Day by Day
Title
Day by Day (p. 2)
Description
[corresponds to inside cover of Day by Day]
[illustration]
Community Library
Sunbury, Ohio
Title
Day by Day (p. 3)
Description
[corresponds to unnumbered page of Day by Day]
Day by Day
[illustration]
Doris Davidson Day
Community Library
Sunbury, Ohio
1995
Day by Day
[illustration]
Doris Davidson Day
Community Library
Sunbury, Ohio
1995
Title
Day by Day (p. 4)
Description
[corresponds to unnumbered page 1 of Day by Day]
Grandchild
Child of my child
Heart of my heart
Your smile bridges the years
between us - I am young again
discovering the world through your eyes.
You have the time to listen
and I have the time to spend
Delighted to gaze at familiar loved
features, made new to in your eyes again.
Through you, I'll see the future.
Through me, you'll know the past.
In the present we'll love one another
As long as these moments shall last.
- Perfect pleasures
Title
Day by Day (p. 5)
Description
[corresponds to page 2 of Day by Day]
Preface
Many of us in our lifetime have been a part
of, or know of, a 5-generation family because it
represents a span of about 80 years.
We have had 8 generations of our family living
since the early 1900's to now. If all the
grandparents back to 1750 were still living you
would have several million grandmas and grandpas
and wouldn't that be a pretty kettle of fish. Talk
about being spoiled!
Of course, you have only a few grandparents
living EXCEPT - you have little bits and pieces of
all these other grandparents in you. and that is
what sets you apart as unique. Perhaps one of you
got grandpa's red hair, or grandma's blue eyes, or
a mind for math, a dread disease, a gimpy knee.
Thank, or blame, your ancestors.
I want to begin by honoring your grandparents
by writing what I know, or have heard about them.
I will then tell of my married life from my
perception, taking it up to the time our children
were married. From there you will have to have
them write their history for you.
I hope you'll enjoy my reflections on
childhood, marriage, work, joys and sorrow of
what, looking back, seems a long, long time.
.2.
Title
Day by Day (p. 6)
Description
[page 6]
[corresponds to page 3 of Day by Day]
The Family Tree
Great-Great-Great- Grandparents
Mrs. Dixon
? ? ?
Mary J. Covert Davidson
Thomas Davidson
Great -Great Grandparents
Middleton and Sarah Day
William and Mary Glenn
Annie C. Davidson Cline
Spencer and Maggie Cowell
Great Grandparents
Truman and Katie Day
Cliff and Maye Davidson
Grandparents
Wendell and Doris Davidson Day
(PaBee) and (Bee)
.3.
[corresponds to page 3 of Day by Day]
The Family Tree
Great-Great-Great- Grandparents
Mrs. Dixon
? ? ?
Mary J. Covert Davidson
Thomas Davidson
Great -Great Grandparents
Middleton and Sarah Day
William and Mary Glenn
Annie C. Davidson Cline
Spencer and Maggie Cowell
Great Grandparents
Truman and Katie Day
Cliff and Maye Davidson
Grandparents
Wendell and Doris Davidson Day
(PaBee) and (Bee)
.3.
Title
Day by Day (p. 7)
Description
[corresponds to page 4 of Day by Day]
I grew up thinking that I only had two sets of
grandparents. Mom and Dad had never mentioned
having any grandparents, so I guess I assumed that
older people didn't have any.
As I grew older and learned about ancestors, I
did ask a few questions but received no answers
that helped so it was stored away some where in my
brain never to be thought of again.
We were down at Grandma Clines one day in 1940
for a family dinner when something came up about
grandparents and Grandma quite casually remarked
that her former mother-in-law was still living. We
were shocked, amazed and questioning at the
announcement. Perhaps stunned is a better word -
after all I was 23 with 2 children of my own and I
had never heard one word about her.
Great-Great-Great-grandmother Dixon
with Shirley, Terry, Joan
[photo]
Immediately we all decided we would like to
meet her, and Grandma made the arrangements for us
to go to Jericho. How it was accomplished I do not
know - I don't believe Grandma had spoken to Mrs.
Dixon since the divorce 40 years before.
Anyway, one Sunday morning several carloads of
.4.
I grew up thinking that I only had two sets of
grandparents. Mom and Dad had never mentioned
having any grandparents, so I guess I assumed that
older people didn't have any.
As I grew older and learned about ancestors, I
did ask a few questions but received no answers
that helped so it was stored away some where in my
brain never to be thought of again.
We were down at Grandma Clines one day in 1940
for a family dinner when something came up about
grandparents and Grandma quite casually remarked
that her former mother-in-law was still living. We
were shocked, amazed and questioning at the
announcement. Perhaps stunned is a better word -
after all I was 23 with 2 children of my own and I
had never heard one word about her.
Great-Great-Great-grandmother Dixon
with Shirley, Terry, Joan
[photo]
Immediately we all decided we would like to
meet her, and Grandma made the arrangements for us
to go to Jericho. How it was accomplished I do not
know - I don't believe Grandma had spoken to Mrs.
Dixon since the divorce 40 years before.
Anyway, one Sunday morning several carloads of
.4.
Title
Day by Day (p. 8)
Description
[corresponds to page 5 of Day by Day]
Davidsons (who should have been Dixons -
explanation later,) set sail for Jericho in
southeastern Ohio.
She was there to greet us when we arrived - a
small, frail woman, very quiet and bearing a not-
very-welcoming look. There were no hugs, kisses or
even an intimation of being glad to see us. We
were not invited into the house, all the
conversations took part in the yard where where we finally
posed for a 5-generation picture.
Five generations: Kathleen Davidson,
Leland Davidson, Grandmother Doris
Day, Great-Great-Great Grandmother
Dixon, Great Great Grandmother Cline,
Great-Grandfather Cliff Davidson
holding Virginia Davidson
Front: Shirley Day, Terry Day
Roland Davidson holding Joan
Davidson and Wendell Davidson.
[photo]
It was so awkward and I was so embarrassed for
Dad (she didn't even welcome him) that all I wanted
was OUT. We left with no thought of returning and
no invitation to return, and I never thought of her
again until I began writing this little history.
Now I wonder - was she quiet and reserved
because it was her natural way? Did she resent us
being there: if so, why did she agree to the
meeting? Was it because she realized, and could
not cope with, the fact of how much human contact
.5.
Title
Day by Day (p. 9)
Description
[corresponds to page 6 of Day by Day]
she had denied herself or been denied by someone
else?
Whatever the reasons, we left and never
contacted her again - nor did she contact us.
Great-Great Grandparents
My great-great-great
grandmother Covert, of the
same generation as Mrs.
Dixon, lived with my Grandma
Cline after she moved to
Galena. She had helped
Grandma for several years
when Grandma
boarded river workers.
Great-Great-Great=Grandmother Mary J. Covert Davidson
[photo]
Grandma Cline was
divorced in 1899 from the
father of her two young sons,
Floyd and Clifford. Her
husband had left and never returned, leaving her to
raise the boys alone in an impoverished section of
Ohio.
Grandma was a large handsome woman with great
coloring, snapping brown eyes, intelligent, very
independent and a caring - but not loving-
grandmother. she was extremely neat, a wonderful
cook and one of her chief pleasures was to host a
family dinner for about 50 people consisting of her
son and his family, 3 stepchildren and their
families and her son with her second marriage.
She enjoyed church and always dressed in her
"good black dress" wearing a string of black beads.
She was a soprano who often sang solos for
funerals. She asked very little for herself and
even today I could draw a picture of house with
every stick of furniture because she never bought
anything new.
.6.
Title
Day by Day (p. 10)
Description
[corresponds to page 7 of Day by Day]
Grandma and I were
always at odds. It stemmed
from a visit our family had made in Woodsfield. she
rode with us. I was less
than 4 years old and the trip
was tiring me when she began
to hassle me, each of us
getting more and more
argumentative as the trip
went on. Finally we arrived
and things had quieted down
when suddenly she began
telling the host what a
"brat" I had been. I had had
it and dredging up from
heavens knows where, I pulled
out a few choice words and let it be be known that I
wanted her to "leave me alone."
Great-Great-Grandfather William Dixon
[photo]
I remember Dad pulling me up by one arm,
grabbing a light with the other, and taking me to
the basement where I got the whipping of my life.
I thought at the time that was highly unfair.
Older people sometimes used these same words when
they were very angry and they seemed to achieve the
desired results; mine didn't. Never having used a
swear word before, I decided I needed more
practice.
Needless to say, Grandma was not impressed
with me, and it gave just one more reason to
favor my sister over me and influenced her family
to do the same.
My chief source of comfort as a child, other
than books, was my Grandma Cowell who loved me
unconditionally and I returned that love. I spent
a lot of time there as a child because she had the
kind of house a kid enjoys - boxes of buttons, lacy
.7.
Title
Day by Day (p. 11)
Description
[corresponds to page 8 of Day by Day]
3-D valentines and calendars, a coffee mill which we
used to grind the coffee, a deep featherbed you
could bury yourself in, magazines by the the score, and
the kind of food we liked - coffee and crackers for
breakfast ! DEE-LICIOUS, even though the coffee was
so strong it could have walked to the table.
Outdoors, it was just as fascinating. She
grew a huge rambler rose which covered the fence
and which was an attraction to everyone going by,
especially, it seemed, to the gypsies who came
every summer.
She had a henhouse full of chickens, some of
them setting hens which were hatching chicks, duck
with broods of ducklings, a peahen, banty roosters
and noisy guineas. It was an experience to gather
eggs - you never knew which fowl was going to guard
whose eggs. There was also the most accessible
haymow I ever saw and it was here we played when
the fragrant hay was first mowed and here where we
looked for "stray' nests of eggs. Grandpa Cowell
was very quiet, curt to the point of rudeness but I
knew he was sick and I excused a lot just to be
with Grandma. He was a severe asthmatic who was
not able to sleep at night except in a reclining
chair or on a fainting couch. Even then, we would
hear him up many times at night trying to find
something to help him breathe.
It was at Grandma's that I first heard 2
sounds that always made me think of loneliness-
the sound of the old train whistle as it went
through Condit and the ticking of her Seth Thomas
clock.
Wendell's grandparents were William and Mary
Glenn and Middleton and Sarah Day. He knew none of
them. His grandmother died when Katie was
quite small and she was raised by Abe and Della
McKenney. The McKenneys lived in a neat little
.8.
3-D valentines and calendars, a coffee mill which we
used to grind the coffee, a deep featherbed you
could bury yourself in, magazines by the the score, and
the kind of food we liked - coffee and crackers for
breakfast ! DEE-LICIOUS, even though the coffee was
so strong it could have walked to the table.
Outdoors, it was just as fascinating. She
grew a huge rambler rose which covered the fence
and which was an attraction to everyone going by,
especially, it seemed, to the gypsies who came
every summer.
She had a henhouse full of chickens, some of
them setting hens which were hatching chicks, duck
with broods of ducklings, a peahen, banty roosters
and noisy guineas. It was an experience to gather
eggs - you never knew which fowl was going to guard
whose eggs. There was also the most accessible
haymow I ever saw and it was here we played when
the fragrant hay was first mowed and here where we
looked for "stray' nests of eggs. Grandpa Cowell
was very quiet, curt to the point of rudeness but I
knew he was sick and I excused a lot just to be
with Grandma. He was a severe asthmatic who was
not able to sleep at night except in a reclining
chair or on a fainting couch. Even then, we would
hear him up many times at night trying to find
something to help him breathe.
It was at Grandma's that I first heard 2
sounds that always made me think of loneliness-
the sound of the old train whistle as it went
through Condit and the ticking of her Seth Thomas
clock.
Wendell's grandparents were William and Mary
Glenn and Middleton and Sarah Day. He knew none of
them. His grandmother died when Katie was
quite small and she was raised by Abe and Della
McKenney. The McKenneys lived in a neat little
.8.
Title
Day by Day (p. 12)
Description
[corresponds to page 8 of Day by Day]
house in Newark. Uncle Abe
raised produce for the Newark
markets and Aunt Della was a
housekeeper, immaculate,
always in a dark dress with a
crisp white apron.
Middleton Day Great-Great-Grandfather
[photo]
Middleton Day was a
prominent farmer in Trenton
Township and Sarah kept up
with him until she became
desperately ill with "brain
fever" and was given no hope
of recovery. The family could not lose "dear Mother
Day" and they prayed long,
hard for her recovery. You remember the old saying
"be careful what you pray for, your prayers might
be answered." Well they were answered. Sarah
recovered and became a a source of great
embarrassment to the family. We think now that she
probably had encephalitis and the disease damaged
her brain for many of her actions from then on were
on the weird side. I had on neighbor tell me that
she used to put the chamber pot upside down on her
head to go visiting the neighbors.
Great Grandparents
Pa Bee's parents were Truman and Katie Day.
I've already told you Katie was raised by Aunt
Della, a little dumpling of a woman who was as
neat, organized and precise as they come. If you
could come up with 3 adjectives to define just the
opposite, that would be Katie. i don' know if
life just beat her down or what the problem, but
when I knew her she was the most disorganized
person you could imaging. Rooms never got cleaned,
drawers never sorted, meals never planned, laundry
.9.
house in Newark. Uncle Abe
raised produce for the Newark
markets and Aunt Della was a
housekeeper, immaculate,
always in a dark dress with a
crisp white apron.
Middleton Day Great-Great-Grandfather
[photo]
Middleton Day was a
prominent farmer in Trenton
Township and Sarah kept up
with him until she became
desperately ill with "brain
fever" and was given no hope
of recovery. The family could not lose "dear Mother
Day" and they prayed long,
hard for her recovery. You remember the old saying
"be careful what you pray for, your prayers might
be answered." Well they were answered. Sarah
recovered and became a a source of great
embarrassment to the family. We think now that she
probably had encephalitis and the disease damaged
her brain for many of her actions from then on were
on the weird side. I had on neighbor tell me that
she used to put the chamber pot upside down on her
head to go visiting the neighbors.
Great Grandparents
Pa Bee's parents were Truman and Katie Day.
I've already told you Katie was raised by Aunt
Della, a little dumpling of a woman who was as
neat, organized and precise as they come. If you
could come up with 3 adjectives to define just the
opposite, that would be Katie. i don' know if
life just beat her down or what the problem, but
when I knew her she was the most disorganized
person you could imaging. Rooms never got cleaned,
drawers never sorted, meals never planned, laundry
.9.
Title
Day by Day (p. 13)
Description
[corresponds to page 10 of Day by Day]
The Day Family Truman Jr., Katie, Forest, Wendell
[photo]
never done, etc., etc.
It's hard to believe
Aunt Della raised her.
She would not learn to
drive, did not care for reading, did not go to
church or go shopping or
entertain herself in any
way. She was very
difficult to live with.
Wendell's dad,
until 1918, was
considered an
outstanding community
man. He was probably more noted for his singing
ability than anything, Possessed of perfect pitch,
he could give the note and key to his fellow
quartet members so they didn't need a pitchpipe.
Further he could pick up a new song and sing it
using scale notes instead of words. He was proud
of his farm building, he was happy to serve on the
school board and as a trustee, but shortly after
his 12 year old daughter died, he began drinking
and to an extent that changed his life and that of
everyone who came in contact with him in ways that
could not have been foreseen by anyone.
