^{HOME    |    WHO    |    WHAT    |    WHERE    |    CONTACT    |    ABOUT}

1877 Diary of Aaron Ward Towne
Arkwright, Chautauqua Co., NY

Aaron Ward Town(e) (1854-1933) was born to Horace J. (1823-1909) and Florella S. Ward (1835-1879) Town in January of 1854 in Arkwright. Horace and Florella owned a large farm occupying most of lot 2 in Arkwright and a piece of lot 58 in Villenova, a farm that remained with the family at least until 1948. Aaron had first married Parthenia Jay (1854-?), daughter of Joshua and Catherine Jay of Villenova, in 1877. The two known diaries of Aaron's cover most of 1877 and 1878, the years that he married, and apparently divorced Parthenia (Tena). This diary, covering 1877, recounts his work days on the farm, visitors, his local travels, and his courtship of and marriage to Parthenia.

The 1878 diary reads similarly to the 1877 diary, although it recounts the birth of his daughter Katie B. Town (1878-1946), and his departure for Michigan, apparently leaving his wife and child. It is known that he later returned to farming in Arkwright, sans a leg lost in a railroad coupling accident as told in family lore, and married Amanda Gustafva Eriksson (1874-1948; who had immigrated from Sweden in 1892) in 1893. They lived and worked dairying on the farm (at least after Aaron's father Horace's death in 1909), and lived out their lives on the farm, he until his death in 1933, and she until her death in 1948.

View the pages below.

© Nathan Towne, Dec 2009

^{TOP    |    HOME    |    WHO    |    WHAT    |    WHERE    |    CONTACT    |    ABOUT}