Missionary Journal of Richard Adams Pilling |
Kelvin’s father and mother had a trunk of precious items which they donated to the church, so I had known about this project.
Doral had given me an old journal of his grandfather’s and Charlie asked if I would like to give it up.
They said that they would send me a photocopy of the journal and they would have it housed in a safe environment.
Page 1 of 200 |
I couldn’t give up the book, but told them that I would be happy to give them the photocopy and I would keep the original.
That wasn’t what they wanted and they left.
Over the years I have opened the journal and tried to read some of it.
I did that again today and have transcribed the first paragraph, thinking that others might find it as charming as I do.
Richard Adams Pilling went on a mission as an older man.
He was born in 1857 and the first entry in this journal is dated 1911. He would have been 54 years old.
Enlargement of pg 1. |
Here is the first paragraph of his 200 page hand written journal:
March 21.1911Such a treat to read. Bonnie and I continued on with our sorting project but it was hard to put his volume down in order to keep our minds on the larger goal to just figure out the larger categories of what I have collected.
i went to Salt Lake & was examined by dr Seymor B young and was Pronounced OK & went to the temple and was Set Apart fore my mishion By Apostle J.W. McMurrin & went to Layton sayed Al knight with uncle Elias Adams had a good visit.
Arta
Arta - I feel so lucky that you have preserved so much in your own writing, and in taking care of written material passed down to you. Even though the date is there in black and white - 1911 - it is hard for me to grasp the reality of it. Tomorrow it will be 101 years since he wrote that paragraph.
ReplyDeleteRemember at Marcia's house that we all put some writing in a time capsule to be opened in 100 years. I wonder if Richard Adams knew his writing would be read 100+ years later.
I love his spelling, his careful penmanship, his mix of upper and lower-case letters. What a long history of writers I come from. It's inspiring.
Love, Bonnie