Pictures of Mary's Diary

It's in remarkable condition for being 155 years old.

You can see the type of penmanship she had.



It can get tricky to read sometimes.

October 4th 1858

Oct 4^th 1858 Home

Calls for the week: Monday night, Messers Decker and Hopkins. Wednesday night, Decker and Quimby, Friday night, Decker and Quimby besides Mr Decker coming twice home with Allie to keep the rain off of her and Saturday, Jo R and Moses. To day Allie and I went twice to church but was so sleepy we could not keep awake so we took a nap in the afternoon. I shall remember Saturday night some little time and all that was said on the sofa in the parlor. I have written that some many time and in the last year will all of sceanes? be remembered! My heart answeres they will and many times in the lapse of years be they years of sorrow or of joy I will think of these happy sceans (scenes) in this my happy girlhood home and of the many Sunday nights also. For always on the quite (quiet) sabbath evening I think of the past and I always silently thank my Heavenly Father for dealing so gently with so wicked a creature as I. And for leaving her her earthly comforters, her parents, while he takes away so many others. No one know that beneath a careless exterior I hid(e) a warm and loving heart and those that I I love dearly will Our Father in heaven guide me softly through life and when I at last sleep my last sleep, may I join my Brother in Heaven.

 

Editor's note: Her brother Elihu Wheeler Kirby died at 7 years of age in 1852. Mary was 13 years old.

October 3rd 1858

Oct 3^rd 1858

How many times in this same year have I written of different ones not in this book. Have I written so much. But in my memorandam I find dated March 10^th Jo Smith spent the evening, that is, staid until one of two o clock. Ma is anxious?  to know what we find to talk about, he comes so much. March 11^th Jo S- spent the afternoon and evening with me I --- - horses had to stand out all day most but Jo had to wait for some work that was done in the afternoon. March 12^th Jo came to see me to night. Spent the evening, had a very nice little talk. Libbie Hodges and Harrison Otis? are trying to do something, I dont know what. But I do know what makes Lib do so. She and Agnes are very much in love with Jo- . All fair play. We will see who comes out ahead. If they do (all right). March 16^th Jo came home from singing school with me -- -- . March 30^th Jo came home from singing school with me. Marves? with Allie first. We tryed to get away from them but could not, so came into the house and left them on the steps. They went off a riding afterwards. Jo and I went riding thursday. He goes west to night. Will not soon be forgotten by me. He has been sick which accounts for his not coming to see me before. I shall not soon forget about Marves? wiping my eyes for me while Jo was at the other side of the room and Allie plagueing him. But we both felt to (too) sober to laugh. While I know that all winter was only a rehersal of similar things, now the same things might be written of *Moses C-. While I care not for either of them, my heart says it is wrong but I continue to do so.

Editor's Note: Moses Cornell

Elihu Kirby House Part 2

Here is a picture of the house today.

Elihu Kirby House

This is the house that Mary grew up in. Elihu Kirby was her father, a shopkeeper in Henrietta. The house is believed to have been built around 1840. The picture was taken in 1930, so changes were probably made to it. Check out this link for more Elihu Kirby History. The original location for the house was on the corner of East Henrietta Road and Lehigh Station Road. It was moved in 1960 to Pittsford.

(isn't it pretty?)

September 28th 1858

Tuesday Home Sept 28^th 1858

I have been thinking of other day(s) again tonight. How often do my thoughts wander from the present to the past. I am ever thinking if I shall ever be as innocent and happy as I was when a child. But I reproch myself for saying so for have I not everything to make one happy that I can have but it is ever thus. We are ever looking back on bygone happiness with regrets or forward to some happier times yet to come ---- of thinking of the many happy day(s) now with us .Much happier we be were we ever thankful for the happiness that is now ours.

Harve Haseltine

I have been trying to find info on the names that Mary mentions often. The one that stands out most to me is the infamous Harve. Most of the info I have been able to find so far is on Harve's father Dr. Haseltine. (click the link for a bit a info).
Harve's full name is Harvey Brewster Haseltine. Harve married Sarah Louis Peck of Lima. They had 2 children Clara and McClary. McClary died soon after graduating medical school at the University of Pennsylvania.

September 27th 1858

Sept 27^th 1858 Home

I am almost ---- how much have I changed in the last four years. Four years ago I was fifteen, bashfull and I believe a warm hearted gril (girl) knowing little of gentlemen. Indeed when any one did come to see me I relied on ---- to entertain them. A year had not passed over my head when I had a fear. I did not incourage him for I cared not for him, yet I know that if I had so willed I could have been his wife. A few months more and another paid me attention but he met with as little incouragement. Then the winter after I was seventeen I had another I flirted with him and dismissed him. The next summer there was two who paid attention to me. One I loved but I found out all of his affairs and I could no longer respect him. Therefore my love took wings so by mutual consent. We agreed to be friends nothing more and a friend to him I shall always be for he has been a good friend to me. The other one I respected and when one night he told me he loved me I told him I loved him as a brother and asked him to let me be his sister again.  In the fall I flirted desperately with another. I have wronged him more than anyone else for I was never frank with him and I have carried it so far I know not how to rilease myself yet it must be done for I love him not and my dear parents would not consent. I am their young (youngest) and last. I must not give them cause for sorrow on any account. Yet again at the same time another told me he loved me but I have no cause for regrets there for I did not encourage him. Last Friday night another told me though (thought) a great deal of me and said he feared I loved many others better than I did him. But he could not help saying I was very dear to him. I told him and I spoke truely that I did not love anyone of those he mentioned. May I be forgiven if I have done wrong and I repeat to myself on how few of our days can we look without many regrets.