August 1857 Su 23 I staid about home ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Mo 24 We cleared off a tromping floor and cut and halled a gum to go in our Spring ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Tue 25 Ephraim and myself dug a water trough it rained some today and all night ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- We 26 I worked the road we finished and got back by dinner and after dinner I worked at our ? ( first 2 letters look like gu, last 2 look like an , middle letters could be a some combination of s, n, or , r ) and spring and cut of our water trough it rained a good part of the evening and very hard a part of the time ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Thu 27 It rained nearly half of the day nothing done before dinner after dinner We worked in our tobacco ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Fri 28 I went to Husks mill and took my plow to the shop but did not get it layed after dinner I helped Wm Winkler saw some wheet gums(?) John worked in the tobacco ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- Satu 29 I went to Owensboro to pay off our wheet fan note John worked in the tobacco and cut weeds in the yard ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Davis's handwriting normally isn't too hard to read but the short letters , r, s, m and n combined with vowels do tend to run all together. Obviously if they didn't have a well then the spring was very important. There must have been very specific techniques to keeping it running clean and accessable. The word "gum" in the context of working on the spring doesn't make sense to me. I'm not sure that I'm reading it right and my lack of knowledge of 19th century farm engineering doesn't help.

I've been reading a book about Appalachian Mountain folklore and recipes. I think that I found the answer in a roud about way. The writer mentions that hollow sweet gum logs were used as bee hives and also for storage containers. I expect there is a reason why a gum makes an especially good hollow log. Since they couldn't run down to Home Depot and pick up a piece of PVC pipe, I can see where a nice, clean hollow log might come in handy . >Mo 24 We cleared off a tromping floor and cut and halled a gum to go in our Spring > The word "gum" in the context of working on the spring doesn't > make sense to me. I'm not sure that I'm reading it right and my lack of > knowledge of 19th century farm engineering doesn't help. > > ==== KYDAVIES Mailing List ==== > To Unsubscribe to this list in digest mode, send a message to > KYDAVIES-D-request@rootsweb.com with the word > UNSUBSCRIBE > in the body of the message. > Turn off signature file for all commands > > ============================== > Search over 1 Billion names at Ancestry.com! > http://www.ancestry.com/rd/rwlist1.asp >