Ancestor Artifacts - A Personal Notebook

Ancestor Artifacts

A Personal Notebook

Like many of you, I have been the recipient of artifacts passed down from generation to generation. Some we share and act on immediately, to assure that others of our family are aware of their existence, and to share the stories we know accompany the artifact, so the stories are not lost to time.

However, the majority of artifacts are stored away in a box somewhere…often never to be seen or heard of again. Sometimes this is because of the personal nature of the artifact, perhaps because nothing is really known about it, or, perhaps most often, common neglect. This, I hope, is the first of a series of blog posts to overcome this, in some small way, as I approach birthday 81 in a few weeks.

The photo image above is of a personal notebook of my maternal grandfather which dates to about 1912, a little over a hundred years ago. You can see that his name was Paul H. (for Harold) Kinnick (1892-1968). It would have been purchased as he was preparing to leave his father’s farm, as a young man, to go to CCCC (Capital City Commercial College), in Des Moines, Iowa, from western Iowa… a distance of about 75 miles. His education there would provide the knowledge he needed to serve as a small town bank cashier for the majority of his adult life.

The notebook was obviously cherished and carried/handled over a long period of time. The curious part is that the only entries made in this notebook were on the first page. These notations are a list of eleven items I will characterize as “self-behavior” reminders. They remind me a bit of the list I have read about that George Washington made for himself from his readings for his own guidance… not quite as formal, of course.

Here is the list:
Get started right
Play safe
Eat slowly
Be neat
Straighten up
Keep your feet off the chairs
Help Mother & Dad
Be polite
Drink lots of water
Be happy
Keep off the grass

While there are twenty some sheets in the rest of the notebook, he made no further entries in it. Fascinating. We can speculate on why there were no more entries. And yet, he preserved this notebook. Did he continue to look at it in later life, to continue to guide his behavior? Was it simply a token of a simpler time? What do you think?

Can you imagine his mother, and his father, reminding him of these behaviors, as he ‘went out into the world’? Did he think of some of them, himself?

I will be doing some additional research into his activities during this period of time.
Note: Within a couple of hours of first writing this on Monday, I came across some letters Paul wrote to his mother, from college, dated fall of 1912. I'll share these in subsequent postings here...

Your comments are welcomed.

Families are Forever! ;-)