JUNE 1878

June the first Day    warm and cloudy    John sheling corn     Pea gone to mill     Frank and Alan plowing     Latham got corn     Ross took dinner      Jase and Bettie come      Pea gone to Rosses       I am mad at hunt  heard he whipped Doly  wish some body would mob him      corn silk in the field
[BTM] Was Doly[Dolly?] being whipped by a husband, land owner…what was the relationship of Hunt to Doly?  Why did he whip her?  So many unanswered questions!
All the hard work of planting Corn has got it’s reward by the silk showing. Which Ross took dinner with Rhoda & Capt.?

2 Day  Sunday   Jase and Bob took dinner with me and the old man      Frank and Alan went to the Baker meeting     extremely warm to day
[BTM] WHO is Alan??

3 Day      Crawford got back       big rain this evening       Mollie mag and Sue Spent the evening  we talked Some about Hunt       John come to Stay all night      put out potatoes  Frank Shot Hesters dog to night
[BTM] Crawford got back with the compass?  Here we have Mollie, Mag and Sue discussing Dolly being whipped by Hunt with Rhoda.  Who is Dolly?  A Springer?, a hired hand?, maybe one day we will figure it out.   Hesters dog must have caused a problem for  Frank of the Totty family for him to shoot the dog. 

June the 4th Day   Tilda birthday  23 to day      Frank and John rode off this morning      I washed a big washing     So tired I cant rest       cloudy and thundering  this evening   looks like a June over flow coming       Strange man Staying all night      beginning to rain
[BTM] Why would a strange man be staying at their home?   Was it just a neighborly thing to do, what was he doing in the area?

5 Day     Steady rain all hands seting round Saying very little..      Bourland got back from court      I am feeling bad to day       raining to night       boys all run off to Bourland
6  Day     went to the Burg       come back to Annas       took dinner got homney  for dinner      come home    Lillie been keeping house done very well      Pea went to bens  Ferd come home with him
[BTM] Ben is Pea’s b-i-l and Ferd is the son of Ben and Louise Totty Gage.

June the 7 Day      big rain before day      John Ben and George Springer took dinner..  think I come very near dying last night with apoplexy    have not got over it yet      Louisa Sick
[BTM] Rhoda worries so much about her health, could it have been the drugs they used to treat themselves with that caused her to feel like she was close to dying?

8 Day   clear this morning      old man went to Bens brought Dick      I wanted to go to Betties but gave it out    think I will go to a further place before long       Frank gone to Leathers and Lillie gone home with Sue and Duck      Ben and Louisa come
[BTM] Rhoda most likely is still having effects of her bout of sickness the night before.

9 Day   Sunday      old man and Ben went to meeting       Night Fugit and family come home with them from meeting       Judge Faning took dinner
[BTM] Where was Night Fugit/Fugate from?

June the 10      wrote a letter to Dr Baily and went to Mr Springers in the evening      old man cutting oats      Mollie come home with me      I am feeling bad want advise from Baily

11 Day     Washed to day  old man and Lillie helped me      Frank plowing his corn      Alan chopping his cotton      Pea and his pap working in the oats 
12 Day   went to See Sid he was up running round      Lillie went to Mr Crosses got tobacco plants       my Sides was worse than it ever was this evening   tried to work a little   hemed two linen handkerchiefs and gave it up       don’t know what will become of me if I get so I cant work
[BTM] Just like a child to bounce right back from an illness, most likely John and Anna were relieved that this son “Sidney” recovered.

13 June    went to Bens after dinner.     Very warm thundering to night      rained a big rain in the night..  I went on business
14 Day      ground wet Frank gone to the Burg      rest of them fixing the fence      Bally and Sue come Ballys hand swelled        Hotest day that’s been this year  I dread the Hot weather      feel bad     Frank and Bourland hauled oats till dark
14  Day     Bart come home with the old man from the night     me and Lillie went to Jases       Stoped out of the rain at Bobs
16 Day    went to Barts Bettie went with me enjoyed the trip very well.   Excitement about the missing man in that Settlement
17 June    rain last night      Dave Valentine got his cow      Adams drove his cattle by Frank and Alan hauld wood I commence to make my dress      Pea got home
[BTM]More name’s to add to our list of neighbors to the Totty families.  This was most likely John Adams driving his cattle by the Totty farm.

