Two Diaries Kept by Eliza C.L. Grubb of Wilmington Delaware in 1856 accompanied by Her Personal Expense Book, 1861-1863.]
Two Diaries Kept by Eliza C. L. Grubb of Wilmington Delaware in 1856 accompanied by Her Personal Expense Book, 1861–1863. [Wilmington, Delaware, 1856 and 1861–1863). Two Diaries.
Approximately 734 x 672 inches, quarter green cloth and marbled paper-covered boards, blank endpapers, 38 and 42 ruled leaves, respectively, containing 98 pages total of manuscript written in ink. Laid into the diaries are six manuscript items: three fragments that appear to be preliminary diary entry notes, a note concerning sheet music costs, a personal note addressed to “Miss Elisa [sic] Grubb," and a dance “programme” card. Some wrinkling to boards; foxing on endpapers; rear free endpaper of second diary partially affixed to lower board and torn horizontally near the top. [sold with] Small Booklet. 6 x 3 3/4 inches, golden yellow stiff paper wrappers titled in ink on upper cover, 14 ruled leaves containing 21 pages of manuscript written in ink. Two small manuscript fragments, one laid in and the other tipped in. Two small closed tears along fore-edges of wrappers; wrappers separated about one-third of the length of the spine.
The two diaries kept by Eliza C. L. Grubb of Wilmington, Delaware, cover the periods January 1, 1856 – May 13, 1856 and June 1, 1856 – August 22, 1856. The diary gives a detailed look at the social life, education, reading habits, and activities of a young, unmarried woman living with her widowed mother. The diary also documents the early courtship and engagement of Eliza and her fiancé.
Eliza is a sentimental diarist and writes candidly about her emotions. In the diaries, Eliza quite often refers to certain specific days being anniversary dates associated with her fiancé, “William” or “Mr. Swift.” In the present 1856 diaries, she writes about the gift of a daguerreotype of William given to her by him on March 5, 1855, the anniversary of giving William a lock of her hair on June 3, 1855, and the one year anniversary of their engagement on July 3. Eliza’s sentimentality may be tied to her anxiety over William's impending departure for Kansas.
The diaries record sleighing parties, regular piano and French lessons, lectures attended, needlework done, games played, and social calls made. Eliza is dutiful in recording the novels she is reading: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, Isora's Child by Henrietta Olcott, etc. Without irony she notes that the Arctic explorer, Dr. Isaac Hayes from nearby Chester County, Pennsylvania, was prevented from lecturing in Wilmington due to a snowstorm. Eliza also notes events going on in the city of Wilmington or nearby: the laying of the cornerstone at the new Presbyterian church; the removal of the post office to the “New Custom House”; the fire on board the New Jersey, a passenger ferry between Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey; etc.
Eliza Clewlow Lewis Grubb (1837-1918) eventually married William Swift on September 10, 1863. William Henry Swift (1836–1917) moved to Wilmington, Delaware in 1854 to study civil engineering with Professor Thomas Sudler (Eliza mentions in her diary hearing Sudler lecture on February 23). Swift spent five years in Leavenworth, Kansas as a civil engineer before returning to Delaware where he became a manufacturer and financier. Swift went into the business of manufacturing matches and, in 1881, organized and became president of the Diamond Match Company.
Included with the diaries is Eliza Grubb's personal expense book covering the period January 1861 to August 1863. The purchases recorded therein are almost entirely for sewing supplies, textiles, ribbons, trimmings, clothing, shoes, etc.
Ref. Cutter (Editor). American Biography: A New Cyclopedia (Volume 7), 1920.
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