About 35 years ago, Janet Heslam bought from an antique shop in Brooks four daily journals from October 1864 to October 1871. It turns out they were written by a man in Montville who farmed, but he also supervised the one room school houses. At the end of the first journal, she found the signature of H. M. Howard. The other journals are not signed. Janet determined the journalist was 27, in 1865, and his daughter Eva died in 1864. Janet decided to transcribe these journals to share in her weekly letters to her grandchildren. She offered to share these transcriptions so they could be posted on the Library webpage for everyone to read. We will post one a month. It will be interesting as we go through the year to compare the daily happenings of a man 150 years ago to the present day. We hope you enjoy!
“I have enjoyed the fourth better at home many a time than I did to go among so much bustle & confusion.” Whatever you do on the 4th of July, I hope you enjoy it more than Mr. Howard did in 1867.
I am curious as to what this refers to:
“We ashed corn & plastered potatoes; taking us about all day to do it. a pleasant day.”
If you know, please enlighten me and others.
5 We ashed corn & plastered potatoes; taking us about all day to do it. a pleasant day.
Note: Spelling, punctuation, etc. are that of the journalist and was not changed in most cases.
- January 1867
- December 1866
- November 1866
- October 1866
- September 1866
- August 1866
- July 1866
- June 1866
- May 1866
- April 1866
- March 1866
- February 1866
- January 1866
- December 1865
- November 1865
- October 1865
Fran Gonzales, editor of the Montville Column for the Republican Journal, received this email from a very knowledgeable person concerning the history of journals, recently transcribed, from 150 years ago:
Thanks for posting the links to the 1864 Journal of the Montville School Teacher…they were very interesting to read. Using the clues included (sibling names, deaths of people mentioned, etc.) , I think I have solved the mystery about who authored these Journals. The woman who donated the Journals indicated that the author had a young daughter named Eva die in 1863…this fits with Hollis Howard’s history. I could be wrong, but I think the Journals’ author is, son of a farmer and one-room-school house teacher:
NAME: Hollis Howard
Birth: May 21, 1838
Death: August 22, 1913
Son of Samuel & Lucy (Ripley) Howard.
Husband of Mary Clark Howard (1839 – 1910)
1860 Census Montville, Maine: listed as “son” and “School teacher” in household of (“Farmer”) Samuel Howard
1880 Census Montville, Maine: Hollis and Mary Howard
children: Ralph W, Mark L, George C.
Children:
Eva M Howard (1862 – 1863)*
Ralph W Howard (1866 – 1941)*
Mark L Howard (1872 – 1944)*
Burial:
Whites Corner Cemetery, Whites Corner, Montville, Waldo County, Maine, USA
