Lennie Photographs His Dog and the Band Plays On

Lennie's diary entries continue.


Friday, March 4, 1898
Band plaid for senior class.
Went to show.

Saturday, March 5 1898
Got dog house for Sport.
Went to show.
Rained a little bit in the morning.

Sunday, March 6, 1898
Took Sport's picture.
Went to Sunday School with the girls. (Lennie and his friend have gone to Sunday School with their girls.)

Monday, March 7, 1898
Developed Sport's picture.
It was fine.
Went to band practice.


Aha! Here we have proof that Lennie not only took many of his own photographs but developed them as well. Now I'm curious as to what kind of a dark room setup he had. Intriguing.


There are at least five photos of Sport in Lennie's little pocket size photo album. I'm sorry about the quality...it's pretty poor, even with photo enhancement software.


I like that Sport. He looks like a patient sort of dog! Eager to please! You can click here to see him in shirt collar, tie, and top hat.

By the way, President William McKinley has been in office one year. In his inaugural address a year ago March 4, he noted, "Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and walk humbly in His footsteps."

Three and a half years later, McKinley will be shot by an assassin and will die eight days after.

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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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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 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 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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Sunday, January 2, 1898

Lennie again writes few words.
Nice day.
Church election.
A. Shumway was baptised.

Throughout the year Lennie mentions going to church, to youth group, or to church parties. He does not discriminate between churches and seems to attend several around town.

In Wakefield, Nebraska at that time there possibly were five churches: Presbyterian, Methodist, Christian, Swedish Lutheran, and Mission Church (sometimes known as Swedish Mission Church).