Lennie Goes to Sunday School with the Girls

Charles Leonard Davis is seventeen years old in 1898. The following are entries in his small pocket diary. The words in bold black are Lennie's. I'm blogging Lennie's diary day by day (or week by week). I'm a bit behind but I'll catch up later this week. Meanwhile...read more about the Wakefield Cornet Band.

Sunday, June 19, 1898
Got my picture taken.
Went to Presbyterien. S.S. girls & boys together.
(Boys and girls together! I hope they behaved themselves!)

Monday, June 20, 1898
Ollie and ma took me out to Fritz to plow corn.
(Ollie is Lennie's older sister. Married. Lennie is undoubtedly using horses to plow corn.)

Tuesday, June 21, 1898
Hot in afternoon.
Rained in forenoon.
Plowed corn.
Tired as the D_ _ _ _.
(That's right...this Presbyterian boy refrains from spelling out "devil". His mama is raising him right.)

Wednesday, June 22, 1898
Worked a half a day walked to town watched soldiers drill.

Thursday, June 23, 1898
A hot and windy day.
Soldiers got word they were agoing to leave.

Friday, June 24, 1898
Soldiers left on 7:30. (the morning train)
Big crowd, sad, town seems lonely.
Stormed hard.
IOGT. (Lennie attends another meeting of the IOGT lodge group.)

Saturday, June 25, 1898
Nice day.
Went in country with Charlie.
Band played in street.

Speaking of the band...remember when I mentioned Lennie playing in the Wakefield Cornet Band? (read here). Lennie is not in this photo but his brother-in-law Carl Schulz is. He's the guy just to the left of center with the blonde mustache. I do not know the date of this first photo but you can see there are men and teen boys in this photo.

We recently visited the small museum at the old train depot in Wakefield and I found another photo of the band. This second photo was taken in 1904 when Lennie would have been 23 years old. He is not in this photo either. As you can see the band members are school age. Perhaps there were two cornet bands...one for adults, one for teens.

This 1904 photo included the following names:
Ray Larson, ? Woodward, Guy Diltz, Carls Anderson, Ernest Longe, Carl Diltz, Ed Burnamn, Willie Hide, Bryon Busby, Walter Carlson, Tip Hiyl, Ed Larson, Howard Shumway
Earl Leonard, Vilas Hiyl, Lloyd Busby, Harry Johnson, ? Ebersole, ? Shumway, Clarence Johnson, Maarvin Leamer, D. L. Leamer, Walter Howard, D.C. Leamer. (The band director was the depot agent but I don't know which name is his.)

Lennie Keeps Up On the War News

I'm late in typing this week's entries by Charles Leonard "Lennie " Davis in his pocket diary for the Year 1898. But here I am. And here is Lennie, of Wakefield, Nebraska.....his words are in black bold.

Sunday, May 1, 1898
Disagreeable day.
Took Nettie R?? home.
Rained bad.

Monday, May 2, 1898
A cloudy day.
Our Captain Dewey captured a Spanish fleet in the ?? Sea at the Philippines.
Started to take the cow to pasture.

From May 1 to 3, 1898, Commodore George Dewey of the United States Navy fought the Spanish fleet, manned by Spanish and Filipino sailors, stationed at Cavite Puerto at Canacao Bay. The battle was of great significance to Philippine history because it marked the end of Spanish sovereignty and the beginning of the American regime. In world historical perspective, the battle siggnalled the entry of the United States in the community of world powers. You can read more by clicking here.

Tuesday, May 3, 1898 Lennie makes no entry in his diary this date.

Wednesday, May 4, 1898
A cloudy day.
Rained all day.
Social community met at Ollie's house. (Ollie is Lennie's married sister.)

Thursday, May 5, 1898
Jessie Dorf ? went out to pick flowers. No school. Art ?? came home.

Friday, May 6, 1898
Had an exhibition at school of the ?? work to be sent to Omaha.
Went to band practice.
On this day Theodore Roosevelt is named Lieutenant-Colonel of the Rough Riders who will charge up Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill on July 1. Actually only Roosevelt rode a horse. The rest of the fellas were afoot. You can read more here.

