Every Friday, Marilyn Knapp Litt, who blogs at ClassicKindle.com, brings us her recommendation of a free classic book to discover (or rediscover) on Kindle. Find more of Marilyn’s recommendations at her blog, ClassicKindle.com, a guide to the best free and inexpensive classic literature for the Kindle. You can also get Marilyn’s blog on Kindle and I recommend that you “Like” the Classic Kindle Facebook page as well so you don’t miss anything. Here’s Marilyn’s post about A Journey to Ohio in 1810 As Recorded in the Journal of Margaret van Horn Dwight:

The title about says it all, this is a rare journal by a young woman who was keeping a record of her journey for a cousin.

I never will go to New Connecticut with a Deacon again, for we put up at every byeplace in the country to save expence- It is very grating to my pride to go into a tavern & furnish & cook my own provision- to ride in a wagon &c. &c- but that I can possibly get along with- but to be oblig’d to pass the night in such a place as we are now in, just because it is a little cheaper, is more than I am willing to do- I should even rather drink clear rum out of the wooden bottle after the deacon has drank & wip’d it over with his band, than to stay here another night—

She is told at every stop that she will soon be married  . . .

This house is full of travvellers & wag’nrs but all are very peacable-There is a curiosity in the house- a young lady who has come from N Connecticut unmarried— after staying in Warren a year—a thing I never before heard of, & had begun to think impossible. I feel quite encouraged by it- & do not believe the place as dangerous as is generally reported—— I find in every family a Paggy- every body is dutch— the children & girls, are all very much attracted by my little black buttons, & the manner in which my frock is made-& the Wag’rs by the colour of it- There will be little of it left by the time I get to Warren, for it is almost gone—

Between the company and the difficulty of traveling with a wagon, which involved much walking, it was not an easy journey.  This is a short book, but very unusual, for the time and the author and we are lucky to have it.

The house had only one room in it— There was a number of travellers & we got but one bed- that was straw or something harder- The pillow case had been on 5 or 6 years I reckon, so I pin’d over my handkerchief- & put night gown over my frock—We rose an hour before day break, got breakfast & set out in the snow for another hut- We rode several miles on the Northern bank of the Ohio- We saw a very large rock containing a great many names-we added ours to the number— The road was at the foot of a very high hill or mountain, & so near the river, there was scarcely room for a waggon- I rode in constant fear, for the bank down to the river, was very high and steep—

It is very interesting to read what it was like to make this trip in 1810 from New Haven, CT to Warren, OH.

Download your free copy of “A Journey to Ohio in 1810 As Recorded in the Journal of Margaret van Horn Dwight” here >>>