Tag: Mary Jane Edwards
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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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Floodwaters Then and Now: The News vs My Ancestor’s 1866 Diary
Although the bend in the White River around Muncie, Indiana, supposedly protects our area from tornados according to an ancient Indian legend, rainfall apparently is not included. Ten inches of rain in ten hours was no joke. Current local flooding–the worst since 1913–has closed Delaware County schools and businesses, torn apart road infrastructure, left residents…
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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: Rapidly Evolving Quakerism
Sunday, June 10, 1866 Milton, Lizzie and I went to Walnut Ridge to meeting. Enos Prey was there and preached a pretty extensive sermon. E Osborn also preached. There was preaching outdoors. Also the new meeting house is quite commodious but would not contain more than half the people. Went to Joseph Butler’s for dinner.…
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Living Up to a Surprising Family Legacy
I have an impressive role model. Seven years ago today, I spent the day in New Castle, Indiana, paging through musty books, peering at microfilm newspaper articles, and digging through gigantic, bound court record books. My son Ted Shideler and I were just starting my second Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship Award project. For the past…
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Reconstruction Diary Meditations: Fashion Can Be A Quaker Passion
Because I’ve posted so many Sunday entries, today, I’m skipping ahead to the upcoming Wednesday in Mary Jane’s diary. For context, at the time of her writing, she and her sister Lizzie, my three-times great-grandmother, have been home in rural East Central Indiana for six weeks since returning from their first stint teaching freedmen in…
