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1880 Handwritten Diary San Jose ILL Lonely Widow Europe
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1880 Handwritten Diary San Jose ILL Lonely Widow Europe
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This is possibly one of the longest diaries I’ve read and one of the most interesting. It is written by a widow, a very sad and lonely widow, who embarks on a voyage to Europe during the summer of 1880. The diary is written for the entire year however and the trip takes up about 3 months of those entries. To show you just how large this diary is; it measures about 7 ½” x 9 ½”, written in a marbled covered journal that contains 193 handwritten pages and each page has on average 325 words which makes almost 63,000 words in this diary. I think I came up with her name but it wasn’t written in the book itself. It does say on the first page, “1880 diary of a woman from San Jose, Ill. Purchased at Greenview 1988.” /search/?q=san%20jose%20illinois When she’s in Europe she talks about visiting the house where a John Simshauser lived, almost as if it were the home of a relative. Then while in Europe she writes home to Paul Simshauser. She’s also traveling with Tom and Muggy; Tom I believe is her son. Then while in Europe she visits her daughter Jessa who is living in Rotterdam. Jessa has a son Allen and then a new baby is born while she is there. Jessa is living with a Mr. Winter which might be Jessa’s husband. Our author was also married on May 3 rd , 1836 but as stated above her husband has passed away. I just wanted to give you a few facts to help you with any research about who the writer of this amazing diary might be. The best way perhaps is to try and find the passenger lists of the ships she traveled on which were “The City of Montreal” on the way there and “The City of Chester” on the way home, both of the Inman line. /p_shiplist.asp?co=inman Both of these ships were known as immigrant ships and her entries both going and coming are fascinating. On the way home two immigrant children die and there is a burial at sea. In fact this particular ship, she says, has 800 immigrants on board and says they are all staying in the front of the boat. The entry about he children dying on board is one of the most powerful I’ve read in a long time, as you will see in the following excerpt…….“October 8 th , 2 o’clock P.M. This is a lonely day. Bright sun rise. Rough. We have traveled about 350 miles everyday but this day 130. I was in my room all the forenoon. 2 children died last night, one 3 years old, the other 16 months. At 2 o’clock their little bodies were let down in the sea. The captain read the services. The babies were in rough boxes, both lowered into the sea together. Oh Oh so sad. Dear me how I pity the parents. They did not come out to see them thrown in. They tolled the bell and almost stopped the ship. It was a very large funeral and very sad. 2 more children are very sick. I think the steerage passengers are very dirty on this vessel about 8 hundred of them. They took cold.” So many of her entries talk about how lonely and depressed she is and she hates to leave her home to go to Europe. She does enjoy her trip however, but still feels so isolated. One entry is rather funny too as she gets very drunk as she has to get her teeth pulled and figures that getting drunk will help with the pain. She even writes in her diary while drunk. She also loves taking electric and Turkish baths at the local bath house. The great thing about this diary is the fact that you get an entire years worth of entries, not just the ones about her European trip. She really has some noteworthy entries too. One talks about shaking hands with Grant, another mentions being at her sister’s home 44 years ago on the day before her wedding and having Susan Anthony there. Could she mean Susan B. Anthony? While on her trip she buys lace from a man who had a photo of Lincoln, said Mrs. Lincoln had given it to him. And those are just a few of the highlights. She even does a wonderful job of writing down every hotel they stay at and her opinions on them. Very interesting to say the least. With all t...
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