Anna Bals' Diaries
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Home Recipe Book
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Anna Rose Smejkal was born May 15, 1897 to Jan Smejkal and Anna Novotony in Crete, Nebraska. On November 29, 1917 she married Henry Ferdinand Bals in Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Crete, Nebraska. Together, they raised six sons. Henry passed away on October 23, 1972 and Anna died on January 22, 1997, just months short of 100 years. Anna enjoyed writing! In the early years, with young children and the demands on a farm wife, there apparently was little time for the detailed recording of daily events, but later she began to record the monthly income & expenses and the daily activities of her life on the farm. And later, she recorded more details of her life; and always her love, fascination, and fear of the weather of the Nebraska plains. Anna left her descendents with 22 volumes of notes recording her daily life. A personal note: As the youngest son, I have memories of waking
at night and coming out of the bedroom to find her sitting at the farm house
dining room table alone, recording the events of the day. Those
memories of a sleepy eyed boy grew into a passion to make her recording of daily
life on a farm in the early years of the 20th century available to future
generations. Anna was very proud of her penmanship. Her mastery of the
"Palmer Method", taught by the Sisters at St. James, was a source of great
pride. She continued to perfect it to her final days. Anything
written, at least by this son, was evaluated by adherence to the Palmer Method,
the content being secondary. This webpage is intended to make Anna's diaries available to her descendents in their original form. All of her flaws, prejudices, and virtues are there for all to read, unedited.
CONTENTS Recipe Book - 1920 - 1930: 4" x 7".
Begins with farm accounts dating from January 1920 but becomes mostly recipes
and seems to go to about 1930. |
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Website created by Gene Bals on January 22, 2008
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