Great-Grandfather Comes to Ohio
The year was 1909. He was 13 years old.
He stood there in the drive next to a spring
wagon hitched to a team of horses and looked back
at the building that had been his home for all of
his 13 years.
He had awakened especially early that morning
for he had to take his mother, grandmother,
stepfather and assorted step-siblings down to the
.10.
The Day Family Truman Jr., Katie, Forest, Wendell
[photo]
never done, etc., etc.
It's hard to believe
Aunt Della raised her.
She would not learn to
drive, did not care for reading, did not go to
church or go shopping or
entertain herself in any
way. She was very
difficult to live with.
Wendell's dad,
until 1918, was
considered an
outstanding community
man. He was probably more noted for his singing
ability than anything, Possessed of perfect pitch,
he could give the note and key to his fellow
quartet members so they didn't need a pitchpipe.
Further he could pick up a new song and sing it
using scale notes instead of words. He was proud
of his farm building, he was happy to serve on the
school board and as a trustee, but shortly after
his 12 year old daughter died, he began drinking
and to an extent that changed his life and that of
everyone who came in contact with him in ways that
could not have been foreseen by anyone.
Great-Grandfather Comes to Ohio
The year was 1909. He was 13 years old.
He stood there in the drive next to a spring
wagon hitched to a team of horses and looked back
at the building that had been his home for all of
his 13 years.
He had awakened especially early that morning
for he had to take his mother, grandmother,
stepfather and assorted step-siblings down to the
.10.
Title
Day by Day (p. 14)
Description
[corresponds to page 11 of Day by Day]
river to catch the train to
Columbus.
Great-Grandfather Clifford Davidson
[photo]
He was very familiar with the
Ohio River for after his mother's
divorce at the turn of the century
she and her mother had survived by
furnishing room, board and laundry
service to river boatmen, and it
had been his job to drive workers
down to the river each morning and
return in the evening to bring them
home. When asked once how he could
see to drive at night, he said the
road was lit up all the way like a city because of
the many flaring gas wells in Monroe County.
The distance to the river was 6-8 miles, so it
left him little time to enjoy much schooling;
livestock had to be fed, chickens raised to provide
food, gardens hoed to furnish vegetables, and
potato patch carefully tended because potatoes were
the mainstay of their diet. Sometimes he was free
to stay at the river awhile and that was when
he would lay his fishing line, baited with chicken
necks, to return the next morning to pick up the
large catfish which would supplement their diet.
He was well acquainted with the huge wharf
rats which he later describes as being "large as
most cats" and with the enormous mud turtles, so
ugly that they left him with a lifelong aversion to
turtles, turtle meat or even turtle soup.
As he stood there now, he remembered other
things - how his grandmother had always been with
him always there for him, a guiding influence
in his life; how hard his mother had had to work to
give them food and some sort of home; how "old Mr.
Pettay" had delighted, amazed and enlightened him
with his many Civil War stories; how most of his
.11.
Title
Day by Day (p. 15)
Description
[corresponds to page 12 of Day by Day]
uncles, aunts and cousins had already departed
Monroe County for the oil fields of Oklahoma, Texas
and Wyoming.
Now he, too, was leaving and even though he
was excited, he still felt a pang at leaving all he
had ever known. Would he ever see his boyhood
chums again? Or a certain little girl, prettier
than most, who lived on the top of a hill? Why, he
wondered, had his mother decided to leave? What
was the new farm going to be like? Were there
hills in eastern Delaware County? Or rivers?
More immediate worries came to mind. The
spring wagon was loaded to the hilt; Nothing more
could be added, not even grandmother's spinning
wheel which was left in the front room. What would
happen if he should upset the wagon? Or what if a
horse threw a shoe? Or if the wagon lost a wheel?
Or if he became mired in mud? Or if it poured rain
or if or if or-
But now decision time was here and as he
looked around, he said a silent goodbye to his
little home, the hills, Mr. Pettay, his friends,
smacked the lines across the team's rumps and began
his long, long journey.
He followed a route he knew well, up through
Barnesville and Woodsfield. From there he was
supposed to hit Route 40 and head west. He had
nothing for his horses to eat and very little for
himself. In those days of horse drawn vehicles it
was a very common thing for anyone driving through
the countryside to be offered food or water, and
even food and bedding for their horses.
And so it was with the 13 year old boy. He
was helped many times by people who took care of
his horse, sometimes offering him a sandwich or a
haymow to sleep in. One kind hearted couple had
even invited him into their home, allowed him to
.12.
Title
Day by Day (p. 16)
Description
[corresponds to page 13 of Day by Day]
wash up, gave him a hearty dinner and a bed to
sleep in. Next morning after a country breakfast
he was ready to go again with his rested team. He
never forgot their kindness nor the homes that
housed these people and for years afterward he
would point out each one as traveled "down the
hills" to our reunions.
His trip remained uneventful until he reached
the "Y" bridge at Zanesville. There the horse
refused to cross the bridge and once more he had to
rely on the kindness of strangers. A Zanesville
policeman, after several suggestions had failed,
finally got some blankets, threw them over the
horses' heads and led them across.
The boy began to feel his journey would soon
be coming to an end. And so it was. After 4 days
and 3 nights, he and his faithful team pulled into
the barnyard on Trenton Road "saddle" sore and
weary, but where that
night he could rest in
his own bed, his tummy
full, and satisfied
that he had succeeded
well in finishing a
pretty daunting task.
The 13 year old
old was great-great
grandfather Clifford
Davidson and his trip
to Galena was an omen
of how hard he would
tackle anything and of
how well he would do
it. My mother was
just as industrious as
Dad and never missed a
chance to to take on
Wedding Photograph of Cliff Davidson and Maye Cowell
[photo]
.13.
wash up, gave him a hearty dinner and a bed to
sleep in. Next morning after a country breakfast
he was ready to go again with his rested team. He
never forgot their kindness nor the homes that
housed these people and for years afterward he
would point out each one as traveled "down the
hills" to our reunions.
His trip remained uneventful until he reached
the "Y" bridge at Zanesville. There the horse
refused to cross the bridge and once more he had to
rely on the kindness of strangers. A Zanesville
policeman, after several suggestions had failed,
finally got some blankets, threw them over the
horses' heads and led them across.
The boy began to feel his journey would soon
be coming to an end. And so it was. After 4 days
and 3 nights, he and his faithful team pulled into
the barnyard on Trenton Road "saddle" sore and
weary, but where that
night he could rest in
his own bed, his tummy
full, and satisfied
that he had succeeded
well in finishing a
pretty daunting task.
The 13 year old
old was great-great
grandfather Clifford
Davidson and his trip
to Galena was an omen
of how hard he would
tackle anything and of
how well he would do
it. My mother was
just as industrious as
Dad and never missed a
chance to to take on
Wedding Photograph of Cliff Davidson and Maye Cowell
[photo]
.13.
Title
Day by Day (p. 17)
Description
[corresponds to page 14 of Day by Day]
anything that would make their life and ours
easier, nicer and better.
Great Grandmother Maye Davidson
[photo]
I know little about her
early life; she never talked
about her forbearers either.
I do know that Dad soon
forgot his pretty little girl
in the hills because he had
found what he called "The
pettiest girl I ever saw."
I can just remember Mom
in a red flapper dress and
white shoes that buttoned on
the side, her long dark hair
done up in a bun at the nape
of her neck. One day I went to Centerburg with her
and once there I sat in an outer room while she
went inside. When she came I had to look twice -
her hair was gone! You have to understand that in
the mid-20's this was a daring thing to do, and I
didn't know what to say. She was very quiet going
home and I noticed she seemed more and more nervous
as she neared home. But as far as I know, I don't
think she got a negative reaction from Dad. But
her shingle bob was just one small sign of her
progressive thinking.
On her own in later life she developed an egg-
poultry route in Columbus to help with income. As
with every new project that one of us thought of,
it meant a lot more work for some of us. And so it
was with mom's "egg route." For a number of years
I was at my folks every Friday to help dress out
chickens and later, turkeys. I would return in the
evening to help wash, candle and crate eggs.
This was all done in the hardest way possible
- boiling water in a large pot into which we
scalded the chickens, removed the feathers and
.14.
Title
Day by Day (p. 18)
Description
[corresponds to page 15 of Day by Day]
dressed them out. Several years later, in a small
effort to modernize the operation, my folks
purchased a "de-featherer."
once dressed, the fowl were put on ice, the
egg crates loaded into the car trunk, and the next
day Mom and one of us drove to Columbus where we
unloaded our produce at various stores and to
regular customers.
Many things about Mom will come up as I talk
about growing up but right now I want to leave you
2 recipes which I consider mom's, not mine,
although you've eaten them at my house not her's.
Tapioca Pudding
1 box of Pearl Tapioca- Soak overnight in
tepid water
Beat 5 egg yolks
Add 3/4 c. sugar
1/2t. salt
Heat 1 1/2 quarts of milk and tapioca to almost
boiling. Pour in egg mixture, stirring
constantly, and bring to boil. If necessary
add more milk, After it boils should be the
consistency of unbeaten whipping cream.
Remove from stove and add 3/4 TBS vanilla.
Noodles
Make a well in 1 1/2 c. flour.
Add 3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vinegar
Blend until it makes a ball you can roll out.
May be necessary to add more flour. Roll out
thin, let dry then cut for noodles.
.15.
Title
Day by Day (p. 19)
Description
[corresponds to page 16 of Day by Day]
Mom was a wonderful cook, and most of her life
baked using wood burning stove. The temperature of
the oven read "Low," Med," and "Hi," and her way
of testing it for baking was to put her hand in the
oven for just an instant, and this way she was
able to tell whether it was right for cakes or
bread, meringues or cookies and she hardly ever had
a bad baking day.
One thing I remember about Mom is that after
supper was over and we kids would be occupied with
homework, she would lower the oven door and sit on
it for warmth in the wintertime. it seemed we were
always cold prior to 1950, and I've often said
since that if I had to choose between eating and
being warm I would choose to be warm.
The Davidsons
Doris M, Roland, Kathleen, Leland
[photo]
Washing day was another trial in living then.
Early in the morning a huge tub of water was
brought to a boil, then the clothes thrown in and
stirred occasionally. They were then transferred
to cooler water where they were hand scrubbed,
rinsed and hung out to dry. Who does not remember
frozen clothes standing at attention on every
clothesline or going upstairs to find frozen
clothing draped on stair railings, etc.
When I was first married it was necessary that
laundry needed to be done by hand washing. In
.16.
Title
Day by Day (p. 20)
Description
[corresponds to page 17 of Day by Day]
Those cold 1930 days many times we used what was
called a double blanket, about 70" by 140" which I
would challenge any one of you to wash by hand.
From washing this way, we graduated to a
"Bass" washer which rocked the clothes clean then
you hand cranked them through the wringer. Later
with electricity, you simply fed the clothes
through the wringer. And then, heaven be praised,
came the automatic washer and dryers. No wounder
one of my friends said she'd trade her husband
rather than lose her washer!
Our first soaps were the homemade lye soaps;
the we graduated to Fels Naptha, the soap on every
homemaker's shopping list. Later came the
wonderful scented soaps and the detergents we have
today, small things in the greater scheme, but
great for their added effectiveness in cleaning and
for their convenience.
The life that I describe as mine in childhood
was very similar to that of PaBee's; it was farm
living and everything that one family did then was
like everyone else's work. But in order to write
of childhood, I must write in first person.
One of my earliest memories in that of being
bundled up like an Eskimo and riding on the school
wagon pulled by two teams of horses, which was
driven by dad. Everyone in those days wore long
underwear - heaven when you first put them on, then
something quite different after the first washing.
They stretched so you had to lap the leg over, then
try to put on long stockings over that bunch of
material, then add lace-up shoes. On the outside
we wore a heavy coat, muffler, gloves and a hat
that covered everything but our nose. Even so we
were frozen when we reached school, after following
a route on a mud road so rutted the wheels sank to
.17.
Title
Day by Day (p. 21)
Description
[corresponds to page 18 of Day by Day]
School Bus of Half Century Ago . . .
[photo]
To School We Go - One of the first school buses in this area is pictured in the above picture
taken this time of year in 1921. This horse drawn bus was operated by Clifford Davidson, who
lives just across the Delaware Licking County Line on the Croton Road, who hauled pupils from that area into Hartford School at Croton.
Article from the Sunbury News
the axle, then following a route through school and,
down Hogue road and into Croton.
Dad and I had no chance to warm ourselves as
we returned and headed home. In addition to that
route, Dad had already been up 2-3 hours doing
chores, thawing pipes, pumping water, milking, then
harnessing the team for the trip. And this process
was repeated at night in reverse.
I hated this part of winter - the baby lambs,
pigs and calves that had to be warmed with hand-
School Bus of Half Century Ago . . .
[photo]
To School We Go - One of the first school buses in this area is pictured in the above picture
taken this time of year in 1921. This horse drawn bus was operated by Clifford Davidson, who
lives just across the Delaware Licking County Line on the Croton Road, who hauled pupils from that area into Hartford School at Croton.
Article from the Sunbury News
the axle, then following a route through school and,
down Hogue road and into Croton.
Dad and I had no chance to warm ourselves as
we returned and headed home. In addition to that
route, Dad had already been up 2-3 hours doing
chores, thawing pipes, pumping water, milking, then
harnessing the team for the trip. And this process
was repeated at night in reverse.
I hated this part of winter - the baby lambs,
pigs and calves that had to be warmed with hand-
Title
Day by Day (p. 22)
Description
[corresponds to page 19 of Day by Day]
held bottles or even brought into the house. I
hated the smell of winter in the icy cold rooms
before the stove was fired, and everyone in the
country hated nature's call to the bleak outhouses.
When I was in high school, I had only one friend
who lived in the country and who had a bathroom. I
hated the kerosene lamps we used and the chimneys
we used to clean wadding up old newspapers and
wiping the soot from inside.
But I loved the snowslide the neighborhood
boys always made on Searles hill - it seemed, once
made, to last all winter. I loved the books I
could read in winter, the corn we popped, the time
spent around the kitchen table doing our homework.
As soon as supper was over we cleared the table,
grabbed an apple and did our homework helping each
other.
One of winter's big tasks was butchering - a
chore that involved all of us. We were not
involved with actual killing of one of our
animals. Sometimes the beef would even come from
another man's herd. Beef could not be consumed as
readily as pork, so unless one had a HUGE family,
it was customary to choose and pay for either a
front or hind quarter or a side of beef. We used
little hamburger - so the meat was cut into roasts
and steaks and small pieces were sorted out, cut
into bite size bits and canned.
Butchering took place on the coldest day
possible, because of spoilage. A beef was usually
shot, then hauled up by block and tackle to hang so
that it could be gutted, the skin removed and the
quarters divided so they could be handled easily.
A pig was usually strung up, its throat cut,
then dressed out. Pork was made into hams,
shoulders, loins, while small pieces were ground
into sausage, then canned as patties of put into
.19.
held bottles or even brought into the house. I
hated the smell of winter in the icy cold rooms
before the stove was fired, and everyone in the
country hated nature's call to the bleak outhouses.
