Saturday, January 7, 1922

Cool, bright, clear day. Arose 8:45 A.M. Nice long letter from Nellie. Out on business. Got haircut at Chism's. Shower at Y. Dinner. Candled eggs. To Scotia Reformed Church to ΚΣΠ banquet a la Ford. To College to B.B. game Union 16-Rochester 25. To bed 11 P.M.

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I wonder why Stanford would shower at the Y? Is it more convenient? Did they not have a shower at his house?

The basketball game Stanford attended got a nice long write-up in the Schenectady Gazette on Monday, January 9, 1922.  Below is the article.

Friday, January 6, 1922

Mild, clear day. Arose 8 A.M. Breakfast etc. Father to court. Delivered all day. Aunt Gertie here to dinner.  Tom (Mark Sawyer) left for California on 4:57 train. Supper. Bowled at Morse with church league 2 games. Home. Talked. To bed 11 P.M.

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1876 Front piece of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

This is the first time that Stanford has referred to Mark Sawyer as Tom. Though it's an obvious reference to Mark Twain's book, I wonder who started calling him that. Interesting that Stanford feels the need to put Mark's name in parentheses. Makes me wonder again who he thought would be reading his diary.

Stanford's delivering eggs, I would presume, taking care of his father's business. I'm glad to see he's still bowling, though alas!--no report of wins or scores.

Aunt Gertie is Uncle John's wife, visiting alone. I wonder why?

Thursday, January 5, 1922

Very mild, wet, nasty day. Rain in night. Arose 9 A.M. Breakfast. Out on business. Dinner. Put new licenses on cars, greased them, chored around; cleaned walk etc. To church to K.S.P. (ΚΣΠ) meeting. Home. Talked. TO BED 11 P.M.

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As some of you may remember from previous diary entries, K.S.P. stands for Knights of St. Paul, a Christian organization for young men. Go to this 1919 post for a fuller explanation of the organization: KSP.

Perhaps the purpose of the meeting was to plan for the Kappa Sigma Pi convention scheduled for the coming weekend. Below is a newspaper report published in the January 5, 1922 Schenectady Gazette detailing the event:

Notice the article mentions that the founder, David Jemison from Cincinnati, will be visiting the district in March. He is discussed in the 1919 blog post (see link, above).

Wednesday, January 4, 1922

10 above ZERO. Arose 6:30 A.M. Breakfast etc. To Amsterdam on business 8 A.M. to 3 P.M. Chored around. Supper. Home in evening. Played piano. Wrote to H.H. Talked. To bed 10 P.M. Father to court.

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Why Stillman went to court that day is unknown.

Amsterdam, NY was only about 16 miles from Schenectady. Stanford probably took State Route 5, along the Mohawk River, to get there. This map plots his possible route:

At the time, however, the route was not yet called NY State Rte 5. As this excerpt from Wikipedia notes, this portion of the route was until 1924 part of the Yellowstone Trail, extending from Washington State to Massachusetts, with a spur that led to Yellowstone National Park. (If you click on the link for Yellowstone Trail, you'll get more information about that route.)

The automobile allowed people to quickly travel long distances and a way to mark routes became needed. One early means of marking routes was the establishment of various auto trail associations in the 1910s. These associations selected good quality roads and marked them with symbols or colors on telephone poles. Most of legislative Route 6 eventually became part of the Yellowstone Trail,^[24] a cross-country auto trail established in 1912 that ran from Washington to Massachusetts.^[25] In New York, the trail used modern US 20 from Pennsylvania to Silver Creek, most of modern NY 5 from Silver Creek to Albany, and modern US 20 again from Albany to Massachusetts.^[24]

Below is an old map of the Yellowstone Trail.  Note the spur to Yellowstone NP in southern Wyoming:

"Yellowstone Trail Map" by JRidge at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yellowstone_Trail_Map.jpg#/media/File:Yellowstone_Trail_Map.jpg

Tuesday, January 3, 1922

Cold, breezy day. 3 Below 0. Arose 8 A.M. Breakfast. Out on business most of day. To see Dr. FRICK at 5 P.M. Mark here to SUPPER. Greased Ford and prepared for Amsterdam.  To bed 10 P.M.

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Dr. Frick is Stanford's pastor. He arrived at First Methodist Church a little over a year ago. Stanford mentions his first Sunday service in this 1920 diary entry: Pastor Frick.

Mark is of course Mark Sawyer, Ruth Closson's beau.

Apparently Stanford is now fairly active in his father's business. Since he doesn't tell us what he does, we can't know the details of his involvement, but no doubt Stillman, in his late sixties, was happy to have Stanford's help.

Here is a picture of the type of egg crate that was in use in 1920.  It was designed to ship eggs through the postal system directly to customers. There's no evidence of Stillman's having used the mail to deliver his eggs, but perhaps farmers made use of that method to convey eggs to Stillman. There is more information about early 20th century mailing containers at this website.

Monday, January 2, 1922

Cold, windy, bright day. 4 below ZERO. Arose 9 A.M. Chored around. To Uncle John's in Kissel Kar. Ed & Leila also there. Excellent dinner. Uncle John not very well.  Took H.H. to trolley on way to Boston. Home 5:30. To Church to movies, "Fairy & Waif." Talked. To bed 10:30 P.M.

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Ed & Leila are Stanford's cousin and his wife. They were introduced in Datebook 1919 in this post. Uncle John is Stanford's great uncle; he was introduced in this 1919 post.

The Kissel Kar, as you may recall from the last entry in the 1921 diary, was acquired in a trade for the Hudson. Here is a video from YouTube about the Kissel:

Hanford is off to Boston because he is a graduate student at Boston University's School of Theology. He graduates in 1924, a year ahead of Stanford.

The Fairy and the Waif was a 1915 silent film.  See TCM's website here for an overview.

Sunday, January 1, 1922

Ushered in New Year in Peacock Coffee Shoppe with Ellen Neilsen, H.H., Marion B., Ruth & Mark Sawyer. Cold clear day. Arose 9:30 A.M. * To Church & S.S. Dinner. Took nap. To E.L. social hour & meeting.  H.H. Lead [sic]. To church. Ran sterioptican [sic]. Pageant "Lighting N.Y. Candles." Home with JESSIE SILVERNAIL. TO BED 3:30 A.M.

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So, Stanford is back at his journal with no explanation as to why he quit for seven months. He is not in school, so he is most likely working with his father at his butter and egg business. There are two new names in the list of friends: Ellen Neilsen, and Jesse Silvernail. And the old friends remain: Hanford's Marion and Ruth's Mark.  Both siblings will marry their beaus: Ruth on December 30 of this year, and Hanford in June of 1924.

Searching for Ellen Neilsen, I found a possible match: in the 1920 census, an Ellen Nielson is living in Schenectady with her parents, Charles and Mary Nielson. She is 18, working as a stenographer for General Electric. This is probably the girl. Jessie Silvernail is a 19-year-old college student in 1920, living in Schenectady with her parents. I'm not sure what college women could attend during that time, but it was not Union, which was all male. Her father worked for GE also, though, as a clerk, so that may be her connection to Ellen.

Taken from http://halboor.com/stereopticon

A stereopticon is a 3D viewer, usually seen in the hand-held version, but it was also a projector that could show slides or even moving pictures on a screen for group viewing. This is a picture of one used for film in 1922.

The film they saw, "Lighting N.Y. Candles," was probably taken at a Christmas candle lighting pageant in New York City that year.  Here is a newspaper article from the Dec 23, 1922 Brooklyn Daily Eagle that advertises such a Christmas eve service: