A Diary for 1849

By Elihu Burritt Beard

Elihu Beard's Diary of 1849 represents a very personal view of America during its greatest period of transition and conflict. This remarkable young student of a Quaker family shares his thoughtful views on issues of his day, many of which still have pertinence today.

“…after a long and solitary walk, I found myself in a lonely and secluded spot. Yes, solitude is dear to me. I love it! There is a gloom upon my mind. I feel a heaviness of soul which fearfully speaks the boding of some fell disease within. Well Let it come; I dread it not there is but one thing in the world for which I would wish to live, and that is, that I may add something that will benefit the condition of my fellow beings or be of use to future generations.” EBB

• Language: English
• Publisher: PBS Publications
• Release date: Mar 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781545721803

Book preview

A Diary

FOR

1849

    A Year in the Life    

OF

A College Student on the

American Frontier

BY

Elihu Burritt Beard

1849

EDITED BY

Barrett Thomas Beard

1999

Copyright © 2013 by Barrett Thomas Beard

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or part, in any form, except by reviewers, without the written permission of the publisher.

A Diary for 1849, by Elihu Burritt Beard

ISBN 0-7392-0178-6

ePub ISBN 978-1-5457-2180-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 99-70474

This ebook is a reprinting of the 1999 edition published by Nut Tree Press of Port Angeles, Washington.

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EPIGRAPH

…after a long and solitary walk, I found myself in a lonely and secluded spot. Yes, solitude is dear to me. I love it! There is a gloom upon my mind. I feel a heaviness of soul which fearfully speaks the boding of some fell disease within. Well Let it come; I dread it not there is but one thing in the world for which I would wish to live, and that is, that I may add something that will benefit the condition of my fellow beings or be of use to future generations. EBB

Table of Contents

Epigraph

Foreword

Preface

One: A Diary for 1849

Two: Slavery

Three: The Farm

Four: Cholera!

Five: Epidemic

Six: Maturation

Appendix

Obituary

Bibliography

Foreword

Elihu Beard’s Diary of 1849 represents a very personal view of America during its greatest period of transition and conflict. This remarkable young student of a Quaker family shares his thoughtful views on issues of his day, many of which still have pertinence today. Elihu later moved to California and founded an equally remarkable family of entrepreneurs who now number in the several hundreds. Elihu’s openness to new ideas, combined with cautious common sense, is well represented in his many descendants today.

America of 1849 was a rapidly industrializing society. It was experiencing all the stresses and strains of a rural culture undergoing a metamorphosis into a major world power. Science and technology were viewed as the ultimate solutions to age-old economic and social problems. This unbridled Nineteenth Century optimism might seem naive to the reader of today, but Elihu was experiencing at first hand the benefits of mechanized agriculture and the growth of modern medicine. Unfortunately, cholera was not one of the diseases fully understood at this time.

The nation was also torn between the forces of slavery and anti-slavery in 1849. While Elihu was well situated in California by that time, he and his family were clearly strong participants in the anti-slavery movement. Elihu notes a number of constitutional and religious foundations for his belief. Generally law-abiding model citizens, the Beards did not hesitate to aid runaway slaves when they felt the current laws to be unjust. As Quakers, they recognized a higher law beyond that made by men. They were not reluctant to take risks to live by this law.

Elihu also displayed so many other traits that placed him ahead of his time. While a devout Quaker, he was tolerant of other religions, particularly Methodism, which was the motivating force earlier in the British anti-slavery movement. Elihu frequently notes his enjoyment of the company of young ladies, but also refers to the equality of the sexes. He appreciated the beauties of nature on his morning walks and had favorite spots for meditation or socializing with friends. An avid reader, Elihu enjoyed many works of literature, law, history, science and technology. His enthusiasm for all types of books was inherited by most of his descendants, but especially by his granddaughter, Cora Beard.

Elihu had the well-rounded personality of a Renaissance man, an increasing rarity today. A scholarly individual who also enjoyed socializing in frequent visits, dinners and literary soirées, Elihu threw himself into physical efforts with equal enthusiasm. He treasured his moments of solitude and reflection but was also determined to leave a positive imprint on his community. This he did extensively later in California and transmitted the same tradition of community service to several generations of descendants. It is a real pleasure to read Barrett Beard’s presentation of this remarkable individual. It gives me a sense of pride to know that he was my ancestor, too, and leaves one with quite a demanding standard by which to live in the modern world.

