#deloach

It’s time for some highlights from our 2019 posts. Here’s one of your favorites: the final page from the diaries of William DeLoach, in which he chronicled his life as a West Texas farmer for 50 years, beginning in 1914.

“This is March 28th, 1964. My first entry was made on March 28th, 1914.” Infirm “in more ways than one,” William DeLoach set down his pen. “Goodbye, Diary. You have been lots of help in lots of ways.”

This is a page from the diaries of William DeLoach, in which he chronicled his life as a West Texas farmer for 50 years, beginning in 1914. Some entries, such as these, are punctuated by tragic or amusing local news. Early November 1937 saw a man lose an arm in a cotton gin: “That is bad…. They take too many chances.” The next day, DeLoach heard about an acquaintance who was “pinched for drunk.” He mused, “Too bad to get sauced in Sudan (Texas) if one is a stranger. Homeguard can.”

This is a page from the diaries of William DeLoach, in which he chronicled his life as a West Texas farmer for 50 years, beginning in 1914. This page contains his entry from the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, but contains no mention of the event, nor does the following day’s entry. Despite the narrative spun since the start of World War II that events moved quickly, it would be many months after Pearl Harbor before the bulk of the country would meaningfully become part of the war effort.

This is the final page from the diaries of William DeLoach, in which he chronicled his life as a West Texas farmer for 50 years, beginning in 1914. “This is March 28th, 1964. My first entry was made on March 28th, 1914.” Infirm “in more ways than one,” William DeLoach set down his pen. “Goodbye, Diary. You have been lots of help in lots of ways.”

This is a page from the diaries of William DeLoach, in which he chronicled his life as a West Texas farmer for 50 years, beginning in 1914. The Depression, and more importantly the Dust Bowl, haunt the background of his diaries, but DeLoach primarily focuses on day-to-day life. July 23rd, 1937, however, sees the toll of those times leak through: “I hurt all day. Not with much heart. I can’t do any thing with any heart with such surroundings. I even can’t write any more…. Just to be the paying teller and nothing more is bad.” Then, “Bill finished the feed plowing.”

“Years are the milestones that tell us the distance we have traveled…” These words--the first to appear in the diaries of William G. DeLoach--were not a platitude. DeLoach noted daily events in his diary from 1914 to 1964, often documenting the mundane life of a West Texas farmer. Yet at times his words revealed the emotional and philosophical depth of a man whose chronicle spanned two World Wars, the Great Depression, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.