AUGUST  1876

1st day of August    John brought me home Mr CROSS come down him and the old man are here
2     went to LATTYs   Mrs LATTY has a fine girl         Mr JOHNSON had a little girl buried to day the Family in great distress...     I rode home in Night FUGITs woggon         thundering and some rain not enough to lay the dust         still looks lke rain  the old man and boys pulling fodder
[BTM]  Rhoda had several JOHNSON families around her in Montague Co. on the 1880 census, but she did not mention which JOHNSON family nor the name of the little female who died and was buried.   She  did not place a name by the newborn LATTY female either which may indicate that they were just neighbors and not kinfolk that she was called upon to help.

3    went to Mr HESTERS to take the scissors home Mr HESTER Still Suffering with  rheumatism..        me and Bettie went to see mrs TINDAL this evening she is better
[BTM] Can not find a Mrs TINDALL on the 1880 census, she may have moved or died between 1876 & 1880 or lives in another county.

4     feel bad did not sleep anny hardly for musquitoes and sundries.        Mrs SMITH washing  for  me    Annie had a chill and is quite sick        Pea sick  with a sore on his foot
[BTM]  Under the circumstance with feeling bad, having sick children to tend, plus the mosquitoes annoyance, it is no wonder she did not get much sleep and fortunate that she had someone to call on to help her with her washing chore.

5th   the monnotony broke at last by Judge FANNING puting in a n appearance    it has been near on to 23 years since we got  acquanted with him  I was realy  glad to see him he took dinner with us looks as  well as I ever saw him..      Annie had a chill again to day       I am thinking we will  chill here like rip this fall.        John and Anna  Tilda and Bart are staying with us the musquitoes have run them all out of the house   some in waggon some out at the crib in the fodder        I pened this by moonlight
[BTM]   1853 was the year that Rhoda and Francis M. TOTTY left Hickman County, Tenness for Texas, which was 23 years prior to this date.   There was a Dr. George FANNING in Montague County also born in Tennessee, could be that they most likely traveled from Tennessee to Texas in the same wagon train, but the Judge FANNING who made the appearance may likely have lived elsewhere and Montague was a part of his territority as a Judge.    He could likely also be kin or the same as the Doctor George FANNING of Montague Co., TX ?.

6    Anna and Bettie  Tilda and the boys all Spent the day with us..      went home this evening        Bettie went with them Mr. CROSS come after me to go and see Liza  She is verry sick        I come home found Lillie with a high fever     She is in a Stuper       I am verry uneasy about her     her face purple   sleeps all the time
[BTM]  Malaria attacks often kept Rhoda quite busy tending  her family and neighbors, how awful it would be to see your own child so ill like Lillie was.

7    Lillie Still has high fever   the baby and a chill this morning        John gone to hunt his mule again      I have my hands full.....  Still hot and dry        John got his mule       Tennies fever still high
[BTM]  This baby is most likely Tennessee "Tennie" TOTTY, daughter of John W. and Matilda aka Martha Ann Walker TOTTY his first wife who was deceased by this time, although in the book TOTTYS & TOTTY TIES it shows date of death for Martha Ann Walker TOTTY to be 1877, and birth of Tennessee as 1877,  according to Rhoda's Diary Tennessee was alive in 1876 and Martha was also deceased at this time, so I would think  the date was actually Feb 20, 1876 not 1877 for the birth of  Tennessee and death of her mother Martha Ann.

8th    visitors begun to come early        Joe MARSHALL here before breakfast   Ves TIBBETS here to day ves can talk some yet...      Lillies fever Still high      giveing quinine  hope she will get better...    better now   got up and eat some..        now then there is more trouble  Henry threaten to shoot Jase       now there has to be a reckoning about that.        I am  glad Bettie is not here       good rain this evening  ground wet
[BTM]  With Rhoda already having her hands full of sick children, can't you just imagine the scare that would give Rhoda, to have someone come and threaten to shoot her son in law?  Back then, the neighbors took care of each other in a time of crisis as the marshall's were not always available all the time, I can picture in my mind the the stress it was causing Rhoda and can understand her relief that Bettie was not there to hear Henry HESTER threaten her husband.  Ves would be Sylvester TIBBETS husband of Talitha Ann Reeves, daughter of Nancy Anna TOTTY REEVES and niece of Rhoda.

