence, journals, military documents, and ephemera related to Eugene B. Payne's service in the 37th Illinois Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.

The Correspondence series (25 items) consists primarily of 16 letters that Payne wrote to his wife Delia during his military service. He provided news of the army's movements and recent engagements, such as the Siege of Vicksburg (June 14, 1863), and shared his opinions about the war. Payne also commented on Nathaniel P. Banks, African American army units, and abolitionists. On one occasion, he recorded scathing remarks about a fellow officer who had volunteered to lead an African American Regiment (September 2, 1863), and he shared similarly negative remarks about abolitionists who wanted slaves not only to be freed but also to have "all the rights of the white race" (July 30, 1864). In addition to Payne's outgoing letters, the collection has 1 letter that Payne received from his brother Frank; 2 letters from Payne to his commanding officers; and 6 postwar letters concerning Payne's political career, of which 2 are by Elihu Washburne.

Eugene B. Payne kept 3 Journals, which recount most of his military service with the 37th Illinois Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. Loose documents and notes laid into the volumes relate to several aspects of his time in the army.

The Documents series contains 4 items related to Eugene B. Payne's time in the army, including 2 documents regarding unauthorized absences from headquarters, a chart providing the names of promoted men from the 37th Illinois infantry regiment, and a copy of Payne's military record (1888). The Ephemera series contains a cardboard menu for a reunion dinner of the 37th Illinois infantry regiment, held on March 6, 1885 at The Palmer in Chicago.

The Ferdinand C. Porée Collection is made up of eight documents or sets of documents and one business card pertaining to Porée's efforts to secure and maintain his Civil War pension. Porée served as 2nd Lieutenant in the 30th Massachusetts Infantry. By 1890, suffering from poor health, he retired from his position as Post Office clerk in Boston. The bundles of documents were compiled by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Pensions, and include a denial of his 1892 application. Porée had heart, skin, nervous, and bowel issues and the Bureau determined his symptoms too closely resembled rheumatism to accept the application. In the late 1890s, he worked with pension attorneys to create a new application with physician diagnoses of malarial fever/poisoning, dysentery, sun stroke, rheumatism, "Army Itch", and acute mania. He received his pension approval in the spring of 1897, but the Bureau revoked the pension in 1901 for lack of evidence of the connection between ailments and his military service.

The collection includes a printed business card of Elmer C. Richardson, "Successor to FREEMAN EMMONS", pension claims attorney.

The Fish Family papers contain the personal letters of Harry S. Fish of Williamson, New York, and his children who, over the course of the 19th century, scattered throughout the United States, fought in the Civil War, and suffered sickness and poverty during the postwar period. Also present are letters to J. Clifford Robinson from his mother and sister, and letters written annually from Franc Edith Aldrich Arnold to her friend Maud Bradley Robinson, from 1887 to 1933.

The Fish family papers (417 items) contain the personal letters and writings of a family from Williamson, New York, whose members, over the course of the 19th century, scattered throughout the United States, fought in the Civil War, and suffered though sickness and poverty during the postwar period. The bulk of the letters (336 in all) concern Harry S. Fish and his children: Dan, Carlton, Selby, and Julia Fish. Also present are letters to J. Clifford Robinson from his mother and sister, and 47 letters written annually from Franc Edith Aldrich Arnold to her friend Maud Bradley Robinson, spanning 1887 to 1933. The collection also contains 25 calling cards, 9 social invitations, 2 documents, 1 essay, 13 miscellaneous items, and one lock of hair.

Correspondence series :

The Fish family letters subseries (336 items) largely document the lives of Dan, Carlton, Selby, and Julia Fish. Throughout, the siblings discuss their deep animosity toward their father. The first four letters (1847-1850) are between Wright R. Fish, in Poughkeepsie, New York, and his father Isaac Fish, in Williamson, New York. Letters written during the Civil War-era include 18 letters from Carlton, 27 from Selby, 14 from Daniel, 9 from Judson Rice (all addressed to Julia), and 49 letters from Julia to Carlton (with 3 additional, post-war letters). These include descriptions of the Peninsular Campaign (Yorktown and the Seven Days Battles, particularly Gaines's Mills) by Selby, and Judson Rice's account of 1st Winchester. Both Selby and Carlton commented on their regiment’s occasional ill discipline and low morale. Selby described his experience in army hospitals and sometimes reflected on death, war, and the hard life of a soldier.

