L. A. Miller Diary of 1922
(Excerpted by Fred Lindley)
Jan. 1: This has been the coldest day of the winter of 1921-22...My nearest neighbor’s house caught fire from sparks on the roof this AM. It was seen by a neighbor and quickly conquered...I went down to Fr. Bufler’s this PM and had a good time. I also got some cornmeal ground, while I was there.
Jan. 2: ...Arnold is helping Wm. Kepler build a new line into his farm – over a half mile from the road. I have not seen it. Arnold is superintending and working on the job.
Jan. 4: ...Arnold has been doing some wiring at Mrs. Mary McVicker’s house and garage, last week and this.
Jan. 10: ...The K of P’s are getting for a big Do at Oxford, Oh tomorrow PM. Bonhomie will turn out in full force if weather will permit.
Jan. 12: ...We got our license tags today for Ford and Buick $16.20 at Oxford Miller’s Garage.
Jan. 16: ...I went to Hamilton and got my upper plate. Dr. Sam Wilkerson [?] had same ready and, of course, it fit. He is a fine dentist. My bill, in all, was $5.
Jan. 24: ...Chickens are doing fairly well at the egg game. We have gotten more eggs this winter than any previous one in my memory.
Jan. 26: ...At home plugging away at my books and accounts. A few are coming in and paying their bill as they sell their hogs.
Jan. 27: ...I attended an old-fashioned spelling match and came out the victor. Some people were surprised. I was surprised at the number of poor spellers.
Jan. 29: ...Knickerbocker Theater roof collapsed under weight of 30-inch snow. 300 reported killed. Prominent people in the catastrophe – Washington, D.C.
Feb. 10...Thawing out. The roads are being cut up by trucks, etc. Clark Kramer brought me one ton of brand and 500 lbs. of middlings this PM. ...it cost money to keep cows in winter. I shall dispose of all of them if possible.
Feb.15: ...I worked at switchboard from 10 AM to 5 PM. The folks went to Hamilton to see Elmer Wilson off and return a coat he had left. Did not take the coat after all. But, loaned same for rest of season to Arnold (fleece-lined coat).
Feb. 20: The K of P’s had a celebration this PM. The 58th anniversary of the K of P order. Speeches, eats, and dancing.
Feb. 21: ...Biz seems to be on the mend, according to the papers. Tel. collections picking up some Hog money coming in. Also, the milk check helps.
Feb. 22: Very warm. Arnold and I put up 5/8 of a mile of new wire today and took old wire down and had everything properly tied and soldered by 4:30 PM. Lodge K of P – a good meeting. I acted as K of P R&S [?] as Wm. Glardon being absent. Gen. George Washington birthday. Born 1732 - died 1799.
Feb. 25: Arnold and I cleaned up line from Theo. Decker to Wells [?] Nichols farm. Stretching new wire we strung yesterday and took down old wire. Did not tie in, on account of a corner pole that needs stubbing...A mile of new wire from Ex to cemetery will whole circuit in No. 1 shape.
Mar. 1 through Mar. 22: MR. MILLER REPORTED THAT HE AND OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS WERE COMBATTING RESPIRATORY ISSUES. HE ALSO DESCRIBED THE GRADUAL WARMING OF THE WEATHER, ALONG WITH REPORTS OF FARMERS BREAKING GROUND.
Mar. 23: ...Arnold and I did some telephone work on Clark Road near Jerico, this PM.
Mar. 24: ...At home, as usual. The young folks are doing the running about. I must get busy and learn to drive Lizzie.
Mar. 28: I went to Hamilton and took the train for Columbus, Oh. to attend tha Ohio &
Indiana Telephone Association that meets tomorrow at 10 AM. Also the next day.
Mar. 29 and 30: MR. MILLER DESCRIBED EVENTS AND/OR BUSINESS CONDUCTED AT THE TELEPHONE CONFERENCE. HE REPORTED THAT HE ARRIVED HOME AROUND 11 PM.
Apr. 1: At home. We pulled some large 30 ft. poles this afternoon on South Main.
Apr. 6: ...Grandson, Bill, has been with us all week, during the day. He is quite active in mind and body. I am trying to get him interested in learning to read.
Apr. 11: At home. This PM,Arnold and I took a pole up on North line. One had broken at ground level. We put in a new one...Pete Liebrich wants a phone at his father’s house.
Apr. 12: Spring is advancing rapidly...Bill [MR. MILLER’S GRANDSON] likes to be with Pap – that’s me. We went to the willow patch and saw Mr. and Mrs. Liebrich peeling willows.
