Thursday, November 19, 2009

November 19 thru 22, 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. Additional information can be checked out with the links to the right.

Friday - November 19, 1886 --- Omar works at lining the ditch with stones, and gets the main part done. Henry breaks up stones for lining the ditch. Sarah does the washing, and Jen takes up the sitting room carpet, cleans it (I presume) and puts it back down.

Saturday - November 20, 1886 --- Henry builds the bridge to the upper level workshop in the upstairs of the new hog house. Omar goes on with the ditching, and Bart and Mills gather more corn. Bart does some plowing in the afternoon. Someone named Bardeen comes by for help. He has gotten stuck in the road beyond the Marshes. Bart goes to help him. Mr. Bardeen pays Henry 25cents for the help. ( This seems unusual - This seems like the kind of help that neighbors would offer each other without money changing hands? -- Maybe he is a stranger?) Bart and Omar go to see Harm and Hattie in Wayland. Sarah and Henry to to Lodge meeting in the evening. Henry pays $2.71 for goods. They initiate William Borden and his wife into the Grange.

Sunday - November 21, 1886 --- The family goes to church in the forenoon, and then to Charles Conley's to visit. George and Belle Pulver and Deloss Hill and his wife are there too. An inquiry to my Dad reveals that Deloss is Sarah's nephew - son of Sarah's oldest brother Harvey Hill. They stay until around 5PM, and then go to visit Vernon Drake whom they found suffering from "neuralgia from the effects of a bad tooth causing a fever. Same as in the case of a boil of any other like swelling." They go to meeting in the evening.

Monday - November 22, 1886 --- Henry makes some stairs for the hog house. Sarah and Henry go to Bloods later and get $65 on the potatoes from D. Weld. and Company - leaving a balance of 98 cents. Henry sends $15 to his mother in Mansfield, PA. along with the box of dried and canned fruit that he prepared the other day. Cost of shipping - by train? - 40 cents. Cost of the registered letter with the $15 - 15 cents. Henry negotiates with Harrison Briglin to sell his barley crop at 58 cents a bushel for 200 bushels, and 60 cents a bushel for 100 more bushels. Henry get paid $10 toward the barley.. balance due of $166. Henry pays Ad Robinson $15 for the threshing he did. (I'm wondering about the economics of grain vs. potatoes. Which is more work? Which yields more money per acre? Are there different soil or land requirements? Etc?? Henry seems to get more money per bushel for grain, but I don't know the other factors? I do know that both in topography and soil quality, the area Henry and family live it is not the best for farming - although a lot better for horses than for modern techniques! That area of New York State was well known in those days as one of the biggest potato growing areas of the country.)

Sunday, November 15, 2009

November 15 thru 18, 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. Additional information can be checked out with the links to the right.

Monday, November 15, 1885 --- Omar goes on with ditching. (Note: This extensive "ditching" that Omar has been doing over the past weeks is probably done to drain wet areas of land that they grow crops on. Henry mentions putting stones in the ditches, and there is probably a layer of soil put back over the top to make all the land usable, but with the "ditches" acting like drainage tiles to carry away excess water) Bart helps Sarah do the washing, and also takes the kids to school, and picks them up in the evening. (School does not get mentioned too often in the diary) Henry fixes a meal box for storing feed for the cattle? He mixes meal with bran for a total of about 12 bushels. Bart, Mills, and Lois go to Perry Borden's for a party. Jen goes to the party later on.

Tuesday, November 16, 1886 --- Henry works on the hog house. More confirmation that this is a two story building. Henry makes and hangs a door for the "lower part". He puts two "buttons" on the door to latch it. Mrs. S. Stanton comes by with a bird for Sarah... I presume a chicken or turkey for food? William Boggs comes by and pays Henry $3.60 for the wheat he purchased last spring. (I don't remember any earlier reference to this?) Omar continues work on the ditching, and Jen and Lois iron clothes.

Wednesday, November 17, 1886 --- Henry packs a box of canned and dried fruit for his mother in Mansfield, PA. Bart goes to Leicester Fox's and gets his trunk and clothes. Mr. Fox sends another $50 on Bart's wages to Henry, making a total of $100 paid, and a balance due of $12.50.

Thursday, November 18, 1886 --- Henry works on a door for the upper -workshop - part of the hog house, and sets some posts for the bridge to the shop door. (The hog house must be set against a steep hill.) Bart husks corn in the forenoon, and draws stones for the ditch Omar is working on in the afternoon. Henry Terney and his wife come visit and stay until evening. It is Henry Terney's 50th birthday! Henry comments that he "feels as young as ever, or nearly". Jen has spent the day cleaning.