Diary of Achsa Tubbs-Rickerson, 1887-1901. 2nd Ed

Achsa Tubbs-Rickerson was my grandfather's (Daniel Rickerson) first wife. Her diaries were passed on to me from her daughter, Edna Rickerson, to my father then to me. They were in fair condition considering they were neither acid-free paper nor stored under any special conditions. As it is almost 100 years since they were written, I think it is useful to look back and see what life was like in rural America before the telephone, radio, TV, electricity, and cars. Achsa was born in 1863 in Spring Creek, PA and lived there her entire life. She died in 1911 and was buried in the Spring Creek Cemetery. Her parents, Elijah Jackson and Dimmis Tubbs, were descendants of the one of the first two settlers that moved to Spring Creek in the 1790's- Andrew Evers and Elijah Jackson . Elijah Jackson's daughter, Sarah Jane Jackson was Achsa's grandmother. Achsa's two diaries give a picture of life in rural Warren County Pennsylvania in the late 1890's. One of the diaries was kept on simple school composition books, almost identical to the ones still in use in schools today, the other diary on a simple pocket ledger. The autograph book, however, is rarely seen today. They were used to collect the signatures of the important people usually at a junction in one's life. In Achsa's case, most the autographs started in 1881, about the time she would have been 18 and graduating high school. More important than the signatures were the sayings, quotations or other writings that were given with the signature. They can give some insight to their authors. Achsa was 24 years old, unmarried, and living at home when she began the diaries in 1887. The diaries take us from her life at home, her marriage, their first house, and the bearing and raising of one of her two children.