Charles Thurwood was a farmer up around Fort Plain, NY. In 1874 he was of an age with Alan, who is 21, and working with his folks pretty much like Alan does today, except there were no tractors. He kept a diary, something like this diary, of what he and his family did each day and how their lives were back in that other century.
Every now and then I take a look back at that diary and think about our parallels.
And there are many.
Yesterday's entry:
"Cloudy and windy and cold and we picked apples and father went over to Mr. Bujer and bought a horse for $110 dollars. Eleven years old and in the afternoon father went to Fort Plain."
And yesterday here in modern NY, just a handful of miles east of Fort Plain, Alan might have written: "Cloudy but pleasant, not much breeze, and I chopped alfalfa and put it in the ag bag and father worked on the driveway and mother saw a mangy red fox in the house yard. No wonder the chickens were raising Cain all morning."
There is quite an almanac in the front of Charles' little leather-bound book. The states and territories of the time are listed there. No Colorado or Idaho on that list. NY State had a population of 4,380,759 back then. I have no idea how accurate those figures are, but I think we have a few more folks living here now.
Pretty soon it will be time to pick the Winesap apples for jelly too, but we sure won't be buy a horse any time soon, no matter what the price or age.
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5 comments:
What a treasure that diary is!
I remember sitting on the edge of my grandmother's bed while she read her childhood diary to me. One entry, in its entirety, read: Pa killed the pig today.
Not too long ago, for some reason, I was looking at NYS county history. The counties used to be huge, encompassing other whole states!
That is so cool!
Your photo is wonderful! We have an old diary much like that.....a treasure! Life was so much different back then. I wonder if my Macbook diary will survive like some of those old journals did;)
How wonderful! And to think...we didn't really exist (as a state) back then. Of course there were people here, but that is another story for another time.
You photo is delightful.
My entry for today would read...Pa is laying transmission pipe for the water. Ma is cleaning house. Ma is not much of house keeper so cleaning the house is a BIG chore!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
June, it is a wonder. Charles was such a sweet young man. I would have loved to have read more of his diaries...and I'll bet he kept them. Must have been wonderful for you to hear your grandma's diary. I have one of the many my great grandmother kept and it is such a delight to read. She had such a dry, but forceful personality.
Dani, I love it. lol
Linda, I think about that too. So much about modern times is being faithfully recorded, but the media it is being recorded upon is so ephemeral.
Linda B, ma isn't much of a housekeeper here either. It is a lot more fun to herd cows than to herd dust bunnies. Your stories of the history of your state are invaluable in my opinion. I have learned so much while enjoying every minute.
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