[REPURPOSED] SECRETARY'S RECORD BOOK, STATE OF IOWA; Property of Martha M. Roelfs

Iowa/Chicago: Oliver Adams & Co., 1899-1928. Hardcover. 82 pages. 29 x 23 cm. 62 pages filled in manuscript. Originally issued as an official record book for the township of Grant in Lyon County, Iowa, this volume was used to document proceedings of the District Board, including teacher salaries, annual reports (1899–1901), oaths of office, and records of school supplies, books, and repairs.

Later, the book passed into the possession of Martha M. Roelfs (1910–1994), received from her aunt Anna Groote (1889–1956), a stenographer whose name appears on the Sub-Title page. Growing up on a family farm southeast of Ashton, Iowa, Martha repurposed the volume as both a personal recipe notebook and a farm journal. Her handwritten recipes include cakes (notably a watermelon cake with raisins as “seeds”), biscuits, cookies, breads, salads, and pies. By 1928, the same pages record everyday details of farm life—weather notes, corn and potato planting, barley and watermelon cultivation, and daily field work. A vivid and authentic record offering a window into the domestic and agricultural rhythms of an early 20th-century Iowa farm woman. Covers heavily rubbed with loss to head and tail of spine. Hinges cracked but holding. Half bound. Good. Item #4712

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