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Scope and Contents

Diaries, 1929, 1931-1934, of the Gilkison family who lived on a farm in Broadbent, Oregon. The mother, Rena Gilkison (1894-1984) wrote most of the entries, others were done by one or several of the children, Donald, Clemmet and Kathleen. The name in the front of the diaries is given as "Ralph E." or "Ralph Eugene Wilkison and family." The diary labeled "1928" was kept for the year 1929 and corrections to the year and sometimes weekday were made inside the diary. The following description of these Depression era diaries was provided by the seller" ..."These books are records of daily life, settling a home, farm and ranch in the Southern Oregon coast area. There are accounts of cooking, baking, building, berry picking, gardening, caring for lifestock, traveling by horseback, illnesses, logging, splitting shakes, forest fires, building a school, fishing, celebrating holidays, traveling, shopping and lots of visiting of friends and neighbors. Some of the towns mentioned are: North Bend, Powers, Marshfield, Bandon, Coquille, as well as trips to Bend, Eugene, and Klamath Falls. Some of the names of family friends are Barkley, Lawson, Hillis, Shepard, Dosse, Garret, Smith, Laird, Herman, Derment, and Brown. These depression era diaries contain fascinating references to "hunting steelhead at night", cooking fish eggs, hiding a button in a birthday cake, finding "bee trees," and more. 5 diaries. Purchased 2009 May 27.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Diaries
• Farm life--Oregon--History--20th century
• Farmers--Oregon
• Oregon--Social life and customs
• Women--Diaries