Manuscript journal of Frances Gibson McDonald of Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, with twenty years of daily entries from the end of the Civil War period up until a few years before the Johnstown Flood. 606 pages in a ledger-style journal, 15" x 6" page size; marbled boards with quarter leather binding, leather perished at hinges, front board detached, with most pages loose but held together in individual signatures. Entries range from January 1, 1865 - December 31, 1884, with approximately twelve entries and 200-250 words per page, roughly 125,000 words in total.
Frances Gibson McDonald (1818-1891), was born in Hexam, England and emigrated to the United States as a girl, settling in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, where she married Joseph McDonald in 1843. An exceptionally devout Catholic, with her older brother, Father Matthew William Gibson, being ordained as a priest in Philadelphia in 1841 and serving variously in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and England, McDonald's journal records her regular attendance of mass, vespers, and confession, as well as participation in auxiliary Catholic women's societies and local church events. She records frequent interactions with the priests of Ebensburg's Holy Name Catholic Church, and occasional visits by Bishops and visiting clergy. Among the earliest entries, her journal records the death of her second son while attending St. Francis College in Loretto, Pennsylvania, and in 1868 the entry of her second daughter, Elizabeth, into a convent as a nun, who then takes on the name as Sister Thecla.
In addition to the strongly religious focus of her journal, the entries also record the day-to-day aspects of her experience as a mother and her family affairs. A highly literate woman and occasional traveler, she frequently writes of her correspondence with her brothers, daughter, and a son, Philip, who at the beginning of the journal is just returning from Union service in the Civil War. She regularly visits Philadelphia, often bringing back orphan girls - presumably as servants - and occasionally the convent in Baltimore where her daughter lives. At the very back of the journal is also included a reading list which includes multiple novels of George Eliot, among others.
The journal provides an exceptionally extensive and consistent record of daily life in postwar Cambria County, Pennsylvania, offering the uncommon viewpoint of an intellectually and religiously engaged Catholic woman.
