Peter A. Sickal, a teacher and farmer from Banner, Kansas, maintained this pocket diary between January 1884 and August 1886. He held teaching positions at Abilene, Prairie Union, and Banner, Kansas. While teaching, Sickal noted school attendance, his students' progress and disobedience, examinations, and occasionally distributing prizes and candy. He frequently commented on weather, his agricultural work, construction on his home, attendance at Sunday School, and managements of his military pension and hernia. Sickal commented on notable events, like the development of railways, attending the play "Spy of Atlanta" (February 16, 1884), and a coroner's inquiry (February 7, 1885). He was politically involved, commenting on local elections and attending Republican gatherings (July 12, 1884; October 4, 1884; August 29, 1885), but made few comments about broader state or national affairs beyond some anxiety about the 1884 Kansas election (November 8, 1884) and the funeral of Ulysses S. Grant (August 8, 1855). The diary includes several references to receiving letters from relatives in Italy and San Francisco, and a number of addresses are written at the back of the volume.
