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Below is a web page of text from a journal that (Elizabeth) Marion Frost kept from 1883 to 1921. There is a link to the next page near the bottom of this page. There is also an index of all of the pages. |
March 31
Pleasant, but rather cloudy. Wind n. Jennie and Cora went to see Mr. Leibolt, Mr. Bainard, and Mr. Hovey. They saw their wives. Jennie will teach the Hinsdale school. Arthur is here. He and father finished their husking to-day.
April 1
A warm and beautiful day. Wind n.w. Carrie and I rode down to Father’s, my first ride since Jan. 27. It tired me some but not too much, I think. Father was sowing wheat. He seemed pretty tired. Jennie and Cora are nearly sick, Jenny [note different spelling of Jennie was in the photocopy] quite, perhaps. Carrie and Cora have gone up to Chicago to mail some letters, get the mail, and tell Mr. Van Gilder that Jennie cannot teach that school.
April 2, 1887
A day very much like yesterday. I am now able to sit up not more than ten hours a day. I must not use more than five hours for sedentary work.
This is more than I can do. Perhaps I can read and do one other thing in a day. On Sundays I expect to read from three to five hours. No studying or sewing those days. Carrie went down and brought Ethel up to stay all night.
April 3
A cold, snowy, windy day. Almost a blizzard. Carrie and Ethel went down in the morning before the storm was so bad. Arthur walked up. It has stopped snowing and Arthur has gone back.
April 4
Almost clear, cold, wind n.w. Arthur has gone for the mail. Blossom ha a heifer calf named Daisy, born to-day. None of our folks except Father are going to school meeting. Father was too tired to go. Carrie came back. There was a letter for me from Nellie DeGrey.
April 5
Very windy, warmer, cloudy or fair, wind s. and w. Jennie and I rode down to her house.
April 6
Fair, warm, west wind. Carrie and I expect to go down to the other house. We went. Arthur came back with us and got the mail. My Am. Teacher came. Cora’s school will begin next Monday. She is going to Plainview to-morrow. Jennie went down with Arthur.
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April 7, 1887, Thursday.
Clear, except for a hazy or smoky appearance. High wind from the South. Warm. The latch and lock of Carrie’s door seem to be spoiled, so we have been troubled with keeping the door shut.
April 8
Very windy with sandstorm [note no indentation on this paragraph in the photocopy]. Wind from south. Nearly or quite clear. Wind and sand cause headaches and general disability. Cora, Arthur, and Jennie came up. Jennie will stay until morning. In the mail Carrie got two sunbonnets from Hattie T. K. Brown. There was a letter for Mother from her. The sunbonnets are very pretty and came at an opportune moment. We had just got material for four new sunbonnets, and the girls hardy knew how to get time to make them.
April 9
A day much like yesterday, only worse except that it is cooler. Wind much worse. Sandstorm so dense that we have seldom if ever seen Mr. Dean’s or Mr. Dowler’s house since before noon. Atone time I think we could not see more than six rods. Fair or cloudy. Father brought some coal in the forenoon. Jennie made two buttons to keep the door shut. Arthur and Ethel came up in the afternoon. Everything is sandy.
April 10
Usually cloudy. Wind n.e. A very little rain. The people say that no sandstorm has ever been known to last two days around here until the one of yesterday and the day before. Sandstorms are very exhausting. Jennie went down in the morning. In the afternoon Father and Jennie came up, bringing food, writing paper, etc. Father fixed Carries rain board; took off one of the buttons that Jennie put on the door, and put on one that he brought; and took the lock away with him. He and Jennie took the corn-stalks into the barn. Then they went home. Cora’s school begins to-morrow. I am not able to sit up much any more.
April 11, 1887
There was some thunder yesterday. To-day is cloudy or fair, high s.w. wind, a very little rain in the morning. Ethel was here, packing Carrie, etc. In the afternoon, about 6:30, we saw three prairie chickens very near the barn. The cock seems to have a crown on his head.
April 12,
Generally cloudy. In the afternoon, thunder, lightning, and rain. A very pleasant day, but I had a bad headache. In the morning, and nearly all day, the air was full of the songs of meadow larks and little brown birds and the booming of the prairie cocks. I think the same three chickens which we saw yesterday were on Mr. Bainards rye to-day. Bright had a calf
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today. It is a bullock. Cora and Ethel were away at school. Arthur got the mail. There were several nice letters. After dark Cora and Ethel came, all wet. Cora named her calf, Frolic. The girls went up to Chicago after the mail. Ethel says that Cora looked up real sweet at Charles Galloway and that he looked at her as if he liked her real well.
