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Schenectady, New York; Lake Ontario, and elsewhere, 1857–1862. 8vo (263 x 208 mm), half calf with marbled paper over boards. 112 pp. of manuscript, 63 blank leaves.

Journal of a final-term student at Union College and prospective school teacher, then lawyer, whose father taught in Buffalo and other New York locales, with an account of a talk given by a Chippewa Chief; with a slightly later Lake Ontario, etc. travel account..

The journal begins on 19 Jan. 1857, during Holmes’s final term. In the opening passage he writes, “the coming year will be one of interest and importance to me it is the year during which I must put aside a great share of the theoretical and assume the practical: a step which will decide my fate if I am fortunate.” At Union he sings for the choir at the Baptist church; attends church and the student senate; studies physiology, chemistry and world history; and devotes much time to reading George Bancroft’s 3-volume History of the United States of America. Many of his entries recount the substance of lectures, and in one early entry he praises the exercise of journal-keeping: “I think keeping my journal helps me to collect my thoughts & forms a nucleus around which my scattered thoughts rally.”

He entertains prospects of teaching in Fairport and Ballston, New York. Perhaps the most interesting part of this journal recounts a Chippewa Chief preaching at church over the course of several days. On Feb. 8, he pens:

[this] evening I heard the chief of the Chippewas preach or rather talk. He was very interesting, gave an account of the state of his nation of the labors of the Missionaries and of his own life, sometimes he grew quite eloquent he showed himself an actor though not educated yet nature and practice had given the orator.

The next day he goes to hear the “chief of the Chipp. again, he appeared in his native costume: he and his son sung some hymns that the Missionaries had learned them. The chief has the deepest base voice that I ever heard. He gave the legendary belief of the origin of the Indians.” What follows is a remarkable three-page account of how the chief believes—upon “consulting our maps”—that his people “came from the north of Asia over Behring’s Straits.” In one colorful section the chief relates that his people thought that the first steamer on Lake Huron was “a devil with a bone on his back, as they could see his claws and he blew his nose when he stopped.”

As his final term at Union winds down, Holmes places numerous ads in local newspapers in pursuit of students for his school. His economic situation is precarious at the outset of his teaching career—a circumstance he shares with his father. “Times are hard,” he pens, “it is a fine time though, for those who have money…we cannot see the future.” On 11 May 1858, he begins teaching six students. Early on, the success of his career is questionable: “I do not know what I shall make out –whether I shall succeed as a teacher here or not.” However, as he begins to pick up more pupils, his confidence grows: “My boys feel pretty well—they think that ‘Mr Holmes’ school is picking right up.’ I have been to work very diligently—and am meeting with some success.” By the time his journal breaks off on 17 Sept. 1858, he has eleven students.

On 26 March 1859, Holmes writes that he has started to read law in the office of Babcock and Moore, which is located “over the Buffalo Savings Bank.” He notes he finds “Mr. Moore a very pleasant man,” and that he has been spending time in the Court House. On 27 March, he writes that he went to “hear the class of law students recite before Judge Clinton—quite interesting. On Tuesday eve next the debating school meet—they have a Bank Question up for discussion. I think I shall attend. I think I shall like the law pretty well.”

After breaking off the journal in Aug. 1859, Holmes resumes on 14 July 1862. We find him traveling aboard the steamer Bay State on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River in the company of one Ms. Abbie McNeal, and provides a good account of their travels, including an exhilarating passage through the Long Salt Rapids, part of which reads: “The waves are very angry but the boat ploughs through nobly, now up then down, the next wave larger than the preceding seething tumultuous place. We met no accident.” He visits Montreal where he sees historic cathedrals, and following Montreal visits Portland, Maine and then Boston, where they learn that David W. McNeal (apparently Abbie’s brother) has enlisted in the 23rd Regt. Co. C. Holmes remarks: “He is full of war—to the wars he says he must go… He says he is going to fight for the constitution as it was with no nigger in it. David & I laugh just a little in our sleeves.” The rest of the journal is rounded out with his attendance of a graduation for Bigelow School; discussions of the ongoing Civil War; his conclusion that P. T. Barnum “was a humbug”; and more excursions.

CONDITION: Good.

Item #4576

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