APRIL 1880

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Transcribed from Original Diary by Birdie (Totty) McNutt ©2001

Continuation of page 19
April the first Day   Heard Alice COMBS married last night going to have a dance at Lewis COMBSES     Frank could not Stand that..   mounted Jose and Started for the Burg    Nor Scurly Staying all night    Mr Totty and him talking Some about Lawyer’s and Montague the third term and so forth    thundering to night   think it will rain
[BTM]  Alice Mae COMBS was the daughter of Leven Green CO(O)MBS and his wife widow Nancy Sinclair COMBS.   Alice was married to William H. Magee brother to Mary (Magee) Harville who was to become the third wife of John HARVILLE after the death of Rhoda and F.M.’s daughter Nancy Anna TOTTY.   Sounds like Frank was smitten with Alice and a touch of the green monster showed himself.

2 Day     Frank got back in the night   Douthie Scurily  Mr Totty and all asked him Something about the party he answered all the questions very briefly   for he had not been there at all    Mr Totty in a big way about going To Montague    walking and talking to him Self   I think if he had his choice to go to Heaven or Montague I think he would go to Montague     I cooked and fixed for him and got in the waggon   went with him to Bens   Lillie Mary Jane and Gus come home with me

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April the 3 Day    Mr Tottys birthday 53 to day   I recon he is Celebrating it in Montague   the wind blowing from the west a perfect Storm of Sand and dust      Smith got my Turkeys   I have been looking for Mr Totty  he told me he would be back to night but has not come   he need not told me for I did not ask him..   Pea Frank and Lillie  Mr and Mrs Douthit here to night we have a very good time any way    enjoyed our Selves fine
[BTM] Rhoda was showing her disappointment at her husband failing to keep his word, she likely planned a little party for his birthday and he failed to show up for it.  Rhoda always seemed to make the best of any situation that arose.

4 Day  Sunday  old man got home this morning had on his new hat Says he is a candidate for County Judge    Pea and Lillie Staid till after dinner  then they went off   Pea to Harvilles    Lillie to Jases to go to School   took her new book    She is very much interested in her going to School   I am glad to See her taking a Start to learn    I miss her very much   but I am determined to let her go every day
[BTM] Looks like another TOTTY politician in the making.  Pea and Lillie were the youngest children of Rhoda and F.M. TOTTY.  Rhoda was a very learned woman and wanted her children to know how to read and write as she must have thought highly of anyone who had an education.

5 Day  Mr Totty gone to Bridges to brand his yearling  Come home after dinner   I asked him if he had not branded it all over  he had not Seen it    Mollie here I am not well   feel  Strange..   face hot and flushed   went to bed   could not Sleep nervous took morphine
[BTM] Bridges was likely, James BRIDGES 32 TN, that is found on the 1880 census in HH# 294/326 with wife Isadora 32 AR, daugher Louise F. 4 TX, sons Wm. 2 TX, and James 3 months old TX.

6 Day   Mr Totty and Mr Douthit going to the Burg     Me and Mary got in the wagon go to Harvilles   Spend the day with Anna Come home just at night
[BTM]  Mr. Douthit was likely the same as Julius DOUTHET in HH#264/295 listed as engineer age 26 with wife Mary 17 TN and son Julius 1 TX, or more likely Thomas DOUTHET age 32 MO, in HH#275/306 with wife Jane age 26 AR, and dau Agnes 5 TX.

7 Day    Cool this morning    raining a little  Still feel badly   all hands Set round the fire  feel badly no name    go to bed head aches   I ache all over    Mr Totty gets up gets the morphine    I take it     Frank wants to go for a Dr    I think   I will wait awhile

8 Day    no better beginning to think maybe my time is coming to die   think if I am no better in the morning I will Send for Dr Bailey and if he thinks I am going to die he will Say So   I don’t think it would alarm me a bit for him to tell me So    I know I have got to die Some time and if this is the time   Why he it So   I have full faith my Suffering and troubles will  be ended    yet I would be glad to get well again if possible

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9 Day April     feel better this morning will not Send for the Dr     Mr Totty Sick with Cold     Frank and Douthit planting Cotton

10 Day   frost this morning   Pea Come got Franks wagon   went back   brought Anna and her babys   Ben and Louisa Come     Lillie got home from School
[BTM] Rhoda’s son Pea likely came and borrowed his brother’s wagon so their sister Anna and her sons Sidney and Lewis could come for a visit with her Rhoda & Capt TOTTY.   Being Saturday school was out so Lillie got to come home for the week end.
Seems like Rhoda would be looking forward for week ends when her family was home with them.

11  Day  Sunday    Pea Anna and Lillie got in their  their wagon went to high point   Mr TOTTY   Frank Mrs Douthit and me got in our wagon   went to hearth    Soul Sleepers   I enjoyed my Self very well took dinner with brother and sister Hodges
[BTM] Was hearth a township, community or place?   It sounds like it could have been a place to worship.   The Hodges were likely the Ben HODGES family.

