IMH 74:4 354

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Saturday, December 4th

The day opened with heavy fog almost rain. It did begin to rain in real earnest about noon and was
pelting it down at bed-time in soaking style. The snow began to disappear but ice seemed to take
its place in the roads, paths etc. Father and Alvin were at work putting the loft in the cow-barn. They
used up all the lumber around that was suitable. Between eleven and twelve o'clock we hitched to
the hack and Father started to town. He was back at three. Alvin and I had made wood while he
was gone but had'n't got enough for Sunday when it began raining so hard we had to quit. We got
a letter from Granddmother who had $100 spare cash that she wanted to lend to us at 6% interest
which was about all there was of the letter. The daguerreotype was found at Mt. Vernon.

A walk through the cow-barn when the cows are in stanchhions makes one think of the public
pillories of the olden time.

Teaching Notes: Understanding primary sources and making them useful to students relies
on teaching context. How did this fact or opinion appear in the contexts of the time it was written? Is a
question that needs to be addressed often.So much inaccuracy  and misinterpretations comes from
errors that don't address context. In this entry we have a "teachable moment" when William Gregory
refers to the pillories of "olden times." To your students, William Gregory is "olden times," but to
William Gregory, olden times were the early New England pilgrim days and his day was just as your
students see their own contemporary time period