Manuscript account book and travel diary of a round trip journey through western New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio

1820-25. 12mo. Approximately 59 pp. of manuscript pen and ink on blank journal pages (journal irregularly paginated 13-191), inscribed "Lowell Clark's Book Lebanon, Connecticut" on p. 13. Contemporary sheep; extremities worn, remains of fastening straps A manuscript diary of some 3,000 words of a trip by Universalist merchant Lowell Clark (1798-1860) and companion ("E.W.") through western New York to central Ohio and back along Lake Erie, with a stop at Niagara Falls — over 1,500 miles round trip. Clark records his travels in daily entries between 19 October 1820 and 9 January 1821 as a traveling merchant selling domestic items such as suspenders, razors, and peppercorns. He faithfully records the weather (generally snowy or rainy and cold) and road conditions, comments on the general lay of the land and its prospects for investment, and notes his distance traveled and where he stayed for the night. He records seeing buffalo and wild turkey in Ohio, visits a coal mine in West Virginia, notes the plentiful presence of "Yankees" in Ohio and views the Niagara Falls, where his expense ledger records he ordered a cocktail.The expense ledgers include recurring entries for breakfast, whiskey and rum (ordered by the gill or pint), cider, tobacco, oats for the horses, inn and tavern bills (i.e. "Thomas's bill," "Goodwin's bill," etc.) and tolls and gate fees, as well as occasional expenses (greasing the wagon, blacksmith, re-shoeing horses). Expenses for almost three months on the road totaled $89.58. Most notable is the entry for "cocktail, paid in peppercorn 18." Reference to the travel diary puts this expense near Niagara Falls and indeed Clark's description of visiting the falls begins "to the north falls of Niagara put up and took *a little refreshment,* then went down to view the wonderful falls [emphasis mine]." There are printed references to cocktails in American newspapers beginning in the early 1800s, but this is still an early reference, and the earliest manuscript reference that I could trace.The journal gives some other miscellaneous account entries for 1825, and a list of 13 books, May 1825, that includes Webster's Spelling Book, Murray's Grammar, Perry's Dictionary, Pope's Essay on Man, Morse's Universal Geography.Clark (1798-1860), was a successful merchant in business with his brothers. Born in Lebanon, Connecticut, he relocated to Hampton, New York, at around the time this journal was written. His obituary was printed in the Universalist newspaper the Christian Ambassador, Auburn, NY, 31 March 1860