December 1860

At home. Took a walk up the river. Came home, read, & wrote some. Evening, went to the theatre. [1] Took Kellogg along. [It] cost $1.50. Tolerably good.

December 2, 1860

Cold day. At church; [took] communion. Commenced to write a lecture on superstitions. Reading.

December 3, 1860

In school. Gibbon came. Plattenburg, [the Campbellite preacher,] came & heard some of the lessons.

December 4, 1860

In school. Evening, went to the theatre with Captain [Syberg] & wife, & [their son] Fred. [They] played, “The Honeymoon” & “The Eton Boy.”

December 5, 1860

In school. Cross. Went down the street. Got an Eclectic [Magazine]. Went to Dr. [John T.] Wheat’s lecture. Little fly up [spat] with Mrs. Syberg.

December 6, 1860

In school. Feel sick. Nothing new. Went down the street to [post] office. Reading. I fear that I shall not hear from the gentleman at Alexandria [Louisiana].

December 7, 1860

In school. Helped Mrs. Syberg cut mince meat. Evening, the clerk boarding here staid in evening & we played cards. I beat. Had punch.

December 8, 1860

Helped Mrs. Syberg. Afternoon, wrote letter home. Took it down [to the post office] got a book for Mr. Mathews. Got hair cut. Attended the funeral of a Senator at the capitol. Somewhere in the first of December this year – what night I have forgotten – after I had gone to bed & [was] almost asleep, I heard as plainly as I could see in broad daylight, a voice call my name. It was none in the house for they were all too distant and it sounded as if it was just by my bedside. I cannot account for it.

Miss Faulkner, the daughter of the Arkansas Traveler, [2] is rather pretty & very soft. Last year she came very near running off with an actor. This year, she has fallen in love with [S. H.] Hubbard – one of the actors – and has written him several notes to meet him. He refused [her] saying he did not want to be kicked out of town. I think if I ever was in love, it was when I was in Florida & with Annie Ward. But oh! I tremble for the consequences if I had had the presumption to essay. She would have hated me more than she does now. How many charges, crosses, and insults one must meet.

December 9, 1860

Sunday school. At church. Morning, reading & writing. Mr. Mathews came [and I] lent him an Eclectic [Magazine] & [an] Astronomy [book]. Sat with him downstairs [and we] talked awhile. I feel indignant that he did not introduce me to Mr. [W. C.] Stout, [the Episcopal clergyman].

December 10, 1860

December 11, 1860

December 12, 1860

In school. Cam Watkins up. Went down the street. Captain Syberg went to a wedding, [leaving me] at home alone with Annie. [3] Tickling each other.

December 13, 1860

Cold. In school. Afternoon, Mr. Mathews was not present [but] I got along with them all. Colonel [John Baker] Thompson, President of the [St. John’s Preparatory] College, returned. Playing dominoes. Evening, went down the street. Mrs. Syberg said today that she was so much void of anything like affectation that she disliked [seeing] it in others. She compares everything with Philadelphia, [her home town]. They are better in Philadelphia – better people, better meals, [and] better society. Philadelphia is the mecca of her society-faith. Had a good glass of punch tonight.

Last night Annie, the Irish girl, told me how James Donnehey [Donaghey?] of New York came over. He was a strong political man at Munster, in parliament, and went in for reform. [He] made a speech once at a place called the ‘Devil’s Hole’ [and] was arrested & put into prison. Her father went to him & brought some letters away for him & concealed them in his stockings. He was arrested & was going to be searched but a friend came up & said that the jailor was a relation of Annie’s father & thus saved him. The man escaped from prison & was concealed in a haystack. Afterward, [he] met a beggar, changed clothes [with him], colored his hair, & got to a seaport & worked his passage over. And when he arrived in New York [City], he exclaimed, “I am at last free.”

The Captain manages to keep me busy. Today he had me help fix the doorbell & hang a lamp. [Today is his son] Fred’s birthday – seven years old.

