A Boy's Diary

[J. Donaldson]

This is a link to an 1866 diary of B. F. Joy, who farmed with his parents in Mahaska County, our point of origin. While the diary is postwar, the tasks described are identical to the farm tasks of the early 1860s. This is a great source for the daily routine for anyone living on an Iowa farm, not just an adolescent.

B. F. Joy Diary

Thanks to Alex Vasquez for forwarding me this information.

[dixieflyer]

Re: A Boy's Diary

Great stuff Bob, thanks for posting this. At the farm we had access to a book written by an Iowa farm boy that had illustrations in it, if memory serves, that were similar in nature to those in "Si Klegg". Lot's of great information in there, I'll have to contact some old friends and see if they recall the title and see if I can get a hold of a copy. The one that sticks out in my mind from it, besides documentation of "Swede fences" (which I enjoyed building) was his term for cussing. He called it practicing your Spanish. I'll have to tell you about a time I accidentally regaled our museum visitors with a Spanish lesson unintentionally. My boss was not pleased.

[J. Donaldson]

Re: A Boy's Diary

I just about did the same thing when one of our oxen stepped on my foot at an inopportune time when I worked at Living History Farms. Thankfully that foot was on a molehill at the time.

[dixieflyer]

Re: A Boy's Diary

Well, my incident involved two steers (I can't recall from here now whether they were clever or handy at that point) who decided to take off running away down a hill. My pard and I were chopping down trees for an arbor to shade them, and we were on a hill in the back field. I let loose with a blue cloud of names to describe them, and had no idea my voice carried as far as it did. At least the terms I used were in use in the mid-19th c. When we got back down to the farm, and I walked into the work barn, my boss was steadily planning a poplar plank, and remarked to me that *everyone* present on the farm enjoyed my Spanish lesson.