 |
Daniel A. Landes Diaries: Index
These color scans were made on a flatbed scanner at 300 dpi resolution. No attempts have been made to correct the scans regarding color, saturation, brightness/contrast, etc. Due to the age and deterioration of some of the diaries, and also because many were written in pencil, it is difficult to read some entries. I have had success in opening an individual page in PhotoShop® and then adjusting the image using the Shadows/Highlights mode.
The diaries are of two types: (1) ledgers consisiting of ruled pages with collumns, and (2) formal diaries printed by the Standard Diary Company, Cambridge, MA. These 'formal' diaries contain a calendar for the current year along with a series of tables: weights and measures, interest rates, rate of income on stocks, postage rates, standard railroad times, Presidents of the US, antidotes for poisons, what to do in case of specific accidents, interpretation of weather signals from the US Signal Corp, interest laws for all states, money exchange rates for various countries, business law terms in daily use, Feast and Festival dates of the Church year, list of eclipses for the year, tide tables, and phases of the moon along with sunrises and sunsets.
1877 - This is not a diary but a ledger. Measures approx. 6.5" x 4". Contains among other things, an inventory of what appears to be store goods: dry goods, drugs, notions, etc., as well as some personal notes such as birthdates of his children. It is particularly interesting to see this store-goods ledger of 1877 because the 1882 WV State Gazzatteer and Business Directory lists D. A. Landes as a blacksmith and running a general store in Brushy Run. So this ledger is good documentation of that entry:
1878 - 1879. No diaries exist for these years.
1880 - Contains expense ledgers and diary entries by month. The diary entries are generally very brief - only 1 line. This is among the most fragile of the diaries. The cover is brown paper card stock and shows signs of damage on the edges and corners from insects and/or mice. There is evidence of water damage throughout. The pages are not numbered and many (15 or so) are blank. Blank pages were not scanned.
1881 - 1886. No diaries exist for these years.
1887-88-89 - The cover was evidently lost for this diary. This ledger diary include the years 1887, 1888, and Jan. 1 - 11 for 1889. The remainder of 1889 is recorded in a separate diary. There are no entries from October 28, 1887 - December 31, 1887.
1889 - [Ledger] Contains notes on his postal routes and activities for sub-contracting postal carriers. Also, contains entries describing their move from Franklin to Upper Tract.
1890 - [Standard Diary Company] This particular diary is important because it contains Daniel's full signature on the final page: Daniel Andrew Landes.
1891 - [Ledger] This diary also has entries for January - February, 1892, and those entries were then transcribed into the separate 1892 diary.
1892 - [Ledger] The beginning of the diary is a ledger which contains what appears to be an inventory for the store that Becca was running in Upper Tract, WV. The diary ends with one entry for August 6, 1892. The last several pages are survey notes "for Joel Homan (?) to W. P. Harper" and appears to be dated March 22, 1898.
1893-1904. Unfortunately, no diaries exist for these years, and especially so for 1894 -- the year that Daniel's father, Jesse Landes, died.
1905 - [Standard Diary Company] [3" x 4 3/4" x 3/4"] There are no entries for January 1 - January 11, 1905.
1906 - [Standard Diary Company] [3" x 4 3/4" x 3/4"]
1907 - [Standard Diary Company] [3" x 4 3/4" x 3/4"]
1908 - [Standard Diary Company] [3" x 4 3/4" x 3/4"]
1909 - [Standard Diary Company] [3" x 6" x 3/4"]
1910 - No diary exists for this year.
1911 - [Standard Diary Company] [3" x 6" x 3/4"] In the frontpiece of this diary Daniel lists some personal information: height, weight, shoe size, etc.
1913 - [Ledger] [6" x 3 3/4" x 3/8"] January 1 - 8, 1914 are also included in this diary. Those specific dates (Jan. 1-8) are then transcribed into the beginning of the 1914 diary, with minor changes. Daniel wrote his name and the year (1913) on the back inside cover of the diary, but it is 'upside-down'. Probably he wrote that there by mistake, then wrote it again in the inside front cover.
1914 - [Ledger] [6" x 3 3/4" x 3/8"] January 1 - February 20, 1915 are also included in this diary. Those specific dates (Jan. 1-8) are then transcribed into the beginning of the 1915-16 diary, with minor changes.
1915-16 - [Ledger] [4" x 6 7/8" x 1/2"] This diary spans January 1, 1915 - December 31, 1916.
1917-18 - [Ledger] This diary spans January 1, 1917 - May 31, 1918 and is an especially important diary because it documents the names of Daniel's grandparents, and consequently the mother and father of Jesse Landes of Brushy Run. See pp. 'EFGH'.
1918-19 - [Ledger] [3 3/4" x 6 1/8" x 3/8"] This diary spans June 1, 1918 - November 15, 1919.
1919-20 - [Ledger] [ 3 1/2" 6" x 1/4"] This diary spans November 16, 1919 - December 31, 1920.
1921 - No diary exists for January 1, 1921 - November 26, 1921. A separate note-pad was found which has diary entries from December 1, 1921 through January 3, 1922 and February 1 through 25, 1924 - but these entries are later transcribed into the formal diaries of 1921-23 and 1924 below. There are some small differences in the entries, but not enough to be noteworthy.
1921-23 - [Ledger][3 1/2" x 6" x 3/8"]This diary spans November 27, 1921 - April 30, 1923.
1923 - [Ledger] [3 1/2" x 6" x 1/4"] This diary spans May 1, 1923 - December 31, 1923.
1924 - [Ledger] [3 1/2" x 5 7/8" x 1/4"] This diary spans January 1, 1924 - December 31, 1924.
1925-26 - No diaries exist for these years.
1927 - [Ledger] [3 7/8" x 5 7/8" x 1/4"] This diary spans January 1, 1927 - December 31, 1927.
1928-29 - No diaries exist for these years.
1930 - [Standard Diary Company] [4 3/4" x 3" x 3/4"] This is the last year for which we have diaries for Daniel A. Landes. He died on Nov. 30, 1934 and is buried in the Landes-Dolly Cemetery located on the Bland Hills Rd. near Riverton, WV.
