1896-1904 Handwritten Diary Laura Turner N English Iowa Kansas Beverly MA Travel

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1896-1904 Handwritten Diary Laura Turner N English Iowa Kansas Beverly MA Travel:
$122.50

This is the handwritten diary of Laura Jane (Clark) Turner. Laura was born in 1834 in New Hampshire and married James Turner who was from Nova Scotia, Canada. They were actually married in Wisconsin but came to Iowa County in 1866. Before heading to Iowa they had a son by the name of Fred who was born October 2nd, 1865. The family settled in a big log cabin on a farm near North English. Fred and his father farmed together for several years until his father retired followed by his death on April 1st, 1896. This being a very important date for Jane, not only because of her husband’s death but soon after is when she decided to start her traveling and this diary.

Fred Grandison Turner (Laura’s son) was a representative from Iowa County. His education was obtained in the rural schools. On October 4, 1893, he was married to Miss Delia Troger. Their family consisted of three daughters and one son. He was elected representative in 1914; a republican in politics.

On April 5th, 1905, Laura passed away. Again, another important date to remember when it comes to this diary as her last entry is in December of 1904 only 4 months before her death. So this diary actually starts On April 22nd, 1896, 21 days after her husband dies and ends 4 months before she dies. Quite impressive. During the almost 10 years this diary represents, Laura uses it to record her travels mostly to Kansas and around the East Coast (mostly Massachusetts). She doesn’t use it as a daily guide but more as a summary of her adventures. I say adventures because she says she hasn’t slept away from home in 29 years so it must have been somewhat exciting for her, but also still grieving the death of her husband.

There are a total of 158 handwritten pages and in the first half of the diary she writes on more of a daily basis but towards the last half she sometimes skips weeks and months at a time. There are several things that stuck out to me and the first is the description of the many parades she attends while in Beverly Massachusetts. Incredible descriptions too. Then she must have been quite intrigued by the Salem Witch trials as there are quite a few entries about that subject, including the “witches” marching in the parades. At one point in 1900 the family, Fred including, gets Typhoid Fever very bad and it takes quite a toll on Laura.

It’s really quite the fascinating diary as you will see in the following excerpts….

A HISTORY OF MY TRAVELS

“April 22nd, 1896.

Started from North English at 12:05. Arrived in Kansas City at 9 o’clock A.M. Went over to the Union Depot and found the train gone. Took a hack and went to Mary Haskins and had dinner in the afternoon. She and I went and called to see Lizzie Darby. She was very glad to see me. I staid with Mrs. Haskins all night. The first time I had slept away from home for 29 years. I was so tired and sleepy that I slept good. Had my first sight of the Missouri river. It is a muddy stream. Don’t look as though it was very deep. There were some small boats thru. At 7:30 A.M. April 23rd arrived in Frankfort at 12:30 P.M. hired a team and went out to Mr. Dotson’s 4 miles. Arrived 3 o’clock. Found Carrie better. She was sitting up. She hardly knew me, not thinking of seeing me and it had been 36 years since she had seen me but she soon came to see my old looks . She looked some natural. Friday Fannie Saugar and I went out in the woods and went up on an Indian Mound and got some stones. Carrie still get better so that Thursday the 30th she and I went to visit Mrs. Roong and Carrie had a chill and did not sit up any all day but was able to ride home in the evening…..”(She goes on for 4 more pages of writing saying that she staid there 17 days before returning home.)

“June 8th, 1896. Left North English at 7:15 P.M. on the C. M. & St. Paul road. Changed cars at 9 o’clock. Arrived in Chicago 7:15 A.M. Took the electric cars and went to Mrs. Chimes. They are real nice folks. Mrs. Walter’s had a baby 3 weeks old. She called it Laura. I had breakfast and dinner there. In the afternoon Lydia Chimes took the pony cart and took me to a ride down Michigan Avenue to the lake and Jackson Park where the fair was held (Chicago World’s fair of 1893 of course). Most of the building are taken away. The Iowa building was still standing. It is used for dancing and for people to go in if it should rain. The Art Museum remains and the German Church. They are fixing the grounds all over. It will be splendid. Washington Park was a blaze with flowers. Some I never saw before. In the evening Mr. Walter’s took me to the depot. I left there at 10:15 and arrived at Iron Mountain 7:15 A.M. Waited there until 10 o’clock, took the N.W. train, arrived in Norway at 11 A.M. Found Sam had gone to Crystal Falls. Sent him a telegram to return then I went to a hotel and went to bed and sleep. I had spent the last two nights in the cars. Sam came home at 8 o’clock and we went out and made a few calls and then went to the theatre. The play was Faust. In the morning Sam got a team and took me to Grace Salyriders about 15 miles south. Arrived there at 11 o’clock A.M. Thursday the next day……” (She stays there a bit then on to Canada and into Massachusetts)

