Voice of the People: Daily Life in the Antebellum Rural Delaware County New York area

Business/Labor

Business/Labor Home page | Excerpts from the diary of Nathanial Arbuckle, Delhi farmer, 1852-1861 Table of Contents

Note: For serious researchers only: may be hard to read, as is the original
Background:  Nathanial Arbuckle was a native of Scotland and came to Delhi when he was 17. His usually terse diary entries give some idea of the daily life of a farm family in the Antebellum rural Delaware County area.  Weather was vitally important to the success of his farming business, so he frequently comments on it. He also makes occasional comments on local and national events.

1854 December 31: "This is the Last Day of the year 1854 and a Beautyful Sabbath it is    It has Been a Very Dry warm Summer with Light Crops Making Provision high    the Sufferings of the Poor very Greate     but we who till the Soil for a Living   whose heards give Milk  whose fields Give bread   whose flockes Suply us with Atire   whose trees in Summer yeald us Shade + in winter fire  have no reason to Complain but have Cause for thankfulness that we are as well Provided for as we are     therefore let us be thankful"

 

photo of diary

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Courtesy of the Delaware County Historical Association Archives, 46549 State Hwy 10, Delhi, NY, 13753. 

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