Apr. 19: ...Arnold put in phone at P.W. Liebrich’s father.
Apr. 20: ...I sold some hens and two roosters to A. Phares this PM – he will be here tomorrow 7:30 AM.
Apr. 21: Mr. A. Phares came after poultry. 20 hens and 2 roosters = $36.21
Apr. 22: Baseball today. K of C of Hamilton vs Darrtown. Score: 4-6 in favor of Darrtown.
Apr. 26: Arnold and I are trying to get a line completed from Richmond Pike at Buhi’s corner west to Sohn’s Res. 1⁄2 mile.
Apr. 29: ...The tractors’ hum can be heard on all sides. They make quick work and are valuable in a pinch of crowded time. The horses are gradually being crowed out.
Apr. 30: Baseball PM. Darrtown vs Hamilton team (Burgs). Score 5-12 favor of Hamilton team. Our boys blew up in the 6th, after they had the game won 5-2.
May 1: ...The women folk and Bill went to the John Robinson show Saturday and Bill said the elephant has two tails.
May 5: ...Genoa Conference is not progressing rapidly - too many divergent interests. Russia seems to be the bone of contention. Russia has so far confiscated all foreign loans of nations and individuals.
May 7: At home. This PM, I attended the Ball game. K of P of Hamilton vs Darrtown. Score 19-4 favor of K of P. A rotten game on the part of Darrtown.
May 11: ...I have been helping Arnold clean up the auto in preparation to painting the same. Bill has also been helping, in a child’s way.
May 16: ...Congress is wrestling with the new tariff bill – but afraid to pass same before Nov. 1922.
May 21: ...Baseball game this PM with small attendance. Scrub game and no one wants to see them.
May 25: ...I have been trying to drive Dick every day, but, owing to the showers that keep the streets wet and slippery, I have not been very regular at it.
May 28: ...We watched the Ball game today from a distance...better playing than normal. Small crowd.
[NOTE: THROUGH MUCH OF THE MONTH OF MAY, MR. MILLER FREQUENTLY COMMENTED ON THE WEATHER AND THE CONDITION OF THE GROUND WITH REGARD TO PLANTING CROPS AND/OR GARDENS.]
June 2: ...Arnold and I went to Jerico and commenced on line running west of the all important city that might have been.
June 4: At home. Baseball, but no crowd. People don’t propose to be held up by a lot of scrubs at any price. They want to see a real amateur game – not a lot of city and county school boys posing as real ball players and demanding a price for an exhibition of awkwardness.
June 6: ...Oil people have organized a Co-Op. Stock $100. They are now wanting for succors to invest, I presume. They string a lot of succors on the oil leases around this
burg of Darrtown.
June 10: ...Jersey had a male calf this 3 PM. Seems to be doing all right. But, I have felt uneasy about her and have been watching her closely.
[NOTE: OVER THE NEXT WEEK, MR. MILLER REPORTED THE DEMISE OF THIS JERSEY COW...FROM CALLING DR. SOMMERS, A LOCAL VETERINARIAN ON TWO OCCASIONS, TO REPORTING THAT SHE HAD CONTRACTED PNEUMONIA, TO DIGGING A GRAVE, AND EVENTUALLY “LAYING HER TO REST.”]
June 16: ...A valuable cow and in her prime, from imported stock. 9 yrs. old, 8 calves, all good ones. One daughter and two granddaughters survive her. Also a bull calf. Arnold and I started her grave this PM.
June 18: ...I saw a scrub BaseBall game at a distance this PM.
June 25: ...This PM, Bill and I went to Ballgame. Darrtown vs K of P of Hamilton. Score 12 to 2 favor of Darrtown.
June 26: ...I met a Mr. Wallace of S.W. North Dakota, a Butler Co. boy who has made good in the semi-arid region of the N. West. 920 acres of land, all fenced, and only a small payment on the last tract. He formerly worked as a hired hand on the old Broadburry farm, now owned by Wells and Geo. Nichol.
July 2: ...I went to the Ball game this PM. A good game. Darrtown vs Overpeck. 4-6. Darrtown blew up in the 6th inning.
July 5: ...Farmers are threshing wheat. The yield is not large. 10-20 bu. per acre. K of P installed officers this PM. We had ice cream, after lodge. Everyone had all they could consume.
July 9: This PM, I attended the baseball game. Darrtown vs Foresters. Score 7-8. Not very interesting due to bad umpiring on part of Foresters’ umpires. The Foresters have always been bad actors. No sense of right. Win by unfair means.
