April 1881

Page 76
First Day Cold as blazes this morning       Captain went to See about the calf   hogs had killed it as we thought       come back gone to hauling wood      fixing for winter
   Now March is out and arnt we glad
   April thus far is full as bad
BTM]  Possibly these were wild hogs that were running loose back then, or could have been some of the farm animals from another nearby farm.  At any rate, it would have been terrible to find a new calf killed by the hogs.

2 Day   Captain Said the ice is the eighth of an inch thick this morning      Hines come to say he had the money     I droped corn a while   now Lillie is droping    will get done planting by dinner..   got done     Lillie and Duck gone to Mrs Marshals     I go to Mr Springers     Come back think I have more to do than I can get done by night   better Stay here all the time if I keep up     milked and churned and cooked Supper   Captain  got back from Hyneses
BTM] Isn’t it wonderful to learn about the daily activities of our Ancestor’s through the eyes of Rhoda!   Can you imagine being out in the garden planting(dropping) corn in the freezing weather like that?  I remember when we churned butter from the fresh milk a long time ago when I was a little girl, and the taste of it on hot biscuit’s was so good.   That butter was a very pale white-yellow and later on everyone started adding yellow coloring to the fresh butter, to make it look more appetizing.  Here Rhoda is talking about Mr. Hines/Hynes who we have not identified yet.
{TLD} I have not identified Mr. Hines in census but believe the money Mr. Hines has, is for Land he bought from F. M. Totty and joint owner W.O. Davis.  The instrument of deed was made out on 29 December 1880 and was filed for record on the 12 February 1883.  I assume he probably paid it out.   He is listed on the deed as P.L. Hinds.
F.M. Totty and W.O. Davis had purchased the land from Hamilton Crawford
(original Grantee) of Hunt County by his attorney John Crawford(see below). Date of Instrument was 12 January 1880 and it was filed for record on the 29 December 1880.  It appears they turned around and sold it as soon as it was paid for.

3 Day    Sunday  Captain birth day   54 to day  Cooked Some pies and a hen   Frank and Mollie come eat dinner with us   I was glad they come
BTM] Rhoda cooked a special birthday dinner for her husband Captain Totty.  Most likely one of the pies she made was of Peaches from her trees.  Son Frank and wife Mollie (Springer) Totty helped in the celebration.

4 Day    Sunday  April has come yes the fouth day
                         And as for Spring what can we Say
                         Yet all the earth is bare and brown
                         Old winter cant remove his frown
BTM]   Rhoda writes another one of her poems.

5 Day    wind from South this morning     I not well feel nervous cant hardly write    Now the South winds high and dry   yet it need not vex us Don’t we know its always So Since we have lived in Texas
BTM] Rhoda did not write about the family or herself on the previous day.    Now she is nervous and can hardly write.  Wonder if she is so nervous because she is feeling blue or depressed again, since she talks about living in Texas.

Page 77
                                     April
6 Day   warm and cloudy     Pea gone to Franks     Captain plowing     Lillie and Mary Jane get a mess of greens      Lillie made Rob a dress     I have a pain in my Side don’t know what its going to turn too
BTM] Son Pea gone to his brother Frank Totty’s place.   Dau Lillie and her niece Mary Jane (Gage), dau of Louisa and Ben, brought home greens for dinner.   Later Lillie makes a dress for her nephew Robert Tillman, son of Bettie and Jason.   Rhoda worrying about her health again, this time a pain in her side.

7 Day    rained last night    every thing looks better    wind from north to night    cold again..   fixing to go to the Burg in the morning
BTM] Quaint little saying still used today by many of our generation.  “fixing to” or “fix’n to”.  Rhoda may likely be planning to go to the Burg (Forestburg) to do her shopping.

8 Day    did not go   Captain sick     him and Pea gone to work     Charley come took dinner   wanted cotton seed..    Lillie makeing her red dress   me and Lillie glad to See the wind mill
BTM] Although Captain Totty was sick,  he still had work to be done on their place.  We are still trying to identify who Charley is for sure.   Would love to have a picture of Lillie and her red dress, she must have been very good with her hands and sewing.   Wonder if the windmill was for the Totty family, and if so, was it the first one they had on their homestead.  The windmill was a very good thing for the farmers and homesteaders.  They saved a lot of work in obtaining their water for both the stock, garden and home.

