Everyday Farming Records Notebook

These three pages out of a notebook represent everyday records a farmer would have kept to document his interactions with workers, neighbors, and livestock and lumber traders. This particular notebook belonged to Betty Stukenholtz's great grandfather, who emigrated from Germany and farmed in Richardson County, Nebraska. He recorded the names of people he helped, people who helped him, buying livestock, lumber and farming implements, recipes and methods for treating farm animals, the meaning of Latin prefixes in the English words, and pasted newspaper clippings with relevant information, poetry, and songs. A variation of a personal diary, such notebook might make important evidence in a microhistory study, as very few everyday notes and records make it to the archives or even family history document collections.

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