Dan’s letters, written mostly from California and Oregon, provide commentary on the life of an itinerant (and sometimes vagrant) traveler in the gold fields of the Far West. Julia described local events and family news, frequently discussing family strife. She occasionally discussed the politics and society in Williamson. In a particularly notable incident onJuly 17, 1864, Julia consulted a psychic to diagnose Carlton’s mysterious illness, which appeared during the siege of Yorktown in May 1862. Many Civil War era letters contain illustrated letterheads.

The collection contains material concerning southern perspectives of the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction eras, including 59 letters written to Julia Fish by Selby Fish and/or his wife, Josephine, from New Orleans (1864-1871); 7 letters from Selby to Carlton (1867-1869); and letters from Carlton to Julia: 7 written from Grant City, Missouri, (1868-1869); 27 from New Orleans, Louisiana (1869-1883); and 3 from San Antonio, Texas (1883). Of note are two letters written by Carlton from Grant City, Missouri, in which he described the surge of population in a "back woods" town in northwestern Missouri, as post-war westward expansion peaked (October 18, 1868 and October 24, 1869). Also of interest are Carlton’s accounts of his struggles with poverty and unemployment (November 8, 1889), and Dan’s report on joining the Good Templars in 1867; he described a wild ceremony that featured riding a goat backwards and climbing a greased pole with bare feet.

The J. Clifford Robinson letters consist of 63 letters and postcards, written to J. Clifford Robinson by his mother and sister Gertrude in 1895 and 1896. These offer a perspective on an intensely close mother-son relationship in the 1890's, and contain many remarks of motherly advice.

The Fish family letters subseries ends with 13 condolence letters addressed to Maud Bradley, comforting her on the death of her mother, Julia Fish Bradley, in 1905.

The Arnold-Robinson letters subseries contains 47 letters written annually, on New Year's Day, by Franc Edith Aldrich Arnold to Maud Bradley Robinson, reflecting on the events of the year, and reminiscing about their childhood together in Pultneyville, New York (1887-1933). These letters were written every year from 1887-1933, from their teenage years through retirement. In these, Arnold discussed her concerns about remaining unmarried, her inability to have children, and her desire to adopt a child.

The Ephemera, Photographs, and Miscellaneous series (55 items) is comprised of 5 items of ephemera concerning Julia Fish Bradley and her relatives; 25 calling cards from friends of Julia Fish Bradley; 9 invitations to parties and balls addressed to J. Clifford Robinson, (1890's); 13 miscellaneous writing fragments; and 3 cartes-de-visite of Selby Fish (c. 1869), Joseph E. Johnston (c.1863), and Nathaniel Lyon (c.1861).

The Fisk-Chalker family collection is made up of letters, land indentures, tax receipts, tintype photographs, and a tavern keeper's license, related to the Fisk and Chalker families of Junius, New York; Livingston County, Michigan; and (briefly) Chamberlain, South Dakota. The collection includes five Civil War letters, with content on the Michigan First Regiment of Engineers and Mechanics; and three letters by Sarah J. Fisk Chalker following her arrival on Bailey's Ranch near Chamberlain, South Dakota, January 1890.

The Fisk-Chalker family collection is made up of 36 letters, 10 land indentures, 42 tax receipts, 2 tintype photographs, and 1 tavern keeper's license, related to the Fisk and Chalker families of Junius, New York; Livingston County, Michigan; and (briefly) Chamberlain, South Dakota.

The Correspondence is largely incoming and outgoing letters of John Fisk, his brother Sumner Fisk, his wife Judith "Judah" Fisk, and his daughter Sarah J. Fisk Chalker. Five Civil War date letters include two letters by Sumner Fisk (August 4, 1862, and June 20, 1864), in which he offers news on Seneca County, New York, soldiers Charley Bush and Capt. Ira Munson (probably of the 126th New York Infantry). John Fisk received two letters from Private George Turk of the First Regiment Michigan Engineers and Mechanics, Company A (June 18, 1864, and July 23, 1864), with content on soldiers' pay, camp life, and augmenting his military wages by chopping cord wood for the railroad in Calhoun, Georgia, and Bridgeport, Alabama.

