Introduction

The private life of a young woman in 1851

It is New Year’s Day, 1851, in the tiny town of Piqua, Ohio. Serena Ann Therisa Lewis makes the first entry in her diary. She writes in a school composition book, filled with doodles and homework, not the usual schoolgirl diary with a heart-shaped lock. Like her diary, Serena is not typical.

Serena is an 18-year-old college girl in an era when girls were not thought to need an education. She is visiting in Piqua when she begins her diary, but her home is in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her father, her older sister, her little half-brother, and an orphaned cousin. Lacking the guidance of a mother or mature chaperone, Serena experiences a surprising degree of both freedom and responsibility. Her father, Albert Lewis, has a pork packing house. The girls are frequently unsupervised during their father’s business trips, and they take full advantage of these opportunities for mischief.

Religion is very important to Serena. She regularly attends church services, prays, and meditates on the blessings of life. She is sometimes shocked at the behavior of her friends, but she misbehaves in other ways herself.

Serena has experienced much grief in her brief life. She has lived through a cholera epidemic. Tuberculosis and other diseases are a constant threat. She has lost cousins, aunts and uncles, three grandparents, her mother, and her stepmother to various illnesses. Nevertheless, she usually is focused on the present, describing activities, worries, and minor teen tragedies.

Education is very important to Serena’s family. Her uncle, Samuel Lewis, was the first Superintendent of Schools for the State of Ohio in the 1830s. Serena attends Wesleyan Female College, from which she will graduate as valedictorian in 1852. This school was one of the first American institutions of higher learning for women.

Serena mentions some of the events occurring in Cincinnati during 1851. There are many Lyceum cultural programs. The Art Union purchases The Greek Slave, a statue by Hiram Powers, and offers it as a raffle prize to members. A Panorama, A Whaling Voyage Round the World, is presented. P.T. Barnum brings the famous soprano Jenny Lind to Cincinnati on her first concert tour. John Gough, a leading temperance advocate, visits Serena’s school to lecture about the dangers of the use of hard liquor.

Serena keeps her diary for her own purposes, but in doing so she gives us a glimpse into domestic and social life in those days before electricity, telephones, and automobiles. She writes about her friends and her large extended family, but she conceals the identity of the mysterious person who is her main attraction in Piqua. She frequently speaks of female cousins without giving their last names and of male friends without giving their first names. She presents challenges, but she does speak freely about her thoughts and feelings.

This blog includes Serena’s original diary entries, transcribed to make them more legible, along with other historical material to put Serena’s writings into perspective. It explains Serena’s mid-19^th century life to 21^st century readers, gives background to the events, and identifies the people that she mentions. Let’s travel back to Serena’s world in 1851 Cincinnati.