Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
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Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Cataloguing Information
Processed by
Charles Latham
5 January 1996
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 item
COLLECTION DATES: 1868-1869
PROVENANCE: Returned by Judith P. Cross-Henley, Indianapolis, IN, 5 January 1993
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: pam F 532 .R95 N4 1916 Reminiscences of Thomas T. Newby (Carthage, Ind., 1916)
ACCESSION NUMBER: 93.0227x
The family of Thomas Thornburg Newby (1834-1919) were part of a group of anti-slavery North Carolina Quakers who moved to Ripley Township, Rush County, Indiana, in the 1820s. Thomas T. Newby had a 251-acre farm, and was active in helping slaves escape. He married Parthena J. Griffin, and they had one daughter.
After the Civil War, Newby took a trip back to North Carolina to visit relatives. He went with Jesse and A. N. Henley, and the trip lasted from December 1868 into March 1869. Starting from Knightstown, they traveled by rail to Columbus and Washington, by ship to Aquia Creek, and then by rail to Richmond, Virginia, and High Point, North Carolina. They stayed with various relatives, and entered into community activities, including a good deal of hunting, as well as Friends' meetings and a literary club.
Sources: Materials in collection
History of Rush County (1888), 604-605
Rush County Sesquicentennial History, 12, 21
This collection contains one item, a pocket diary kept by Thomas T. Newby on his trip from Rush County to North Carolina in 1868-1869. Written in pencil, the diary details the number of miles per day on trips, the cost of tickets, and details of life while visiting. There are no remarks about individuals. Among the details described:
- The railroad cars from Columbus to Washington crossed the Ohio River by being run onto a flat boat lashed to a steamer;
- A one-dollar breakfast in Richmond included "Coffee, tea, light bread, fried beaf & ham, fried potatos, a few little fried cakes & plenty of Oysters;"
- On 2-20-1869 Newby passed several wagons loaded with guano for the plantations, and "A fat old School teacher passed our camp on his way to school quite drunk."
MAIN ENTRY: Newby, Thomas T. (Thomas Thornburg), 1834-1919
SUBJECT ENTRIES: Newby, Thomas T. (Thomas Thornburg), 1834-1919
Travelers--Diaries
Quakers
Railroad travel--South
High Point (N.C.)--Description and travel
END