The Lucinda Lenore Merriss Cornell Diaries
Document Type
Book
Publication Date
1876
Abstract
The 1876 diary of Lucinda Merriss Cornell focuses on her life at home in Westerville with family and with friends and acquaintances. This was a hard year for Lucinda, full of various difficulties, terrible rainy weather, and grief. Indeed, Lucinda began the year with a difficult pregnancy and gave birth to twin sons in June: Frank “Holly” Holland and Charles “Rolly” Roland. She describes being worn down both during her pregnancy and in the months after, unable to secure a long-term helper for the housework. Baby Rolly’s health declined in September until he passed one morning in October. Lucinda spent the rest of the year grieving.
This diary begins with shopping lists and cash accounts listed by month. It includes information on marriages, births, and deaths of known persons. Notable dates include:
January 4: Clifford Allen died in Paola Kansas
January 9: Lucinda and John attend Clifford Allen’s funeral; he is buried in Worthington graveyard.
January 30: Cornells attend Cora Westervelt’s funeral.
May 4: Lucinda is told Mattie Sammis Allen is dying of consumption.
May 6: Mattie S. Sammis Celler died 11 a.m.
May 14: John hires Mary Bevelhymer to help Lucinda with housework.
June 6: Lucinda twin sons are born.
June 11: John takes Mary Bevelhymer home.
July 27: The Cornell family purchases an organ for $190.
July 31: Blanche has her first organ lesson.
August 23: A student at Otterbein college, a young man named Frances, died.
September 4: Lucrecia Ingalls and Randall Arnold married.
September 16: John travels to Columbus by car to hear a political speech.
September 28: Clayton Martin died.
October 6: Charles “Rolly” Roland Cornell died at 4 months of age.
November 10: Lucinda went with John and Blanche to reinter her son Harry, moving his remains to a new cemetery.
November 18: Ella Robison (possibly Robinson) died.
November 24: Mr. Jim Jarvis died.
November 27: John and Blanche travel to Illinois to visit Alice.
December 11: John and Blanche return home.
Recommended Citation
Cornell, Lucinda Lenore Merriss, "Diary from 1876" (1876). The Lucinda Lenore Merriss Cornell Diaries. 21.
https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/cornell_diaries/21
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Comments
Transcribed October 1993 by Kara Smith.