eastwickpress

by Alex Brooks

George Holcomb’s first child, named George, was born October 9 of 1819, when Holcomb was 28 years old.  This segment begins when the baby is four days old, as the newlywed couple begin raising their first child.
Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1819: I dug potatoes on Wm and Clark’s potatoes.  This evening I walked up to Ario Pardee and borrowed a breast pipe for my wife.
On November 8, on a trading trip to Albany, he bought, in addition to the usual things, 38 cents worth of oysters, and “one shillings of opium for sister Newton.”
On November 12 he took 33 bushels of apples to Schermerhorn in Schodack, sold at a price of 63 cents each, a large sale at an excellent price.  Nov 26 on a trading trip to Albany he bought “two strings of beads for my babe” and a breast pipe.  The one that he had borrowed from Sylvester Pardies had broken.  He paid Pardee 50 cents for it.
In January he mostly chops and stacks firewood, reckons his accounts, buys stuff at the stores, and goes visiting.  Being the slow time of year for a farmer, he is able to go visiting on several weekday afternoons, as well as the usual Sunday social visits.  He seems to have done well this year, and buys such luxuries as lace and fur for his wife.  He even at one point pays a violinist 25 cents to play for him and his wife, an extravagance rarely seen in these notes, in which he is for the most part relentlessly practical.
January 14, Friday:  Today Mr. Simon Cranston came along and gathered the taxes.  I paid $4.92, and I paid Wm’s which was 90 cents.”
This is the first mention of taxes.
Jan 16, Sunday:  Today we fixed and made ready to go on a journey.  I took Mr. Simeon Wylie’s horse to our shop to have the shoes set and I took our horse and harness to Mr. Simeon Wylie’s in readiness to start.
Monday: Today a snow storm and a severe wind, which did considerable damage in many places in taking off roofs of buildings and tearing down some and blowing down timber.  It likewise drifted up the roads and a very tedious day to be out.
Tuesday: Today we shoveled out roads.
Wednesday: Today my wife and I started with Mr. Simeon Wylie to go to Rome.  I put a horse into his double sleigh, he and his wife went, us four together and my babe.  We went on to Nassau factory at Joseph Hill’s, and then we returned home on account of my child, for it cried the whole time when in the sleigh.  This is the first time that we ever rode so far with George Jay.