Saturday, May 7, 1898
Received word from Dewey.
He captured eleven vessels.
Killed 300, ?? 400 ??.
Lennie makes it sound as if he, personally, received word from Commodore George Dewey but I'm sure you won't mind if I say that surely is not the case. Why would Dewey be sending word to a rapscallion 17-year-old boy in Wakefield, Nebraska, who spends half his time walking girls home from church and the other half out riding his bicycle or going to band practice! Nope, I'm certain Dewey was not in direct correspondence with our Lennie. But at least Lennie is keeping up with the news....even if his handwriting is a bit illegible.
Meanwhile Omaha Bee reports that the Nebraska National Guard orders all commanders to recruit their respective commands to the maximum allowed by law, vis; eighty-one enlisted men. All recruits are directed to appear at Camp Alvin Saunders until May 2, 1898, after which they will report at the rendevouz at Old Fort Omaha near Omaha, Nebraska.
The paper is full of news on the war with nation after nation weighing in on how they view the situation.

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Lennie And His Friends In The Band

If you've been reading along, you know that Lennie (Charles Leonard Davis) played the cornet in the Wakefield Cornet Band. So did his brother-in-law Carl Schulz. And so did several of Lennie's friends.

The group photo must have been taken before Lennie began playing, because Lennie is not in it. However, a couple of his friends are already in the band. How do I know they are his friends? Because their individual photos appear in his pocket-size photo album in the form of what we would call thumbnail photos. (Click for a closer view.)

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This, of course, is Lennie. And the next photo shows his "Friend A" who also plays cornet. We do not know his name but you can find him in the group photo, back row, first on the left.



Friend "B" appears in the back row, second from the left. He, too, played the cornet. He was a dapper young fellow.

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"Friend C" played the bass drum. At least I'm pretty sure this is the same fellow. Take a look yourself.
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Photos of "Friend D" also appear several times in Lennie's album. In one photo he is jauntily wearing a top hat and posing with a buddy. His buddy must not have a top hat and wears his regular hat for the photo. This fellow is not in the group photo so we do not know what instrument he played.
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Now that I've (namelessly) introduced you to several of Lennie's friends you can go back to my previous post wherein I told you how the Wakefield Cornet Band became "art" (thanks to artist Artist Charlotta Janssen).
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Sport, In Top Hat, Collar and Tie, is a Good Sport

Charles Leonard Davis, age 16, continues his diary entries.

Thursday, February 24, 1898
Pound Party at C.C. (Christian Church)
Social at Haskels.
I went to Haskels.
A "pound party" was a welcoming event held for a new preacher. Church members brought a pound of this or a pound of that to stock the preacher's cupboards.

It looks as if Lennie wasn't all that interested in stocking cupboards. Instead he went to the social at the Haskells. There were at least two households by the name of Haskell in Wakefield according to the 1900 census. One of those homes was about three houses from Lennie's house.


Friday, February 25, 1898
Took in $48 at Sea?? (Again Lennie's handwriting is difficult to decipher.)
Ruth Drshell? went home.
I went to the JOGT. (JOGT was part of the Odd Fellows Lodge)

Saturday, February 26, 1898
Took Earle's & Sport's picture.
Fixed my wheel. (bicycle wheel)
Did not go riding.
Sport is Lennie's dog. Click photo for a closer view. You will see that Sport is wearing a top hat, a collar and tie, and also has a pair of wire-rim glasses perched atop his nose. He was, after all, a "good sport". The original photo is smaller than my thumbnail and this is the best enhancement I could get on my photo software.

Sunday, February 27, 1898
Guy took our picture at the elevator.
Gim & I.
I took G. home.

Monday, February 28, 1898
Prof. got hot at me.
Wrote to Lew and Zella W.
Went to band practice.
Went home and studied.
It looks as if the Prof's temper tantrum has caused Lennie to go home and study. It's about time, Lennie!
Lew is Lewis M. Walden who used to live down the street from Lennie but who moved to Phoenix some time recently, leaving his parents and rest of the family still in their Wakefield home. Lew is currently 18 years old and works for the railroad as a telegraph operator. He will die young in 1927 at his home in Cincinnati, Ohio.


