Zadoc Long was born in Middleboro, Massachusetts on July 28, 1800. When he was five, his family moved to Buckfield, Maine. When Zadoc was fourteen years old, he cut his leg so badly working on the family farm that he was never able to do hard physical work again. He taught school and at the age of eighteen became a clerk in a store, learning the business of a country merchant. In 1822, Zadoc and a partner went into business trading in Buckfield. This was the beginning of a long career as a storekeeper. In 1824, he married. At the young age of 26, he was appointed Justice of the Peace*. By 1832, the year of the journal entries below, he had two young daughters: Julia Davis, age 6, and Persis Seaver, age 4. He kept a journal for most of his adult life recording his family’s activities, trips to buy goods for his store, and his thoughts and observations on many subjects.

Excerpts from the diary of Zadoc Long

May 3, 1832. I am in a hurly burly of business and my attention is much given to arranging and selling our goods. Had a pleasant ride to Paris [Maine] with Bro. [Lucius] Loring in a waggon…Stopt again before arriving on Paris Hill to relieve a poor little lamb that was hung in the fence where he was like to perish. Felt lonesome on parting with Loring.

May 4. Friday Evening. Arrived in the city of Portland after muddy, tiresome, perilous passage as ever I had in a Stage. The coach, old & half-wrecked, appeared constantly tipping over or breaking down, ½ dozen women screaming took up so much room that it was difficult packing my dear self among them. The rain poured down in torrents. It is remarkable, by the way, that winter or summer, when I set out on a journey it almost always storms, especially when I take my wife with me…

May 6. Sunday Evening. Attended 2 meetings today at Dr. Tyler’s Church…But I don’t think he has more than common talents; or that more than every day interest would be excited from reading his sermons. The bell is ringing for an evening meeting at High Street Church—I will go.

Monday, May 7. A bright chilly morning. A large, red faced man this moment stands in the door, inquiring…if there is a Mr. Long here going to Boston. I am looking him directly in the face—I never saw him, nor he me, I fancy, before. Who is it? & what does he want? What is your business with me, sir? “My name is Bradish: You going to Boston?” Yes sir. “Will you take a letter to my son?” Oh, yes. “Thank you.” Seba Smith’s oldest child* died last night of a scald. “Stage ready,” says the driver, and I am off.
Saco. 10 o’clk. Safe ride from Portland. Saw nothing on the way worth noticing particularly except a flock of young goslins[goslings, young geese]. I noticed these because I chanced to think they would please little Persis Seaver, where she with me. The accommodation Stage was stopt a few days ago between here & Kennebunk by robbers. The driver knocked down the foremost, that took the horses by the head, with the butt of his whip handle, and proceeded on.
Kennebunk. 12 o’clk. Waiting dinner…It is so cold today that it is uncomfortable riding with a cloak. People are full of fear on account of the backwardness* of the season…

Boston. May 12. Have been here several days and am sick of Boston. The air is too thick, and has been breathed over too much for my palate. Today intend completing my purchases for this time—have bought as many as 250 different articles of merchandise. To buy these all well, and make proper selections, after comparing the relative prices and quality at several stores, requires more shrewdness, patience and industry than everyone is aware of…

June 1. Today took a warranty Deed* of my father’s farm…

December 10. We have had a thaw that has melted away considerable of the snow. Today it is fine winter weather, the going icy, but so that people move about very well with sleighs. Counterfeit silver dollars have made their appearance in the village within a few days, suspected to have been manufactured here. Last summer two young men, residents of this town, built a very strong & secure apartment in an old waggon shop in the village, where they shut themselves up together for several weeks with doors locked & labelled “No entrance.” Since then one of them has left the place. Neither has satisfied the public curiosity as to the nature of their employment during the time of their seclusion. Suspicion of course rests heavily on them. It is not determined beyond a doubt that the money is spurious*. If it is, it is exceedingly well counterfeited. The first marks of counterfeit are an unusual newness and brightness with an early date, letters uneven, & the pillars too much rounded; but on the whole the imitation, both in material & execution, [is] so good that without suspicion I think I might have had them imposed upon me.

