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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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 Battles It Out With Algebra!

Today I'm posting entries for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, January 10, 11, 12. Lennie is dealing with algebra, the dread subject of 95 percent of high school boys. I wonder if his poor grades were due to his dog eating his homework? Lennie had a dog. Yes, he did. But I don't know if he ate homework. He just doesn't look like a homework eating dog to me. What do you think?

Monday, January 10, 1898
Cloudy.
Poor algebra.
Received average for month.
Doing better.

Tuesday, January 11, 1898
Cloudy.
Poor algebra.
Went to ??? meeting. Church Christ.
(Since Lennie mentions the church, I'm thinking this was some kind of youth or revival meeting.)

Wednesday, January 12, 1898
Went to ??? meetings. (How could he twice write this word so poorly that I could not decipher it? It looks like "attractive" but I know that simply cannot be.)
Slid down hill.
Dull times. (Lennie must be getting tired of this sledding business. No fun any more. No fun atall. Or perhaps the rest of the gang decided to go home and play video games, or whatever they did in 1898...pull taffy?)

I'm thinking that Lennie wasn't exactly at the head of his class. Oh, it's not that he wasn't bright. Family stories indicate Lennie was always interested in the latest invention and the latest news. For one thing, Lennie enjoyed photography. Later it was motorcycles. He had a great interest in life itself and thoroughly enjoyed being amongst his friends.

But that algebra. It must have been a trouble spot for Lennie. Things haven't changed much, have they!

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Overnight at a Friend's Home

Last night Lennie stayed at Fred Poff's home. I'm thinking this would have been a school friend. And if that is so, the two of them are still taking advantage of snow on the hill. They're still sliding! Can't you hear them whooping and hollering? Here is Lennie's entry for the day.

Stayed at Fred Poffs all night. Slid on hill. ?oitz show tonight.

Snow is still on the ground. I still can't read Lennie's entry about the word "?oitz". Whatever it was, it was entertaining enough that Lennie attended two nights in a row. Lennie, being a sociable fellow, did not sit at home and twiddle his thumbs in boredom.

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