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No. 1 pageDear Brother, I now commence the journal which I promised to keep for your reading. I shall not have anything to write I fear that will be very interesting to you. A journal, of such common events and from such a pen as mine will I fear merit but little of your attention, but if you will promise that no eyes but yours shall see this, I will do the best that I can hoping that wherein I fail your better judgement and kindness will allow you to correct me. I shall commence on the 18th of May 1841. After a painful parting with you and our friends we retired to the cabin which we found nearly full of Irish Dutch or English, who were preparing their supper, which they spread upon the cabin table and eat with much apparent enjoyment. We took tea with the Captain whom we found to be quite a jovial sort of a man. he told us that he was going to take his wife on board, as soon as he came to his farm which lay on the banks of the river, and give her a sail for her health, and she would be some company for us. We did not, however, reach the farm before night and were thus deprived of the lady's society. Her health not permitting her to venture out at so late an hour. The steamboat on which we sailed was called the Commerce and at that time had five boats in tow which were well laden and prevented our going fast. We retired at an early hour with severe headaches which after a night of sound sleep was entirely dispersed. 19th When we arose we found that we had proceeded but unknown toward Troy, You will remember that when we left N.Y. we unknown rain at least every other day. It being pleasant the day we started, of course expected rain today but were favored with pleasant weather
Title
Mary Sackett papers [box 01], 1841-1945
Creator
Sackett, Mary, 1825-1869
Date
1841-1849
Place
Great Lakes
,
Illinois--Winnebago County
Subjects
Canal-boats
,
Pleasant Valley Reading Circle (Laona, Ill. : Township)
Description
Use the link to the finding aid for a fuller description of collection contents that explains the use of the name and subject terms appearing in this catalog record.
Summary
Six folders of material relating to Mary Sackett and the Sackett family, including Mary Sackett's journal kept on a trip from New York City to Lanoa, Illinois in 1841 and 1842. The journal, kept for her brother, is detailed and informative about such topics as the daily activities while traveling by canal boat and steamship, descriptions of the passing landscape including a stop at Niagara Falls, life in rural Illinois while waiting for a house to be built, and the daily problems and chores of pioneer women in the 1840s. An 1849 manuscript pioneer newspaper, The Prairie Flower, of which Mary Sackett was the editor, consists mainly of original stories, poems, editorials and reports on local doings, sayings and notices relating to the Pleasant Valley Reading Circle. This group was formed to provide amusement "during the coming winter months." Also, a recipe for taffy, some penmanship exercises and two colored drawings, all undated. There is also some genealogical information regarding the Sackett family collected in 1945.
Biographical/Historical Note
New York born woman who emigrated as a teenager with her family to Laona, Winnebago County, Illinois. Mary Sackett was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1825, the eldest of the living children of Isaac Sackett and his wife Mary Johnson. The family was living in Brooklyn, New York, when Isaac decided to move them to the Middle West, where his sister Abigail and her husband Charles Cleveland were already settled. In 1841 and 1842, teenager Mary Sackett kept a lively, detailed journal of the journey from New York City to Laona, a small town in Winnebago County, Illinois. In 1847, when Mary Sackett was twenty-one, she married Hanson C. Pierson, who died a year later. In 1852 she married Samuel Chapman with whom she had six children. Little else is known about Sackett's adult life, and she died at age forty-three in 1869.
Extent
0.2 linear feet (6 folders)
Format
Diaries
,
Genealogy
,
Travel literature
Rights Status
No Copyright - United States
Newberry Open Access Policy
The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to
these terms and conditions.
Contributing Institution
Newberry Library
Link to Catalog
View record
Call Number
Midwest MS 38
BibID
835833
Size
3074px × 3863px 34.01 MB
File Created
07/29/2016
Filename
998358338805867_mms_038_box_01_fl_001_001.tif
Unique Identifier
NL1NSUR
Projects Tag
Chicago and the Midwest
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