Composition
Last monday morning, after I came to school, I heard of the arrival of several of my friends from the country, whom I had not seen for a long-time; and you can immagine my impatience in being obliged to wait untill noon, when I went to see them. After learning that my relations and friends were well in the country, and several other things, they desided me to accompany them in a ride in the after- [struck through] noon, which was very pleasing to me. I then went home and was in time at school in the after-noon, I learned my lessons and recited them before recess, and then our kind teacher dismissed one of my school mates and myself; we then ran home with light hearts and found our company allmost ready to start. Our company consisted of eleven persons; we were soon seated and off allmost as fast as the horses could carry us, for they felt very brisk as well as the rest of us, we had a very pleasant ride, only we were a little afraid of running over each-other, and soon arrived safely at the cemetery. We then alighted from our carriages and walked around admiring the little wild flowers, there are there some [beau-?] [struck] beautiful monuments. We then walked up to the top of the highest hill, and sat down upon some large stones which lay there, to rest ourselves and admire the handsome city of Dayton, which is situated in the beautiful Miami valley, and surrounded on all sides by hills and several streams of water. I think from the view I had of it, from the hill it looked very much like Cincinnati though not quite as black with coal smoke. When we were rested, we descended from the hill, and left that mournful place. We then proceeded to the pleasure garden and refreshed ourselves with a drink of cool water, and then walked through the garden which looked very pretty for this time of the year. There were many beautiful tulips in bloom of various colors; the strawberry vines, which will soon be loaded with red berries are now covered with white blossoms. We then visited the green house. What a delightful perfume! how beautiful are the flowers of every hue! the orange, the white lilly and Geraneums [geraniums] of every description! I should think there were as many as fifty different kinds of cactus, some with the richest flowers I have ever seen; and there are hundreds of other beautiful plants of which I do not know their names, but I hope some day to study botany, and then I shall know something more about them.
But my time and space will not permit me to give you any further account of my ride, and I am affraid I have wearied your patience allready; but if you are desirous of hearing more I will tell you in some future time — perhaps.
Cousin N[o—] [salutation/closing fragment, trailing off]
Josephine P. Cranston
How it fits
This is the document behind index row 102 (“Josephine composition: outing in Dayton”) — and reading the full text, it lets me make a confident correction to the index.
Date — the index’s “1880s” is wrong. Everything internal points to Josephine’s school-composition years, c. 1840–1844, not the 1880s. It’s literally headed “Composition,” it’s a recitation-and-recess school day, the narrator runs home “with light hearts” with a schoolmate, and it closes with the girlish “I hope some day to study botany.” This is the same youthful voice and the same genre as Docs C (Columbus), D (Friendship), and Q (Louisville) — her surviving school compositions. The Dayton/Miami-valley setting and the comparison to Cincinnati’s coal smoke fit an Ohio schoolgirl of that era perfectly. So I’d date it c. 1840–44 (school composition) and explicitly flag that the site’s 1880s dating is a posting-era error, exactly the same problem we logged for C, D, and Q in the reconciliation.
The cemetery is Woodland, Dayton. “The highest hill” with “large stones,” “beautiful monuments,” and a commanding view over the city in the Miami valley is Woodland Cemetery (established 1841, on Dayton’s most prominent rise). If it postdates Woodland’s 1841 opening — and the “rural cemetery” as scenic destination is very much an 1840s phenomenon — that nicely brackets the composition to the early-to-mid 1840s, consistent with the other school pieces.
Signature and address. Signed “Josephine P. Cranston” in her hand, with a partial closing line above it that reads like “Cousin N—” trailing off — so this was likely written to a cousin (the composition is addressed to a “you” throughout: “you can imagine,” “I have wearied your patience”). That epistolary frame — a school composition cast as a letter to a cousin — is worth noting, and the “Cousin” tie is a small thread that could connect to the cousin-questions already open (e.g., Mary Hoisington in Doc AG, though there’s no evidence linking them — just flagging the recurrence of unnamed/initial-only cousins).
This is the same “P.” Josephine. The signature here, “Josephine P. Cranston,” matches the archive’s archivist-scribe (and, incidentally, is a small point in favor of reading the Doc AG signature as the same person, since this Ohio-era schoolgirl voice is consistent with our Josephine — though it doesn’t resolve the Galesburg/Illinois question by itself).
Value: charming, securely-attributed juvenilia in Josephine’s own hand — and a useful dating correction to the site index. No new genealogical names, but it strengthens the C/D/Q school-composition cluster and adds a vivid Dayton vignette.
Flags:
- Date correction — index says 1880s; internal evidence says c. 1840–44. Recommend re-dating.
- Closing fragment — the “Cousin N—” line is partial/trailing; flag as uncertain reading.