When I was in high school, I had only one friend
who lived in the country and who had a bathroom. I
hated the kerosene lamps we used and the chimneys
we used to clean wadding up old newspapers and
wiping the soot from inside.
But I loved the snowslide the neighborhood
boys always made on Searles hill - it seemed, once
made, to last all winter. I loved the books I
could read in winter, the corn we popped, the time
spent around the kitchen table doing our homework.
As soon as supper was over we cleared the table,
grabbed an apple and did our homework helping each
other.
One of winter's big tasks was butchering - a
chore that involved all of us. We were not
involved with actual killing of one of our
animals. Sometimes the beef would even come from
another man's herd. Beef could not be consumed as
readily as pork, so unless one had a HUGE family,
it was customary to choose and pay for either a
front or hind quarter or a side of beef. We used
little hamburger - so the meat was cut into roasts
and steaks and small pieces were sorted out, cut
into bite size bits and canned.
Butchering took place on the coldest day
possible, because of spoilage. A beef was usually
shot, then hauled up by block and tackle to hang so
that it could be gutted, the skin removed and the
quarters divided so they could be handled easily.
A pig was usually strung up, its throat cut,
then dressed out. Pork was made into hams,
shoulders, loins, while small pieces were ground
into sausage, then canned as patties of put into
.19.
Title
Day by Day (p. 23)
Description
[corresponds to page 20 of Day by Day]
Casings for link sausage. Small fat pieces were
kept out of sausage and rendered down to make the
lard which was our source of shortening for baking
and frying. After rendering, the fat pieces were
known as "cracklings."
The whole family joined in turning the
grinder, cutting up meat, getting cans ready. The
entire kitchen was taken over for this task, even
the kitchen table.
It was necessary to work, fast because we had
no refrigeration. Our first meal was usually liver
and onions because you couldn't can it or give it
away. We, as all farm folk did, used almost every
part of the pork including heart, tongue, and
sweetbreads. Remembering those hectic times, I
will say I'm happy to buy my meat from the counter.
Winter was a good time for Dad to take the
horses down to the blacksmith shop to be shod.
What heaven to walk into Curt's little shop where a
blazing fire was always going. I've watched him
shape the shoe, then nail it on the horses. This
always made me shudder because I felt it hurt them,
not knowing that hooves do not feel pain.
Once in a while I got to ride to Condit or
Croton with him when he took in the cream which we
had separated from the milk. Back then you
received a premium price for butterfat. Having our
own cream and eggs meant that, if homemade ice
cream was on the menu, we could just skim the pot
and have cream in abundance, thus making jillions
of little fat cells for us to carry around a
lifetime!
This same cream was used to make butter. It
seemed to me our little arms was always moving -
churning butter, making ice cream, whipping icing,
picking up potatoes, beating rugs, hanging clothes,
blackening stoves, carrying water and PUMPING
.20.
Title
Day by Day (p. 24)
Description
[corresponds to page 21 of Day by Day]
WATER! The latter was a never-ending task. We
pumped and carried water for cooking and drinking,
for laundry and rinsing, for watering thirsty
garden plants, for field hands and harvest help,
for bathing and cleaning and above all for the
cattle. Can you imagine 20 -30 cows trekking across
the Sahara Desert all day each wanting her share of
water right now? One big slurp and there went all
the water we'd spent 20 minutes pumping. Today we
turn a tap for all that.
Spring it meant shedding "longies" and looking
forward to new birth. Grandma Cowell and most farm
women raised chickens by letting "setting" hens
hatch them. My mother, however had a heated
incubator which was stationed just outside our
bedroom. In it she placed her eggs, and every
night I would see her turning the eggs, dipping her
fingertips in water now and then. What a miracle
to see these little bedraggled creatures break out
of the egg, shake themselves and turn into a little
yellow fluff ball.
But that's the only time they're pretty.
Chickens are dumber than a wire fence. It they get
cold, they pile on top of one another and smother
themselves; if it rains, they don't know enough to
come inside; if they get into a tree, they roost on
the highest branch; if you plant one plant into the
ground, they will smell it out and scratch it out.
I grew to hate them except for eating. When they
appear on my table, I feel like saying, "Aha!
Gotcha!"
Summer was a hectic time on all farms. the
entire season was spent in sowing, planting, and
preserving food for livestock and ourselves.
After breaking one's back growing a garden,
then came the hot, hard task of getting everything
.21.
Title
Day by Day (p. 25)
Description
[corresponds to page 22 of Day by Day]
into a can. The first step meant going to the
cellar (the expression all farm people use for
basement) and bring up the fruit jars. They were
washed in hot water, rinsed, then put into boiling
water to kill all bacteria.
Our produce - which ranged from all kinds of
berries to apples, cherries peaches, plums, beans,
beets, carrots, tomatoes and other -was then put
into jars and cold packed. My mother once canned a
quart of yellow string beans which she placed in
the can one by one making a can of beans as
beautiful as a painting. She entered it for years
in the local fair's canning exhibit and won at
least 6 blue ribbons for it.
We kids picked the berries that were canned,
and for blackberrying we really protected
ourselves. We all wore long sleeves, long pants,
heavy shoes and a hat, trying to avoid thorns,
sweat flies and bees. It was hot sticky work but
how proud we felt when we each delivered out pail
of berries to Mom.
We also used to go with Dad to hunt, mushrooms,
and we'd bring home a big pail of sponge mushrooms
which were simmered in butter and served on oven-
toasted bread for a real treat. Dad could always
find mushrooms, and I guess I assumed one could
always find them, so I never asked where they were
found and he never told me.
Nutting was another experience we looked
forward to; we'd pack in the car, go south looking
for open fields which held walnut, hickory and
chestnut trees. Sometimes we'd even find
hazelnuts. No one ever chased us out of a field
but it wouldn't work that way today. Nuts were
very important to us for use in salads, cakes and
pies as well as to enjoy just in eating.
My folks would make a picnic out of driving to
.22.
Title
Day by Day (p. 26)
Description
[corresponds to page 23 of Day by Day]
Clyde to buy cherries; in fact picnics were a
common thing during our summers. We would drive to
Indian Lake for visits or to Cedar Point where we
would be allowed to ask a friend to go along. The
folks always enjoyed all the local fairs, the
Hartford Fair especially being enjoyed as an all-
day outing which family picnics all over the
grounds. We always went back for the Davidson
reunion in Southern Ohio (another picnic) and my
folks were always visiting or having visitors in
during the busy summers.
Dad, in summer, was just as busy outside, he
was one of the first to own and operate a corn
husker and threshing machine. Later on he owned an
ensilage cutter and later still a combine.
It was not until the coming of the self-
propelled combine that country women were relieved
of one of summers biggest concerns - that of
feeding 12-20 men three of four times a year during
harvesting season.
The men had already tied, bond and shocked
the wheat and oats before threshing, and, also,
later, shocked, the corn. Then came the chore of
getting the grain into storage bins and this meant
extra help and food!
With no refrigeration, the woman's day usually
began with a hasty trip to town to purchase meat,
then home to prepare baked goods from scratch, peel
a peck of potatoes and get a balanced meal on by
noon. We only failed once. One time the men had
already been called in, and while Mom was
attempting to drain the potatoes for mashing, the
lid came loose and the cooked potatoes fell on
the ground. Hired help couldn't have a meal
without potatoes so back to the field they went
while we hurriedly began peeling a second peck of
potatoes.
.23.
Title
Day by Day (p. 27)
Description
[corresponds to page 24 of Day by Day]
Haying had to be the dirtiest, hottest work of
all. It occurred in the hottest months and on the
sunniest days, and if the hay had been rained on
after having been mowed it was the dirtiest.
Before the days of balers, we used to mow the
hay ( heavenly fragrance), rake it, then load it on
to wagons by using a hay loader, spreading it
evenly on the wagon until we had a full load, then
take it to the barn. There a large fork was pulled
down from the mow, set into the hay, the fork then
pulled back into the mow and dropped the hay to be
mowed away in different sections of the haymow. No
matter how careful you were you always worried
about spontaneous combustion for about 2 weeks
after haying time was over.
Then came the baler, and while several steps
of haying were eliminated, so also was much of the
fun and companionship of old time haying. In time,
as horses were no longer an every day farm animal
and as large dairies became obsolete, so also did
haying as one knew it.
As a child, other than the fun things we did
with our parents, I enjoyed 4-H Club, Condit Church
and music, both our player piano and piano lessons.
We never did much in our 4-H cooking club. I
only remember making white sauce and serving it on
crackers. UGH! But 4-H did give me one of the
nicest experiences I had as a child, that of
attending 4-H camp. The camp was near Utica
and going there was my first experience sleeping with a
group of young girls, sharing my meals with them
and enjoying tall stories told around the campfire.
It cost $5.00 a week and I don't know yet how my
folks could have sent me, but it was a wonderful,
invaluable experience.
Our player piano was always in use by us and
our friends, We learned timing and how to carry a
.24.
Haying had to be the dirtiest, hottest work of
all. It occurred in the hottest months and on the
sunniest days, and if the hay had been rained on
after having been mowed it was the dirtiest.
Before the days of balers, we used to mow the
hay ( heavenly fragrance), rake it, then load it on
to wagons by using a hay loader, spreading it
evenly on the wagon until we had a full load, then
take it to the barn. There a large fork was pulled
down from the mow, set into the hay, the fork then
pulled back into the mow and dropped the hay to be
mowed away in different sections of the haymow. No
matter how careful you were you always worried
about spontaneous combustion for about 2 weeks
after haying time was over.
Then came the baler, and while several steps
of haying were eliminated, so also was much of the
fun and companionship of old time haying. In time,
as horses were no longer an every day farm animal
and as large dairies became obsolete, so also did
haying as one knew it.
As a child, other than the fun things we did
with our parents, I enjoyed 4-H Club, Condit Church
and music, both our player piano and piano lessons.
We never did much in our 4-H cooking club. I
only remember making white sauce and serving it on
crackers. UGH! But 4-H did give me one of the
nicest experiences I had as a child, that of
attending 4-H camp. The camp was near Utica
and going there was my first experience sleeping with a
group of young girls, sharing my meals with them
and enjoying tall stories told around the campfire.
It cost $5.00 a week and I don't know yet how my
folks could have sent me, but it was a wonderful,
invaluable experience.
Our player piano was always in use by us and
our friends, We learned timing and how to carry a
.24.
Title
Day by Day (p. 28)
Description
[corresponds to page 25 of Day by Day]
tune from it, so that my few piano lessons were not
too difficult for me - I just wish I'd had more of
them.
We went to Condit Church with a carload of the
Saunders children, attended Sunday School and
church where it was difficult for Lolly and me to
restrain our giggling at some of the atrocious hats
worn by the older women. I began playing piano for
Christian Endeavor at age 11, and until 1976 played
piano or organ for Sunday School or church a good
share of the time.
I remember the church before the various
restorations. I also remember serving rabbit
dinners during hunting season, Thanksgiving turkey
dinners, ox roasts and now smorgasbords.
Mabel and Wendell going to School
[photo]
PaBee was living much the same life that I had
had until he was about 6 years old. He attended
grade school at Sinkey schoolhouse on Ross Road,
Opal Stockwell, teacher. He later entered the
Sunbury School to which he drove for several years,
he was a good student and could have been an
excellent student had he received any encouragement
at home. His one great area of enthusiasm in high
school was his baseball team - undefeated in the
four years he played on the team. That interest in
baseball stayed with him his entire life and he
held an especial love for the Cincinnati Reds until
the week he died.
.25.
Title
Day by Day (p. 29)
Description
[corresponds to page 26 of Day by Day]
Neither of his parents attended his high
school graduation and he left home shortly after to
go live with an aunt and uncle in Columbus while he
attempted to finish a business course at Bliss
College. This schooling was cut short because of
his father's continuing alcoholism and he was
called home to help with the farm and to care for
his mother.
I wish I could tell you that he had a happy,
carefree childhood, or even that he enjoyed an
upbringing with lots of hard work interspersed with
joyous times, or that he had the support of loving
grandparents or caring relatives, but he had none
of these. Still, he turned out to be a loving,
proud, supportive father and grandfather and I
guess that's all you really need to know.
* * * *
My school days on the other hand were very
happy. I've already told you how my parents liked
to go places, see people and enjoy living, and it
kinda rubbed off on me.
School work was very easy for me - my one big
trouble was that I couldn't see. Back in the days
when airplanes were a novelty, one flew over our
house one day and we all ran out to have a look. I
could not see it; my folks couldn't accept this and
and accused me of being "difficult" so nothing was done
for several years. Finally it was so bad that I
could see nothing on the blackboard at school and
when I finally saw an oculist he was shocked - and
so were my parents - that my eyes were so bad. As
a result, I've worn glasses all my life.
However those early days days forced me to read a
lot and that served me well in school. One of my
major bragging points to my kids was that I came
in second in an all county spelling bee and later
was valedictorian of my class. I think I was
.26.
Title
Day by Day (p. 30)
Description
[corresponds to page 27 of Day by Day]
prouder, though, of the fact that I made the second
team all-county basketball team twice while in high
school.
School, as I said, was really easy for me; I
skipped first grade, something that I later felt
was a mistake because it place in a group 1 1/2
years older than I, but I seemed to fit in
reasonably well.
From reading to choir work, from class plays
to group parties, form math to basketball,
everything interested me, even all girls baseball
team which played four years and never won a game!
It was the fellowship that was important to us.
School was a time when we began to reach out
and make friendships and do things which did not
necessarily include our family.
Prior to entering high school, we entertained
ourselves mostly with neighborhood kids and with
activities that took no money but did sometimes
require a little creativity.
I remember our old "swimming hole" and really
the name tells it all. The boys would dam up a
certain part of the creek each year to make a small
pond perhaps 8 feet across, about 10 feet long and
maybe 5 feet deep. As I remember it now, I wonder
how our parents could ever have allowed us to swim
in such a place. Cows waded across it leaving all
kinds of bacteria, the bottom was slimy with thick
mud oozing up between our toes and invariably, when
you go out you took 2 or 3 leeches off your feet
and legs. Makes me shiver now to think of it!
Croquet was one of our favorite games, and
most of the summer, there would be a ferocious
contest going on in our side yard, with frequent
yells and fights and accusations the "you moved
the peg' or "you didn't even nick it."
.27.
Title
Day by Day (p. 31)
Description
[corresponds to page 28 of Day by Day]
We also played "red rover," "Annie Over the House,"
'tag," "hide the Thimble" among other simple games.
We were not coddled in learning; I learned to
ride a bicycle when my brother took me to the top
of a hill, and gave me a push. The fact that I hit
an iron bridge was inconsequential, I had ridden a
bicycle, by golly!
The same thing happened with a horse; I was
put on its back, bareback. No saddle or stirrups,
just a rein and and a mane and away I went (after a
good healthy swat on its rump) holding on for dear
life.
Wendall Day Graduation
[photo]
Doris Davidson Day Graduation
[photo]
Our entertainment was family-oriented and very
simple, but we thought nothing of it because all
the kids we knew lived the same way.
