{"id":1247,"date":"2018-12-28T14:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T20:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2019-02-23T16:07:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T22:07:47","slug":"diary-1862-part-1-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/diary-1862-part-1-who\/","title":{"rendered":"Diary 1862, Part 1: Who?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Through much of 2017 and 2018 I helped my mom pack up her house and get ready to move. In the process, we found this little diary among her mother’s things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whose was it? <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"Photo
Flyleaf of 1862 diary<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The flyleaf says “Catharine Siglin Book.” The obvious conclusion: this is Catharine Siglin’s book. But who was she<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to my grandmother, Cleo Smith<\/a>, who did a lot of research on the histories of both her family and her husband’s family, I recognized the name. Catharine Siglin was my mother’s father’s mother’s mother – my great-great grandmother. I’ve seen her tombstone<\/a> in a cemetery near Paw\u00a0Paw, Illinois, where my mom’s father was born, so I know she was born in 1833 and died in 1915. We have a portrait of her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Portrait
Catharine Sutton Siglin, around 1890<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At first glance, she looks forbidding. But her eyes are sharp, alert and curious, and I think I detect a hint of amusement around the mouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her collar appears to be beaded lace – a luxury item then as now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to doing genealogical research, Gramma Smith took very good care of family valuables. So, again thanks to her, I happen to have some pieces of Catharine Siglin’s good silverware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Catherine
Catharine Siglin’s spoons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1862, when the diary was written, Catharine was 28 years old, living with her husband Amos and their three children on a farm in Willow Creek Township. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started reading. There were quite a few entries that didn’t fit with my preconceptions about ladies who wore beaded lace and owned fancy silverware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

brout one loade of wood from malugins
clear beautiful slaing [sleighing]
hitched the colts
brought the childern from school<\/p>MONDAY, JANUARY 6<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Avery [a very] cold blustery morning sawd wood in the shop<\/p>FRIDAY, JANUARY 10<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

brout aload of wood from alens grove
Skined acalf
had bet [Bet? the name of a horse?] shod<\/p> SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

worked at the porch
John helped Father
split posts all day<\/p>THURSDAY, MARCH 27<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

broke prarie<\/p>MONDAY, JUNE 9<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

broke prarie<\/p>TUESDAY, JUNE 10<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Is it possible that the inscription in the flyleaf was wrong, and the lady who owned the pretty spoons was not the writer who noted down that they skinned a calf, sawed wood in the shop, and broke prairie?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or am I making a mystery where none exists, because of my own prejudices?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More to come. Meanwhile, if you enjoy mysterious historical diaries, check out my friend Pei-Lin Yu’s investigation of a diary found in a Montana antique store<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through much of 2017 and 2018 I helped my mom pack up her house and get ready to move. In the process, we found this little diary among her mother’s things. Whose was it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,59],"tags":[34,47],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diary-1862","category-family-history","tag-reading","tag-siglin-project","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_20181227_171324.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1268,"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/1268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/subnivean.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}