9 Day    Frank and Mollie Come to go to Bourlands   Lillie gone with them   Pea gone to the Burg   Captain and I alone
BTM] Frank and Mollie were going to see her sister Bally and husband Robert Samuel Bourland.

10 Day   Sunday     Pea gone to Montague Springs    Dutchman here to See about his Land   I wanting to go to Bens     dont know whether Captain will go or not..    will find out when Dutchman leaves (he left)    Captain wouldnt go too lazy I told him     drove up white face with a calf   (Captain lost Dom)
BTM] Perhaps Dutchman and Charley were one and the same person.  Rhoda was not too pleased with the Captain because he would not go to see daughter Louisa and Ben Gage.  Dom was likely one of the farm animals.

11 Day    Lillie Sewing for Ida    Pulyum taken dinner   I finished reading my Bible through again   this is the 4th time I have read it through in the last 4 years..   it Seems plainer to me every time I read it..   I dearly love the Bible and the glorious promices it contains..  (that there is a rest for the weary I have no doubt..) and I thank God this evening that I have lived to get though it the Bible again
BTM] Pulyum aka Pulliam was most likely Alonzo Pulliam, brother in law of Wade Adkins, who was married to Appie (Atkins) Pulliam.   Wade Atkins was married to Mary “Mollie” Penton.  Rhoda again speaks of her high regard for the Bible and all that she gleans from it.

12 Day   Cold    Captain went to Shop    come back   him and I go to Bens    Come back through the field over the clods..   wind roaring from North
BTM] Rhoda has a special way of telling us her whole day in just a very few words.  Can’t you just picture them tromping through the field of clod’s.   I can almost see them walking with heads down braced against the cold wind.   Finally Rhoda talked the Captain into going to visit their dau and son in law, Louisa and Ben Gage.

13 Day    Cold as ever Captain gone to the Shop again   Lillie and I go to Mr Taylors this evening I come back    cover up the Irish potatoes
BTM] Rhoda covered up her Irish potatoes to keep them safe from the icy weather.    Mr. Taylor is most likely George and Mary Taylor neighbors of the Totty family found in the 1880 census of Montague Co.

14 Day     Ice and frost this morning   wind from South   Pea gone to Frank    Mag and Sue taken dinner   I reading the Carrier till my eyes hurt
BTM] Good thing Rhoda got her potatoes covered.   The Springer girls had dinner with Capt. & Rhoda.   The Carrier was the local Montague Co., Newspaper.

Page 78
                         April 1881
April the 15 Day  Cool this morning

16 Day   Lillies birth day   Bettie come brought her girl for the first time   So glad to See her and it looking so well..    but cant keep from thinking of Anna who never got to come to pas
BTM] Lillie was 15 years old this day.  Rhoda’s dau, Mary Elizabeth “Bettie” (Totty) TILLMAN, brought over her new daughter Rhoda Mae TILLMAN born March 21st as described in last months diary.  Rhoda Mae TILLMAN was the name sake for Rhoda May Spradling TOTTY our author of the diaries.

17 Day    Sunday   Frank took the cows home   high wind from South    Captain and I taken a big walk hunting for jake
BTM] Jake was one of the farm animals, likely their horse or mule.   Son Frank Totty took his cows to his new home.

18  Day   Mrs Farr  called trying to get a School   very warm to day  not like it was a week ago
BTM] A Mrs Farr was not found on the 1880 census, but there were several other surnames beginning with Farr.   Rhoda sometimes wrote abbreviated names, could this be what she did here.   Mrs Farr is unidentified thus far.

