Thursday, May 7, 2009

May 7 thru May 10, 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. Other information can be checked out with the links to the right, including a great family picture of everybody circa 1886!

Friday - Jen goes to Naples to get medicine or other stuff for Mills, who is feeling better, but obviously still not well. Darwin Tyler sends his two sons (?) Fred and Howard over to get a heifer and a calf for which they pay $25.50 as agreed. This was probably arranged when Fred was here yesterday? Fred and Howard drive them home -- sort of a mini cattle drive. A heifer is a female cow - usually under a year old - who has not yet had a calf.

They move Mills to a different bed, and it "don't seem to make him worse". The Terneys had stayed over night Thursday night.

Saturday --- Omar goes on working on the oat field at Terneys. Mills is "a great deal better" today. Henry Terney brings Hattie home. Frank Simmons and family, and Elder Hibbard visit. Stephen Stanton buys 4 bushels of wheat. Mr. Sturdevant and wife also visit. A very busy day! Omar goes to Naples for more stuff for Mills, so he is not totally well yet?

Sunday - They have a light frost! Mills continues to improve. Harmon Ingram and Hattie, and granddaughter Florence staid over night last night, and Omar and Harm go to meeting. I assume Elder Hibbard is the guest speaker at Ingleside church. He and somebody named Borden come by about 5PM. More visitors - William Blodgett and wife, Julia Marsh, and somebody else (?). Harm and Hattie take Henry and Sarah's daughter Stella (5 yr. old) back to Wayland with them.... a very busy weekend. I'm guessing everyone came to hear Elder Hibbard speak at church.

Monday - Omar and Henry start sowing oats on the Terney land, but they get rained out. Omar takes John the horse to the blacksmith to have a couple of shoes fixed. Omar plows the berry patch after supper, and Dr. Fulkerson comes again in the evening to see Mills. This is quite a bout of sickness for Mills - I think this is the 4th time Dr. Fulkerson has made a house call. Henry sends a "postal" to Robert - his brother in Mansfield, PA.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

May 3 thru May 6, 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. Other information can be checked out with the links to the right, including a great family picture of everybody circa 1886!

Monday - Omar goes on preparing the barley field - using a roller (see picture below). Nephews Will and Charles head for Naples, and on to Canandaigua on their high wheel "bicycles". Mills seems to be doing better, but gets worse later in the day... Henry sends for the Doctor again.Tuesday - Omar finishes rolling the barley field, and starts drilling the barley seed. Henry's brother Robert comes around dinner time, expecting to find his sons Will and Charles, but they have left for Canandaigua. Dr. Fulkerson comes by to see Mills. Henry goes to Naples and sells his remaining extra wheat to Woodruff and Lyon for 88 cents a bushel.

Wednesday - Henry sends Omar to Naples with the wheat for Woodruff and Lyon. Henry's brother goes with him. Mills gets even worse, and Henry stops giving him Quinine. I can't find any information about Quinine as a treatment for anything other than malaria, and leg cramps. I'm guessing that Doctors may have thought that it would treat other ailments that caused chills, etc. similar to malaria. Henry treats Mills with hot "applications" - compresses?, and an "injection". A little research revealed that "injection" was the 1886 term for emema. The tool used for this looked much like a big syringe. See below -- sorry -- I couldn't resist!
Henry takes his brother Robert to see the Welds, and then part way to Bloods.

Thursday -- Omar is plowing the oat field they've rented from Terneys. Henry takes Omar his lunch, and trades out John for Old Kitt for the afternoon plowing. Mills continues to be sick, and Henry applies flax seed poultices ( Topical application of crushed flax seed poultice can be beneficial in the treatment of chronic coughs, in treating problems such as bronchitis, in patients), and gives him "injections" every three hours! Dr. Fulkerson stops by again, and replenishes their supply of medicine. Frank Marsh stops by and gets a bushel of corn for seed.

Note: Medicine in 1886 is clearly not very advanced. One source says for example that during the Civil war - only 20 years earlier - 75% of bullet wounds were treated by amputation - without any anesthetic, and without benefit of even rudimentary cleaning of the instruments or the wound! On the other hand, other than the "convenience" of throwing it out afterwards, the "injection" appears to have not changed much? I wonder how much landfill space would be saved by nice brass and ivory implements instead of disposable plastic?