“EBENEZER TOLMAN’S JOURNAL

In the 6th vol. of the new England Historic-Genealogical Register, commencing at page 129, is published what is called a ‘Journal kept by Joseph Ware, of Needham, Mass.’  This journal purpots to be record of daily events as they occurred to the army under Col. Arnold, in the expedition to Quebec in 1775.  The paternity of this journal is in dispute, I have been furnished by Mr. William Tolman, of Watertown, N.Y. with a portion of a Journal, a part having been lost, which he alleges was ‘kept’ by his father, Ebenezer Tolman, who was a member of the came company to which Mr. Ware belonged.  A comparison of his journal with what is called the original of Mr. Ware, establishes the fact that one is a copy of the other, or that both are copies of some other.  They are, with the exception of now and then a word, identically the same, a save one important entry which will be noticed.  A comparison also shows with considerable certainty that they were written by the same hand.  The writing is very similar, and I think I am not mistaken in the opinion that he who penned the one also penned the other, an there is a reasonable presumption that Mr. Tolman was the penman, and that the one furnished me by his son is the original; and for several reasons,  First, it appears to have been written at different periods, and had an older appearance than Mr. Ware’s copy, which looks as though it was written all at one time, and almost with the same pen.  Second, Mr. Ware does not use the personal pronoun i from the beginning to end, whereas Mr. Tolman says under date of Jany, 19, 1776.  ‘This day I was taken down with the small pox and carried to the Hospital, and in 15 days was able to return to the prison.’  And lastly, two sons and two daughters of Mr. Tolman now living, all unite in saying that they have, time and again, heard their father speak of his journal as the one that he ‘kept’ on the march and while in prison, and that they have no doubt that it is in his handwriting.  They do not wish to have injustice done to Mr. Ware, neither do they wish that their father should have credit for that which does not belong to him.  Mr. Tolman and Mr. Ware had frequent intercourse after the war, and the former may have furnished the latter with a copy of the journal.

Were it not that this book has extended beyond the limits which I intended, I should have been pleased to have published portions of the Journal, and also other facts relating to Mr. Tolman.  He, like the rest of the soldiers, suffered great hardships on the march, being almost starved for want of provisions, was imprisoned nearly a year, and a part of the time in irons for an attempt that was made to break prison by those confined.”

Reference Data:

Book of he Lockes, by John Goodwin Locke, 1853, page 323