This collection contains Frank E. Witmer's original 1879 diary, as well as a transcription and index prepared by Dr. David H. Wallace. The diary provides a detailed record of the daily activities of all members of the family. He primarily records the work involved in running a truck farm--planting, maintaining, and harvesting crops, and preparing for market. Other entries of interest include helping a neighbor move a carriage house; building a hog pen; canning; attendance at several Mennonite churches in the area; the process of moving from one house and barn to a new house and barn on the property; frequent visits between relatives and neighbors; and a few mentions of school and the leisure activities of the young men.
Admin/Biographical History
In 1879, Franklin E. Witmer (1855-1931), at age 23, was the eldest son of Aaron L. Witmer, farmer of West Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and his wife Mary Ann (Herr) Witmer. The household also included his younger brothers Abraham (Abram), 21, and Jacob Elam (Elem), 19; two school-age girls Sarah Dunlap, 13, an apprentice servant, and Hettie Fritz, 8, a ward of Mr. and Mrs. Witmer; and for part of the year a teen-age boarder-farm hand , Thaddeus (Thad) Brackbill. In Frank's diary, each person's activity was recorded daily, almost as if he had set himself a deliberate project to do so.
Mr. Witmer's truck farm embraced fields of grain (wheat, oats and rye), several acres of tobacco, a varied fruit orchard, a large truck garden, and a greenhouse for vegetables and flowering plants, a small herd of dairy cattle, some hogs and chickens; enough variety to make year-round weekly visits to market in Lancaster. During the year the family moved into a new house, raised a new barn, stables, hog-pen and chicken-house, and rented the old house and barn to a tenant farmer, Jacob Dieter.
The Witmers were Mennonites, regularly attending church in Lampeter Twp. and Strasburg, and occasionally in New Providence and Lancaster. Sarah and Hettie and briefly Elam, attended the Lampeter School. Their chief source of entertainment seems to have been visiting among their extended Witmer and Herr families and neighbors, although Abram and Elam sometimes attended "singing school" and the Lampeter Lyceum and did some "driving about" of an evening. Only Abram seems to have had a special girlfriend.
Although all the men of the family did everything in the way of farm chores, each of the boys also had a specialty. Frank, the oldest, had his own corn and tobacco patches to tend and market, Abram tended to concentrate on the greenhouse and truck-garden, and Elam helped his father provide veterinary services to other farmers in the area.
Frank Witmer married Mary Ann Herr on November 30, 1881; he continued general farming in West Lampeter Township, died there on December 10, 1931, and was buried in the Mennonite cemetery in nearby Willow Street, Pennsylvania.
This history was prepared by Dr. David H. Wallace.
Please use transcription and index, MG0847_F002 and MG0847_F003.
Original diary may be used by appointment--contact research@lancasterhistory.org at least two weeks prior to visit.
Copyright
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Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Accession Number
2021.011
Other Numbers
MG-847
Other Number
MG-847, Folder 1
Classification
MG0847
Description Level
Item
Custodial History
PDFs of the transcription and index are attached to the correlating records.
This collection contains records of the Wheatland Diner, including correspondence, advertising, menu, recipe cards, blueprints and documents for the sale of the property. Newspaper articles report the plan for and delivery of the diner ,fires, 1956 fatal accident, problems with teenage customers and the sale of the property.
Long's Park Amphitheater Foundation, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Access Conditions / Restrictions
Please use digital images. Original documents may be used by appointment--contact Research@LancasterHistory.org prior to visit.
Copyright
Researchers may access the digital files and the history of Long's Park Amphitheater and the Summer Music Series for educational and research purposes according to United States copyright law. (see below)
The reproduction, in any form, of copyrighted material is governed by the copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). Under certain "Fair Use" conditions specified in the law, institutions are authorized to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction, including for educational and research purposes. If a user makes a request for, or later uses, a reproduction for purposes beyond "fair use," that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Credit
Courtesy of LancasterHistory, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
La Bible : qui est toute la saincte escriture du Vieil et du Nouueau Testament: autrement l'anciene & la nouuelle alliance, le tout reueu & confere̹ sur les textes Hebrieux & Grecs par les pasteurs & professeurs de l'eglise de Geneue. Augmente̹ d'indices & figures necessaires pour le contentement du lecteur
Bible, qvi est tovte la saincte escritvre dv Vieil & du Novveav Testament
Place of Publication
A Geneve
Publisher
[Iacob ChoueÃŒâ¸t],
Date of Publication
1608.
Physical Description
[8], 456, [1], 99, 133, [90] leaves : music ; 25 cm
Notes
Signatures: ii, iij, iiij, A¹Ìþ-Z¹Ìþ, Aa℗ø-LL℗ø, Aâ„—Ä‘-Nâ„—Ä‘, AA¹Ìþ-XX¹Ìþ, AAa¹Ìþ-IIh¹Ìþ.
Includes indexes.
Title vignette.
Double column text; historiated initials; head- and tail-pieces; printed marginalia.
Preliminary material includes an introductory epistle, preface by Calvin.
