Background: Born in 1771, Samuel Law, Esq., a graduate of Yale University, came to Meredith (Delaware County, NY) in 1798.  He was a land agent for proprietors of the Franklin Patent.  He advertised, sold, and leased land.  In addition, he was a farmer and businessman. He build a large house on Meredith Square in 1806 which was considered one of the finest in the county.  His wife Sally was born in 1776.  He had four sons: William Lyon Law born in 1814, Samuel Andrew Law, born in 1816, Jonathan Albion Law, born in 1819, and Stephen Dodd Law, born in 1821.

Illustration of "Elm Place, late residence of Hon. S. A. Law" from the Map of Delaware County New York by Jay Gould, 1856

January 1. 1840! Wednesday.

All hail! Unfolding Era, - ushering in another happy New Year! And may then progress & thine issue happy be!

The prospective, - wisely hidden! O may each morrow, as it becomes, - today, - bear witness and enable me, - to say, - “I’ve lived today!”- lived more & more as behooves to live; more & more devoted to duty & to preparation for that better world vouch-safe to such as seek it, thro Christ, this ever blessed Savior & Redeemer.

Have, this day had a call from Revd Mr. Blakeman & a grateful converse with him - occupied, in part, in the office - part, Reading the presidents long message:

My health, of favor, comfortable; Sally, better & Rest of us, so so.

Weather severe cold; coldest day of the winter! Clear & calm.

Sunrise 15 below 0
Noon 4 “ 0
Sunset 11 “ 0
9 P.M 13 “ 0

Thursday Jan.y. 9.

One and another, calls of Danl Young - about the Seimon Lot: say ½ the Day - taken up about that. Divers cares & business. My health - what shall I say: Morning, - a spell, alarmed! - could not see - to write! Confusedness of sight & felt strangely: took some phisic & directly after, felt better!  And, Rest the day - as usual.

Weather mild & very pleasant winter weather & good sleighing.

Sunday Feb. 9.

To Meeting: Revd Phineas Blakeman preached. a.m. “One sinner destroyeth much good.” - p.m. “On the Atonement;” - forenoon but 70 odd - after - but 60 - odd attended.

Evening, - writing to Samuel.

Weather: the day very pleasant, warm & fast thawing: - and towd Eve began to rain and a very Rainy evening: now 11 p.m. and Rains hard.

My health so so - poorish, i.e. - Rheumatic some & aches of back &c yet comfortable & desire to be grateful.

Tues. Mar. 3.

A.M. Wrote Stephen - went to Moodys - abt Sug. Bush - timber &c - to Saw mill &c: Returned and wrote Samuel.

Mrs. Law quite unwell and taking medicine: fear, going to be laid up. Own hlth poorish, but yet, of favor, about.

Weather - cloudy & damp & very warm - sprinkles of rain: 10 p.m. - and 50 above 0!

Friday Mar. 6.

A.M. Engrossed letter to T. H. Clymer and wrote M. Hitchcock and got both off by mail. Divers in & out: Recvd letters from Saml - and Mr. Williams of St. Mary’s.

Salley [Mrs. Law] - more fever and a sick day - took Calomel: Much of my day attending to her: and to night, taking care of her, - hoping she may have a better day, tomorrow!

Own health so so - poorish; but, of favor, able to keep and be, about.

Weather, coldish, but moderate & not uncomfortably cold: - past night, froze considerable: to night, less cold; yet freezing some.

Sat. Mar. 7.

Mrs. Law - sick with a bilious or Gastric Fever: and the sickest day, as seems to me, - I have ever known her to have! Morning, took calomel - folowd by senna: and, the fever, not high, yet, with the distress of the medicine, added, - all day & all night, till midnight, Restless & much distressed & very weak. The day, mostly, taking care of Mrs. Law - and all the night.

Own health tolerable.

Weather: Severe cold and today, a tempest of wind: some snow-squalls:

Sun. Mar. 8.

Mrs. L. - a much more comfortable day, today: - followed, by the operating of physic - all last night - from dusk, - to daylight; but, after midnight, less & less & more mildly handled: and, to day, - a much more comfortable day: & took a little nourishment, gruel & Rise[?] water with one teaspoonful of wine in: and fever lessened & symptoms encouraging.

Self - comfortable, - save exhaustion &c - from watching - tho, latter part the night, slept some; and, today have slept few then, - calculating, - to take care of Mrs. L. again, tonight.

Meeting: a Reading meeting a.m. - p.m. - none: few attended; none from here, save some of our domestics.

