Mary Louisa Michel Journal, June 4-7, 1849

Closeup, Map of Frederick County, Maryland (1858), Library of Congress*

[Mary Louisa Michel Journal, June 4- June 7, 1849, near Weverton, Maryland. Age: eleven. Additional paragraph breaks inserted for easier reading.

Many thanks to William Myers, Mary Davy, Sally Young and Sue Davis for their ongoing research collaboration; specifically to William for providing scans of the original document, and in turn many thanks to Peter Johnston Binckley and Patricia D'Arcy "Trish" Binckley (1951-2007), at the source.]                   

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As mother was lying down, Sue and I laid down by her side and were soon asleep; I do not know how long I slept, but when I awoke, I found that mother had gotten up; and as Sue was very hot and pestered by the flies, I laid there a good while fanning her; after a while, I got up and swept up the dining room and set the table, as mother wanted early supper. It being then very cool and pleasant, mother, Sue, and I (Willie having gone down to Weverton) set off to meet father; we expected that we would meet him soon, but we kept going on, without seeing him, and had turned back and got nearly home, when he overtook us: as soon as we got home, we had supper, and after chatting a while, we went to bed.

June 5. This morning, directly after breakfast, father went up to the ferry, and I was to have accompanied him, but mother said that as we had nothing to carry with us to

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eat, that I had better wait and make some cakes and pies, and go the next day. After cleaning up the house I sat down at the window upstairs and darned and fixed my muslin apron, for Lucy to wash it: as soon as I was done, I helped Willie to catch his hen; soon after, mother called me, she was up on the hill, and wanted me to come and see a sweet=brier bush that she had found; we children went up there and thought that it would be a good place to build a playhouse, so we went to work, and laid some old plank down for a floor, and fixed a little arbor; we were then called to dinner, directly after which I made some sweet=cakes and while baking them, cracked a loaf of sugar. Soon after, mother went down to Knoxville with Willie; and did not return untill [until] father (who had returned) had

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nearly done his supper; after which we went to bed: I forgot to tell you that I made Sue a pair of gloves while mother was gone.

June 6. This morning early, Father, Willie and myself started for the Ferry; the weather was cool and pleasant, and we trudged merrily along, Willie carrying a basket containing our dinner, and I a pencil and a little roll of drawing paper: we went straight to Mr. W.['s] shop it is three stories high; the lower one is to work iron in, the second for wood work, and the third is Mrs. W.['s] own.

After a while, father, kind father, took us to the cotton factory, which amused us very much. The rest of the morning was spent in drawing a pretty piece of machinery, scratching father’s head and scanning[?] the newspaper.

About dinner time, father took us to see the iron foundry, as we had never seen one; after looking at every thing we went back to the shop and ate our dinner, after which Willie and I amused ourselves on the canal, about three o’clock father and we started home and went by Mrs. Coons['] and got some little thing for mother; we

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also stopped at Mrs. Carrel[‘]s Hotel and got a glass of water: Father stopped at the Post Office and found two letters: and, glad news: one was for me: it was from Ellen Patrick, and gave me all the news from Charleston.

When we got to Mrs. Wever[']s, we stopped and rested and got a cool drink; Mr, and Mrs. Wever were just going out to a party: when we got about half way up the hill we sat down and rested, and read newspapers for half an hour: when we got home it was still early, but we soon had supper, after which I went up to Mrs. Norris’s and got some beautiful roses: soon after we went to bed.

June 7. This morning, much to our disappointment it was raining, much to our disappointment I saw, for we were invited to Mr. Wever’s to eat strawberries, this very evening, and loving strawberries very much, we anticipated much happiness, and still thought this morning that it would dry off before evening: after cleaning up, I soon got my lessons and said them, and at the usual tie had dinner: soon after I sat down to write to uncle Edward; mother set Willie down to Mrs. Wever[']s to make

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an apology, as the weather was still bad, and she had a bad cold; Willie soon came back, saying that Mrs. Wever said that we must come anyhow, but that was impossible, so we had to stay at home at last. Late in the evening, while father, and mother were taking a little exercise, I swept up and set the table and soon had supper, after which I read the “Vicar of Wakefield” for the twentieth time, and at last went to bed. N.B. I was awakened in the night twice by the noise of the rain and hail.

[Mary Louisa Michel (1838-1930).
Mother = Jane Mary Johnston Mitchell/Michel (1811-1892).
Father = Harvey Mitchell/Michel (1799-1866).
Willie = William Manning Mitchel/Michel (1839-1908).
Sue = Sue Henry Mitchell/Michel (1845-1940).
Lucy = enslaved servant. 
Mr. and Mrs. Wever = either Caspar Willis Wever (1786-1861) and his wife, Jane Catherine Dunlop Wever (?-1859), or closely related family members. 
Weverton and Knoxville were located on the Baltimore & Ohio rail and Chespaeake & Ohio canal lines, just north of the Potomac River and the Virginia boundary line. 
*Link to entire map of Frederick County, Maryland here.]