By Jeremy Dibbell

Our November Object of the Month is a diary kept by Boston merchant William Cheever (1752-1786) during the siege of Boston in the beginning months of the Revolutionary War. As Digital Projects Coordinator Nancy Heywood notes in her introductory essay, “Cheever’s succinct entries cover the realities of living through a long military campaign. He describes press gangs and imprisonments within the town on 19 June (on page 2) as ‘the usual consequence of martial law.’ His diary entries describe raids and vandalism committed by both sides (see entries for 30 May, 12 July and 9 January), bombardments (2 August, page 4) and the scarceness and expensiveness of food (12 August, page 5). He also describes the Battle of Bunker Hill in his entry for 17 June (on page 2) and the damage the British troops did to the Old South Meeting House (15 November, page 7). Cheever’s final diary entry describes the last day of the Siege, 17 March 1776 (page 12) and records that General Howe and the British troops left town ‘upon which the Continental Army enter’d it.'”

See hi-res scans of the diary or read transcriptions of the text, here.

Stay tuned for additional Siege of Boston documents later this month, as we launch a new digital collection devoted to materials from that period in Boston’s history.

By Jeremy Dibbell

To mark Election Day, I thought I would take a look back at some diaries from 1860 and 1960, to see how the elections of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were remembered by some of those whose collections are housed at the MHS.

In our online catalog, ABIGAIL, I can search for diaries from a specific year using a Subject Search, so I plugged in “Diaries 1860” and “Diaries 1960” to see what I had to choose from.

We have 57 diaries that cover 1860, so I looked through a few of them. Here’s what I found:

Edward Everett (1794-1865) [collection guide] was the vice presidential nominee for the Constitutional Union party in 1860. He writes about Tuesday, 6 November:

“The day of the Presidential election, quite rainy in the morning but clears up for a little while at noon.

The Frothinghams got home from an 18 months tour in Europe last night. I called for short time to see them early.

Went at One to vote. A considerable crowd about the Ward-room, but orderly. They cheered me both inside & when I had got out. I voted the entire union ticket.

In the early evening I receive a message that Mr. Appleton is elected, the first sign of returning sense & reason; & a well [?] rebuke to the rampant sectionalism which has so long tyannized over us [William Appleton, Constitutional Unionist candidate for Massachusetts’ 5th Congressional District].

The imperfect telegraphic accounts that reach us from Newyork are favorable, but not to be depended on for the main result.

A Mr. T.F. Marshall, nephew of the Ch. Justice, and for a time Member of Congr. called upon me with a letter from Prest. Wheeler. A weary visitation.”

Not until Thursday 8 November does Everett write about the election result, noting “The returns of the election make it certain that Mr. Lincoln is President; & not only so, but give to Mr. Breckenridge the votes of several states, that were confidently claimed for the “Union Ticket.” A very little show of real strength at the North would have given us the entire South; but after the overwhelming Republican vote in Pennsylvania, the democratic party at the South rapidly gained strength & the opposing elements (Douglas & Bell) lost confidence; – & many were inclined to take refuge with the majority. The struggle, in this way, has become one of South & North & has ended as far as this election is concerned in the triumph of the latter by an overwhelming majority. What will be the result, it is of course impossible to foresee. Some of the Southern States, – S. Carolina & Alabama, – seem pledged to some revolutionary movement, but whether they will be sufficiently sustained by public opinion remains to be seen.”

Everett remained an ardent supporter of the Union cause, serving as the first president of Boston’s Union Club and delivering the keynote address at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg in November 1863.

And what of Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), [collection guide], son and grandson of presidents, and incumbent Congressman from Massachusetts’ 3rd District? His diary entry for 6 November reads:

