Join us at Harry’s Hofbrau in Redwood City on Tuesday, April 21. Harry’s opens at 11 am for cafeteria style lunch; our meeting will start promptly at 12 noon. See the MEETING INFO menu item for directions. This month’s topic is

Joan Larabee on “Mary Chesnut and her Diary”

Mary Boykin Chesnut was the wife of U.S. Senator James Chesnut, Jr., of South Carolina. He was the first U.S. senator to resign after Abraham Lincoln’s election, submitting his resignation on November 10, 1860—just four days after Lincoln was elected president on November 6. South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Mary began keeping a detailed journal and notes on the events starting with Lincoln’s election, continuing throughout the Civil War and for several months afterward.

Joan Larrabee grew up in a military family; one great-grandfather served in a New York regiment as a teenager at the end of the Civil War. She earned a degree in history at Stanford University and a Master of Urban Planning at San Jose State. She worked for the City of San Jose in the fields of community services, public works, and transportation.