Sarah Gillespie - Diary of Sarah Gillespie: A Pioneer Farm Girl

Dates in Sarah Gillespies life

Important dates in U.S. history

1860

1861
The Northern states and the Southern states begin to fight the Civil War (1861-1865).

1865
Sarah Gillespie is born.

1877
Sarah begins her diary.

1881
Sarah begins her career as a teacher.

1890

1892
Sarah marries William (Billie) Henry Huftalen.

1910

1910
Sarah establishes the rural unit of the Iowa State Teachers Association.

1919
The 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives women the right to vote.

1935
Sarah retires from teaching.

Sarah Gillespie grading papers for students in 1931.

1941
Japanese forces bomb Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian islands. The United Statesenters World War II (1939-1945).

1950

1952
The U.S. Supreme Court orders the end of school segregation.

1952
Sarah donates her familys collection of letters, photographs, and diaries tothe State Historical Society of Iowa.

1955
Sarah dies on February 11.

Bliss, John. Pioneers to the West. Childrens True Stories: Migration. Chicago: Raintree,2012.

Schwartz, Heather E. The Foul, Filthy American Frontier: The Disgusting Details Aboutthe Journey out West. Disgusting History. Mankato, Minn.: Capstone Press, 2010.

1. Many Americans displayed mottoes in their homes and buildings during the late 1800s.Look at the mottoes shown in the schoolhouse image on page 9. What do you think thesemottoes mean or are meant to inspire? What would your motto be? Explain why. (Integrationof Knowledge and Ideas)
2. Look at the costs of items on page 27. What do these costs tell you about how muchmoney people earned or had then? Use the Internet or print advertising to find outhow much envelopes, paper, candy, and salt shakers cost today. Compare the costsof items then and now. (Craft and Structure)
3. On page 24, Sarah mentions that her aunt cried upon her familys arrival. In whatways do you think the distance between relatives and neighbors affected the way pioneersinteracted? (Key Ideas and Details)

FactHound offers a safe, fun way to find Internet sites related to this book. Allof the sites on FactHound have been researched by our staff.

Heres all you do:

Visit www.facthound.com

Type in this code: 9781476541945

Sarah Gillespie was born in Manchester, Iowa, on July 7, 1865. Sarahs parents, Emilyand James Gillespie, owned a 100-acre (40-hectare) farm in Iowa.

When pioneer farm families like the Gillespies settled across the western UnitedStates, much of the land was still wilderness. Pioneers led difficult lives. Somefamilies who came from big cities in the East had never farmed before. Harsh winters,rainy springs, and dry summers made planting and harvesting crops difficult. Fewpioneer farm families were able to save money.

Children were expected to help on pioneer farms. Girls helped sew clothes and cookmeals. Boys helped care for livestock and repair farm equipment.

Sarah Gillespie, 1888

In her diary Sarah wrote about her life as a pioneer farm girl. She told about theexperiences and hardships her family faced. Her diary describes what life was likefor many pioneer farm families.

American pioneer farmers living in Nebraska in 1862 pose for a picture. Sod houses,as shown in the background, were common in the area.

THE Diary OF Sarah Gillespie 18771878

January 1, 1877

New years. I commence to keep a journal to day. Sarah L. Gillespie ...

January 3

It was so cold we could not go to school. making a whip stalk [ whipstock ]. Henry,Pa, and I took some hay down to Uncle Jeromes and saw the new bridge. It is a verynice one and rests on bars of iron. I got a spool of black thread for me ... Ma workedon her Sofa cushion. Warmer.

January 16

... I washed all of the dishes, got supper & dinner & made a first-rate jonniecake [johnnycake].Cold & Snow.

Johnnycakes are flat cakes made of cornmeal. The small cakes were a popular foodfor pioneers. Pioneers often stored them in their saddlebags as they traveled onhorseback. For this reason, they were sometimes called journey cakes.

Sarahs diary entries appear word for word as they were written whenever possible.Because the diary appears in its original form, you will notice misspellings andmistakes in grammar. To make Sarahs meaning clear, in some instances correctionsor explanations within a set of brackets follow the mistakes.

We are not going to School any more it is so lonesome up there with only 4 or 5 scholars .Ma worked, she has got a very sore toe, we are going to study at home the rest ofthe winter. ma says as soon as we get through this arithmetic she will get us anotherone. Pleasant but Cold.

To day is St. Valentines day. I did not send any Valentines nor did not get any.To day was the last day of our school. there were a good many there ... Ma did notgo.

These pages from Sarahs diary show her arithmetic problems.

whipstockthe handle of a whip

scholara student

arithmetica branch of math; arithmetic deals with addition, subtraction, multiplication,and division

I done 24 examples to day. Henry done 19, we go to town, it is very muddy. SundayeveningBarrslivery Stable, the Agricultural Depot & the Blacksmith shop was burned .theysaved all of the horses but none of the carriages ... Mud, Mud, Mud.

Most buildings were made of wood in the 1800s. A fire burning a wooden building washard to control. Pioneers in rural areas fought fires together. They often formeda single-file line. The people in the back of the line passed water buckets to thosein the front.