Catherine Calvert

Identifying Data

• Names: Catherine Calvert, Catherine Green, Catherine Mathews
• Birth: 25 MAR 1781 in Culpepper, VA
• Death: 20 OCT 1852 in Fabius Twnshp., Marion Co., Missouri
• Burial:
• Spouse(s): Henry Green; Jacob Mathews
• Additional Details: Rootsweb

Diary Excerpts

Transcribed from various pages throughout the History of Marion County Missouri, Holcombe, R.I., St. Louis, E.F. Perkins, Publisher, 1884.

Content: Describes life in Missouri between 1820 and 1833. The unusually poor weather described in her diary beginning around 1831 coincides with increased volcanic activity of Mount St. Helens. Her entry for November 12, 1833 also documents the Great Leonid Meteor Storm of 1833.

Per a Biographical Account of her son, George Washington Mathews, in the Atlas Map of Marion County Missouri, she was a direct descendant of Cecil Calvert, known in English nobility as "Lord Baltimore". This is also confirmed in the Descendants of the Virginia Calverts 1947, which indicates that her descent is by way of Leonard Calvert, the first governor of the Maryland colony.

• 1 JAN 1820: It continues very cold; the snow is from 12 to 14 inches deep.
• 28 FEB 1820: The winter has commenced breaking up; the snow has disappeared and we have the appearance of fine spring weather.
• 1 JUL 1820: We have a fine warm spring, and very good crops this season, and it is not as sickly as last year. The fever and ague is very common, but not as many deaths as was the previous season. I didn't hear of more than five or six deaths this side of Salt river.
• 1 SEP 1820: We had the warmest weather I ever felt in the last two months, July and August.
• 9 NOV 1820: We have had frost from the last of September until to-day, when there fell a snow, 12 inches deep, and it is very cold.
• 1 JAN 1821: It still continues very cold, and the snow continues on the ground.
• 30 MAR 1821: Still cold and wet.
• 15 APR 1821: Very little more sign of vegetation than there was in the middle of the winter. Snow on the ground 12 or 13 inches deep.
• 25 APR 1821: Still cold and no sign of a bud on the trees.
• 15 MAY 1821: Fine spring weather. The trees begin to look green and the grass grows fine. The farmers are all engaged in planting corn.
• 1 AUG 1823: We had more rain in March, April and May than I ever knew in my life, and higher waters. We were until late in June planting corn. Dry weather from the last of June until the last of July. The people are more healthy this season than they have been for four years.
• 21 SEP 1823: There fell a frost last night that has killed almost everything.
• 12 JAN 1824: It is now raining and thundering like May, and warmer than I have known it at this season of the year for five years. No snow or cold weather of any consequence so far this fall or winter, and people generally well and healthy, with the exception of the whooping-cough, which is among the children and proves fatal to some.
• 23 JUN 1824: There has been more rain the past spring than I ever knew in my life, and the water courses higher than they were ever known. It is still raining. There was a hailstorm yesterday, and the largest stones I ever saw in my life; some as large as hen's eggs.
• 31 DEC 1824: No cold weather of any consequence yet. The rivers are all open; no ice to be seen yet; no snow, but rain all the time. I never saw as wet a summer and fall in my life before.
• 24 FEB 1825: There has been no snow that has laid on the ground 24 hours this winter, and no cold weather of any consequence. The fever has been quite common all the winter, and fatal to some. There has been 16 deaths in Palmyra and in eight miles distant around, and some more this side of Salt river. The fever is still in the settlement. Old Mr. Parker lost five out of his family this winter.
• 28 JUL 1827: Very wet; more rain and high water than I ever saw this time of year. Fabius out of its banks and deluging the bottoms for miles, and North River higher than it has ever before been known. Some fever, but no deaths yet.
• 1 SEP 1827: The sale of relinquished lands takes place the first Monday in this month, in Palmyra. The fever very current. Two deaths lately - James Latham and Hugh Muldrow. The water courses very high and deluging all the bottoms again.
• 20 OCT 1827: One more death; ten deaths in all this season.
• 3 JAN 1831: There fell a snow which, with the snow already on the ground, measured 32 inches. Since the snow the sun rose one clear morning with two great lights, one on each side, at equal distances. The lights were of a reddish yellow and rose from the sun, and both lights were in long streams, all closing at the top in a point. The lights moved round with the sun, and was plain to be seen at 10 o'clock in the day.
• 23 JAN 1831: The snow deep and a great complaint of colds and pleurisies and a great many sick and some deaths at very short notice.
