"In entries marked by simplicity and honesty is the concrete tale of
pioneering, of community life on the frontier, of persons and places."
Theodore C. Blegen, from the Introduction
Farmers William R. Brown and Mitchell Y. Jackson kept remarkable diaries
of life on their mid-nineteenth century Minnesota farms, gripping
stories that reflected the experiences of countless pioneers who broke
the sod, tilled the field, and built their homes throughout this
country. Minnesota Farmers' Diaries features the first-hand accounts of
these farmers, both born in Ohio in 1816 and eventually settling in
Minnesota--Brown in the Red River Valley and Jackson in Washington
County.
With his diary, Brown created one of the few primary sources for the
history of Minnesota in the 1840s. Jackson, while offering acute
perceptions and a wide range of observation about his daily life and
surroundings, eloquently voices the concerns a man who came to Minnesota
in the first great wave of immigration. Few other Minnesota farm
diarists showed an equal facility with the pen or exhibited interest in
so many subjects.
Included in this fascinating volume is an invaluable introduction by
Rodney C. Loehr, who gives the diaries context by detailing the larger
agricultural, historical, and social aspects of this period in U.S.
history.