“Saturday July 4th, (She’s in Beverly Mass right now). Went out to see the parade. Saw it 4 times from different streets. It was quite good, all sorts of companies and floats to represent different things. The little red school house, Rebecca at the well, was very nice but the Knights of Pythias won the prize. They had Damon and Pythias and the coming woman was laughable. They were young men dressed in knickerbockers, blue coats and carried umbrellas with a hat in the top. In the afternoon we all went down to the common and saw the sports running, jumping, throwing things and others. In the evening went down to the beach to see the fireworks. There were out on a float in the harbor but it was so foggy they did not show very good. Sunday went to church at the Dane Street Church. Pastor Francis Van Horn.”

“July 8th, Cind and I went to a walk down to the beach. We stopped at the hospital to see Aunt Ann Bryant but it commenced to rain so we did not go in. July 19th, Carrie and I went down to the hospital but Aunt Ann was so low they wouldn’t let us in to see us. She died August 16th.”

“July 10th, Went to Salem to see Annie Foss. She has a nice cabinet of minerals. I gave her some iron ore for a birthday present. She was ever much pleased with it. Sunday had a headache. Couldn’t set up hardly all day. Thursday, Cind and I went to Barnum and Baileys show. Saw all kinds of wild animals. Texas steer with an eye on his nose. Zebras, elephants, 12 camels, giraffe, the only living one in America and in fact ever I guess. I never saw any wild animals before. There was a number of clowns, one with yellow pants. Had two hogs and he made lots of fun. One with an awful face. One little naked brown boy went around and took off his hat and bowed to the people. He was cute. Cad came home from concord. Saturday Blanch and I went to Salem to the museum. Saw all kinds of stuffed birds….” (Dane St. Beach again, Prospect Hill, Ipswich, Wolfsborough, Alton Bay)

“September 11th, Friday Cind, Edna and I went to Baker’s Island in a steamer, S. E. Spring. Took a lunch along. Went down to the churn. Went clear around the Island. The sun was just a setting as we came up the harbor. It looked fine. Sunday it rained. Cind and I went down to the beach to see the high tide but the waves were not very high…”

“October 8th, Went to Salem to Anna Foss. Saw a parade of Father Mathews and a small torch light parade. Friday went to Marblehead. Went to Fort Sewall, where the Americans fought the British. Went down to the beach, got some rocks. Sat. we went to the museum and went to see the Witch House, the oldest house in Salem, built prior to 1692. Went to see the first church, it was built 1634. It is covered new but you can see the old worm eaten timbers inside. Oct. 11th, It was windy. Monday eve Arthur Foss, Howard and I went to Boston to see the play, “The Old Homestead”. It was fine and there scenery was fine. Wed. we went out to see the parade of Salem Witches and railroad men and Navel Queens of Laurence. They were splendid. They were young men dressed in blue skirts and white waits trimmed with red and carried some red and some blue lanterns. They hopped and skipped and made figure 8 and all sorts of maneuvers.”

“October 16th, Went out to see the parade, it was splendid. There were about 3,000 men and boys in line. There were a dozen brass bands and all sorts of companies. The Salem Witches and Navel Queens, McKinley babies. There were boys in nightgowns and caps riding on donkeys and Bryan’s pall bearers trimmed with black and a lot of teams filled with people. We saw the parade from 3 different places and then went up to Harley’s to see his bonfire. He had his house trimmed with Flags and had red fire on all the gate parts and his fire in the yard. Nov. 3rd. Election day. In the evening the boys got out and paraded and burnt red fire. Thursday night Cind, Cad and I went to Salem to see the parade. We got in the crowd and got squeezed. The parade was not so large as the others as every town had to have a celebration. Essex St. and Washington St. and Townhouse Square were illuminated with incandescent electric lights and red fire and rackets. Over a thousand lights, some spelled march.”

“December 30th, In the evening we went to a spiritual meeting. Monday went to the old folks concert at Cater hall. The women were dressed in old costumes, one of them was Miss Bailey. She was a friend of Jennie Lind. We had ice cream and cake…..”

