JOHN OSBORN
DIARY
January 1, 1800 - October 2, 1802

This site contains the known contents of John Osborn's diary, volume 6 one of two that have been found, that were written around 1800. The diary contains a daily record of the activities of John and also a note at the beginning each day about the weather.

John lived by himself, but his immediate family lived near him and he spent a great deal of time with them. He seemed to have been well respected in the community. This diary gives great insight into the daily lives and interaction of John and the people in the community. John lived in the present day Union County, North Carolina. Union County was derived from portions of Mecklenburg and Anson Counties in 1842.

Most important in this diary is the names of the neighbors and their children. Also genealogy lines can be determined from the contents of the diary, who was the father of who and who was related to who. John apparently had a problem with one of his legs and talks about the pain he suffered from it. However, this did not keep him from traveling around the countyside and riding large distances when it was required. John apparently made a good living growing corn, buying corn and making and selling whiskey. The 1815 tax list for Mecklenburg County shows a John Osborn noted as John Osborn (Stiller). This could be the same person.

Based on the volume number of this diary, there are other volumes of the diary but this volume is one of two know to have survived.

The complete file is quite large, 113 typewritten pages of text, and is therefore broken into several files of 10 pages each, which can be viewed serially by using the "next page" button at the end of each file. Also provided is an index for the names of the people noted in the text, a button is provided below for your convience to search for a particular surname. It should be noted that the names may be misspelled but are a copy of the original written text. If you are looking specifically for a single person, find that person in the index and by clicking on the page number next to the name, you will be taken to the file of 10 pages where the name is located. You can then use the search feature of your browser to find the particular name of interest, but you must keep the same name spelling, copy/paste works well here. The name may occur several times in the page loaded so you can use your "find next" feature of your browser.

I hope you enjoy the diary and find it useful. I found the diary gave considerable insight into the daily lives of our ancestors.

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This web site is copyrighted, and is the property of Harold Polk. Any commercial use of the information on this site and it's format is prohibited. If any of the material contained within is copied, this copyright notice must appear with the information. Links to this site are welcome, please provide the web master with the name of the site with the link.

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