Ida Katherine “Kate” Handy

Kate’s diary is short and sweet and a delight to read. During the maple syrup season, she reports gaining weight after a few weeks of eating warm sugar and wax (taffy).  She enjoys the activities of her brothers and sisters and the admiration of a suitor, Anson, who sends her poetry expressing his love. In 1883, Kate marries her sister’s widowed husband, William “Henry” Watson, and so we can capture aspects of her later life as wife and mother in his diaries.