It Has Been a Good Day

By Mark R. Moore

Life in rur­al Danville was very active and excit­ing for young boys at the turn of the cen­tu­ry. Her­bert and Homer Stan­ton were the robust sons of William Hen­ry Stan­ton who, in turn, was one of the many off­shoots of the Stan­ton fam­i­ly who came to Danville in the ear­ly 1800s. 

At His­tor­i­cal House, we have received and are cat­a­loging a large col­lec­tion of arti­facts, pho­tos and archival infor­ma­tion that William J. Stan­ton of North Danville saved dur­ing his life­time.  Many of these pieces are unsort­ed, unla­beled and present both a dif­fi­cult and inter­est­ing puz­zle. Some­times, though, we are blessed with a clear record that reveals the ebb and flow of life in a time gone by. Such is the luck we had with the three jour­nals of Homer Stan­ton of North Danville, writ­ten in 1900, 1903 and 1904.

One of Homer’s entries from the diary of 1904 gives us his age: July 17, 1904. “Uncle Jim and Aunt Eva have been here today. I went out of doors. It is my birth­day. I am 18 years old.” So, in the 1900 diary, he is a young man of 14. Young Homer’s diary gives us the tex­ture of dai­ly life through which the his­to­ry of Danville dur­ing the ear­ly 1900s can be seen:
“March 7, 1900. Mama, Her­bert and I went to singing school. It has snowed and blowed some. Her­bert drawed (sic) slabs and phos­phate. Read in the Bible.”

There is even some mys­tery as to road repair:

“March 9, 1900. Read in the Bible. Mama and Her­bert and I went to the singing. Papa has been cut­ting out cra­dle [?] holes on the St. Johns­bury road. Her­bert went with slabs and phosphate.”

But there are also activ­i­ties that we under­stand well:

“April 6, 1900. Read in Bible. Papa has been up help­ing tap trees to Grandpa’s. Her­bert has been draw­ing manure. The singing is fin­ished tonight.”

And we can under­stand the hol­i­day food traditions:

“Decem­ber 9, 1900. Her­bert and I went to meet­ing. The wind has blowed  (sic) all day. Grand­ma and I popped some corn and made some corn balls.”

What is amaz­ing to me, hav­ing read the diaries of Homer, is the num­ber of dai­ly activ­i­ties that revolve around a large net­work of church, fam­i­ly, friends and com­mu­ni­ty. Card games occu­pied the fam­i­ly at night:

“May 16, 1903 …Alice, Helen, Chauncey and Bert Massey were here tonight. We played Younker [?] 

and whist.  It has been a good day.”

At least that is true until Thomas Edison’s inven­tion makes its appearance:

“June 20, 1903 …Grand­ma has been down to Uncle George Sanborn’s tonight hear­ing the phonograph.

“July 29, 1903… We all went down to George Sanborn’s to hear a grapha­phone [sic] tonight.”

It’s nice to find out that even audio advance­ment couldn’t beat old time fun of a good dance.

“August 5, 1903 Her­bert went to St. J. this after­noon after meal. Papa and myself chopped. We all went to a prom­e­nade and dance at the hall.”

There were times when even the stal­wart Stan­tons need­ed med­ical assis­tance. Med­ical prac­ti­tion­ers were locat­ed in Danville, which was iden­ti­fied by Homer as “the Green.”  Dr. Brown had to come to North Danville to see Homer’s father, William, who was in his ear­ly fifties at the time.

“March 24, 1904. Papa fell into the silo this morn­ing and stuck a pitch­fork into his leg two times, one clear to the bone. The oth­er all most to the bone. We had Dr. Brown from the Green. Her­bert, Win and I have been saw­ing wood with Win horses.”

March 28, March 30 and April 1^st 1904. Homer not­ed his last vis­it laconically:

“April 1^st 1904…Dr. Brown was here today and he is fin­ished coming.”

One assumes William was get­ting bet­ter although there is no men­tion of the charge for a house call or Dr. Brown’s treat­ment. Less than a month lat­er, William was split­ting wood.

“April 14, 1904: Papa and I split some wood today. Her­bert has been doing odd jobs. Net Lang­maid has been here clean­ing house today. It snowed a lit­tle today.”

The atti­tude about oral health was shock­ing to me.  My research into the diaries began inno­cent­ly enough, but things rapid­ly accel­er­at­ed in the Stan­ton fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly for his broth­er Her­bert, who was in his twenties.

“June 11, 1904: Her­bert went to the Green and had 21 teeth pulled. Papa and I cul­ti­vat­ed corn and potato[s]. Bee [s] swarmed today.”

Then it was 18-year-old Homer’s turn.

“June 18, 1904: I went to the Green and had two teeth filed [does he mean filled] and three pulled. Ira has been hoe­ing.  Papa and I put some fire out.”

Final­ly on June 23, 1904: 

“June 23, 1904 Her­bert went to the Green and had the rest of his teeth pulled. I have been to school.”

There is no giv­en rea­son in any of the diaries as to why a young man like Her­bert should have all of his teeth pulled out. Sur­pris­ing­ly, there is no men­tion by either Stan­ton of the exis­tence of false teeth! 

The diaries and records of the Stan­ton fam­i­ly in North Danville,Vermont, are mul­ti­fac­eted beyond these excerpts quot­ed here. There were sev­er­al Stan­tons with many male and female chil­dren who, per­haps, had expe­ri­ences sim­i­lar to these which the His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety is yet to dis­cov­er. Even more inter­est­ing are the known his­tor­i­cal fig­ures who appear momen­tar­i­ly in the fam­i­ly and pub­lic records i.e. Lang­maids, Sias­es, San­borns and Beck­withs, whose his­to­ry waits to be fleshed out. 

The habits and cus­toms of the 1900s as revealed in the diaries are, to me, sto­ries of hard, deter­mined work but also of the joy of com­pan­ion­ship which give us the tapes­try of life.

This arti­cle was first pub­lished in the Jan­u­ary, 2011, issue of the North Star Month­ly.
To see the com­plete pho­to album asso­ci­at­ed with this arti­cle click here.