Amanuensis Monday ~ My Grandmother's Diary Part 2

My grandmother, Gertrude Hitchings (1905 - 2001)
This photo was probably taken near the year of Gertrude's diary 1920

Last week I started to scan and transcribe my grandmother's tiny 3" diary and publish those pages on my blog.  You can read the first installment HERE.  I'll be posting sections of this diary every week for Amanuensis Monday.  

Page 6

Fri. Jan. 16, 1920

Got up at 6:45 went

To school.  Awful cold this

Am 15 below 0.  Stayed

Home all afternoon.  Went

Sliding down Prospect

Hill  great sliding came home

10:30 went to bed 10:45

-----------------------

Saturday 17

Got up at 8:15 snowing

Hard.  Worked all

Morning and afternoon

Quite warm today

Home all the evening

Gordon got his violin

Went to bed at 9:30

---------------------------

Sunday 18

Got up at 10 o’clock

It is awful windy

Today.  Home all morning

Home all afternoon and

Evening.  Went to bed

At 9:00 Awful cold today.

 [Note:  Imagine temperatures 15 below zero and they went sledding!  Prospect Hill is near where she lived, and I went to elementary school at the Prospect Hill School in the 1960s.  It was a very steep climb up that hill every morning! A fun place to sled, I imagine.   I was interested that Gertrude's little brother Gordon got a violin.  No one ever mentioned that he played the violin!]

Page 7

Mon. Jan. 19, 1920

Up at 7:15 went to

School.  Home at 1:15 home

all the afternoon.  Snow-

ing this afternoon.  Home

all the evening and played

base ball went to bed 9:15.

---------------------------------------------

Tuesday 20

Up at 7 went to school

Mildred came down

with the mumps.  Home

All the afternoon.

Home all evening.  Went

To bed at 9:30

------------------------------------------------

Wednesday 21

Got up at 7:00 went

To school.  Marion

Come up this afternoon

Stayed home all the

evening and played Base

ball went to bed at 9:45.

[Note:   It is interesting to note that despite all the snow (and all the sledding) Gertrude played baseball several times during January 1920.  And another sibling caught the mumps!]

page 8

Thurs. Jan. 22, 1920

Got up at 7:00 went to

School home at 1:15 ate

dinner home all afternoon

Went down to Alberta G.

came home at 10

and went to bed at 10:15

Had our pigs killed today.

------------------------------------

Friday 23

Hollis’ birthday got up at

6:45 went to school.  Home

At 1:15 had dinner worked around

the house all afternoon.  Went on a

sleigh ride had a great time,

                   (see memorial day)

Came home 11:30 went to bed 12:00

----------------------------------------

Saturday 24

Got up at 8:45 awfully

Tired this morning worked all

day.  Snowing hard.  Terrible fire

up to Swiche’s [sp?]  barn, house, 24 cows, horse

burn’d at 10 o’clock out 12 am bed 8 o’clock.

[Note:  I could not identify the Swiche's family or property in Beverly in 1920.  Even the Beverly Historical Society was stumped.  I need to return to Beverly soon to check out some newspapers on microfilm in the public library. 

If anyone knows the correct spelling of this name, please leave a comment.  There was no "SWICHE" in the Beverly censuses or city directory.  Thank you in advance.]

UPDATE -  8am, Dec. 12-  Although my grandmother wrote SWICKER it turns out that the family name was ZWICKER!  Thank you to Betty Fredericks, a blog reader, who suggested the surname was "Zwicker".  This family lived nearby in Danvers.  See the story below from The Standard, Volume 86, page 153, found via a Google Book Search

transcription:

$15,000 Loss on Farm Buildings at Danvers
Danvers, Mass. January 24.  A Loss estimated at $15,000 resulted 
from fire tonight which damaged the farm building owned by Joshua N.
Zwicker and leased by Robert A. Fielding.  The farm is on the Beverly
and Danvers line.  The Danvers department was called on for assistance.
The blaze was caused by an overturned lantern.
Insurance involved follows, loss estimated at $12,000:
Home............................. $3,200                Traders & Mechanics......... $1,250
Ohio Farmers...................1,900                 Berkshire Mutual...............   1,250
Pawtucket Mutual............1,500                 Northern, Eng. ..................   1,025
Merrimack Mutual...........1,550                 Fitchburg Mutual...............     600
Providence- Washington..1,500
Salem Mutual.........1,325                           Total.................................$15,100       

Page 9

Sun. Jan. 25, 1920

Up at 9:30 had breakfast

Went to see the fire an

awful sight, helped pa shovel

paths.  After dinner tried to take some

pictures of the fire.  Home

all the evening took a

bath went to bed at 9:30

------------------------------------------

Monday 26

Got up at 6:45 had breakfast

went to school home 1:15 had dinner

home all the afternoon

Home all evening and

studied and played victor-

la went to bed at 10:10pm

---------------------------

Tuesday 27

Got up at 7:00 went

to school home 1:15.  Gordon

and I went to the fire and took

some pictures. home all evening

and studied bed at 10pm

[Note:  Twice this week Gertrude took photographs of the fire at the Switche's [sp?] farm.  I wish I could find those photos!]

Stay tuned for more of the diary next week...

Click here for a transcription of the newspaper account of the Zwicker fire
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/01/zwicker-fire-january-26-1920-danvers.html

Click here for part 1 of Gertrude Hitchings' diary:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/12/amanuensis-monday-my-grandmothers-diary.html

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Amanuensis Monday ~ My Grandmother's Diary Part 2", Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 12, 2016, (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/12/amanuensis-monday-my-grandmothers-diary_12.html: accessed [access date]).