The following entries were in the front of the old brown leather diary and where he wrote of his travels in surrounding states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. They were probably written in the early or middle 1830's before he was married in 1839 and before he joined the Church in 1841 in Pennsylvania or later in the early 1840's. It's hard to tell. Some of it is unreadable.
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"Brooksville (Kentucky) at 4 o clock [ ] traveled 27 miles [ ] stayed all night at Brooksville and next morning took passage in the ____ for Cincinnata fare $ ____ [ ] distance 40 miles [ ] arrived there about 3 o clock on the 5th and the next morning took passage for Pittsburgh on ____ [ ] at 11 o clock on the 7th [ ] struck a shoal 11 o clock at night and got ____ about 6 next morning
June 9th [ ] struck a bar ____ daybreak at the ____ Blaner-hasets Hland (Blennerhassett Island) where we stayed about 3 hours [ ] arrived at Marietta about 10 o clock [ ] got to Wheling about day light the next morning and traveled about ____ miles that day and then struck fast on a shoal
June 11th [ ] got on shore about 2 miles below Beaver (Pennsylvania) and rode in a wagon to Pittsburg and took passage for Philadelphia on the Express line at 9 o clock in the evening [ ] arrived at Johnstown 13th in the morning and passed over the Mts on the inclined planes [ ] got to Holidaysburg and took the packet again [ ] arrived at Harrisburg in the evening and next morning took passage in the cars [ ] got to Downington (Chester County) and walked to Levi E. Riter's (who was Lavina's sister Rebecca's husband)
Left Uwchlan 18th and got to Mother's toward evening
NOTE:
1. The Quaker spelling is Uckland Islip, also known as Ackland's Mill on the Brandywine Creek in Chester County. Many years later it was renamed McFall Mill. Another spelling is Uwchland which is a township now in the same area.
2. His mother's place was in Upper Providence, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania)
Left mother's July 11th for Uchland [ ] left Downington 14th at 10 o clock ____ passage on the packet for Celinsgrove [ ] arrived there the next morning and walked to Bringhursts before breakfast [ ] left there 16th (July) in Harrisburg [ ] got there about 10 o clock the next day and started about 3 o clock for Pittsburg on the Good Intent fast line by way of Chambersburg (roughly around Gettysburg) [ ] arrived at Pittsburgh 19th about 10 o clock and took passage on the steamer Commerce for Cincinnata [ ] left Pittsburgh 6 o clock and run to Beaver and laid up till morning and got within 6 miles of Wheeling when we struck on a shoal at the 3 sisters about 4 o clock and had to lighten off mostly all the freight and got off about 10 o clock in the morning and arrived in Cincinnata 23rd about 3 in the afternoon
Left Cincinnata 25th about noon on the Josephine [ ] got to Louisville next morning and left about noon [ ] 27th stuck on a bar where we were about 5 hours [ ] 28th got to the mouth of the Ohio about 8 o clock in the evening [ ] left about 3 in the morning on the 29th and got to St Louis on the 30th"