“May 25th, 1897. Went over to Salem. Went up to Meg Evan’s. Friday we went to the High School Memorial exercises. May 30th went to church. Monday went down to the cemetery to see the Decoration of the Graves. There was over two hundred of them and they had a wreath of evergreen and a potted geranium for ever grave. June 1st, Cind, Ethel, Edna and I went to Nantasket. Went by rail to Boston, by boat to Pemberton then by electrics to Nantasket. Wednesday we went down on the beach. It is a long beach about 5 miles and nearly ¼ mile wide. Smooth and solid as a floor. Staid until Friday but it was so cold we couldn’t have a very good time. It was quite rough on the water. We went down on the Gov. Andrews and came back on the Hingham when we got back to Boston. Willie Clark and I went out in the harbor to visit the battleship New York. 360 feet long and 70 feet wide and had about 500 men.”

“July 1st, Been here just one year. Cind, Edna and I went to Newburyport. Took dinner with Mrs. Quimby in the afternoon. We all took the electrics and went to Solsburg Beach. Mrs. Quimby treated us to ice cream, got home about 6 o’clock. Went down to Ed’s one eve. Went to Mitts. July 5th, Cind, Mrs. Tucker and I went up to Danvers to the Insane Asylum in the afternoon we went down on the common to see the sports. In the eve went to see the fireworks.”

“October 17th, Mr. and Mrs. Morrison and there 7 children. All came here last night and staid and today Lucy and her family came over. There was 17 for dinner. Wednesday went to town and took the cars for Kansas. Arrived at Chillicothe 2:30. Left there 4:30. Arrived at Atchison 9 o’clock. Left there about 12. Arrived in Frankfort at 4:30. Left at 7:15. Arrived 8. They were eating breakfast. Oct. 25th Carrie and I went to Jerusha Tilly’s to dinner…..Carrie and I went to town and done some trading. It was Election Day and the town was full of teams.”

“August 11th, 1898. There was a terrible accident at the old settler’s reunion. Lola Jack (?) had her head cut off. August 12th, Mrs. Frazer and Minnie here and a lot of others. August 27th I went to Mrs. Frazer and staid all night……”

“August 6th, 1899. Charles Mahamna, his wife and 3 boys were here. I went to the Old Settler’s reunion. Sept. 1st we all went to E. C. Mahama’s funeral. Ed Gross was buried in Beverly the same day he was killed on the railroad. Sept. 6th, we are moving over to the Roller place. Marg O’Brian is helping us…..”

“February 19th, 1900. Went to town with Fred. March 4th we all went to Lucy’s at Parnell. They have moved back from Hanson Co. 9th not very well. 10th Fred went to town today and saw the Dr. He said he had Typhoid fever. The Dr. comes every day to see Fred. He is pretty sick. The children have had colds. Sometimes I am better and sometimes not so well but keep up. April 2nd, Fred sat up in a chair today for the first time about 10 minutes. 3rd the children are sick with lung fever. I don’t feel so well today. 6th I felt worse today and the dr. examined me and said I had catarrh of the large intestines and had to take treatments. 13th Morrison’s were down here. Lucy was here. She left the children at Mrs. Wert’s. April 18th, Mrs. Caugh went home today. She was here 5 weeks at first she had 10 dollars a week and then one dollar a day. Fred out around. I am some better but still take medicine. 23rd. Fred was worse today. Had the Dr. The Dr. has been here 26 times. 27th, Fred is better and I am better. May 11th, I was taken suddenly sick with great pain. Dr. said it is congested liver and enlarged liver.”

(She does write several entries for 1901, I’ve just skipped ahead to save time)

“January 29th, 1902. Fred, Delia, Irma, Grace and I and Mrs. Wert went over to Lucy’s to the 20th anniversary of their wedding. I gave her 6 cups and saucers and Delia 6 plates and Mrs. Wert a dish. It snowed so there wasn’t any more come. March. Henry has sold out in Parnell and is going to N.D. they have moved into one of our houses and Inez and the children will stay there until Henry gets settled in N.D.”

“July 1st, 1903. Charles Schanff moved away from here. I went down to see Nancy Leonard. She is very sick. I staid nearly a month. She was out of her head all of the time. She died July 23rd. ____came home from Coffman’s. She was buried in the Baptist cemetery east of South English. Aug. 8th, I went over to Wilford Hall’s and found that Wilford had just died suddenly of heart failure. He was just starting to carry the mail..”

“Nov. 6th, 1904. We had a family reunion today. All of the relations that live around here came except the Morrison boys…..”

There are a few more entries after this one with the last entry on December 24th, 1904, again just a few months before her death. It seems like I’ve quoted a lot but really out of the 158 pages of entries I’ve only quoted from about 30 so you can see there is so much more to this lovely diary of Laura’s. It’s in good shape other then the cover being fairly worn. It measures about 3 ¼” x 6”.