The Depression hit in 1929 and although we
.28.
Title
Day by Day (p. 32)
Description
[corresponds to page 29 of Day by Day]
were shielded from wanting for food or clothing, it
did affect us in many ways. There simply was no
money for anything other than survival. We ate
only because we raised almost everything on the
farm. But our class could not order rings, we had
no Jr-Sr Prom, clothes were made to last for years.
There seemed to be no future in furthering your
education and few could afford it anyway. 1930
began the worst decade I've lived through.
Marriage
Wendell and I married young, settled on a
farm, which was strike one for me; I never wanted
to be on a farm - I dreamed of living in a small
town large enough to have a library, swimming pool,
movie theater and some shopping.
Our family began with the birth of Terry, one
of the nicest things to ever happen to us, but
shortly after his birth our disasters began. We
lived in an old ramshackle house, barely furnished,
and returned home one bitterly cold, snowy night to
find 6 inches of snow across our bed. We
decided to sleep in the room where the stove was
and laid Terry down on a small settee nearby.
About 2:30 I was awakened by a peculiar noise
and shook Wendell to awaken him. He stumbled over
to the door just behind the settee and immediately
a sheet of flame shot about 6 feet across the room.
I grabbed Terry, ran out barefoot clad only in a
thin nightgown, into about about a foot of snow. I ran
downhill, put him in the car and ran back to get
Wendell who groggy, was lacing his shows. It was
impossible to get any clothes - they were in the
back room where the fire was blazing - so we got in
the car. 15 minutes later the house fell in.
Along with our clothes, we lost everything else we
owned.
.29.
Title
Day by Day (p. 33)
Description
[corresponds to page 30 of Day by Day]
We later discovered that the sound which had
awakened me was mice. Our house was a true salt
box with one-half the rear forming a bedroom, and
also a catch-all back shed which had an opening to
a dirt floor cellar. It was from this cellar that
mice were running and squealing because they were
being burned alive.
There was no place to go but his folks.
People say that you can find humor in any situation
or that you can always make "the best of any
situation." My answer to that is that these people
have never lived with an alcoholic who becomes
progressively meaner as he drinks.
By the time we moved there, PaBee's dad was 62
and an incurable alcoholic, miserable and with the
disposition of a cross-eyed rattlesnake. Katie was
50, both of them young enough to be doing a lot of
work. That was not the case. Trum arose early in
the morning (he catnapped all day) turned on the
radio to the Early Worm whose theme song "The Music
goes Down and Around" blasted through the house.
If I even hear the beginnings of this song to this
day, I get almost physically ill and very depressed
because it reminds me again of a time that took so
much away from me.
I did not know it at the time of the fire, but
I was pregnant with Shirley, therefore doubly
miserable.
Shortly after the fire and already living with
less than nothing, someone stole our only source of
any spending money - 35 large hens which provided
us with eggs to sell.
As if all this weren't enough. Truman took our
car to go to Kentucky to bring back an expectant
mother, her husband and 2 year old son to to move in
with us.
Usually Trum sat by the radio until noon, then
.30.
We later discovered that the sound which had
awakened me was mice. Our house was a true salt
box with one-half the rear forming a bedroom, and
also a catch-all back shed which had an opening to
a dirt floor cellar. It was from this cellar that
mice were running and squealing because they were
being burned alive.
There was no place to go but his folks.
People say that you can find humor in any situation
or that you can always make "the best of any
situation." My answer to that is that these people
have never lived with an alcoholic who becomes
progressively meaner as he drinks.
By the time we moved there, PaBee's dad was 62
and an incurable alcoholic, miserable and with the
disposition of a cross-eyed rattlesnake. Katie was
50, both of them young enough to be doing a lot of
work. That was not the case. Trum arose early in
the morning (he catnapped all day) turned on the
radio to the Early Worm whose theme song "The Music
goes Down and Around" blasted through the house.
If I even hear the beginnings of this song to this
day, I get almost physically ill and very depressed
because it reminds me again of a time that took so
much away from me.
I did not know it at the time of the fire, but
I was pregnant with Shirley, therefore doubly
miserable.
Shortly after the fire and already living with
less than nothing, someone stole our only source of
any spending money - 35 large hens which provided
us with eggs to sell.
As if all this weren't enough. Truman took our
car to go to Kentucky to bring back an expectant
mother, her husband and 2 year old son to to move in
with us.
Usually Trum sat by the radio until noon, then
.30.
Title
Day by Day (p. 34)
Description
[corresponds to page 31 of Day by Day]
went to town to drink all afternoon, coming home
abusive and raving. I remember one day in
particular as I was cleaning the kitchen cupboard,
a large area that filled one wall of the kitchen,
that among umpteen dishes of old potatoes and
cooked beans I came across something so foul-
smelling that I pitched it on the spot. All hell
broke loose that night when Trum couldn't find his
favorite chunk of limburger cheese!
Shirley and Terry in 1936
[photo]
It all became too much for me and with
pressure from Wendell, his folks moved down the
road and we stayed in the 'white house' - but at a
price. displaying his benevolent nature yet again
Truman insisted we could not stay without a hired
hand and be bestowed upon us the sorriest human
specimen I've ever known, and for 4 years he shared
every meal with us plus giving us no privacy. I
was wondering what I had ever done to deserve a
life like this, and decided the only way to have a
.31.
Title
Day by Day (p. 35)
Description
[corresponds to page 32 of Day by Day]
life was to buy the farm, leave and try to find
work elsewhere or leave on my own.
Thru OW Whitney, Sr. , who contacted a friend in
Delaware we were able to get a loan that a bank
would not have given us in a million years, and
with it bought the farm and got rid of a great deal
of baggage at the same time.
Evidently PaBee had been thinking along the
same lines as I had because, unknown to me, he had
enrolled in a correspondence course in Air
Conditioning. When he went to Youngstown for his
diploma, they were so impressed with him that they
offered him a lifetime teaching job starting at
$100.00 a month. It was a fortune at that time and
we'd have grabbed it except now we had a farm to
run. It was not to be the last time I wished we'd
never heard of farming.
In addition to his A/C course, PaBee was
working for ASCS measuring fields in eastern
Delaware County for map work for agricultural use.
Burt the most important thing he did in the late
1930's was work to sign up eastern Delaware County
to get REA lines to the country. My folks had
electricity brought in in the late '20s and one of
my strongest memories of home is of looking into
the awestruck face of my mother when she looked up
at one bare bulb hanging down from the ceiling and
saw it light up with electricity. The coming of
electricity changed the farmers' lives more than
anything else ever had or ever would.
When I married, we had Delco system which
furnished electricity until about 8:30 at night
than was off until morning for recharging. So
Wendell worked long and hard trying to get signups
from residents or to get easements where necessary.
some farmers absolutely did not want any lines near
their place, but after the company went around them
.32.
Title
Day by Day (p. 36)
Description
[corresponds to page 33 of Day by Day]
and they began to see the merits of electricity
use, they begged to be allowed in.
Electricity did come to us and almost the
first thing we did was to buy a refrigerator
replacing the old icebox which dripped over the
back porch. We also got an electric stove to
replace the wood-burning stove I'd used for canning
and cooking and a washer so I would not have to
hand wash ever again. All in all by the end of the
30's life was looking better, but it was a time
that hurts me even now to look back on and a period
in my life that I never want to live over.
The coming of electricity also helped the
men's work greatly. From pumping water to milkers
for cows, it shortened their hours considerably.
Most men jumped at the chance to quit hand milking
and instead put on milkers. Then stood back to
watch electricity do the work.
Motors in every conceivable piece of machinery
took the hard labor out of loading, pumping water,
filling bins, and emptying grain.
In time, electricity did almost everything on
the dairy except call the cow home. It also
warmed farrowing pens and kept heat lamps on baby
lambs and calves. In short, it was a godsend.
The 40's saw Terry and Shirley beginning
school where both were to have many enjoyable
times. In late 1941, however, came Pearl Harbor
and a drastic change in our lives. PaBee went to
work at Curtiss Wright, and most of our close
friends left the farm for the city jobs that
represented a new life for them. Rationing began
immediately, and since gas was being rationed, it
was necessary if you drove that you share your car,
so Wendell took a carload to work. I was left
without a car and with a farm to halfway manage
while he worked.
.33.
Title
Day by Day (p. 37)
Description
[corresponds to page 34 of Day by Day]
With the war came rationing which applied to
coffee, sugar, butter, shoes and many other
necessities. We couldn't do without coffee so we
traded sugar stamps for coffee stamps and made
other adjustments to get along. I found it very
difficult to get silk hose and bananas were
virtually unavailable to us.
PaBee's brother, a gunner on a warplane, was
was shot down in late 1944 and was MIA for almost 11
months and held prisoner, we later learned, in a
Russian war camp. He returned in early November
1945, the same week Rick was born, and I returned
home from the hospital to find that Katie had
deposited him on my doorstep, the visit to last for
the next 6 months. I had been through an emergency
appendectomy just 5 weeks before Rick was born, so
I was not what you would call overjoyed to take on
this extra burden of caring for one more person.
Rick at 6 months
[photo]
.34.
Title
Day by Day (p. 38)
Description
[corresponds to page 35 of Day by Day]
The kind of house
we always bought.
[photo]
We were working very hard, both of us working
off the debts we had incurred. We paid them by
never buying an unnecessary item, hand fed all
kinds of baby animals (sheep, pigs, calves)
sometimes bringing them into the house, sitting up
all night with a farrowing sow and getting up 2-3
times a night to check on baby chicks.
Our House - 1958
[photo]
We did all of
our own painting and
wall papering and
even some re-
modeling. We had a
wall storage unit in
our kitchen the front
of which went almost
to the ceiling
leaving a space of
about 8 inches.
Behind this 8 inch
gap was a foot drop,
the perfect catch-all for everything you wanted to
get rid of and absolutely best place in the world
.35.
Title
Day by Day (p. 39)
Description
[corresponds to page 36 of Day by Day]
for a mouse to run.
I always felt that dirt was sifting down
through this cabinet so one day when I was alone I
took a stepladder in and began tearing it down.
The cupboard was gone and the kitchen floor was
full of boards when PaBee came home, but he set
about helping to carry out the wood. I will say
that whenever we did anything - and there were many
remodeling jobs after that - he would go along with
it if I started it.
We did the kitchen, later on added a bathroom,
then did the front part of the house.
Wallpapering was an every other year job for
most rooms because we heated with coal and paper
soon became dirty. PaBee handled the ceiling and I
did the cutting and the sidewalls. On this
particular day we had papered the dining room and
were pleased with the nice bright paper and the way
it looked. Wendell went to bed in preparation for
his graveyard shift and I stood in the kitchen
ironing. At midnight I started toward the bedroom
to awaken him. As I started into the dining room I
heard a faint noise and looked up to see, on top of
the porch door, two HUGE eyes glaring down at me.
I screamed, Wendell came running and switched on
the light. By that time the thing was in motion,
and in the light we saw that it was a hug barn owl
that had come down through our sooty chimney. He
was even more alarmed than I was, flying all over
the room and depositing soot on everything his feet
or feathers touched. After several minutes, we
caught him, threw him out, then looked around. Our
new paper, ceiling and all was covered with sooty
marks. We could not and would not re-paper so I
cleaned it as well as I could and called it a bad
day.
I also remember another situation when soot
.36.
Title
Day by Day (p. 40)
Description
[corresponds to page 37 of Day by Day]
was a major issue for us. I looked out my kitchen
window one evening to notice PaBee getting out of
the car very slowly. Then I noticed his arm in a
sling, he came home with a broken right arm. That
day he had climbed a 10-foot ladder in order to do
some electrical work on an A/C unit in a top-level
recess. As he backed out to start down the ladder,
a bare wire on the drill cord touched an electric
wire and he blacked out and fell toward the cement
floor 10 feet below. He could have been
electrocuted, but the fall broke the current
connection, and then he was lucky a second time. A
colored man just happened to be passing by and saw
him and caught him, preventing a serious injury or
possibly even death. So a broken arm was a good
exchange for a crushed skull or electrocution.
By the time he had told me all this, we were seated
at the table when all of a sudden we heard a loud
"whoomp" from the basement. I knew immediately
what had happened and tore downstairs only to find
it full of black smoke and 2 pieces of pipe blown
apart. I couldn't get them together, Wendell was
no help and black smoke kept puffing out the pipe.
When we finally got it fixed, we just stood
and looked at one another. Our faces and hands
were black, his white coat was black, but it was
when we went upstairs that I just stood and cried;
every thing was black - walls, curtains, bed
clothes, food, anything you could name. The only
things not covered with soot were either under the
top bedcovering or behind closed doors. I know now
that the insurance company will bear the expense of
cleaning up. I spent weeks trying to clean rugs,
curtains, clothes and dishes.
It was not a good day in any way.
Furnaces have always caused us trouble, and
once the stoker-fired furnaces was almost the cause
.37.
Title
Day by Day (p. 41)
Description
[corresponds to page 38 of Day by Day]
of a house fire. Our entire family was away one
night, each of us to a different meeting. I was
next to the last coming home and when I entered the
kitchen, a blast of very hot air hit me in the
face. I flew to the basement where I found the
furnace and pipes so hot that beams were popping
and crackling. I had no time to call anyone; I
just picked up a hose and directed it at the beams.
The water from that fell on the furnace where it
steamed. Eventually I could manage to open the
furnace and found the source of the tremendous
heat. The firebox was full to the top, the fire
was just a red hot mass the stoker was still
showing coal in. I knew I would crack the firebox
by using water, but I had no choice so I directed a
mist onto the top of the hot coals and continued to
soak until some of the coals turned gray. Luckily,
the firebox did not crack. I discovered later that
one of the kids came home, thought the house too
cool so instead of turning the furnace up one
degree, turned it all the way over so that the
stoker ran continuously, filling the furnace to the
brim.
It was now the late 40's and we were still
driving a 1934 Chevy because cars, too, had been in
short supply, so one day we decided to refurbish it
and give it chipped, faded coat a new coat of
paint. What we were able to get was not a pretty
shade of green, but it worked and we were
reasonably proud of it, so a friend of ours, Griff,
decided he'd paint his old car also. So he chose
his paint carefully applied it, went to bed and
awoke the next morning to find it covered - simply
covered - with small flying insects. You can see
life was not too easy during the war years.
Wendell continued to work at North American,
then later was asked to join Huffman Wolfe, a major
.38.
of a house fire. Our entire family was away one
night, each of us to a different meeting. I was
next to the last coming home and when I entered the
kitchen, a blast of very hot air hit me in the
face. I flew to the basement where I found the
furnace and pipes so hot that beams were popping
and crackling. I had no time to call anyone; I
just picked up a hose and directed it at the beams.
The water from that fell on the furnace where it
steamed. Eventually I could manage to open the
furnace and found the source of the tremendous
heat. The firebox was full to the top, the fire
was just a red hot mass the stoker was still
showing coal in. I knew I would crack the firebox
by using water, but I had no choice so I directed a
mist onto the top of the hot coals and continued to
soak until some of the coals turned gray. Luckily,
the firebox did not crack. I discovered later that
one of the kids came home, thought the house too
cool so instead of turning the furnace up one
degree, turned it all the way over so that the
stoker ran continuously, filling the furnace to the
brim.