18  Day     Oxford got the cradle   old man work in his thicket      went to Bens got a mess of roasting ears      I went to Ballys finished my dress..   mosquitoes  Singing   cant  Sleep its now near midnight old man got his pallet in the yard     I got up eat and Smoked going to try to Sleep again..  wish I had never Seen Denton Creek
[BTM] Another new name, William Oxford born in Tennessee found in Montague Co. in 1880 Census, near the Kennan, Leathers, Harvill, Young familes.  So the Tennessee pioneers seem to all stick together. 

19  Day   warm no name      Whitly come ground too wet  went back..    made my apron   Mollie Mac and Sue come this evening
[BTM]Most likely this is Hiram Whitley was there to work and couldn’t because it was too wet.

20 June  washed and went to Bobs dressed a boy  (  )    come home feel very well to night so thankful
[BTM] Rhoda delivered the little boy Snap Bean, son of Bob and Manda Bean.  Cute and unusual name.   Bringing a new life into the world always seemed to make Rhoda feel better.

21  Day       wind from north east     pleasant      I went to see Bally    I don’t know what I would do if it was not for her when I am lonesome      Lillie gone to Mr Crosses      I See Marshalls head of cattle
[BTM] I am so thankful that Rhoda had Bally as a friend too, she had enough Depressive moment’s  not to have a friend to talk to and be around.  Thank God for friends.    What a lonely live being a pioneer woman must have been for some.

22  Day   Frank gone to the burg       John come after me I am glad of it     want to go went   Staid all night     Anna come with me  got supper 
Sunday 23 Day      John come after me again  I was not glad this time     went  Staid all night  again      Staid with John and Sarah all day       John and Anna come home at night
[BTM] So is this John and Anna TOTTY or John and Anna Harvill??   I know that John and Sarah Yandell Totty are my great grandparents.

24  June    Monday got my writing all mixed up      Staid at Johns     Mrs Havdent   come John and Anna come home at night        I staid with them
[BTM] Another name “Havdent” and to figure out who she was.

25 Day     John Harvill come home with one      old man went to the burg got a mosquito Bar
[BTM] Likely Rhoda did not finish her thought,  John Harvill come home with one “what, who?”

26 Day  feel well finished my Sacque   John Latham working here      had a mess of roasting ears
[BTM] What is a “Sacque”?   anybody know?

27 Day  been 19 years to day Since Father Totty died      another Kennan here at work   Ben worked for Frank    Frank gone home with him to night      raining to night     set out collards
[BTM] Documentation that Robert Totty died on June 27, 1859!!  What an important entry for all  Robert TOTTY descendant’s in our genealogy research!    Thank you Rhoda!

28  June   Ben come home with Frank to work      Louisa come     Frank and Ben went to Pella…    big rain to day      we washed a big washing  this evening
29  Day    Alan and Frank went home with Ben to make rails      Pea went to mill   Bourland got the wagon to go to Lanes       Jase and Bettie come     Boys went to the Burg
[BTM] We have just got to identify how Alan is related to the Totty Family!!!!   Help anyone!!!  Could he be Allen Phenix who married Tennessee TOTTY?

30 Day    Bart come after me to go to Johns      I went Staid all night   Sarah Sick
[BTM] John W. and Sarah Yandell TOTTY were expecting their first little one.

NOTE: This copyright© data CAN NOT be reproduced in ANY format for profit or other presentation "without" the express written permission of the the owner and transcriber of these diaries. 
Transcribed from Original Diary by Birdie (Totty) McNutt ©2000