The Leeds Historical Society will host a program on life during the mid-1800s at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, in the downstairs meeting room of the new town office. It is open to the public. The program will draw from the 11 diaries of John Y. Merrill, written between 1855 and 1865. Refreshments, including homemade doughnuts, will be served, and there will be a variety of historical items for sale. Laura Juraska, back, and Ian Ormon of the society examine a “Sons of Temperance Pledge,” signed by Merrill in 1847.