Mary Louisa Michel Journal, May 31-June 4, 1849

Map of Knoxville and Weverton, Maryland  (1858). Library of Congress*

[Mary Louisa Michel Journal, May 31-June 4, 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.]


Miss Mary Louisa Michel                                           23

May 31. [1849]. This morning directly after breakfast father went down to Mr. Wever’s: about nine o’clock I sat down to my lessons, and learned [a sen]tence and said two, before dinner. After dinner mother went up to Mrs. Norris’s, and took her work: after she went, I sat down to my drawing, and drew untill [until] she came back, which was a good while, after that I sewed some an hour; and directly after father came home mother sent me to aunt Duckers for some butter[?]: soon after, I came back and we had supper and went to bed.

June 1. This morning, we expected Mrs. Wever, so every thing was fixed, and the dining room scoured nicely. At the usual time for getting my lessons, I did not get them, as I knew that mother would not have time to hear them. Ten o’clock came and eleven, and still no Mrs. Wever; thinking that she was not coming, I sat and got my French lesson and was finishing saying it when Lucy came and told mother that Mrs. Wever

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was coming. After Mrs. Wever had got cool she asked me to show her my drawings, and nearly half an hour was spent in looking at my pictures and drawings, of which last I have very few at present. I showed her my eggshell basket which she said was very pretty, and requested me to draw her one, and of course I said that I would.

After dinner she walked about in the garden, and then said that said that [duplicated] she must go and call on Mrs. Kirkheart [aka Kirkhart]; mother went with her, and they stay’d about an hour, during which time I ought to have drawn but did not. After they came back Mrs. Wever looked at my storybooks, and borrowed them to read herself; it being now rather late, we persuaded Mrs. Wever to stay for supper, which was very early; I promising to walk home with her: we had not been at the table long, when father, who we did not wait for, came accompanied by Mr. Wever: they sat down and ate their supper,

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soon after which, Mr. and Mrs. Wever took their departure, Mr. Weaver being afraid that it would rain. Soon after I went to bed.

June 2. This morning, directly after breakfast, father went up to the Ferry; and about ten, Willie and I dressed, and went down to Weverton: Willie to get a dish, and a keg to transplant the oleander in, at Mr. Rhinehart’s: and I to borrow one of Virginia’s Sunday school books to read on Sunday. After some delay at the store, we got the dish, and a very shabby keg, and then went back, stopping at Mrs. Wevers only long enough to get two books, though she wished us to stay; but that we could not do, as mother wanted the dish. The keg was rather unhandy to carry, but we tied a strong from one end to the other and hung it around Willie’s neck, which contrivance made it quite handy.

Directly after dinner mother intended to go down to Knoxville, but before she got ready, Mrs. Cushion, and her daughter Mary, a plump young lady of twenty, came in, and mother soon saw that they were going to spend the one [evening]

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. . . I tried to entertain Miss Mary, but it was a very difficult thing to do, and after many attempts I sat down to my work in despair. They stayed to early supper, after which, we walked home, no, I mistake, almost home with them. Soon after I slipped into bed. Having first fixed my clothes ready to go to church on the morrow.

June 3. [Sunday - blank.]

June 4. This morning I rose with a headache, which was produced by my walking two miles to church in the hot sun. I did not eat any breakfast; directly after I was done cleaning up the house, the children and Lucy went up on the hillside to get mould[?] and as mother said that it would do me good, I went with them, and running about in the woods helped me very much. After staying there for some time, I went down to the house, wrote my journal, (for I had been too unwell to do so sooner,) and soon after ate my dinner; after which though feeling badly I sewed a little.

[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.]