by Alex Brooks
Friday, Feb. 15, 1828: In the forenoon I piled up wood to the door and then I put both yoke of my steers on with Wm’s oxen to brake them, and went with him into the swamp and got a load of wood for Mother.
Monday: This morning our Governor died, DeWitt Clinton, died in a fit, if I get the information right.
DeWitt Clinton served two terms in the United States Senate and was the Federalist candidate for President in the election of 1812, which he lost to James Madison in a rather close election.
From 1810 to 1824, he was a member of the Erie Canal Commission. He was among the first members, appointed in 1810, who projected and surveyed the route to be taken. After 1816, he became the driving force during the construction of the canal.
He served as Governor of New York from 1817 to 1822, and again from 1824 until his death in 1828. His first major accomplishment as Governor was to get the legislature to appropriate $7 million for construction of the canal, which was finished in 1825. This was derided as a boondoggle by critics who called it “Clinton’s ditch,” but it made New York State the most prosperous state in the nation, and New York City the greatest city in the new world.
Wednesday, February 27, 1828: Today a thaw, and rainy. I mended my horse sled and then I took the cutter and carried my wife and daughter Charlotte to Hancock Village and traded to Gregory’s and Hadsells.
Thursday: On this evening Hiram Hastings, brother Sylvester, and I Newton made us a short visit, and said Hastings planed off the comers of my wife’s bureau drawers, or the bottoms, to make them slide in easier. This morning Squ. James Sweet died.
Friday: I tended to chores and some unwell and the rest of my family unwell, with colds. Tonight I called and made the widow Landers a short visit.
Sunday: This evening I walked to the post office to Nathan Howard’s and took out a letter from my wife’s sister Hannah Twichel in Cincinnati, Ohio, price 25 cents, and I paid one cent for a Cincinnati newspaper sent. Said Howard lent me a Freemasons Monitor. Today snowy and tonight rainy.
Monday: Today Gideon Barnhart helped me cut a walnut and he works it into ax helves, and we draw it the remainder for wood. I tried to shave ox bows, but I did not make any.
Tuesday: I took the horse team and sled and fetched a load of hay from my Rodgers barn, and drew a load of wood or walnut limbs off the hill and then we drew out manure with our oldest steers.