NOBODY LAUGHS, NOBODY CRIES:
THE JOURNAL OF JOHN PHILBRICK (1791-1874)
By Charles H. Philbrick
(1922-1971)
Republished on this web page with permission of his son, Harry L. Philbrick
I. Proem: The Ghostly Greeting
I am John Philbrick, rightly under earth, I trust
In the slice of churchyard I contracted for, and paid.
Since boyhood I have heard that God said once to us
To prosper here and propagate in the New World, so I
Have worked to prosper, while I do suspicion those
Who propagate too much, all the birthings each winter.
The New World is New Hampshire measured in sweat
By acres for me; my blood'd run here two hundred year --
A little slow, maybe, seldom hot, and never carelessly split.
There are lots of us now, so old Thomas of Norfolk, back then,
Had sturdy spunk, deliberate seed (that can't be bought
Nor sold) that passaged well the three thousand salt miles
From his first to his second (our) marshes here.
Most of us down from Thomas must have worked hard,
Been provident, wisely wived, and favored by the Lord.
I've been moderately so, so here I am, John Philbrick,
Revealed as I've let myself be in my careful, true journals,
Unwordy accounts which no doubt have faded into the page
From the eyes, left rust from the bindings on whatever hands
Come dumbly to them a hundred years from then, in a world
Of luxury and slick machines, more foreigners, I suppose,
Along with greater speed and sloth -- and money moving west.
-- Not my money, though: it's planted here, what there is of it,
In lands and commodities no one could take far away.
Only sin or disrespect, only idiocy could waste or erase
The sweat I spent in this salt marsh or the wood, the thought
I invested in garden, shop or office, councils in the town:
The deeds, disputes I settled, arranging the lives of others
I didn't beget. If they've done as told I'm bodied down,
Proper, in back of the church, feet east to the steeple,
On the slope that is peopled with stones of my kind.
I suppose that's a kind of judgment, lined up there,
Name softening in the stone for the lalligagglers
Who exclaim on the gravings in moderate weathers.
There's many such these days.
--- John Philbrick, here for good.
II. A Compilation of Routines.
Here are the deeds and the ways of my life:
Breaking out roads of snow, halling wood --
And mud and manure, salt hay and English Hay,
Sledding and wheeling, plowing and planting peas,
Sowing rye, getting in hay, setting out mellons,
Digging potatoes (green corn and beans for dinner),
Picking apples and picking them over,
Heading them up, buying and selling
Oxen and cows, slaughtering pigs (Sow Pigged),
Taking Cow to Bull, Mare to Horse, putting the colts
To pasture, thatching and fencing, ditching,
Surveying, shingling the store roof, shaving
Shingles and plaistering the barn, making walls
Or building a whale-boat, endlessly mowing salt hay,
Always recording my Sundays and days spent At Home.Running the store, of course, keeping the ledgers
(Half gallon of gin for a quarter in 'twenty-five),
And renting out rooms (some lodgers paid
As much as twelve dollars a year) to men
Who were always moving into and out of my House.Taking inventory, affidavits and depositions,
Making wills, deeds and taxes, as well
As papers of bastardy, assessments and pensions
For soldiers from the Revolutionary War.
Postmastering, too, and once in a while
Marrying a couple of young things, recording
Deaths and their causes, going to funerals
And auctions, town meetings in Seabrook
(Since I was Selectman), Rail Road Board meetings
In Boston (for dividends), going to Concord,
A Representative to the Legislature there.Going to Newburyport, mostly for supplies,
Or to Brookline or Exeter on an occasion.
I held my holidays at Home: Thanksgiving
And every Independence Day; some years
I held the Fast Day near to Easter time (taking
No nourishment but from my strong Waters);
December twenty-fifth was just another day to work.Year in and year out, observing the weather,
Forever assessing the seasons: vegetation
Forward or backward; counting the snow storms,
Dating the first frost and also first Cow Slops,
Gauging hot droughts as well as deep snows;
Defining the climate: as snowy or thawy,
Fair, fine, hot (a record for years),
Or Slumpy and Sloppy, or other times Blowy
And Boisterous, splashy, smart Rain.And so I wrote it down, nearly daily,
For more than forty year -- last wrote
An entry at eighty-three, outlasting clear
My father, who died at seventy-five,
Forty years after my birth, in the year
I first made these entries, 'thirty-one.
