One hundred thirty-five years ago, an 18 year old young lady named Flora Manier and her beau, a 21 year old young man named Will Geiger, attended college together in southern Illinois. He was an avid diary writer and I think she wanted to be. They met in college and were probably engaged in 1877 during their sophomore year. In 1878, they each kept a leather journal of what daily life was like back then—when temperance was the talk of the town and Edison’s light bulb had yet to be invented, when slide projectors were called magic lanterns and women had not yet gained the right to vote, and when horses pulled buggies on dirt roads and gave sleigh rides through deep snow. Before Flora and Will died, they were married and had five children and after they died, their 1878 journals were found glued together, one sealing the other—their pages still gilt-edged. The seal has been broken, but the residue of what kept them together remains. If not for the efforts of these two diary writers, I question how much longer history would have remembered them. They deserve to be remembered. They have so much to teach us. This page is for them, and soon their 1878 journals will be for us all. In 1878, there was Flora and there was Will, and they remained Ever True.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:39:58 +0000
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