Sarah Jane Hickman Brown Diaries

This collection consists of the personal diaries of Sarah Jane Hickman Brown for the period January 1, 1896, through August 4, 1902. The diaries were written in the Mississippi towns of Shoccoe, Fernwood, and Canton (Madison County). Mrs. Brown made specific notations concerning the dates of births, deaths, and marriages of family members and friends; therefore, her diaries may be of special interest to genealogical researchers. There are several pages at the end of folder 2 which list Mrs. Brown's parents, her brothers and sisters, and her children and grandchildren, giving birth, marriage, and death dates of each family member as well as the county and state in which these events took place. This same type of genealogical information can be found elsewhere in the diaries for both the family members mentioned above and other family members and friends.

Mrs. Brown recorded the weather each day in general terms such as cloudy, raining, or extremely hot. She also related regularly the state of her health and the health of family members and friends. During late September 1897, Mrs. Brown referred to the yellow fever epidemic which was spreading throughout Mississippi and the outbreak of swamp fever in the Mississippi Delta which followed shortly thereafter.

The diaries are complete from January 1, 1896, to August 4, 1902, except for a few scattered dates, the largest gap being almost three months, January 25 - April 16, 1902. The dates February 1897 through December 1898, found in folder 1, are duplicated elsewhere in other folders.