Showing 1 - 10 of 31 Records
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1928
-
Image nop
- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1928
- Description: The common topics of daily life include church events and sermons; entertainment activities like attending plays, movies, VT town fairs, dinner parties, and learning to golf; and spending time with family and friends. Topics of wider interest include American politics specifically, the Great Vermont Flood of 1927 and Charles Lindbergh’s Goodwill Tour; women's groups’ meetings, and automobile and train travel. Topics in this diary include early 20th century health and treatment systems; social life in Washington DC including movies, theater, and operas; American politics; and women’s groups meetings.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1945
-
Image nop
- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1945
- Description: This short diary most directly was used for schedule keeping by Mary Jean, with various women’s club meetings, Pan-Hellenic dinners, and concerts being penciled in. The summer months contain some detail on visiting friends, going to church, dinner parties, and typical yard and house chores. In May Mary Jean mentions celebrating Victory in Europe Day, and in August she describes the thrilling and sobering experience of listening to President Truman announce Japan’s surrender. This diary ends shortly after Mary Jean experiences injury from a car accident. Topics in this diary include the end of World War II, Women’s groups, social and religious life in Vermont, and Automobile accidents.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Erastus Root Diary, 1815-1818
-
Image nop
- Creator: Root, Erastus, 1789-1829.
- Date Created: 1815-1818
- Description: Erastus Root was born on January 9, 1789 to Timothy and Patience (Gleason) Barber Root in Guilford, Vt. After two years of study under the tutelage of Rev. Jason Chamberlain, Root enrolled at Williams College in 1809, before transferring to the University of Vermont in 1811 to continue studying with Chamberlain, who had been elected UVM’s Professor of Learned Languages in the interim. Root graduated from UVM with a bachelor’s degree in 1814 and spent the next three years studying medicine: he began his studies with Dr. Willard Arms of Brattleboro for a year and a half, then returned to UVM in the fall of 1815 to attend their medical lectures and continue his studies with Dr. John Pomeroy, and finally completed his studies at Dartmouth College, receiving his medical license in 1817. Root eventually moved to Boston, where he married Lucinda Jacobs on February 1, 1821. The couple had one daughter before Lucinda’s death in 1822 and Root’s death in New York on February 24, 1829. Topics in Root’s diary include UVM’s medical program in early nineteenth century, John Pomeroy, early nineteenth-century medical practices, teaching in Vermont in early nineteenth century, and modes of travel in the early nineteenth century.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Cephas Kent, Jr. Diary, Undated
-
Image nop
- Creator: Kent, Cephas, Jr., 1754-1813.
- Date Created: undated
- Description: Cephas Kent Jr. was born on April 2, 1754 in Suffield, CT (Colony) to Cephas and Hannah (Spencer) Kent. In 1773, Kent moved with his family to what later became Dorset, Vt., where his father, a deacon as well as a tavern owner, took an active role in the American and Vermont independence movements. Kent enlisted in the Continental Army during the summer of 1775 and served as an aide-de-camp on General Montgomery’s staff. His primary responsibilities included cooking and caring for the officers’ baggage, but he also participated in several skirmishes, taking up arms at decisive moments during the Siege of Fort St. Jean. On January 30, 1779, Kent married Lydia Sheldon and the couple had several children. Kent died in Dorset on January 9, 1813. The first part of Kent’s diary details his religious experiences between the ages of 12 and 21, while the remainder describes his participation in the Continental Army’s campaign into Canada in 1775, especially the Siege of Fort St. Jean (“St. Johns”).
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1927
-
Image nop
- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1927
- Description: This diary records Mary Jean’s continued work as a Bill Clerk of the Senate, helping to process the hundreds of bills passed in 1927. Mary Jean spends much of her free time going to social events, and often describes the church sermons she hears each Sunday. Mary Jean also takes a ten-day transcontinental trip through the Midwest with Senator Dale and his family after the close of Congress. Returning to Vermont for the summer and early fall, Mary Jean travels around speaking to Women’s groups, rotary clubs, attending various committee meetings, and going to town fairs. In the late fall, Mary jean returns to her work as a Bill Clerk in DC and goes to various movies, musicals, and dinners. The end of her diary is largely focused on the Great Vermont Flood of 1927 and the relief programs she is involved in aimed at supporting the state in its aftermath. The common topics of daily life include church events and sermons; entertainment activities like attending plays, movies, VT town fairs, dinner parties, and learning to golf; and spending time with family and friends. Topics of wider interest include American politics specifically, the Great Vermont Flood of 1927 and Charles Lindbergh’s Goodwill Tour; women's groups’ meetings, and automobile and train travel.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1941
-
Image nop
- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1941
- Description: This diary features Mary Jean’s time as Dean of Women at UVM and details her busy work life. Visits to New York and Maine, and travel across Vermont for conferences, club meetings, and funerals are common in this diary. Mary Jean describes the busyness of UVM summer school, the convocation for UVM’s 150th year, a social work conference in Brattleboro, and attending the Women’s Student Union Association Convention. She also details the death of her Aunt Harriet, her mother’s bout with the flu, and a general sense of weariness from her constant work and travel. A note in late December marks her relief at UVM closing for winter break. Topics in this diary include automobile transportation, Women’s groups, church life including funerals and weddings, UVM’s Sesquicentennial, Social Work, and Mary Jean’s family life.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Jean Simpson Diary, 1942
-
Image nop
- Creator: SimpsonMaryJean, 1888-1977.
