Upon Which Lennie Has a Shocking Week

Okay, okay, I'm playing with you. Lennie indeed had a "shocking" week but the word refers to working in the oat fields.

The photos are vintage photos found online and are of this era or close to it. (Click for a closer view.)

The first photo is in an oat field. The second is in wheat, but I'm thinking both oats and wheat were harvested in similar manner. Lennie was undoubtedly working for a nearby farmer. While the men worked in the field the farmer's wife would be cooking up a storm, making sure each man had a good portion of vittles including pie for dessert. A farmer always fed his hired crew.

Sunday, July 17, 1898
A hot day.
Wind blew hard all day.
Union meeting.

Monday, July 18, 1898
Tried to fix Guy's wheel.
93 in the shade.
Took possession of Santiago yesterday.
(Lennie is writing in reference to Santiago, Cuba, and the surrender of the Spanish forces to General Shafter, U.S. Army. You can read about that in the Omaha Daily Bee for this date by clicking here. You may have to enlarge the page to read it. )

Tuesday, July 19, 1898
Came out Peterson's last night.
Rained this morning.
Shocked oats in the afternoon.

Wednesday, July 20, 1898
Shocked oats.

Thursday, July 21, 1898
Shocked oats.
IOGT had picknick in Dixon's Grove.

Friday, July 22, 1898
Shocked oats.
Cut weeds in afternoon.
Came in town to IOGT.
Out for 3 mo.

Saturday, July 23, 1898
Cut weeds in morning.
Shocked hay in afternoon.
Band in town at night.
Got a watch.
Next week Lennie's friend, Joe Peterson, will have been impressed by Lennie's new watch and will be ordering one for himself.

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 Spreads Germs Throughout the Town

Charles Leonard (Lennie) Davis, age 16, Wakefield, Nebraska continues daily entries in his pocket diary.

Wednesday, January 26, 1898
Did not feel very well. (Probably coming down with a cold!)
Went to church. (a mid-week meeting)

Thursday, January 27, 1898
Was sick all day but went to church (Spreading germs all around!)

Friday, January 28, 1898
Did not go to school in afternoon. (But he went in the morning? Half the class will be sick tomorrow!)
Did not go to the ??? (Can't decipher Lennie's handwriting... I'm glad he didn't go spread more germs!)
JOGT (Meeting at the Odd fellows)

Saturday, January 29, 1898
Did not feel well. (Get well soon, Lennie! Being sick is no fun! We wish you well!)
Snowed in afternoon.

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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 Continues In His Lack of Verbosity

Sunday, January 9, 1898
??? meeting. (Indecipherable. Again!)
JOGT
Went to church together.

Lennie speaks of going to JOGT several times in his diary. But what is JOGT? Google is of no help on this one. I'm certain it has something to do with the Odd Fellows Lodge but I don't know what the letters stand for. Can anyone help me out on this one?

And, Lennie, with whom did you go to church "together"? JOGT members? Family? Boys and girls? Lennie, I wish you would have been more verbose. And where, Lennie? Presbyterian? Christian? Methodist? Swedish Lutheran? Swede Mission? Which church?

While Lennie was dedicated to writing something every day of Year 1898, he certainly was not verbose.

I think I will call "verbose" the Word of the Day.
Verbose. Meaning "containing more words than necessary".
Lennie was not verbose.

Family members say Lennie was very talkative. But he wasn't much of a writer. Yah, you've already figured that out and here it is, barely a week into the new year.
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