Llewellyn Barker’s diaries, found in a Branford attic, span Abraham Lincoln to FDR. Excerpt #1 “Stayed In From Recess For Whispering”

(From Ted Braun’s book “The Barkers of Branford: Life in America Through a Local Lens” available for $30 at the Blackstone Library in Branford)

Do you wonder what a fourteen-year old Branford boy’s life was like in 1865? The following are Llewellyn’s first week of diary entries. He would continue writing for seventy-two years.

“Went out to the Barn and fed the horse and went up home and read robson cruso” (1/1/1865)

“went to school and in the evening picked over and shucked beans” (1/2/1865)

“Late at school harnessed the horse Stayed in from recess for whispering

Evening unharnessed the horse. Now I turne in” (1/3/1865)

“I woke up this morning and the snow a foot deep went to school in the evening went home and found Cousin Emma McCoy” (1/4/1865)

“Went to school and the boys slid down hill and turned over and liked to broke their necks” (1/5/1865)

For generations, the Barkers had farmed the fertile lands at the headwaters of the Branford River east of Branford center along the main route toward Guilford. He and all his friends attended the neighborhood schoolhouse just across Mill Plain Road from Llewellyn’s home.

The teacher in this one-room schoolhouse often had twenty-five students spanning the first six grades.

He and his age level peers attended school only during the winter months when farming requirements lessened. All of their schooling would be in this one room schoolhouse. There was no high school in Branford at the time.

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Ted Braun’s book “The Barkers of Branford: Life in America Through a Local Lens” is available for $30 at the Blackstone Library in Branford. Richly illustrated with over 200 photos, maps and illustrations, it traces not only the history of a family but also that of the town and the nation. Over 300 names appear in the diary and are referenced and indexed for easy access.