1928-1930 Diaries of the Dedicated Mother and Wife of a Shoe Trimmer Making the Most of Life in Pennsylvania During the Great Depression

On offer are three diaries following three consecutive years in the life of young Pennsylvania wife and mother, Margie K. Nelson Keller (1896-1987). 

Born in Lancaster County, Margie married William Grumbine Keller (1894-1962) in 1917. William worked in a shoe factory as a trimmer. Together, they had two boys and a girl. Margie lovingly recorded all three of their full names and birthdates in the back of her 1929 diary. Keller spent her entire life in Lancaster county, living mostly in Lititz. 

Keller’s diaries paint a very clear picture of domestic life at that time. Written while she was in her 30s, her life is consumed with looking after her husband Bill and her young children. When she begins her diaries, her boys, Alfred and Arthur, are approximately nine and seven when she begins her diaries. In 1929 she gives birth to her daughter Annette. The following excerpts will give a flavour of these lovely diaries:

“I started to wash this morning then my wash machine broke. I did not finish til in the afternoon. It was nice so it dried better than I expected. Bill came home early he had something in his eye that hurt too bad” [Mar 19, 1928].

“I worked all morning. The boys did not go along with Bill today they go to bible school every day. It is just in the morning from 8 to 11 o’clock. Mother gave us a chicken yesterday so this evening we killed it. Am having chicken corn pie tomorrow” [June 15, 1928]. 

“Think of it a baby girl came to our place. Our baby was born about two o’clock Monday morning” [Apr 22, 1929]. 

“I was busy all day cleaning and baked this morning. I don’t know what I would do without Arthur to help me” [July 12, 1929]. 

“I did my week’s cleaning upstairs. In the afternoon I mended and made apple jelly. Its very cold a sudden change that’s why we mind it so” [Sept 19, 1929]. 

“I made my pineapple jam this morning and done some mending and made 2 baby dresses over for the baby. We called on Grampa Keller and at Fredericks this evening” [June 11, 1930]. 

“They had Rally Day at Sun School this after. We all went I could not stay in the whole time on account of Annette. The church was crowded. They had a special choir. We were home the rest of the day” [Oct 19, 1930]. 

“I ironed til dinnertime. It rained a little today. I mended this afternoon. This evening I went to the hotel and voted the strait Republican ticket” [Nov 4, 1930]. 

“Thanksgiving Day. Grandpa Kellers and Grandpa Nelson’s were here for dinner. We had two roasted ducks filling potatoes after, vegetables cranberry sauce 2 kinds of pie 2 kinds cake and ice cream” [Nov 27, 1930]. 

These simple diaries paint a fine picture of the day-to-day life life of a young, working class mother in small town Pennsylvania. If times are hard, she really doesn’t mention it. Instead what the reader sees is the slow rhythm of life as she looks after her family. She keeps a detailed record of daily and weekly expenses which give a picture of costs to support her family, which only offers more insight into how a working-class family in the 20s made a go of it.

ABOUT LITITZ, PA: Lititz was first settled in 1756 by members of the Moravian Church, one of the oldest Protestant denominations in the world. For the first century, only members of the Moravian Church we allowed to live in the community. Even when residence was opened to others, only Moravians were allowed to own property. Situated in the heart of the Amish “Pennsylvania Dutchland”, Lititz is home to Linden Hall School, the oldest all-girls boarding school in the United States and to the first commercial pretzel bakery.