Diary Of An Emigrant Farmer

 

(All the pages of the diary are included on down below)

"The diarist arrived just as the stage coach lines were meeting with their first completion from the canal boat packets in this section... "  

In 1838, a man came from England, traveled up the canal from Harrisburg, and stayed for the summer at the Thompson Stone House in Pennsdale.  It is surmised that he had come to the Muncy Valley in search of land to settle on, but he failed to find the kind of tract he wanted at a price he was willing to pay.   Short entries in his diary include his interactions with locals, the weather, the militia, and his accommodations on the canal boats.

In the fall, he went to work with Mr.  Drake on the Wiconisco canal, before heading back to England.

The entire account is full of interesting tidbits - many of which are explained with copious research notes provided by Dr. Kenneth Wood.

But the identity of the Emigrant Farmer is unknown.    Whomever he was, he was not only homesick, but battling illness at the end of his trip - it's unknown if he ever made it back to England.

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ABOUT THE DIARY

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In 1925, The James V. Brown Library  obtained an 1821 diary from the Cadmus Book Shop in New York City.  Cadmus obtained the diary from a London bookseller.  Neither seller knew any more about the diary's owner, nor it's origins.

Dr T. Kenneth Wood, of the Muncy Historical Society took on the task of deciphering, and editing, the document for publication.  

The journal contains entries from what appears to be three different men:

• 1st  - 1821, an English overseer of a large estate used the book to record farm operations and personal movements.
• 2nd - 1827, an English  farmer visiting Muncy Twp, Lycoming County
• 3rd - 1838, a 3rd man, on the eve of leaving London for America.

Woods surmised that the English Farmer in Muncy was not likely to have been a Quaker, and was likely to have been a "small English squire, and decidedly not one of the yeomen class" (The yeoman  social class of medieval and early modern England ranks between the peasantry and the landed gentry.  A squire was a country gentleman, especially the chief landed proprietor in a district.)

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Clues To The Farmers Identity

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The diary mentioned that October 21st was his birthday

 The emigrant farmer appears to have stayed at the Thompson stone home in Pennsdale - home of John Thompson and his wife Susan, in 1838. [Woods makes note of a mistake in the dates Meginnes gives for John Thomas' arrival in the area]

On Page 25, James Harding said he would in the future call a spring ??  Tavern, after the farmer. Unfortunately, the writing is illegible.  All that woods could say for certain was that the first two letters were an S and an A.

In August he joins Mr. Drake to work on the Wiconisco canal, where Drake had a construction contract.

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Interesting Lines 

From The Diary

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Some of the notes I found most interesting:

From Woods, about the Canal - "Incidentally, appended to these printed schedules of packet boats is the amusing proviso (apparently made necessary by that always imminent possibility) "If the ditch does not go dry"

"Mulberrys ripe, had them in ice cream after dinner.  Mulberry trees grow  wild and large".  

Drank saffron tea to help with hives caused by the heat.

Twice he uses the phrase "wishing the old cow would eat me up."  This appears to have something to do with homesickness, or boredom, but I cannot 

8 acre clearing on fire  July 11th 1838.  "grand night.  Dead pines burnt like a torch as they stood, being broken off by the wind at about 60 feet up"

Scandalized by men coming to dinner without stockings and shoes.  Later comments on "4 daughters, the handsomest girls I ever saw, all without shoes and stockings"  and never having worn stays.  (daughters of Ulch - neighbor of Lukenes Wallis)

Newman barn struck by lightening and burned to the ground "in about a quarter of an hour". 

105 degrees in the shade, July 28th 1838

Walked to Muncy to see the "Troop" (Militia?)  Much comment on their dress, which was not of the same colors.  

On August 12th had venison for breakfast, "first fresh meat I have tasted since I left Harrisburg"

"dung Frollick" - "That is, all the neighbors are invited to come and bring their Teams to draw out manure."

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Locations

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He did not like the preaching at the "Dutch Church". [Woods footnote attributes this to the Emanual Lutheran Church half way between Muncy and Hughesville]

The 4th of July party he attended on Sugar Island , America's 62nd anniversary,  was in his opinion, a "complete humbug".  "The gentlemen payed all which was  1/2 dollars, $1.50, my last" .  Woods explains that Sugar Island was the large island lying in Big Muncy Creek downstream  from the Lairdsville Bridge, leading out of Hughesville.  It was a sugar maple grove used for community picnics and camp meetings, part of the Wallis Farm, across from the Steck Homestead.

Davises Tavern - from the stage coach era, a "sturdy stone house located on the north side of the Susquehanna Trail near where the narrow gauge railroad of the Lycoming Silica Sand Company crosses it about one mile east of Montoursville.  The stables and barns were located across the road from the tavern near where stand the stone entrance gate posts."

"Mr Rogers ...  Father's Farm n branch of the Allaganey Mountains"  "very poor hilly land", today the Dunwoody Fish and Game Club, according to Wood.

One and a quarter miles up the mountain, very steep, to a "most beautiful spring" - Woods gives this location as the spring on the saddle between  the two highest peaks of the North Mountain, and as the hiding spot for the Fishing Creek Rebellion.  "many of the old residents remember the encampment of the punitive expedition on the Roland Ebner farm, near Muncy"

The spring included a "splendid" view of the Susquehanna River, Lewis Lake, and the towns of Muncy and Hughesville.  The mountain is located "between the North and West Branch of the Susquehanna"  

Copper Mines

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THE DIARY

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Others Mentioned in the Diary

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John McCarty, G. Shoemaker, Star, Lyons,  Lewis, John Wallis, Bondines, Fiester, Drake, Dimm, Theodor Hale, Shipman's, Halls (residents of Muncy Farm at the time), Joseph Cake, Singer, Huckle, William Cox Ellis, Dr Rankin

Lengthy (for this diary) description of James Harding.  Woods gives further information.