The Diary of John Arch Collins
Bell's Crossroads, 1951-- John Arch Collins (third from left)
with his brothers and sisters(from left): Reuben, Kate,
Ether, Florida, Conway, and Levada.
Click on the year to read the selected entries:
1906 (January to June)
A big reunion... A new sawmill... A grandfather's death... The seasons of work... A mysterious arrest...
1906 (July to December)
A lynching in Salisbury... Camp meeting... A big wedding... Democrats on Parade... A brother's wedding... Fruit Parties, Pound Parties, Box Parties, Fox Hunts... Train wreck...
1907
Love blooms... Murder trial... The diarist becomes a tax collector... A fight and an arrest... The diarist weds...
1908
Sickness and loss...Separation and reunion...The diarist joins the Farmers' Union...
1909
Cousin Lydie returns from Asheville...The Barnum and Bailey Show comes to town..."shot one of his fingers off..." A lonely Christmas...
1910
A food theft...More health problems...A new daughter...Elusive turkeys...Two sawmill accidents...
1911
A new nephew..Forest fire...Picking blackberries...A fast pig...Good year for wheat...Ernest has a son...The diarist has a son...
1912
The Unthinkable.
(1913)
Volume comprising all of 1913 and part of 1914
has been lost
1914
Life goes on...New blacksmith shop...A broken contract...Collins Reunion...Road work...A lady friend...
1915
Hog, Horse, and Cattle Show...A Shape-Note Singing at Jacob Troutman's..."My Best Girl"...Levada gets an operation...The Diarist Weds-- Again...Ernest Haywood Collins 1884--1915
...
1916
The Great Flood of 1916..."He got thirty years in the pen"...The little casket...The road by Rocky Mount...A baby son..."Everything went Democrat"...
1917
Serving a summons...New Technologies: A gasoline engine...David Nesbitt's funeral...Picking cotton...
(1918)
Volume comprising part of 1917 and all of 1918
has been lost.
1919
Sawing at the mill..."He and the mule was killed by lightening"...Bridges washed away...A killing at the Camp Meeting...Lee Lipe's little girl...Pleasant Henderson Collins, 1853-1919...
1920 (January to June)
The diarist helps to bring the telephone to Bell's Crossroads..."Ed is to be electrocuted"...Grace's fight for her life...A hidden still...
1920 (June to December)
Sawing at the mill, pulling fodder, picking cotton, plowing on yon side of the creek,
...Another still, too well hidden...A murder...A birthday party...
1921
Hauling wheat...Work on the house...Telephones...Law Enforcement
1922
A beating...Busting stills...A picture show of the boll weevil...
I went to Statesville to get some books...The tragedy of Beatrice Ervin...
1923
Another day, another week, another month, another year...
Back to the Home Place
About John Arch Collins
