Purchase.
Accessioned and described in June 2009 by Ute Schechter, Warren E. Burger Archivist.
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Farm Diaries (Virginia), Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
Chronological.
Twenty-two diaries kept by unidentified farm owner or manager for the years 1923-1944 and 1954. Entries are mostly brief and note daily weather and chores performed on the farm, which employed 6-8 men year round and up to 60 on the orchard during picking season. Most entries give the full names of workers employed each day and broken down by task.
The identity of the farm and location have not been positively established at this point: The seller notes that the farm was assumed to be Bocock farm located in Albemarle County near Stony Point and Burke Hills farms; entries mention trucking apples to Keswick and Charlottesville. An 8 November 1935 funeral note mentions that the deceased was a 'gardener at Castalia.'
The 1935 diary leaves a record of the funeral for Lewis Fleming. It mentions that he worked for 42 years as a Gardener at "Castalia." References are also made to Mr. Bocock's trips to New York and Nassau.