This is Web as a young man.
Some farmers get the reputation of being lucky because they meet with success. People little know how sharply they look ahead, how carefully they make their calculations, or how they contrive to have the very best stock in the whole neighborhood. Look round the homestead. It has an air of neatness and comfort. The finest shade and ornamental trees adorn the farm. They have the best breeds of cattle, and keep them in the best manner. They are industrious, thrifty, honest, but the world is very apt to say, "They are lucky." Lazy men are seldom lucky. "Old Farmers Almanac by Robert B. Thomas 1869"
Web was such a farmer. He worked hard, kept up with all the newest methods and succeeded where othres failed.
Daniel Webster Meader was my great great Uncle Web. He was born in 1832 and became a farmer in Haverhill, NH in 1865. He began keeping a record of his farm in 1866 and it is from this record that the book "WEB- The Diary of a Farmer 1866" is taken.
Web lived in Haverhill, NH with his wife Lydia until her death in 1895. When Lydia became sickly her niece, Hattie moved in to care for Lydia. Hattie remained with Web after Lydia died and cared for Web until her death in 1905.
Hattie married Ernest Thayer in 1897. They had five five children, three of whom live to maturity.
In 1906 Web, Ernest, Dora, and the three children moved to Harrisville, NH. Dora, Ernest's second wife was the younger sister of Hattie and was also Web's niece. She cared for Web until his death in 1917.
Hattie's three children were; Guy, Herman, and Angie. Guy was named for his Great Uncle Web, Guy Webster Thayer. He married Doris Helen Brown in 1928. They had three children, Warren Guy Thayer, Carol Ruth Thayer (Petts) and Shirley Norma Thayer (Chamberlain).
I am their second child. I was the family historian and collected of family stories and items that others did not have an interest in or place to keep. I was given Web's diaries and it is from these that I have writen this book. I have finished the story of his life in 1866 and am now working on this life in 1867. Each year is different as he grows in knowledge about farming and as the times change. I will be writing a story about each year that I have a diary to chronicle the events of the year. I have about twenty of his diaries in all. The last year or so of his life Dora wrote his diary entry for him, as he could no longer write clearly. He told her what to say. The last entries of the last diary, 1917, Dora wrote after Web died. She tells of taking his body to PA to be laid next to his wife and three infant sons.
This is Web as a young man.
This is Web as an older man. I would guess this was taken about 1895 when Lydia died and he took her to PA. This picture was taken in Scranton, PA. That would have made Web 63.
This is a picture taken in 1900. That is his niece, Hattie with her two sons, Guy and Herman with Web looking on.
This is a picture of the family in Harrisville in 1911, the same year that Ernest died. There is Web at 79 years old, Dora, Angie, Herman and Guy.
go to Web after Lydia
go to the tools that Web would have used
go to the notes that Web left