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Lennie Celebrates George's Birthday

A new week begins and Lennie continues to write in his diary. Lennie's words are in bold black. Oops! And sometimes bold red!

Monday, February 21, 1898
Wilse Lungren had a trile in Emerson.
I'm not certain about the spelling of the name...I could barely make it out. And, yes, Lennie spelled "trial" incorrectly. Emerson, Nebraska is a little town less than ten miles to the east of Wakefield. Lennie was aware of the trial. It must have been local news, but he doesn't give us the details.
Practiced in the hall for tomorrow night.

Tuesday, February 22, 1898
Had no school in afternoon.
Had entertainment at night.
George Washington birthday.
This entry was written in the red ink that Lennie made last week. I suppose he thought George's birthday was a red-letter day! I'm sad to say that my grandchildren may not know that we used to get two school holidays...one on Feb 12 and another on Feb 22. The kids got short-changed when our Fed Gummint changed it to a single "Presidents' Holiday". And so did George and Abe in my humble opinion.

Wednesday, February 23, 1898
Cold wind all day.
Jim B and I played horns at the elevator at nite.
Lennie is serious about his music and he often mentions practicing as well as playing at various events. I'm reading between the lines when I say that undoubtedly the band performed at George's birthday celebration on Tuesday.

Rest easy, George and Abe. You did great things for this nation and moved it forward through difficult times. I'm not certain where the nation is headed these days. Things seem in a bit of a constant upheaval. And these days we should surely be writing everything in red ink! Sigh!

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Lennie Writes About History and War and Makes Red Ink

Monday, February 14, 1898
US war ship blowed up this evening.
Went to band practice.

Tuesday, February 15, 1898
Cloudy all day.
Fred Poff went to the country to stay.

Wednesday, February 16, 1898
Nothing happened. (In regards to Lennie's day, not in regards to the battleship Maine. Written in red ink)
Made some red ink.

Lennie is a poor historian. He records an explosion that sinks the USS Maine on the wrong date! The event happened on the evening of February 15 and not February 14! The explosion sank the ship with 260 lives immediately lost and six who died later. The photo shows the Maine passing Morro Castle as she entered Havana harbor, Cuba, on 25 January 1898. She was destroyed by explosion there some three weeks later, on 15 February.

You can read more about the USS Maine here.

You can read more about the Spanish-American war here.

The events following this explosion bring a bit of life to the city of Wakefield, Nebraska. A Nebraska guard unit will be camping (and drilling) in Wakefield for a short while before being deployed. Soldiers coming to town must have been a big event and we will read Lennie's occasional comments in regards to those fellows in uniform.

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A Bushy Beard And a Marshall's Badge

(Lennie's diary entries are in bold black. My comments are in italic blue.)

Monday, February 7, 1898
Started Bookkeeping.
Went to band practice.
Went to Kimbles. (I'm thinking this should be spelled Kimball...a prominent family in Wakefield at the time.)

Tuesday, February 8, 1898
Yesterday and today very near all the snow went off.

Wednesday, February 9, 1898
Cloudy all day.
Rather cool. Went to band practice.

Here's the promised photo of Lennie's father, Josiah Davis. Family history has it that Josiah was town marshall at Wakefield. If there are Wakefield historians reading this and who have more information about Josiah and his badge, please leave a comment as we would love to hear more.

Josiah Davis (1836-1912) and his wife, Martha Jane Crawford Davis (1838-1917) were born in Ohio. The 1880 census shows the family living in Illinois (where Lennie was born in 1881). Sometime before the 1990 census the family moved to Wakefield, Nebraska.

Charles Leonard (our "Lennie") was the youngest.
In a future entry we will show a photo of Lennie as a young adult with his parents and siblings.
And we will soon begin reading about an important event that has the town abuzz.

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Upon Which We Share Two More Pages of Lennie's Photo Album

More Excerpts from the 1898 diary of Charles Leonard "Lennie" Davis, age sixteen, Wakefield, Nebraska

Thursday, February 3, 1898
Had the gloves on in depot. (Was Lennie enjoying the fine sport of boxing?)