I married in June of my forty-fourth year; my Mother
Died when I was fifty, she being eighty-eight.
The likes of us breed late, last long
In keeping our counsel and steady habits,
Bedding prudently when ready; otherwise
Working this world for the most it will yield,
Then yielding to make the final entry
Firm in the lasting ledger of stone.
III. Excerpts From The Journal
1831 |
||
July |
4 |
at Home was quite independent |
30 |
Home afternoon Sporting with Gun -- so called -- but the Idea of wounding some poor bird and causing it Misery about Spoils the sport |
|
August |
29 |
Maj Jno Smith Cut his throat at the tavern |
November |
24 |
A day of thanks and hard Eating |
1833 |
||
June |
26 |
Attended Camp Meeting at Salisbury. Made one convert of Mr. Peaslee a Methodist Minister. In a discussion with him, he stated or boasted that he had spent much time & money for more than 30 years in trying to do good to his fellow men. When I knew that his only son was then selling liquors in his father's store, close to his door. A crowd was collected to listen when they heard this cutting retort from me -- You have boasted of spending much time and money for the good of your fellow men when you are virtually selling them damnation at your door from your own store. He was convicted, went home and put an end to the traffic, & made his will giving the store to his son, on condition that if any more ardent spirit was ever sold in the said store it should revert and become the property of the Methodist Society. |
July |
1 |
Went to Portsmouth -- saw the wild Beasts |
24 |
Went to Nahant in Steam boat |
|
August |
4 |
At Exeter at Court to hear the trial of the Cilley Will. Heard Daniel Webster against Jereh Mason. |
1834 |
||
January |
5 |
Wm Roberts Died. Was a pauper unmarried -- and brother to Jonathan who was a pauper and pensioner -- & Sons of Thomas -- the whole rack are paupers and always will be probably |
31 |
Lecture on Electricity at Lockes |
|
1835 |
||
February |
13 |
Jacob Knowles fell from a tree & killed a boy |
1836 |
||
February |
7 |
Sarah James Philbrick Born/my daughter |
1838 |
||
March |
13 |
Town Meeting -- Chosen Rep. a protracted Meeting they toiled 4 days and caught Nothing |
June |
17 |
Went to Canterbury to see the Shakers |
September |
18 |
Jacob Gove Died. A miser no children -- Scrubbed and pinched himself until old age found him with 6 or 8000$ -- was perplexed to know what to do with it -- tried to kill himself by cutting his throat and finally died |
1839 |
||
February |
18 |
John Colby of Salisbury killed by dogs |
1840 |
||
July |
19 |
Corn rolling. Potatoes growling |
August |
4 |
Gaming more noise than Game |
September |
12 |
Born Mary Barton Philbrick |
1841 |
||
October |
6 |
My little Girl Mary died |
1843 |
||
March |
17 |
Oliver Dow my Ward Died . . . was stupidly Insane -- a hereditary complaint originated in the Marston family |
April |
11 |
Sleighs Ending & Wheels Commencing |
July |
21 |
To Shoals in a Sloop with wife on a pleasure party |
September |
6 |
Sick. Have not been confined to my House 24 hours at one time for 25 years or more |
December |
20 |
Exchanged horses put away my good old mare which I had owned nearly 10 years -- She had one fault was a little skittish. I parted with her only because she run away with me among rocks and stumps, and liked to have killed me |
1844 |
||
January |
26 |
Phrenological Lecture |
1845 |
||
April |
22 |
Died Jno B Beekman a Revolutionary pensioner, was of Swedish extract remove to this town from the Isles of Shoals/at the com. of Revolution/lived on the farm road was an honest and industrious man . . . |
July |
20 |
Drowned Eli Chase was intemperate Nobody Laughs, Nobody Cries |
1846 |
||
March |
24 |
William Walton Jr. killed at Amesbury blasting Rocks did not possess enough of the organ of caution for that business |
September |
14 |
