IMH 74:4, 324-25

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

Monday October 4, 1880

More people were here to-day than have been here on any one day in a long time before this. First came Charlie Warthen(10)
to buy the two oldest steer calves. After considerable talk he went away without buying them. Wat came along however and after
a short talk decided to take them but could not drive them into the upper 80. Second came Bill Hand (11) who sacked up 6 bushels
of his wheat and spent most of the forenoon cutting part of our crop of buckwheat   The third arrival was "Marget," wife of Joseph
Ballinger(12) who came to get Pap to build Joseph's chimney. Fourth Wat and Dob Whitson (13) as , aforesaid. Fifth Bob Foster(14)
who came to get Bill Hand's wheat and staid till sundown; nearly two hours. His boys came down from school and went home
when he did. Father worked most of the time at his building assisted by Alvin when A. wasn't helping Mother wash. I took the
wagon; went over to Cal Curtis's,(15) got the harrow and four bushels of wheat which Cal owed us as part pay for old Becky Jane
the cow. I started a little before noon but was till nearly two o'clock getting home. Afterward I harrowed on the ground broken
lately till night Weather comfortably cool, nearly clear.

Teaching Notes:
In this entry, one meets many of the neighbors that enter the Harrison's life throughout the journal. It might be a student ...or teacher
project to make a chart identifying the people that dot the journal. There are enough people listed in the journal, that you could
assign each student in your class to "be" one of the people listed. Furthermore, researching old plat maps, cemetery records, newspaper
obituaries to discover more about their person, could be an enticing "extra credit" project. Several of the men listed were Civil War
veterans...the war being only 15 years past. This could lead into a much larger research project for a student or group of students.

Buckwheat is really not wheat at all and makes a very interesting and tasty ( for some ) flour. You might bring in a bit of buckwheat flour and
even some grain if you can find it. It is an ingredient in pigeon feed, so if you know a person that raises pigeons, you're in luck.

Taking grains of wheat and buckwheat from grain to flour in 1880 would be a most interesting power point or poster board project and
would point out the necessity of mills in 19th century America.

One also sees the practice of bartering...in this case wheat for a cow.

Harrowing the ground was necessary to break up the large clumps of ground made while plowing. Imagine walking for 6-10 hours
across plowed ground driving a horse..or oxen and dragging an harrow. Here is a link to a picture of a harrow.