The collection spans from 1805 to circa 1962 and consists of Eliza’s diaries; family letters (photocopies); and various documents, sketches, and biographical information about Eliza’s parents and descendants (copies). Twenty-one original diaries kept by Eliza G. Post and one volume with a catalog of books comprise the bulk of the collection and date from 1815 to 1876.

The diaries appear chronologically before the catalog of books and the various family documents. The 2009 addition to the collection increased the number of volumes in the collection from sixteen to twenty-two and altered the numbering of those first sixteen volumes, although Volumes 1-3 retain the original numbers. The original volume numbers are noted in the volume descriptions. The accession number (2009-145) in the volume descriptions identifies the recent additions to the collection.

The 2007 addition to the collection included typed transcripts and indexes of select diaries: Volumes 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 22. There are two transcripts that do not match the diaries in the collection. The first transcript is titled “Memorandum Book 1826 through 1838,” (B1/f.3) the same years as both Volume 1 and Volume 2. However, the dated entries in the transcript do not precisely match entries in either of the volumes. The location of the original diary transcribed is unknown.

The second transcript not matching a diary in the collection is entitled “1815 Traveling Expenses from New York to St. Louis, Missouri of Col. Justus Post and Family – 7 Persons” (B3/f.10). The seven page transcript includes only expenses from August through November 1815. It matches a photocopy of a volume held at the State Historical Society of Missouri in the Eliza G. Post Papers (C0540). The location of this original diary is also unknown.

Eliza Post called her diaries Memorandum Books and numbered most of them from 1 to 20. There are two books labeled “No. 2,” (Vol. 2-3). There are overlaps and gaps in the early volumes, Volumes 1 – 4, from 1815 to 1838. The remaining diaries, Volumes 5 – 21, are in chronological order from 1839 to 1876. At the beginning of Volume 3, Eliza copied significant diary entries, such as births, deaths, moves, and travels, in chronological order, providing a brief overview of her life from 1815 to 1874.

The diaries list the day-to-day activities of Eliza Post and her family from January 1815 to December 1876, just days before Eliza’s death. Her entries are short, often one or two sentences per topic, and include information about her family, their health and their travels, and news of close neighbors and friends. She recorded visitors (callers), those whom she visited, and neighbors and friends with whom she and her family dined, books read, illnesses, and the weather. The first page of Eliza’s list of callers once the Post’s reached St. Louis in 1815 include Mrs. William Carr Lane, Governor and Mrs. William Clark, and General and Mrs. Bissell.

Volume 1 begins with the family in New York City readying for their move west and chronicles their trip to St. Louis. Travel was a highlight in Eliza’s diaries. After moving to the Midwest, she visited her parents in New York on five occasions. She also traveled to St. Louis several times to visit friends and conduct business when she lived in Illinois. In most cases, she recorded all legs of her journey including names of boats and their captains and fellow travelers.

In March 1856, Eliza traveled with her son, Augustus, to Granada, Nicaragua, when he decided to open a doctor’s office and drug store during William Walker’s campaign (Vol. 12). Callers at their homes in Granada included Major and Mrs. Heiss and General Domingo de Goicourea, close supporters of Walker. Finding the climate unhealthy, Eliza left in her son in Granada and traveled alone to St. Louis. She traveled to New Orleans with General Goicouria, a Cuban nationalist tasked with securing U.S. and British loans, and Col. Joseph Fabens. She mentioned that along the journey, which included many stops, Goicourea rode to the Pacific to pick up dispatches for Walker.

Eliza lived with Augustus in Alton, Illinois, from September 1854 until they left for Nicaragua in March 1856. During this time, strikeouts appear in her diaries (Vol. 11 and 12) and there is a page missing in Vol. 11, between October 1st and 20th. Some of the strikethrough entires are illegible but in others the name “Angeline” can be seen. The entry for 27 December 1854 reads, “Angeline is delivered of a baby.” Later entries, also struck through, reveal the name of the baby is Augustus. The exact relationship is unclear. In the last paragraph of her 14 October 1875 letter to Augusta, Eliza tells her granddaughter that she has her memorandum books in order and has “erased one name” wherever she found it. (B3/f.11).

Eliza did not use her diaries to discuss local or national news. Nor did she discuss either her own or her friend’s political views. For example, she did not explain her son’s reasons for following William Walker to Nicaragua in 1856. She also did not directly mention the Civil War and its effects on her family, friends, or neighbors. Eliza and her relatives traveled from the county to the city of St. Louis but she did not note any changes in the city due to the war.

As Eliza aged and found herself alone after the death of her mother in 1852, the entries reveal a little more about where she lived and how she spent her time, often sewing, knitting, or reading. She still received visitors and made calls herself as her health permitted. After Eliza returned to St. Louis County once again in 1856, she often mentions church services (preaching) in the area of Fee Fee Road and Bridgeton. She recorded titles of books read and noted her changing living situations, which changed as she moved among the offspring of John Post and friends in St. Louis County.

The remainder of the collection is from the two most recent donations and consists of copies of assorted documents, images, news clippings, and letter transcripts that belonged to Eliza’s granddaughter, Augusta (Post) Mitchell of South Dakota. There are also three photographs: two of needlework completed by Eliza using Justus Post’s military sash, which accompany a letter written by Eliza on 22 November 1866 (B3/f.11), and a photograph of the three donors and Post descendants (B3/f.13).

Alice Mitchell Brown wrote the “Memories of Eliza” biography in 1977 and discussed some of the items that Augusta Mitchell inherited from her grandmother, Eliza Post, including various mementos from Eliza’s family. It also explains that the images of the Post farm in St. Louis County (B3/f.15) are from water colors painted by Augustus Post. There is also a likeness (copy) of Augustus. Amelia Post had to sew for others in order to support herself and Augusta while living in Mount Morris. There is one a photocopy of her accounts for part of 1853 (B3/f.14).

One folder contains transcripts and photocopies of letters among the Post family dating from 1834 to 1876. Justus Post wrote the earliest letters to Eliza and Alexander in 1834. Augustus wrote to both his father, one day after his death in 1846, and to his mother in 1854 asking her to come live with him in Alton. Augustus also wrote to a young Augusta before he left for Nicaragua requesting she have her “likeness taken” and send it to him. Aurelia Post was away from her mother often, either with her father or at school. There is a letter she wrote to Amelia on 23 October 1850, and another from Granada on 28 May 1856. There are several letters from 1866 to 1876 between Eliza and Augusta Mitchell.

The final folder contains various photocopies of news clippings, announcements, and family information. The earliest item is a copy of an invitation for Eliza to attend a Commencement Ball in 1805. There are copies of Republican tickets showing Augustus running for state senate (n.d., Illinois?) and Justus running for Missouri state senate in 1826. There are death notices for Amelia Post and Augusta (Post) Mitchell. Finally, there is an article about Walter Mitchell, Eliza’s great-grandson.