Alice Langdon’s 1880 Diary
Alice was born 15 November 1856 in Mackford, Green Lake, Wisconsin to Rufus and Catherine Langdon. She was 23 years old when she began this diary. On her 24th birthday she noted that she “received two birthday preasents”. Just over a month later she died of Typhoid fever on Christmas day.
• Notice of death January 6th, 1881
“Green Lake Democrat”.
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Once again, thanks to Ginger Westfall! These are multiple page PDF files.
1 January through 30 March 1880
9 July through 1 November 1880
2 November through 13 December 1880
From Ginger’s email:
Here are some entries I found interesting;
1/3 could mark Basden have been a suitor?
1/8 "Aunt Malissa Tillie & Uncle Ed",
1/12 "Erwin went back to Ripon", 1/13 "Ma and I went to Mill & Markesean", 1/16 "Uncle E & Aunt M went to Manchester",
1/25 "Erwin and I went to Episcopal Church .. Congregation in evening"
2/10 "Uncle E & Aunt Malissa went to Brandon..", Note how she spells Malissa
2/15 "Ma, Herbert, Oscar and I",
2/ 22 "Ma, Ferdinand and I.." I wonder who Ferdinand is?
2/29 "Mary, Newt, the children and I went to Charlie Groves.",
3/2 "Mary and I went to Oakfield",
4/1 "I had a splendid visit today and like Mr. Chitende very much.."
4/4 "Mark Barder and I had quite a visit & Henry Stone got mad."
4/5 "Ed Stickle came her.. Cousin Ed",
4/9 "I white washed the kitchen.." 4/17 ".. and painted the floor up stairs."
5/ "Ma and Herbert went to Packwaukee", 5/7 "Ma and I went to Markesan and I stayed with Mary..",
5/16 "Ma and I went to Dedication of the Baptist Church..",
7/3 "Ferdinand, Herbert, Oscar and I went to Kingston.."
7/10 "Ma, Herbert, Shirm and Fred Clark came here with some sheep.."
7/14 ..." John Langdon and Jack Clifford came here".. 7/18..." J Clifford came to see John L.", 7/28 .."John Langdon was here."
11/2 ..." Oscar and I went skating.
The pages are gone after December 13. It would seem Alice was quite a seamstress and appears she did most of the house work. It's going to be interesting to see what C Langdon's diary has to tell us. I'm kind of gathering Mary lived in Markesean.
And who is John Langdon? Persons Introduced to.. These may give some leads to more of our history.
Newspaper Articles From The Area ••••••
I’ll be adding local news articles in this area that should help flesh out who and what she’s talking about.
• February 27 • Calico Dance
• March 2 • Mary and Newton Clark go to Oakfield
Ferdinand ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
1880 Census
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The image above shows Catherine 3 years after Rufus’ death living in Wisconsin with sons Oscar, Herbert and daughter Alice. They also have a 15 year old male living with them who is listed as Farm Laborer. His name is Ferdinand Haas.
Ferdinand Haas Buried in Markesan
This looks like him. According to the above census he would have been born abt 1865. He named one of his sons Erwin. Here’s a link to him in Find-A-Grave:
Here’s his obit in the “Markesan Herald”.
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Here’s his obit in the “Waupun Leader-News”.
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His two sons died in 1906. The first died in January and the second died almost a year later in December. Scarlett fever and diptheria were raging in the area.
Here’s a link to an aticle from 4 Jan, 1912. LINK
His first wife passed in 1918. It looks like he married again after her death.
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This is a screenshot of a Bing Bird’s Eye View map. It shows where She and father Rufus died. She is buried with her father. There’s a great PDF with photos of most of these locations on the Rufus Elder page. LINK
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Langdon Children c. 1872
Alice, Erwin, Esther, Herbert and baby Oscar. Oscar was born 21 Jun 1871, so the photo may date to late 1871. Mary was married to Newton Dodge Clark Feb. 22, 1872. I wonder if all of these photos were taken at that time?
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NOTE: Great new scan of this image from descendant of Herbert’s daughter Mary and her daughter Lilly Anne.