In the early days of January 1890, Sarah J. and John Chalker moved to the newly organized state of South Dakota and settled on the Bailey Ranch on the Missouri River, near Chamberlain. In three letters to her mother, Sarah described their arrival, their house, the terrible "gumbo" mud, and other aspects of the "disagreeable country." She wrote of a visit with "an old squaw and Indian" for meat and coffee in their teepee near the Bailey Ranch stable--"the old squaw smoked while we was in there. She carried her pipe on her back." After a month, they received fewer visits from Native Americans. In summation, she wrote "Mother, I would not live here and make it my home for all the land in Dakota." John and Sarah returned to live in Putnam, Michigan.

The Documents series includes 10 land indentures dating between 1849 and 1884 (bulk 1849-1851) largely for property in Seneca and Ontario County, New York. Forty-two receipts for John and Judith Fisk's property taxes in Putnam, Michigan, 1865-1892, and John Fisk's Junius, New York, tavern keeper's license (May 1, 1854) complete the series.

The collection's photographs depict the parents of Sarah J. Fisk and of John G. Chalker. One tintype portrait shows John S. and Judith "Judah" Fisk and another tintype shows Abner and Deliah Patterson Chalker.

This collection is made up of correspondence and documents related to the McFarlan and Folts families of upstate New York. Materials pertain to the legal affairs of Scottish immigrant Thomas McFarlan and to the Folts family's business interests.

This collection (73 items) is made up of correspondence (66 items) and documents (7 items) related to the McFarlan and Folts families of upstate New York. Materials pertain to the legal affairs of Scottish immigrant Thomas McFarlan and to the Folts family's business interests. The 6 items concerning Thomas McFarlan include letters about family members in Scotland and documents about McFarlan's legal affairs. The remaining materials largely consist of incoming letters to Jacob J. Folts of Albany, New York, often regarding business affairs and finances. His brother George sometimes mentioned political issues, and his brother Daniel discussed his education, medical advice, and family news. Additional correspondence includes letters between other members of the Folts and McFarlan families, and bills of sale, receipts, and other financial records related to Jacob C. and Warner Folts.

The Francis Brown papers describe Brown's experience as a cook for the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery Regiment stationed outside of Washington, D.C. during the Civil War.

The Francis Brown papers consist of twenty-six letters, twenty-three of which were written by Brown to his wife and son while in the service of the 1st New Hampshire Heavy Artillery in the defenses of Washington. Brown describes his duties as cook, the menu for the troops, and his methods of supplementing the army diet, such as fishing and collecting fifty cents from each man to purchase fruits and vegetables. He also discusses a side line he had developed to earn extra income: selling grease from the cookhouse. In addition to bits of everyday camp life, Brown discusses reforms in system of draft substitution, absentee voting by soldiers, and the problems caused by drunkenness and prostitutes. In writing to Frank, Brown urges him to help his mother and to practice his writing so that he can write to his father.

The collection also contains one letter from Mary to Brown and two from Jonathon Sleeper to Brown. Nearly every letter is accompanied by an envelope pre-printed with Mary's name and address, an oddity for a private soldier.

Francis Butler, a chaplain of the 25th New Jersey Infantry, kept a journal including an extensive account of the bombardment and occupation of Fredericksburg during the Civil War.

Butler's diary opens -- after some brief notations of the terms by which he hired "John H. Boggs (col'd)" as his servant and of his expenditures at Camp Cadwallader -- on December 11th, 1862, with a lengthy description of the bombardment and occupation of Fredericksburg. Butler was stirred by the "sublime sight" of the city under fire, the crossing of the troops on pontoon bridges lit up by pitch fires, and the officers' occupation of the best houses in the city. From his headquarters in a "small, neat, comfortable house," he watched with disapproval as soldiers plunder the city prior to the battle, and he prays with sympathy for "the poor family whose peaceful house is thus invaded," and on the following morning was greeted with the curious sight of soldiers lounging on mattresses lining the sidewalks and reading London quarterlies, awaited what he assumed (correctly) would be a bloody day.

