[1]    It is surmised that Goodrich changed his boarding place during the period of time bounded by these missing pages. From circumstantial evidence, it appears that he may have started boarding in the house owned by Mrs. Fulton, mentioned previously, from whom he already rented a room for his school. The Margood and Bridges families, related to each other by marriage, appear to have been boarding in the same house.

[2]    Richard W. Flower was a private in Company H of the 15th Illinois Cavalry -- part of the Federal occupying force in Little Rock following the fall of the city in September 1863. Company H served in Little Rock until late in January 1864 when they rejoined the Regiment. It appears Goodrich befriended Flower and used his influence with the Federal Provost Marshall's office to threaten his boardinghouse tenants when they were uncooperative.

[3]    Medical Purveyor’s were generally attached to the Provost Marshal - General’s staff. Their duties were to aid in the distribution of medical supplies.

[4]    Mrs. Margood [or Marguth] was the former Eliza Hightower Bridges (b. 28 March 1831 in Georgia). She was the daughter of Benjamin F. Bridges, Jr. (1797-1851) and Mary C. Henagan (1800-1864), both of South Carolina. On 10 March 1850, Eliza Bridges married Louis Marguth (a.k.a. Margood), born in 1818 in Prussia. He was a carpenter and farmer, purchasing 160 acres near Little Rock in 1857.  In 1863, the Margood’s had two girls, ages 6 and 3.

[5]    Martha [“Mattie”] Elvina Bridges was born in 1835, making her about 28 years old at the time.

[6]    Samuel Delano [“Dell”] Dodge (born 30 November 1842) was the 21 year-old son of Dr. Roderick L. Dodge, mentioned previously. Delano Dodge was a student at Dartmouth College at the time and later became a practicing physician in Little Rock.

[7]    The letter that Goodrich wrote to his sister Augusta helps explain some of the more cryptic diary entries. It is clear that Goodrich was nearly destitute and beleaguered by the Bridges family who were fellow boarders in the boarding house kept by Mrs. Fulton.  

Goodrich’s relationship to his “two servants” is partially explained in this letter as well. The two servants were Mary and her mother Emily, two former slaves of the John Adamson plantation. They were house servants in the Little Rock home of Sally Adamson, John’s widow, in 1862-1863 while Goodrich boarded there. Once Little Rock fell to Federal troops in September 1863, the slaves were liberated and free to seek employment on their own. According to Goodrich, Mary and Emily sought his protection and agreed to perform certain household chores for him in exchange for accommodations. By this time, it is clear that Goodrich had entered into carnal relations with 23 year-old Mary. Though he initially trivialized his interracial relationship with Mary, it becomes apparent in subsequent diary entries that he actually developed deep feelings for her.  Henceforth, diary entries mentioning either “Mary” or “Emily” will refer to these two individuals.  

The Goodrich letter reads:

January 25, 1864     Little Rock [Arkansas]

My dear sister [Augusta].  I received your letter some time ago. I thought I had answered it, but gradually I was convinced of my error. I write now but I have nothing to say worth saying, except my own trouble. I have not heard from home for several weeks. [Our brother] Jim never writes to me. Jake Orcutt came up from Pine Bluff some time in the first of December. Since then I have not heard from him. Col. [Powell] Clayton has had a fight lately with the confederates several miles south of Pine Bluff, but I don’t think [our brother] Jim was along, as his company has been detached from the Regiment and put into an Artillery Company – heavy artillery I believe. I have written several times to him and sent them by soldiers who were going down, as there is not as yet a regular mail. The last time I heard, when [Jake] Orcutt was up, he was then well and in good spirits. Jim is the cook of the mess and consequently is not obliged to go out on scouting or foraging parties. Quite a number of the soldiers in the place have gone into the Veteran Corps to serve during the war. From the last letter from home, I hear that there is to be another draft in New York State. I should think that [our brother] Steve would be exempted, situated as he is.

I am still going on with my school. The number of my scholars is small and barely sufficient to defray my expenses. I did intend to go home in the summer, but with the pay I am getting, I never will be able to go home much less to leave this place. I have been so many times disappointed in trying to get into some business which would pay better than my present one, that I have been unwell all the time for the past two months. I am pestered almost to death by a poor miserable, shiftless, and shameless family [named Bridges] in my school. They don’t give me a moment’s peace or rest & I can’t get them out. They are a perfect nuisance and a disgrace to any place. One thing and then another has kept me mad and sick all the time. I know that it is wrong to give way but it would take a more confirmed Christian than I am to bear all with stoical indifference. I have wished again and again that I could leave the place. I would if I were able with no regret or sorrow, as long as I have lived here. I am ready to leave at any time when I can get away conveniently.

Yesterday the family in my house raised a disgraceful disturbance and by some means or other they lugged me into it. I had taken the part of a Negro woman who was their servant. The family had hired her to do their work, but she was to pay four dollars a month for rent in advance. Who ever heard of such an arrangement that a servant should do all the work and pay $4.00 besides? After the Negro woman had been in the house a few days, the white woman – who by the way is an incarnate she-devil – turns the servant out of doors and will not refund the four dollars. I take the part of the poor Negro woman and thereby get into a fuss on Sunday rather than get into a regular fight. I submitted to be called a liar, a villain, a tyrant, etc. It is an awful thing to be associated with a class of people in this country, who are white but have no more humanity than a dog and who in morals are worse than the lowest. It is bad enough to be on the same street with them but outrageous when in the same building. I have here a lying, thieving, begging band and I cannot get them out. I was not annoyed in Confederate times by the terrors of conscription as I have been by this trash. “Old buzzards” as one of my servants says. “One of my servants” sounds big but I believe I have explained in my first letter how I have two. I can live considerably cheaper than if I was boarding in a family. In fact, if I was not living as I do now, I could not pay my board and rent. I sincerely hope the times will become better for me, but at present the future prospect of good seems to be wholly obliterated by the present prospect of utter poverty. I just pay expenses and by considerable squeezing one month in the fall when cost was not so high, I saved me enough to buy me a shirt – a brown one. Since then I have purchased nothing. I wish I was in Cuba or South America. Possibly I might have some reasonable hopes of doing better than I am at present.

Well this letter is all about me. Tell [your husband] James that my ideas of the Negro are somewhat changed [and] that they are a hundred percent better in every respect than the poor miserable, one-ideas, tyrannical white dogs, [who are] the natives of this state. I am teaching nine [Negroes] and one of them can read the Bible pretty well. She is improving tolerably well. With love to all, I remain as ever your affectionate brother, -- Ralph L. Goodrich

[8]    Francis [“Frank”] Harwood Manter, born 1824, was Colonel of the 32d Missouri Infantry. Reportedly a handsome man, Frank was the law partner of James H. Comfort in St. Louis prior to the war. He was killed in Little Rock 13 June 1864 when he fell from his horse. His parents were Nathan Manter and Susannah Miles of Elyria, Ohio.

[9]    George Alfonso Worthen (1816-1864) is buried in Mt. Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. Goodrich would become good friends with his son, William B. Worthen – a Little Rock banker.