1864 - 1939 FASCINATING AND UNIQUE HANDWRITTEN RETROSPECTIVE JOURNAL AND DIARY DOCUMENTING ALMOST THE ENTIRETY OF ONE WOMAN’S LIFE, FROM BIRTH TO SHORTLY BEFORE HER DEATH, THROUGH TWO WORLD WARS, THE GREAT DEPRESSION, GREAT HAPPINESS AND TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
On offer is an fascinating diary, chronicling in fantastic detail and comprehensiveness, the entire life of a Mrs. Carrie Cecilia Cole Frye. The diary was begun in 1908, but it beg ins all the way back from her birth in 1864. She details her childhood, family life, parents, brothers and sisters, notable births, deaths, marriages, her marriage to Robert John Frye, the first time she was able to vote for President, her family being quarantined for a Smallpox outbreak, and so much more, all the way up to 1939. This is a tremendously unique document, covering a person’s entire life in unprecedented detail. From reading this diary, it is easy to see that Mrs. Cole had an exceptional and truly fulfilled life. Born on February 18, 1864, in Portage City, Wisconsin, to a family with ten other children, she writes about moving around the state often. A child of strict parents, she began working at 10 years old for her room, board, and education. In 1882 she met Robert John Fry, a 34-year-old Civil War veteran, whom she would later marry on July 2, 1884. She and Robert Fry had five children (one passed away in her infancy) and homesteaded on a 40-acre ranch just north of Lakewood, Wisconsin. She talks about numerous positions she held as housekeeper, caregiver, and cook, always returning, however, to the homestead in the spring and summer. In 1909, Robert Fry became quite ill and moved into the Wisconsin Veteran's home. Shortly after her husband moved in, Mrs. Cole followed, first rooming in Marston Hall. At this point she became the primary bread winner for the family and began working as a telephone operator for the Veteran's home, making $15.00 per month. She quickly ascended the ranks and earned the title of Chief Telephone Operator, along with a pay increase to $25.00 per month. On March 11, 1914, her husband and true love, Robert John Fry, passed away from "prolonged paralysis of the limbs and a heart seizure." She ended up selling the family farm, netting $800.00, and on September 1, 1914, left her post as Chief Telephone Operator, and began working for the post office as Assistant Postmistress for $20.00 per hour. Again, she ascended through the ranks through sheer hard work and determination, ultimately achieving position as the Head Postmistress. Interestingly, she also tells of the first time she was able to vote, in the first election after Women's Suffrage (the 19th Amendment) had been passed into law. She notes on September 22, 1923, that she received a telegram from Washington D.C., saying that she will be receiving pension pay as soon as she submits the appropriate paperwork as the President had signed the Omnibus Bill into law. She sees the beginning of World War I with one of her sons volunteering to serve. She celebrates his safe return and the first Armistice Day Celebration on November 11, 1921. She also sees the Great Depression and the start of World War II. By the last few years of the book, she is a fairly old woman and her diary notes mostly weather, visits from friends and family, births and deaths. A life this fully detailed and chronicled is so very rarely found to be read and appreciated. This is an exceptionally interesting document of a life lived, through so much love, happiness, tragedy, and war, spanning 74 years of life. Though the text ends in 1939, Carrie C. Frye would live a few more year, until 1946. The diary is 98 pages long and each page is almost completely filled with writing, sometimes from the very top to the very bottom. On only two pages is there an instance of the whole page not being devoted to writing. On these two pages, Carrie has pasted cloth on the page that reads, “To The One I Love” and writes around it. The book is in very good condition. The front and back cover and spine are in good shape. It is a half-leather binding. The pages within are in good condition as well, exhibiting very little