Name/Title
Diary, Volume 10, 1797-1798Entry/Object ID
1874.150.7Scope and Content
Tenth volume of the diary of Benjamin Simpson of Saco, 1781-1849. This volume covers the period February 1, 1797 through March 11, 1798. It is handwritten in ink on rag paper with a handsewn binding; it is now housed in a modern paper cover. Most of the entries are a single line. The date is listed at the top of each page, with individual entries (without dates) listed below. Simpson noted his major task of the day and the weather. His entries reflect the seasonal nature of the work of a man who owned a farm but also was a skilled mason.
In February 1797 Simpson spent most of his time making shingles, hauling wood, and hewing timber; in February of 1798 he spent weeks just on shingles. In 1797 Simpson worked intermittently on Col. Cutts' tomb. In June he was "digging and blowing rock for toom." In July he spent a week and a half just working on the tomb. In August he worked for Cutts quite a bit, underpinning, laying rocks, and mending plaster for ten days and laying brick for the tomb for two. In September Simpson apparently was working away from home for several weeks in Kittery and York, pulling down a chimney, laying a foundation, and laying bricks. At the end of the month he laid an underpinning for a cider house for Col. Cutts. October saw Simpson laying bricks for Robert Cleaves and back to intermittent work on the Cutts tomb. On October 30, he wrote "to falls. Took up the remains of Samuel Abbot and his wife and a child of Doct. Thornton and deposited them in a Toomb of Col. Cutts."Dimensions
Height
5-5/8 inWidth
3-3/4 in