Nate Bullock
Grandpa Gurley's 1898 Diary
Gurley Madison Bullock turned eighteen in March of 1898 on a farm near Boonville, Indiana, and wrote down what happened nearly every day that year. The family kept a hand-copied version in a binder. I photographed it, transcribed all 97 pages as written, and started filling in the world around it.
A Baptist church in a southern Indiana town, drawn from a photograph. Not his church, but the kind.
Elmer Perkins came over on the 1st and the and I went up to Deem Bail's to get my shot gun which Bert had borrowd and then we went a hunting and I got 1 Rabbit arrived home about 1 oclock. We taken a sleigh ride in the evening scarcly enough snow. It snowed nearly all day and was fifth cold.
I got 30 cts of comedy for New Years what did you get.
Transcribed as written, spelling and all.
Born March 11, 1880, the son of a General Baptist minister who shows up in the diary as "Pa." He spent the spring term at Oakland City College and the rest of the year working the farm, hunting, and going to church. The Spanish-American War arrives partway through, one newspaper at a time. He's four generations up from me: Gurley, then my great-grandfather, my grandfather James, my dad, and me.