Leaves on the Trudgian Tree

Exploring the lives of one Trudgian family in Galena, Illinois through the eyes of their daughter, Lillian, during the years of 1913 through 1931. Lillian's authentic diary entries explore the family, neighbors, what is happening in Galena, as well as, national events and of course the weather and the crops!

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Location: Portage, Michigan, United States

Since all three volumes of "Lillian's Diaries: Whispers From Galena's Past" have been transcribed and published, I am currenting working on another book about the Trudgian (Tregian/Trugeon) family. This time it will be a novel based on historical events which involve my ancestors in Cornwall in the 1400-1600's. I have just started organizing my research so it will be a year or two before you will see it in the bookstore! I have just finished leading a Genealogy Class for beginners at my church. At the end of the six session class everyone had discovered some new information about their ancestors but there was, of course, many more questions to be answered. So I started the "Whispers From Our Ancestors" blog to provide a space for us to share our genealogical joys and roadblocks. Http://seekingourpast.blogspot.com is open to everyone doing genealogy - beginners to experts and all those inbetween.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Snow and Sleet in May ~ Wish I Was There!

Sunday May 31, 1925: We all went to town to church and took our dinner along. We ate it in the park. Then we went to see the new road. They have it all graded from Les Eustice’s east. They are laying cement on the top of Nolin’s Hill. We had a notion to go to Rob Virtue’s from there and started, but the road looked so hilly we turned around again. Then we went east on Elizabeth Road thro Glen Hollow, Long Hollow and up Snip Hollow to the Ridge Road and then home. It was very warm . That eve we all went up to Aunt Annie’s.

Saturday, Decoration Day*. We didn’t know if we should go to Schapville or to Galena to exercises. So went to Galena this afternoon but not many people to the exercises. This forenoon Jeffery, the Ford salesman, called here with a new sedan he was demonstrating to another fellow for us to look over. Then he would have me drive it so I drove up to Ford School and back. He, Dad, Len & the other fellow rode along. On Friday we baked bread, coffee cake & a cake. Dad, Len & Ruby went to town in the forenoon. Three- thirty or more when they got home. Len bought a new suit but left it in to be pressed. It was a navy blue one.

Thursday was a very nice day. Mother sowed some more garden stuff. Ruby baked cookies in the afternoon. I found a strawberry nearly ripe a surprise! Wednesday we ironed. Uncle Edd sheared the sheep. He had sheared Bert Weis’ sheep in the forenoon. Aunt Annies came down. Tuesday we washed and baked bread and also made biscuits & cream pies and cream puffs. There was a Sunday School Convention at Galena Methodist Church for two days. Raymond & Elma went in on Tuesday morning. I talked with them.

Monday was still cool. We had a hard frost during the night which froze potatoes corn and etz. I painted some of the porch screens in the afternoon. Mother cleared out the kitchen cabinets. Sunday it had hailed, sleeted & snowed in the morning and surely was cold enough. I was very glad to have the dining room stove up yet. It was too cold to go outside. The weather cleared off after the snow. That afternoon Len, Ruby & I went up to Stauss’. This eve Uncle Edd & Aunt Annie came down.

* Decoration Day is our Memorial Day and the exercises are what we would call the program of speakers, singers, etc.

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Sunday, May 23, 2010

Visitors and Visiting

Saturday, May 23, 1925: Len, Ruby & I went to town this afternoon. It was warm today but turned cool this evening. Friday had been a very warm day. We baked bread, coffee cake, a cake. Plus we did the churning and cleaned the parlor. Dad talked with a Ford agent that morning. The Watkins* man called at noon and at supper time a picture enlarger man came. Terrible pest he was.

Thursday Mother was sick with a bad cold. We ironed and then planted late potatoes over in the garden in the afternoon. Raymond and Loretta Fiedler came down in the morning with an ad the mail man left up there. Uncle Edd came down in the evening. Aunt Annie was in town. Mattie was very sick Wednesday with acute indigestion. Had the Doctor there three times and a nurse. Win went over to Dubuque to Dr. Guthrie Tuesday and went to the hospital and was to have an operation on the lump on his shoulder. On Wednesday we washed and stretched the curtains. Then in the late Dad Mother & I went over the cemetery. It would have been Grandmother Trudgian’s hundredth birthday* and Dad wanted to go over the cemetery. We cut the grass on the lot with the lawn mower.