Made complaint and Warrant for bastardy Louisa Adams 75c |
November |
It was never so dry within the memory of the Oldest Men. More than half of the Wells are dry. My well holds out. |
|
1848 |
||
January |
The high price of potatoes is owing to a disease or rot which extended from Continent to Continent and has shown itself for the first time in this town to any extent |
|
July |
1 |
News of Jacob Rowe's death on his way to Labrador. Was intemperate. Had the horrors and Slipped overboard in a harbour -- he no doubt supposed the Vessel lay at a Wharf and slipped over slyly to get Liquor & instead of landing on the warf sunk in the Water |
August |
8-21 |
Sick. Shut up store and put myself under the Drs. care . . . the Dr. left me . . . feeble. Out every day but do not gain much or any strength -- neighbors think I am about going but I had no such Idea |
1849 |
||
January |
In California Gold Fever is raging people are rushing to the diggings from all directions |
|
February |
21 |
Cold very. Saml Sanborn of Hampton killed in Hampton by the cars was an inebriate and in liquor when killed which was the cause |
June |
16 |
Grace Eaton Died about 82 years -- Fine Shower. The electric fluid did not spare the Baptist church at Hampton . . . She was better known as Aunt Grace -- was honest and ignorant. Never knew her own age |
July |
29 |
Edmund Toppan Esq of Hampton died . . . E. was a lawyer and for many years a Member of the Legislature, where he was just/possessed much verbosity -- a gentleman in his deportment. Talents of a high order an easy speaker -- and but for the cup might have easily risen to the height of eminence in this State |
1850 |
||
March |
3 |
Dr Lowell Brown hung himself in Stable Shed. Originated in Maine State. Studied Physick with Dr. E. Dearborn. Was a man of an impulsive rash overbearing & tyranical character -- and but for this he might have lived at peace with his neighbors and died lamented. |
November |
2 |
Ann Maria Brown died. She was the 3rd of the family gone since March last her father hung himself. Her brother died on the Coast of Africa -- and she poor girl of consumption. |
1851 |
||
August |
2 |
Abraham Chase died 77 of cancer. Intemperate. |
1852 |
||
November |
2 |
Presidential Election Frank Pierce elected |
1853 |
||
March |
20 |
Died Danl Eaton Town Pauper Intemperance in its worst form |
July |
4 |
Home, a free Man, being free from the confinement of the Post Office -- having served 24 years |
1854 |
||
February |
Have done all my teaming myself which amounts to more than I have drove a team for 30 years back -- which gives me robust health, have felt as a little inconvenience from the unparallelled cold winter as ever did in my younger days |
|
August |
10 |
Home I married Chevy Chase to Seth Knowles, & come away, Apart to pray |
1855 |
||
July |
4 |
Independence. Sam Fogg shot himself delirium tremens |
December |
6 |
Enoch Gove died a pauper near 90 years old. Was a singular man was partially insane and probably there is no man living or dead who has walked over so much of the United States as he has. He has walked from Halifax to New Orleans -- and to New Orleans two or three times |
1856 |
||
May |
23 |
Danl Boyd died 79. He was intemperate sufficiently so to have killed 1/2 doz. young men |
1857 |
||
September |
12 |
William Janvier Died last night AE 62 . . . was an honest man a good accomodating neighbor, always easy and seldom had enough energy to set himself about his work until necessity drove him. |
1859 | ||
February | 13 | Benj Gunnison died suddenly aged 44 by falling on the end of my axe handle, purchased the Dr Dearborn Estate fitted it up thoroughly & opened a tavern. He was a man of some talent, good appearance, affable, pleasant and minded his own business. Be he had one fault which terminated his existence. Once in a year or two he was subject to a spree or drunk which generally continued some 3 or 4 weeks, during which he kept house and could not be controlled or control himself. |
