June 1862

In school. Faust is in the Quartermaster’s Department. [He] finally succumbed [and joined the army].

In school. Had a sharp letter of reproof, impudent & saucy, from that bitch wench [Elizabeth] Hempstead [1] for pulling [her 10 year-old son] Lee’s ears. Reading Don Quixote.

June 7, 1862

Reading & writing. Afternoon, got Age of Chivalry by Thomas Bulfinch for a prize for one of my [school] boys. At [Ernest] Weidemann’s. Mr. Graves & wife here. Reading Don Quixote.

June 8, 1862

At Sunday school. Mrs. Savage[2] was making fun of me in Sunday school. She is worth some property but got it by marrying an Indian. The Devil take such damned fools. At [Ernest] Weidemann’s – had cake & coffee. At church. Heard Graves preach. Good.

Reading. Down the street. Got books for [school] boys. At Mrs. [Eliza] Dodge’s – had a good talk with her. Afternoon, at [Ernest] Weidemann’s – gave me a volume of Chambers’s Information for the People.

In school. Some of my [school] boys hid themselves today under the house and ran off.

In school. Afternoon, went to Mr. Graves. He says he is going to Raleigh, North Carolina. Mrs. Graves said a body told her that I had to pay $20 a month for board to the old lady here, besides having the dunce dutch girl to see to. She thought it outrageous after taking so much pains with the thing. She thought she might have charged [me] half & then it would have been [more than] enough.

[Mrs. Sarah Adamson,] the old lady, is awfully afraid to stay alone & I am company. But it is a new thing to pay for being company for [some]one. The old lady is stingy and close as a flint. She was forty years old when she married & she is an old maid yet – a Pennsylvanian blue back, whang doodle Presbyterian. She is close [fisted]. She never buys anything to eat. Today, Mrs. Steven’s son sent a mackerel for Mrs. Stillwell[3] who is sick here & we had what was left from her maw upon the table for supper. She is well off & has no children but we live worse than the poorest – cornbread morning, noon, and night; meat in bits about as big as your little finger. She waits on the table generally & deals out the eatables as if she intended them [to] starve. We have lights brought in about eight [in the evening] and must be put out at nine, so I have but little time to study.

June 24, 1862

June 25, 1862

June 26, 1862

In school. Mr. [Samuel] Hempstead died today. Read Pluribusta – “He cut out the seat of my breeches, deprived me of my hopes, & circumscribed me that I might not get diseases in my peregrinations up & down the feminine world.”

Oh for a dark-eyed, lusty lass,
In amorous love & sweet embraces,
Through the lonely hours to pass,
With form made bare of shirts & laces.

June 27, 1862

Last day of school. Called [on William] Jones [4] to pay [tuition for his children]. Said he would have to see Graves first. I told him Mr. Graves had nothing to do with me. He refused to pay me.

June 28, 1862

Went to Jones again. He had seen Graves but objected to the [tuition] price & said he would have to see Mrs. Graves as his wife & Mrs. Graves had settled on the price. I told him that Mrs. Graves & his wife could not regulate my price. He turned me out of his store & raised a stick at me. I walked up to him & stuck my fist in his face & told him if he could not pay an honest debt, he was a mean fellow. Got Mr. Graves to come & made him pay [me]. At [Eliza] Dodge’s, the old lady allows me three dollars a month for teaching her young one. It is a shame.

June 29, 1862

Sunday. Called on Mathews. At church. The Dodge’s have got something against me. I do not know what. They act very coldly to me. They say peace is declared.

June 30, 1862

Am going to teach a month longer. Had six boys. Reading all the rest of the day. Only have one session [of school].

[1] Elizabeth Rebecca [Beall] Hempstead was the 48 year-old wife of 47 year-old Samuel Hutchinson Hempstead – a Little Rock attorney originally from Connecticut who would die a few days following this diary entry on 26 June 1862. Elizabeth was born in Kentucky. In 1862, this couple had six boys ranging in age from 5 to 19, all born in Arkansas.

[2] Probably 42 year-old Henrietta Savage who lived next door to Dr. Wheat in 1860 with her two small children.

[3] Probably Mary A. Stillwell, the 32 year-old wife of Joseph Stillwell, a little Rock attorney.

[4] In 1860, there were two William Jones families living in Little Rock, both of whom had school age children. One was a carpenter and the other was a merchant, the latter having far greater disposable income to spend on his children’s education. William Jones, the merchant, was a 42 year-old native of Philadelphia.

The Diaries of Ralph Leland Goodrich, 1859-1867