Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice Diaries & Letters of Tri-Counties Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA 1837 - 1840 Albert M. Potter  of Elmira NY

Diary of Albert M. Potter Elmira, Chemung County NY Year: 1837-1840 Transcribed by Diane Bender

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March 8th [1839] Saturday To-day for the first time in my life was out of my native state. Went into Pennsylvania on business. Cold & chilly weather. Travelling very bad.

March 9th [1839] Snow fell last night an inch or two deep. Cold bleak NW winds. Heard Mr Frost preach to-day as usual. Have spent the evening mostly in reading & am now about ready for bed. Were it of any use or were it right I could wish myself in Ithaca this evening, but it would do no good to wish. May Heaven smile on all, & may the protecting care of Providence keep me safe thro’ the vigil of the night.

March 27th [1839] Wed. For a few days past it has been fine spring weather, but present appearances would betoken rain. Business for the most part has been dull. Nothing doing. To-day it has been on the gain & looks favorable. When March first opened its 30 days I was almost inclined to have the horrors, as the month is always full of unpleasant weather & dull in business, but as it could do no good & would effect Time not a whit or the weather either, I thought best to improve it in reading &c. And so I have & by the time the month closes shall have read, Mellichamps, Guy Rivers, Coelebe, Last days of Pompeii, & Maltravers, with miscellaneous reading. I think this better than idleness even tho’ they are all novels. The bee sucks honey from every flower & so would I get instruction from even works of fiction.

March 28th [1839] Thurs. This has been a fine Spring day. Warm & sultry with omens of a storm, but they have passed away & no rain. Last evening we had some little lightning & thunder & no rain. To-day I have been at work. Had a fine time with Jackson reading Comedy of Errors. I cannot but admire Shakespeare as a writer & a man deeply versed in the dark study of human nature. I have also been greatly delighted with Coelebe, or rather with the heroine Miss Lucilla, & think how the most perfect model for a wife I ever saw. Methinks I could find one not wholly unlike her, & one too that exists in real life & with whom I shall one day hope to enjoy the many & great pleasures of Matrimony. True I must plead myself unworthy of such a being, but the more grateful & the more strong should be my attachment & resolve to do all I can to make her happy.

March 29th [1839] Being disappointed in getting a letter from Julia this evening I can do no better than sit down & brood over my poor luck. Accordingly I have shut myself up in my room from the storm & rain without, & having made a little fire I now seat myself to tell a story.

My last date in my journal was in May 5th 1837May 5th 1837May 5th 1837May 5th 1837May 5th 1837May 5th 1837 nearly two years ago. Of course I can merely hint at the most important changes & events. — My last date was in i.Dryden, NY;Dryden in the Spring of ‘37. The spring of that year as did all the others, fled & in its train came Summer. Summer passed pleasantly along & I, at home, free from care or toil passed my time in reading, writing, & studying the great & inexhaustible volume of Nature. I think of no striking event till August when business called me from home & I was once again at Ithaca & in the lumber business. My time was always pleasantly passed while in Ithaca & with its society, & I ever felt that I should be happy. Still continuing my studies & reading when I could I felt no inclination to relax any effort to gain knowledge. Nothing very important occurred while in Ithaca & in November was again called home. On reaching it I found our family, tho’ not unexpectedly, preparing to change their residence from the pleasant village of i.Dryden, NY;Dryden even into the woody & lonely place called Willseyville, a place I never saw till driving the cow I came fatigued & sick of home to our new residence. Time reconciled me in a measure & finding in Miss Talmadge some company congenial to my feelings, & with the aid of correspondents, books, music & business, together with the smile of Heaven, I passed a few weeks pleasantly in my new home. In December, I think, fortune favored me with the privilege of visiting my friend WmSF. With him at Ledyard passed rapidly & unconsciously three or four weeks.

Never did I find in any one so congenial a spirit as in Wm S.F. The time of my departure came & with his company walked to Ithaca 20 miles & without much fatigue. Spending a few days there, we again in the indomitable spirit of Yankees, walked to Elmira 33 miles, in a day & put up well tired at Br Aaron’s. In the round of company, society, & companionship of each other, we unawares found that the whole of five weeks had flown & we no more ready than before to leave for home. The spell was broken, & we parted. Once more I found myself alone in Willseyville, in the company of home & its happiness. There with an occasional visit of a day or two at Ithaca passed away the winter of 1837 & 38.

When Spring came I was still in W— & when April came I was in Ithaca. In my old situation tho’ somewhat changed I saw Spring renew her soft & lively green, & the flowers unfold their beauties. Health that most precious of all blessings I enjoyed in full & often have I been ready to wish it taken from me for a time to teach me its full value, & the measure of my gratitude. Not that gratitude can be measured or that it can pay the debt, but that it might find a renewed & warming influence in my heart. The Summer of 1838Summer of 1838Summer of 1838Summer of 1838Summer of 1838Summer of 1838 found me neither a resident of W or Ithaca but spending some time in both places, during the latter part of Summer & Autumn in Willseyville.

March 31st [1839] Sunday. Last evening I was much delighted in tracing out the constellations with Jackson & certainly it was interesting beyond expression. To look upon Orion & the Pleiades with others not less ancient & think that myriads of human beings had looked upon the same, & had passed away while the heavens yet maintain their original splendor, was a thought both solemn & pleasing. Equally certain is it, that those now gazing upon them will also be laid in dust & their eyes gaze no more upon the unchanging order of Nature.

To-day has been a pleasant day & Spring seems opening its beauties on all hands. Mr Frost this AM in his course of sermons on indepent evidences of the truth of Christianity, took up & concluded the course on the prophecies. The sermons have all been very interesting. This PM sermon was also good but of a different character, ‘Lay not up treasures’ &c & he was more than usually engaged. I know not but one day I may become as avaricious & miserly as Croesus but at present I imagine I could put wealth to a good use & with good motives. Unless most dreadfully deceived I could use money to glorify God & to do good.