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Excerpts from the Diaries of James J Walworth
Canaan, N.H. 1828-9"Having graduated from Thetford Academy, JJ Walworth, my great-grandfather, was living with six or seven siblings on the small farm of his father and Mother, George and Philura Walworth. Here are excerpts of his diaries from 1828 and 1829."
Arthur Walworth, Christmas 1991
| 1828 | I kept school in Father's district the last of February and the first of March. |
| 19th May | In planting corn I for experiment planted part of a row in a furrow and by the side of it planted the same number of hills having the foundation raised considerably above the level of the ground. Also another experiment to see which produces the most corn Ñ red or yellow seed. |
| June 1 | Apple trees in full bloom. |
| June 3 | The mare foaled. |
| June 6 | Jotham Steven's wife expelled from the Methodist church for eying. |
| June 19 | Began to raise our dairy and accomodation house. |
| June 14-15 | Sister Eunice and I went to Dorchester to quarterly camp meeting. |
| June 21 | Congregational meeting house raised in Canaan. |
| June 26 | I hoed potatoes starting at nearly quarter past four a.m., spending about an hour and a half at breakfast and at dinner and finished at about ten or fifteen minutes after six o'clock p.m. |
| July 2 | Father carried 2 barrels of cider to Uncle Jesse Jones and got for it 2500 shingles. Brought a scythe home at the same time, also a pitchfork now painted which cost fifty cents, also three rakes now painted Ñ partly. |
| July 19 | We finished hoeing our corn the last time. The same day Father and I helped Moses Patten hoe corn for which he was to help us in haying. |
| July 7 | Mrs. Hannah Lawrence commenced teaching our school. She came here in the morningand got my watch to carry in her school. |
| July 20 | At a meeting at Theophilus Albert Jones professed to be converted. The meeting commenced I think about half past five o'clock and continued until half past ten. This meeting perhaps might be ranked one of the first for noise as they were heard at a distance of a mile or more. Albert was formerly a great opponent of religion and especially ridiculed noisy meetings. |
| This week beginning the 21st of July we got into the barn 14 bales of hay Ñ also milking to do every night and morning. | |
| July 26 | Kimball George thought he was converted to God. |
| July 28 | Sally Millen was brought out. Our corn was generally silked. |
| July 30 | We began to use new potatoes which were nearly ripe. |
| Aug. 10 | I husked an ear of corn and roasted it for the first time. |
| August 11 | I begun my stint for ten days fair weather haying reaping wheat and oats and pulling flax. |
| August 18 | Bailey Welch fell from the top of the belfry of the new meeting house in Canaan. I believe he was at workÉ |
| August 25 | A camp meeting commenced at BristolÉ The first evening that I was there in the prayer meeting near the close I had quite a happy season. Doubts and fears so common to me recurred again. I doubted whether I ever had any religion or not or if I had it must be a different kind from that which others enjoyed but by the grace of God I have been determined to get the evidence or to know on what I stand. |
| August 31 | On Sunday a.m. another sister was born. |
| September 2 | We commenced ploughing Ñ killed a lamb. |
| Sept. 9 | I helped Mr. Gilman take up two swarms of bees. The honey was divided between him and myself. |
| Sept. 22 (?) | Terrible rain - acres of good. intervale now vast beds of stones and sand Ñ bridges, mills, houses carried away. |
| Sept. 22 | Went to Lebanon to work for Luke Burnham for $11 a week for one month on a bridge and other work. |
| Sept. 28 | Heard a universalist preacher at Lebanon. |
| Sept. 18 | The company to which I belong trained. The light infantry and artillery trained the same day. |
| Oct. 8 | Alfred Smith died with the dropsy in the head, |
| Nov. 29 | I made a pair of small thick shoes for the first time. |
| Dec. 1 | I bought a shoe knife, 5 awls, tacks, etc. |
| Dec. 1 | Elsa French began to teach the school in Father's district |
| Dec. 3 | I made another pair of good shoes. |
| Dec. 6 | George my brother got home from Boston. Had been there about 7 months. He cleared about 10 dollars after paying all expenses. He intends to go to school this winter and return to Boston in the Spring. I intend to accompany him. |
| Dec. 10 | Engaged to keep Eijah Blaisdell's school on the street for 10 dollars per month from today to the 19th December when I was examined by the committeeÉ received a certificate to the school no.1 which is said to be the first school for learning in the town. The worst to govern. I went to school in my Father's district to Miss French about a week between 10th and 17th of June. |
| Dec. 18 | Broke the crystal of my watch and left it with the mail carrier the 19th to be carried to Plymouth for repairing. |
| Dec. 20 | Widow Merrit cut out a pair of trousers for me. |
| Dec. 30 and 31 |
A quarterly meeting was held in the Methodist meeting house in Canaan. A watch night was held the last night in the year. It continued till about 1 or 2 o'clock a.m. |
| Jan. 1, 1829 | The new Congregationalist meeting house in Canaan was dedicated. No sleighing yet! |
| Jan. 6 | I begun teaching school on the street in Canaan. |
| Jan. 12 | Theodore Tyler commenced teaching singing school at North's Schoolhouse in Canaan. About the first of January Esqr Elijah Blaisdell declared himself a Democrat after having lived almost fifty years a Fed and had been for a long time supporting the then Federal candidate, John Q. Adams, who the fills the presidential chair. A new president was elected about this time, viz, Gen. Andrew Jackson in spite of amalgamation and Federalism. |
| Jan. 29 | A Republican convention was held at the hall of Esq. Blaisdell at the Street in Canaan. Quite a large number of respectable candidates attended.. |
| Feb. 17 | The administration men. The number was inferior to the former and probably their respectability. |
| Jan. 30 | A general class meeting was held at Blaisdell hall in Canaan at which time I joined the Methodist church in full connexion having been connected with the class about a year. |
| March 4 | Gen. Andrew Jackson electedÉ by a great majority. The votes stood: Jackson 178: Adams 83. Nathaniel Currier was chosen our representative to the general court at Concord. He is a strong Federalist and Adams man. The three old selectmen were all expelled |
| March 21 | I finished my school on the street. It has kept 11 weeks for which I received 27 dollars and 50 cents. He said they never had a school with so little complaint. |
| April 1 | We took a few hours for sugar. We have each perhaps 45 pails of sap. |
| April 7 | Mr James Pelli's blacksmith shop took fire and burnt down with a new sleigh and harness a gun and several other things of consequence. The loss was estimated at $300. |
| April 8 | Several of his neighbors helped him get the time for another. |
| April 20 | Made a steer's yoke for Father, which is the last work I did for him before going below south. |
| April 21 | Started on foot for Boston with brother George and Cousin Charles. We started at 8:45. Got to Uncle Caleb's 26 miles away in Salisbury that night. |