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.
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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.
