Tue. Dec. 1: Fine. Banked the house a little. Helped sweep up the sitting room and peeled the potatoes. Pa drew me a load of coal 2730 pounds. Jessie has walked all around today . Sam Kittle and Family called today. Hedding Cutter and Mrs. R. Dunmore and Mrs. Maragon called this afternoon.
Wed. Dec. 2: Cold, fine. Went and got my rain barrel as I trashed it Mother and Will was down a few minutes. We got a sudden call that there was a fire near Freeman Dibbles and I got ready to go with the load. When we got there we found the fire all out and the danger past. So came back again. Mrs. Alex. called today. I bought me an ax today to go to cutting wood.
[All hands on deck for an emergency like a fire.]
Thur. Dec. 3: Fair. Got up at five and ate an early breakfast and started for Pa’s to cut wood I cut all day and drove Flory down tonight. Jessie has felt good today so has Caryl. Mrs. Manzer called today. Purtha Manzer and Vera Benedict called yesterday.
Fri. Dec. 4: Cold snowy. Drove up home got there at 6:30 had breakfast and went to work got along good. At noon Father Hartwell phoned down and wanted me to come up and help him saw buzz wood. So I went . We got through at three after supper Will brought me home. Mrs. Backus called today.
Sat. Dec. 5: Fair. Got up early but did not go up to cut wood. Got a box to put my potatoes in. And stopped up the cellar sorted my apples over. Jessie and I went for a ride the first ride she has taken. Ola went up home with Will is coming back tomorrow. Jessie A.G.S. check came today. Baby gained 1 lb. 10 lb. Esther Lindborg 14 birthday.
[So now Grandma is finally getting out of the house. I wonder what A.G.S. was.]
Sun. Dec. 6: Fine. Was home all day. Jessie and I and the baby were alone. Ola came back about six o’clock. Father brought her down. Jessie Stewart called today during Sunday school. We got along very nicely here alone.
Mon. Dec.7: Rainy. Did not get up very early. Pounded the clothes for Ola and helped around the house. Paid the Doctor today had my hair cut today. Bought myself a pair of felt boots and Jessie a pair of shoes. Settled my bill to Root again.
[The doctor came for the birth and again when Grandma was sick, so now he had to be paid.]
[Grandma]
Tue. Dec. 8: Fair. Walter went up to his folkses this morning to help butcher. Mabel Payne was here today had a good visit. Baby hasn’t felt good all day but finely went to sleep about three and sleep till night and has seemed better since he woke up. Walter isn’t coming home tonight. I walked over to Roots store this forenoon for the first time since I was sick. Mrs. Geo. Brezel called tonight.
[Since she was sick. Meaning since she gave birth and was confined to her bed. In fact, confinement was the term used then, and I remember Grandma using it when she was talking about her experiences. Confinement began with labor and ended when she was up and about.]
[Grandpa]
Wed. Dec. 9: Fair. Helped Pa do chores and came down with him. I got the pig all cut up that I could. Some I had to put to soak. Jessie doesn’t feel awful good. Baby has been good today. Father Hartwell was here today a few minutes. I got a check from S.B. Develin tonight.
Thurs. Dec. 10: Snow. Got up at 4:30 and walked up to my folks to breakfast it commenced to snow soon after I started and snow most all day. I drove Flora down this afternoon. We have got almost snow enough for sleighing. The girls were in this evening. Jessie went for a ride tonight around town.
[The walk from Franklin to Merrickville would have been several miles, but they all did it, Grandma even while pregnant.]
Fri. Dec. 11: Snow. Went up to my folks this morning for breakfast. It commenced to snow just as I started and snowed all day. I drove Flory down this afternoon. Jessie went for a ride tonight. The girls was in this evening.
Sat. Dec. 12: Snowy. Got up early and started for my folks it was hard going. I got stuck in the snow and broke my harness but got out all right. I went up to Father’s to dinner then came down and got Flory and the cutter and came down and took Jessie out riding. She took Caryl out the first time. Ola went home today. Caryl weighed eleven pounds today.
[And today, nearly a month old, the baby was taken out for the first time.]
Sun. Dec. 13: Caryl worried some this forenoon so we did not get ready to go for a ride until 12:30 then we drove up to Geo. Brasie’s stayed until four then drove down to East Sidney dam got home 5:15. All right. We are going to bed early tonight.
[I am sure it was a joy for Grandma to be able to go visiting, she was always so social.]
Mon. Dec. 14: Fine. Had breakfast at 6:30 hitched up Flora and drove up to my folks and helped do chores and helped butcher. Got a ride as far as Fred Potters and walked the rest of the way home. Mrs. Frank Graham and Miss Smith called today.
