A beginning explanation

              WILLIAM LOUIS CRAWFORD DIARY 
Explanation 
 
       William Louis Crawford was born on July 15, 1873, to William Robinson and Carnelia Gifford Crawford, in Rockville, Kane County, Utah. When he was six years old the family moved to Oak Creek in Zion Canyon. The diaries which are being transcribed here begin with the year 1898 when Louis was 25, and little is known of his life during those intervening years. This work will be restricted to that which is found in his diaries, as best it can be interpreted (and most of it is legible), using his spelling and phrasing for the most part. An educated guess may be added here and there for clarification as to locality or other pertinent facts as they are lacking, but are known to the transcriber. 
        Not every year is represented as some of the diaries have been lost. Also information is meager as so little space is provided in the small "books" in which he kept his records. He used small, well built tablets only 3" x 6", and some only 2" x 6", which he could carry in his bib overalls pocket or shirt pocket. Most of the entries are in ink or indelible pencil, either of which becomes blotched in places. Some appear to be in ordinary lead pencil. It is surprising that as much writing has survived as has, considering each booklet was carried at all times through all kinds of weather and, at the beginning of this project at least two of them are 100 years old. 
        Anyone looking at the meager entries may think this is a waste of time, but read on. You will get an insight into a way of life that, hopefully, is gone; a life of struggle and pleasure, of hunger and plenty, of loneliness and camaraderie, of inventiveness or doing without. You will see what sacrifices our fathers and mothers made that we can have a life of relative ease. More than once he states that his health isn't good, and it wasn't. He died at the age of 62, still struggling to provide for his family. 
        The little diaries in which we find this record are amazing. Each one is almost an encyclopedia, containing a calendar and many tables such as weights and measures, populations of cities and just about anything one could want to know. There is a place for identification, hat and shoe size, etc. At the end of some he gives the miles he has walked and the days he has spent away from home. Most of this will be skipped, except perhaps just an example. This transcription is being started by Jasper Louis, his second son and third child. It may be of interest that Jasper and one sister, Beth, are of Louis' complexion, blond and blue eyed, while Lloyd and four other girls took on Mother's looks, brown eyes and brown or black hair. Louis gives his weight as varying between 158 and 165 pounds, his hat size as 7, his shoe size 8. He was 5 feet, 10 1/2 inches tall. He had medium brown hair and blue eyes. Jasper (JL) fits that description, except his feet and head are a bit larger and he has been fifteen pounds heavier at times, although at this writing he weighs 165. This last bit of information has been included at the insistence of Fern (Mrs. JL) Crawford. It was a good idea. 
His diaries provided a place for each day's temperature in upper left and weather in upper right. That pattern will be followed where the information is given.