Tuesday we finished papering the bedroom and got it straightened up. On Monday it was a very nice day although there was frost the night before. We all went to town in the afternoon with two cars. Ruby took in fifty dozen eggs. Got twenty-seven and a half cents per dozen. Last Sunday we all went to town to church in the morning and then came home and had dinner. Then we went to Aunt Lizzie’s. Maryanne had an operation but was home again. A cold day and we wore winter clothes.

* What was the Watkins Man? He was one of a legion of salesmen who traveled the back roads of rural America in vintage autos, selling products door to door for the J. R. Watkins Company, located in the Mississippi River Bluff town of Winona, Minnesota. In 1868, Joseph Ray Watkins started the company in Plainview, MN. He had one product. He purchased the right to produce and sell “Dr. Ward’s Anodyne Liniment.” The product was mixed in the family kitchen, bottled in a woodshed, loaded onto a horse-drawn wagon and sold door to door throughout southeastern Minnesota. After the company moved to the town of Winona, the product line expanded, but products stayed true to a standard that is still adhered to today. All products are made with natural ingredients with no chemical additives. The Watkins line of products is one of the very few that is certified by the Natural Products Association. By the 1940s, the Watkins line of products had expanded to include soaps, cleaners, personal care products, and my mother’s favorites, the baking materials. The vanilla cinnamon, cloves, and other spices came in metal cans with a tight-fitting top. They made great toys when they were emptied. The Watkins Man would deliver the products customers had ordered the month before, and fill out a form for the products to delivered the next month. The Watkins man often arrived in his Model A coupe, with a rumble seat. Inside, on the rumble seat was always a box of candy, one free piece for every item the customer had purchased. I have a Watkins' medicine bottle from Lillian's home with a bit of cork still in the top.

* Lillian's Grandma Trudgian was my great-great grandmother, Mary Pellymounter Trudgian, who had settled in Galena with her husband, Joseph Trudgian from Cornwall England in 1852. 

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Wallpapering Again?


Saturday May 16, 1925:  Rainy today. So we didn’t go to town as we had intended. We needed the rain badly. Besides doing our Saturday work we papered some. On Friday Aunt Mag & Till rode in to Aunt Annie’s with Hernillers this afternoon. Uncle Edd brought the Aunts down. We baked bread, coffee cake, drop cakes and a cake. Also papered some.

Thursday we tore off paper in the bedroom getting ready to paper. Uncle Edd & Aunt Annie came down in the eve. Had our first lettuce. Wednesday, Dad, Ma, Ruby & I went up to the school picnic today*. Miss Ahler, was the teacher this year. Sixty three were there. A nice time with lots of ice cream.

* Lillian and Ruby attended Ford School (pictured on top). The classroom photo is from 1911 courtesy of  Jean Schultz and her mother Coletta (Weis) Schultz of Galena. Coletta lived near Lillian at the Weis' property next door. Lillian is the first child in the back row to the right of the teacher. This might of been Lillian's last year of school.

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

All in The Family

Tuesday, May 12, 1925: Ironed and baked and made a cake to take to the picnic tomorrow. Monday, was a nice day. We washed. Sunday, We all went to church in the morning. It was Mother’s Day. Dad, Ma & I joined the Methodist Church*. Dad & Mother by letter. I by faith. Twelve joined. Mr. & Mrs. Franzerriger & son, Mr. & Mrs. Winsicker. two of the  White girls, a Mr. Bodel and another lady. A few minutes after the joining Mother and I got coughing spells and had to go out. Nearly choked at that. We both have colds. I felt so funny about both having to go out. Ashamed to ever go in the church again. Started to rain just as church left out. It was slippery driving, had to put chains on. Cleared off again by the time we got home. This eve. we all went up to Aunt Annie’s Ma went up to Fiedler’s to see the boy this afternoon.

Saturday we were busy with Saturday work. I had a bad cold and it was cloudy that night so we didn’t go to town. Ida & Loretta Fiedler came down and to invited us to the Schapville picnic and told us they have a little brother. Friday, Dad, Ma & I went to town in the afternoon. Roads were good. We got a card from Aunt Rachael saying Anna & her husband went home Wednesday.Went the North road. Guess they didn’t want to see us or we to see them.