“Morning cloudy with heavy showers, and one clap of thunder, a thing which I never remember to have happened here so late in the year. … I designed to go to the city, but failed to get there. At eleven I went to the town hall for the purpose of voting. I found quite a crowd very busy and good natured, but uncommonly quiet. I voted the entire ticket of the republicans, and remained talking to various people until one o’clock when I came home. It is a remarkable idea to reflect that all over this broad land at this moment the process of changing the rulers is peacefully going on. And what a change in all probability upon this occasion. The first step towards a reform of the shockingly corrupt system of the slaveholding oligarchy. Election day is one of the most listless of the days of the year, when nothing is to be done, and no ability exists to do anything useful. In the course of the afternoon my man Bradley came and answered with quite a lugubrious aspect that the vote for me was 448 whilst that for my opponent Mr. Saltonstall [Leverett Saltonstall, the Constitutional Unionist candidate] was 463. He seemed to think this a type of what I was to meet with elsewhere; and seemed surprised when I told him that it was decidedly encouraging. I had reduced the vote against me here from 125 which it stood in 1858 to 17. A telegram soon afterwards came from Randolph, announcing a gain in the town of 150. So that I concluded myself elected by an increased majority. At night the Wide Awakes came down from Mr Charles Marsh’s the representative elect, and saluted me, and I went out and thanked them for their active services in my behalf. After this I remained up to wait for my sons who had gone to the city to await the news, and come back with Mr Butler. They got back before midnight with intelligence of the success of all the republican candidates, excepting Mr. Burlingame, who has been replaced by Mr Appleton. Mr Thayer has failed in his attempt to resist his ejection. Every thing is carried by the republicans, so far as the intelligence is received, and the prospect is great of a victory. I have always expected it, so that I was much less uneasy or anxious than I might otherwise have been. Some reflections occur to me at this time, but perhaps I may as well put them off until the result is definitively ascertained.”

I don’t know about you, but I find Adams’ description of Election Day feelings just about spot-on!

The following day, Adams picks up where he left off:

“The morning brought only confirmation of the favourable return of last night. All New England, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio run in one settled current in our favor, out of the limits of the city influence. The returns from my own District elect me by a majority greater even than the plurality I had two years ago. There is now scarcely a shadow of a doubt that the great revolution has actually taken place, and that the country has once [&] for all thrown off the domination of the slaveholders. Of course such an event cannot be brought about with the same ease that a country changes its fashions. Much of struggle yet remains. But considering the prospect of a new Appointment, of the admission of new states on the side of freedom, and of the [?] on the border slave States by the spread of our opinions, it seems to me that the crisis of danger from this cause is passed. I went into the city, and at the office Mr Dana came in to see me. We talked much over the matter, and speculated on the probabilities of the future. It cannot be said to be altogether clear, but time will develope results quite as fast as we shall be prepared to meet them. …”

Adams’ sense of the crisis having passed proved rather incorrect (to put it mildly). He was appointed Minister to England in the spring of 1861, and served in that capacity until May 1868.

Turning to the election of 1960, I found my options for diaries were much more limited. Since records and personal papers from that period have in many cases not yet made their way to us, or are still closed to researchers, I could count the number of available diaries on one hand. Thankfully the very first one I checked made the whole search worthwhile:

Mildred Cox Howes kept diaries off and on from 1899 through 1973. As our catalog record for the collection notes, “Entries include accounts of daily life, including time spent with family members such as her father William Emerson Cox, her mother Josephine Nickerson Cox, her husband Osborne “Howsie” Howes, her sister-in-law Edith Perkins Cox, her daughter Pricilla Howes Nickerson, and her governess Laura A. Young (know as Val); visits with friends; social engagements and events; and time spent sailing. Travel accounts include camping trips, fishing, and hunting trips in Maine, Montana, and Canada; time spent aboard the yacht Santanta in the Florida Keys and the Inland Waterway; and sea voyages to England, France, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey, among others.”

So what did Mrs. Howes have to say on Tuesday, 8 November 1960? Nothing as lengthy as Everett or Adams, but I find her diary quite fascinating in its own right:

“Tues. Fair. Voted. Red Cross. … Took Mildred & Barbara to Camelot. Kennedy elected.”

It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? She went to see “Camelot” on Election Day!

By Jeremy Dibbell

Happy Halloween from all of us at the Historical Society!

This scary little guy (or is he laughing?) is a silver gun sight attached to a ~1770s English fowling piece made by John Parkes of Birmingham, England, and originally owned by Paul Revere. The sight was probably made and attached to the barrel by Revere, who would have aimed right over the gargoyle’s nose.

The gun was given to the MHS by William B. Revere in December 1931.

By Jeremy Dibbell

Among the other recent interesting finds our Preservation Librarian Kathy Griffin has made in the Society’s pre-1900 archives is a 25 June 1860 note from Dr. Charles G. Greene of Boston, which accompanied his donation of a razor used by John and John Quincy Adams:

“A razor, purchased in Paris, (France) in 1778 or 9 by John Adams, afterwards President of the U. States; used by him & by his son John Quincy Adams, on their august faces; transmitted by the latter to his kinsman, Mr. — Greenleaf, of Quincy, & by him to his son Wm C. Greenleaf, an intimate friend & chum of the undersigned. In 1829 Wm. C. Greenleaf presented it to me.

