Swan family journal

This manuscript volume is a family journal kept by George Washington Jonson and members of the Swan Family of Easton, Massachusetts, between September 1838 and January 1839. Also included are nine letters from Louisa Sophia Johnson Swan, Jr., to Jonson, her uncle.

Jonson began the journal on September 1, 1838, the day after he arrived at the Swan household. At the front of the journal, Jonson recorded the current household inhabitants, which, in addition to the immediate family, included two nieces, two young servants, and a medical student studying with Dr. Swan. The family made daily entries, sometimes with two or more members contributing in a single day. Jonson’s sister, Louisa Sophia Swan, and seventeen-year-old niece, Ruth Barrell Swan, were the most active participants in the journal-keeping other than Jonson, but Dr. Caleb Swan added occasional entries about his medical cases.

The journal captures the rhythms of family life, including Ruth’s work as a schoolteacher, visits from family and friends, French lessons, endless chores, and numerous games of backgammon. Jonson frequently recorded poems he had composed and teased his other family members for not writing often enough. The journal also references a number of heated political discussions, including an argument between Jonson and Caleb Swan over slavery. Jonson celebrated Whig electoral victories in New York and described his sister as a Loco Foco, referring to a short-lived branch of the Democratic Party. During an 1840 visit to the Swan household, Jonson noted that the family had “sat down to an excellent dinner, all in good spirits, having talked down the subject of Abolition for the hundredth time.”

Included with the family journal are nine letters from Louisa Sophia Johnson Swan, Jr., to her uncle dating to late 1856 and early 1857. Swan traveled to Washington, DC, with her half-sister Ruth and her husband, Justin Smith Morrill, for a session of the 34th United States Congress. In describing the politicians’ families sharing their lodgings, Swan related to Jonson that “all are Republicans I know, and from their appearance I judge a good share if not all are Unitarians.” Swan also wrote about the social season in the capital and her return to Easton in March 1857.

The family journal is bound with brown marbled paper over boards, a leather spine, and leather over the corners of the front and back covers. The front cover bears the faint inscription “Family Journal.” A pencil inscription on the inside of the front cover reads “Dr. Caleb Swan born Sept. 2, 1793 @ Charleston, MA son of Caleb and Sarah Semple Swan. Harvard Class of 1814. Settled in Easton 1816, died March 18, 1870. For sketch of career see Wm. L. Chaffin’s History of Easton. 1886, pp. 733-35.” An inscription on the first page reads “Swan family journal.” This volume contains 239 pages of faintly-lined wove paper with handwritten text in black and blue ink.