"Les sous-nomme̹s marchans libraires & imprimeurs ont par la permission des spectables ministres de l'Eglise de Geneue fait imprimer ceste bible ... Ce premier Iuillet. M. DCVIII. Iean le Preux, Iacob ChoueÃŒâ¸t, & Samuel Boreau", p. [11].
Books of Exodus and I Kings with illustrative figures.
"Les pseaumes de David mis en rime Francoise par Clement Marot, & Theodore de Beze," "La forme des prieres ecclesiastiques ...," "Le cathechisme ..." : l. [21]-[77] at end.
Contains "Les livres apocryphes."
Title page missing; some information written on first leaf.
Conserved in 1997 by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, Philadelphia
Poem, recipe, and song in older French not translated.
Genealogy of Isaac Lefevre and siblings (1660-1680) on back of leaf 104.
Genealogy of the children of Isaac Lefevre and Feree (1706-1719) on front of leaf 456.
Genealogy of Joseph Lefevre and Salome (1785-1826) on back of leaf 134 and continued on the front of leaf [1].
Genealogy of John Lefever and Elizabeth McClung and children (1823-1861) on front of second flyleaf.
Translations of some information on leaf 105 and leaf 456 attached on back of second and third flyleaves.
Letter of transmittal dated 22 April 1935 from Farmers Trust Company of Lancaster to the Lancaster Historical Society of the Lefevre family bible per the wishes of Elizabeth Lefevre.
Viewing bibles contingent on staff availability, an appointment is required.
Lefevre family bible.
Obituary of Mary Lefever, age 45. (newspaper clipping, dated February 25?)
"Full leather over wooden boards, brass clasps with (missing) leather straps trhough the fold onto four raised cords." Note of conservator.
Reuised, corrected, and enlarged, in the 4th yeare of the peaceable raigne of Our Most Gracious King Iames.
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for the Company of Stationers,
Date of Publication
1607.
Physical Description
[2], 621, [81] pages ; 17 cm (8vo)
Notes
Author statement follows edition statement on t.p.
Printed by Adam Islip. Cf. STC.
Signatures: A-2Xâ¸.
Errors in paging: p. 315, 317, and 619 incorrectly numbered 215, 217, and 519 respectively.
Jasper Yeates's Colonial Law Library.
Signature of Yeates at top of title page.
Signature of Richard Dauxell on back of title page.
Book number 229 as assigned by Yeates.
With: Lambarde, William. The duties of constables, borsholders, tythingmen ... London : Printed for the Companie of Stationers, 1606. Bound together subsequent to publication.
In 1879, Franklin E. Witmer (1855-1931), at age 23, was the eldest son of Aaron L. Witmer, farmer of West Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and his wife Mary Ann (Herr) Witmer. The household also included his younger brothers Abraham (Abram), 21, and Jacob Elam (Elem), 19; two school-age girls Sarah Dunlap, 13, an apprentice servant, and Hettie Fritz, 8, a ward of Mr. and Mrs. Witmer; and for part of the year a teen-age boarder-farm hand , Thaddeus (Thad) Brackbill. In Frank's diary, each person's activity was recorded daily, almost as if he had set himself a deliberate project to do so.
Mr. Witmer's truck farm embraced fields of grain (wheat, oats and rye), several acres of tobacco, a varied fruit orchard, a large truck garden, and a greenhouse for vegetables and flowering plants, a small herd of dairy cattle, some hogs and chickens; enough variety to make year-round weekly visits to market in Lancaster. During the year the family moved into a new house, raised a new barn, stables, hog-pen and chicken-house, and rented the old house and barn to a tenant farmer, Jacob Dieter.
The Witmers were Mennonites, regularly attending church in Lampeter Twp. and Strasburg, and occasionally in New Providence and Lancaster. Sarah and Hettie and briefly Elam, attended the Lampeter School. Their chief source of entertainment seems to have been visiting among their extended Witmer and Herr families and neighbors, although Abram and Elam sometimes attended "singing school" and the Lampeter Lyceum and did some "driving about" of an evening. Only Abram seems to have had a special girlfriend.
Although all the men of the family did everything in the way of farm chores, each of the boys also had a specialty. Frank, the oldest, had his own corn and tobacco patches to tend and market, Abram tended to concentrate on the greenhouse and truck-garden, and Elam helped his father provide veterinary services to other farmers in the area.
Frank Witmer married Mary Ann Herr on November 30, 1881; he continued general farming in West Lampeter Township, died there on December 10, 1931, and was buried in the Mennonite cemetery in nearby Willow Street, Pennsylvania.
This history was prepared by Dr. David H. Wallace.
The article surveys the following topics: The purchasing of tobacco by agents; warehouse architecture; the sorting and packing that took place in the warehouses; and some of the companies and their owners who built the warehouses.
Contained In
Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society. Volume 120, number 4 (2020), p. 210-245Lancaster History Library - Journal974.9 L245 v.120 n.4
in part collect per Sir Anthonie Fitzherbert, chiualer, iades vn de les iustices del common banke ; et ore le cinque foits inlarge per Richard Crompton, vn apprentice de la common ley et imprimee lan du grace 1606 ; a que est annex loffice de viconts, bailises, escheators, constables, coroners, &c. ; collect per le dit Mounsieur Fitzherbert in part ; et auxy certaine presidents de indictments & auters choses ...
