Diary of an Alabama Presbyterian Minister, 1832

"Left home, came by way of Tuscumbia to Florence, April 18, 1832." So begins the diary of an unknown Alabama Presbyterian minister as he traveled from Alabama to Pennsylvania to attend the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly in Philadelphia. His trip took him from Alabama to Wheeling by steamboat, across Maryland to Baltimore by stage, and from Baltimore to Philadelphia and New York City, before returning to Philadelphia to attend the Assembly. On his return trip, he traveled through Washington, across Virginia, south through the Valley to Tennessee and Alabama and returned home somewhere near Huntsville and Mooresville, Alabama.

He provided short comments on many of the towns, villages and cities he passed through, carefully noting the arrival and departure times at each stop. He also noted various difficulties along the way: sick passengers, engine trouble, and passing the "steamboat Dolphin burned to the waters edge on day before yesterday."

Upon his arrival in New York on May 3, 1832, he attended the meeting of the National Lyceum for several days and was "invited to take a seat as a member from Ala." Besides attending church several times, he also attended meetings of the Presbyterian Sunday School, New York Sunday School Union, Tract Society and Home Missionary Society, as well as the Bible Society. He also did some sightseeing and noted that on May 4th "Mr. Phelps' 7 story house fell down - a great many thousands collected around ruins."

He departed New York on May 11 and traveled to Philadelphia by way of Princeton, arriving in Philadelphia on May 14th in time to attend the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly. His entries in the diary at this time discuss the business of the Assembly, and note the vote tallies for various issues put before the group. The Assembly adjourned on June 11th and he headed south at that time to Baltimore, Washington, Fredericksburg, Charlottesville and down through the valley to Kingsport and Knoxville, Tennessee. From there, he traveled to Alabama, arriving home on June 19, 1832.