Three Diaries.
Diaries of Matilda Prentice Sykes. 1871-72, and 1877. 381 pp. in Three (3) Pocket Diaries; 5 News Clippings, Lock of Hair, Photo Circular, Head of Unidentified Gentleman, Small Cloth Sample. Mostly pencil, closely written, very good to fine.
Chronicles of the daily life over several years of a young farm woman from New York. The inscription on the flyleaf of the 1871 diary reads "Miss Tillie Prentice, Owasco, December 25, 1870," indicating that the pocket diary was probably received as a Christmas present.
Matilda J. Prentice was born about 1851 in Owasco, Cayuga County, New York, to John and Phebe Prentice, and therefore was just nineteen or twenty in 1870. Her father was a farmer.
(December 12,1871 entry): "We butchered three hogs, I knit the forenoon, then got...washed, then ironed all the afternoon.... We was up bright and early. Father, Fred and I went to Auburn. Father started for the meat.....I took the horse and went up to house."
Her diary, from 1871, is full of visits from friends, daily notations on the weather, and a record of her work in the home, such as washing, cooking, sewing, and general farm tasks. (February 24, 1872): "My birthday in the afternoon, I got down to sew rugs and Mr. and Mrs. Reed, Jewel and Kithe DeWitt come, and they spend the eve... (July 1, 1872): “I did not feel first rate but went to washing. Got the clothes dry and got in pickled enough cherries for four cans. Done all the ironing and washed all the supper dishes, canned the cherries and I was tired enough to rest." Other entries detail going to church, making cakes, cleaning the house; i.e., a chronicling of the daily life of a young woman in a hard-working farmer's family.
By 1877, Tillie is married and has several children, which is reflected in her diary. (September 9, 1877): “This is a lovely day. I went to church....to the Baptist church. I have a bad cold...... I feel awful tonight." (February 6, 1877): "I was up all night with poor little Ella. How her ear aches. She seems better now. I made bread--got it done before breakfast. Ida made cookies and I fried cakes and done some ironing. I am so tired and sleepy. JR had another spasm this morning at one o'clock."
Matilda (Tillie) married farmer Ashley I. Sykes and lived in several locations; Groton, Tompkins County, New York as well as Owasco. The Sykes had at least four children; Eddie, Ella, Arthur, and Grace. They moved for a time about 1920 to Indiana where her husband died in 1921. Matilda died in Yakima, Washington, after 1930, having moved there to live with one of her children.
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