FEBRUARY 1877

[BTM] Rhoda May SPRADLING TOTTY's diary beginning with February 12th 1877.   The paper now being used by Rhoda looks like loose pages of  a small lined paper tablet about the size of 4½" x 5".   Paper is very tattered and torn in places, with some of the edges missing.  However we can still glean a lot of excellant research from within these pages.    I am amazed that they are in this good shape after 122 years since they were originally written along with the dedication she continued to show throughout the last 22 years of her life.  Paper and ink were precious items to her and very hard to come by. 

February the 12th 1877   Monday   Rain all day again today     poor old cows haveing a bad time..    finished my dress.      havent heard from the children today
[BTM]  Rhoda did not waste a bit of her time, since it was raining all day she most likely spent the day sewing and mending clothes.    With the cold wet weather, the cows were probably wading through a lot of mud trying to find shelter or feed.   The first day, I believe Rhoda hasn't mentioned one of her children visiting, must have been a very quiet peaceful day, sewing and listening to the rain fall.

Feb the 13th  Tuesday    Night FUGIT Daniel SPENCER and John TOTTY took dinner     cold wind from north still cloudy
[BTM] This is most likely not my great grandfather John Whitfield TOTTY, since Rhoda wrote John TOTTY, he may likely be John Y. TOTTY the son of  William C. TOTTY brother of  Capt. F.M. TOTTY.  Here again is the SPENCER Kinfolk as she calls him, along with their neighbor Night FUGIT.

14 Day of February St Valentines       Lillie went to Johns     Willie come home with her      Jace here this evening      Bettie still coughing I fear consumtion  I am always fearing something   Been sewing to day making Peas pants     Frank went to the store got 2 plows
[BTM]  I never really stopped to think that all our ancestors celebrated all the same holidays as we do today, these diaries make one stop and think that our ancestors were living their lives as we do, only with not as many frills or conviences as we have available in our day and time.  Rhoda brings to life our Totty families in my mind.    It is so nice to see the closeness of our families like Lillie caring and visiting my great grandfather John and the children.  Willie, is  his son William Marion TOTTY.      Jace and Bettie TOTTY TILLMAN  visiting again, as Rhoda writes, she is always fearing something in regard to her family, with good reason, seems one of them is always ill with something.  Frank must be planning to do a little work going out and buying 2 plows, here just before spring and planting season.

15th Day Feb      Frank commenced to plow     BOURLAND put up windows in the room      Jace come and took the cows home   Pea went with him 
[BTM]  Frank getting the ground ready for when he can plant the crop's.     I wonder if  this ment  the weather was getting warmer, or that Mr BOURLAND was installing new windows in the room.    Maybe Jace had more grass for the cows to graze on then what was left at Capt. TOTTY's especially now that some of the land was being prepared for planting season.

16th Day Still cold and cloudy    ........ing and ALLEN's come to work       Lillie gone home with Jace      could not ........d it any longer 
[BTM]  the edge of this sheet of paper is gone,  who could she have named that came to work with Allen's.  The surname must have ended with ING, any idea's?    could she have wrote  could not "stand" it any longer?

17th Day of Febraury Saturday went to see Mahala    staid all night at FUGITs  enjoyed my visit very well 
[BTM]  Is the Night "Nite" FUGIT family, more than neighbors and friends?  Could that have been kin to the TOTTY families since they were frequently mentioned by Rhoda in her diary.

18th  Sunday    come home found a gang of men and boys keeping house     John and Anna come over    Staid all night
19th  Monday   all hands hauling rails and puting up fence       John and Anna all here glad to have them stay with me 
[BTM] Seems from what I read, Rhoda loved being with her family and kin, and did not like being alone.   While the rest of the family and hands were out working on the fence it was real thoughtful of John and Anna TOTTY HARVILLE to make time to spend time with her mother so she would not be alone.

20th  Tuesday      Me and Anna went to Johns      I went on to Jaces  found Bettie doing much better than I expected      poor little Joey B looks bad but he is Tough Sir tough     may be he may make it.
[BTM] Bettie and her first son Joey B must be going through a bad time with their health.   Rhoda knows in her heart that Joey B was in poor shape, what a heart wrenching thing for a grand parent to see, but she gives him a lot of hope in making it.

21st  Wednesday    John and Anna went home this morning       old man sowing oats      Me and Pea puting water in the hopper..    went to BOURLANDs met Mrs CROSS had a very pleasant time 
[BTM]  Capt TOTTY was sowing the oats, and Rhoda and their son Pea were putting water in the hopper, a piece of farm equipment used in the planting season for sowing the seeds. Makes me remember when I was about 5 years old,  my sister and I  ran off from home and went out to find Daddy out in the field sowing wheat. Daddy was almost finished working for that day so he stopped and  sat each one of us in the empty hopper's on the tractor where we rode home, so happy, that is until we got home and were punished for leaving home without permission and giving our Mom and Dad both a big fright, Daddy sure didn't let on that he was upset with us when we found him, so we were not prepared for the licking we got.  I still remember how much fun it was riding in that hopper. 

