Martha Van Orsdol Shaw Farnsworth kept a personal diary from 1882 through 1922 with only a few gaps. The diary starts when she is a teenager. The entries in this volume describe her daily activities as she is growing up in Winfield and later Silver Lake and Topeka. She marries John W. Shaw on September 4, 1889. She refers to him as Johnny or Winnie in the diary. He works for the post office. Many of Martha's diary entries are very emotional about the boys she dates and her marriage to Johnny. From the beginning of her marriage, Martha expresses her unhappiness in her marriage. It seems to stem from Johnny's drinking and his anger when he was intoxicated. Johnny dies in October 1893 and Martha soon marries another post man Fred Farnsworth in 1894. It is possible that this diary was rewritten from an earlier version because some entries are underlined in red.