Weather: clear & cold, - very: Here, this morn - 2 below 0! - p.m. Wind round south - about.

Mon. Mar. 9.

Mrs. Law, the day - till eve, much of yesterday - Eve - a very Restless paroxysm [intensification of symptoms]: not more fever, - but nervous and very weak and afrightened, - apparently as oftimes happens when illness & nervous irritability conjoin, - both being ails Requiring sympathy & utmost effort to Restore.

Calls of much business Co in & out - in and out: Mails in - Recvd letter from Sister Dodd. - Wrote Saml & Stephen , state of their Mother’s illness.

Care of Sally - thro last night, - but got some sleep - latter part the night - and - with her - mainly - to day: and, - to night, again, with & care of her, - till now, - toward midnight, and must take care of her, Rest the night: - tho - hope she may Rest quiet: - has just now calmed down & fallen asleep & sleeps, apparently, as in a sweet sleep.

My own health comfortable, for me: and so is oft my experience. When outward troubles thicken round me, - wither from the extra excitement, or because am proportionally strengthened, - am often permitted to say, - Surely, as my Day is, so is my strength. O that I may cherish, and even be enabled to exercise, overflowing Gratitude to God, for his sustaining mercies, for all his unmented mercies, bestowed upon me. And O that he may spare & Restore my Wife & continue her, a blessing to me and my children!

On going to the clock - perceive, tis midnight: - thence, up till 1 a.m. - when, as Sally sleeps quiet, will go onto my bed, - in hopes may get some sleep, myself.

Tues. Mar. 10.

Mrs. Law, - a.m. as Yester; Rather more comfortable, as we hoped: But abt 9 oClock p.m., more alarmed than before, since her illness: some symptoms exciting fear; - turns of sinking with difficult Respiration and under coldness of extremities! whether from her disorder, or from being nervous - or from both conjoined, - at a loss!

With her, myself, main the day - & the night, - thus far, - nursing & attending to her; - now 1 o’Clock - a.m.: and mean not to leave her: seems, now, asleep: - and, - hope may Rest, - may be, sleep, - a little, - by Resting - on the side of the Bed.

Weather, - severe cold, yesterday; less so, today, a.m., But p.m. very cold again; and to night, a hard freezing night. Clear & still. This forenoon, Snow squalls!

Wednesday March 11

A day of rebuke, agitation, anxiety and overwhelming affliction!……For this day, alas, My Dear Wife & the Mother of my Children, - to us, unexpectedly & as it were, rather suddenly, died! There is bereavement added to bereavement! O God, Father, Son & Spirit, sanctify, I beseech me, this, thy afresh bereaving providence, - to me & my spared sons, - for our spiritual & everlasting good!

Died 20 minutes before 5 this afternoon. A few minutes before she died, I asked her, - fearing & thinking she was dying, or near her end, - Do you - “Do you feel Resigned to God’s will & willing to commit Yourself to God & Christ,” - to which, tho’ with much difficulty able to speak, - She answered, audibly, “Yes, entirely”
Not many minutes after, She sunk under the severity of her decease and, without a sigh, or groan or struggle, - was gone!----------only about 26 hours after we were alarmed with the idea of her sickness being immediately dangerous!

Thursday Mar. 12.

A day full of sorrows - and cares. Arrangements & preparations for the funeral of my dear departed Companion making: a post-mortem Examination had of the Corpse, - by which the fact ascertained, that, the immediate cause of her so sudden death, - was, - Dropsy in the Chest! The Cavity enclosing the left lobe of the lungs - filled with serum, or water, and expanded & pressed to bursting almost, and crowding against the heart & Right lung; - and strained upward to the region of the thorax - Rendering, as progressing, Respiration more & more difficult, - till ending in stoppage of the breath, or suffocation! The quantity of water dipped out of the dropsical Cavity - about 3 quarts & a half. The left lobe of the lungs, (in the Cavity, the seat of the dropsical fusion,) - found in a diseased state, and, as it were, seemingly, all but - very little of it, - in a perished state, - drawn up & withered, and appearing as it might have been long so, - which may have become, at length, the exciting cause [causes which tend immediately to produce disease] of the fusion, or dropsy, so suddenly & fatally terminating. The Right lobe of the lung appeared in a health state; the Doctors saying, - if the dropsy had not supervened, - she might - perhaps, - have lived along, comfortably, many years. The diseased lung - not apparently tuberculous, but more, from some other cause, a perished lung; in which state, they tho’t it appeared as if it might have been, ever so long. And, the fever she, now has had, may, perhaps, have been caused, on at least, continued, by the inceptive & progressing fusion: and, in its turn, may have accelerated & so copiously increased that fusion, - till ending, as it has, in so suddenly & unexpectedly overcoming & hurrying the patient away.