Through the varied phases of its existence, it has been in constant use in smoothing the faces of its different owners, & though costing, originally only one franc, was worth a hecatomb* of the best razors, ever manufactured by the celebrated makers of Barber, Greaves, Butcher or Westleholm.”

Our Curator’s files describe the razor as “steel blade, incised with partial maker’s mark on one side: STY…REFINED, with protein based handle (horn, baleen or antler) having three small brass inlays on front side.” They also suggest that Dr. Greene’s description is not quite accurate: the razor is English, made around 1780.

* hecatomb – OED says this properly means “an offering of a hundred oxen,” but loosely was used to refer to “a large number or quantity.”

By Jeremy Dibbell

Another new arrival to our display shelves is Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn: Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise (just published by Johns Hopkins University Press), written by Robert Martello, associate professor of history of science and technology at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Martello held two MHS research fellowships in the late 1990s, and his work draws heavily on the Revere Family papers.

By Jeremy Dibbell

After my post last week on a Revolutionary War biscuit, our Curator of Art reported that there were some other examples of baked goods in the MHS collections at various points.

In December 1920 the children of Massachusetts’ Civil War governor John A. Andrew gave the Society a large collection of “relics” presented to their father by returning soldiers. Among these were “two specimens of the ‘daily bread’ furnished to Union prisoners in Libby Prison, brought away by a paroled prisoner.” Unfortunately the two pieces of bread were accidentally thrown out in 1990 while on exhibit loan to an Iowa historical organization.

But we do have a piece of petrified bread said to be from the Siege of Paris, 1870-1871. This is among historian Francis Parkman’s assorted memorabilia removed from the study in his Jamaica Plain home, and came with other Parkman artifacts as a gift of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 16 January 1984. And here it is:

By Jeremy Dibbell

Our Preservation Librarian, Kathy Griffin, is sorting through the pre-1900 MHS Archives, and has been coming across some really interesting pieces of correspondence, among which is this 1856 letter from Joseph Mills of Needham, MA:

I, Joseph Mills, was the Son of David Mills; Born in the Town of Needham Co of Norfolk, State of Mass, Sept. 7th, 1773.

At the Lexington Battle, my Father belonged to a company of Minute Men, when the alarm was given He repaired to the scene of action; the history of the day will tell what befell the Needham Minute-Men; He followed the British to their encampment that night in Charlestown, enlisting orders being out next day, He enlisted for three months came home to His Family got some clothes, & returned to the camp in Cambrige [sic]. (He was also at Bunker Hill Battle,) Ever ready to serve His Country, He went as a volunteer to Newport RI, to drive the British from there. When His Country again called for His services, He enlisted again & went to York State, was at the taking of Burgoyne the 17th of Oct, 1777, after Burgoyne’s army surrendered, He said the American soldiers were fed from the British stores, & when the American Army disbanded, & the American Soldiers were returning Home, they took British bread in their Napsacks to eat on their way, My Father thought He would fetch some of the Bread home to let People see what Soldiers had to eat.

When I was a Boy & Frequently used to see My Father show that Bread to strangers & old Soldiers who frequently visited Him, one in particular would say, why, Mills, have you got that Biscuit yet? In company with Him, while looking over His papers, in the year 1803, He took out that Biscuit, & said to me Joseph, here is a relic of the Revolution, bought with the price of Blood, You take & keep it, it may be of some consequence as a curiosity in future years.

From that time until the present, I have kept it, thinking to present it so some Soc who would present me a suitable reward.

The above facts as near as my memory serves me, I am ready to confirm by oath; & as I am now confined to a sick-bed, hope no one would dispute my statements.

Dictated by Myself, & written by my Daughter.

Needham Aug 30th 1856.

[signed] Joseph Mills

Samuel Abbott Green, the MHS Librarian from 1868 through 1918, has written on the back of the letter “This biscuit that came with this note was destroyed by worms, and the note itself barely escaped the same fate.”

