George Holcomb

Sunday, August 18, 1822: Today I took the single wagon and my wife and child with me. We rode to Doctor Elijah Graves. I went to be bled, but said doctor was not home. We returned and went to Lebanon to Doctor Hall’s 12 cents and got it in opium. Said Doctor Hall also bled me and gave medicine to both my side and he gave medicine for my wife too. Today mother is quite unwell with a relapse of dysentery.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – Dysentery Plagues The Community

Friday July 12, 1822: This forenoon continues a heavy rain which did a great deal of damage, carrying off bridges and fences and flooding meadows.
Saturday: We mended the fence, where the water washed it away, and then we went over to my farm and hoed potatoes and cut Canada Thistles and briars.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – Mid-Summer, 1822

Wednesday, May 22, 1822:  We came home from Sand Lake from Mr. Withees.  We called to the Glass Works and they blew our babe some glass balls.  We got home about 1 o’clock and I rode to Sq. Sylvester Howard’s to inquire about the Judgement that was given to me against J. Crocker.
Thursday: We plowed sward land on my farm for corn and we moved rails.
Saturday: We planted corn and I. Newton helped half a day and I am to pay him in potatoes.  I went and measured said Newton off half an acre of land at the Southeast corner of my lot and do tell him he may put a house on it, and when he pays me 16 dollars I will give him a lease.
Tuesday, May 28: We worked on the highway.  We worked with our team and were credited four days.  Mr. E. Pierce is pathmaster.
Wednesday: We worked on the highway, and worked four days.  This morning Mr. Darias Green went with us to the Widow Rogers bridge and washed our sheep, 29 of them and I agreed to give him eight gallons of cider for washing said sheep.  Today at noon I took a horse and rode and went after Doctor Merryman.  I called to Doctor Rights and was informed that said Doctor had gone on Pool Hill.  I went there and Mrs. Bull told me that he had come to Stephentown to Squ Nathan Howards.  I followed on and found said Doctor at Howards and he agreed to and did call this afternoon to our house, and left some medicine for my child.  Said Merryman says that the child is very weak but did not determine her complaint.  He said that he would call again in a short time.  This afternoon I carried a bottle of brandy on to the highway because I was absent a spell.
July 8, Monday: Doctor Merryman called as he was passing by and left some trade for my child, and said she was getting better. Said Doctor ordered one pint of french brandy for the child and I got it to Wm Clark’s store out of said butter.
July 10, Wednesday: At night I walked down to Mr. Hazard Morey’s old house to inquire of a black woman if Henry Barnhart struck her or pushed her or touched her after he drove her out of Brother Wm’s house. She declared to me that he did not meddle with her after she got out of doors. Likewise said Henry Barnhart told me that he did not touch her after she got out of doors, but it appears that there is a plain contradiction, Mr. Abagail Clark told me that said Barnhart touched and bruised said black woman and made the black run, and she see it and it was done out of doors, the whole of it, and repeated it again and said Clark see it too, as near as I can get information this took place last  night a little before sunset. Said wench got groggy and abused my brother’s wife with oaths, swearing, and threats, and then came at her and she called on her brother Barnhart and he knocked said wench down and then drove her out of the house.

by Alex Brooks

Saturday, March 29, 1822: (George is returning from a trip to Troy in which he sold 25 bushels of corn.) I got home about seven this evening. This afternoon Wm went up to Squ Sylvester Howard’s and answered to my name concerning a suit I had against Joshua Crocker. Said Crocker adjourned until a week from Monday,
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – Crocker Dispute Settled 5 Months Later

It is the Fall of 1821. In the last episode, Holcomb got into a fight with a man that owed him some work, and it ended with him serving papers on the fellow, one Joshua Crocker, for assault.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – In Court With Joshua Crocker

by Alex Brooks

Holcomb turns thirty in the summer of 1821.  He is very busy and works almost all of the time.  He exists in a complicated web of work-trading, in which people are constantly working for each other and keeping track of the value so that it can be repaid with either goods or work given in return.  [Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – A Bad Fight

by Alex Brooks

In the last episode Holcomb had just bought another farm in addition to his father’s farm that he now runs.  This gives him many more responsibilities.  On top of taking care of his own farm, he walks over to the Rodgers Farm every day to look after the animals and plow the ground. [Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – Running Two Farms

by Alex Brooks

In the last issue Holcomb struck a deal to buy a farm, which he calls the Rodgers Farm.  In the two weeks following, he borrowed money from a good many people in anticipation of the closing day, May 1.  This is where we pick up the story today.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – Completing The Rodgers Farm Purchase

by George Holcomb • Transcribed by Betty McClave • Edited by Alex Brooks

Monday, April 2, 1821: This morning the wife of Capt. Abner Bull died of a very sudden. She was put to bed a few hours before. This evening Mr. John Russel and John Wylie and Francis Buten and myself carried the coffin up to said Bull’s for the deceased, and a very hard snow storm.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – Holcomb Buys a New Farm

by Alex Brooks

In March, Holcomb made sap spouts and sap troughs and set himself up to tap the maple trees.
Saturday, March 10, 1821: Today I tapped sap trees. On this day Mr. Charles Moseley had a son die, age one year and a half, as I am told. Said child was scalded or burned with an iron, and then had the measles.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – A Daughter Is Born – March 1821