Description

The collection contains two volumes, a diary and a journal. In Chamberlin's 1864 diary she records her leaving Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, and her experience as a nurse at Hospital No. 8 during the American Civil War. She kept a journal sporadically from 1 January 1865 until 7 February 1875 covering the time after she left Nashville to care for her brother's house in Norfolk, Virginia, her activities there including touring Fortress Monroe, the Navy Yard, warships, and the naval hospital in Portsmouth; meeting Lt. Charles Eccleston on 13 February 1865, her gradual realization that she loved him, and their marriage on 24 October 1866; learning that Richmond, Virginia, was captured by the Union Army in April 1865, General Robert E. Lee's surrender, Abraham Lincoln's assassination, and John Wilkes Booth's death; her friendships; moving from Norfolk to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; visiting family in Harrisburg and Danville, Pennsylvania; the birth of her two children, her husband's debilitating illness, his business prospects, their move to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1869 to start a dry-goods store; how the Panic of 1873 ruined their business; the death of her husband on 21 January 1875; and ending with a final catch-up entry on 4 March 1916 a few months before her death in which she records where she and her children lived after her husband's death, and the 10 August 1876 death of her brother Will that prompted her to "carry out my desire to prepare to become a teacher of kindergarten" over the objections...

Record Contributed By

Pennsylvania State University

Record Harvested From

PA Digital