Butler provides an hour by hour account of events in Fredericksburg on December 12th and 13th. His perspective is an interesting one in that he is not involved in the fighting himself, but is able to move freely about the city during the thick of battle in order to minister to the troops, to bring them coffee or to escort the wounded to the rear. Entries for the days following the battle provide an excellent picture of a chaplain's duties, visiting the wounded -- "what strange and dreadful wounds" -- officiating at the burials of men from his regiment, and making detailed notes on the location of the graves in order that families might later recover the bodies, though later in the week, mass burials became necessary. Detailed entries end on December 23rd, and thereafter there is a brief description and pencil sketch of Fortress Monroe, Va., and some pencil sketches of Newport News and of soldiers in camp. In the back of the notebook containing the diary is a register of wounded soldiers of the 25th New Jersey and a regimental return for the morning of December 15th, 1862.

The Peebles journal consists of a diary kept by Frank Peebles describing his life as a young man in pre-Civil War Alabama. The diary is then taken up by Frank's mother, Sophia, and describes her life teaching and keeping house in antebellum Alabama.

This volume contains a journal kept by Frank Peebles between September 1861 and April 1862 (25 pages) and a journal kept by his mother, Sophia, from September 25, 1865 through June 1868 (70 pages). Sophia used the last thirty-six pages of the volume as a copybook.

Frank's mother had given him his first journal when he was a child, encouraging him to keep a "record of passing events" and to use the journal to promote his "moral and intellectual advancement" (p.1). After keeping a journal for years, he grew ashamed of the carelessness of his writing, and threw them all on the fire, to start afresh with this volume. "I have no record of my past life, except that which a treacherous memory furnishes. What a shame to a boy who has had such kind teachings as I have," he wrote, regretfully.

Frank wrote every day, sometimes just a single line, but often a longer description of his daily activities. War increased the workload of both his mother and father, and as the only child, he helped them both. He put in long hours at his father's store, waiting on the nervous townspeople, who were busily stocking up on whatever supplies they could find: "the war & blockade will help us to get rid of some old goods we never could have sold, so we are advantaged that far -- that far only," he observed (p.4). He could also assume the role of housekeeper, when his mother had more pressing tasks: "Mother having a soldier's coat to make, I attended to the domestic affairs. Rode in the afternoon to the plantation, where they have killed ten thousand pounds of pork" (p.13).

The community was mobilizing for war. A volunteer company was formed, a camp set up, and a sewing society established. December 7 was muster day, and Frank drilled with the militia for the first time on December 21st. Frank visited Camp Kimball to see the soldiers and tents, and listen to the two Crowson brothers sing "two original songs, Richmond and Run Yank Run" (p.2-3).

Frank visited with several young ladies in the town, and related one "romantic occurrence" that illustrates the gallantry of the young southern gentleman (p. 9). A Miss Ellen Collier stopped in at the store one day and asked Frank to escort her and her sister to the train station, which he promptly did. However, the roads were bad and the train was missed. Miss Ellen wished to stay overnight at a nearby house, so they applied to the overseer for admittance -- the owner presumably being away. Miss Ellen "performed on the piano and conversed" until it was time to retire, at which point Frank "went to a little room adjoining hers and rested quietly 'till morning." After breakfast, Frank escorted the ladies to the morning train: "Miss E. & her sister were off, & I left to fret over & worry with & beat & drive balking horses. It was twelve o'clock when I reached home, glad enough to be there."

In January 1862, Frank left for school in Lebanon, Tennessee, but he was only there a brief while. His entries stop on February 2, and he returned home soon after that. The journal resumed for a single unfinished sentence on April 11, the day the Union army, led by Brigadier General Ormsby Mitchel, occupied nearby Huntsville: "We were a little startled soon after dinner by the intelligence that Federal troops had . . ." (p. 25).

When Sophia began to write in the volume on September 25, 1865, she expressed her disappointment that Frank had not become a "thorough scholar" (p.25). She worried that "Frank is surrounded by various temptations, and I sometimes fear he is yielding to their unhallowed influences" (p.40). Anxiety about her son continued to harass her, and she feared he was "forming habits prejudicial to health and morality" (p.78).

Although she exhibited a certain amount of motherly concern, Sophia was too busy to dwell on her grown son's potential fall. She attended practically every religious service that was held, and always recorded the text the sermon was based on in her journal. Through the bible classes and Sabbath school classes she taught, she reached out to the young people of Mooresville. She wished more townspeople would join the church, but she records only a handful of people coming forward at the Quarterly Meetings and Camp-meetings held in town. The community could not afford to keep their pastor, Mr. McDonald, and he left in October 1865. Mooresville Methodists made do with circuit riders and other area preachers after that, which meant there wasn't always a service on Sunday.

