Typescript copy prepared by Clifford M. Buck of original diaries kept by Alson Ward for 1843-1847 and 1858. Subjects include the weather, farm and mill work, local politics, visits, attending lectures, picnics, planting his orchard, church attendance, a riot during a local abolitionist speech, temperance meetings and conventions, anti-rent troubles, household work, beekeeping, hunting, accidents including the loss of a steamer on the Hudson River at Athens, N.Y. in 1845, and a trip with Henry Sleight to Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, St. Louis, and Baltimore in 1845; entries in 1858 include mention of his own children and domestic life. The diaries also included his drafts of letters concerning business, loans and accounts, shipping goods, and land speculation, 1861-1874.
