1859 Handwritten Diary Young Woman Attending Wyoming Seminary In Kingston PA
Item History & Price
WELCOMETO SALLY’S DIARIES: Istarted reading this diary then gave up. I only gathered two quotesbut scanned as many pages as I could. It’s too full for me to readat this time as I have other projects going. What I can tell you isthe diary represents the year 1859 and there is a name in the front.I can make out the last name, Gardner, but the first name has me abit stumped. Possibly “Alma”. I believe she is attending WyomingSeminary because in the back pocket of the diary is a ...handwrittennote and on the outside it says, “For Miss Fie’s Album KingstonJanuary 15th, 1859.” Then on the inside of the note is ahandwritten sentiment by J. B. Sumner and also signed WyomingSeminary. Now I don’t think the note and the diary were written bythe name person but our author of the diary talks about Miss Fie allthe time in the diary and also about attending school in Kingston.When I went to look up the school I found this out…..“WyomingSeminary, founded in 1844, is a Methodist college preparatory schoollocated in the Wyoming Valley of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The"Lower School, " which consists of preschool - 8th gradestudents, is located in Forty Fort. The "Upper School, "comprising 9th-grade to postgraduate students, is located inKingston. It is near the Susquehanna River and the city ofWilkes-Barre. Locally and in some publications, it is sometimesreferred to as "Sem." As a boarding school, only UpperSchool students are given the opportunity to live (board) on campus.Slightly more than one-third of the Upper School student body resideon campus.” The pictures of the school itself shown in the scans above are just ones I copied off the web but the diary is original. Somuch of this diary is about her time at the seminary then entriesabout being home in the summer and on breaks. Then in the back thereis a beautiful handwritten 4 page song titled, “We are comingsister Mary” which is a song that was published in 1853. Thediary has full entries from January 1st to December 31stand some are written in pencil and some in pen. Here are two of thequotes I found and again, I stopped reading about then…..1859“January14th, It was very rainy and muddy. I staid with Jenny Evans the most of theday. She was very sick. Miss Wood there also. I set up with her allnight. At night she was very delirious. Fie takes very good care ofher Ladies Association…...” “February3rd, We practiced in the forenoon. M. S. Thompson was in our room all theafternoon. Etta went to town and had her daguerreotype taken. We allwent to meeting in the evening. I resolved to lead the life of aChristian from that time.” Asfar as the condition of the diary, its poor as the front cover hascome loose as are the first couple of pages but they are accountedfor. Then the back pocket of the diary is torn. Binding and the pageshowever look good. It measures about 3 1/4” x 5”.
