Martha Moore Ballard was born either on 1734 or 1735 in Oxford, Massachusetts and died in May of 1812. She is now remembered because of the diary she kept every day for twenty-seven years from 1785 to 1812. Her diary recorded in short descriptive entries her daily life as a midwife in Hallowell on the Kennebec River, District of Maine.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, her biographer, notes in A Midwife's Tale that the diary records that Martha as a midwife was involved in 816 deliveries performed between 1785 and 1812.
On January 29, 1812, a Wednesday, Martha Ballard wrote in her diary:
Clear forenn, Cloudy aft; Snowd at Evng. Revd mr Tappin Deld a discoarse from matthew 11 C 28 vers. there were A Considerable number of people Collected here. Sons Pollard & Epm, their wives & Samuel P. & Sopha, Son Jonas wife, Sally, James and Elisabeth.
at home, an Evng Lecture Preacht here.
The biblical verse from Matthew 11:28 (KJV) reads:``Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest``.
The transcription above is again taken form the website dohistory. The transcription of the diary is the work of Robert R. McCausland and Cynthia MacAlman McCausland.
For more on Martha Ballard see here and here.
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