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BLOUGH, NOAH : 1889 ORIGINAL, DETAILED HANDWRITTEN DIARY AUTHORED BY NOAH BLOUGH, A PROSPEROUS FARMER FROM MORRISON COVE AREA IN PENNSYLVANIA, DOCUMENTING HIS DAY-TO-DAY LIFE, AND CONTAINING DESCRIPTION OF SEVERE 1889 WINTER AND OF THE DISASTROUS JOHNSTOWN FLOOD

32mo - over 4" - 5" tall. On offer is a detailed diary, authored by a farmer from Bedford County, Pennsylvania, that covers the whole year of 1889 and January 1890, an entry made for each day. Noah Blough (1835 - 1896?), whose ancestors arrived to the U.S. in the mid-18th century from Switzerland, was a prosperous farmer who moved to the Morrison Cove area from the Somerset County in 1870s. At the time the diary was written he lived with his second wife and three children: Maggie, Orlo and Charles, all of them are often mentioned in the diary. The family belonged to the Seventh Day Baptists Church, of which Noah was an active member, he was elected the first clerk of the Salemville church in 1885, and he regularly writes about attending Sabbath School and sermons at the German Baptist Church. The family was growing apples and plums, corn and oats, and kept cattle and sheep, and in his diary Noah documents farming activities, like plowing, wood cutting, sugar water boiling, and the daily life of the family, including illnesses, visits of family members and neighbors, trips to Enterprise, Salem and Loysburg. In addition to wood cutting and field work, in winter months Noah was making quills and spools, mending clothes: "Jan. 7. Cloudy and rather cold and windy with some snowflakes. I worked in the house making quills the best part of the day". Every entry starts with a record of weather which was very cold and snowy that year. The entry of February 2, relates to the Groundhog Day "This was Groundhog day, and it was clear by spells, that the sun did shine, that the groundhog seen his shadow. This is Orlo's birthday, he is three years old." The prediction of long winter turned to be true that year, on March 21st Noah as usually records weather: "Cloudy and snowed all day, the ground was white in the morning and all day...". In May 1889 Noah writes about heavy rainfall followed by devastating Johnstown flood which killed over 2000 people: "Cloudy and rained all last night and all day very hard by spells. The water was very high, it took fences and bridges away and tore the roads, had the highest water we had got since we live here…Johnston was washed away and thousands of people drowned." One of the Noah's neighbors lost his wife and daughter in the flood, about which he writes on June 3rd: "Harry Aaron brought his wife and daughter home today which died drown in Johnston on the 30 (about 1500 drowned)". The diary contains many names of residents and businessmen who lived in the area at that time, and members and ministers of the Seventh Day Baptists Church, including the Kagarise, Breidenthal, Snyder, Long, Dittmar, Fluck, Fyock, and many other. At the end of the diary Noah lists 27 people who died in 1889, with their age at the time of death. There is also a list showing his expenses and a recipe for "Uncle Sam's whitewash", the use of which was characteristic of the east coast. The book itself has a dark-brown leather cover and marbled edges, is titled "The Standard Diary 1889", and includes a calendar, weights and measures, weather signals, interest tables, postage rates, standard time, help for accidents, poison anecdotes, and other almanac matter. Condition: Good +, last 18 leaves, that contain records made after January 14, 1890, and a back cover, have torn corners which are missing, several leaves are loose.. Illustr.: /. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good +

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