The Calls 1896-1915-1934

 On February 16, 1896, my great grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Coe (1862-1956), wife of Charles Joslin Call (1859-1939) of Stafford, Genesee County, New York, began writing what she called a family record. She wrote about her children, how she met her husband, why they had moved to Kansas for several years, etc

She continued to write in the Family Record on and off, in fits and starts for the next 25 years. Sometimes she would write several pages, and then put it down for a few years, and pick it up and write some more. Other times, she would go years without writing, and then glue in some letters or newspaper clippings. 

So unlike the Memories of the Calls, the Memories of the Coes, or The Call 1935-1943 - which look back on her life and her husband's life from a later vantage point, this one is written contemporaneously with the events she wrote about. 

The manuscript gives me a glimpse into what life was like in the late nineteenth century and first years of the twentieth century for a woman who was a wife and mother, living on a farm in Genesee County, New York, who was active in her church and in community organizations, primarily the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

I do not know the current location of the original manuscript. I am working from a photocopy of a photocopy of the manuscript very generously shared with me by a cousin. Unfortunately, when the original photocopies were made, the journal didn't completely fit on the copier, so part of the left-hand side of every other page was cut off. Sometimes, I can guess from the context what is missing, other times, I can't. I'll indicate with [...] where words or phrases are missing, and when I can make guess as to what the missing section is - I'll indicate it as [Evelyn?]

My plan is to transcribe the manuscript, posting it by sections, with notes on people Elizabeth mentions in the Family Record - with a linked list of posts here on this page. 

February 1896 - Children learning to walk, Evelyn's first words
Robert, Baby Pearl
Children's Diseases
How Charles and Elizabeth Met
Marriage
Moving to Wichita
Life in Wichita