It was now the late 40's and we were still
driving a 1934 Chevy because cars, too, had been in
short supply, so one day we decided to refurbish it
and give it chipped, faded coat a new coat of
paint. What we were able to get was not a pretty
shade of green, but it worked and we were
reasonably proud of it, so a friend of ours, Griff,
decided he'd paint his old car also. So he chose
his paint carefully applied it, went to bed and
awoke the next morning to find it covered - simply
covered - with small flying insects. You can see
life was not too easy during the war years.
Wendell continued to work at North American,
then later was asked to join Huffman Wolfe, a major
.38.
Title
Day by Day (p. 42)
Description
[corresponds to page 39 of Day by Day]
contracting company, as foreman for the A/C
department. During his time here, he worked for
almost all the large Columbus establishments (OSU,
Battelle, Big Bear, The Union Co., Meat packers) as
well as in factories along the Ohio River and for
NASA at Goddard Air Force Base in Maryland. Later
in life he received a patent for a control which he
developed. He also developed a "chill table" for
OSU at the time of the equine encephalitis
outbreak. This table was used to almost freeze
various species of mosquitos so they could be used
over long periods of time to help determine which
ones carried the disease.
I was very gratified once at a Union meeting
where I heard several men talking saying that
"PaBee was the best A/C man in the State of Ohio."
I always felt that if he had been able to get an
engineering degree, he could have developed
something very worthwhile.
It was in the 40's that one of the greatest
changes in all our lives began to appear in
numerous homes. TV had arrived and life would
never be the same again.
I'll never forget the excitement engendered by
a little 6x6 screen whenever OSU played football.
Almost everything passed for entertainment - even
the showing of the stations logo. But it also
brought much more; we, for the first time could see
all those marvelous people who had been our radio
friends; we could watch our government in action;
we were exposed to sports we had never known. In
short, television brought the world to our living
room.
Only 50 years previously, our grandparents had
to rely on word of mouth taken by horse and buggy,
Then came the telephone that brought voices into
the home. Soon came the radio which gave us hours
.39.
Title
Day by Day (p. 43)
Description
[corresponds to page 40 of Day by Day]
of news and music. Now we could see, hear and make
judgments on almost anything that happened in the
world. I still think of TV as a miracle even with
all the trash it now presents.
Just as the 30's were terrible for us, the
50's seemed to be good. Terry and Shirley were
doing very well in school, Rick had started school
and I picked up two new careers in the decade.
First of all, an electric organ was installed
in our church one Tuesday and I was supposed to
play it the following Sunday. I did play for
Sunday service but this particular instrument
caused me much frustration for several years.
First of all, I practiced in an unheated church in
winter, and one without cooling in the summer. I
had no organ at home to work with so the adjustment
to stops, foot pedals was a long time coming. In
addition, I had no relief on Sundays.
Then when I began working at Sunbury Savings
in the late 50's, my free time was further
shortened and I began to rebel at having to be
there EVERY Sunday. After all, I was not the
minister! So I resigned, only to return to it
later.
Terry had graduated as valedictorian of his
class and entered OSU where he made the OSU
marching band as a freshman. We were immensely
proud of him and so pleased that in his second year
OSU played in the Rose Bowl.
He, too , married young. Marge Ross and he
presented us with our first grandchild, Pam, a
precocious child and one who has always been close
to us.
Trying to find a way to help him stay in
school and still live on campus, we invested in a
huge rooming house on E. 16th Avenue, and our work
really began. At one time, the house had held as
.40.
Title
Day by Day (p. 44)
Description
[corresponds to page 41 of Day by Day]
many as 40 students, but in a short time we decided
to cut the number of students to 22. This still
represented 22 beds to be made and changed each
week, rooms to be painted, all kinds of repairs to
be made constantly, plus a full basement of shower
stalls, storage rooms, etc. all of which needed
non-ending paint jobs.
Chery and Pam Day
[photo]
When school was in session, Wendell would take
me down to E 16th on his way to work. There I
would work all day trying to help keep rooms and
equipment in order. We would return on Saturday,
work until noon, the cross campus for the OSU
football game.
By this time, Shirley was working for Woody
Hayes. You've always heard that Woody lost his
temper often; well, Shirley would take just so
much, then her temper would flare. One day when he
threw something she picked up the phone book and
threw it back at him, shattering the glass stopped
desk. Ann, Woody's wife, had a big laugh about it
- thought it served Woody right, and evidently he
thought so, too, because she continued to work
there.
.41.
Title
Day by Day (p. 45)
Description
[corresponds to page 42 of Day by Day]
He knew we loved football and gave us some
pretty privileged seating spots for several years.
It was also nice to follow Jerry Lucas - Havilcek
and Siegfried through their marvelous years of OSU
basketball.
During these years I also became a member of
the Searchlight Club, an organization which had
brought me many interesting looks into all sorts of
topics as well as many new friends. It was with
them that I saw my first stage production "My Fair
Lady." It was marvelous and has always remained,
after seeing many , many, stage shows, my very
favorite play with "The Music Man" a close second.
That experience encouraged us to to attend Kenley
productions as will as Mershon shows and even one
show at the Hartman Building. All in all we must
have seen 50-60 productions in the next few years.
So with Rick in high school, Terry in college,
Shirley in Woody's office and with involvement in
the church, the school board, the rooming house,
farm and our two jobs, we were exceptionally busy.
Terry Day, Wendall Day,
Katie Day, Doris Day,
Marge Day holding Kim,
Pam and Chery Day in front
[photo]
When the 60's
came in it was easy
to see a decided
change in the
morals, the thinking
and conformity in
this country. It
was a time kids
began questioning
the authority of
parents and
teachers; it was a
time of the hippies
and flower children;
it was a time when
our country began sliding downhill.
.42.
Title
Day by Day (p. 46)
Description
[corresponds to page 43 of Day by Day]
It was also a time of tragedy for us and one
of great tragedy for our country. A young
president was killed, and I, who had voted against
him, could not leave the TV. I saw the actual
killing (not a rerun) of Oswald and my scream woke
Wendell and brought him charging from the bedroom.
Our personal tragdy was the death of my
brother, Leland, who died 3 months after a massive
heart attack. We had been hit before; Marge had
developed gestational diabetes and lost a child in
1958 shortly after its birth. Terry then developed
diabetes in his first year of dental school and a
few years later Pam was hit with the same disease.
Kim Day
[photo]
I went to work full-time
shortly after Terry left OSU
and Rick graduated from high
school. Cheryl and Kim had
joined Terry's family, and
Terry and Marge lost another
baby in 1968.
My mother, who had been
ailing for years with
respiratory problems, was
failing fast. We had had a
grand 50th wedding
anniversary celebration for
them in 1963, but from then on
she was on a downhill course
and died in the summer of 1966.
Rick married Carol Walker
and Scott, who had brought us
so much joy, was born. Several
years later Lisa came along.
Lisa walks to her own drumbeat,
but you'll never find a kinder
person. She would take in any
stray animal in a heartbeat and
Richard Scott Day
[photo]
.43.
Title
Day by Day (p. 47)
Description
[corresponds to page 44 of Day by Day]
Clifton and Lisa Day
[photo]
she's just as concerned about any human she meets.
During 1968, I began
having health problems
which finally affected me
so that I could scarcely
work. I was diagnosed
with severe anemia - maybe
even leukemia - at a time
when my next door
neighbor, who had suffered
from the same symptoms as
I all winter, was
diagnosed with leukemia.
Kathryn, who had been a
second mother to Rick,
died in 1969. Later that year, after being denied
my normal day off and and after some co-workers had
taken as much as a week off, I walked out of the home
again.
In the meantime and after a very long illness,
my mother died in 1966, but not before she got
to see the satellite circling the earth. She did not
live to see the moon landing,
but Dad did and remarked an
the many changes he had seen
in his lifetime. Starting
with the trek to Galena with
horse and wagon, he had seen
automobiles revolutionize the
USA, had seen the tremendous
train and ocean travel, had
witnessed the birth of the
airplane's reign and now had
seen a man stand on the moon.
By the 70's Terry was
well established in his
Lee Alessio
[photo]
.44.
Clifton and Lisa Day
[photo]
she's just as concerned about any human she meets.
During 1968, I began
having health problems
which finally affected me
so that I could scarcely
work. I was diagnosed
with severe anemia - maybe
even leukemia - at a time
when my next door
neighbor, who had suffered
from the same symptoms as
I all winter, was
diagnosed with leukemia.
Kathryn, who had been a
second mother to Rick,
died in 1969. Later that year, after being denied
my normal day off and and after some co-workers had
taken as much as a week off, I walked out of the home
again.
In the meantime and after a very long illness,
my mother died in 1966, but not before she got
to see the satellite circling the earth. She did not
live to see the moon landing,
but Dad did and remarked an
the many changes he had seen
in his lifetime. Starting
with the trek to Galena with
horse and wagon, he had seen
automobiles revolutionize the
USA, had seen the tremendous
train and ocean travel, had
witnessed the birth of the
airplane's reign and now had
seen a man stand on the moon.
By the 70's Terry was
well established in his
Lee Alessio
[photo]
.44.
Title
Day by Day (p. 48)
Description
[corresponds to page 45 of Day by Day]
practice, Shirley and Gina married and Lee was
born, and Rick and Carole divorced.
We had purchased a farm on 605 with Terry as
co-owner. My brother in real estate had informed
me that Chamberlain's were selling their farm, and
I asked him to put in a bid at the full price for
us. He laughed and told me it was already sold,
that the buyer could get the money easily, and that
we had little chance of getting it! However, I
insisted and we did get it - we simply didn't have
sense enough to stay out of hard work.
Gino and Lisa at home.
[photo]
Wendell's
mother died
in late 1974
and left a
small bequest
to her two sons. When
Wendell
remained
undecided
about what he
wanted to do
with it, I
suggested that he think about getting a trailer so
that we might travel a little.
He literally jumped at the idea and we
answered an ad for a trailer. We were babes in the
woods in so far as trailers were concerned and how
we managed to "luck out" as we did is beyond me.
We went to see an Avion which could well have been
a Model T for all we knew. We loved it, bought it
and thus began a phase in our lives which was
different, enjoyable and a godsend for Wendell who
had never enjoyed much of what is commonly known as
just "pure pleasure."
.45.
Title
Day by Day (p. 49)
Description
[corresponds to page 46 of Day by Day]
We decided to go to Florida. Pam was a
freshman at OSU and could get away by mid-November
and Chery thought she could leave school at that
time, too. So the four of us started out, knowing
not where we were going, knowing nothing about
camping but willing to learn.
We lucked out again. We parked right on the
beach at Turtle beach and the girls and I did
beach combing everyday.
Just before Christmas, we were told our spot
had been reserved and we would have to leave for
another camp. We found a spot at Sun n Fun where
we were to stay for the next 17 years.
Florida was unlike anything we'd ever
experienced. The other campers were like our
closest neighbors - when you parked, they were out
to help you hook up the gas and water, roll out the
awning, and make sure the trailer was level. When
you were ill, they were there with soup, light
desserts or just words of cheer. There was a
church on the grounds; there were bicycle paths to
ride; there was a huge swimming pool, horseshoe,
shuffleboard, square and round dancing and friendly
campfires and card playing groups.
The people became so close that there were
always tears when you left, and anticipation to
return when fall came next year.
The girls were having a ball. We had taken
some of our sand dollars and made Christmas
ornaments out of them. They thought I should send
one each to my card club group; it was finally
decided that I'd send them home with the girls,
and they would deliver them. For our trailer,
lacking Christmas decorations, they scavenged the
throwaways at the cemetery where they found some
beautiful ribbon. We had plenty of pine trees for
greenery and pine cones to use, so our Christmas
.46.
Title
Day by Day (p. 50)
Description
[corresponds to page 47 of Day by Day]
wreath on the front of our trailer was homemade and
beautiful!
PaBee and Bee
[photo]
Christmas came our entire family was there
for several days. The weather did not cooperate
too well; as it often does in Florida when
Christmas comes the weather turns cold, even though
beautiful, sunshiny weather was the norm until
then.
In the 70's both Wendell and I began new work.
Wendell became associated with 7-Limers, an outfit
that sold farm bins and equipment, and I passed a
realtor's test to work with my brother in real
estate, work which I found fascinating.
Through 7-Limers, Wendell won a trip to Hawaii
for two, so much as I hated to fly, I swallowed
hard and went. When the clerk in Chicago asked if
we wanted "smoking" cabins, I answered before
Wendell could speak and said 'non-smoking." This
little ruse got us to the 1st class cabin on our
.47.
Title
Day by Day (p. 51)
Description
[corresponds to page 48 of Day by Day]
flight to Hawaii, but the rest of our group was so
disgruntled by our good fortune that on the way
home we rode in cabin class. There really is a
difference between flying cabin or 1st class!
Just as our stage production enlarged our
cultural experience, so also did our various trips
we took with the 7-Limers Group.
First, of course, was Hawaii and nothing I
ever read quite prepared me for it. I fell in love
with Hawaii when they first put a lei around my
neck and kissed me on both cheeks, and the love
affair took off when we entered our room and found
a freshly cut pineapple sitting in its own juice.
All the usual tourist spots - Punchbowl Cemetery,
Pearl Harbor, their tiered mall - either intrigued,
enticed or caused you to fall into a feeling of
deepest awe and respect.
My favorite part of Hawaii was when we and one
other couple took a car trip around the entire
island of Oahu. We saw the bluest water we'd ever
seen, magnificent cliffs covered with trees,
pineapple plantations and the Queen's palace. I
was most impressed with Polynesian Village, where a
village as used by long ago Polynesians was
erected. It was built around a huge open square,
with buildings on all four side opening on the
inside court. Here children could play, women
could wash and talk with friends, and men could
also meet there to discuss their business. What a
sensible way to live. Children were safe, no one
was ever lonely, and all were safer as a group than
they would have been living alone.
Although the group offered trips to Spain, to
San Francisco, the Barbados and other places, I
only want to tell you about Mexico.
We left Sarasota, went to Tampa and flew to
Dallas. for a good part of this trip we could see
.46.
flight to Hawaii, but the rest of our group was so
disgruntled by our good fortune that on the way
home we rode in cabin class. There really is a
difference between flying cabin or 1st class!
Just as our stage production enlarged our
cultural experience, so also did our various trips
we took with the 7-Limers Group.
First, of course, was Hawaii and nothing I
ever read quite prepared me for it. I fell in love
with Hawaii when they first put a lei around my
neck and kissed me on both cheeks, and the love
affair took off when we entered our room and found
a freshly cut pineapple sitting in its own juice.
All the usual tourist spots - Punchbowl Cemetery,
Pearl Harbor, their tiered mall - either intrigued,
enticed or caused you to fall into a feeling of
deepest awe and respect.