Tues. Dec. 15: Warmer. Helped Jessie today. She had a washing to do and ironing and quite a lot to do. I helped her all I could. Mrs. Warren Northrup and Mrs. Phelps called today.
[Now, without her family women there, she had to get back to the hard chores of keeping house.]
Wed. Dec. 16: Fair. Helped Jessie today. She got quite tired today. She did her ironing and baked biscuits. Jessie went out shopping in the evening. I stayed and took care of Caryl. He has been exceptionally good today.
Thurs. Dec. 17: Fair. Didn’t git up until eight. Began to git our work done up to go up home. Pa came down after us. We started about three and had a nice ride. Caryl slept all the way. Jessie feels pretty tired tonight.
Fri. Dec. 18: Stormy. Helped Pa do his chores. Went up to creamery with him. After noon I took a cow to Sidney Centre for Hubble. Jessie and baby have felt pretty good today.
Dec. 19: Fair. Helped milk then went up in the woods and started to saw up a big maple that had blown over. Will helped me and we had a hard time to commence with. We got 19 blocks off before night. Jessie went up to her folks and I went up when we got through work. Baby gained 3/4 lb Weight 11 3/4
[This was another word Grandma and Grandpa used a lot, “commence,” to mean begin.]
Sun. Dec. 20: Fair. Was up to Father Hartwell’s. Visited there all day had a good visit. Charley Cole came to my folks today he called me on the phone we had quite a visit.
[His cousin, on his mother’s side.]
Mon. Dec. 21: Fair. Will and I went to work at eight sawed up the remainder of the body of our tree after dinner. Charley came up with me. We sawed up the top and split some of the blocks.
Tue. Dec. 22. Fair. Split up the wood that Will and I sawed. Got it all done but about a cord. Jessie has been about sick today and so Caryl has not felt very good.
Wed. Dec. 23: Very fine. Pa and I went to Franklin had a nice ride. Everthing is getting along fine down there. Jessie has felt poorly today. I got some thing of the Doctor that I hope will help her.
Thurs. Dec. 24: Cloudy. I finished splitting the wood cracked the butternuts for Jessie. Measured the ice on the pond it is thick enough for to cut. Guess we will begin to cut it Monday. Jessie has felt better today.
Fri. Dec. 25: Fair. Christmas Day. Father and Mother Ola and Will were here to dinner. Edd DuMond came over after Ola to go over to George Vanakin to a dance he was here to dinner. Jessie and I went for a ride as far as Northfield with Edd and Ola . We called a minute at James Wilson. We had a nice ride.
Sat. Dec. 26: Snowy. Got the ice tools and ploughed some of the ice. Ira Fitch folks came over today. We had a good visit. I repaired an ice slide today. We had a weighing match baby weights 12 1/2 pounds. Jessie weighed 150 and I weighed 150.
Sun. Dec. 27: Fine. Fred and Avis Keene were here today. After they went home Jessie and I drove up to Father Hartwell’s. Edd had brought Ola home and was there and came home with us. The wind is blowing like a storm.
Mon. Dec. 28: Fine. Commenced to cut ice today on the pond here. Will Stilson drawed for himself and pa drawed to the station. I had to hustle in the afternoon. I worked so hard I nearly tired out. I am going to have some help tomorrow.
Tue. Dec. 29: Fine. Father Hartwell came down this morning to help me. Edd Klug drawed with two teams and Albert drawed we had to work pretty hard to keep up. Ola was down this afternoon a few minutes. I am not as tired tonight as I was last night but tired enough.
Wed. Dec. 30: Warmer. Went to work cutting ice. Father came about nine after noon I got Jay Bedell to help . It rained like everthing in the afternoon. We all got pretty wet. Jessie has not felt very good today. Ola went to Schenectady today.
Thurs. Dec. 31: Unreadable.
[And so the diaries end, as far as we know, until 30 years later when they pick up again. My Uncle Ernest was born a couple of years later, and then a couple years later my Uncle Glenn, and then in 1914 my mother. At some point in those years it was decided that Grandma and Grandpa and their growing family would move to the DuMond farm and it would be put in Grandpa’s name, and his parents moved into Merrickville. In 1922 my Aunt Doris was born, the baby of the family. My mother was raised on the DuMond farm just outside of Merrickville, and after she finished the local one-room school she went to the Delaware Literary Institute in Franklin, which was the local high school, riding on the train to get there. In 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression, for some reason no one living knows, Grandpa sold the farm and they moved to a small farm in Cincinnatus, New York, which I grew up knowing as Grandma’s house, where Grandpa kept about a dozen cows and again did odd jobs. Those years and the rest of their lives are chronicled in other diaries; I suspect they were too busy during the intervening years, running a farm and raising a family, to keep a diary.]
