1899

Josef began the new year with a larger diary with columns for the weather and correspondence. January 1899:  “Worked on horsepower.”  Repaired the fanning mill.  Trashed and cleaned flax.  Went to Rainier, “came from Rainier with a heavy load.”  Cleaned toolbox, filed handsaw, cut roots.  Fixed sled.  Made a rake and ladder.  “Cut hair.”  Made a brakeblock, repaired tongue holder.  Made a trail to spring, dug velvet grass, set out new trees.  Put window in barn, made a stool.  Worked on the county road.  Took Ina to Rainier, and went smelt fishing with Bob.  “Came home with heavy load.”  Cut wood for Holsapple.  School ended on January 28.  Cow had a calf.  Correspondence during the month with:  Albertine, Risher, and Mrs. Beusch.

February 1899:  Trashed and cleaned garden seeds.  Cut wood for Holsapple and Dad.  Worked on county road at school house.  Made a cow trail on the hill.  Carried blankets to C. Snyder’s mill, cut shinglebolts [two weeks work].  Weather notations of “Devilish cold” “Creeks very high” and “Farewell you rotten month!”  Letters from:  Albertine and home.

March 1899:  Another two weeks during the month were spent working off and on at Snyder’s, then he quit and “settled with Snyder.”  “Went to Hogtown pruned Huffmann’s orchard.”  He also pruned trees at Johnson’s, and Malcom’s.  Cut wood for Dad.  Went to Rainier with Rudy, “came home with Ina”.  Went to McKee’s for flour with Mike, exchanged calves.

April 1899:  Hauled manure and wood.  Sowed pasture.  Went to Kilby’s, got a cat and artichokes.  Plowed and sowed peas, vetch, barley, and clover.  Turned “Billy” out for first time.  Finished and put up windmill.  Made a barrel cover.  Grubbed on the hill, and south of the house.  Cut wood for Dad, brought Rudy home.  Went to McKee’s for flour.  Dora went to Rainier, “went with Rudy for Dora and children.”  Made garden in hollow.  Went to McKee’s for a stove.  There was an inch of snow on April 30. “Farewell you mean stinker of an April!”

May 1899:  Made a cow trail on the hill, “connected 2 cowtrail on North line (Braddock)”.  Grubbed south of the house.  Sprayed.  Braced shrubs.  Fell timber and cut bolts for Snyder, and also worked at Peterson’s camp during the month.  “You glorious May, full rain and hell, get!”

June 1899:  Fell timber and cut bolts at Snyder’s.  Oiled clock.  Went to Rainier, cut wood for Dad.  Grubbed south of the house on the new patch, plowed.  “Hung transmission wheel.”  Went to Morris’s and Headlee’s.  Worked with Headlee on school ground.  Hung bull wheel, split timbers.  Kitchen “got a fire.”  “Hauled and placed horsepower timbers, cleaned stovepipe.”  “Finished horsepower.”  Worked for C. Snyder, put up frame of mill building at the Washburn place.  Fixed hay wagon, mowed meadow, got in first hay.  Split flooring.  “This has been the first good month this year.”

Letters were from Whiteheads, and home.

July 1899:  Emma’s first birthday.  Josef spent most of his time harvesting hay, then “Went to Snyder’s and Holsapple’s for nothing.” After that he got a  week’s work at Peterson’s.  He also went into Rainier twice, leaving Ina and coming home with Willie.  “Big fire at Peterson’s.”  Cut thistles, cleaned grain barn.  And, he did his own burning “Set out fire.”

The weather notation indicates “This month has been very dry.”

August 1899:  The first week was “hot” and Josef “set out fires”, then made a trip into town to “cut wood for Dad”.  After that the weather rapidly deteriorated as indicated by numerous notations of “Heavy Showers”, and the extra steps he took to harvest his grain “dried wheat” “turned wheat and rye”, “turned grain”.  A horsepowered device aided his harvest efforts as he again went to Rainier and “came home with the belts, put on one”, “worked on the horsepower, Mike rheumatic.”  During the month, Bob and Annie came for an overnight stay and that evening the “kitchen caught fire.”  Dora made a trip to town with Rudy, and two days later “Dora came with Ina and Rudy.”  Weather notation: “The foulest August that ever was in Oregon.”

Correspondence: Mrs. Whitehead, Risher.  Mentioned contacts: Art Snyder, Holsapples, Nelsons.
September 1899:  The weather improved and there was more thrashing, cleaning , and fanning of grain.  First Ina was sick with “measles”, and two weeks later “Dora, Willie, and Emma having measles”  Once again Josef did the  “housework” four consecutive days.  During the interval between family bouts with measles, Josef left Rudy in Rainier and “went to Portland and back on Iralda.  Hauled flour to Dad:”  The next day he “went to Rainier with Mike and back” [to pick up the supply of flour?]  Dug potatoes, plowed at the barn, grubbed.  Hauled first manure on hill.  There were also two more trips into Rainier, one with Mike.  “This month has been very fair.”  Contacts: Will Snyder, George Moeck, W.H. Kyser, Morris.  Correspondence: Home, Risher, Mrs. Beusch, Mrs. Hawkins, Kyser

October 1899:  Sowed wheat and rye, and cleared east of the barn the first week.  The rest of October was spent working at Snyder’s where he “cut bolts”, ran the “cut off saw” and “cut roads”.  He did have time for a visit to the neighbor “Rowed with old Headlee”.  “This month has been tolerably fair.” Correspondence:  Dad, Mrs. Hawkins, Peterson, home

November 1899:  Starting out the month, he first “cut bolts for Snyder” for four days, then “quit”, and “came home with blankets”.  He worked in town the next week “cut wood for Dad, “hauled Dad’s freight”, “dug thistles”, “came home with heavy load.”  The next day he went back to Rainier with Ina and Mike, and again “Came home with heavy load.”  Fixed Mike’s bell, made sauerkraut, threshed vetch and peas, hauled in rutabagas.  Cut and hauled in wood. “This month has been very warm and rainy.”  Correspondence: Dad, Lohmann, Hawkins, Albertine. 

December 1899:  Cut and hauled wood.  Cleared east and below the barn; cleared below the house.  Raked and grubbed on the new patch.  “Made timbers for horsepower.”  “Hewed timbers for horsepower.”  “House got badly on fire, repaired roof.”  There were two trips to Rainier, one with the horse.  He visited Gallien’s. December 28:  “Birthday the 40th, rested.” “This month has been tolerable fair.”  Correspondence:  Risher, Mrs. Beusch, Schroth.

“Sendoff for the year 1899.  The year 1899 has been every thing concerned tolerable good, extreme in rain and cold.  Good crops, except fruit, were raised everywhere.  Made a windmill, made a failure on treadpower.  Grubbed ½ acre new ground, 1/8 acre meadow, cleared 1/3 acre.”