Finding Isaac's Journal: A Treasured Family Heirloom

Reader Contribution by The Mother Earth News Editors
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This story is from Lyn Fenwick, submitted as part of our Wisdom From Our Elders collection of self-sufficient tales from yesteryear

When I learned that my deceased cousin had owned a homesteader’s journal, I began asking questions, starting at the museum to which my cousin, Lucille, had bequeathed many of her possessions. Unfortunately, no one seemed to know anything about the journal, but I was invited to look through the unsorted boxes of my cousin’s possessions stored in the basement of the museum. Like many small town museums, the Lucille M. Hall Museum depends on volunteers, and I felt selfish searching for the journal when it was obvious that they needed help sorting. I made a compromise with my conscience. As I began opening boxes, I sorted contents and identified pictures that I recognized, but I chose boxes that looked like they might contain the missing journal. When the last two volunteers came down into the basement where I was sorting to let me know they were leaving for the day, they told me I was welcome to stay and continue looking. I wasn’t too keen on staying alone in the basement of an old building whose creaking and dripping sounds were not familiar to me. I left with them.

The next day, a volunteer went into the storeroom where I had been working and opened the box next to the one I had been sorting. It was the last box on the shelf, and inside was Isaac’s journal. If I had stayed to work only a few minutes longer, I would have found it. The important thing, however, was that the journal had been found — and what a discovery it was!

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