Memory Book / Diary of Maggie Alma Middleton Dated December 25th, 1886.

The list below details the surnames of all the individuals who signed this book, and the frequency of that surname's appearance:

Most of these surnames (especially Peril) are mentioned in the book "Here's Harper 1863 - 1963", Published and available from the Texas Sesquicentennial Committee, Harper, Texas.

These pages contain the scanned images of her entire little diary.  Below each scanned image is a transcription of the written text.

"Alma Middleton, December 25th, 1886.  Gilispie County, Texas"

Second page - indecipherable... at least by me : )

But it is possibly the scrawlings of a 3 year old brother of Maggie Alma’s – Matthew Arthur Middleton.

First page containing actual entries - "Dear Mifs Alma, let not our love like the roses wither and die, but like the evergreen may it last forever. Your friend James Bowers.”  James Bowers was my great-grandfather.  He married Maggie Alma Middleton in Gillispie County in 1887.  However, something apparently happened to her after, as he married Minnie Ford White in 1889.

"To Miss Alma, Lets oftener talk of noble deed, and rarer of the bad ones, and sing about our happy days, and none about the sad ones. We were not made to fret and sigh, and when grief sleeps, to wake it bright happiness is standing by. This life is what we make it.  Your friend, Randolph Peril."

"One by one the sands are flowing, one by one the moments fall. Some are coming, some are going.  Do not strive to grasp them all.  Your friend, Girard Peril"

"To Mifs Alma, may love consecrate these lines and memory hold them dear.  May oft your thoughts be cast upon the friend who placed them here.  Your faithful friend, Margaret Houghton, March the 3rd 1887"

"To Mif Alma, when distant land divides us and you no more I see, Remember that it was Lizzie that penned these lines for thee.  Your loving friend, Lizzie Nichols, March the 3rd 1887".

"To Miss Alma, My pen is bad, my ink is worse, God bless the girl that reads this verse.  James Peril"

"To Miss Alma, when fortune fails and friends are few, say shall I find a friend in you.  Your friend, W. Wallis"

"Dear Mifs Alma, we meet and part, the world is wide.  We journey onward side by side. A little while and then again our paths divide.  A little pain, a silent yearning of the heart, for what has grown of life apart.  A shadow passing oer the sun, then gone, and light again has come.  We meet and part and then forget and life holds blessings for us yet.  Ellie P. Smith, Dec 18, 1886"

"May 1887, To Alma.  May thy life be ever bright and thy sorrows few is the wish of your true friend.  Jim Schier or Schnier

"To Miss Alma, round is the ring that has no end. So is my love for thee my friend.  Yours ever, Edward Peril.  December the 28th, 1886"

"Dear Alma, I ask not a life for you Alma, all radiant as others have done, for may you have just enough sorrow, to temper the glare of the sun.  Lovingly, Josie M. Brown"

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