Manuscript pocket diary of George H. Graves (1840-1899) who was born at Guilford, Piscataquis County, Maine. He emigrated to Flora Township, Boone County, Illinois with his family sometime in the late 1840's.

Graves was the son of Samuel Stillman Graves (c1807-1895) and Hannah Young (c1809-1895). The Graves were an old Massachusetts family, who had emigrated to America from England in the seventeenth century. George was one of six children. He served three years in Co. B., 15th Illinois Infantry, participating in the battle at Shiloh. George's brother, Theodore Wallace Graves, died of disease while serving in the Civil War with Co. I 9^th Illinois Cavalry.

George lives on the family farm with his parents and siblings. Early in the year he writes of making sleighs for his older brother, Andrew Jackson Graves. The entries record his daily life on the farm as well as building a new home for the Graves family.

The entries of the first six-months of the diary show Graves to be courting a woman named Sarah A. Cochran. George courts her, falls in love, sells his colt to buy a gold ring, proposes marriage, and gains her father's consent. He notes that he's so happy he can't write. However, shortly after the engagement a mysterious event took place. "God forbid that the likes of this day ever return again." Sarah becomes seriously ill (physically and mentally) and on April 17^th her father accuses George of "giving her Chloroform and believes me guilty of every thing that is bad". He's shunned by a few of the townspeople and she disappears from the diary after June.