Friday, November 27, 1863.
i spent the […] Nellie quite dull to what last Thanksgiving was many changes since then yesterday one year ago Mary was up here but she has gone to rest I hope
Saturday 28
very rainy day Nell did not get up here very busey all day in the evening I stoped home and at Nellies Frank is still at EJs
Sunday 29
very dull morning I went to church heard quite a good sermon […] out Bible class at Whites very good turn out Mr bustil came home with me Cristy
Annotation 1
Thanksgiving must have been a somber affair for Emilie, after Mary’s death, Alfred’s departure, and the prospect of EJ’s draft.
Annotation 2
Jacob C. White, brother of George Bustill White, was a teacher and co-founder of the Pythian baseball team.
The Bustill family was prominent in Philadelphia. Charles Bustill was a plasterer and an Underground Railroad conductor; his wife was Emily. According to the 1860 census, the couple’s daughters, Louisa and Gertrude, were nine and eight in 1863. Also living in the Bustill household was a Caroline Fisher, sixteen years old in 1863–another possible candidate for Emilie’s closest confidante, Nel. The “Mr. Bustill” who accompanied Emilie home, though, might have been George Bustill White, 30 years old in 1863. Year: 1860; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 13, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1163; Page: 682; Image: 268; Family History Library Film: 805163. Silcox, “Philadelphia Negro Educator,” 88-89.
1863 was the year Pres. Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.