In the year of his 21st birthday, Floyd Morehouse (my grandfather) kept a written log of his daily activities. My intent is to post them here through the year.For previous posts, see:
January
February
March
1 worked in house, sowed oats Margret was over
took her home at night got small piece pork
2 Drew four load manure, cleaned out hen coop,
had Dr. Harris for mama, throat broke 2 times at night.
3 George and Aunt Minnie were up, baby freshened
we went to town got grass seed. Went to Troupsburg.
4 Sunday I went to see Clarice at night.
5 went to Corning with car papa was called on jury, was excused, came home.
Maddison cow freshened.
6 cut wood, done chores, soldered milk can
cold and snowy, warmer tonight
7 Put up cutter, skinned calf swept out celler,
cold snowy and blustry
8 Done chores, I helped black stove, swept chamber.
cold snowy and blustry
9 we drove fenceposts, I went to town got grist ground.
stripper freshened today. Drew load manure.
10 Drew five load manure, put wires on fence
built gate cut wood.
11 went to see Clarice, brought her up here and went back.
12 Built root fence
drew out load hog manure.
13 papered kitchen, Cold and wet day.
14 built fence. Varnished some in kitchen. Warmer today
15 built fence, drew one load manure, put in trough over by spring. Rainy in afternoon.
16 Cut wood, built fence, went to Knoxville.
17 Built fence, and fixed fence.
18 Sunday, we went upon the hill and over to will Resues, got mail
19 Finished fixing fence up here sowed piece of oats.
20 Sowed 10 bushel of oats went over ground four times for part and 3 times for the rest, rained us off.
21 Raining, we fixed wagon, built pigpen, worked in shop, papa let some of water from road.
22 Built fence, sowed grassseed, went over to willies at night with car.
23 I went to town papa rolled and dragged we sowed four bushel oats.
24 Rolled meadow, fixed roller, drew load wood
sowed six bushel oats and dragged them in.
25 went down brought Clarice up here, willies folks were over.
26 Sowed eight bushel oats, leveled ground
dragged them in, finished sowing oats up here.
27 Sowed grassseed, fixed drags. Rainy day.
28 I went to oseola with Quck to run his car
My folks went over to see Mateie about farm.
we drew 13 load manure in afternoon.
29 Drew 7 load manure, plowed, leveled oat ground.
Sold Elsen Thomas 8 bu. oats, went over to Quicks after drill.
30 papa sowed 2 1/2 bu. oats with grassseed
leveled other piece. I went to Elkland with Quick.
2 comments:
So many questions…
Throat broke?
I never imagined that they had Jury duty back then.
Is Stripper an odd name for a heifer?
Who’s Quick?
"Throat broke" is a reference to the quinsy he told us in April that his mother had. Quinsy is a peritonsillar abscess, also called PTA, is a recognized complication of tonsillitis and consists of a collection of pus beside the tonsil (peritonsillar space). Yes, I looked that up. To hear that the Dr. lanced it was interesting. I wonder if they had antibiotics at that point?
In Humandom, you know what a stripper is. In Dairydom, it was common at that point to name or call your cows something relative to a trait of that individual. A bovine stripper is a cow that was not in calf but kept giving milk for a long period and was usually only milked once a day. This was called "stripping", hence the name. So the news that a stripper freshened was good news. More milk.
Quick is Leon Quick. We'll hear more about them doing things together in May's issue. But I still don't know who he is or where he lived. Maybe Uncle Skip knows.
Regarding jury duty, I agree. I think we tend to ascribe the wild west movie version of the horse thief's trial and hanging by vigilante justice to the days of old. In fact, because the King of England often denied trials by jury to the colonists, a right they were used to under common English law as declared in the Magna Carta, the founding fathers considered this an im[portant right and this issue was listed as one of the reasons for separation in the Declaration of Independence. Subsequently, the right to a trial by jury was included in the Bill of Rights, Amendment VI, of the Constitution, ratified in 1791. The movie version is much more entertaining.
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