Category: Reconstruction Diary Meditations
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Expansion Excitement
Saturday, September 8, 1866 Quarterly meeting today which was large. Several foreign preachers were there: Robert Douglas & Cyrus Carter from Ohio, also Benjamin Fulghum, John Carey & Joshua Jeffreys from different parts of our own state. A proposition for to establish another quarterly meeting to be composed of Carthage and Walnut Ridge monthly meetings…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: My Fair Lady
Friday, August 31, 1866 Milton and I went to the Fair today; saw quite a number of very nice things, among them a knitting machine which knits stockings very completely, and a great deal of fancy work. I saw quite a number of friends whom I was glad to see. [I] heard that Wm Wales…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: On Threshers and Literary Picnics
Saturday, August 25, 1866 The threshers finished at 9 o’clock and went to Clifford’s. Lizzie & I went to town this morn, she to take her music lesson. We did some shopping also [and] bought some new gaiters, dresses, etc. Samuel Gause and Mary came down to visit Alpheus and Ruth Emily. They found her…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Were 19th-century Quakers More Religious Than We Are Today?
Richard Ratcliff, renowned Indiana Quaker historian from Spiceland, commented on my ancestor Mary Jane Edwards’ 1866 diary. I gave him a copy of its transcript when my mother and I visited him to learn more about our family’s history at Spiceland Friends. More than their adventure and work in the South teaching freedmen, Richard was interested…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: A Familiar Unease
Monday, August 13, 1866 This morning was dark and cloudy with some mist in the air, and it continued so during the day. Lizzie has not been very well for several days. She has [a] continued headache. We succeeded in getting the washing in the last rinse. I was very tired when it was done. …
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Quakers and the Painful Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Sunday, August 5, 1866 Milton, Lizzie and I went to Sabbath school at Elmgrove [and] stayed at meeting which was not very large. A meeting was given out for Jessie Williams to be held at 4 o’clock. Josiah White and Lizzie with their two little girls came home with us for dinner. Cyrena Gard was…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: The Music of Change and the Pages of Progress
Wednesday, July 25, 1866 We have had no rain today. The boys bound and hauled the oats. Lizzie went and took another lesson in music. David took a few dollars of silver and gold to the bank of Knightstown for me and got it exchanged. They paid 40 cents premium for gold and 25 cents…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Unexpected Family Connections
Sunday, July 15, 1866 A very warm morning and day; mercury at 90; some slight indication of rain, but no rain. Milton, Lizzie, and I went to meeting, which was small. No preaching; some napping. [This] afternoon David went with Lizzie and me to George Butler’s to see Elisha and Luscinda [sic] Butler who have…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Indiana Farm Summer
Tuesday, June 26, 1866 Lizzie has been too much indisposed in health to assist much in household duties. I did the ironing and cooking mostly. Mother is still gathering and canning fruit – currants and raspberries. Jonathan and Milton went to Charlottesville to look at some reaping machines. They finally concluded to get an “iron…
