Two journals kept by Mrs. Jane Rowley about the city of Chicago and its environs.

The first journal, from 1851, describes the death of her husband, Aldric (also spelled Aldrich), who had gone to California. The second journal spans 1857-1887 and describes farming life, weather, multiple marriages and funerals, and family and social gatherings at home and at Hoards Hall, Unity Church, and camp meetings. Frequent trips to Chicago and other nearby towns including Leyden, Ridgeland, Harlem, and Maywood are described, along with an extended trip to Mrs. Rowley’s childhood home of Shelburn (now Shelburne), Vermont. As the journal progresses, Mrs. Rowley enters her 60s and 70s and begins to write repeatedly after family gatherings and holidays that the whole family may not be together for the next gathering. The entries stop in early December 1887, just months before Mrs. Rowley’s death in February 1888.