A. T. Smith Diary transcript 1852

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A transcription of a 1852 diary in which Alvin Thompson Smith writes about topics such as his daily life living 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, Hillsboro (which he spells as "Hillsborough"), various saw mills, Oregon City, and Fort Vancouver; his interactions with John S. Griffin, a Mr. Mulkey, William Geiger, a Mr. Young, Henry Davis, Cushing Eells, the Naylor family, Caleb Smith, George Blish, Elam Young, a Mr. Hammond, a Mr. Doran, his wife Abigail (who he refers to as "Mrs. Smith), Darius Smith, Eli Perkins, Henry Spalding, Patrick Cain, F. W. Brown, Elkanah Walker, Matthew Hunter, J. T. Reed, a Mr. B. Hoen, a Mr. Nusbaumer, a Mr. Jolly, William Catching, a Mr. Hatch, Joseph Davis, a Mr. Tuttle, a Mr. McMillen, Robert Crouch Kinney, and a Henry C. Raymond.

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.