In Spring 2016, students in Dr. Emek Ergun’s Women’s Studies class volunteered at the Historical Society of Cheshire County to transcribe a two-volume dairy of Addie Noyes, a female farm owner in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, in the 1880s.
Augustus and Persis Noyes owned a farm on the southern end of Westmoreland near the boundary with Chesterfield. They had eight children–most of whom moved away. However, their daughter Addie stayed at home and helped her father after the death of her mother. Addie inherited the farm upon the death of her father in 1888. The journals begin at that point and document–sometimes in great detail–the day to day life of farming in the late 19th century. Addie’s diaries cover the period from her father’s last illness and death to 1895 which was 5 years before Addie died.
Scans of the Original Diary and its Transcription will be made available soon!