Josie’s Ledger

Do you have family treasures in your genealogy collection? Have you thought about what might happen to that treasure once you no longer are doing genealogy?

I recently shared a poem written by my 2nd great grandfather, Washington Marion Crawford. While discussing this poem with my cousins, one shared a comment about his having a copy of Josie’s ledger of poetry. This comment reminded me that I have the actual ledger. In remembering this ledger, I realized that I hadn’t done enough to share with future generations.

When the Internet was young, I did transcribe some of these poems and contributed them to the Kansas Memory project. However, I did not submit all of the poems. Evidently, I also had never scanned the ledger. I have since scanned the ledger and created a document with the scanned image on the left and the transcription on the right. This PDF file has been uploaded as a memory to Josie Hammond’s profile on FamilySearch. I’ve also uploaded Josie’s Ledger to Archive.org. Thus, I’m hoping that her ledger will be preserved well into the future.

Below is one of my favorite poem

Our Golden Wedding

Fifty years, ’tis a long look back

To that far off winter day,

When we started out, just a pair of kids.

Together to tread life’s way

There were no airplanes or radios then

Automobiles were unheard of too

There wasn’t a telephone in the town

And electric lights were few.

When we started housekeeping by ourselves

There wasn’t much work to do,

For the house we had was very small,

And the table was set for two.

Then the babies started coming along,

And we worked early and late,

By the time we moved into a home we owned

The table was set for eight.

Then another girl happened along

But before she had a place of her own,

The oldest girl and the man of her choice

Had started another home.

Then two boys went away to war

And things were in an awful fix.

We worked for the Red Cross and sold liberty bonds

And the table was set for six.

Then the boys came home, but soon Cupid’s darts

Drove a boy and a girl from the hive.

And death’s cold hand took another boy

And the table was set for five.

Then a boy and a girl went away to school

A teacher and a nurse to be.

And now the table looks awfully small,

When its only set for three

The boy at school found a wee small girl

That he just must have for a wife

But the nurse still seems content

To live a single life.

Then the youngest girl met a farmer

And married as most girls do.

And we’re right back where we started from

And the table is set for two.

But as the years have come and gone.

And good times or hard times we’d see

I’ve never grown tired of seeing

That same face across the table from me.