Introduction to Part 2, January 1, 188 - May 24, 1881

                                                                      (IMH 75:2 pages 147-148)

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet":

William Gregory Harrison's Morgan County
Journal, October 2, 1880-May 24, 1881
Part II

Edited by Roger G. Miller*

Contributed by William Ripley Harrison**

The activities of the first day of 1881 varied little from other days for William Gregory Harrison, a young farmer from
Jefferson Township, Morgan County, Indiana. He spent most of New Years Day in nearby Martinsville with his father, brought
several purchases home for his brother Alvin, chopped some firewood, and noted the day's one distingushing event: "This
day mother passed the fiftieth milestone on her life's journey."(1) William Gregory was twenty-six years old at the time he pen­
ned the above comment, and he still resided on his father's, Frederick Augustus Harrison's, farm. The journal that the
young man kept during 1880 and 1881 presents a detailed look at mid-nineteenth-century farm life. He was a bright, percep­
tive observer, and his journal thus remains an important documentary source for daily life in rural Indiana."(2)

Publication here of the second part of the Harrison journal provides an opportunity to add additional information and some
clarification to that originally presented in Part I, published in the December, 1978, Indiana Magazine of History. As noted in
Part I, William Gregory and his two brothers, Charles Ripley and Alvin Daniel, had all died at the age of twenty-seven at
approximately two year intervals. It, however, had proved impossible to locate causes of death for each of the young men.
Florence Mote, Coordinator, Indiana History Project, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, subsequently found the cause of
death for Charles Ripley Harrison in the mortality schedules of the 1880 manuscript census for Morgan County. Charles died of
consumption contracted in Terre Haute." (3)

Additional information about Charles Ripley in the mortality schedules also proved enlightening. Based upon the birth
places and dates of the two youngest Harrison children-both of whom had died in childhood-it had been presumed that the
Frederick A. Harrisons had moved to Morgan County sometime between 1857 and 1863. The notation in the mortality
schedules that Charles had resided in the county for nineteen years indicated that the move from Ohio to Indiana probably
took place in 1860. Also, Charles Ripley's profession, schoolteacher, further documents the well-educated nature of the
Frederick A. Harrison household emphasized in Part I of the "Chronicles."(4)

Several journal entries consisted of coded statements, and several readers proved curious and adroit enough to decode the
sentences. They did not, as originally thought, contain comments on church sermons, but referred, instead, to girls. The
lines supported the original contention that "while William Gregory obviously enjoyed the company of young ladies, if one
were special to him, he makes no mention of her.(5)" The corrected coded and decoded lines are as follows:

October 10, 1880

J ygov jqog ykvj Cnjeg Hayngt chvgt pkijv ukpikpi.
I went home with Alice Fowler after night singing.

October 17, 1880

J hpu uvp "tbdlt" pof gspn Sbdjfm Spehfst boe pof Bmydf Gpxmfs.
I got two "sacks" one from Rachel Rodgers and one Alice Fowler.

October 24, 1880

H vdms gnld vhsg Qabgdk Aqvfm.
I went home with Rachel Brown."(6)

Alma Fraker, a Martinsville resident, provided through her own research an additional clarification about the schools in
Jefferson Township. School Number 7, the Buffalo schoolhouse, and Loper's schoolhouse, as suggested in Part I, all refer to the
same school. It was located off the Buffalo Road on the property of W. L. Loper in Sections 34 and 35 of Jefferson Township."(7)

The last entry in the surviving portion of the "Chronicles of Upper Burnet" is as undramatic as those that went before it.
Tuesday, May 24, 1881, was a hot, unsettled day devoted to mundane farm chores-plowing and harrowing the fields and
washing clothes. Yet, as often occurred on the Frederick Harrison farm, visitors enlivened the family's day."(8) William Gregory
Harrison, as usual, recorded no dramatic event of national significance. Nonetheless, the everyday details of Indiana farm
life hold an intrinsic interest for late twentieth-century readers.

* Roger G. Miller is assistant editor of the Indiana Magazine of History. He
expresses his appreciation to Joan Masterson, Pamela Gibbs, and Phylis
Walker, Morgan County Library; to Jeff Gunderson, Indiana Historical Society
Library; to Ormond Loomis, Indiana University; to Lloyd Hancock, Jefferson
Township, Morgan County; to Alma Fraker, Martinsville; and to the Morgan
County Genealogical Society for their assistance.

** William Ripley Harrison is a certified public accountant in Indianapolis
and great-grandson of the William Ripley Harrison in the journal.