December 14, 1860

In school. Cold. Evening, Kellogg came up and said he had got a horse for me to go to the mines. [4] Went over & saw Mr. Mathews. [He] wanted me to go down & get some oysters. He paid for them. I got some lager & we had a good time.

December 15, 1860

Got up pretty early [and] had breakfast in the kitchen. Kellogg came up about seven and we went over to his mothers. They fussed around & got two horses for us about nine. I helped his step-father down from the loft where he had gone to get a bridle. We went at a good rate through woods – one or two places cleared – over hills, some of which were almost entirely of large sandstones covered with oaks, hickory, and small underwood. We stopped at where he used to live about a mile from the mines & took dinner, coffee, biscuits (good for the country), & venison. [The] people [were] ignorant. They had two little pigs in the dining room running about & rooting into everything, a blazing fire on the hearth but the doors wide open – a southern custom. Afternoon, we went to the mines on a side hill, not very densely covered with small wood. [They] had not been worked for ten years, [and the] pits [were] almost filled up. [We] found two small pieces of lead ore & quartz. Started for home about three, cut across through the woods pell mell through the brush and got scratched some. Got home about five, tired. Annie came in my room.

December 16, 1860

In church. Bishop here – a young man about 25. Good sermon. Said the Episcopal church [was] the only one that did not meddle with politics. Sunday school. I am librarian now. Mrs. [Salena] Wheat has her class [and I] was introduced to her. She is a fine woman [and] invited me to call on her. Evening, at church with Fred [Syberg]. The young man that was ordained this morning preached. Gone to bed when I returned.

December 17, 1860

In school. One night this week, Mr. Mathews & I got some oysters & had Mrs. Syberg cook them.

December 18, 1860

December 19, 1860

Received an invitation to the Governor’s Party. Saw a Theta Delta Chi [5] [named Deuel] down the street [who graduated] from Union [College]. Nice fellow.

December 20, 1860

Went down the street & bought gloves & perfumery for the party. Went about nine o’clock with Captain [Syberg] and his wife. We had Tilla Stout to go with us. There was a perfect gain. Was introduced to the Governor. [There was] a great deal of drinking [and] a good many were drunk. I was awfully tight. No very pretty ladies there. Society is rough. I came home alone and do not know how Annie found me lying on the floor & put me to bed. I tried to compel her – cum miki cubitum ire [6] – but could not. A great many saw me [at the party] & enquired who I was. I looked terribly ghostly, they said.

December 21, 1860

In school. Feel badly. [My] head aches. I do not think Mr. Mathews liked me to get so drunk. Saw Deuel. Helping [Mrs. Syberg] cut sausage meat.

December 22, 1860

Went down the street with Captain [and] got some things for [his son] Fred [and] a purse for Mrs. Syberg [for Christmas]. Wrote letters; one to Mrs. Adams [in] Florida, [one to] Johnson [in] Davenport [Iowa], [one to cousin] Lucy Stratton, [and one to my sister] Augusta. Evening, saw Deuel [and] drank with him. Captain [Syberg] went away this noon. Night, wrote letter for Annie in my room. Took possession of her charms. I feel sorry but I can’t help it. She led me on by her advances.

December 23, 1860

At church. Went down for Deuel [and he] went with me. At Sunday school, feel as if I have dome wrong. Wrote a letter home tonight.

December 24, 1860

Monday. Rainy. Afternoon, came home through the rain. I put down the stairs carpet [for Mrs. Syberg]. Afternoon, went to church. Did a good deal of running about for Captain Syberg. Helped at the church. Evening, helped fix the Christmas tree for Captain [Syberg]. Went to bed late.

December 25, 1860

Christmas. In parlor with Fred [Syberg]. Got a book from Mr. Mathews for a Christmas gift. Mr. Mathews brought some ladies to see the [Christmas] tree [but] did not introduce me to them. Had a good dinner & wine. Afternoon, went down the street. Saw Cam Watkins. Brought Deuel to supper. Went to church to attend the Christmas festival.