- Date Created: 1942
- Description: This diary most prominently features the death of Mary Jean’s mother in late February, a hugely significant figure in her life. Much of the diary discusses the loneliness that comes with the death of a parent, especially around the holiday seasons. Topics in this diary include family death, grief and faith, UVM student affairs, University requirements during World War II, and Women’s Groups. Throughout the year Mary Jean busies herself with women’s groups and student life at UVM, dealing with a student theft incident at Allen Hall, going to Delta Kappa Gamma and YWCA events, and attending meetings on Student Aid. In the absence of her mother, Mary Jean writes about spending time with her cousin Jean and Aunt Kate and expresses misery at the distance created between her and her brother, John. Peppered throughout emotional passages are mention of going to plays and concerts, attending dinners, and in one instance a Faculty Senate meeting with the War Council on student physical education requirements. Topics in this diary include family death, grief and faith, UVM student affairs, University requirements during World War II, and Women’s Groups.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Roswell Farnham Diary, 1848-1849
-
Image nop
- Creator: Farnham, Roswell, 1827-1903.
- Date Created: 1848-1849
- Description: Roswell Farnham was born in Boston, Massachusetts on July 23, 1827, the son of Roswell and Nancy Bixby Farnham. Farnham's family moved to Bradford, Vermont in 1840, and he received his education at Bradford Academy and the University of Vermont, from which he graduated in 1849. Married to Mary Elizabeth Johnson on December 25, 1849, Farnham taught school before gaining admittance to the Orange County bar in 1857. When the Civil War broke out, he entered the First Vermont Regiment with the Bradford Guards militia as a Second Lieutenant. Farnham served with distinction in both the First Vermont and the Twelfth Vermont, and left the Army in July of 1863 as a Lieutenant Colonel. Following the war, Farnham became general counsel for the Vermont Copper Company and continued to work as both lawyer and administrator of the VCC for the rest of his life. In addition, he held a number of local and state political offices culminating in his defeat of Democrat Edward J. Phelps for the governorship of Vermont in 1880. After completing a single popular term as governor, Farnham returned to his law practice. In 1889 he also became president of the newly-formed New England Company, a group of Northern investors interested in developing the coal and iron deposits of northwestern Georgia. The New England Company was never a success, and Farnham spent much of the last decade of the nineteenth century trying to save it and the VCC from bankruptcy. Badly injured in a fall in November 1898, Farnham recovered sufficiently to resume some of his work but never regained full health. Roswell Farnham died at his home in Bradford on January 5, 1903, at the age of seventy-five. Three of Farnham’s four children lived to adulthood: Charles Cyrus Farnham (1864–1937), Florence Mary Osgood (1866–1958), and William M. Farnham (1869–1927). His first child, Roswell Phelps Farnham Jr., died in infancy in 1861. Farnham was predeceased by a half-brother, Cyrus C. Farnham, in 1863. Topics in this diary include the curriculum, faculty, and student experience at UVM in the late 1840s; Burlington and neighboring towns in the late 1840s, UVM’s Lambda Iota fraternity, Zachary Taylor and the Whig Party, and teaching in Vermont and Canada in the mid-nineteenth century. Near the end of the diary are several essays written by Farnham during his senior year at UVM. Topics in these essays include religion, natural history, and King Lear.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Chester Way Diary, 1919
-
Image nop
- Creator: Way, Chester Murray, 1897-1973.
- Date Created: 1919
- Description: Chester Murray Way was born on November 12, 1897 to Harry Abel and Helen (Phelps) Way. He attended Burlington High School and later enrolled at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1922 with a degree in economics. During his time at UVM, Way was a member of the Alpha Lambda chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, the Burlington chapter of the YMCA, and the editorial board for The Vermont Cynic. He also took part in UVM’s Student Army Training Corps, completing part of his service during the 1918 influenza pandemic. After college, Way ran a farm and became involved in several Vermont businesses, including the Green Mountain Mutual Fire Insurance Co. in Montpelier, the Fli-Rite School of Aviation in Swanton, and his father’s business, the Porter Screen Company, in Burlington. In 1944, Way purchased an inn in Middlebury, Vt. and renamed it the Waybury Inn; the inn was later used as a location for exterior shots for the television show Newhart. Way and his wife, Marjorie Holbrook Scott (m. 1928) were living in Middlebury at the time of Way’s death on October 4, 1973. Topics in Way’s diaries include the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, fraternities at the University of Vermont, Kake Walk, World War One and UVM’s SATC program, Vermont farm life, and male friendships and relationships in the early twentieth century.
- Parent Collections: Diaries
Mary Susan Davis Kelley Diary, 1883-1893
-
Image nop
- Creator: Kelley, Mary Susan Davis, 1866-1917.
- Date Created: 1883-1893
- Description: Mary Susan Davis was born on January 10, 1866 to Benjamin Webster and Susan Adelaide (Young) Davis in Fairlee, Vt. Davis grew up in a large household consisting of her parents, her three siblings (John, James, and Rosalene), and her uncle, David Young, who suffered from epilepsy and erratic behavior due to a traumatic brain injury. After she graduated from secondary school in 1884, Davis helped her mother at home and with taking care of the boarders who occasionally resided in their home; she also taught in local schools and occasionally performed housework and childcare for hire in other households in the community. Prior to her first marriage, Davis moved to Orange, Massachusetts, where she was eventually employed by shoe manufacturer Jay B. Reynolds as a skiver. Davis was married three times over the course of her life: her first marriage was to Fred Mason on October 25, 1888, her second to Fred Sheldon Pickett in 1897 (following her divorce from Mason in January of that year), and her third to Harry Kelley on April 16, 1906. Davis suffered from chronic health issues, especially heart and reproductive ailments, throughout her life and had at least one miscarriage as a result. Davis died in Fairlee on March 30, 1917. Topics in this diary include women’s health and other subjects relating to health and medicine; the experiences of working women circa 1890, turn-of-the-century courtship and marriages, and the local social and cultural history of Fairlee, Vermont.
- Parent Collections: Diaries