Looking for the darn trunk
William Schillinger, an Ensign in a militia company stationed at Fort Amanda kept a daily journal of day-to-day activities beginning with the rendezvous in Cincinnati on February 5 to August 6,1813 when he returned home. His journal entries included everything from names of individuals, miles traveled and even the weather. It gives us insight into the life of what like for this soldier from the time he left home, his time at Fort Amanda and his return home. The journal is kept in the rare books department at the Cincinnati Public Library.
Cincinnati 1800
Cincinnati 1815
My original intent was to write a book about Fort Amanda and because I was going to use parts of the Schillinger journal in my writing I decided to do a transcription to ensure I had all the names, places, etc. correct. The transcription took several weeks. What I discovered was that while Schillinger was literate, he often misspelled words and names and wrote them as they sounded.
One error in particular became a crusade for me to and for the past 15 years I’ve worked very hard attempting to correct it. It wasn’t about a name, a battle or even about the war, it was about the purchase of a trunk. What follows can be mind numbing or it can be interesting. Either way, it's how I research. I need to know everything. That said, this is what I've been through to find out more about that "darn trunk".
The picture below is a copy of Schillinger's journal entry for February 14, 1813, while he was still encamped at Cincinnati. The men had been in camp for over a week and Schillinger had spent the past 2 days packing his belong in preparation for the march north.
The morning of the 14th, the company received word that they would be taking up the march at 10:00 that morning. Apparently Schillinger felt he needed more storage for his personal belongings so he purchased a trunk.
Now Comes the Mystery
At first glance it looks as though he wrote in his journal (underlined in red), "Bought a trunk for My Box." The first obvious question is, "what kind of box would he put in a trunk? A money box? A box for personal belongings?
I struggled for months trying to figure out what he was trying to put in the trunk. I gave up for a time And focused my attention on the word “My” thinking that might give me a clue.
What I discovered was that Schillinger used the word “My” (note the capital M) 12 times in his journal yet this "My" in reference to purchasing a trunk was unlike ALL of the others. The most noticeable difference was the letter “Y”.
What if it wasn't a Y after all but something else. I went page by page through the journal and none of the words that ended in the letter "y" looked anything like the letter in Schillinger's "My" He used the word, "My" many times throughout the journal and there wasn't a single instance where it resembled the "My" in the sentence about buying a trunk.
Thinking back about many of the other journals of the time, I remembered learning that when writers during that time period wrote words that had 2 consecutive letter "S" the first always looked like the letter "f". I looked through the journal and sure enough, every time Schillinger wrote a word with a double "S", it looked like the figures below.
Figure A
Figure A is how Schillinger wrote the word "message". There were several times he wrote words with the double "s" including; permission, expression, commission, necessary, cross, crossed, commissary, possible and express. The double letter "s" looks exactly like the double "s" in the word message.
Figure B
The word shown in Figure B is from the sentence, "Bought a trunk for ........ What looks like a letter Y, is actually the double S. He wasn't writing "My", he was writing the word "Miss"
Now lets look at the word, "for". Was Schillinger saying he bought a trunk “for” a Miss ? That didn't seem likely as why would he be buying a trunk for someone when he'd be leaving town in a matter of hours. I think what he was saying was that he bought a trunk "from" a "Miss" someone.
Ok, so now I think it's safe to assume he bought a trunk from Miss somebody, but who was that somebody. The last letter of the persons name is blotted out with ink (Figure A). I second letter of the word in Figure A looked like the letter "u" so I scoured the census records for individuls in Hamilton County named Buc, Buck, and Burk, and found nothing.
Figure A
Then I wondered, what if the second letter wasn't a "u" but was in fact the letter "o"? Going back through the journal again I found many instances where he didn't close the top of the "O" thus giving the appearance that it was the letter "u"
Mystery Solved? I think so
I again went to the census records to see if I could find someone in Cincinnati by the name of “Bos.” Why Cincinnati? Remember, Schillinger was in Cincinnati, preparing to march with his company so it had to be someone within reasonable walking distance from the courthouse where he was camped. The census records showed nothing so I found the City Directory for Cincinnati in 1825. What I found was there was a woman named “Lydia Boss” a milliner whose shop was located on Sixth st. between Main and Walnut (just 1 block north of where Schillinger was camped) In 1825, the shops located along Sixth st. between Main and Walnut sts. were:
Lydia Boss, -milliner,
William Alter, merchant,
Daniel Ashton, -druggist & Methodist Minister
Ann Boswell,-tutoress
William Dodson, -grocer
William Hildreth –draman
Jonathan Hildreth –drayman
Sarah Horner, -seamstress
William Parsons –turner
Roge Seldon -merchant
Thomas Thatcher –carpenter
George Warren, George-mason
I am convinced that what Schillinger was writing was that he “bought a trunk from Miss Lydia Boss.” So do we know that Schillinger had a trunk. Yes. Here's is his journal entry from July 26, 1813 as he was preparing to go home.
Monday July the 26th
Warm & sultry, this morning pack,d up our baggage to send home ½ past
meridian, Mr. Abbot (Abbott) & Mr. Patterson two of our company started
with our trunks, Went by way of Fort Logan, Showery this afternoon - had a very
severe turn of the face & headach
Bad news is Schillinger was ill when he went home in May and he was ill again. At least half dozen others were also ill and 1 they were sent to St. Marys, one so ill he had to be taken on a cart. The good news is 3 days later he reported that his temperature had broke and he was feeling better
The Area Today
Below is an aerial picture of the area today showing 6th street where Schillinger bought his trunk and it's proximity to the courthouse where he was camped.
From Main st. Looking west.
Lydia Boss' show was located in this block
Now that that mystery is solved, another one emerges. Who was Lydia Boss? The quest continues.