The Project

A few years I purchased a diary from a vendor at a flea market in Savannah, GA. It was an unassuming document, just a simple composition notebook. The vendor had originally been asking $40 for it, but I manged to haggle him down to $20. The diary was written beginning March 18, 1917 by Calla Louise King, a teacher from Sidney, New York. At the time I had a growing fascination with antique pictures and diaries, and purchased quite a few of them in similar circumstances.

Now almost a decade later I have begun to satisfy the urge that probably led to buying these items in the first place and I've begun doing research into my family history. As a result I've come to realize what a genealogical treasure this diary is. Miss King was a very active woman in her community mainly in the area of support for the American troops that were involved in World War I. She kept a detailed account of the events that she attended, including the names of other people who were in attendance, or who helped with the event. The diary is full of newspaper clippings about local WWI activities, church events, plays, and other community activities. Miss King's diary also includes letters from relatives and friends, photographs, maps, church bulletins, and tons of other information. She even included class rosters and grades for the children that she taught. The diary is short, covering only about 100 pages and the dates from March 18, 1917 to September 22, 1918.

Once I started thinking about it I decided that this treasure should be shared. I tracked down a few of Miss King's relatives who had been doing genealogical research and publishing their work online. I sent a letter of introduction and offered the diary to them, but either the e-mail addresses were invalid (which they were in several cases) or the parties had no interest because no one ever responded to me. My next step was to contact the Historical societies for the two counties that Miss King lived in during the era that the diary covers. I have yet to receive a reply from either of those institutions. (If either institution does contact me at this point I will be perfectly happy to donate the diary after the conclusion of this project.)

Beginning today I will be posting the diary here. A page at a time, including all of the ephemeral information contained within. Where I can determine a date on the letters and news articles I will post them in chronological order, where I can't I'll find the best place for them. I will post both scanned images and transcripts of the pages to make sure that anyone who is searching for these people would be able to find them. It is my hope that by doing this I'll be able to open up this information to the families of the people in the area which Calla lived in. The diary mentions and Sidney, New York, in Delaware County, as well as Otsego County New York, and the cities of Unadilla, and Middleburg, NY. I may discover other geographic information inside once I get started on the project. If you research that area, or are interested in people who lived there, or simply in the daily life of a professional woman from that era, please check back.