Hamlet Scrantom

Last week’s project was to scan transcriptions of personal diaries by Hamlet Scrantom. His was the first family to occupy a lot in the Hundred Acre Tract of Rochester. That would be the lots owned by Rochester, Fitzhugh, and Carroll on the west side of the Genesee River.

These three documents were bound together:

Hamlet Scrantom’s Day Book, 1807 – 1822

Hamlet Scrantom’s Journal, 1840 – 1842

Hamlet Sceantom’s Diary, 1843 – 1844

These were transcribed as a Works Progress Administration project during the Great Depression. At that time the original manuscripts were at the Rochester Historical Society. I imagine that they are still there.

The binding on these was tight and some of the scans ended up with lines of text looking wavy.  But that shouldn’t be much of a problem.

A lot of the writing is very mundane. Hamlet wrote a lot about weather. The Day Book starts when he was living in Turin (Now Lewis Co.), NY. It appears that he sold groceries while there. He doesn’t get to Rochester until page 41. He had someone who was to build a log cabin for him in Rochester. But when the family of 8 got here the cabin was not finished. So they lived a couple of months in an small framed house owned by Enos Stone on the east of the river. They finally moved into the log cabin on July 4, 1812. That cabin was where the Powers Building is now.

Hamlet started working in a saw mill owned by Enos Stone. By the end of 1812 he had created 35,827 feet of boards.

Hamlet records cost in English money at first. Those are Pounds, Shillings and Pence, Then he records costs in dollars and back again in English money. English money was a  lot more stable than dollar at that time.

Hamlet records early deaths. He also notes people visiting. He also records lots of fires. If you search for “burnt” in the Journal there are 17 references. There are 27 references for “burnt” in the diary.

This week I am doing another diary by Hamlet that is big as all the above three together.