This collection contains two diaries of Abigail M. Brooks, which date from 1865 and 1870 along with typed transcriptions of both. In addition, there is an invitation to attend church which dates from 1858. In the 1865 diary, Brooks describes life in rural Tennessee, near Nashville, where she teaches in a one room school house. Later in the year, Abigail moves to Edgefield, Tennessee, also near Nashville, and starts her own school. She describes life in Edgefield, trials with her students, the smoking stove, and parents who don’t pay tuition. She also describes trips to Nashville to shop, take music lessons, and visit with friends. In April 1865, she mentions the fall of Richmond, General Robert E. Lee’s surrender, President Lincoln’s assassination. She describes meeting soldiers who were traveling home from war and learning about their war experiences. In the 1870 diary, Brooks describes the cities of Edgefield, Nashville, Atlanta, Madison, Augusta, and Savannah. Her diary gives insight into the Presbyterian Churches that Abigail attended while living in these cities. She describes the services, the ministers and church buildings. Many of the entries review her efforts to make a living selling books, religious prints, maps, or pictures of Robert E. Lee, both door-to-door and in local factories or offices. She mentions many local businessmen and their wives and sometimes comments on race relations, travel,city conditions and the hardships she encountered as a single woman trying to make a living in the post-Civil War South.