Diary Kept by Engineer William E. Babbitt, Including His Time Working on Railroads in Indiana and the American South

Published by Various Places, Including Massachusetts, Vermont, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia, 1857

Journal binding of brown marbled boards with leather spine measuring 9.75 x 8", containing 184 pages of manuscript, almost all in ink, with a few pages in pencil. A three page handwritten index of the diary is present at the end. Covers worn and detached, a few pages faded. A large and detailed diary kept by engineer William E. Babbitt (1825-1898) while working on railroads in Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama, and while running his own firm and working at the Charlestown Navy Yard in his home state of Massachusetts. The diary documents the life of an engineer during the early days of railroad construction in the United States, and also contains several interesting descriptions of African Americans in the South, including a nine page account of a tour of Mammoth Caves led by enslaved guides. Born in Charlestown, Babbitt was a student of prominent American educator Cornelius Felton. The diary records Babbitt time as a young railroad engineer with the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad in Crawfordsville, Indiana (pp. 1-15), the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in Munfordville, Kentucky (pp. 16-48), and railroads near Greenville, Alabama and Columbus, Georgia (pp. 64-83). The rest of the diary (pp. 49-63 and 84-187) takes place in New England, primarily the Boston area. The journal commences in 1854, with William living and working in and around Crawfordsville, In, together with his wife Lucia. The diary provides a day to day account of Babbitt s time as a railroad engineer working on the line, straightening track, hunting, socializing, riding with his wife, sending letters, and playing endless games of euchre with friends and colleagues. He works on a plan for a drawbridge, visits Indianapolis, debates religion with a Presbyterian (he himself was a Universalist), and attends the dedication of a monument to the Battle of Tippecanoe ("candy & beer were sold on the ground and a huge grizzly bear was exhibited" May 11, 1853). In May, 1853, Babbitt begins working for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, designing a crossing of the Green River at Munfordville. He describes the rail journey south in typical engineer fashion "the road for most of the way is smooth and in fine running order they drop down into Madison on an inclined plane of 319 feet per mile down which we were set by the brakes…" (May 21-24). He describes a few of the places he visits, including Louisville, and the sleepy village of Munfordville: "Munfordville is a small quiet dreamy place of about 300 inhabitants situated on a hill side sloping down to Green River there is a nice courthouse here and a brick church & some four or five stores, there is not a well in the place and all the water is drawn from a spring about 1/4 mile from town which they say is unfathomable it is so deep." (June 20, 1853) Babbitt seems to have been interested in the local African American population, and pens several descriptions of enslaved persons he encounters: "Today was election day a great time among the Negroes the town was full of people in one old house a man was fiddling and two men at a time would dance jigs regular double shuffle breakdowns, in another place on the green were negroes playing marbles men and boys then in another place some negro women were selling cakes candy & cider and in still another the jugs of whiskey flew round the crowd while the negro men & women were dressed out in their best take it all together it was a regular old fashion election." (August 1, 1853) "at night went in to hear a black preacher who made a good discourse from Acts 3d 19th repentance & conversion were the two heads of the discourse…" (August 20, 1853) "Rode with Lucia about ten miles to a camp meeting found about 600 people…there was a cart out a few rods from the ground where the niggers were selling gingerbread and watermelons there were lots of nigger men & women on the ground…some listening to the sermon some eating melon & some chatting about the weather crops & c…" (Sept. Seller Inventory # 12777

Bibliographic Details

Title: Diary Kept by Engineer William E. Babbitt, ...
Publisher: Various Places, Including Massachusetts, Vermont, Indiana, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia
Publication Date: 1857