Voice of the People: Daily Life in the Antebellum Rural Delaware
County New York Area
Family and Daily Life | Education
| Health/Sickness/Mortality
| Business/Labor | Reform/Conflict
|
Religion |
Transportation/Travel |
The Outside World |
Maps
|
Exterior links
| Acknowledgements
1847 Voice of the People logo detail of 1833 New York State map illustration of horse tread
Introduction
Voice of the People illuminates the daily lives of representative
men, women, and children of rural central New York in the years prior to
the Civil War through letters, diaries, and
other previously unpublished or generally unavailable material. It is a
history by the people, for the people.
Eight chapters comprise the site: Family and
Daily Life, Education, Health/Sickness/Mortality,
Reform/Conflict,
Transportation/Travel,
Business/Labor,
Religion,
and The Outside World. The main characters and authors of this web site mostly missed
inclusion in the history books; nonetheless, many of their stories are quite
remarkable and include:
The 1855 story of Lucy Ann Lobdell, a cross-dressing female
huntress--see Family and Daily
Life;
First impressions of Delaware Literary Institute in Franklin, NY
in 1856--see Education;
The most extraordinary medicine in the world (in 1849): Dr. Townsend's
Sarsaparilla -- see Health/Sickness/Mortality;
An 1823 account of a trip from Delhi, NY to Canada--see
Transportation/Travel;
The Calico Indians/Anti-Renters: Farmers in revolt against the
gentry--see Reform/Conflict;
Excepts from an anonymous 1841 journal of religious
experience--see Religion;
Excerpts from the 1852 diary of farmer Nathanial Arbuckle: see
Business/Labor;
168 days sailing from New York to California via Cape Horn in
1851--see The Outside World
Timeline
The timeline below illustrates the chronology of national,
state, regional, and local history
National/State
Regional/Local
1809 - 1817: President James Madison
1810: William Cooper publishes
A guide in the wilderness
Early nineteenth century: Second Great Awakening (religious
revival)
1810 - 1850: Pioneer farmers in large numbers settle the area
1810:
Mowing machine invented
1812:
Joseph Bicknell rides a raft made of logs
down the Delaware River
1812 - 1815: War with British over naval harassment
1814:
Samuel Sherwood, a widower, writes a
romantic letter to his fiancé Laura Bostwick
1816: Model prison introduced in Auburn, NY
1818: Sermon by
Ebenezer Maxwell of the First Associate
Reformed Presbyterian Church in Delhi, NY
1816: Erie Canal between New York and the Great Lakes begun
1820:
The United States Primer published by
H. and E. Phinney, Cooperstown
1817 - 1825: President James Monroe
1820: Advertisement in the
Delaware Gazette: Reward for runaway
apprentice
Ransom Slocum
1819: Panic of 1819 (financial)
1821: Newly founded
Delaware Academy in Delhi, NY advertises
for scholars
1820's - 1830's: Charles Grandison Finney conducts religious
revivals in Western New York
1821: Breach of promise of marriage suit brought to Delaware County
Court by
Jerusha Foote.
1820: Missouri Compromise: Slavery banned above 36 degrees
30 minutes
1820 - 1860: 5 million immigrants arrive in the United
States
1823:
Laura Sherwood,
husband Samuel, and two of their children travel from
Delhi to Canada, visiting the prison at Auburn as well as the Erie Canal
1825: Erie Canal completed
1823: James Walton letter to
Ebenezer Foote detailing gifts he would
send after visiting Foote in Delhi, NY
1825 - 1829: President John Quincy Adams
1826: James Fenimore Cooper publishes
The Last of the Mohicans
1826: American Temperance Society organized
1826:
Samuel Sherwood, writing from "cutthroat" New York City, declares he misses his wife Laura; mentions the death of Adams and Jefferson on
July 4
1829 - 1837: President Andrew Jackson
1828: Inventory from the sale of the property of
Charles Foote
1834: Cyrus McCormack patents a grain reaper
1835: Bad weather in Walton, NY means financial problems for farmer
Walter Jayne
1836: Congress decides slavery is a matter for individual
states
1836:
Samuel Sherwood writes his wife Laura a
letter explaining travel arrangements by stage coach
1837: Panic of 1837 (financial)
1837: The Delaware County Poor House sends 6 year old
Alvina Colony to work as an indentured
servant to age 18
1837 - 1841: President Martin Van Buren
1838: Members of the
Silliman family travel from New York to
Michigan
1840: Postage stamps introduced
1840:
Samuel Law of Meredith, NY accounts the
sickness and death of his wife Sally in his diary
1841: President William H. Harrison
1842: Samuel Sherwood writes his son
William Sherwood in Delhi, NY asking him
what he plans to do with his life
1841 - 1845: President John Tyler
1845: Undersheriff Osman Steele murdered during the
Anti-rent conflict
1845 - 1849: President James K. Polk
1845:
Matthew Griffin of Middletown, NY describes
events as they unfolded during the Anti-rent conflict in his diary
1845: Beginning of large scale immigration of Irish to the US
following the potato famine
1846: The
Farmer's Store advertises a new stock of
goods in the
Delaware Gazette
1846-1848: Mexican War
1847:
Matthew Griffin of Middletown, NY states
his view on the US war with Mexico
1848: Illinois-Michigan Canal opens
1846 - 1847: Anti-rent newspaper
Voice of the People
published in Delhi,
NY
1848: First women's rights convention
1849 - 1850: President Zachary Taylor
1849:
Robert Sherwood describes Paris, France to
his sister Mary back home
1849: California Gold Rush begins
1851:
Harvey Seaman sails to California via Cape
Horn
1850: Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act
1850:
Susan Fenimore Cooper publishes
Rural
Hours
1850-1853: President Millard Fillmore
1852: Delhi farmer
Nathanial Arbuckle records daily events in
his diary
1853:
George Edgerton escapes Delhi lawmen by
traveling to St. Paul, Minnesota Territory
1851: Susan B. Anthony campaigns for the rights of women
1853:
Eliza Mead
of Walton, NY describes her
daily routine in her diary
1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes
Uncle Tom's Cabin
1854:
Edward Frisbee describes life at the
Delaware Literary Institute in Franklin, NY in a letter to his cousin
1853: Gadsden Purchase: US buys land south of New Mexico and
Arizona from Mexico
1855:
John Shanley mortgages cows and sheep to
Guerdon Edgerton of Delhi, NY
1853 - 1857: President Franklin Pierce
1855:
Lucy Ann Lobdell publishes
The Narrative
of Lucy Ann Lobdell, the Female Hunter of Delaware and Sullivan Counties, N. Y
1854: Kansas-Nebraska Act: allows the two new territories to
decide whether they will be slave-holding or free
1856:
Edward Frisbee writes that Franklin, NY residents burn Senator
Douglas, author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in effigy
1857: Panic of 1857 (financial)
1857:
Miriah Corbin asks Guerdon Edgerton for
leniency in collecting the money he owes
1857 - 1861: President James Buchanan
1857:
Ebenezer Lindsey of Downsville, NY details
the death of his wife Mary from small pox
1859: John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
1859:
Maurice Farrington accepts a position as a
teacher at a Common School in Bloomville, NY
1860: Election of Abraham Lincoln as US President
1861: Firing on Fort Sumter: beginning of the Civil War
1861:
Laura Sherwood, now living in New York
City, mentions making caps for the Seventh Regiment soldiers to protect them
from the southern sun
All materials on this website are for non-profit educational use.
College at Oneonta |
Milne
Library |
Voice of the People Home page
| Contact Us |
Printing