Friday, February 4, 1898
Had examination Rhetoric - 45. (It's difficult to believe that a man who could talk so much could do so poorly in rhetoric. But then, age brings wisdom, and Lennie was only sixteen.)
Went to band practice. (We believe Lennie played the cornet in the Wakefield Cornet Band.)


Saturday, February 5, 1898
Charlie ? and ?? had a trile?? (While Lennie's hen-scratching penmanship makes some of this entry illegible, it appears that a couple fellows went on trial. But Lennie does not mention their crime! A mystery unsolved!)
Slid down hill. (There must still be snow on the ground.)
Fred & Will went to Norfolk. (Norfolk is a good 46 miles. Since they did not have an automobile I'm thinking they took the train. Or rode horseback, but that would have been quite a trip.)


Sunday, February 6, 1898
Plaid horns at elevator. (I didn't know they had "plaid" horns, but Lennie writes that they did. Okay, okay, I'm making fun of Lennie's spelling.)
Took G home. (Lennie is a little leary of someone reading his diary. He knows who "G" is, but he's not letting us in on that secret. Later on, he mentions his female friends by name...most times.)
Read. (Keep reading, Lennie. It will improve your spelling!)



Here are a couple more pages from Lennie's photo album. Lovely young ladies. I'm guessing these were pasted into his little book after he graduated from high school. Perhaps in his early twenties. You can click on the photos for a closer view.




Lennie's photo collection included his male friends as well. I wish he had written in their names.


Perhaps Monday I will show you a photo of Lennie's father, Josiah Davis. Josiah sports a marshall's star badge on his suit lapel and wears a bushy beard.

Lennie Creates a Photo Scrapbook

Lennie loved photography. Earlier I mentioned that his diary included postage-stamp size photos. But I was mistaken. There are TWO little books in Hubby's possession. One is Lennie's diary. The photos are in a second pocket-size booklet. I've found the album but cannot find the diary itself.

Several years ago I had typed those entries and made copies for family and I am posting from that typed copy. But I cannot find the original diary. I know it's here somewhere. But where?

Here's a pic of the photo album. As you can see, there are numerous pages with 4 to 6 photos each page. Many must be Lennie's classmates. But many photos are later when Lennie was a young adult in his early twenties.I've already posted Lennie's diary entries for February 1 and 2. So today I'm just going to show you some photos from his album. As you can see the individual photos are less than an inch square. I've scanned them at a high resolution to produce this copies. I especially like this page where Lennie has included four portraits of himself. Note that his suitcase is marked with his initials. (You can click for a closer view.)Here's another member of the Wakefield Cornet Band. But I don't know his name. He must have been a friend, though, for Lennie included his photo in his little book.Below is a portrait of Lennie's brother-in-law Charles Emil Schulz, and his wife Flora Olive Davis (Lennie's sister). Lucile in the front row is their firstborn, born in 1899. This photo must have been taken about 1903. The little girl in the background is possibly a Davis relative but I do not know for certain. When he was a teenager Charles emigrated here from Germany with his widowed mother, Albertina Schmidt Schulz, and his siblings Maria Louise Helene, Anna Louisa Marie, and Frank Rinhold Schulz. Ollie's family, on the other hand, had been in this country for at least two hundred years (and as of this writing, three hundred years!).

Ollie may be pregnant in this photo with little Lucile's brother, Leonard, born in 1903. Sadly, Ollie died in childbirth in 1908 with the couple's third child, Charlotte. But Lennie does not yet know that when he pastes this tiny photo of his sister and her family in his album.

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Lennie Experiments With Chemistry and Thomas Edison Goofs Big Time

Sunday, January 30, 1898
Guy and me took in the town. (Obviously, Lennie has recuperated from his several days of illness.)

Monday, January 31, 1898
Nice Day.
Went to band practice.

Tuesday, February 1, 1898
Slid on hill.
Went to church. (There surely seemed to be a lot of mid-week church meetings for Lennie to attend.)

Wednesday, February 2, 1898
Chemistry had a big time. (It's good to see that Lennie is enjoying chemistry! And I wonder what constitutes a "big time" in chemistry class?)
Church closed.