December 12. School commenced in this district last Monday. Julia Davis attends, though I am inclined to the opinion that it is the greater of the two evils—to go, or stay at home. At school, among 70 scholars, she can have but a small share of the instructor’s attention, is exposed to violence of the weather, contagious disorders, & many pernicious* habits, which generally more or less prevail where so many children of both sexes are together. At home she could be constantly under the eye & example of her mother, who is more tenderly interested than others can be in her proper education.

December 13. Cold & cloudy. Business dull. Tired of waiting in the store, not on, but for, customers. Adjourned to the house an hour before dinner, & found my wife & little girls making themselves very sociable & happy at a comfortable kitchen fire, not heeding the keen whistling of the December winds without. What a little heaven on earth is the domestic fireside with a wife, affectionate & neat, not too much addicted to fault finding but disposed to look on the sunny side of things, & children possessing common sense, proper discipline & sound health…

December 14. Persis Seaver will be five years old next February. She is this moment calling my attention to some figures that she had made on her slate nearly as well as I could do. She likes this better than her book lessons. She is backward in learning to read & spell, subject to lazy & sleepy fits when she takes her book…

December 15. Have just returned from my first sally out in a sleigh this season. The air is just cool enough for a well braced circulation. A view of the country far & wide, clothed in winter’s fresh robes of silvery whiteness, a fleet horse, & the cheerful music of bells;—so many fortunate circumstances combined gave a high relish* to the ride. I feel strengthened & enlivened by it.
Julia Davis was 7 last August. She enjoys fine health. She began today to learn the Multiplication table. She makes rapid proficiency* in any study she undertakes, but her mind, when released from her lesson, is so enthusiastically devoted to objects of amusement, that it don’t very well retain what she learns…

December 19. Very little business in the store today. The roads are so blocked with snow that few venture from home. Wife is making mince pies & sausages. Julia & Persis are playing with high relish. The old speckled cat looks good natured. Now and then a fly, deceived by the animating temperature of the room, emerges from his concealment with a plaintive buzzing.

December 22. Colder & colder. My Stars, how it bites this morning! Washington & Thankful [Zadoc’s brother and sister] have just started for Otisfield to visit Sister Harriet. Persis Seaver read her lesson to me in the store this morning…

December 24. Sister Bathsheba came here this afternoon from Otisfield. Country shop-keeping has become a very arduous, perplexing & hazardous business, compared to what it was when I first commenced it. We are obliged to sell a greater proportion of goods for barter* or on credit. Customers are sharper, & make us sell for less profits. People are less punctual & trustworthy; & we lose more by bad debts. The first trader that opened a store in this town made $30,000 in a few years. Now an industrious man, commencing with a handsome capital*, must be a wise calculator to support a family.

December 25. …Continued cold…It is six years since I have trafficked*in ardent spirits*. I find it much pleasanter doing business without liquors, & less galling to conscience…

December 26. Counterfeit bills are in circulation on the U. S. Branch Bank, Portland, & on several Boston banks, so ingeniously executed that the officers of the banks have received them as genuine. How depraved is a man who, having a genius by which he might honour & enrich himself, & benefit society, makes it the means of injuring the public.


*ardent spirits - distilled liquors, such as, rum or whiskey
*backwardness - slowness, lateness
*barter - taking goods as payment
*capital - money saved and possessions owned
*high relish - much enjoyment
*Justice of the Peace - a public official, like a judge, who hears cases and settles disputes
*pernicious - very bad, having an evil effect
*proficiency - progress
*Seba Smith’s oldest child - Seba Smith was the editor of The Eastern Argus, a Portland, Maine weekly newspaper. The child was Rolvin, born in 1825.
*spurious - false, forged
*trafficked - sold
*warranty Deed - a signed document containing a legal transfer, in this case, a transfer of the ownership of land and buildings with good title, free and clear of all liens and encumbrances.

Journal of Zadoc Long, ed. Peirce Long (Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1943), 108-11, 128-132. Selected entries. Edited by Old Sturbridge Village.