9th   the reckoning come off this morning   Mr CROSS  Mr SPRINGER and Mr BROTHERS  Mr BOURLAND and Mr TOTTY  John and Jase all went to Mr HESTERS to ask Henry to leave the Country  which he promised to do     now I recon that is settled        Big rain again to day.        Lillie  is up to day      baby had a chill      I have Just covered Mr TOTTY up in the bed with a hand ague         Jace gone to HARVILLEs after Bettie       Cool and pleasant to night  big pond again in Mr SPRINGERs field        Sim brought  the ax home and threw it over the fence  I recon now they have washed their hands of the whole TOTTY layout
[BTM]  Picture the five men riding up on horseback to confront their other neighbor and ask his child to leave the country.   Pretending to be in her shoes, and taken back in time.   I can almost feel the stress of the circumstances that caused this action to be taken to prevent a shooting of their loved one.  Then the conflict between neighbors causing a rift in their friendship, not surprising  that great great grandfather  TOTTY had a setback with his health under these circumstances.

10    quite a pleasant morning me and Bettie washed... Night FUGIT and Billy REEVES called     old man had a chill this evening has fever    now he is preaching to me and John         Lillie is Still better   no fever   all hands fixing to go to HARVILLEs and camp  to meeting
[BTM] Billy REEVES is most likely the grandson of Nancy TOTTY REEVES dau of Robert and Sandal ANDREWS TOTTY and sister of Rhoda's father in law Robert TOTTY.    Still no identification on who Night FUGIT is or what if any relationship there could be to the family other than a neighbor.

11th   hopes blasted       Mr TOTTY high fever quite sick       John got Mr CROSSes waggon and  brought Bettie down this evening   She is sick     willie has fever     baby sick.... quite a bad time with sickness        I starched and ironed this morning and got every thing ready to go but have to give it up         feel a little disapointed  but disapointments dont hurt me  I am used to them        John and Pea gone to the exibition  to night       Pea will enjoy it immensly       thundering  to night  looks like rain     musquitoes Still Singing around geting used to them       I am feeling verry well   feel so thankful to be able to wait on the sick
[BTM}  What a courageous woman to face so much sickness, working tirelessly to help them get better,  still having the time to do her other chores while, all the time she is looking forward to going to the exhibition.  Her hopes fading as she tells herself  it doesn't matter because she is thankful she can be there to help her loved ones.

12   Just Starting to HARVILLEs every thing tops turvey...    got then      Bettie with some fever       Mr TOTTY went to Forestburg to meeting I am afraid he will have fever       John   Jase and HARVILLE gone back home to kill a shoat        Betties fever geting very high almost crazy with her head        Jase went to the burg and got some morphine       She took it and got easy       Mr TOTTY come in about 11 oclock with high fever he is verry sick
[BTM]  Surprisingly  as warm as it is in August the guy's would kill a shoat (swine), that is unless they plan on a good old fashion bar b que right away!    As Rhoda feared, her husband did come home a very sick fellow, talking about determination to not miss a meeting!  Malaria sure keeps Rhoda hopping taking care of her family, I am amazed that she stood up to it without more depression than she has expressed.

13th    Mr TOTTY and Betttie a little better        all hands went to meeting but me and Jase  I was all ready dressed to go but I got so uneasy about the sick that I gave it out  it is now  past noon and they are still resting  I am in hopes they are better       I tending the baby and runing the old hens  out of the yard to keep them from disturbing Bettie and the old man
[BTM] Just picture Rhoda out there running after the chickens, likely with a broom in hand, I would tend to think that would make them cluck more as they scatter for cover.  Can't you just feel her disappoinment in missing the meeting and the chance for a little social outing,  as usual putting her family first.

14th   the sick better      I went with the rest the crowd to meeting all hands went but Pea he staid with his pap and Bettie   Caroline and Sallie BAIRD was here and went to meeting with us heard brothers ROYAL   SAVAGE and NOBLET preach come back to HARVILLEs staid all night
[BTM]  Family must be some better for Rhoda to decide to go to the meeting, seems this was the high light of her life, going to the church meetings when possible.   Caroline and Sallie BAIRD are the granddau and dau of Robert and Matilda TOTTY, neice and sister of  F.M. TOTTY respectively.   The meeting was evidently some distance from home or else the meeting was very late, since she spent the night away from her ailing family.