22nd Day of Feb 1877     Washingtons Birthday.      Wind bloweth where it listhath and it listeth a good deal to day      I am trying to boil soap out of doors and it is nearly a failure       Pea gone to stay with Louisa       Ben gone to Gainesville      Brother CASTLEMAN called this evening  to tell us there is to be a preaching at DORCEYs Store Sunday.
[BTM] Most likely she was making "lye soap" out of doors.  I can see her standing over one of the old cast iron pots stirring the soap and fussing at the high wind, causing the smoke to make her eys water as she moves around trying to stay clear of it.     Louisa was surely glad to have her brother come and stay with her while her husband Ben was away.    The TOTTY women did not like be left alone without the protection of a man.  This was the after effects of the indian raids in the area.    The CASTLEMAN family was neighbors of the TOTTY family, Rhoda must have really been looking forward to the preaching, she never missed a chance to study the bible or go to a "preaching".

23th     Finished my soap     Louisa come down to stay all night      planted our onions and turnips       Jim HARRY took supper.
[BTM]  There was a Dr. J. W. HARVY, could this have been the local Doctor making a social call, or another Jim HARRY.   Likely he came to talk business about surveying he needed done.  The TOTTY family had neighbors named HARVY but did not include a Jim in the 1880 census.  Rhoda is making use of the plowed ground done by her son Frank, by starting with the early plantings in her garden.

24th      Heard bad news Eppie BEAN dying       Pearce ROBERTS hung  it makes the cold chills run over me to think of his untimely end      old man gone surveying for HARRY   John  Bart and Tilda come to day      Lousia still here haveing a merry time with the children         John Bart and Frank gone to Johns to Stay all night  Tilda and the Children  Staying all night with us        Ben got back from Gainsville   him and Louisa gone home    Lillie went with them   Pea gone to YOUNGS
[BTM]  This Eppie (Horn) BEAN would be the wife of William Reeves BEAN, son of William and Betsy Caroline REEVES BEAN, Betsy was the daughter of William S. and Nancy TOTTY REEVES the daughter of Robert W. and Sandal (Andrews) TOTTY.     Pearce ROBERTS  may be the Franklin P. ROBERTS born 1854 NC, who was listed as the son of Stephen ROBERTS 68 NC and his wife Rozana 55 NC,  in the 1870 Montague Co. Census HH# 11/11,  he also was listed with Wm R. age 17, NC, George age 19 NC, and Emily age 24 MO wife of George, they were married in Sept 1870.   They were next door neighbors of John and Anna KENNON and their children Permelia 12, Sarah 10, Garret 5, and Cynthia 5. some  were the victims of the indian massacre. Rhoda did not mention the reason for him being hung, or if this was an accidental hanging or not.

25th     Sunday Morning     old man and Frank gone up the creek     John gone to meeting    Bart and Tilda gone to old man TRAILORS     I wanted to go to meeting but had to stay with Johns children    feel lonely This evening   Children playing out in the yard   my mind went back to the days of my childhood it seems but a short time when I was a child playing round my dear old father and mother     I was then so happy
[BTM]  Old man TRAILOR would likely be Jesse A., the father of Bart and f-i-l of Matilda (Totty) TRAYLOR.   Rhoda is doing a little woolgathering, like most normal people do from time to time.    She speaks of her parents in a very loving way and the happiness of her childhood.  It is statements like this that brings Rhoda to life in my mind, now she is a real great great grandmother instead of just a name on paper, I am so proud to get the chance to know her after so many years, makes me feel a real part of her family.

26th     Mrs YANDEL come over to day       Mattie GRIMES called        Mrs YOUNG been makeing soap here   John and the children here      yet I have been very busy all day doing the chores 
[BTM] It seems so "neat" that both of my 2nd great grandmother's TOTTY and YANDELL were friends and visited one another, I had never stopped to think that they knew each other before.     I wonder if Mattie GRIMES is somehow related to the Hiram GRIMES family that is listed on the 1880 Montague Co. Tx Census  as a neighbor of Capt. TOTTY and Rhoda.

27th     Sarah YANDEL washing      Mr TOTTY gone to the Shop       Frank and Pea with STALKES   Mrs YOUNG finished her soap    John his children  Willie C. and Web all here to night     got all the beds fixed    very tired
[BTM]  Sarah YANDELL is my great grandmother, at this time the future bride of John Whitfield TOTTY, and here she is doing the washing at the TOTTY house, could it be for John and his children?   Willie C. may be Willie REYNOLDS and  Web, may likely be Web REYNOLDS of Montague County in the 1880 census, they are associated with the PERRYMAN family.    Rhoda has her hands full with all this company, and their house must be big, to find a place to bed down that many folks, no wonder she is tired.

Feb the last day     raining all day    Ben spent the day   Children romping over the house    feel bad to day
[BTM]  Kids will be kids, all cooped up inside on a raining day with nothing to do but run and play,  it is not hard to see why Rhoda feels bad. 

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Transcribed from Original Diary by Birdie (Totty) McNutt ©1999