Robert L. Hoover, Ph.D.

Preface

Elihu Burritt Beard wrote, …I design to keep a diary, by which means I hope … to have a better know-ledge of the manner in which my time has been spent.¹

Much more, however, is revealed to the reader seven generations later of this young man’s private thoughts. This diary is a small window through which we view a rare contemporary look at a student’s private thoughts about the state, slavery, church, health, education, and social intercourse in mid—nineteenth century frontier America. The destinies of a restless nation in the ante-bellum period are previewed in this slim handwritten notebook.

Elihu, a 24 year old student in his last year in college, reacts in his written thoughts during the first ten months of 1849, to the knowledge that he is experiencing a new age of discovery—the age of scientific inquiry. His is a personal reflection on the era when the world is moving into the period where industrialization is expanding peoples’ need for technical knowledge.

It is a shrinking globe; exploration is seeking out the scientific facts of all lands and oceans of the world. Charts are inked with new routes for commerce, land and sea. The last hidden continents are discovered. The American West is opening a new world of opportunities for the roaming population of the fledgling nation with the Mexican War just completed and the Louisiana Territories acquired. The surge west is swelling; east—west rail connections are planned. California has new gold fields; whale oil fleets now work the Pacific for vital oil products, having depleted the Atlantic.² The practice of medicine is teetering between sophistry and learned inquiry, still with tragically fatal results. Cholera remains a mystery; it is reaping a broad swath of death in the frontier civilization for the second time.³ Cause and cure of this dread disease are based on superstition. Venerable religious practice suffers through new awareness. Long established conservative orders are blending, reacting to robust evangelism. The institution of slavery is collapsing. Emancipation is a wound on the nation festering without cure. The unrelenting loom of war is creeping up on the political horizon. The young man, Elihu, sees it all and reacts.

The diarist questions traditional values. He rejects the need for students to learn the dead languages of Greek and Latin—a bold move. Many diary entries reflect his excitement of new knowledge based on scientific principle. Desperate passages explain the social and medical turmoil brought on by an uncontrollable epidemic. He condemns man’s evil to man. Civil war is still more than a decade away, but war necessary to rid the States from the infirmity of slavery is already an issue blisteringly debated. Through the resolute teachings of his church, The Friends, he develops a deep conviction for rights of individuals. With boldness, he embraces equal rights for all, including women and slaves, and abhors demeaning of mankind by punitive laws or liqueur.

Religious foundations of the nation’s founding fathers crumbles through the first half of the nineteenth century. The role of minister, the political, intellectual and spiritual leader passes on to the evangelical crusader for popular reforms. Elihu’s brief entries reveal the quiet unruffled beginning to the decline of the Quaker Church, ...the church in which I was considered by birth a member…is rather decreasing; some...are joining the more reform churches. He notes stoically that, Several of my near relations have joined [the Methodist] society lately.

Elihu⁴ is the ninth of twelve children born to William and Rachel Pierson Beard, on 21 October 1825, in Union County, Indiana. William, trained as a potter, was a farmer, minister in the Society of Friends and a firm abolitionist. He and Rachel emigrated with their first five children from living with slavery in North Carolina to newly opened free territories in Indiana in 1817. Quaker families from Nantucket rejoined family members from North Carolina separated nearly three generations earlier. These kindred groups established new settlements around Cincinnati, Ohio and into Indiana’s Union and Franklin counties, through the Whitewater Valley.

Elihu’s father was active in the anti-slavery movement. The Beard home⁵ near Liberty, Indiana was a runaway slave hideaway on the Underground Railroad. Elihu participated in the covert activity of aiding fleeing slaves. This environment in the home, along with the teachings of the Quaker Church, obviously has a great abolitionist influence on Elihu. His disgust of man’s enslavement of man echoes throughout the manuscript.

The large, two story brick house, an Underground Railway Station,