My favorite part of Hawaii was when we and one
other couple took a car trip around the entire
island of Oahu. We saw the bluest water we'd ever
seen, magnificent cliffs covered with trees,
pineapple plantations and the Queen's palace. I
was most impressed with Polynesian Village, where a
village as used by long ago Polynesians was
erected. It was built around a huge open square,
with buildings on all four side opening on the
inside court. Here children could play, women
could wash and talk with friends, and men could
also meet there to discuss their business. What a
sensible way to live. Children were safe, no one
was ever lonely, and all were safer as a group than
they would have been living alone.
Although the group offered trips to Spain, to
San Francisco, the Barbados and other places, I
only want to tell you about Mexico.
We left Sarasota, went to Tampa and flew to
Dallas. for a good part of this trip we could see
.46.
Title
Day by Day (p. 52)
Description
[corresponds to page 49 of Day by Day]
Florida and its coastline below us and one could
only marvel when seeing it how the early explorers'
maps were almost precisely what we saw from the air.
We left Dallas for Mexico City, a book in
itself with charming little sidewalk shops, tiny
children begging on every corner, beautiful Mexican
strings playing, gorgeous murals on many buildings,
sidewalk food which looked delicious but which we
were forbidden to eat, huge old churches with gold
icons inside and also as the guards told us "a
thief inside for every religious artifact you saw."
It was was at one of the large churches, now
sinking into the soft undersoil of Mexico City,
that we saw the faithful coming into the church,
sometimes having come from miles away and walking
always on their knees even across the paved brick
courtyard of the church.
It was here that we rode out to the pyramid
past homes of such poverty and desolation that you
wonder how people could survive. It looked worse
than the shabbiest pens we used to erect for
farrowing sheds. But the pyramid was magnificent!
The steps to the top were very, very narrow and
only a few of our group made it - and only by
placing their feet sideways on the step. The
underground of the pyramid was the great surprise.
It showed a city complete with streets, canals to
bring water into the city and a sewer to dispose of
wastes. It was unbelievable. Added to our
bewilderment was the fact that the hieroglyphics
on the wall looked Egyptian and one wondered if,
indeed, at one time North and South America were
linked together.
We finished our tour in Acapulco, just as
pretty as Hawaii, but much less fun because the
people there did not like us. You could tell their
.49.
Title
Day by Day (p. 53)
Description
[corresponds to page 50 of Day by Day]
dislike in everything they did for us. But it was
in Acapulco that we went one night and watched the
cliff divers. We had seen it on TV, but nothing
had prepared us for the narrowness of the gorge or
the steepness of the cliff which the diver climbed.
It was also at Acapulco that I first observed
para-sailing. Back at the hotel, I told PaBee I'd
seen something I was going to try. When I told him
it involved heights, he just hooted, getting up on
a stepladder makes me dizzy. Never the less I was
insistent, and by this time about four others were
interested so we looked for the place where the
para-sailing began.
The person going up is on the beach. Here, he
or she is fit into a pair of coveralls attached to
a parachute sail, and is told that when the boat
started that person was to start running, at which
point you soar into the air. Upon completion of
the ride, the boat coming into the beach begins to
slow and as it goes slower and slower, one begins
to descend and finally is set down gently as a
feather.
Well, I tried it and loved it. You go up so
quickly that you can't realize you've left the
ground and from there on you soar - it must be the
same feeling a bird has as it soars. You descend
so gently that you wouldn't know you were
descending if you hadn't noticed the trees getting
smaller, and when you land you take 2 or 3 steps
and that's all.
When returned to Florida we found these
sailings were prohibited in Florida because
they were so dangerous - some people had been killed in
para-sailing.
Lesson: what you don't know will hurt you!
In the spring of 1976, I was hospitalized with
high blood pressure and had returned home on May
.50.
dislike in everything they did for us. But it was
in Acapulco that we went one night and watched the
cliff divers. We had seen it on TV, but nothing
had prepared us for the narrowness of the gorge or
the steepness of the cliff which the diver climbed.
It was also at Acapulco that I first observed
para-sailing. Back at the hotel, I told PaBee I'd
seen something I was going to try. When I told him
it involved heights, he just hooted, getting up on
a stepladder makes me dizzy. Never the less I was
insistent, and by this time about four others were
interested so we looked for the place where the
para-sailing began.
The person going up is on the beach. Here, he
or she is fit into a pair of coveralls attached to
a parachute sail, and is told that when the boat
started that person was to start running, at which
point you soar into the air. Upon completion of
the ride, the boat coming into the beach begins to
slow and as it goes slower and slower, one begins
to descend and finally is set down gently as a
feather.
Well, I tried it and loved it. You go up so
quickly that you can't realize you've left the
ground and from there on you soar - it must be the
same feeling a bird has as it soars. You descend
so gently that you wouldn't know you were
descending if you hadn't noticed the trees getting
smaller, and when you land you take 2 or 3 steps
and that's all.
When returned to Florida we found these
sailings were prohibited in Florida because
they were so dangerous - some people had been killed in
para-sailing.
Lesson: what you don't know will hurt you!
In the spring of 1976, I was hospitalized with
high blood pressure and had returned home on May
.50.
Title
Day by Day (p. 54)
Description
[corresponds to page 51 of Day by Day]
29th. I called Terry to say I was home and Kim
answered and said she would give them the message,
That was the last time I ever spoke to her. She
was staying with a friend when they decided to call
a boy to take them to a party. This was never
suppose to happen: Marge was very careful about
controlling Kim's guests and she expected the same
of parents where Kim stayed. Never the less, the
three set out for the party. rounding a curve on
Centerburg Road, the van went out of control, went down
in the road ditch and went some distance
before it hit a tree head on. Kim was killed
instantly. We were shattered, I had picked her up
just two weeks previously because Marge was in
Washington and wanted assurance she would be taken
care of. I'll never forget how she looked at me,
giggling and repeating a story Mrs. Searles had
told her about how we used to beg for pennies to
buy a gallon of gas. She didn't believe that her
grandmother could have done such a thing - been so
silly - but I just told her we do crazy things when
we are young.
While the whole family grieved long and sadly
for Kim, life had a habit of just going on and so
it was for us. Farm work had to be done, and in
the early spring and summer months of 1978 it began
to seem as though this cycle might fail. It had
rained constantly, it was now almost June and the
planting had not been done.
One day I offered to help work ground on our
farm on Rosecrans Road, and getting out of a large
tractor that was unfamiliar to me, something went
wrong and I fell, lighting on my back on the
packed, hard ground. I knew immediately something
was wrong because of the "prickles" in my spine and
I lay as quietly as possible until PaBee found me.
In the hospital I was told i had chipped one
.51.
Title
Day by Day (p. 55)
Description
[corresponds to page 52 of Day by Day]
vertebra and compressed two other. I was home in
a short while, fortunate to be walking but in much
pain for a year afterward. Even today, it bothers
me.
P. S. I was never on a tractor after that.
The 80's were also a decade I would not want
to live through again; this, although many
wonderful things happened to us in those 10 years.
It began with the farm crises which were going
on all over the country. Farm prices had dropped
drastically, forcing many farmers to borrow money
at an exorbitant rate of interest, and causing them
to go further behind each year. We were no
exception; the fellows had overextended the farming
and we were working harder and going deeper in debt
with every move we made. I thought perhaps that
all our years of hard work had been done for
nothing.
1980 - Sue, following the birth of Kaleisha,
was found to have incurable cancer. Kathleen and I
visited her many times at University Hospital, and
twice in the next 9 months she was released for 2-3
days at a time, time which she spent with me and
her baby. She died on April 15th, 1981 on the same
day that Tyler was born to Rick and Shelley.
The day she was buried, my dad suffered his
first heart attack. When i called to inform Terry,
Marge told me that Pam had just been told she
needed laser surgery on her eye. The operation was
not a success and she lost the vision in that eye.
She and Marge made several trips to John Hopkins
Hospital where she was treated further, but by the
end of 1981, she was essentially blind. Her
kidneys began to fail and it was necessary that she
.52.
Title
Day by Day (p. 56)
Description
[corresponds to page 53 of Day by Day]
go on dialysis, a very harsh experience.
Dad entered the hospital in July and was never
well again, dying in late December.
1983 was the year from hell: Kathleen fell
and broke her hip - was in Zanesville hospital, a
long trip for us to go to see her. Chery donated a
kidney to Pam, operation taking place at OSU
hospital. At the same time I was losing two of my
closest friends to cancer. I, too, was facing
major surgery and returned from the doctor one day
to find a thunderstorm approaching. I heard a
terrific clap of thunder, and not too long after
PaBee called to tell me that he, Scott and 2 of
Scott's friends had been hit with lightning. One
of Scott's friends died that evening at Mt. Carmel.
I had surgery later that summer.
In 1984 Kathleen, just beginning to recuperate
from hip surgery, was hit with cancer. Then began
chemotherapy with all the bad side effects and I
spent innumerable hours going back and forth to Mt.
Vernon.
1985 came along with our golden wedding. Both
Kathleen and Roland came, both looking terrible.
Roland entered the hospital in July and died very
late in the year.
1986 and 1987 brought our greatest sorrow.
Terry had been very ill for a long time but he
visited us in Florida in January and, although I
cried bitter tears after he left, I had not thought
of the possibility of death. He had been planning
to start a dairy - don't ask me why - but he died
very suddenly one night after visiting Shirley. He
was such an ideal son, such a loved person, such a
good person that I'll never be able to understand a
loss like this.
In 1988 we received another real blow when
Gerry died unexpectedly. She and Wayne had been a
.53.
Title
Day by Day (p. 57)
Description
[corresponds to page 54 of Day by Day]
close part of our lives for a long time and it was
hard to imagine being without her.
In 1989, we celebrated Kathleen's 5 year
remission from cancer. This was in April; in
October, she was told the disease had returned and
she had 2-3 months to live. She died on Christmas
Eve 1989.
This terrible time ended with illness on my
part. A severe leg pain was diagnosed (after a
year) as being spinal stenosis with affects the
sciatic nerve. That was followed by a year of
severe dizziness which was never diagnosed,
although numerous tests were made.
So finally the 1980's came to an end. In that
whole decade, there were few weeks when we did not
have someone in the hospital, seriously ill.
Without our friends and participation in
outside activities, the above years could have
buried us, but with our friends we did manage to
have some nice times.
First of course, was the crowd at Sun N Fun.
there was always someone there to talk to, eat
with, go fishing with, or just sit with. We
participated in church and choir and that alone
kept us busy. The camp also put on a variety show
each winter, and that kept us busy for several
weeks during January and February.
When we returned home in the spring, we
resumed our activities with the TTT camping club.
We were such an odd assortment of people (all ages
and occupations) that you would have thought we'd
find no common meeting ground, but we had a ball
together. One of the older members was the
sprightliest one quiet one did beautiful
needle work; the former school coach was a great
storyteller; all of us were good eaters. We always
.54.
Title
Day by Day (p. 58)
Description
[corresponds to page 55 of Day by Day]
had one great potluck dinner and then had leftovers
for Sunday dinner.
At our house once, I asked each member to come
prepared with a program item and not one failed to
come up with either a reading, a quiz, a magic
trick, a poem, a silly game, or a musical
rendition.
At Christmas time we always had a special
dinner prepared by us and held in a beautiful old
house in Granville. Gifts were exchanged, and then
we left to meet again in early spring. The group
still meets occasionally, but the camping ceased
after the death of some of most loved members.
The Sunbury News, Thurs, May 2, 1985
Wendall Days
Celebrate Anniversary
Mr. and Mrs. Wendell Day
[photo]
.55.
had one great potluck dinner and then had leftovers
for Sunday dinner.
At our house once, I asked each member to come
prepared with a program item and not one failed to
come up with either a reading, a quiz, a magic
trick, a poem, a silly game, or a musical
rendition.
At Christmas time we always had a special
dinner prepared by us and held in a beautiful old
house in Granville. Gifts were exchanged, and then
we left to meet again in early spring. The group
still meets occasionally, but the camping ceased
after the death of some of most loved members.
The Sunbury News, Thurs, May 2, 1985
Wendall Days
Celebrate Anniversary
Mr. and Mrs. Wendell Day
[photo]
.55.
Title
Day by Day (p. 59)
Description
[corresponds to page 56 of Day by Day]
Then there was our golden wedding in the 80's.
Unknown to us, our kids met one night while we were
in Florida and planned a party, even going so far
as to make up an invitation, a copy of which is on
the next page. We were reluctant to have anything
done for us, because it would occur one month after
we returned from Florida and we felt it would be a
really rushed time.
But the kids prevailed, so the day came. It
was beautiful, the food was delicious, and the
people who attended just amazed me, all of the TTT
club was there, many church friends, neighbors,
children of old friends of ours, work-related
friends and many friends from Sun N Fun including
some from Indiana, Michigan, Canton, and many
places in central Ohio. It was a marvelous day and
one which we relived and remembered many times.
Golden Wedding Anniversary
May 5, 1985
[photo]
.56.
Then there was our golden wedding in the 80's.
Unknown to us, our kids met one night while we were
in Florida and planned a party, even going so far
as to make up an invitation, a copy of which is on
the next page. We were reluctant to have anything
done for us, because it would occur one month after
we returned from Florida and we felt it would be a
really rushed time.
But the kids prevailed, so the day came. It
was beautiful, the food was delicious, and the
people who attended just amazed me, all of the TTT
club was there, many church friends, neighbors,
children of old friends of ours, work-related
friends and many friends from Sun N Fun including
some from Indiana, Michigan, Canton, and many
places in central Ohio. It was a marvelous day and
one which we relived and remembered many times.
Golden Wedding Anniversary
May 5, 1985
[photo]
.56.
Title
Day by Day (p. 61)
Description
[corresponds to page 58 of Day by Day]
During the 80's we also took several trips
with Wendell's company. We were anxious to go to
the Barbados, and much as I hate flying, I will
have to say our flight there and back was
beautiful. As soon as we landed in Barbados,
however, I was ready to leave. I cannot understand
what the Britishers see in it. It's very small,
has none of the lush tropical growth you would
expect, has birds that fly into the restaurants and
sit on your table, has snakes that crawl in bushes
over your head, and does not have nice beaches.
One of our group went swimming close to the
shoreline and was washed repeatedly against the
sharp, rocky crags found there. He was injured
quite badly. Do you get the feeling that we didn't
appreciate Barbados? You're right.
The Repparts had come down to Florida to keep
our dog "Sugar" while we were gone. We drove to
Miami in the motorhome and left the Honda for them.
They used the car once, lost the key, and were
stranded in camp for a week; we parked about a mile
from the terminal in Miami and returned to find the
motorhome wouldn't start; neither of us cared for
our Barbados vacation. You'll discover
that some vacations are like that.
The Houses We've Owned
My first home was a rather small house for
what was, for the most of my life at home, a home
for six. It consisted of a nice sized kitchen, a
very narrow room that was called a dining room with
a closet at one end, an ample bedroom, small living
room and two upstairs bedrooms with the tiniest
closets ever made. My folks began by remodeling
the kitchen, getting running water for the first
time in the early 1930's. Later, they enclosed
part of a porch to make a nice dining room, and
.58.
Title
Day by Day (p. 62)
Description
[corresponds to page 59 of Day by Day]
later added several feet on the west side to
enlarge the living room and put in a bath.
