Mrs. Richard McClure lived on her father-in-law's farm outside Liberty, Allegheny County, Pa. Although the farm was closer to Pittsburgh, butter, wheat, livestock, and other products from the farm were sold in Wheeling, Va., later Wheeling, W.Va. The McClures seem to have had several children, among them Andrew Francis (b. 1838). The diary apparently descended to the Terrill family of Kentucky; Marshall Terrill's name appears in the margins of several pages. Diary, 441 p., begun in July 1852, with short, irregular entries concluding in September 1863. At times, entries were made daily; at other times, there are large gaps between entries. Mrs. McClure began the diary with a dedicatory page addressed to her son, Andrew Francis McClure, explaining that financial difficulties had led the family to his grandfather's farm, which they shared with his father's unmarried sister, his brother and his brother's family, and various tenants. Most of the diary entries document family life on the farm--the growing of wheat, the production of dairy products, the slaughtering of hogs and cattle, routine household chores--and social activities, with Liberty, Pa., as the point of reference. Mrs. McClure occasionally discussed religious activities, chiefly in the Presbyterian Church. Little mention is made of occurrences in the outside world until April 1861, when Mrs. McClure noted the attack on Fort Sumter and declared that Southerners Her outrage at news from the warfront continued through September 1861, when she decided to wind down her diary writing. The few entries after September 1861 document Richard McClure's death in 1862 and the purchase of a monument for his grave in September 1863. ...want to form an Arastocracy [sic] for themselves.