12 Day  Frank not well him and Douthit gone to Bens this evening   Mr Totty Sleeping Says he is feeling bad     I have been reading got through psalms     heard a preacher Say yesterday    he had never read the Bible through Said it is not the way to read it     I could hardly keep from telling him that was the reason he quoted it wrong     he misquoted Several passages    but then I was not acquainted with him and feared Somebody would think I was trying to be Smart   So I just held my hush   as the boys did when they was fishing
[BTM] My grandparents always used that phrase “held my hush”, or “hold your hush”.  Rhoda knew her Bible well and could tell when someone made a mistake in their preaching.

13 Day   Frank and Douthit finished at Bens   Margaret Come to get Sewing done   Mrs Douthit Sewed for her   I am glad of that  (old white face got a little calf (Quig)
[BTM] Rhoda wrote in the margin about her white face “Cow” having a new born calf, which they called Quig.   Frank and Douthit finished their work at his bro-in-law Ben GAGE’s farm.

14  Day   Mr Totty and Douthit commenced to plow their corn   Margaret washed for me   I pottered round and helped her Frank gone to the Burg to see Willsons   Mr Totty Sick to night   took opium   Margaret gone home   Mary got her dress finished   put nearly two Spools of thread in it    I told Margaret I could not tell what So many ruffles meant     Lightning to night  hope it will rain

15  Day   Frank got back in the night Swaped Josh off yesterday  thundering this morning    I washed got done before 9 oclock  feel well to day   So thankful   Mollie Sewing on the Machine

16  Day   Cleared off and so rain here   Frank plowing in his corn   Springer girls at the well washing    Lillie come home said was her birth day  I had not thought of it   She is 14 to day   learning fast    she will Soon be grown  and then I will have no baby
[BTM] Rhoda sounds like she was having a touch of melancholy because her youngest daughter Lillie was growing into womanhood and she had not remembered it was her birthday.

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17  Day  -Sunday- Saturday    Bettie Spent the day Frank gone to Bourlands got a letter from John  we had just Set down to Supper        Saw Douthit Coming   had Lillies Sundown  She could not eat She was so glad   I Said I wished something could make me So glad that I could not eat   Douthit brought my letter I pushed back my plate had my wish read the letter eat Supper and read it again   So glad to hear from John
[BTM] The letter from son John Whitfield TOTTY was just what the family needed, I can just picture Lillie jumping up and down with joy over hearing from her big brother. Rhoda treasured hearing from her children in Arkansas and it must have been so hard having them so far away from her.

18 Day Sunday    Lillie put on her Sundown went to Springers   Mr Totty and me walked over the field   come back read the Galveston News    Jase come got old white face    we got on the horses   carried Lillie to Jases
[BTM] Lillie back to her sister and bro in law so she could go back to school.  Rhoda keep abreast of all the News that she could read.

19  Day   Cold wind from North     Frank gone to Bens    the men got their watering trough and hauled wood   afraid to plow the corn  think there will be frost to night

20 Day  frost and ice this morning    Mr Totty gone plowing his corn   Frank replanting   wind from South glad of that   I heard a whippoorwill last night.   Writing with out my specks

21 Day   Frank and Douthit traded hats   all I can think of to night every thing going on in the Same monotonous Style   dry as ever I wont Say Steadham
[BTM] Boredom has set in again for Rhoda.

22 Day   I got done my mornings work Set down felt like there was Somebody Coming to Sew on the machine     in a few minutes  peggy Cross come   I told her I was looking for her  but I did not know it was her  but I thought somebody was coming    Mrs Simpson  Spent the evening   braged on her old man  I like her better for that   I like to hear a woman Speak well of her husband if She can and tell the truth
[BTM] Rhoda was so straight foreward in the thinking and speaking her mind, sounded she must have had a sixth sense.

23 Day   Frank gone to Cooks  Mr Totty got headache   Ben and Louisa Come home with Lillie   heard Parrishes Child was killed
[BTM] Their were two Parish Families living in Dist. 4, Precinct 2.  HH#8/8 was Sarah M Parish age 20 and Perry M. age 22 both from Ohio.  In HH#7/8 was Eugen Parish age 32 SC and Margie his wife age 23 TX.  Neither had a child listed in the 1880 census.   In Precinct 1 ED119 HH# 165/275 was the family of H. A. PARRISH  42 TN, wife A. E. age 35 France, Augustus age 9, Horace age 7 TN, Francis age 4 TN, and dau May age 3 TN, so I feel sure she was speaking of this Parrish family.

24 Day  Mr Totty and Ben gone to the Burg     Mrs Douthit gone to Hixons     Louisa Staying with me      Bart come Said Tilda was at Jases     her and Bettie will come in the morning  Frank rode round this evening gone to ride up to Springers
[BTM] Were they all gathering at Capt & Rhoda’s home for a family get together or because of the sadness of learning of a child being killed?   Were the Parrish family connected in anyway to the TOTTY family?

End of pages for month of April 1880

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 ©2001