William raises eleven children and somehow manages to keep a diary for fifty-five years! He farms with his father and brother “Jock” north of Caintown until his father’s death in 1860. Then he purchases a farm in Landsdowne Station in 1862. Throughout the years, he’s clearing land, marketing goods, sharing a threshing machine, attending church and competing in agricultural fairs. He records the family’s activities and his own until 1892 when his shaky hand suggests that he was near the end of the diary and - his life.