my great-grandfather’s diary — nanoose bay, 1883

 Excerpt from My Great-Grandfather’s Diary 📖

I’m sharing excerpts from my Great-Grandfather’s diary. They may not always appear in chronological order, so please bear with me as I work through them.

He lived in Nanoose Bay, on Notch Hill, and his diary gives us a glimpse into our family’s life and history.

My Great-Great-Grandfather came from the Azores to Victoria in 1862. He later married my Songhees Great-Great-Grandmother in 1876, the same year the federal Indian Act was enacted.

The diary belonged to my Great-Grandfather. My Great-Aunt Mary eventually donated it to the Royal BC Museum. I was able to have it scanned into a PDF, and I’ve also been working from the handwritten cursive to create a hand-printed transcription so that we can actually read his words.

It feels pretty special to be able to bring these pages back into the family story, more than a century later.

More excerpts to come. ❤️

Transcription Note

Please note: These transcriptions may contain errors. I am working from handwritten cursive that is more than 140 years old, and some words, names and places are difficult to decipher. Where I’m uncertain, I’ve indicated it with [brackets] or a question mark rather than guessing.

I’m sharing these as a work in progress, and I’ll continue to correct and refine the transcriptions as I learn more.

my great-grandfather’s diary — nanoose bay, 1883

June 1883

• June 1, Friday: Cloudy. L. Jones went to Wellington.
• June 2, Saturday: Cloudy. Father and I took Brindle the cow to Hamilton to take [her to] Wellington tomorrow.
• June 3, Sunday: Rain. Father and I helped the Hirst Brothers to cattle. Father took Brindle the cow to James Wellington.
• June 4, Monday: Hirst took his horse home.
• June 5, Tuesday: Cloudy. Father returned from Wellington. All is well.
• June 6, Wednesday: Rain. Sowing turnips at the bottom.
• June 7, Thursday: Cloudy. Sowing potatoes at the bottom.
• June 16, Saturday: Fine. Hoeing potatoes at the bottom.
• June 17, Sunday: Fine. A. Westmorland called on his way home from Nanaimo.
• June 18, Monday: Indian John is helping us hoe potatoes. He killed a deer in our garden.
• June 19, Tuesday: Fine day. Finished hoeing potatoes.
• June 20, Wednesday: Father returned from Victoria.
• June 21, Thursday: Fine. R. Westmorland helped us cut the calves. All is well.
• June 22, Friday: Cloudy. Weeding little apple trees by the well.
• June 23, Saturday: Cloudy. Banking potatoes at the spit.
• June 24, Sunday: Cloudy. AM I went to J. Hamilton to borrow his horse and saddle. PM I went across the bay and received the six dollars from J. Davis for [unclear].
• June 25, Monday: Raining.
• June 26, Tuesday: Showery. Working in the blacksmith shop.
• June 27, Wednesday: Showery. J. and R. Hamilton called.
• June 28, Thursday: AM banking potatoes at the bottom.
• June 29, Friday: Fine day. Weeding at the bottom. 5:30, weeding carrots.

August 1883

• August 11, Saturday: I took J. Hirst across [unclear].
• August 12, Sunday: I went to the head of the [unclear] and brought our calf home.
• August 13, Monday: Mowing [farm?]. All is well.
• August 14, Tuesday: Cutting oats at the bottom. The Bay is all in clouds of smoke from heavy bush fires.
• August 15, Wednesday: Binding oats.
• August 16, Thursday: Hauling oats home.
• August 17, Friday: Father and I went and cleaned the N.W. Bay so the fire don't cross it.
• August 18, Saturday: Father is gone to keep the [fire?] from coming on the cattle range.

Transcribed from my great-grandfather’s handwritten diary. Unclear words are marked rather than guessed.