Monday, February 14, 1898US war ship blowed up this evening.Went to band practice.Tuesday, February 15, 1898Cloudy all day.Fred Poff went to the country to stay.Wednesday, February 16, 1898Nothing 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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(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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Charles Leonard (Lennie) Davis, age 16, Wakefield, Nebraska continues daily entries in his pocket diary.Wednesday, January 26, 1898Did not feel very well. (Probably coming down with a cold!)Went to church. (a mid-week meeting)Thursday, January 27, 1898Was sick all day but went to church (Spreading germs all around!)Friday, January 28, 1898Did 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, 1898Did not feel well. (Get well soon, Lennie! Being sick is no fun! We wish you well!)Snowed in afternoon..
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!.
Sorry that I've almost missed today's post. We've had visitors over the holidays and I'm a bit off schedule. Since it is nearing the end of the day, I will post today and tomorrow's entry in one post.
A hundred thirteen years after Lennie was sliding down a snowy hill in Wakefield, Nebraska, his grandson Jim holds in his lap Lennie's great-great-great grandson Marcus, hoping the little fellow will take a nap.
But on with Lennie's diary. He writes as follows:January 5Slid on hill.Messer? had a scrap (he means someone got in a fight!)Hot time. (which means this was a pretty exciting event!)January 6Got Lew's picture. Nice day.No letter.Lew is Lennie's friend, Lew Walden, who had recently moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Census data shows the Walden family lived probably within two houses of Lennie's house.Lew must have been a good friend because Lennie mentions him many times. Somewhere I have a photo postcard with a fellow in a ten-gallon hat astride a white horse. I suspect that is Lew or possibly his brother. If I could find it, I'd post it, but I can't, so you'll have to use your imagination about Lew. Lew later moved back east, to Ohio. where he worked as a telegraph operator for the railroad. He died at age 47 at his home in Cincinnati. P.S. Whenever I include a word with a question mark, it's because the penciled word is not legible. Even with a magnifying glass I've had to guess as to the spelling of the word..
