Irma D. Newey was sixteen when she wrote this diary in 1904. She was a daughter of William Shepherd (Shepp) and Mary Newey. They may have lived at 312 Beaver Dam Road, Brookhaven Hamlet (Historic Structure ID Br21), although this has not been confirmed. The diary covers the period from March through October, 1904, with a few supplemental entries in December, 1904, and 1905-1906.
Well written for a girl of sixteen, it reveals much about the life of a teenager in a small Long Island hamlet at the turn of the century.
Irma’s father was a bayman, and during the period of this diary was employed as a government life saver on Fire Island at the Smith’s Point station. Irma become a teacher and an assistant principal of Public School 156 in Brooklyn. She served 44 years in the Brooklyn schools system. She was briefly married to a Mr. Nelson sometime after 1910, but was divorced by 1920. She never remarried, and died Christmas day, 1949, it is said of a heart attack.
The scanning of this document was done by Marty Van Lith, from the original. There are 244 pages in the diary.
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