"WEDNESDAY, Dec 13. (1876) Mr. W. was in town. I went over to Centre Grove to Wm. Woodward's and had dinner with them, after which Mr. W. and I went over to Thomas Metcalfe's, to spend the afternoon. His cow, 6 years old, for which he gave $30, worth $40 now, had calven the other night. In England it would have sold in calf for (pounds) 20 readily on account of its milking qualities. Cleminson, of whom he takes his farm "not yet entered upon" had four cows standing in the yard worth say (pounds) 15 all round in England and valued at $25 each here. Thomas looks well and his wife and children too. Joseph Reynoldson was there. We had tea, and Mrs. Metcalfe brought out her best china ware, which she brought out with her from England. We saw Joseph Brunskill's eldest son, driving a team. They tie their cows in the stalls by a rope with a noose thrown over the horns and knotted through a hole in the side of the stall. I walked home and found Mr. Woodward ready to go o! ut to Mrs. Waller's, so I went with him. We (Miss Spensley, Miss Coates, Miss Roberts, and ourselves) played snap. Mrs. Waller and Mrs. Roberts, her daughter, looking on. Mr. J. R. Waller not at home." NOTE: "Joseph Brunskill, Sr. owned 65 acres in Table Mound Township near the village of Ballyclough, about 6 miles south-west of Centre Grove. His two sons, Joseph, Jr. and James W., formerly of Medina, Ohio, also farmed in the same area and previously had run a smelter in Centre Grove. Childs, Dubuque County History, 924; Dubuque County Directory, 42. jiminal