Life back in the 1860s was far different than it is today. We may not be able to relate to how our ancestors lived back then, and certainly they would never have imagined the way we live in our society today.
Not long ago, I spent some time reading two small old diaries that were kept by my great-great grandfather Stoddard Dickinson, who lived in Shalersville in Portage County. While the writing is sometimes hard to read and his entries were brief, one can get a picture of the way he and some of his family lived.
Stoddard was born in 1799 in Old Milford, Conn. Our records do not show when he migrated to the Portage County area. A number of New Englanders came west to Ohio in the early to mid-1800s in search of cheaper and more productive farm land.
As was true of probably 80 percent of our 1860s population, Stoddard was a farmer. His Portage County farm was a productive one on some of the sandy soils of the Shalersville area.
A glimpse in his diary of June of 1860 tells us what the weather was like and briefly what he did many days. On June 3, he wrote, "cloudy, sprinkles in AM, somewhat coolish." During early June, it was quite cool and wet. On the 10th, he wrote, "Sunday, fair, cold, fear of frost."
Monday was fair and sunny and he spent the day hoeing corn. The next day, his brother Truman came over to help paint the house, but a thunderstorm stopped them on the 13th. During much of June of that year, he spent most of his time hoeing corn and painting his house. Today, hoeing corn is probably a lost art unless someone has a small patch of sweet corn they can get done easily. From one end of today's large fields to the other is a long distance, and it would seem like forever to get down one row with a hoe. In fact, the hoe is mostly a tool of home gardeners now.
One June day, he took his grey heifer over to the neighbor's bull to get her bred. The following day he went someplace and bought a barrel of flour for "$6 and1/2," as he wrote. It was early July when he started making hay, and his diary indicates it was not very good haying weather. Too much rain several days.
During the winter months activities included picking apples, some preserving of fruit and vegetables, butchering hogs and going to town. On two days in December of 1862, they threshed oats that probably had been stored in the barn until they had time and labor available to thresh them.
Not much is said about the kinds of equipment they had to use, but it would have been crude by today's standards. Horses would have been the main source of power along with a lot of manual labor.
Moving ahead three years to 1863 indicates a time of sadness for Stoddard and his family. One son, Allen, had enlisted in the army during the Civil War. He had reached the rank of sergeant but apparently became ill and came home on June 20. He was obviously very ill because the diary tells about many doctor visits and different medicines. Then, on July 17, 1863, Allen died and was buried the next day in Shalersville Hillside Cemetery.
Life continued as it does today because the next day was Sunday and they "went to the meeting" at church. Hay-making continued on through much of July.
It was a farm life for my ancestors of 150 years ago as it was for many folks in the earlier days of our country.
Parker grew up in Trumbull County and is an independent writer for the Tribune.