Background on Ellen M. Jones
On Sept. 29, 1840, Ellen M. Jones was born in Lewis, N.Y., near the western shore of Lake Champlain, part of a growing family of seven children of Alanson Lamson Jones and his wife Sophia (Weston). Raised on a farm, Jones saw her older brother Albert E. Jones (1834-1913) go off to war with the 118th New York Infantry in 1862, while her younger brother Byron was drafted, but purchased a substitute.
Jones married a local farmer, Milford Leroy Lee, on June 10, 1874, and the couple were recorded living in Lewis in 1900.
Scope of collection
As a young woman living on her family's farm in upstate New York, Ellen Jones kept a brief, rapidly written diary detailing local and family news as the nation edged into Civil War. In addition to concerns over her fragile health and the passing of local men and women, she includes a nicely detailed description of a Catholic wedding, 1858, a visit to John Brown's grave in North Elba on July 4, 1860, and several brief allusions to her brothers and friends serving in the Union Army. The passages are nearly all brief and run closely together.
Administrative information
Search terms
Subjects
- Jay (N.Y.)--History--19th century
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
- Women--New York (State)
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