April 1860

Sunday. Dark and lowry. Attended church. Tom Davis preached. Had a good sermon. Afternoon it rained terribly accompanied with thunder & lightning. Evening went to the Methodist [Church] with Manget.

April 2, 1860

In school. Pleasant day but very cool. Sent a letter to [Harry] Handerson. Received a paper from home and a letter from [Ex-governor] Brown, Florida. Wished me to write to Major George T. Ward, [1] Tallahassee, & to Rev. O. P. Thackhara, Fernandina, Florida for [a teaching] situation. Wrote & will send them tomorrow. I do hope that I will be able to secure a place. I shall put my trust in God & fervently pray for his guidance and assistance.

Chilly in the morning. Warm in the evening. Sent off my two letters. Mrs. McCandless seldom bows to me. When going in to dinner or breakfast or tea, she hardly ever looks at me. She does Manget

Rather warm. Gaillard is an awful fellow, stubborn, deaf & ugly. I gave him a sound boxing today.

Rather warm. I was obliged to punish Ben Shannon today. I feel very tired tonight & weak. Manget said that he dreamed he was saying prayers in school & only part of the boys rose when which he said all those heathens who did not choose to rise might keep their seats. Mr. Mack is a firey enough man -- easily excited!

April 6, 1860

Good Friday. Had a holiday. Mack went away. Attended church morning and evening. Read some. Manget tells me that I appear ridiculous by using the word “gorgeous.” Took a short walk with Manget in the evening. Rather warm today. Chilly in the evening.

At home. In the evening, Tom Davis called. Called & asked for me. I went up & saw him.

Sunday. Attended church. Communion. I stayed. Went [again in] afternoon. Warm day.

Very warm. Sent a letter home and one to [Rev.] Mr. Rankine. Received one from Rev. O. P. Thackara. The Haw is similar to the northern thorn, but the thorns are not so long. It has a pretty white sweet flower & is now in bloom.

April 10, 1860

It has been a very warm day. I am sitting with shirt & pants on & perspiring most freely. Edward McCandless shit his breeches today in school which created a very unpleasant odor throughout the school. Received a letter from [cousin] Lucy Stratton.

April 11, 1860

Warm, very warm. Sick with the diarrhea. Had a talk with Mr. Mack. Said he wanted me till the end of the month & if I got a place I could leave before that time. Sent letter & recommendations to Mr. Thackara at Charleston, S.C. Mr. Mack has been trying to get me a place but he has not heard of any. He says he will help me.

April 12, 1860

Rather warm. Mr. Mack gave Gaillard a sound thrashing today. Took a long walk. Received a long letter from Mr. Thackara saying that the person to whom he had written would accept me. Gave me the address of two persons whom he thought would like teachers in their parishes -- one at Tallahassee, & the other at Monticello. The cane is about three inches high. The verdure comes in very rapidly. The trees are beginning to look green. There is an oak they call the willow oak but the leaves are small and slender & resemble very much a willow. It is now light green. It is a magnificent tree.

Rather chilly. Did not have much to do today. Wrote to the gentlemen at Monticello and Tallahassee. A few days ago the thermometer was 93 degrees

Had company this evening in the parlor -- Mrs. Shaw & her niece Miss McKay. Mrs. Shaw is a noble woman & her niece is a modest, pretty lady. Stayed till eleven. I managed to get along this evening better than usual. I think I am improving & I hope that I will. Manget went home with them. The ladies, sang. Miss Dargan sang with the guitar, "The old Maid & the Mistletoe Bough" -- a mournful song, taken from Geneva in Parker's Aid, or at least the same story in verse. Mrs. Shaw said that a Senator's wife should be able to speak the German, French, & Spanish languages.

Read some. Received a letter from [Major George T.] Ward in Tallahassee [Florida]. Showed it to Mr. McCandless. Said he would write a friend he had at Tallahassee & see what kind of a fellow he was, but it will be so long. I fear that he will give up all hopes of hearing how & thereby lose the chance. I do hope that I will be able to secure something by this. Went to the book store today with Manget. Took a short walk in evening. He gave me a Latin Composition.

April 16, 1860

Sent a letter to Mr. [George T.] Ward, Tallahassee. Rather warm. The people in this state pride themselves on being very polite & refined & they say you can notice the difference as soon as you go into North Carolina.

April 17, 1860

Very warm. Feel rather miserable. Reading French to Manget. Received a letter from Col. [Nathaniel W.] Davis. It was a good one. He gives me some good advice. He advises me to improve as much as I can. I will so do with God's assistance. Mr. Mack says that the Bishop [Thomas Frederick Davis] refuses to give a recommendation at all, but he will endorse all that Mr. Mack says. I think that Mr. [George T.] Ward will not answer until he receives the recommendation & possibly I will be disappointed in this place. I hope not. I am in doubt. I scarcely know what to do.

Little warmer. Mr. Mack left in the afternoon. Had [hard] time of it. Woods swore in [class] & I gave him a severe talking to. In the morning, Mr. Mack [said] they would debate next Friday. The question [to be debated is] whether the slaves or the Indians were worse treated, & at the same time said that the same persons who are so arrayed against slavery are the ones who have placed the Indians where they are. At the time I thought it displayed no delicate feeling toward me. I would not mind it if the people would look at my opinions as they really are. But they consider every Northern person against them & without hesitation call them all the opposers of slavery & consequently persons to be suspected until they have shown themselves worthy of confidence.

