The collection consists of four diaries (1901, 1906, 1908 and 1917) and four photocopies of diaries (1899, 1900, 1902 and 1903). The diaries include accounts of Mabel's daily activities and a report on the weather of the day. The 1899, 1900, 1901 and 1902 diaries also contain detailed lists of daily expenses of the household, with monthly and yearly totals. The diaries are an excellent source of information about life in Canton and St. Lawrence County, NY.
Photograph of the Mabel Wait diaries.
Collection Overview
Mabel Lila Wait was born in Canton, N.Y. on October 2, 1876. After her parents death she managed the family farm alone until she married Fred Roberts in 1901. Mabel and Fred continued to live on the Wait farm throughout their lives. They had one daughter, Gladys, born in 1908. In addition to doing farm work, Fred taught school in the Brick Chapel district. They both attended Grange functions in Crary Mills, and Mabel was active in the Presbyterian Ladies' Aid Society at Brick Chapel. Gladys attended the Brick Chapel primary school and high school in Canton and graduated from St. Lawrence University in 1929. Fred died in 1933 and Mabel in 1936. They are buried in the Wait family plot in the Brick Chapel cemetery. The Wait farmhouse was destroyed by fire in 1938.
The diaries for 1901 and 1902 have been published as:
Dear Home: the 1901 and 1902 diary of Mabel Lila Wait / edited by Susan Ward, Canton, NY: Friends of the Owen D. Young Library, Syracuse Univ. Pr. 1996.
St. Lawrence University does not own the literary rights to this collection.