November 1831

Tuesday November 1, 1831 Nothing to do.

Wednesday November 2, 1831 Smoke cigars, eat apples and do nothing.

Thursday November 3, 1831 Some men are sifted though a sieve, others through a ladder.

Friday November 4, 1831 Folks sit long at table, dont like it very well.

Saturday November 5, 1831 Father came over yesterday on his way for Canada to settle with Small. Benj. Towle sued the execution and took him to jail but he got bail for one week. Trouble upon trouble. Hope [we?] shall get through.

Sunday November 6, 1831 Went to hear Mr. Freeman at the Baptist's. Liked quite well. Three young persons were baptised in the morning at Horseshoe Pond with very appropriate and solemn ceremonies. In the afternoon the Lords Supper was celebrated and four were admitted members of the church. The evening was devoted to a prayer meeting. A new Methodist meeting house is nearly finished, now four [churches?] with[in] the limits of the village. Mr. Thomas and Bouton both received new members to their respective churches.

Monday November 7, 1831 I expected George at home Saturday but he did not come till tonight. Col. Kent came Saturday. He had good luck and bo[ugh]t a large lot of goods.

Chichester Tuesday November 8, 1831 Went home with Mr. Berry. Very cool and windy day.

Wednesday November 9, 1831 Not many purchasers assembled to buy the premises. The sale was dull and only the house and what was on that side of the road was sold. Price 11,000 dollars, to Enock Butler of Deerfield. Adjourned to Dec 7.

Thursday November 10, 1831 Father returned from Canada today. Met with good success, paid forty-five dollars, thinks of going to N. York soon. Settled with the Plumers. Mother has signed the deed.

Friday November 11, 1831 Rainy.

Saturday November 12. 1831 Nothing remarkable except that folks are fishing for Father but cant catch him. Hope he'll get clear.

Sunday November 13, 1831 The effects of the protracted meeting is very visible. Numbers have become converts to the Christian religion and other are serious. It is much needed here.

Monday November 14, 1831 I am still in old Chichester--hope [I] shall never get in a worse, ain't much afraid of it. Father started tonight with Chase. Got clear and safe. Good! Catch him [if] you can. He has funk[e]d them again, ha, ha.

Tuesday November 15, 1831 Went to Pittsfield with Berry. Saw Cram and am going to have an auction Saturday.

Wednesday November 16, 1831 Humming cold and dreary. Rode to Epsom to carry auction bills. After enjoying the company of intelligent young men for years, the bookish ignorance and stupidity of our townsmen makes them but poor companions for me. No conversation can be held with them but rustic jokes and quaint sayings which have long ago become rather a trite cant. I do not d[e]spise them for all this but they are to be respected for their simplicity.

Thursday, November 17, 1831 Cold but no snow yet.

Friday November 18, 1831 Old Ben and others are quite mad because Father outwitted them but cant help themselves. They want to have had him --all things were prepared to take [him?].

Saturday November 19, 1831 Auction commenced about one o'clock and before done sold fifteen dollars worth. Adjourned till next Friday when the remainder will be sold. Things sold quite well.

Sunday November 20, 1831 Went to hear Elder Hinds and I think him nothing extra for a preacher. The Center was quite crowded.

Monday November 21, 1831 Not anything to do. I received a letter from Waterville not long ago. A revival has commenced there which is very encouraging.

Tuesday November 22, 1831 Very stormy today --a kind of mixture of snow and rain. Very cold storm.

Wednesday November 23, 1831 Went to Gilmantown and Barnstead to settle some debts due father. Seven inches [of] snow in G. I could not but notice the wonderful decrease of business and the lonesomeness of Barnstead. The houses are decaying and even now look like a mass of ruins.

Thursday November 24, 1831 Thanksgiving Day in this state. Were busied most of the day packing our things to move. In the afternoon we went to Grandfather's. Attended no meeting.

Friday November 25, 1831 Commenced sale at auction again and continued till nine o'clock. It was quite brisk.

Saturday November 26, 1831 Moderate and pleasant weather. Smart came up this morning. Cram started off with a load of goods for Schenectady N.Y. about two o'clock. We have been expecting the sheriff here after our goods but we now fear but little from them.

Sunday November 27, 1831 Snowed all day which prevented our going to meeting. Going to start on our journey for N.Y. tomorrow. Regret but little leaving Chichester, although I expect there are many worse places than this. My expectations are not raised very high by our contemplated change, but if quietness can be secured our expectations will be fulfilled.

