Mill Ledger/Manuscript Journal.
The Diary of a Female Mayflower Descendant
[Diaries]. Copeland, Susanna. Manuscript Journal. 1859-1864(?). Easton, Massachusetts.
Small folio; 75 pages of ink manuscript journal; (preceded by 78 pages of ink ledger entries); contemporary sheep; some leaves absent or detached; several leaves loosely inserted. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
The personal diary of Susanna Copeland, a Mayflower descendant, fills the rear third of this oversized journal, previously used by her father Josiah Copeland and Keith Bezar as a mill ledger (1802-1813).
The unmarried Susanna (1800-1867) recorded personal items including poetry, hymns, sermons, and excerpts from literature—i.e. “English Eclogues” by Robert Southey; letters from missionary Adoniram Judson to his third wife, novelist Fanny Forrester; European travel notes from “The Diary of Colonel Baker,” etc. Susanna also made many heart-wrenching personal entries beginning in 1859 upon the death of her mother, and copied her letters to friends, cousins, nieces, and her nephew Hiram Webster Copeland, a 2nd Lieutenant in the 12th Massachusetts Infantry fighting the Civil War. Lamenting the war, she notes more than once that “the North has its problems, too.” The tone of her writing is intensely religious, introspective, and excellent in grammar and vocabulary indicating a well-read woman. Apparently a milliner by trade, she seems to have also derived some income from tenants or boarders—with great relief she notes the settlement of her father’s estate after many years’ delay. In one letter she refers to ostracism by family members due to a comment attributed to her questioning the paternity of her nephew Webster. Though she derived comfort from following her deep faith, and contact with younger friends and relatives, the entries portray the mournful final years of a woman who felt alone in the world.
The first half of this thick volume is a ledger of a carding, seed, and oil mill beginning with the purchase and relocation of an existing “wind mill” by partners Copeland and Keith in 1802, in Easton, Massachusetts, recording financial transactions including income, expenses, credit, and wages. Numerous examples of commerce of the era—$1.16 paid for a day’s labor, 28 cents charged for a quart of sperm oil, with bran, flaxseed oil and wool carding the dominant sources of income.
The Copelands descended from Pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, and shared Mayflower ancestry with many of the customers named in the ledger. Accounts listed for Alger, Ames, Bartlett, Cobb, Danforth, Hayward, Macomber, Sweet, Tilden, and many more. Easton is noted for the establishment in 1803 of the Ames Shovel Co., nationally known for providing the shovels used to lay the Union Pacific Railroad, opening the west.
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