July 11: My wife is doing telephone work today. Coal strike is still on. Also, the RR shop men and other unions are out on strike. The economic conditions of the US and the world are generally in one hell of a mix.
July 22: Arnold and I went to West Chester and took dinner with Mother Miller. We then went to Pisgah to attend the obsequies for Doc Conrey, an uncle by marriage. Nearly all my Ohio relations were present.
July 29: ...Arnold and I did some work at Taylor’s Corner – did not get through. Aug. 4: ...Arnold brought home 10 pigeons. He will try to raise a pair. The rest...[?].
Aug. 5: ...I bought coal of Echenbury [?] Brothers Coal Store at Collinsville, Oh. Clark Kramer hauled better than 4 ton this PM. Will haul another load Monday.
Aug. 6: Darrtown very quiet today. Baseball dying out gradually.
Aug. 10: ...A strange man hovering around Fred Duker’s [?] residence this PM. Kept me up until 12 PM at telephone switchboard. No capture. He eluded them.
Aug. 13: At home. I attended the baseball game this PM. Darrtown vs Lindens. Score 0- 7. A good game, despite the score. I called on Jos. Brunz this PM. Joe is very old and feeble in mind and body.
Aug. 20: Bill and I went to see the Ball game this PM. Burgs vs Darrtown. Score: 8-9. Darrtown finally won in the last half of the 9th inning; making 5 runs. Had stood 8-4 favor of Burgs.
Aug. 22: ...I got auto fuel line and carburetor fixed in AM by L. McVicker.
Aug. 30: ...Bill Miller’s birthday. A dinner. Grandson Bill was five years old today and he was the whole show.
Sept. 3: At 1 AM, things became lively as rain came in torrents. Lightning was something awful. At 5 AM, 12 inches of rain had fallen at Darrtown; 6+ at Oxford, 5 inches at Camden, and 3+ at Cincinnati, Oh. (Waters) high in area rivers...drowned hogs, pigs, birds, chickens and damaged crops and good soil gone by the tons.
Sept. 4: Everyone busy looking after lost property, fences, etc. Campers fared bad along streams. No human lives lost, so far as is known. Song birds were drowned by the thousands in the path of the deluge. Darrtown and vicinity was in the center of the greatest rainfall in five hours in the history of this section.
Sept. 10: Baseball this PM. Darrtown vs Armco. 12-2. Armco...of Middletown got a good trouncing.
Sept. 23: ...We are getting ready to run a line to Dr. Grothaus Rate will be $86 per year. Contract for 3 years.
Oct. 2: ...I attended sale of farm tools and horses – Mrs. J.W. Nichol. Prices were not as high as was expected by some.
Oct. 5: ...I went to the Butler Co. Fair today.
Oct. 6: ...Arnold and wife went to the Fair.
Oct. 13: ...At work on Shaw road getting ready as fast as possible to stretch line.
Oct. 16: ...This is my birthday. 1862-1922...going strong.
Oct. 21: ...Arnold and I went up and made some transfers. Also, took a new pole to Minor Withrow’s and transferred his drop to No. 5.
Oct. 22: ...We put up the Exchange heating stove this PM.
Oct. 30: A hot day. I hitched up Dick and went to Collinsville, O. & got 10 bales of [?] telephone wire that had come by freight...Dick being fat and soft – not having been worked lately – sweat profusely and huffed plenty. I rested him on the hills.
Oct. 31: ...Arnold and I finished circuit from Bud Kramer’s to Jos. Davis today. We are now ready to connect Dr. J. B. Grothaus up on single line.
Nov. 1: Arnold and I went up on No. 29 and connected Dr. J.B. Grothaus.
[NOTE: FOR SEVERAL WEEKS IN EARLY NOVEMBER, MR. MILLER REPORTED ON THE GENERAL ELECTION, THE WEATHER AND ITS IMPACT ON AREA FARMERS.]
Nov. 22: ...Arnold and I went over to John Schwab’s and put in a line...
Nov. 26: ...Ellis Glardon and wife called to spend the evening.
Dec. 10: ...Miss Minnie Broadberry died this AM at her home in Hamilton, O. She was a pupil of mine. School years of 1882 & 83. Sept. 1/82 to June 1/83, I boarded at her father’s house. She, at that time, was about 10 years old.
[NOTE: THE MONTH OF DECEMBER SEEMED UNEVENTFUL FOR MR. MILLER. HE WROTE ABOUT THE WEATHER, POLITICAL ISSUES, BOOKS THAT HE WAS READING, ETC.
Dec. 31: ...This closes another year, according to the calendar.
