In 1934, Paul Metcalf kept a daily journal of life at the family farm in Norwich. The entries tend to be terse: “Sept. 9: Horse Bit. I drove Gyp to Dothen and back in the light buggy; Oct. 6, 1934. Worked on the Chandler; Dec. 20, put sharp shoes on Gyp and drove her tonight.”
By reading the entire journal, however, a picture emerges of rural life at Dutton Hill Farm during the Great Depression. And for the sixth grade social studies class at Marion Cross School in Norwich, which helped to organize the exhibition “Labors of the Year: The 1934 Diary of Paul Metcalf,” now on view at the Norwich Historical Society, Metcalf’s life was more than a series of dry journal entries.
“Paul Metcalf sort of became like a friend to our class,” said Stella Galanes, one of three sixth-grade students to give introductory remarks when the exhibition opened Friday.
Marguerite Ames, the sixth-grade social studies teacher at Marion Cross School, has taught history using Metcalf’s diary before. But this was the first time that the students, 16 in all, curated an exhibition that includes photographs of the Metcalf family, objects belonging to the family, common farm tools they would have used, and wall labels and captions explaining the meaning of Metcalf’s journal entries.
The six-week project, part of the school’s community service requirement, called for organizational, writing and interpretive skills as the students dug into the details of Metcalf’s life, the lives of his family and the textures of life at that time.
“Every morning we read (Metcalf’s) diary,” Ames said. “They knew him, they knew his horses, they knew his family.”
Sarah Rooker, director of the Historical Society, also runs an organization called The Flow of History, which has worked with the Claremont, Hanover and Norwich, Barre and Brattleboro school districts in Vermont and New Hampshire to develop a local history curriculum. She collaborated with Ames and her students on the exhibition.
Metcalf, who was 41 in 1934, lived with his brother Fred and sister Abbie and their parents on the farm. None of the siblings ever married, Rooker said. The farm’s primary sources of income were dairy and wood. The annual income from dairy in 1934, Metcalf wrote in a note at the end, was $661.73 in creamery income and $69.82 from other sources.
The Metcalf journal, and other objects from Dutton Hill Farm, on Dutton Hill Road, were given to the historical society by a family that lived on the farm after the Metcalfs, Rooker said.
“It’s an interesting journal because it’s 1934 and right in the middle of the Depression. There’s no mention of politics or the Depression. They’re going about their daily lives in a frugal, agricultural way, which is how I think a lot of Vermont towns weathered the Depression,” Rooker said.
Over the course of the project, Ames said, the students became more engaged with Metcalf, and eager to know what would happen next in the journal.
As children living in a rural area, Ames said, they understood the significance of the flow of the seasons, the ups and downs of raising and harvesting such crops as corn and potatoes. And they understood Metcalf’s attachment to the farm animals, and to his horses, all of which he named. When Metcalf wrote about snow, or the sound of spring peepers, this also resonated with the students.
Less familiar to them was the ritual the Metcalf family had, common then with farm families, of going out on Sunday drives: to Quechee, Strafford and Randolph, just to get away for a day.
That Metcalf also relied on a horse-driven buggy for transportation, in addition to two cars (a Chandler and a Studebaker), surprised the students, Ames said.
Part of the challenge for the students lay in putting flesh on the bones of Metcalf’s journal.
“There was no emotional stuff. A diary now is about expressing yourself: there’s none of that,” said Alec Smail, one of the sixth-grade students.
One way to bring it alive was the inclusion of the tools and other objects. “The artifacts added a dimension that the diary alone did not provide,” Ames said.
Rooker said that one of the jobs the students had to undertake was to find tools to illustrate some of the chores Metcalf and his siblings did daily. While the students were able to draw on the collection for most of the items, they had to hunt down tools he would have used to repair his cars, which he worked on constantly, Rooker said.
“I thought they did a really beautiful job for what they were asked to do — to focus on the chores and seasons and farm life,” Rooker said.
“I think these stories are really important,” said Ames, who, in previous years, has worked with her students on the World War II experience and wants to do a history project focused on how the town experienced the Vietnam War.
“The kids are very proud of it, and proud of their writing and they have a new connection to an important institution in their community — and the past, ” Rooker said.
“Labors of the Year: The 1934 Diary of Paul Metcalf” runs through June. For information go to norwichvthistoricalsociety.org or call 802-649-0124.
Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.