George H. Lang Rye, NH June 6, 1827 - July 12, 1901
Narrative by Kendra Gemmett from transcripted diaries of George Lang
George Lang, to be written here as GL, wrote unfailingly of his daily activities, and year in and year out, he chronicled the weather. His journals mention very little about his family, never his wife, but by the time the journals began, 1875, his children (George William 1855, Sophronia 1857, Hezekiah Perry 1859) were grown and on their own, but mentions that George helped him, or he helped George, and very occasional visits “Fronia.”
The journals represent a careful documentation of farm life in Rye in this period with not only daily reports on weather, but also on deaths and sometimes births. Well known area names are present: Martha Jenness, Jefferson Rand, Wm. Remick, Moody Watson, Josephine Lock, Almira Garland, Mary Seavy, Oliver Lock, to name just a few.
Dispassionately, GL wove into his days the work that he did either for himself, or for others as a source of income.
He: cut fire wood, split logs, picked up wood, dug graves, moved the deceased from one resting place to another, harvested apples and hauled bushels to the cider mill, spread seaweed on gardens, cut grass, harvested salt hay, planted and dug potatoes, sowed and harvested all manner of other garden vegetables, hauled manure, dug up old trees, hauled kelp for hens, painted houses inside and out, hooped cider barrels, cut sod, husked feed corn, did road work, killed chickens, sows and cuts rye, and more. He also washed and mended his own clothes.
In addition to daily labor, GL was an entrepreneur, ordering such things as oranges, bananas, figs, and peanuts, which he then sold locally. He accumulated a barrel of shells, and sold them one by one, also sold soap.
GL spent several summers with his Aunt Mary in Mount Holyoke, South Hadley, Mass. where he “hauled” tourists up the mountain by horse drawn carriage for sight-seeing and continued to do the kind of daily labor he did at home to earn money.
At year’s ending and beginnings, GL might make journal entries outside his normal documentation of work and weather:
“This is the last day of the departing year. How have we lived up right and Honorable? Who can answer it? How shall we live in the coming year?” 12/31/1875
“This is the first day of the year. How many will live to see the end of the year…..” 1/1/1877
“I behold another year has commence and how many of us shall live to its close…may we all look back at its close and say I have done well.” 1/1/1879
Some unusual entries:
1/1/1883, Earthquake
2/17/1878, Eclipse of the moon
Ground hard frozen in May
7/6/1882, “great heat — 100 in the shade”
Daily weather well described, but rarely gives temperature, stated as “mercury.” April 1891 is the first mention of “glass at…” and thenceforth it is stated nearly daily, though no mention of purchasing such a tool is made.
GL seems never to take time off, though once to a fair in Maine, and once to Savannah, are noted. He mentions nothing at all on Christmas. “Decoration” day is noted.
Incredibly, his entry for July 10, 1901: “dug grave for Mr Goodwin to Bury His Mother she died at Exiter NH age 87 years.”
July 11 — “Thursday Glass 64 above, cloudy and Hot wind variable, shower of rain fall two O’clock afternoon and still continues, do good”
George H. Lang died the next day.