Thursday I went to the Miner School picnic. I went with Miss Taylor, the teacher, Agnes and Mrs. Butcher. A big crowd there. Had a nice time. Had ice cream. Milton brought it out so I had a ride home. I called in at Weis’ on the way home. Saw Colette for the first time. She is over six months old. She wasn’t a bit strange. Made up with me and cut up more than I ever saw a child that age do before. Mother and Ruby cleaned the summer kitchen, an awful job.

Wednesday Mother and Dad went down to Uncle Ben’s with Uncle Edd & Aunt Annie. Cold day.
Tuesday, We ironed and cleaned my room. Monday we washed. Aunt Annie came down. John Tippets saw Anna Bates* & husband in Galena last week on their way to Waterloo. Just stopped long enough to get gas. They came by way of Hanover. They were certainly foolish. Uncle Edd came down this eve.









* The photos in this blog are courtesy of Janet Temperly who found and sent Lillian's 1920-1924 diaries and some Trudgian photo to me. The first is a picture of Anna Trudgian and Ruby and Lillian Trudgian taken during their trip to Waterloo, Iowa whcih was described in Vol. I of Lillian's Diaires. The second is a photo of my great-grandparents Thomas and Rachael (Kloth) Trudgian who were Anna Trudgian Bates'  parents. This is the "youngest" picture I have of them together.
* The Methodist Church is the one on Bench Street  pictured in last week's post.
 
* Anna Trudgian Bates was my great aunt and has always been surrounded by mystery. You will read lots about  her relationship with her husband in the third volume of  Lillian's Diaires: Whispers of Galena's Past. Why she seems to be avoiding Lillian and her family in 1925 is an unsolved mystery and this coldness between cousins seems to carry through the remaining 11 years of diaries.

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Monday, May 3, 2010

Spring Has Sprung in Galena

Sunday, May 3, 1925: Ruby & Len went up to Scales Mounds and brought down Mr. & Mrs. Stauss. Another yearling steer didn’t look very well & Len wants his father to see it but it eats grass yet. Len took them back this P.M. so Mother went to Engel’s. She is some better. Saturday was a nice day. So many cars went down tonight.

Friday Len & Ruby went to town in the afternoon. Rev. Smith called here that afternoon. He wanted us to join the church a week from Sunday.* A yearling steer was sick this morning and died this afternoon. A little calf was sick too. Thursday, April 30th, Albert Drink came and bought a cow and calf for sixty-eight dollars that morning. We partly cleaned the kitchen. Dad went up to Fiedler’s and got some little blue plum trees to plant. Heard Clara Engel is holding her own but is not out of danger yet. Wednesday it was rainy and quite cold. Cleaned the cupboards and bookcase. I faced the hem of my yellow apron.

Tuesday,Uncle Edd & Aunt Annie took the Aunts home. We ironed. Also hoed the new strawberry bed. Mother cleaned and white washed the cellar way. Aunt Annie came in when they were coming home. They heard that Clara Engel is very ill not expected to live. She had a baby girl last week. But hope she may get better again. Monday morning Aunt Margaret came down. Uncle Edd, Aunts Annie & Till and Mattie and Win went to Dubuque. Uncle Edd drove over. We washed and worked some in the old strawberry bed. Mother made cookies and etz. We took Aunt Mag up in the eve. Aunt Annie got a new coat. Win had an exray picture took of his teeth. They found a tooth in his jaw bone. It grew down instead of up. So had it chiseled out and he had to go to the hospital for a few days.

Sunday we all went to Galena to church in the morning. That evening Tresidders all came up. I got an invitation to the school picnic at Miner’s. May 7th. No Grant’s birthday celebration this year. First time for a good many years.

* Rev. Smith was from the First United Methodist Church of Galena, which was also on Bench Street with the Presbyterian Churches where the Trudgians worshiped. It is the Oldest Methodist Church in Northern Illinois.In 1829 the first regularly appointed Methodist minister arrived in Galena. By 1832 a plain frame church was erected on Bench Street, but was lost to fire in 1838. A new building was built in 1841, and by 1856 the congregation had grown so that yet another new brick and stone church needed to be built. The present church was dedicated in 1857. Ulysses S. Grant worshiped here regularly from 1859 to 1861. See photo above.

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