Thursday, February 12, 2009

February 12 thru 15, 1886

As always, click on the picture to enlarge for easier reading of original. Feel free to contact me with corrections, additional information, or comments. Click on the map link to the right of this entry to see more about where places are.

The Tenneys are there to visit again... Jane and Sarah quilt. They go to Peter Johnson's funeral?? Omar cuts wood, Henry sorts a few potatoes again. Jane Tenney goes home at night. Bart goes to Tenney's schoolhouse??? Not sure what that means. Maybe Jane was a school teacher? Maybe not? Jane is at their house all day. Maybe the Tenneys owned the school house but somebody else taught. I'm not sure how the school system was organized at that time?

Saturday, Henry Tenney asks Henry to come over to help with a sick cow, but he gets there too late - the cow is dead. Henry helps Henry Tenney and Henry Polmeteer skin the cow. Three Henrys! They probably don't use the meat of a sick cow, but they certainly don't let the skin/leather go to waste! Omar and Jen don't go to see Susie (probably Susie Conley) because it is stormy.

Sunday Bart goes to church - sounds like Sarah and Henry stay home - Sarah is sick. Omar and Mills go to church in the evening, taking "Old Kitt" and the buggy. It appears to have been warm long enough to not be able to use the sleigh? It has been 40 or 50 everyday for a while. This is the first mention of one of the horses by name. I know from later entries that there are at least 3 horses --- Molly, Old Kitt, and John?

Monday - Various chores -- washing, quilting, potato sorting --- most mentions of potato sorting seem to use the pharse - "a few potatoes" - obviously not a favorite task! Henry mends shoes... they used to fix stuff! -- you didn't just go buy a new pair. Henry may have even made the shoes originally? ( note: Thomas Olney - the original Olney in this country - 1635 - was a shoe maker among other things - Henry is 9th generation in this country) Bart and Mills don't go to school. Friday's mention of Tenney's Schoolhouse must have referred to going to school.... maybe school attendance was sporadic depending on weather, work that needed doing, etc??

2 comments:

Anne said...

It might be interesting to find out about the teaching thing. I know by at least 1900 there was a big push to fire all married female teachers, and to not allow married women to teach in the public schools anymore. My grandmother had been a teacher after she finished up her schooling; when she got married (1917) she had to "hide" the marriage for a time--not that hard to do, because her husband was a Doughboy and was off fighting in the war--but she told me that by then, married women were considered 'unsuitable' to teach young minds. I presume because of the sexual 'knowledge' they themselves acquired as a result of their married state? This was in northern PA, about 75 miles from where your ancestors lived. I don't know for sure when they reinstated married women into those jobs; I do know that in 1958, when she took her first teaching job, my own mother had to sign a "morals" clause in her very first contract!

Sequana said...

Good thing for you, Anne, that the morals clause is not necessary anymore. *L*