Saturday, April 1, 2017

111 Years Ago Today


This past week was another busy one in the Bullis Room.   Staff and volunteers covered books,  researched various topics, transcribed documents,  did some shelf reading, and - in honor of Women's History Month - presented a program on Notable Women in the Bullis Collection.   (If you missed this stellar presentation, there will be another program offered the last of this month -- more info to follow.)

And ... while looking through some documents connected to Charlie and Nettie Bullis, we focused on some of Charlie's diaries. Here are the entries that 15-year-old Charlie Bullis wrote the first week of April, 111 years ago.  We found them interesting and informative ... and a bit nostalgic at times.   The  entries also brought a number of questions to mind, including:
1) Did sibling rivalry cause 13-year-old Nettie to plant 51 tomato seeds on April 2, one more than her brother did the day before?    
2)  Has our local weather pattern changed much from 1906, going from fair on April 5 to 2 inches of snow on April 6? 
3) Did the Bullis hens stop laying eggs halfway through the week? Or did Charlie neglect gathering and/or recording the results?   
Anyway ... we hope you enjoy reading these diary entries as much as we did.

SUNDAY APRIL 1 1906
                                                            Eggs  12
Dryer & Kemp were here              
I planted 50 tomato seeds
The weather is pleasant
warm and sunshiny
there is only a little snow
left in drifts

MONDAY APRIL 2 1906
                                                            Eggs  5
The weather was pleasant                     
warm & sunshiny
papa had business to the village

nettie planted 51 tomato seeds

TUESDAY APRIL 3 1906
                                                            Eggs  8
Papa went to mill                                  
The weather was pleasant
warm and sunshiny
John Myers came and
promised to go to work
tommorrow.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 4 1906
                                                            Eggs  12 
It rained hard in the                              
afternoon  It was cloudy
and the wind blew most
all day  papa drew 3 loads
of manure then went to
rochester  John did not
show up till night

Thursday APRIL 5, 1906
                                                           
We killed & sold 6 roosters
papa & John drew manure
It rained this evening
the weather was fair but
cloudy all day

Friday APRIL 6, 1906

It snowed last night
and this morning so that
the ground was covered
2 inches thick but the sun
came out and melted it
all  John drew manure

Saturday April 7 1906

John and papa drew manure Mama went
to aunt genies on the 4.23
it was cloudy all day  and it
sprinkled some about three
and hailed a little snow

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