Ellen Jones Diary
Ellen M. Jones was born in Lewis, N.Y., near the western shore of Lake Champlain, on Sept. 29, 1840. The daughter of a farmer originally from Vermont, Jones attended school in nearby Keeseville and witnessed a brother, Albert, go off to fight in the Civil War.
As a young woman living on her family’s farm in upstate New York, Ellen Jones kept a brief, rapidly written diary detailing local and family news as the nation edged into Civil War. In addition to concerns over her fragile health and the passing of local men and women, she includes a nicely detailed description of a Catholic wedding, 1858, a visit to John Brown’s grave in North Elba on July 4, 1860, and several brief allusions to her brothers and friends serving in the Union Army.
Background on Ellen M. Jones
On Sept. 29, 1840, Ellen M. Jones was born in Lewis, N.Y., near the western shore of Lake Champlain, part of a growing family of seven children of Alanson Lamson Jones and his wife Sophia (Weston). Raised on a farm, Jones saw her older brother Albert E. Jones (1834-1913) go off to war with the 118th New York Infantry in 1862, while her younger brother Byron was drafted, but purchased a substitute.
Jones married a local farmer, Milford Leroy Lee, on June 10, 1874, and the couple were recorded living in Lewis in 1900.
Contents of Collection
As a young woman living on her family’s farm in upstate New York, Ellen Jones kept a brief, rapidly written diary detailing local and family news as the nation edged into Civil War. In addition to concerns over her fragile health and the passing of local men and women, she includes a nicely detailed description of a Catholic wedding, 1858, a visit to John Brown’s grave in North Elba on July 4, 1860, and several brief allusions to her brothers and friends serving in the Union Army. The passages are nearly all brief and run closely together.
Administrative information
Access
The collection is open for research.
Language:
English
Provenance
Provenance unrecorded.
Processing Information
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Feb. 2018.
Copyright and Use (More information
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Cite as: Ellen M. Jones Diary (MS 370 bd). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.