19 Day  geting ready to go to Barts   Set off lots of Chickens this morning..  got in the waggon went by Franks    did not enjoy the ride worth a cent..   glad to get there though   found Tilda almost blind with new ralgia in her eyes   Sorry for her and Bart   Staid till after dinner   Come back through Denton bottom forded the creek   watched the dogs swim    wished I could ford a river   haws in full bloom   the air Scented with the flowers..   got home Yarborough had been here..  Pea and his pap mounted and went to where they was surveying Yarborough  come back with them   Staid all night
BTM]  Rhoda most likely was setting her chickens on their nest’s for this spring chicks.  Rhoda must have had a rough ride over to s-in-l Bart Traylor and her daughter Matilda “Tilda”.   Sounds like Rhoda enjoyed the water and fording the river.   On their trip from Hickman Co., TN to Cooke County TX, I am sure they got to ford many rivers.   Likely Rhoda is talking about the Hawthorn trees with their white or pink flowers and red fruit.  Tilda had neuralgia or pain across her eyes.  Yarborough was likely the County surveyor W. Yarborough a widower born in AL and living in HH# 329-341 In Precinct #1, of J. H. Graham in the 1880 census.

20  Day     Started to run the lines again     Lillie and I cooked dinner baked a hen looked for them..    they did not come..    got back to night Yarborough Staying all night again..   Frank got the waggon
BTM] Rhoda and Lillie baked a hen for the men folk and were disappointed that guys did not get in until late.

21 Day    rained a big rain last night and this morning     Bob Bean and Hodges come all running lines again    finished for this time
BTM] Bob Bean, grandson of Nancy Anna Caroline TOTTY, Aunt of Captain TOTTY.   Ben Hodges was the neighbor of Capt. and Rhoda.   They were checking/running their fence lines.

22  Day  Captain Sowed his millet   we set out cabage plants
BTM] The Totty family was working their garden and field’s for the spring crops.

23  Day  got in the waggons went to the Burg  Capt got me a fine dress   come back went to High Point
BTM] Rhoda was proud of the new “fine” dress from her hubby.   High Point was a small town in Montague Co.

24 Day    Sunday   all go to meeting   Chad holds for brother Savage   taken up Cornlious   preached the best Sermon  I think I ever heard him..   got home dogs had killed pigs
BTM] Chad was likely short for the surname Chadwick.   Who did the dogs belong too, or were they wild dogs killing the pigs?

Pages 89 & 80 missing

Page 81
April  25 Day    Pea gone after Lillie    Captain gone to See about killing dogs     I go See Mrs Bruce  like her apearance very well..     Pea worked for Frank..     lo and behold pigs come up was but one killed..
BTM] Mrs Bruce was a new lady in Rhoda’s diary and likely a new neighbor Rhoda went to check out, apparently she liked her.  I am sure that Capt and Rhoda were glad all the pigs were not killed by the dogs.

26 Day    Cap n Sowing milet  Pea fixing Cotton Land    Della and old Sister Wooster come by going to Taylors     Lillie Sewing    fixing to go to School..   every thing geting green and growing  I think as fast as I ever saw
BTM] Rhoda names a couple of new ladies to identify, anyone know who they were?

27 Day    finished the millet   Pea went after cotton Seed..   Lillie making the machine rattle   I sick dont know what is the matter     Settles Staying all night
BTM] Another new person named by Rhoda in her diary, any idea who Settles was?

28 Day    Cap n and Pea planting Cotton    I feeling better wash a big washing    Lillie finished her dress  (warm to night almost like summer)
BTM] Captain Totty and Pea busy planting their cotton, and Lillie busy finishing up her sewing.  Glad Rhoda is feeling better.

29 Day    Still warm   Lillie gone to Barts    I start to Taylors   meet Ida Marshall  come back  Stitch Some for her on her dress    I love Ida   She is Such a modest little girl..   Captain had a chill got fever..   Lillie come back said Tilda is coming to morrow   glad to hear that
BTM] Lillie was going to visit her sister Tilda and Bart Traylor.   Rhoda speaks highly of  Lillie’s little friend Ida Marshall.

30 Day   Captain got up eat breakfast gone to bed   I hope he will get better when he sleeps a good sleep     Jase come by had been to mill    took the harrow and his Sack of meal on Mink and poled out for home
    This is April nearly the last
    Now don’t the months come and go fast
Bart and Tilda come Pea gone to the Burg  Lillie gone to Mrs Marshalls to go to the meeting with Ida to morrow
BTM] Captain still not feeling well and Rhoda is worried about him.  Jase TILLMAN was the son in law of Rhoda and Capt. Totty.   He was married to Mary Elizabeth aka “Bettie”.   Rhoda trying her hand at poetry again.

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Transcribed from Original Diary by Birdie (Totty) McNutt ©2002