Elizur Hiram Graves recorded daily life in his diary for over 44 years, beginning in 1888. This diary from 1895 records the daily activities of his business partners as they were buying and shipping stock from around Brooklyn, Wisconsin to the stock markets in Chicago and Milwaukee, and selling farm machinery to the farmers. He mentions temperance, Mormons, diphtheria, sleighing, difficult farm machinery, daily ups and downs of the hog and cattle market, taking the trains, and buggy rides. Family, church, relatives, weather, babies, funerals, gardening and his horse and cow complete the picture. We learn the names of the farmers he worked with, most of the people living around him and often his opinion of them.