Ann Waters and John Montgomery Roberts Diary, 1859-1886

Ann Waters and John Montgomery Roberts Diary, 1859-1886

Author: Roberts, John Montgomery, 1807-1886; Roberts, Ann Waters

Year: 1859

The diaries of John M. Roberts primarily focus on his family's daily farm life in Tazewell County. The Roberts's family left their New York home in the summer of 1831 and travelled to Illinois by horse and wagon settling in Pleasant Grove Prairie. The diaries contain much information on the following topics: routine farm activities, farming expenses and proberty valuations, illnesses and medicinal cures, family births and deaths, local events, and weather conditions. Prior to settlement in Illinois, Roberts was engaged as an apprentice to a lithographic firm in New York City. In the first two volumes he describes the technical aspects of making lithographic plates as well as an earlier trip he made in 1830 to St. Louis and Illinois returning home via New Orleans. The collection of diaries also includes his first wife's (Mary W. Burhans) account of their trip to Morton in 1831 and his second wife's (Ann Waters) account of a trip to New England she made in 1859. A few volumes contain miscellaneous sketches of Robert's home and towns he visited in Illinois.