1859 | ||
December | 20 | Wm Chase died or found dead. Son of Jonathan age about 60, single and
simple loved liquor/ Slept in a barn & fell or rolled off/ Bill Chase is gone a poor old man We ne'er shall see him more He slept upon the mow high top And landed on the floor. |
1860 | ||
April | 12 | Fast day or rather a day of intemperance |
November | 6 | Election of President Abe Lincoln |
1861 | ||
March | 4 | Cool. Abe Lincold Inaug President of U S |
April | 11 | Fast day/ which means/ fast drink |
19 | Plowing and planting Peas War War Civil War | |
1862 | 23 | Halled Loads hay from Grove Marsh/ and attended Town Meeting & voted 300$ to each Volunteer as a bounty |
30 | Administered Oath to two Volunteers making about 30 in all | |
September | 1 | about home War War |
20 | War War Soldiers enlisting --- spending the 300$ bounty given by this Town | |
24 | My birthday 71 years Old a Steady Nerve Yet | |
1863 | ||
January | About the 1st Saml Smith who married Sally Moore . . . He was intemperate, his nativity was in Bradford, N.H., & was a simpleton. They both died by general consent --- lived undesired and died unlamented | |
March | 12 | John P. Brown . . . Age 56 --- habits not the best, consumption |
31 | Calvin Brown died aged 25 of a consumption . . . a young man of good habits ... | |
July | 13 | Foul weather. Great excitement about drafting --- Mobs in the Cities |
August | 20 | Lowell Brown died Aged 85. He was generally known by the name of Lawyer Brown, was a man who possessed a strong mind and a stronger will, was rather litigatious, was always in a quarrel, and as the saying is, in hot water --- to which he became so accustomed . . . that it almost became a necessary element in his existence. He lived undesired and died unlamented. |
1864 | ||
May | 11 | Dolly Janvier Died AE 72. She never married, was always prudent and industrious --- and left a few hundred dollars to be divided among her brothers & sisters |
June | 8 | Jno. O. Eaton & Giles Eaton & Jno. Walton died this week. Eatons intemperate and debilitated. John Walton was 67 years old, a steady and industrious man. Giles denies being dead, and I suppose he ought to know best. |
November | 8 | Presidential Election Abrm Lincoln reelected |
1865 | ||
April | 3 | Glorious News --- Richmond Taken |
9 | Sunday News of the Surrender of Lee's army | |
15 | Pres Abram Lincoln died this morn at 7:30 he fell by the hand of an assassin | |
19 | Funeral obsequies of Pres L. all over the Nation. The news [of Lee's
surrender] is equal to the closing of the great rebellion. A great day, bells
ringing guns firing all rejoicing even most of the Copperheads look pleased --- although
they cannot have forgotten their long reiterated assertion, "You never can subdue
them you cannot bring them into the Union," they had their sympathies for the Rebels
they wished for their success, and hence the cry --- I have never once doubted of the Union success, my faith has always been strong. Judging from physical strength and means of the North. |
|
June | 10 | Canker worms about closing up their concerns for this year. They have done a big business, one half of our orchards are without green leaves. They look dead enough. |
1866 | ||
January | 26 | A schooner loaded with lumber wrecked on sunk rocks. The wreck and cargo mostly came into our river; the Capt. was drowned in his cabin and his 3 men were rescued by Frank Nudd of boars Head alone with a large gunning float. The feat was truly hazardous and praiseworthy --- and which few would have dared to undertake --- he landed the three through a heavy sea in an exhausted condition at one load safely at Boars head. Few cases occur of such hazardous intrepidity. |
March | 13 | At our town meeting there were 5 men between the Age of 80 and 90.
