This begins the Diary of Joseph E. Walton, my grandfather. I remember grandpa as a strong man in the physical sense, being about 6 foot plus tall, dark hair but lots of gray, that was bushy and thick, and a wiry build from hard work all his life. He could do physical work well into his 80+ years of life. I recall seeing him trudge up the hill at 85 carrying two five gallon pails of whey (a bi-product of milk) for the hogs, never setting them down to rest, but carrying them to his destination which was a considerable distance. He was a compasionate man too. I recall a dog we had that got hit by a car. It was such a special dog that no one would admit the inevitable; that this dog was not going to make it. After an extended period of suffering for this poor dog, he decided that it was time to end the dogs misery and he carried the dog to a place out of the lawn and with a rifle ended the dogs life. This was the only time in my life I ever saw my grandpa use a weapon. I was a lad of maybe ten or twelve and was there because I insisted that I wanted to be. I remember that my grandfather cried and so did I. That was probably my first experience of losing a pal/pet dear to my heart. His lament was that we had let the dog suffer much to long.
  Joseph began writing his diary after his wife Emma (White)Walton died and wrote in it on a regular basis until his death. His entries around the holidays and other times too reveal that he missed her a lot.
  My purpose is not to publish his entire diary but rather to give insight into the last eight years of his life. His first entry is Dec 16th 1954. I have dated his entries based on how he had each page of his diary dated. In some cases the dates do not appear to be quite right but he was 86 years old. The book he wrote in is falling apart and some script I had to guess at but 99.9% is in his own word. His diary has served as a basis to find out details of his father and his grandfather and others members of the family. John W.

Joseph Writes:
December 16-1954 compiled by Joseph E Walton
William B Walton, my father was born in Birmingham England March 26 1826 of a family of four children. He was married to Miss Sarah Jane Bulter of the same town. My fathers family consisted of Eleanor, Emma, William, and Ruth. None were married but William. Eleanor and Emma died in England and are buried there in Rhyl cemetery. Ruth came to America, then to Madison and lived in the family of Dr Hobbins as maid till his wife died and she moved to Green Bay and lived in the home of Judge Hastings as maid till his wife died and at other homes. She died and was buried in Green Bay. My father emigrated to this country in 1856, landed at Boston, and had a short visit with my mothers people who came from the same town in 1854 and settled at Haverhill suburb of Boston. My father and mother came direct to Madison being employed by P. McCabe on the city survey and he was afterward employed by D. W. Jones Secretary of State in platting the state school land. My father was married in Worcestershire England June 19th 1851 to Sarah Jane daughter of William and Jane Butler.
Dec 24- 1954
  They came to this country in June 1854 and made a home in Haverhill Mass. My father and mothers family consisted of seven children. Eleanor wife of DB Richardson who was born in England. Caroline L who was born in England June 17th 1854 and never married, William F born in Madison September 28, 1856, Marie E born Jan 27th, 1859 in Madison, wife of Artwill Blashfield. Francis E who married Lois G White sister of my wife Emma, Alice E. wife of Walter Strahl, and Joseph E born July 21 1869, my wifes name was Emma M White sister of my brothers wife. I was married July 21-1899 at Boscobel and we are the parents of seven children
Joseph writes about two or three pages next, dated January 5th 1955 (a bit confusing) and in these three pages lists each and every son and daughter when they were born, when they married, who they married, and the date they married. Additionally, he lists each of their children (his grandchildren) and in most cases their ages and birthdates including those grandchildren who passed away at a very young age.  He also names his 3 great grandchildren that included Teresa Lynn daughter of Robert and Jean Walton and Mary, 6 weeks old and children of June and Arthur McDowell Gregory A. McDowell, 2 years old in the spring. Many of the birthdates are a bit off but in general are within 2-3 months and birthday months were fairly  accurate. He ends this by writing: "This is Christmas day 1954." (I think that grandpa wrote and forgot to date the pages as he wrote and then went back later and dated the pages.) I was amazed to see that at 86 he could remember all those dates, names etc.

Jan 15-1955
My wife's people were Mr Barney White born in or near Lake Shamplane 1812. His people were residents of Canada at the time of the war of 1812 and were driven out on account of being American and his mother was ferried across the river and the army general let his mother have the run of his tent and he was born that night in the tent. His wife Was Mariah Hubanks born in Indiana. They had 9 children. Martha who married a Gibbs (children Norman, Clyde, Elda). Other children of Barney and Mariah are Lois Walton my brothers wife, Hannah Porter wife of George Porter, Orin White, Wilber White, Charles White, also my wife Emma and May wife of Dr Dillman. There was one other brother Monroe, he went to Califronia
Dec 24, 1956??
years ago, but has not been heard from. His wife was Bertha Lightfoot. Their children are Ester, Ida, and Flossie wife of Russel Guist.
Next was Oliver. don't know his wifes name. Orin had two sons Allie by his first wife and James by his second wife, he is deceased and one girl I don't know her name. My wife had one half brother Wesley and two half sisters, Maggie Walrath and one other I don't know her name. Her brother Wesley was a Free Methodist minister. He preached in the early days about 80 years ago. My wife Emma was born in Peola county Kansas and came to Wis when a small girl. I met her when she was fourteen and kept company with her from the time she was sixteen. For thirteen years her parents needed her to take care of them. They both passed away within three days of one another and her brother Wilber who was also sick passed away a month or two after and we were married at Boscobel Methodist Parsonage in July 26, 1889 (1899 I believe)
and came to live on the old Walton homestead where our son Millard resides today. I was born on the old home place 87 years ago 1869 in a little log house about twenty feet log by sixteen wide.
Dec 23 1956??
The log cabin was on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 5, town of Scott. Our house was about in the center of the fourty. We lived there till 1871 and then moved to where Millard now lives. I was two years old. Francis and Alice my brother and sister were born in the old house, William F my brother and Marie my sister were born in Madison. Eleanor and Caroline were born in England.
Xmas evening 1956
Well this is eight o'clock Xmas night. I just got home from Pauls. We were all up to Millards Xmas Eve to supper such a supper oysters and all the trimmins. We had quite a crowd there. Was Paul Agnes, Jack and Sharon and myself, Arthur ,June and the two children, Greg and James the baby. Bob Walton and wife and their two girls, Millard and Hazel, Mr and Mrs Pospichal Peggys father and mother in law and Peggy and Stevey the baby, 18 in all. We got home about eleven. Today we had dinner at Pauls we had chicken dinner with all the trimmins. Paul sent Jack for Mr and Mrs Taft and we had Arthur and June and the two children and Pauls four of them and myself which made eleven. We sure had a good dinner, but there was one not there, you can imagine who it was, the second Xmas in fifty seven years without her. (He is remembering Emma his wife) Paul took Mr. and Mrs. Taft home in the afternoon. It is quite icy as the snow melted and it rained a little and froze.
Dec 31 1956
Grandma or Emma, my wife, as they always called her, she was 85 and she passed away at the memorial hospital (Boscobel) August 6, 1955. It was an awfully hot summer. She suffered terribly with the heat as she was there 40 days. She was buried at Mt Zion August 8 1955. Rev Art Roberts officiated at the services.
January 30 1957
It seems a long time since Emma passed away but she is ever in my memories. I look at all the things in the room and it doesn't seem possible she has ben gone nearly two years, but such is life, one goes and another comes. I saw Florence yesterday (his neice) she is lonesome since Loren passed away.
This has been a very cold winter coldest since 1939 hardly thawed one day for two months. We had 18 little lambs even as cold as it is we just lost two. It was so cold we have four heat lamps or we would have lost more. Will quit for tonite.