53 small leather-bound diaries, kept from 1879 through 1931 (inclusive) by Herbert I. Ordway (1851-1931) of 111 Gibbs Street, Newton Centre. During this time he wrote several sentences every day, apparently without exception. His last diary entry is Nov. 3, 1931; he died four days later. The collection also includes a few letters tucked into one of the diaries; a handwritten paper by Ordway, "Our Hills," prepared for the Neighbors Club in 1888; and two CDVs of young boys, dated 1867, as well as genealogical and biographical notes and a copy print of a photograph of Priscilla Ordway as an older woman. Herbert Ingersol Ordway was born in Bradford, MA, on Nov. 21, 1851. He graduated from Harvard College and married Sarah Alice Fitts (1854-1918) on June 12, 1878. They had three children: Daniel Leighton, Warren, and Priscilla. Ordway was in business in the saddlery hardware firm Ordway, Kimball, and Loring, later Butts and Ordway, until he sold out his part in the business in 1899. He spent 1899-1902 in Colorado Springs to recuperate from tuberculosis. He returned to Newton but never went back into business. He was an early member of the Brae Burn Country Club, although he did not play golf. He walked a great deal and, according to his daughter, was "never without a cane and a collie dog."