December 26, 1860

Writing on “superstition” finished. Helped Captain [Syberg]. Went down the street. Got a letter from Austin, from [cousin] Jim Fiddis, & from Dr. Weems, Alexandria [Louisiana]. [Weems] said he had written for a gentleman [to teach] and had expected him to come, but if he did not, he would write to me. The Calithumpians [7] – a company of riders dressed in masks & fantastically – were out yesterday & today.

December 27, 1860

Reading some law & Arabian Nights. Invited to a party at the hall. Went [and] had a good time. Returned about 12 at night.

December 28, 1860

Rainy. Reading. Went down the street. Evening, called on Mr. Mathews. Today Captain Syberg & [his] wife have been unbearably insolent. Tonight, I went out & got some ash wood for kindling my fire – as I almost always do – and Mrs. Syberg said, “Are you going to use all that pine for your fire?” She is a she-devil.

December 29, 1860

December 30, 1860

Sunday. At church. Dr. [John T.] Wheat preached a good sermon on the closing year. Evening, had a quarrel with Mrs. Syberg. She called me downstairs to fill the lamps [with oil]. I did & lighted one. I was turning it down, but before I got it down, it blazed up & she howled terribly. A second [more] almost, it would have broken the globe but I pulled it off & blew it out. She commenced on me & said I was a fool and everything [else] she could think of. I told [her] what I was doing, [that] I was turning it down to moderate the light. She said I was not as she knew [better]. I said it was a falsehood. She said she would not be called a liar in her own [home] & told me to get another place to board. I went out to see if Mr. Mathews was in & told her that I would wait till he came & I would see when I could get a place to board. She quieted down & begged my pardon for being so rash, after [which] I spent a pleasant evening. She [began] telling [me] about seductions, etc., till I fairly blushed.

December 31, 1860

In school. Went down the street. Saw the calithumpians, grotesquely dressed. Got two letters; one from J. Belknap [and] one from Manget. Evening, reading & studying.

[1] The [Little Rock] Weekly Arkansas Gazette, dated 1 December 1860, under the heading The Theater, reported that, “During the present week the musical burletta entitled Pocahontas has had a run. The production of one of the wittiest living dramatic authors, and well presented by the company. Pocahontas is as great a favorite as any piece which could be produced on our boards. It will be presented tonight for the last time, and we expect to see the house crowded.”

[2] Col. Sanford [“Sandy”] C. Faulkner was the author of a tune called the Arkansas Traveler that was turned into a play in the 1850’s. The plays tells the story of a traveler’s experience with an Arkansas squatter whom he finds sitting in his cabin playing away at a tune which he has heard for the first time on a trip to New Orleans. It is not clear which of Sandy Faulkner’s two daughters Ralph is referring to – Sally F. Brown Faulkner, age 29, or Matilda J. Faulkner, age 16.

[3] Annie’s identity has not been confirmed. She appears to have been a maid hired by the Syberg family – likely a recent immigrant from Ireland who was illiterate.

[4] Goodrich and young Kellogg probably went to the silver mine near Kellogg Creek north of the Arkansas River. “The original Kellogg mine was opened in 1840 south of Kellogg Creek by the South Western and Arkansas Mining Company, under a lease from Benjamin Kellogg. It was followed by several other mines on both sides of the creek; they all ceased operations before 1852. Operations in this period yielded up to 500 tons of lead-silver concentrate, valued at $90 to $100 per ton, all of which was shipped for processing to Liverpool, England.” Source: The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture

[5] Theta Delta Chi was Goodrich’s fraternity at Hobart Free College.

[6] The English translation of this Latin phrase is: “to go to bed with me.”

[7] “The term calithumpians means those who create a large commotion or cause a celebration to occur in the streets. Often they are masked or costumed revelers making noise for an official occasion.”

The Diaries of Ralph Leland Goodrich, 1859-1867