Charles H. Davey received this pre-printed daily pocket diary from his mother Ella Chamberlain Davey on Christmas Day 1901, at which time he was 13 years old. Davey kept daily entries throughout 1902, documenting his school attendance, almost daily reading (though he almost never mentioned book titles), visits to the library, and recreation such as skating on the river and swimming in the creek. He also documented his chores, which included sawing wood, cutting ice, planting, and harvesting.
Near the beginning of the volume, Davey wrote down identifying information, such as his age, height, and clothing sizes (hat, hosiery, collar, cuffs, shoes, shirt, and drawers). He also identified his mother as an emergency contact. Laid into the back endpapers are one invitation to a gift-giving party, and three pencil illustrations of railroad engines and cars. One similar pen illustration of a train is on the rear pastedown. Two of the coal cars are marked, one reading 700 and the other 4004.
Charles Henry Davey was born on November 22, 1888, to parents Henry Judson and Ella M. Carter Davey, in Nineveh, New York. Ella Davey worked at home while her husband was employed as a liveryman. In 1900, the family lived in Afton, New York, where Charles Davey and his sister Leona attended school. He and Ina Chamberlain married sometime in the 1910s. During World War I, Charles served as an engineer in the American Expeditionary Forces, September 7, 1917, to June 4, 1919, overseas from January 30, 1918, to May 10, 1919. In 1920, the couple lived with Charles' parents in Colesville, New York. By that time, his father worked as a mechanic on the D. & H. Railroad and Charles as an engineer on the U.S. Geological Survey. Charles Davey would continue his employment as a topographical engineer for the Department of the Interior for around 45 years. Charles H. Davey died in Nineveh, New York, on July 5, 1968.
