Getting to Know Jimmy Littlejohn Through Decades of Diaries

Contributed by Marianne Ivers, Chatham Historical Society

Debbie Fabian first found out about the Littlejohn Diaries at a Chatham Historical Society event several years ago. She spent six years reading and transcribing the diary collection written by James Robert (Jimmy) Littlejohn spanning from 1887 to 1942. “I think I know him better than some of my relatives,” Debbie said.

In his diaries Littlejohn depicted his daily life as a rose grower in Chatham, his interactions with local residents and establishments, as well as his activities beyond his business. “This is a very dear town to live in,” he wrote in his diary on Aug. 9, 1936.

Littlejohn was born in England and he came to this country with his parents. The elder Littlejohn was a gardener and later became a rose grower. Jimmy Littlejohn, eldest of four siblings, never married.

Littlejohn followed in his father’s footsteps as a rose grower. He purchased a property on South Passaic Avenue and built six greenhouses. He built a small hut adjacent to the greenhouses. The hut had no water or electricity, but Littlejohn lived in it until he sold the property in late 1930’s. Littlejohn would cultivate his roses and ship the “buds” - as he called them - to New York City. He kept meticulous calculations of his modest earnings in his diaries.

In his diaries Littlejohn describes meeting fellow Chatham residents at parks or restaurants. He was one of the librarians of the Village Library as well as a writer for the Chatham Herald. He was also a cartographer who drew maps of different towns. He was an avid reader who enjoyed plays and movies. He also enjoyed baseball games between Madison and Chatham.

When he wasn’t tending his flowers, Littlejohn enjoyed riding his bike, which he always referred to as the “wheel”. Sometimes his road trips took days to complete. He was one of the founding members of the Chatham Wheelmen, a bicycle club for young men. “Went to Center Moriches on Long Island on wheel got there about 6 oclock It was good riding,” he wrote on August 5, 1896 with his typical short sentences void of punctuation.

The outdoorsy man kept records of the weather and temperature each day. He marked the moon cycles and sometimes used colored pencils to make a point with pictures. He recorded the Feb. 17, 1902 blizzard which resulted in a “good sleighing” opportunity for Chatham residents. The spring must have come early that same year, since Littlejohn recorded “frogs and lizards singing” on March 16. “He was very much in tune with nature noticing when the birds would start singing in the spring and would announce when the different flowers would start growing,” Debbie explained.

In his later years Debbie detected a changed man as his business dwindled. “Rose business is dead,” he wrote and lamented the cost of labor at 30-40 cents per hour. “Times are getting worse all the time,” he wrote in 1939 as many of his fellow residents were unable to find work.

Eventually Littlejohn sold the property housing the greenhouses, but did not stop working. He worked for other local gardeners and continued to look for work at age 83. Littlejohn passed away at the age of 90 on April 23, 1943.