One of Sophia's greatest pleasures was reading books -- and she consumed vast histories, lengthy biographies, and the occasional novel whenever she could find the time. At one point she stated that she didn't mind her husband leaving her alone at home, as long as she could "claim the companionship of a good book" (p.51). Sophia concentrated on nonfiction, and spent several months reading Charles A. Goodrich's history of the United States, as well as a history of Mexico, and biographies of Charlotte Bronte and the consorts of the Kings of England. She tried reading Shakespeare's plays, but announced that she could not "appreciate their beauties" (p.36).

Sophia tried in vain to resist the appeal of novels, which seemed as frivolous as the fancy crochet work she chastised herself for loving to make (p.66). Since she could not resist, she rationalized her reading as a research project: "Have been reading one of Bulwer's novels, I always feel a little conscience smitten when I spend time in this way but Bulwer has been so often lauded by the lovers of romances I have felt inclined to read and discover for myself wherein lies the attraction of his work" (p.42). She did further investigating the next January: "I have been reading a novel by Charles Reade, time badly spent, but I sometimes like to understand the character of the popular literature of the day, and after perusing such a work, I am astonished at the taste of one who can enjoy such overwrought exhibitions of both good and evil" (p.69).

Although Sophia was a deeply religious woman, her religiosity did not overwhelm her personality. She often reflected rather pragmatically on her place in the world, as a woman, and as a person filling feminine roles. "The history of a housekeeper -- what so monotonous as her duties. The calls of parlor dining room and kitchen, are ever the same" she wrote, early on (p.28). She sometimes described her work in the various domestic "departments" as a kind of performance, for instance, "have been acting laundress with a few small articles..." (p.74). Sophia had the assistance (and company) of Mrs. Donnell, a woman friend who lived with the Peebles for long stretches of time. She also had the help of a cook, housemaid, and manservant, and possibly others. Unless her servants were sick, Sophia typically supervised their work, rather than doing it herself, but she often had to step into one role or another.

The end of the war, for instance, sparked an intense house cleaning -- probably throughout the south. Sophia explained that there was "a general upsetting of carpets and furniture of all descriptions, that the accumulation of four years' dust may be removed, Ladies have been afraid during the war to display their carpets out of doors lest an unexpected squad of soldiers might appropriate them for blankets" (p.28). After the war, the Peebles also had to dig a well in their backyard: "for twenty seven years our water has been brought from a spring and from a neighbor well, but the change in our social condition has materially affected our domestic arrangements and made it necessary for water to be obtained with less labor" (p.57). The Peebles were adjusting to the new social order, and Sophia was by necessity more directly involved in the work of the house, garden, and poultry yard.

Sophia's world lost its balance when she began teaching in her own house in February 1867, which she probably did to earn some money. The "dear immortals," as she dubbed her students, frustrated her with their indolence, and she never felt like they were learning very much. Even if the rewards had been greater, the sacrifice of her time was a tremendous blow. "Busy at school but during recess hour overlooking some house cleaning" gives an idea of how she tried to keep up with her old responsibilities as well as the new (p.81). With no time to write up more lesson plans, she resigned her position as bible class teacher in March. Her time for reading and journal writing was also severely diminished.

Sadly, Sophia did not keep up the journal. Early on, she had expressed dissatisfaction with the passivity with which her life was being lived: "How rapidly time is flying, months succeed each other so rapidly, I sometimes feel that all of life will be gone ere I begin to live" (p.30). By the middle of July 1867, the monotony of her life oppressed her so much that she saw no point in writing every day: "the record of one day will answer for a twelvemonth," she wrote (p.84). After a month-long gap in her entries, she reiterated, "I fear we shall of necessity become strangers to each other, school duties and family cares are all of which I have to write, and in these there is so much monotony that the record of one day will do for a month" (p.92). Shortly thereafter she stopped writing entirely, becoming a stranger not only to her journal but to us.

Sophia kept several lists in the back of this book. There is a record of what she had read, an impressive list of "Names applied to Our Savior in Scripture," brief biographical sketches of royal women, and weather data. She also used the final pages as a copybook for poems and historical facts.