Catharine Wilson is transcribing old rural diaries
By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com
A rural history professor from the University of Guelph is transcribing 19th and 20th century diaries to tell the stories of local Ontario farmers from those time periods.
Catharine Wilson’s online initiative, the Rural Diary Archives, includes more than 150 diarists from 1800 to 1960 and range in locations from the Quebec border to Essex County.
And while many think of a diary today as a personal and secret collection of thoughts, entries from the past were very community oriented.
“(The diaries are) telling you about what everybody in the family has been doing that day, and activities in the community more generally,” Wilson told The Morning Edition on Sept. 23. “They’re very useful for local history, family history and getting a sense of a larger community.”
In some cases the diaries were used as data collection and management instruments.
“The plumb and cherry trees were in full bloom, and their fruit was blasted,” reads an entry from Deborah Bowerman, a woman from Prince Edward County who lived in Prince Edward County from 1804 to 1892. “The apple blows were not open yet, so that the apple crop was not affected.”
Most of the time the men kept the diaries, Wilson said, adding that women usually narrated the farm activities when they did contribute to the diary.
“You open a woman’s diary and you’re hoping to find something about housekeeping and child care. You might find a little but often it’s really what the men have been doing on the farm.”
And in other instances the diaries were also used to settle disputes between neighbours.
“If a disagreement arises in the community they can refer back to the diary and say ‘I paid you on this day.’” “In fact you can take them into a court of law and have them as evidence.”
Top photo: Catharine Wilson/University of Guelph