I never enjoyed this last addition I was
married and living in the poor little house which
burned. We then moved to the "white" house which
we remodeled, doing the kitchen first, later adding
a bath and later redid the front part of the house.
Every house I had lived in until then was
miserably cold. At home we carried heated sad
irons to bed to warm our feet so we could fall
asleep. To go to bed each night we carried a
lantern to light our way and one night I turned it
upside down to blow out the flame. Needless to
say, flames shot out and our screams brought Dad up
the stairs in record time.
The miserable cold did not subside in the
white house because it was not insulated and the
windows were so loose they rattled. Each morning
when I picked up Terry his little hands looked like
swollen sausage links because he had gotten so cold
in the night.
Just when we got this house renewed we moved
down to the gray house and began restoration all
over again, this time stripping the downstairs
rooms, insulating it well and installing an
automatic furnace. It was during the late 50's
that we also built a large cement block swimming
pool which was a major source of enjoyment for many
years.
We lived there for many years but work in
houses did not cease for we bought the rooming
house which was endless work, but it provided a
home for Terry and Marge while he finished his
education.
Houses 5 and 6 were those on the Chamberlin
farm, and while we did not remodel them, our
hammers and paintbrushes were always in reach.
.59.
Title
Day by Day (p. 63)
Description
[corresponds to page 60 of Day by Day]
When we purchased property on Rosecrans Road
and restored house no. 7, I decided I'd had enough.
We had improved every house we had owned, spending
hours and hours in hard, dirty work. And it was a
task repeated over and over, because some of this
was rental property and each time a tenant moved
out, almost always we had a major renovation facing
us.
Then even my little Florida home betrayed me.
Dad died at Christmas time in 1982 and we stayed
home that winter. We always stored our trailer in
a field near the camp, taking the precaution of
using plenty of insecticide and mildew killer. We
wrote down asking the owner of the field to take
our check and renew the bug and mildew
preparations.
But when we walked into the trailer on an
exetremely hot day in mid-October 1983, we almost
turned and ran. Everything we could see was either
covered with dirt or had been chewed by something.
George Main had often told us that we could
use his place at any time and we really had no
choice at this time. We started with garbage sacks
and removed EVERYTHING from the trailer, every
towel, bed linen, drapery, curtain, small clothing
items went into sacks and were taken to the laundry
where we spent 3 full days just washing, drying,
and folding. We stayed at Main's home for three
nights but decided we had to move the trailer so
that we could obtain hot water and electricity. We
proceeded to wash down every square inch of the
trailer, washed every utensil, dish, piece of
silverware and finally after 4 days of hard,
sweltering work, we cleaned and swept the carpet.
Then little by little, we replaced our laundered
items.
.60.
Title
Day by Day (p. 64)
Description
[corresponds to page 61 of Day by Day]
We do not know what caused the damage -
Florida has some hideous flying insects that could
have been what chewed some of the linens. What I
do know is that we never trusted that particular
guy with our trailer again.
It was only when we built that I was able to
move into a clean, warm house for the first time
and what a blessing it was, and is for me. No
remodeling, no painting, no snow on my bed, no
unwanted mice in my basement! I love it!
Remembering Sights, Sounds, and Smells
If someone were to blindfold me and lead me
into an old time school cloak room I would know it
at once by its smell - a mixture of damp woolen
mittens and coats, boots and the ever present smell
of bananas and peanut butter sandwiches in lunch
pails. Peanut butter in those days must have been
blended with glue - one bite and your jaw locked.
Many of the boys in our school trapped animals
for their fur which would sell for a small sum.
Every once in a while they would come to the
classroom after having tangled with a skunk and
would have to be sent home by the teacher with
orders to become bearable before returning.
Smells that I remember; fragrant new-mown hay;
the hot iron smell in Curt's blacksmith shop; the
smell of bees and honey, freshly turned earth, cold
ashes in the ash pan. I especially remember the
smell of freshly baked yeast roll, and will always
remember how grandma hid her bananas in the closet
and we found them by their odor.
Among the beautiful things we've experienced on
the farm have been the phenomena of Nature. It has
.61.
Title
Day by Day (p. 65)
Description
[corresponds to page 62 of Day by Day]
been years since I've seen a showing of "northern
Lights" but I remember one night in the 1950's when
Wendell and I sat in our side yard and witnessed the
bright white light that lit up the sky, Old Mother
Nature outdid herself throwing bight orange, green
and blue streamers halfway across the sky.
One frosty winter night Wendall called me to
"come look" at something. Going outside, I looked
up at a full moon which was completely encircled by
a large rainbow-colored corona. The corona was so
far from the moon that they seemed to have no
relation, even though you know that the moonlight
shining on frost crystals had caused it.
Another unforgettable sight happened as we
were going over Murphy's Hill. Wendell was driving
and as I looked to my right I saw this bright
thing, larger than a star, with a long streamer
behind sailing across the sky. I yelled but
Wendall was unable to get the car stopped until
just shortly before it hit ground. Even so he was
impressed with his first sighting of a 'meteor' and
I was almost speechless. It was a lot more
breathtaking than my first glance at the satellite
we all followed.
We used to shock corn in the days before
combines. The corn was cut and tied into small
bundles which were than set into standing shocks.
There is nothing more mysterious or beautiful than
a large field of shocked corn under a bright, full
October moon. They always reminded me of rows of
tepees, and I could imagine that I could almost see
Indians creeping across the field much as they did
.62.
Title
Day by Day (p. 66)
Description
[corresponds to page 63 of Day by Day]
Hundreds of years ago when they left their
spearpoints, pestles, axes, and grinding stones for
us to find!
One of the prettier farm sights is that of a
field of rowed soybeans just beginning to bush out
a little. Since the advent of pesticides, which
enable one to overcome the large weeds that smother
beans, farmers have gone back to drilled beans
which aren't nearly as pretty.
Wheat and oats are always gorgeous. Bright
green just as we enter winter and again in earliest
spring, they then turn into a beautiful golden
color in summer. when the wind is gentle with
them, the stalks bend and ripple like a giant wave.
It used to be that we threshed wheat, separating
the grain from the straw and putting the grain on
wagons or in sacks and thrusting the straw out of
the machine and into a large stack. We couldn't
wait for the stack to form so that we could climb
to the top and slide down the shiny side.
Of course with the coming of combines, it
meant that farmers could harvest their crops at the
time they wished without waiting their turn in the
"threshing ring." And the wives could celebrate
also - they no longer had to prepare those
monstrous dinners that the men remember so fondly.
Flashback and Feedbacks
We had a big laugh at Lee's expense, when he
went fishing in Canada and stayed in a rustic log
cabin. Along with usual inconveniences such as no
electricity, running water, etc. they were using
something that he had never seen before and which
in his words absolutely "grossed him out." It
.63.
Title
Day by Day (p. 67)
Description
[corresponds to page 64 of Day by Day]
turned out it was a fly strip, an item which used
to hang in every farm kitchen. You open it and as
the narrow mucilaged strip unrolled it caught and
trapped flies in its sticky mess. Revolting, yes,
but it saved a lot of swatting!
Flies were one of the worst things we endured
as children. They lit on you when you were hot and
sweaty, they crawled on you as you tried to sleep.
They bedeviled the cows and horses beyond bearing
causing the cows to switch the milkers and even to
hold up their milk. They blackened screen doors
before a storm. And worst, they crawled on every
bit of exposed food, ruining picnics and family
get-togethers. It was a time of rejoicing when DDT
finally got rid of most of them.
Mosquitos and ticks didn't seem to be the
pests then as much as now. Maybe because we went
to bed early, thus missing the mosquitos. What we
did have to hurt us, because we were forced to go
barefoot, were the thorns, rusty nails, pitchforks,
and barbed wire pieces all of which were as
attracted to my feet as if I had a large magnet in each
foot. I remember one summer I hobbled on a
badly infected foot caused by stepping on a stone.
Finally came the day when I could go outdoors
again, and almost the first thing I did was step on
a pitchfork! I hated doctors, because each time I
saw one, the remedy was either castor oil or a
puncture of a foot wound.
As I said in the beginning, these things I
have written are remembrances of our life together.
For your parent's childhood, you'll have to get
them to write them down. However, in looking back,
I think of many things I do not wish to forget.
.64.
turned out it was a fly strip, an item which used
to hang in every farm kitchen. You open it and as
the narrow mucilaged strip unrolled it caught and
trapped flies in its sticky mess. Revolting, yes,
but it saved a lot of swatting!
Flies were one of the worst things we endured
as children. They lit on you when you were hot and
sweaty, they crawled on you as you tried to sleep.
They bedeviled the cows and horses beyond bearing
causing the cows to switch the milkers and even to
hold up their milk. They blackened screen doors
before a storm. And worst, they crawled on every
bit of exposed food, ruining picnics and family
get-togethers. It was a time of rejoicing when DDT
finally got rid of most of them.
Mosquitos and ticks didn't seem to be the
pests then as much as now. Maybe because we went
to bed early, thus missing the mosquitos. What we
did have to hurt us, because we were forced to go
barefoot, were the thorns, rusty nails, pitchforks,
and barbed wire pieces all of which were as
attracted to my feet as if I had a large magnet in each
foot. I remember one summer I hobbled on a
badly infected foot caused by stepping on a stone.
Finally came the day when I could go outdoors
again, and almost the first thing I did was step on
a pitchfork! I hated doctors, because each time I
saw one, the remedy was either castor oil or a
puncture of a foot wound.
As I said in the beginning, these things I
have written are remembrances of our life together.
For your parent's childhood, you'll have to get
them to write them down. However, in looking back,
I think of many things I do not wish to forget.
.64.
Title
Day by Day (p. 68)
Description
[corresponds to page 65 of Day by Day]
When Terry and Shirley were little, they
became known to one another as "Bus" and "Baby" and
those names stuck through high school. We did not
have anything to do with the names being used and
where they came up with them, I do not know.
Shirley did not have to talk early; Terry
anticipated everything she wanted and they seemed
to develop a language of their own. When we could
not understand her, he interpreted her words.
RicK was anxious to get going in the world;
he's still impatient. He never crawled and when we
got him a walker at 6 months he turned our kitchen
into a racing track. He could charge full speed
ahead and turn on a dime and he learned to walk at
9 months.
We lived in a drive back about 100 feet from
the road and just across a narrow road; at the foot
of the lane stood 2 full grown trees just wide
enough apart to get a tractor through. One day
after parking the car on top of the hill, wheels
turned slightly to the bank, we entered the house
for a cup of coffee. Shortly afterward, we looked
out and our car was gone! Running out, we finally
spotted it across the road in the field south of
the house. We ran down see how much damage had
been done to the car. Inconceivable as it might
seem if you had ever seen those trees and how close
they were, there was no a mark on the car. Even
more inconceivable was that on the back floor of
the car, Shirley and Terry were still playing with
something. Evidently when they got in and shut the
door, that was enough to start the car downhill.
But I think I'd be safe in saying that if one were
to park a car on the exact same spot, the chances
.65.
Title
Day by Day (p. 69)
Description
[corresponds to page 66 of Day by Day]
would be about one in a thousand that it would go
through those two trees unmarked.
Terry used to stand by the east dining room
window every morning and when the milk truck drove
in he'd always say, "ere goes-a milka tuck". He
spoke slowly and distinctly and we understood
everything he said, but he couldn't explain that
Italian accent. He also said, "bi-sa-ca-shew" for
bicycle. You figure!
Pam could not say "horse." Over and over the
word came "force." One day PaBee tried to help
her with her pronunciation, teaching her the "ho"
sound and forcing her lips into the position to
make the sound. Over and over they tried with Pam
making the sound. Then he said, "Say I see a
horse." And Pam said, "I see a force." I guess
it's something you just out grow.
Lee and Gina weren't with us as much when real
small, but PaBee never forgot one sight of Lee. We
walked into their kitchen shortly after Pearl had
given him a Sugar Daddy and in Wendell's words
"That kid had chocolate from his head to his feet"
and Pearl was just standing there laughing.
Shirley, Geno Jr., were 2 beautiful babies
with their dark curls, one with blue, one with
brown eyes and their wonderful complexions. I wish
I'd had a color camera when Shirley was small.
Chery was always the quiet, thoughtful one in
the family. She didn't argue, and she would
usually go along with anything Pam suggested but
once in a while she would dig in her heels and
.66.
Title
Day by Day (p. 70)
Description
[corresponds to page 67 of Day by Day]
resist. Chery is till the very organized person
in the family.
Lee and Scott had the knack of our generation,
that of creating one's own entertainment. They
use to take twine and hitch up a pretend plow (a
stick), then plow a ditch and plant seeds. They
once used twine string to tie 3 pretty large boards
together which they imagined was an airplane. The
next thing we knew they were "flying" out a second
story window. And do you remember the time they
found an old lantern and were filling it with
gasoline in preparation for a campfire? That
lighting would have buried half our farms.
Lisa was always the independent child and
as she grew older, tended to impress or shock you
with her insight or actions. But I'll never forget
one day at home she invited a few kids in to
play in our motor home. Hanging in the trailer was
a beautiful Della Robbia wreath bought at the Twig
bazaar and so loved by me that I took it to Florida
with me. When I entered the trailer an hour or so
later, there sat four kids at my table each with a
cereal bowl, the bowls full of cherries, grapes
raspberries and every other fruit from my wreath
which they had dismantled. Lisa probably recalls
to this day my first look and the words, "you kids
are not leaving here until every grape is back on
the vines and all the wreath is put back as it
was." Of course, they couldn't do it, but spent a
few hours of trying and possibly learned a lesson in
the process.
.67.
Title
Day by Day (p. 71)
Description
[corresponds to page 68 of Day by Day]
Tyler Day
[photo]
Tyler Day was the last of
our grandchildren, a
little red-head who made a
good impression upon
everyone who saw him. He
stayed with us many times
when small, and I miss him
greatly since he moved to
Findlay. Tyler had some
speech problems which
lasted well into his
second grade, but he's a
great student and a great
kid.
We never allowed our children and
grandchildren to sleep with us. One night when
Scott was about 3 years of age, and staying over
with us, a terrific thunderstorm came up. It
awakened me and I hear Scott, who was on the sofa
just outside our bedroom, begin to stir. Finally I
heard him creep over to our door but he didn't say
anything. I waited then called out, "Scott do you
want to come in here with us?" With one bound, he
was in our room saying, "Funder scares me to deaf."
Snuggled between us, he was soon sound asleep, his
fears of "funder" forgotten.
A farm is not only long hours of hard dirty
work, but a place of many accidents and dangers.
Within 2 1/2 miles of our farm, I could think of 17
major accidents, 13 of them resulting in death most
of them were very young people, only 2 of these 13
being adults.
On of the saddest funerals I ever played for
was for a small boy who was playing in the pasture
.68.
Title
Day by Day (p. 72)
Description
[corresponds to page 69 of Day by Day]
and fell into an iron stake set out to hold a salt
block. He died in his father's arms a few minutes
later. Another child fell from a silo, one caught
his hands in the moving gears of a grain drill,
another suffocated under loose saw dust.
There were tractor upsets, chain-saw
accidents, car accidents, mowing machine and
combine worries. Each piece of machinery on the
farm could become a death instrument in a flash, so
it was small wonder that one was continually
admonishing everyone else to "be careful."
