IMH 74:4 348

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Saturday, November 20th

I was in a rather singular state of feeling physically this day. I had a small toothache, during the night and found the
pain scattered in a kind of neuralgic affection through my whole system. I wrote a letter to Grandmother this
forenoon and sent it when Pap went to town. He and Alvin finished threshing out the buckwheat and about
eleven o'clock Father started to town. He got the grinding which he had left last Thursday and a pair of stoga
boots79 for Alvin. While he was gone I chored around and Alvin fanned out buckwheat. The day was clear,
a great deal warmer then yesterday but no very fast thawing was done yet.

Teaching Notes: Indications from the journal entries seem to show that William Gregory has a tooth abscess.
Remind the students that this was before any antibiotics, Imagine life  with that situation. Of course, this might
also lead to a class discussion of antibiotic resistance and the host of associated problems we are facing in the 21st century.

The semi trucks of 18th and 19th century America were often large (around 16 feet)
conestoga wagons. These wagons were first introduced by Amish families living in the Conestoga valley in
Pennsylvania. The drivers must have been a colorful lot. Several words and expressions have been added to  our
language as a consequence of their vocation and living style. "Meet me with your bells on" refers to the practice that
the freighters had sets of bells that sort of warned folks that they were approaching. If your wagon became
stuck in mud or snow, the fee often was bells...thus the expression. We also often refer to a cigar as a "stogie" and
in this journal entry we see William Gregory referring to boots as "stoga" boots which probably mimicked the
knee high boots worn by the drivers. This entry provides a good opportunity to discuss the growth of expressions
in language. See if the students can recall any...such as "google someone" or "nuke a dinner." Here is a web site
teachers might want to visit.