Monday November 28, 1831 Cold winter day, about five inches of snow. Carried our baggage to Grandfathers last night. Went to Concord this eve in stage. Pretty good sleighing now. Staid at Hutchin's house. Saw Benj. F. Bradbrook this evening through mere accident. I went to Mr. Breed's with George Porter [for a] few minutes, when he came in to arrange a little business with him. I found it once more sweet to mingle [with] kindred spirits long since parted. We had both roomed together at New Hampton and when we parted promised a long correspondence but the old proverb "Out of sight, out of mind" seems to have taken place. We talked and walked together up and down the streets till ten o'clock and then parted without having "told the one half" which we wished. For stage companion we had a young man by the name of Jacob Currier of Dover. He formerly attended school there when I did and since then has been to sea. He was formerly a very rattled brained young fellow and has not probably done much since. He was very vain and was puffed up with self-conceit, running down religion or at least what he called the Orthodox. He is now attending school at New Hampton.

Charlestown Tuesday November 29, 1831 After a weary day's ride we are at Charlestown. The road was wholly new and generally good. To give a full account of every curiousity and place which I saw would extend my Diary beyond the bound which is proper but I will attempt to give a brief story of the prominent things. After a poor nights rest, I arose and took stage on runners at half past six o'clock. The first seven and a half miles we passed in one hour to Hopkinton, the sleighing being good. From H. we passed through Warner, Bradford, Fishersfield, a corner of Sutton to Newport. The road lays on the bank of the Amesbury river from its mouth to its source in Fishersfield. All of the above towns are very mountainous and rocky, affording immense quantities of wood and timber which makes the princip[al] revenue. The snow in the towns above Concord have much more snow than their is in C[oncord]. The day was cold and squally. About noon we passed the head or tail of Sunapee Lake and saw the mountain of the same name. The country along the road here is the most romantic and novel I ever saw. Here and there little farm houses were seen peeping from among the woods. The husbandmen must work very industriously and with sweat to procure their daily bread. The Grand Sunapee is on the left and the Lake on the right as we pass along. The storm prevented our prospect very much but yet it was grand beyond anything which I ever saw of the kind before. We dined at Newport, a fine little village forty miles from Concord and twenty from Charlestown. We saw Cram at N[ewport]. The travelling being bad for waggons he had got along slowly. Newport is a fine little shire town and a place of considerable business. I passed through it so quickly that I had no time to discover the things of note. I only saw one fine buildg. which I took to be a meeting house built of brick. After a good dinner at Mr. Peittleton's we resumed our journey to Claremont 8 miles distant. It is also a flourishing village with a bank and many priveleges for waterpower which have in some measure been improved. I observed a very high mountain to the north of C[laremont] but do not recollect the name. Going from Claremont to Charlestown was more level but the snow very thin, which made the sleigh run extremely hard. We rode the last ten miles in the dark and arrived at Charlestown at eight o'clock. Mr. Hassam's stage house is very commodious but I thought by the nose of the domestics, his order was not very good. Mother and Mary Ann are very tired, having rode sixty miles the first day.

Charlestown November 30, 1831 Weather is pretty cold. Charlestown has been the place of many an Indian and Revolutionary scene in years gone-by. Not a vestige now remains to show what it was except now and then an old cannon, and the cellar [of] som[e] block house. The hand of modern enterprise or I might almost say modern barbarity has swept the whole. What it was is now only preserved in the minds of a few Revolutionary veterans. I felt a kind of veneration and awe arise in me when I thought that I was now on the ground so renowned in our infant struggles for safety and independence. Beside this time, I would say, many an Indian perhaps has made his deadly air yonder beautiful. He has paddled his "frail bark" as wild and untamed as the deer he hunted. But I am growing very sentimental, a little is good for mixture. Another Gentleman and myself tried hard to get a horse and cutter to go to Bellows Falls seven miles below, but failed. It would have been pleasing to have gone. At twelve o'clock we again started and passed the Connecticut to Springfield Vt. There is a flourishing village on a river where there are many exellent mill sites. The fall of water is more than ordinary. The river, being barred by lofty rocks here, bounds down a great depth over its ragged bottom almost perpendicularly, foaming and roaring like the "angry ocean." The bridge is here thrown across. From Charlestown to Chester, Vt. we had to ride much of the way on bare ground in a sleigh. We stopped at Chester about dark to get fresh horses and a fresh supply of passengers. Had a pretty good load now after packing nine inside and one out to ride fourteen miles a cold frosty night. Road was now good and the snow deeper, which is a natural consequence as we approach the Green Mountains. After riding up hill and down, round and over the hills, and passing sixteen bridges thrown across one stream ('tis a fact) with a boozled driver we stopped at Mr. [?] at Landsgrove where we warmed us and slept. But in my hurry I had almost forgot one circumstance. Two miles before we came to Landsgrove stopping place (when stopped, I mean) we called at a stone tavern or something to warm us where there was a "real kick up" or dance, it being [the] night before Thanksgiving. There the rustic girls and clownish fellows, some long, some short, some thick and some thin, all together were "shaving of it down" right good to all the "niggerfied" tunes which the fiddler could play. They were as blithe and as gay as larks, strutting about on "light fantastic toe" and now and then giving a good shuffle with their "thick leather pumps."