April 13, 1887
Cloudy or fair. It rained all night and nearly all day. It did not rain very much in the morning before eight o’clock and it stopped about four in the afternoon. I have been so tired for several days that I cannot sit up much, and I have not read at all to-day.
April 14
Generally cloudy, perhaps fair in the forenoon. Rain. Toward night a n.w. wind began blowing.
April 15
Cloudy or fair. Cold. Wind n.w. A very little rain. Theodora, Arthur, and Ethel came up. Arthur got the mail. Carrie put up several clean curtains. Carrie went down with Arthur so that she could go to Neligh with Father and Jennie tomorrow. Thea and Ethel will stay here.
April 19
It is raining now. Saturday Carrie, Jennie, and Father went to Neligh. Jennie was examined for a teacher’s certificate. Father and Carrie made a note at the bank and bought some things. Yesterday Carrie went to Plainview and got some trees, small fruit, etc., for herself and Father. She also took Jennie’s clock to be mended and bought some lath for the chicken houses. Jennie began teaching in the Hinsdale school yesterday.
To-day Carrie’s stovepipe had to be taken down and cleaned out. Carrie has to be down at the other house a good deal until her school begins, so Thea takes care of me and Ethel comes nights and helps.
April 20, 1887
Carrie’s well has given out again, probably in consequence of our late gentle rains. A fair and beautiful day. Last night Carrie and Cora were here. To-night Thea and I seem to be deserted. It is the twenty-ninth anniversary of Cora’s birthday. I gave her Snow’s whitest chicken. I am going to give her the blackest one. The whitest was hatched yesterday, the blackest to-day. The white one was from one of Snow’s own eggs, the dark one from one of Blacksy’s. Blacksy is not black, but dark Plymouth Rocky.
April 21, Thursday
Father, Carrie and Arthur came up, bringing Carrie’s plants, a plow, harrow, etc. Father put the plants in the earth so that
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they will keep for awhile. He also banked up the well. Arthur plowed, harrowed, and marked a little land near the house for Carrie’s trees, small fruit, garden, etc. Carrie will stay. I gave Thea one of my little chickens to pay her for taking care of me. It rained a good deal today.
April 22
Arbor Day. It was raining at day break, and a cold north wind was blowing. The wind grew colder and fiercer, so that the rain, and soon the snow, seemed to drive horizontally past the windows. After we had been sleeping, about 2:15 P.M., we found that the snow had ceased, but not the wind. The sun also looked out occasionally.
Yesterday Carrie brought me some Easter presents which Freddie and Addie sent with Carrie’s plants. Freddie’s was a shell something like a clam shell with paintings inside; Addie’s, an egg shell, broken at one side, with a painting inside and bronzed on the outside. Both are very pretty and dainty.
April 25, 1887
Snow fell on the 23rd and 24th. Carrie set out a few or several hundred trees and plants on the 22nd and 23rd. On the 22nd Thea and I each put in three Lombardy poplar and two Salix laurifolia slips. To-day was fair, rather cold but warmer than preceding days. Wind n., e., and n.w.
April 30
Night before last Crocus’ little heifer calf, Agate, was born. They hear it, and Father went out to see it. It seemed to be all right, and he went back to bed. In the morning it was dead. The cow, it was her first calf, had not licked it.
Sept. 14
Last night I stayed alone at Carrie’s house, the first time that any of us girls ever stayed alone all night in a house. Yesterday Arthur worked here and I got dinner for him. To-day Father came just about noon with some rye. I got dinner for him. He and Arthur are making hay here this afternoon.
October 4
Uncle Asahel was given Cora a very nice microscope. [This is probably Asahel Eaton, the inventor, who lost the patent dispute with Alexander Graham Bell for the invention of the telephone]
Nov. 4, 1887
At the time Uncle Asahel sent Cora the microscope he also sent her two books on microcopy, and sent Arthur an astronomy.
Several weeks ago Crocus tossed Ethel. She was confined to her bed about three weeks.
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Last revised April 26, 2001.