The Pleasant Hill Diary: My name is Frank Myers. I am a native of Arcadia, Indiana. The document which we are referring to as the "Pleasant Hill Diary" was discovered by my friend and probable cousin, Dawn Myers Werkmeister, while on a family history visit to the Cambridge City Public Library in Wayne County, Indiana in the fall of 1997. The City Librarian, Sarah Addison, was kind enough to authorize the photocopying of the approximately 400 pages which comprise the diary. With the assistance of Beverly Rummel Klemme of Connorsville, Indiana, we have been able to identify the diarist as John T. Byerly (1833-1919). The events recorded are ordinary happenings in the life of a farmer and church member during the years from 1885 through 1917. John Byerly and his wife, Louisa Rummel Byerly, lived on a farm in eastern Henry County adjacent to Jackson Township, Wayne County. The church which is mentioned throughout the diary is believed to be of the Church of the Brethren (Dunker) faith. This introduction will be revised as we uncover additional facts about the diary, its author and the location of the Pleasant Hill church and cemetery. Persons wishing to contribute background information about these items are encouraged to do so and will be credited in the final narrative.
 

Montgomery-Whitewater Junior Historical Society: We have recently received a small booklet put together by this society which details their fine work in cleaning up the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in 1955. It includes a map, an interesting folklore article, inscriptions from some of the cemetery stones and a brief history of the church. Lori Griffin of Cambridge City is the contact person for this material. Her e-mail address is shown on the last page of this introduction.
 

Purpose of Transcription: Dawn Werkmeister and I have undertaken to transcribe the diary entries into computer readable form in order to make them as widely available to other family historians as possible. Handling any document of this age subjects it to unnatural wear and tear and possible damage. We hope to repay the Cambridge City Public Library by making this transcription available to the library, thus eliminating the necessity for recopying the original work. Family historians are welcome to make a single copy of the diary for their own use. Through the efforts of Linda Aker, Indiana GENWEB host for Henry County, the diary may be viewed on line at that site.
 

Condensed Version: The task of transcribing nearly four hundred hand-written pages is proving formidable. It seemed prudent to go through the diary and extract those entries that were of unusual interest or would benefit genealogical research. The condensed version requires only fourteen pages for the diary entries. An index of names is planned, but has not as yet been undertaken. We are hoping to complete our transcription of the full version late in 1998.
 

Punctuation and Spelling: When I first began to transcribe the diary, I thought that I would exactly duplicate the diaristŐs entries. After a page or so, I could see that such an approach resulted in entries that were both distracting and somewhat unattractive. I then began to experiment with minor changes to improve the readability and attractiveness of the diary entries. First, I decided to begin every sentence with a capital letter and to end it with a period. Next, having found that the diarist always capitalized certain letters and never capitalized others, I applied modern usage to those letters. Finally, the diarist consistently misspelled certain words. I corrected his spelling of such words as "to day", "eavening" and "burried" to "today", "evening" and "buried". I am satisfied that the entries are now much more readable and that none of the diaristŐs meaning or style of writing has been lost.
 

The following is a growing list of persons who have contributed greatly to the material we are gathering on the Pleasant Hill Church and Cemetery.