So does Mills’ story check out? Could his father have indeed been at Lexington, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Newport? Turning to Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume X (Boston: 1902) we find five entries for David Mills (pp. 791-792), and it looks like they may all be referring to Joseph’s father. David Mills is listed as a private in Captain Robert Smith’s company at the time of the 19 April 1775 alarm (service 16 days); a private in Captain Moses Whiting’s company at Cambridge on 5 May 1775 (serving through the end of 1775 and again for four days at the time of the fortification of Dorchester Heights in March 1776); a private in Captain Aaron Smith’s company from 15 August – 29 November 1777 when the company “marched to reinforce Northern army” around Saratoga; a private in Captain Ebenezer Battles’ company from 23 March – 5 April 1778; and a private in Captain Ebenezer Everet’s company from 1 August – 14 September 1778 on the expedition to Rhode Island. Quite a record, that!

The vital records of Needham indicate that David was born 26 December 1743 to David and Jemima (Tolman) Mills. He married Elizabeth Hunting 30 August 1770, and lived until 12 January 1824. From the records it looks like at least a couple of David’s brothers (Ezra, Joseph) may also have enlisted during the Revolution.

Joseph Mills’ letter to the MHS was read at the 11 September 1856 meeting of the Society, according to the Proceedings (III:112), but alas, the biscuit did not withstand the ravages of time.

By Jeremy Dibbell

Another of the new publications featuring an MHS collection is Castorland Journal: An Account of the Exploration and Settlement of Northern New York State by French Émigrés in the Years 1793 to 1797, by Simon Desjardins and Pierre Pharoux. This edition, just published by Cornell University Press, was edited by John A Gallucci, Assistant Professor of French at Colgate University, and contains a very useful introduction, footnotes, and appendices.

Desjardins and Pharoux were agents of the French Compagnie de New York, sent to manage the company’s Castorland tract in what are today Lewis and Jefferson Counties. The journal recounts their travels, business meetings (with the likes of Philip Schuyler, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr) and the many obstacles they faced.

The original Castorland journal was given to the Historical Society in September 1863 by William Appleton, after having been found and purchased in a Paris bookstall. Our Proceedings (Vol. VII, p. 145) record “The President [Robert C. Winthrop] presented, on behalf of William Appleton, Esq., a volume, chiefly in manuscript, entitled ‘Journal de Castorland, – Relation du Voyage et des Etablissements des Emigrés Français dans l’Amérique Septentrionale,’ &c., 1793-1796. Voted, That the thanks of the Society be presented to Mr. Appleton for this acceptable donation.”

Gallucci’s edition of Castorland Journal is currently on our display shelves in the library for easy access, and the original journal (catalog record) is here and available for use on microfilm.

By Jeremy Dibbell

In honor of Bastille Day, a snippet of an interesting letter from our collections which speaks to the topic. Writing to John Adams on 11 January 1816, Thomas Jefferson looked back on the eighteenth century, agreeing with Adams that the period “witnessed the sciences and arts, manners and morals, advanced to a higher degree than the world had ever before seen.” But, he writes, at the end of the century, Europe fell back into its old ways: “How then has it happened that these nations, France especially and England, so great, so dignified, so distinguished by science and the arts, plunged at once into all the depths of human enormity, threw off suddenly and openly all the restraints of morality, all sensation to character, and unblushingly avowed and acted on the principle that power was right? … Was it the terror of the monarchs, alarmed at the light returning on them from the West, and kindling a Volcano under their thrones? Was it a combination to extinguish that light, and to bring back, as their best auxiliaries, those enumerated by you, the Sorbonne, the Inquisition, the Index expurgatorius, and the knights of Loyola? Whatever it was, the close of the century saw the moral world thrown back again to the age of the Borgias, to the point from which it had departed 300. years before.”

Going on to speak about France specifically, Jefferson admits that his initial impressions of the French Revolution had been mistaken: “Your prophecies to Dr. Price proved truer than mine; and yet fell short of the fact, for instead of a million, the destruction of 8. or 10. millions of human beings has probably been the result of these convulsions. I did not, in 89. believe they would have lasted so long, nor have cost so much blood.”

“But,” Jefferson continues, “altho’ your prophecy has proved true so far, I hope it does not preclude a better final result. That same light from our West seems to have spread and illuminated the very engines employed to extinguish it. It has given them a glimmering of their rights and their power. The idea of representative government has taken root and growth among them. … Opinion is power, and that opinion will come. Even France will yet attain representative government.”