were seated in a row behind the Officers & voted. They were . . . all
republicans, a very remarkable circumstance. A Walton is the oldest near 90 --- & I observed him reading without glasses |
May | 24 | To N Port bot 8 thousand Cedar rift shingles @ 7.50. the shingles are for the main body of my house. It was built in 1821 of Rift pine shingles from Pittsfield which have lasted 45 years --- none such can be obtained now. |
September | 24 | I am 75 years old today --- thrashing beans |
1867 | ||
July | 7 | Sun. fair people looking to their hay --- and if the deacons dont they ought to be ousted from the church. Why: because Nature has bounteously done her part and given us an excellent crop. And he who neglects to do his duty in securing the crop is grossly sinning against Natures laws . . . |
1868 | ||
January | 17 | Moses Eaton died --- Ebenezer French died at Bangor. [Eaton] was a capable man and a good citizen. Was one of the Select Men quite a number of years (and a good one) Representative 2 years. He supported a character of firmness probity and justice. Ebenezer French the first lawyer this Town had the misfortune to support . . . As it is difficult to ascertain his good qualities, will passover his character in silence. |
July | The 15th was the hottest day for many years. The glasses in most places run as high as 106-8 & 10. Mine was 100. Many people all through the country lost lives by a sun stroke. | |
September | 2 | Elijah McQuillin died aged 52. He was a carpenter and mill wright very ingenious --- and but for occasional intemperance might have been still living & a much more useful man. his death was caused by a drunken scrape from receiving blows on the head from a Gun in the hands of Enoch Fogg. he is too impulsive to trust himself with so dangerous weapon in the melee he received the charge of his own gun through his foot --- which if he lives will render him a cripple --- a solemn warning to all young men of an impetuous and impulsive organization . . . |
November | 3 | Presidential Election Gen Grant |
1869 | ||
January | 17 | Moderate. the Adventists baptising through the ice |
March | 1 | Isaiah Page died. Isiah came from Haverhill and Married Miriam Green . . . --- he joined the Society of Friends. became intemperate. wife died. Married a woman from Kensington spent his property and for the last 4 or 5 was a pauper supported by Hampton Falls |
September | 8 | Abraham Chase died. He was a man of good morals, a good neighbor --- an honest man --- no difficulty having taken place between the families the whole time. His disease was on the bladder which had troubled him occasionally for near 20 years, Age 68 yrs |
September | 24 | 78 years old today. Halled load of scruff and a load of wood myself |
1870 | ||
March | 8 | Town Meeting. I have attended Town Meeting this year being my 57th time without missing one and as usual took an active part in the business |
1871 | ||
December | 1 | Cold and windy David G. Dow died by Freezing removed here from Pittsfield some 25 years ago --- was son of David Dow a Quaker elder. The deceased was an intemperate man --- and by the combination of a pail of Rum and excessive cold --- in a cold house --- he passed a Thanksgiving which terminated his useless life |
1872 | ||
November | 5 | Presidential Election. Gen Grant Elected by a great majority over
Greely I have attended the annual Town Meeting at the same place in Seabrook sixty years without missing one and Fifteen Presidential Elections. And always from principle --- adhered to one and the same Political party. First under the name of Federalist 2d Whig & 3d Republican |
1873 | ||
January | 1 | A pleasant day --- Ada wished me a happy N year & I gave her a 3 ct. piece for a keep sake |
1874 | ||
September | 24 | 83 yrs. old. To N. Port after Shingles & Clapboards |
IV. The Whited Signature
I am more than a name on a stone: I'm accomplishment,
Thanks to the ledgers I made for myself, not for history,
Not for you, reader.
My name is still heard in my land;
And late in the day on the salt marsh, and early over the seedings,
Something of me attends those growths and becomings;
Something of me rides with the moon on tides that fill
These inlets under the wind and the cold warnings.Reader, successor, I wish you half the success I had
(When success was hard) in your tiny, intemperate world.
For I was the John Philbrick of the land, and the skies
Were high, the waters important, the people were callable,
Taxes fair, and set by me.
Of course, some might say
That there was the chance for love I never planted,
People for whom an arm's length might have become
A warm circumference: paupers, Lord, and fools
And drunkards --- even women;
well --- the world winds,
And those who had it, got; and those who had more,
Got again. John Philbrick then got out, this far:
Not all undesired in life, I trust, not yet unlamented.
The Author of this poem, Charles Philbrick, was born in Providence. RI in 1922. He received his higher education at Brown Univerisity and the University of Michigan, and was a Professor of English at Brown, specializing in 19th and 20th century poetry. Married and the father of four sons, he died in April, 1971. His poems appeared in dozens of magazines, including: The Atlantic Monthly, Saturday Review, The Nation, The Sewanee Review, and Kenyon Review. During his lifetime he published three books of poems --- the last, VOYAGES DOWN, in 1967 --- and one book for children. He was also the co-author of two textbooks. In 1958 he was awarded the Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize by judges Conrad Aiken, R. P. Blackmur and Allen Tate.
All of the above was extracted from the book "Nobody Laughs, Nobody Cries" by Charles Philbrick, Copyright 1976 by Deborah Philbrick, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 73-93613, ISBN 0-912292-33-4. Printed in England by Villiers Publications Ltd., Ingestre Road, London, NW5.
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this book, which contains 44 more wonderful poems by Charles Philbrick, click on the link below.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0912292334/qid%3D956458361/103-1579496-1038258