wear, rips, tears or discoloration. For the most part, the journal is easy to read, with Carrie’s script in black ink. Beginning in 1929 (around page 80), the days between entries begin to shrink, and the handwriting gets smaller and more cramped, making comprehension of the content more difficult. From 1933 on, especially, the handwriting is small, cramped and can be somewhat difficult to decipher at points. The black and blue ink used throughout the book shows only minimal signs of fading and is almost entirely confined to the first few pages. OVERALL: VG+ (Background: Caroline Cecilia “Carrie” Cole Frye was born on February 18, 1864 in Portage City, Columbia County, Wisconsin. She lived all 82 years of her life in Wisconsin and died on March 22, 1946 in King, Waupaca County.) TEXT: “Feb. 18, 1864 - Born Portage City Columbia Co. Wisconsin. Wednesday at 5 P.M.”; “1867 - Fall of this year moved with my Father Vernon Cole and mother Sarah Hay Cole to Spring Lake, Waushara Co., Wisconsin onto a farm of fifty acres called the Bailey Place”; “May 16, 1913 - John and I went home to Lakewood and Mountain for two weeks visit. John said I would never go with him again for he felt so miserable he did not think he would ever be able to go again.”; “February 3, 1914 - John Fry sustained second stroke of paralysis. I laid off working office and took care of him up to Feb. 17. When I went to work again. Laid off work again March 8. John Fry left this work of sorrow March 11 - 3:30 P.M. on Wednesday.”; “January 1, 1920 - I am entering on the New Year with good health and am trying to serve my God to the best of my ability. We are having our old fashioned winter with about one foot of new snow and up to the present date the coldest has been 30 below zero.”; “February 18, 1920 - I am 56 years old today. Still continues to be cold."; “November 2, 1920 - I voted the first time for President as the U.S. Woman's Suffrage became a law!"; “November 7, 1920 - Harry Hines took his wife May and Sarah, and Annie Mulligan and me for a ride by auto over the Columbia Highway; saw some grand sights and returned at his home at 9 p.m. and he took Sarah and Annie and me into Portland about ten miles from his home. Sarah and I stayed over night at the Y.W.C.A."; “November 11, 1921 - Armistice Day Celebration at Wis. Vets. Home in the evening at the Bryant Hall. I, C. C. Frye, spoke the following piece holding our glorious flag in my hand . . ."; December 1, 1921 - Robert J. Frye, my son, started from Heppner Oregon where he is living to go to Portland, Oregon 200 miles by train and at Celilo, Ore the train he was on and another passenger train came head on together. There was 10 killed and 60 injured including him. He was taken to hospital at Portland, Ore and placed in hospital. His sister Mrs. George Raney visited him. He was hurt in his side but not serious and was out of the hospital Dec 4 and to his sister's home and went home to Heppner Dec 5; The R.R. Co. paid all expenses and gave him $75.00."; “Sept. 15,1926 - This cloth was a sofa pillow that my son Vernon Frye sent me the fall of 1918 from Camp McClellan Alabama while he was in the service for Uncle Sam in the World War. I wore it on my bed in Wisc. Vets home until it got worse full of holes. I took it and cut it out and pasted it in this book to keep - Carrie C. Frye.” ; Manuscript; 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall; KEYWORDS: HISTORY OF, CARRIE CECILIA COLE FRYE, ROBERT JOHN FRYE, LIFE CHRONOLOGY, PORTAGE CITY, SPRING LAKE, WISCONSIN, 19TH CENTURY WISCONSIN, WISCONSIN VETERAN’S HOME, CHIEF TELEPHONE OPERATOR, POSTMISTRESS, GREAT DEPRESSION, WORLD WAR 1, WORLD WAR 2, CRADLE TO GRAVE, RETROSPECTIVE, AMERICANA, HANDWRITTEN, MANUSCRIPT, DOCUMENT, LETTER, AUTOGRAPH, WRITER, HAND WRITTEN, DOCUMENTS, SIGNED, LETTERS, MANUSCRIPTS, HISTORICAL, HOLOGRAPH, KEEPSAKE WRITERS, AUTOGRAPHS, PERSONAL, MEMOIR, MEMORIAL, ARCHIVE, DIARY, DIARIES, JOURNAL, LOG, ANTIQUITÉ, CONTRAT, VÉLIN, DOCUMENT, MANUSCRIT, PAPIER ANTIKE, BRIEF, PERGAMENT, DOKUMENT, MANUSKRIPT, PAPIER OGGETTO D’ANTIQUARIATO, ATTO, VELINA, DOCUMENTO, MANUSCRITTO, CARTA ANTIGÜEDAD, HECHO, VITELA, DOCUMENTO, MANUSCRITO, PAPEL