Attended prayer meeting. When I pray, I must do it with a firm reliance that God hears my prayer & will answer it. I have heard nothing yet concerning a situation and I fear that I will not, but O God, do with me as thee thinks best. I will not complain. Into thy hands I give myself. Direct me by thy wisdom, & if it be thy will that I should secure a situation as a teacher, direct me into the way that I may find one. Hear my humble petition and answer it & there shall be the glory. Amen.

Saturday. Very pleasant day. Took a long walk & visited some places which probably I will never see again. I must commence to bid farewell to everything here. I love everything here though to me it seems that I have received a cold reception. Finished Wadsworth's poems. Afternoon, Mr. Ancrum [3] here. I have not heard anything concerning a situation. Received a letter from home & sent one telling them not to write to me again until they hear of my whereabouts.

Very pleasant. Went to Methodist church with Manget. They all kneel at prayer & kneel when they go in. Very good sermon.

I am sick today. Have heard nothing as yet concerning a situation. I am doubting. Got a recommendation from Mr. Mack endorsed by the Bishop. Wrote a letter to Major [George T.] Ward, Florida. It will [not] go until Wednesday.

Sick. Sent the letter to Ward & received one from [Francis] Eppes at Monticello, Florida. Said that good teachers were constantly in demand in Arkansas. I would like to go there & I have serious thoughts of it if I do not succeed in Florida.

April 25, 1860

Ratherish unwell with the dysentery. The slaves are obliged to have a pass if they are out after 9 o’clock in the evening or else they are lodged in the lockup till morning & if they were not furnished with a pass through mistake, they are merely sent away. But if not, they get a sound drubbing. Quite chilly today.

Chilly. Sick today. About the middle of the forenoon, learned the death of Whittiker, one of the scholars. Dismissed school & came to the house. Feel too sick to do anything. In doubt about getting a place, but I hope for the best, & devoutly pray for it.

April 27, 1860

The blue pills which I took last night operated well. I am very weak & thin. Helped arrange the school room for the Floral Festival. Received a letter from Mr. [George T.] Ward, Tallahassee, stating the salary & if the recommendation was sufficient would engage me. The evening was pleasant. The school house was beautifully decorated with flowers & wreaths. The singing very well. Quite a number there.

April 28, 1860

Rainy & cold. Feeling better. Answered the letter from Mr. [George T.] Ward accepting the offer. I await a favorable answer from him. Did not do much all day. I have been troubled getting money to buy tobacco. Borrow a little at a time. The Southerners consider all the Northern people in the same light; as a scheming Yankee – a close, money-making race [and] one that will stick to the cent and ½ cent. And also in their politics, they think them all (and call them all) abolitionists.

[1] Major George Taliaferro Ward, born about 1810, a native of Kentucky and an 1824 graduate of Transylvania University in Lexington, moved to Leon County, Florida and became a prominent banker and planter. He married Sarah Jane Chaires and took ownership of Southwood, a sprawling plantation east of Tallahassee with a large inventory in slaves. He made an unsuccessful bid for the Governor’s office in 1852 as a Whig. When the Civil War broke out, he raised troops for the Confederacy and became Colonel of the 2nd Florida Infantry. He was killed at the Battle of Williamsburg in May, 1862.

[2] Victor Eugene Manget was Mr. McCandless’s teaching assistant who shared a room with Goodrich in the McCandless home. Manget was born 14 August 1837 in France and came to the United States prior to 1844. He appears in the 1850 census with his parents (Victor Hypolite Manget and Felicia DuBochet) and five younger siblings in Richland County, South Carolina, where his father's occupation is given as a "Professor of Languages" at a Female Institute. Victor E. Manget graduated from the Citadel in 1857, and taught "French" in McCandless's school in Camden, South Carolina, until taking a position at the Georgia Military Institute (GMI) where his father was engaged teaching French and History until his death in 1864. Victor E. Manget taught French at the GMI until joining Caper's Battalion, Georgia Militia, as Captain of Company B. This unit served the Confederacy in the last year of the war, though Manget's service was cut short when he was taken prisoner on 24 February 1865 and transferred to Fort Delaware. He was imprisoned there until 17 June 1865 when he took the Oath of Allegiance and was released. Victor E. Manget married Eliza DePass of Camden, South Carolina and they had ten children. They are buried in Citizen's Cemetery in Cobb County, Georgia, along with his parents.

[3] Either William Alexander Ancrum (1815-1862) or Thomas James Ancrum (1817-1887), two brothers who were natives of Camden with plantations in the fertile lower part of the county, near the Wateree River. Their town houses were in nearby Kirkwood. William graduated from Princeton in 1836, and married Charlotte Douglas in 1837. Thomas married Margaret Douglas, sister of Charlotte. In 1860, William Ancrum was a widower and most likely the one taking dinner with the McCandless'.

The Diaries of Ralph Leland Goodrich, 1859-1867

April 1860