But so it is ordered, - not by chance, - for a sparrow falls not to the ground, - without - the notice of our Heavenly Father, who has signified, - that we are of much more worth than many sparrows! It is therefore, Heavenly Father, even so, because it hath seemed good, in thy sight: And, O Grant me, of they grace & mercy, to say, thy holy will be done! and enable me, thro the aid of the Holy spirit, to prepare to follow my departed companion!

Today, I have been privileged to Repair oft to the Remains of my deceased Wife & to gaze, upon, her pallid face - a seeming smile lingering upon it, & - all calling it, - a very pleasant corpse!

Tomorrow, I must be deprived of even that privilege. It must be buried! O that there the mercy of Christ, I may be prepared for heaven, and meet her there, a glorious spirit.

At ¼ past 10 a.m. [probably p.m.] I open this Diary, to make a brief Entry: And what a day I have had! I have committed to the Tomb, all that was left of my late Wife. O the lonesomeness of this night! A loneliness to continue onward!

I Rose early this morning; had much to do to complete the internment arrangements; completed them; and, about noon, people began to collect, for the Funeral.
Had prayer, at the house & at 1 o’Cl, had the corpse Removed to the meeting-house, - where a full house was assembled - a large assemblage, - perhaps as large or larger than ever before seen here, at a Funeral: suppose may have been 500 people assembled: and must have been many, a great many, in the town, not having got notice of the death, else doubt not very many more would have been present! The Funeral Sermon preached by the Revd Crispus Wright, - from Luke 12.41. “Be Ye therefore Ready, also; for the Son of Man cometh, at an hour when Ye think not.” Exordium.[?] On such occasions, discourses for the living, - not the dead. Yet, becoming to embalm the memory of the worthy.

Then sketched, in brief - the character of the deceased, mentioning the traits & tenor of her life, as indicatory of her preparedness for the coming of the Son of man, - meaning, as here used, - for the coming of death! Referring, after, to the late decease of my Son William - with the solacing evidence of his being prepared. Then Raised his Argument to the living, that the test, - a solemn exhortation, - to be ready, at a moments warning, - to exchange worlds.
And,
I. What we have to do, - to be prepared.
II. How we must do it
III. The great importance of its being done, - immediately.

The 3 heads illustrated & enforced: And the discourse closed, by an address to the Mourning: Myself & my Son Albion being the alone Relatives present.
Exercises closed, - a procession moved to the grave - and then deposited all that was mortal of my late bosom companion & of my Dear Sons endeared Mother.
And, my son & I Returned to our dwelling, solemn & sorrowful, - the chasm, the vacancy, in our domestic circle, hard pressing upon us!

O God support us & grant us grace to feel & say, the Lord gave & hath taken away: and bless be his holy name! Nor us only; but our absent sons & brothers, also, when the tidings of the Dear Mother’s decease shall have tingled, in their ears!

Now ½ past 12, and I will Retire: and, O God, uphold me, by thy holy Spirit & sustain me through thy mercy in Christ; and sanctify, I beseech thee, this bereavement to me, for my spiritual & everlasting good. And O impart the same blessings to my now motherless sons.

Sat. Mar. 14.

A lone, lone day; wave, succeeding to wave, of sorrow, pressing and pressing: the occasion, the vacant seat, every Room, everything, afresh, Reminding me of my loss. Some few in, and expressing sympathy: Devoted my self much as could, to thinking, preparatory, to an Obituary!

Sund. Mar. 15.

Day, inclement & some little snow and snow squalls.

No meeting held at our meeting house: went into the Baptist meeting. a.m. Sermon - on the need of a Revival & a good sermon: p.m. Do - but ordinary, quite; sort of Rambling discourse, on the theme, - that pride will be abased & humility exalted.

Occupied, partly, drawing up an Obituary - till 3 o’Cl. in the night.

Mon. Mar. 16.

Some hindered, by calls; and sorrows, - oft a rush & gush of, interposing; but the day, as much as could, about the Obituary , - which finished, ¼ to 2 in the night, - to have Mr. Doyle start with, - soon as light, - to the Printer.

Except as cast down with sadness & sorrow, - my health - my bodily health, since my Wife’s decease, - comfortable, for me; Rather more so, than along before.
 

From a private collection. Transcribed by Dr. Frank M. Waterman

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