1940 Diary of a Blue Collar Rural New Yorker Working Day and Night in Southport to Provide for His Family of Five
11136On offer is an interesting diary from rural NY in the years immediately preceding WWII.
The diary belonged to Gordon Carl Ham (1903-1972). The eldest child born to parents John and Nettie in Southport, Chemung County, New York, Gordon lived on a farm in the Elmira area which is located in the ‘southern tier’ portion of upstate New York. Context and census data suggests that he worked for the local municipality, mostly doing road work. He was married to Mrs. Prudence Cortright Ham. Together they had two daughters and a son, Joyce, Sharon and Clairmont.
Gordon kept this diary when he was in his mid-30s, when his children were 7, 8 and 9 years old. His writing focuses on the daily life of a blue collar worker who toils at his day job as well as on his family farm. It is truly amazing that our author found time to write in a diary, given his workload. Some excerpts indicate the flavour of the diary:
“Plowed over to North Vanitten [Van Etten, NY] got stuck R Mullen and Tommy Wood brought #9 over and helped me out. Rick came over and got in ditch C, K & C Everheart gor laid off for 2 weeks for getting drunk" [Mar 6].
“Plowed and rolled up Wuncoop [Wyncoop] Creek and then Hogback. Awful hot. Moved mixed into shop P & Sharon went over to church to tea [ P refers to his wife, Prudence]. Filled holes on Main this A.M. with dirt went up hill” [June 7].
“A beautiful day puttered around all day dug some potatoes and went down and got J shoes. Dad and mother took J and C [2 of 3 children] to Wellsburg to Dairymans’ huge picnic. Mom stayed with Sharon A.M. She was sick when we went to town” [Sept 14].
“Rolled on Skunks Hill. a beautiful day nice & warm. Burned grass tonight and fixed Ma’s floor” [Oct 23].
“Went up [ ] and sawed up wood then went up to Lanper’s and got 1 cord of wood then called to work. Snowing hard [ ] greased truck and worked on it but did not go out of shop. Came home...Rained in night…” [Nov 30].
“A beautiful day. J & C to [ ] Ma, Ruth and Ephram went to Bernies. Got a pair of socks, a pound of P.A. tobacco from P and kids, a new shirt from Ma & Ruth. J, C, and I went up in woods after Christmas tree. Sharon quite sick all day. Ma came home sick from Bernies” [Dec 15].
The enclosed ephemera consists of several bills for electricity and shipping as well as a lovely Valentine’s card.
For a social historian, this simple diary gives a very good look into part of the daily, on-going work and life in a small rural part of America.
Written in 1940, this diary contains 183 pages plus memoranda pages and some pieces of ephemera. It measures 7.25 inches by 5.0 inches and is approximately 85% complete. The hard cover is in good condition. The stitched binding is loose by all pages are intact. The handwriting is legible. Overall VG.
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