Strawberries Um-Um

Friday, June 6, 1919: Rainy again this morning. Ruby & I went to town again today. The dentist just treated the two teeth again. Roads awful muddy. On Saturday we were busy with Saturday work. We got so much work to do. Had some strawberries for supper tonight. First mess. A lovly evening tonight. Would like to have went to town the roads were good.

Sunday we all went to church in the morning. The minister has resigned. It will be his last Sunday next Sunday, Uncle Edd & Aunt Annie came down to dinner. Mr. and Mrs. Fiedler, Mary, Ida & Loretta came down this afternoon. And Ben was here this evening. It gets quite late till he goes home lately.
Monday was a very nice day, but warm. I hoed and weeded in the garden and cut lawn today. Had a big dish of strawberries for supper. Um Um.

Tuesday we washed. Also ironed some clothes from last week. Had an awful hard rain and storm last night. Wednesday we ironed. Ruby baked bread and a batch of cookies. Also made pie plant sauce. Had a storm at noon. Also a shower this afternoon. I cut some lawn. We worked in garden.

Thursday, June 12, 1919: Dad & I went to Galena this afternoon with the car. Took in the wool. Had seventy nine and one half pounds and got fifty-five cents per pound. Sold it to Hathaway. Well finished with my teeth today. Filled those front teeth but they don’t look as nice as I wanted them too. Also filled a wisdom tooth. Don’t know the bill yet. When we got home Rev. Elvin Palmer was here. He came last Monday. This evening we all rode up to Uncle Edd’s. Mr. Palmer is going to stay here all night.

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.

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.

A Life Just Like Ours

If the dates were removed wouldn't this sound very much like our lives today? Lots of company one day and then none for weeks afterwards? The census being taken? Economic hardships for some in difficult times? Cleaning the kitchen shelves?


Sunday,January 11,1925: All but mother went to town to church in our car. Uncle Edd & Aunt Annie came down to dinner. This afternoon Fielders came down. This evening Tresidders came up. I guess all came in one day. We won’t have any company again for a long while.

On Saturday Dad, Len, Ruby & I went to town in the afternoon in our car. A radio man came on Friday afternoon. After he was gone,the census man came. We baked.

Thursday was a nice day. Mother went up to Aunt Annie’s in the morning. Uncle Edd brought her home in the eve. She washed for Aunt Annie. In the afternoon Ruby & I went up to Clara Engel’s. They seemed glad to see us. Vivian wanted in the worst way to come home with us. I guess they have had a rather hard time getting along. Seemed to be very economical.

Len & Ruby took chickens and cream of Scales Mound on Wednesday. Mother and I cleaned the kitchen shelves that afternoon.

The Grapes Over The Big Pond

"Sun, Sept.19,1926:We have been busy,busy, busy the last few days. Len helped finish the trashing, first at John Tippet's and then at Win Tippet's. It was a very warm day on Friday and a terrible hot day yesterday. Could hardly work but had so much to do. Thursday we washed and then baked and made 2 kettles of plum preserves besides going to the Weis place and gathering plums and crabs.* Friday we made a cake, cooked more plum preserves, ironed and cleaned up. Uncle Edd went to Apple River on Friday and picked up Aunt Tille and Aunt Maggie [in photo from L. to R. Aunt Annie, Aunt Maggie, Aunt Tillie and Amelia -Lillian's mother] to stay with them for awhile. Saturday night around 10-30* it started to rain and it rained a good part of the night.We didn’t go to church today as the roads were so muddy as usual on Sunday.

This noon when we were eating dinner a car drove up by the gate. Three fellows jumped out and two went down in the ditch and one fellow sat on the bank and proceeded to pick grapes on the wire over the big pond, as big and bold as can be! We got worked up about it. Not that we want the grapes but don’t like to have them picked for wine. Len hollered out the window but they didn’t move. Then Ruby went down and wrote down their license & city license number and ordered them off. They wanted to know who lived here, very much provoked I guess. They stopped at Fiedler’s place.

Len went up there this afternoon. They had asked Fiedlers the way to Nick Weis’. They said they was chased off the property down here. Mr. Fiedler told them they should have asked for the grapes instead of just picking them.

Ruby & I walked up to Aunt Annie’s this afternoon. We staid to supper."

* crabs are crabapples
* 10-30 is 10:30 p.m. As you read Lillian's Diaries you will note how she changes the way she indicates a time. I think this must have been influenced by how others during this period were doing it. I see it reflected in her letters as well as the diaries.

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