A. T. Smith Diary transcript 1851

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A transcription of a 1851 diary in which Alvin Thompson Smith writes about topics such as his daily life on the increasingly populated Tualatin Plains; his farmwork; his business ventures and religious life; his contributing efforts to the Tualatin Academy; his trips to Portland, Oregon City, Hillsboro (which he spells "Hillsborough"), Lafayette, and various courts; his interactions with the Naylor family, William Geiger, the family of Harvey L. Clark (or Clarke), Tabitha Brown, his wife Abigail (who he refers to as "Mrs. Smith"), the Customs House Officer in Astoria, a Mr. Buxton, F.W. Brown, Omri Parsons, a Mr. Campbell, a Mr. Jenckins, a Mr. Tucker, a Luther White, Joseph Gale, a Mr. Waller, Elkanah Walkers, P. H. Hatch, David B. Williams, Samuel Brown, Cushing Eells, a Mr. Wimple, Darius Smith, David Lenox, Wesley Mulkey, and William Yates.

Born in Connecticut in 1802, Alvin Thompson Smith, along with his wife Abigail Raymond, was amongst the first Euro-Americans to settle in the area on the Tualatin Plains that became Forest Grove, Oregon in the early 1840s. In his life, Smith was a missionary, a postmaster, a notable participant in the Champoeg Meetings, the builder of a 1856 house in Forest Grove that is today recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the Alvin T. Smith House, and a contributor to an orphanage that became Tualatin Academy and later developed into Pacific University. Smith died in 1888 at the age of 85. This is one part of a collection of transcriptions of Alvin T. Smith's diaries from the years 1840-1853. The transcriptions, which are likely not identical to the diaries themselves and perhaps summarize some entries, were likely typewritten in the 1970s. The diaries are notable for their near daily entries. This year's diary was transcribed by M.S. Gilbert. The original diaries are held by the Oregon Historical Society (Mss 8).