Elizabeth Frances (Bettie) Bartlett was born in Philadelphia, Neshoba County, Mississippi, on June 6, 1850. She was the eldest of the five children of Joshua and Elizabeth Seton Bartlett. Joshua Bartlett was born in Kentucky in 1820; he was later a sheriff and a merchant in Neshoba County. Elizabeth Seton was born in South Carolina in 1828. Elizabeth Frances Bartlett married Christopher C. Boyd of Water Valley, Yalobusha County, Mississippi. Christopher C. Boyd, born on November 30, 1839, was a merchant and a miller. The Boyds made their home in Water Valley, where they had at least seven children, among them, Sophie Boyd Bell. Elizabeth Frances Bartlett Boyd died on October 19, 1900. Christopher C. Boyd died on January 21, 1928.

The notebook appears to have been used for Elizabeth Frances Bartlett Boyd’s school exercises at one time, and it was later used for personal religious meditations, poems, recipes, and inscriptions. Pages containing mathematical exercises appear twice in the notebook, at the beginning and near the end. Essays on Civil War figures and events appear near the beginning. Her essays on such topics as Fort Donelson, generals Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and "Stonewall" Jackson do not relate first-hand experiences, but they do convey the patriotic sentiment so popular among Confederate sympathizers. The dates for these essays range from July 16, 1864, to August 20, 1864. The last essay, entitled "This War," contains an addendum by Boyd written on January 1, 1875. Boyd’s religious meditations appear in the middle and very near the end of the notebook. They, too, lack specific personal detail, but they express an intense spiritual life. Most of the meditations were written on Saturday evenings in 1868, as Boyd prepared for Sunday worship services.

1. Notebook. 1864-1875. 0.10 c.f.