1800–?

While it is unsigned, this diary contains a handful of clues about its author’s identity. He left for California at the age of fifty-nine and celebrated his sixtieth birthday in Wyoming on 12 July 1860. He also writes that he had lived in Philipsburg, Centre County, Pennsylvania, since 1841. Apparently the author approved of California and wrote on 30 September: “Oakland is a butifull place the streets a little too Sanday but otherwise Delightfull I think I will bring the famley here” (142). From financial accounts recorded in the journal, it is possible that the author was a merchant of some kind.