15th   Come home found brother TILMAN  Will SWEATMAN   Hen JOHNSON  Jim BUCKHANAN all here    glad to get home     Bettie Still sick      the old man better     John and boys gone to meeting to night quite warm and suttry to night musquitoes still in full blast wish they was all dead
[BTM]  Not sure if brother TILMAN is Jase's father or another family member,  Hen JOHNSON and Jim BUCKHANAN could likely be some Upshur Co. Texas friends or neighbors.    A Henry JOHNSON is listed in 1870 & 1880 census for Upshur Co., but then also a number of Henry 's were in Sebastian Co., Ark, where John W. TOTTY later migrated to.   Does anyone know the identify of these gentlemen? 

16th    feel bad  Slept bad      Willie sick all night      our Eastern Texas friends all here this morning
[BTM]  This would seem to indicate that the above gentleman were from Eastern Texas most likely Upshur Co., but still wonder at the connection, if any,  to our TOTTY families or if they were part of the original group from Hickman Co., TN.

17th   Bettie verry Sick      Sent for the Doctor        he come staid until evening    She is some better to night    John went to Rosston  got flour coffee and sugar      think  I will have a peach cobler to morrow     Jim BUCK here
[BTM]  Question if this Jim BUCK is the same as Jim BUCKHANAH on Day 15? or two entirely different individuals?

18th    had the cobler for dinner      I was not well enough to eat much of it had the tooth ache all night  did not sleep a wink of good sleep   took pills took Waklefields Specifie put gargling oil in the tooth   put allum and salt in it   put opium and morpine in it  and I recon  I would almost have put some of old man ROSSes mole medicine in it if  Id had it     Will  SWEATMAN  Jim BUCK and Hen JOHNSON  took dinner   Mrs CROSS and Mrs KELLY and Ida spent the evening Lillie went home  with Ida..    another new case of sickness to day  Pea is verry Sick has high fever this evening
[BTM]  Again Rhoda writes Jim BUCK rather than BUCKHANAN.   Rhoda has her hands full with a bad toothache, she was desperate enough to try almost everything she could think of and more, I can't fathom taking all those old fashion remedies at one time, it's a wonder she didn't kill herself accidently.   Now her son Lewis P. is sick with a bout of Malaria, and she was trying to cook for her guests plus socialize with her lady friends.   I wonder if those of us in 1999, more than 123 years later, could even begin to walk in her shoes for a just one day of her life!, I still stand in amazement at her endurance!

21st  I will write again  I feel like I could write a bok the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak  I will try to say when the last pulse s counted and the last breath gone there will be narry moment tell ………………and then I and all the dead will rise
[BTM] Dot's were placed where the page was torn or missing.

22     Ben and Louisa and Pea got home yesterday   I am Still very sick
23   Bettie went home this morning   Louisa and Ja…. come down this morning   Annie Staying with me and doin for um   I had a bad chill and fever to day  cant hardly hold my pencil   Billy Bean was here to day
24  got up this morning feel better Lillie verry Sick to day   verry warm this my wedding day   been married 33 years.
[BTM] Rhoda May Spradling and Francis Marion Totty were married on August 24th, 1843 in Hickman County, Tennessee.

25th   Anna went home and  Tilda come to do for um
26th   John and Mollie come to day
27th   Louisa birthday 32 to day  and Ben Spent the day with us
28th   all hands gone to meeting but Tilda and Lillie they Staid with me ..   brother Gower called to day  told of one of the many atrocious and cold blooded murders that I ever heard of in all my life he was at the house and Saw the murdered people yesterday it was done night before last    Bart and Tilda gone home   Lillie went with them
29th got up and got breakfast was So tired I could hardly raise my hand when I got done   old man got home this evening from meeting   fell verry bad  to night and I reckon it’s the blues 
 

NOTE: the rest of the month of August is missing, the next entry starts 
September  9th 1987

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Transcribed from Original Diary by Birdie (Totty) McNutt ©1999