Meanwhile, in the wider world, according to the Omaha Bee, Feb. 1, 1898:
Thomas Edison is experimenting with an airship with inflated sails. The article in the Bee states:
"Young Thomas A. Edison, jr., is experimenting with an airship, which he believes will be successful. The ship is the invention of Frank Sauther of Milwaukee, Wis., but Edison hit by accident upon a gas which he believes is the only thing required to make the ship a practical thing. Sails were substituted instead of any propelling power. Mr. Edison says: 'It was at this point that I conceived the really new principle. It struck me that it would be a good idea to inflate the sails with gas, thus making them serve as balloons, as well as supplying the sailing power. It would not do to make baggy balloons of the sails, so they were divided into numerous compartments, which, when inflated, resembled thing water bags. The gas tube running into the balloon was tapped in three places to supply gas to the main sail and rubber tubes carried gas to the two jibs. The compartments of the mainsail were connected by narrow openings, the gas thus flowing freely through the entire sail. A rudder completed the airship. After many failures, we were successful. The ship actually flew, and we succeeded in steering it. I believe that the inflated sail idea is the one that is going to solve the aerial navigation problem.'"

Thomas Edison produced an improved light bulb in 1879. We all can be grateful to Mr. Edison for making electric lighting a wonderful thing! But his airship? Ummm, Mr. Edison, the airship was not such a great idea.

P.S. I will be posting some photos from Lennie's version of a high school photo album. Stay tuned.

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Lennie Turns In His Sled for a Pair of Skates

Today I will post Lennie's notes from Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Friday, January 14, 1898
Went to band pratice (I'm trying to type exactly as Lennie spelled.)
Then to lodge.
JOGP (Again, I believe JOGP was a Lodge organization...perhaps for the young people.)

Saturday, January 15, 1898
Williams had a sale today.
Things went ??? (Sorry, can't read what Lennie wrote. Perhaps things went dirt cheap? Or perhaps sky-high? I haven't a clue.)

Sunday, January 16, 1898
Nice day.
Skating is fine. (Aha! Lennie not only sleds, but he skates as well. Skates in those days were likely to be made of wood or of metal. Both were used.)

In news this week, The "Ponca Journal" opined that "Dixon County has no corn to ship to outside markets this year. The great number of cattle being fed in that county this year are sufficient to consume the entire crop."

The "Ponca Journal" also included an ad for Hall's Vegetable Sicilian hair renewer, with claims that "It Has made miles and miles of hair grow on millions and millions of heads. Not a single gray hair. No dandruff." If truth in advertising was in place at that time I imagine there must have been an awful lot of people (millions, I say!) with awfully long hair...miles and miles of hair. Much longer hair than in the recent 2010 movie, "Tangled", wherein the heroine has really, really long hair! Perhaps Disney got his idea from Hall's Vegetable Sicilian hair renewer and after reading about the millions and millions of consumers of that product? You find out weird things when you start googling.

In other news for this week in January 1898 we read ..."The postmaster general has decided to order a postage stamp to commemorate the Trans-Mississippi exposition at Omaha the coming year. They will be of the denomination of 1 , 2, 5 and 10 cents and $1. ...The McCook Tribune, McCook, NE Jan 7, 1898
More about this huge and fantastic exposition will show up in Lennie's journal later this year. Not that his words were plentiful but google will surely fill in the blanks.

P.S. If you have not read Debby's comment, you must. As a fellow cancer patient she suggested that we who lose hair during chemo would surely benefit from this advertised product. Anybody have some sitting in the back of their medicine cabinet? Gave me a laugh, sure did.

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Lennie Plays in the Band. And He's Still Sledding.

It is January 7, 1898. Lennie writes in his diary the following words.

Nice day.
Band practice afterwards.
Slid on hill.

I wonder how big was this hill? And I wonder if Lennie's friends were joining him every day, for he's mentioned sliding on the hill several times this week. In my mind's eye I see several of them, wearing caps and scarves and gloves, sledding until the cold (or the hour) forces them to head for home. I suppose if you had no television or video games, you might be out there sledding, too.

The band Lennie mentions is a town band. In today's photo Lennie is wearing his band uniform. He's not included in the group photo that I will post tomorrow, but perhaps he was not yet a full-fledged member. Be sure to check in again tomorrow to read about the Wakefield Cornet Band and how it became "art".