• 4 OCT 1831: It is now snowing and looks like winter. This has been the coldest and most unfruitful season I ever saw, I think. The sun has not shone like summer this year a week at a time, but has been pale and of a blue cast all the year. Crops later than I ever have known them. Great complaints of sickness and many deaths - more than has been for three years.
• 13 FEB 1832: The sun has not been seen as much as a day in this month, but it snowing or sleeting or raining all the time. Much colder than last winter. Great complaints of colds and some deaths.
• 23 FEB 1832: The greatest sleet I ever saw and colder than at any time this winter.
• 18 MAR 1832: The Mississippi is out of its banks all over the bottom, and snow on the ground and freezing as bad as any time this winter, and bids fair to be as unfruitful as last season.
• 22 MAY 1832: Cold and everything backward, and more distress about seed corn than was ever known in America, I expect. Persons are sending East and South, and can hardly procure any at all - such as will grow. It is selling as high four dollars a bushel.
• 28 JUL 1832: It still remains cold. The sun shines pale and unnatural. More like winter than summer. It is now very dry - no rain for three weeks, and everything very backward. No bees swarmed yet; no house flies. Some sickness and death west of this. The Indians have waged war against us and murdered several families in Illinois. The rangers are stationed on the northern frontier of this State. There is more excitement about one thing and another than I ever knew - about the Indians, the British, the Mormonites, Sunday schools, and everything that looks the least suspicious.
• 1 JAN 1833: No very cold weather yet, and at this time warmer than it was at many times last summer. The wheat and grass growing, and seeds of different kinds. I saw lettuce come up as well as ever I saw it i n my life. Last season was very cold and dry; there was no rain from the 27th of May until the 27th of July, so that the corn that stood did not ripen before the frost killed it, and now it is another year. There is a great deal of wheat sown, and it looks well at this time. People are generally healthy, though we still hear of that fell destroyer of the human race, the cholera, very near us.
• 8 JUN 1833: The spring very dry and warm until the last of May. Corn came up well and was less trouble than I ever saw. Everything seems to favor us; weather fine. The first day of this month, the cholera entered Palmyra, and who can tell when it will stop or what amount of desolation it will cause? It has been there eight days and about 60 have fallen under its dreadful power. I have not heard of one person that has taken it that has survived , but all have to surrender. It seems to defy any medicine that is now in use. Oh, Lord! stop its progress, if consistent with thy will, for all diseases of our body and mind are subject to thy mighty and all-conquering power. The sun has not shone one whole day for two weeks; cold, rainy weather all the time, and waters high.
• 28 JUN 1833: Still wet and waters high; the most violent storm of rain and wind, with some hail, that I ever saw, and that awful scourge still desolating our land, regardless of the cries of the orphan or the tears of the widow. It has left the town and is spreading throughout the country in every direction, slaying every person the Lord pleases. There have been a great many deaths in the country, how many I cannot tell, and we that are left cannot tell what minute we shall have to go. One hundred and fifty died in Palmyra, and a great many in the country.
• 22 JUL 1833: I haven't heard of any more new cases of cholera for a week; am in hopes it is done.
• 2 SEP 1833: Dry and warm; no rain since the first week in July, more than to lay the dust once or twice. Everything dried up, and the earth like an ash-bank, and the leaves falling from the trees as early as this. Chills and fevers current more than I have known for five or six years. A great scarcity of water; the springs all dry in many places.
• 15 SEP 1833: We had a very fine rain to-day, the first since the 1st of July. Thank the Lord, Oh, my soul! and every power within me join to praise His holy name, for His mercy endureth forever.
• 12 NOV 1833: A warm, dry fall, so far, chills and fever common, and the most distressing colds I ever saw, with high fever and sore throats. Last night there fell a shower of lights resembling stars. They came from the east and went towards the west like snow squalls. The shower commenced about two o'clock and continued until daylight, with the most astonishing splendor; the light would often, numbers of them, burst at a time, and streams of the brightest light pour from them, three or four feet in length. From every place that I have heard, these lights have been seen.