A. T. Smith Diary transcript 1844

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A transcription of a 1844 diary in which Alvin Thompson Smith writes about topics such as his daily life living as a settler on the Tualatin Plains, his tending to daily farmwork and chores; constructing a barn; reading, attending prayer meetings, listening to the sermons of missionary John Smith Griffins; helping a Mr. Kelsey build a house; meeting with Joseph Gale and assisting Gale with his mill and arranging for Smith to continue taking in his children Edward and Ellen; visiting Vancouver; attending the Champoeg meetings; trading with his missionary friend Harvey Clark; attended meetings with Mr. Thomas New Banks; his increasing business deals with local settlers, including Alexander and Charles McKay; and his trips to Vancouver.

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. The original diaries are held by the Oregon Historical Society (Mss 8).