by Alex Brooks
Summer of 1816
There is a great deal of haying in August, and they are selling their cider brandy for about a dollar a gallon.
Sept 18, 1816, the question of military duty comes up again: “I called to Doc Main’s and he gave me lines to go to the Surgeon to get discharged from military duty.” The next morning they went to wake up Mr. John Russell, “for he held a small office in the military. I went to training to Caleb Carr’s Inn, I called on a Doctor Graves concerning military duty and he gave me a line to Capt. Howard, and Howard told me that he would cross my name off the roll.”
For the last week of September he went to the military training in Lebanon, Pittsfield and Stephentown, and sold cider. In Lebanon he was given a counterfeit bill for five dollars on the bank in Albany. The next morning he returned to Lebanon to ask for payment. It was promised in ten days, but when he returned to Lebanon again twelve days later, he was unable to collect. He finally received payment in mid-December.
Labor For the Farm
Friday, June 6, 1817: “I fetched a free black boy home to live with me.”
The boy stays with Holcomb and works for him for 7 months, apparently working only for room and board. He later calls the boy “my nigger John,” but very rarely refers to the boy or what he is doing. But during the week of December 15-20, a school master from Cheshire “boarded here for the black John and Lydia Bennet.”
Dec 28, 1817, Sunday: “This evening we went to the wedding of Brother William. On this evening he was married to Miss Julia Barnard by Preacher Churchill.”
January 19, 1818: This day I sent my black boy John G. Steward to Albany and returned him home again after learning him to work and clothing of him up and sending him to school when he would go, and then I gave him a few shillings in money, I put him aboard Mr. Hazard Morey’s wagon and he landed said negro safe in Albany.”
May 16, Saturday: “This day Miss Lydia Bennet is done, being here for the present. In addition to what I had let her have, I gave on her schooling and gave her three dollars in cash.” But barely over a month later he has found another girl to come work for him.:
June 24, Wednesday: “ I fetched Cousin Clarissa Holcomb home with me to work for us.”