Chester County History Center - Walter Finney Diary Collection

The first diary (June 1778 – December 1780) records Walter Finney’s Revolutionary War experiences primarily in the northern states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York. In this volume, Finney rarely mentions doing battle with the British. Instead, he frequently chronicles the movement of American troops from one encampment to another. Additionally, he notes when he saw George Washington, the times he spotted Lafayette, and comments about countless military exercises. In April 1780, in a field near Morristown, New Jersey, such exercises attracted several hundred civilian spectators. A farmer, Finney also writes about the condition of the soil he marched over, sometimes noting how challenging it would be to farm. Finney laments the loose morals and swearing of his fellow soldiers and records instances of punishments for their malfeasance. Lastly, Finney occasionally remarks about cities and towns he passed through. For example, Danbury, Connecticut was a convenient place to conduct trade until the tyrannical British arrived and set it afire. The end of the volume includes two transcribed poems of the day, “The Maid’s Soliloquy” and Thomas Paine’s “Death of General Wolfe.” Joseph Lee Boyle, a military historian who worked at Valley Forge Historical Park for more than a dozen years, transcribed the first two volumes of Finney’s diaries and published them with commentary in New Jersey History, vol. 121, nos. 1-4, 2003, pp. 23-81 and South Carolina Historical Magazine, vol. 98, no. 2, 1997, pp. 126-152.

The third diary (January 1785 – July 1786) documents negotiations with Native American tribes after the Revolutionary War, which Finney either witnessed or actively took part in. Finney provides detailed notes on the January 1785 Treaty of Fort McIntosh between Commissioners representing the United States and the Wyandotte, Delaware, Chippewa, and Ottawa Nations. The first part of the diary records what was said and exchanged during these negotiations, in some cases reading as transcripts of meetings on January 9, 12-13, 15, and 18. This is followed by a transcription of the July 1785 contract for Samuel Osgood, Walter Levingston, and James O’Hara to negotiate with the Shawnee Nation near the Miami River in Ohio. The rest of the diary consists of Finney’s diary entries from September 1785 to Jan. 1786, as well as transcribed copies of letters and documents, including those to and from General George Rogers Clark and Colonel Josiah Harmer. These materials detail specific events leading to increasing tension between the two negotiating parties in 1786.