Diary of a trip to Philadelphia, 1826, July 15-August 9. - View Resource (original) (raw)

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Diary of a trip to Philadelphia, 1826, July 15-August 9.

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Diary of a trip to Philadelphia, 1826, July 15-August 9.

Abstract

Diary kept by an unknown merchant, whose last name may have begun with Ro, possibly from Maine, of a business trip to Philadelphia in July and August 1826. On his way to Philadelphia, he stopped briefly in Hartford, Connecticut, to visit his daughter, who was attending Catharine Beecher's Hartford Female Institute. In Philadelphia, he attended to getting a ship ready for a voyage and selling goods, especially saltpeter, indigo, and silks, which had already been imported. He seemed to be in partnership with John W. Perit, a member of the merchant firm Perit & Cabot. The diarist had tea one day with Mr. Chaloner, a man he had met while both were in Canton, China, in 1809. He socialized with others as well. He regularly attended church on Sunday, usually more than one service. He attended Presbyterian and Episcopalian churches, and went to hear the Wyandot chiefs speak at St. George's Methodist Church, but found the church so crowded that he did not stay, perhaps because of the heat. The news of the deaths of a former servant and of a ship captain he had seen earlier in the year in Norfolk led him to meditate upon the shortness of life. On July 24, the city held a memorial service for former Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom had died on July 4. The diary ends after his ship has sailed, with the diarist still in Philadelphia.