The Chamberlain farm and its owners have been
especially hard hit, with major accidents which
included four deaths. After the lightning strike
on our farm, PaBee never cared to go back out to
the farm.
However, both of us did help Terry try to get
his dairy herd in order in 1987. He died just a
week after we were there to help, and both Wendell
and I lost all interest in the farm. I still own a
part of it, but it's rented out and I see little of it.
Did you ever wonder why you call your
grandparents "Bee" and PaBee"? Well, here's the answer.
I had always wanted a nickname but the name
"Doris" is not the easiest name in the world to use
to coin a nickname, so I was always known by my
my full name, "Doris Marie."
Then when I was twelve, we welcomed into our
family my kid brother, also known by the name of
Wendell.
When he began talking tried to get my
attention, it was impossible for him to enunciate
.69.
Title
Day by Day (p. 73)
Description
[corresponds to page 70 of Day by Day]
my full name, calling me instead "Do Bee." Later
he shortened it to Bee, has called me that all his
life, and finally gave me a nickname that stuck,
because most of my family used it in addressing me
as did your grandfather, my Wendell.
I was made a grandmother at a young age and
had no objection until a neighbor, 25 years my
senior, began referring to me as "grandma." so
when Pam began talking, I encouraged her to call me
"Bee." That was fine until she began calling
Wendell "MaBee" at which time he asked her to call
him "PaBee." To this day, all the grandchildren,
some of our nieces and nephews and even some of
their young friends address us this way.
And that , Lee, is why when your teacher asked
you to tell something about your grandparents you
told her "I don't have any grandma or grandpa -
just Nani and Nuner, Bee and Pabee!"
My life as you can see has not been glamorous
or exciting, but one of much hard work and, at
times, one of frustration.
But along the way, there had been so much to
enjoy - friends, music, church, family books for
learning and pleasure, fairly good health, a sound
mind - that I can't complain.
To those of you who thought this writing was
on genealogy, no. That was not the purpose of
this. But about a month ago I found a writing done
by one of my ancestors in the mid 1700's and I'm
having a copy made for the back of the book so that
you can read it and truly appreciate how much you
have.
.70.
Title
Day by Day (p. 74)
Description
[corresponds to page 71 of Day by Day]
I would remind you, too, that I'm glad:
You don't pump water for a dairy - a turn
of the tap does it.
You don't do hand washing - you have
automatic washers.
You don't hang up wet clothes - you use a dryer.
You don't stoke the furnace several times
a day - it's automatic heat.
You don't light candles or lamps - a flip
of the switch make light, etc., etc.
In addition, mixes of all kinds have
shortened cooking immensely. Supermarkets hold all
kinds of canned fruits and vegetables or even fresh
produce. It's hard to believe that we rarely saw
celery or lettuce when I was a child, and an orange
in our Christmas stocking was a real treat.
It's been an amazing change that I've seen in
my lifetime in everything from transportation to
clothing, education to morals, foods to indoor
conveniences. As someone said, "Enjoy today. You
are living better than any king lived a century
ago."
In conclusion, I have just a word for you, my
grandchildren.
We've enjoyed each and everyone of you
regardless of whose genes you wound up with.
We've shared your illnesses (cried many tears
over you), your good times, your first word, your
first step. We've rocked you, singing "Rock-a-Bye
Baby" ten thousand times, changed you, consoled
you, hugged you, argued with you, yelled at you and
yes, even spanked one of you once.
And through it all, we had a ball. Hope you
did, too.
Love,
Bee and PaBee
.71.
Title
Day by Day (p. 75)
Description
[corresponds to page 72 of Day by Day]
Our First Great-Grandchildren
Erik Day
[photo]
Ryan Day
[photo]
4 Generations
Rick, Wendell, Scott, and baby Erik
[photo]
.72.
Title
Day by Day (p. 76)
Description
[corresponds to page 73 of Day by Day]
Our Family Today
Birthday Gathering for Doris
1991
1st Row: Marge Day, Scott Day,
Pam Day Given
2nd Row: Juanita Day, Doris
Day, Wendell Day
3rd Row: Chery Ortlieb, Shirley
Alessio, Lisa Day, Rick Day
4th Row: Jim Ortlieb, Gino
Alessio, Mott Given
.73.
Title
Day by Day (p. 77)
Description
[corresponds to unnumbered page 74 of Day by Day]
Lewis H. Davidson. The following
sketch from the pen of Rev. Lewis H.
Davidson, of Washington township,
a few additions, appeared in the
Freeport Press of April 16, 1890. It
shows some of the many hardships
endured by the pioneers in general,
and this truly representative family
in particular.
"My great-grandfather, William
Davidson, was born in Ireland, and
emigrated to the United States in very
early days, and after being married,
and having four sons, was captured by
the Indians before the Revolutionary
War, and was lost to all knowledge of
his friends. My grandfather, William
Davidson (second), on my father's
side, was born November 20, 1747. He
was married first to Rosanna
Hutchinson, who was born in Wales.
This union resulted in five children -
three sons and two daughters. His
second marriage was with Barbara
McDale; result eight children - five
sons and three daughters. My father,
Lewis Davidson, was of the first set
of children, and was born in Fayette
County, Penn., March 23, 1773. My
mother, Mary Davidson, daughter of
Lewis Davidson, full brother of
William (second), was born in Allegany
County, Md., September 23, 1778. Her
mother's name was Nancy Todd, and she
was born in England. My mother was
one of fourteen children, all full
brothers and sisters. My father and
mother were married in Fayette County,
Penn., in July 1798, by Rev. James
Roberts. the result of this union was
twelve children - eight sons and four
daughters - namely: William. Nancy,
Rosanna, John S., Mordecai W., Lewis
H., Susanna., Mary., Jesse., Thomas
L., Joseph C., and Jonathan S. In
1802 my father and mother , with a
number of other families moved down
the Ohio river in large canoes
fastened together, and landed on the
west side of the Ohio river opposite
where Catlettsburg is now located.
After remaining there about one year,
my father bought land in French grant,
in Scioto County, Ohio, where they
remained until March 1909. I was born
at that place February 23, 1809. This
location proved to be sickly - chills
and fever. Here two of their children
died: Nancy and Rosanna. My parents
proposed to move back to Pennsylvania,
and having sold their land, and the
weather becoming fine the last
week of March, they commenced the
tedious journey, packing all they
intended to move on two mares. My
mother carried me in her arms on
horseback, and an older brother, John
S., behind her and Mordecai W. was in
father's arms on the other mare, and
William who was in is tenth year
walked. They come to the Muskingham
River at Zanesville, April 2, 1809,
and my mother forded that river with
me in her arms. They had fine weather
to travel in, and all went well until
they reached the big Stillwater Creek,
between where now in Smyrna and
Moorefield. One of their mares, being
very warm, drank too much water, and
by the time they reached the John lamb
farm, one mile east of Moorefield, she
was so sick they stopped, and there
she died. This stopped them in their
journey to Pennsylvania.
"My father rented a small cabin
nearby and remained there that summer
and next winter. During that time he
entered the quarter section of land
which L. D. Latham now occupies, three
miles west of Freeport. On March 10,
1810, my father moved his family down
on the east side of Big Stillwater,
and stopped with Daniel McGloughlin,
who then lived where the widow Bevans
now lives. In a few days he erected a
cabin on his own land, and soon moved
into it. It had a "cat-and-clay"
chimney, split puncheons for a floor,
clapboards pinned together with wooden
pins for a door to keep out wolves, as
well as everything else, but which did
not prevent us from hearing the wolves
howling a few yards from the door. We
were also surrounded with other wild
game, such as bears, deer, turkeys,
and smaller game, which were much used
for food by families, the hides of the
deer dressed for clothing. Those were
trying times, indeed! Daniel Esley
had a little mill at that time, built
of small logs, standing where the Hess
mill is now located. The dam was
built of brush and dirt, and very
leaky at that, and when it was very
dry weather we often had to pound
out corn into meal in a hominy block, and
live on potatoes, squashes, pumpkins
roasting ears, and beans. In 1812 my
father erected the first hewed-log and
shingle-roofed house that was ever
built in the valley of Crab Orchard,
carrying nails for the roof from
Newellstown (now St. Clairsville) in a
sack on horseback, and paying a high
price for them. But just when the new
inhabitants had cleared a few patches
to raise corn and potatoes, the
Lewis H. Davidson. The following
sketch from the pen of Rev. Lewis H.
Davidson, of Washington township,
a few additions, appeared in the
Freeport Press of April 16, 1890. It
shows some of the many hardships
endured by the pioneers in general,
and this truly representative family
in particular.
"My great-grandfather, William
Davidson, was born in Ireland, and
emigrated to the United States in very
early days, and after being married,
and having four sons, was captured by
the Indians before the Revolutionary
War, and was lost to all knowledge of
his friends. My grandfather, William
Davidson (second), on my father's
side, was born November 20, 1747. He
was married first to Rosanna
Hutchinson, who was born in Wales.
This union resulted in five children -
three sons and two daughters. His
second marriage was with Barbara
McDale; result eight children - five
sons and three daughters. My father,
Lewis Davidson, was of the first set
of children, and was born in Fayette
County, Penn., March 23, 1773. My
mother, Mary Davidson, daughter of
Lewis Davidson, full brother of
William (second), was born in Allegany
County, Md., September 23, 1778. Her
mother's name was Nancy Todd, and she
was born in England. My mother was
one of fourteen children, all full
brothers and sisters. My father and
mother were married in Fayette County,
Penn., in July 1798, by Rev. James
Roberts. the result of this union was
twelve children - eight sons and four
daughters - namely: William. Nancy,
Rosanna, John S., Mordecai W., Lewis
H., Susanna., Mary., Jesse., Thomas
L., Joseph C., and Jonathan S. In
1802 my father and mother , with a
number of other families moved down
the Ohio river in large canoes
fastened together, and landed on the
west side of the Ohio river opposite
where Catlettsburg is now located.
After remaining there about one year,
my father bought land in French grant,
in Scioto County, Ohio, where they
remained until March 1909. I was born
at that place February 23, 1809. This
location proved to be sickly - chills
and fever. Here two of their children
died: Nancy and Rosanna. My parents
proposed to move back to Pennsylvania,
and having sold their land, and the
weather becoming fine the last
week of March, they commenced the
tedious journey, packing all they
intended to move on two mares. My
mother carried me in her arms on
horseback, and an older brother, John
S., behind her and Mordecai W. was in
father's arms on the other mare, and
William who was in is tenth year
walked. They come to the Muskingham
River at Zanesville, April 2, 1809,
and my mother forded that river with
me in her arms. They had fine weather
to travel in, and all went well until
they reached the big Stillwater Creek,
between where now in Smyrna and
Moorefield. One of their mares, being
very warm, drank too much water, and
by the time they reached the John lamb
farm, one mile east of Moorefield, she
was so sick they stopped, and there
she died. This stopped them in their
journey to Pennsylvania.
"My father rented a small cabin
nearby and remained there that summer
and next winter. During that time he
entered the quarter section of land
which L. D. Latham now occupies, three
miles west of Freeport. On March 10,
1810, my father moved his family down
on the east side of Big Stillwater,
and stopped with Daniel McGloughlin,
who then lived where the widow Bevans
now lives. In a few days he erected a
cabin on his own land, and soon moved
into it. It had a "cat-and-clay"
chimney, split puncheons for a floor,
clapboards pinned together with wooden
pins for a door to keep out wolves, as
well as everything else, but which did
not prevent us from hearing the wolves
howling a few yards from the door. We
were also surrounded with other wild
game, such as bears, deer, turkeys,
and smaller game, which were much used
for food by families, the hides of the
deer dressed for clothing. Those were
trying times, indeed! Daniel Esley
had a little mill at that time, built
of small logs, standing where the Hess
mill is now located. The dam was
built of brush and dirt, and very
leaky at that, and when it was very
dry weather we often had to pound
out corn into meal in a hominy block, and
live on potatoes, squashes, pumpkins
roasting ears, and beans. In 1812 my
father erected the first hewed-log and
shingle-roofed house that was ever
built in the valley of Crab Orchard,
carrying nails for the roof from
Newellstown (now St. Clairsville) in a
sack on horseback, and paying a high
price for them. But just when the new
inhabitants had cleared a few patches
to raise corn and potatoes, the
Title
Day by Day (p. 78)
Description
[corresponds to unnumbered page 74 of Day by Day]
distressing War of 1812 called all the
able bodied men in Ohio to arms; as it
is well known that Ohio and the
western frontier suffered more than
any other part of the United States,
on account of the alliance between the
British and Indians, the British
offering the Indians a high price for
every white scalp they would produce.
At this time father was suffering
badly with rheumatism as to be unable
to work, having lost the entire used
of his legs, yet he did not escape the
'draft,' and I remember well his being
carried from the house by two strong
men to be put on horse back to ride to
New Philadelphia to answer his name,
and prove his inability to go to the
front. I can not recollect the
excitement when word reached this part
of the State that Shipley and Warnock
were killed by the Indians about forty
miles from this place. Immediately
following this report the entire
neighborhood about Freeport was
alarmed over a rumor that an Indian
attack was to be made upon them; and
from far and near families flocked to
the village for safety, which was
found in a house of huge round logs
that had been erected for the very
purpose it was called to serve. Our
family was among those who hastily
sought this shelter, and while en
route on horseback, riding behind my
father, I remember falling from the
horse and rolling down a steep
embankment, which so hurt me as to
cause me to cry aloud. My outcry was
only hushed when warned that unless I
would cease the Indians would hear me
and come and massacre us all. Some
two days in doubt and expectancy were
passed in the village, when, the fears
of the settlers subsiding, they
returned to their homes. When the war
closed, this part of the State settled
up rapidly, and soon the people became
prosperous in their undertakings.
"We soon had churches in
Freeport, and church organizations,
good preachers and good congregations.
In early life I became interested in
the Christian religion, my father and
mother being members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. On April 15, 1827
I united with the Methodist Episcopal
Church of Freeport, Ohio, two sisters,
Susanna and Mary, uniting at the same
time. Thus we joined hands that we
would walk with God during natural
lives, long or short. My sister,
Mary, has gone to the spirit land,
dying in the faith of the Son of God.
My sister, Susanna Latham, it still
lingering on the stage of action, but with
good hope of eternal life beyond the
grave. She is greatly blessed with a
daughter and son-in-law to take care
of her in her declining years. In
1829 I bought 100 acres of land in
Washington Township, Tuscarawas Co.,
Ohio. On January 7 1830, I was
united in marriage to Lucinda Latham
near Moorefield, Ohio: she was born in
Fauquier County, Va., September 18,
1910. The result of this union was
seven children - four sons and three
daughters-namely: Isiah, Mary, Lucy,
James M., Latham A., Sarah E., and
Alexander J. Three of theses, Isiah,
Lucy and Sarah, died in Infancy: James
M. volunteered in the United State
service August 9, 1862, and became a
member of Company F, Ninety-eight
regiment, O.V.I. (he was mortally
wounded September 20, 1863, in the
memorable battle of Chickamauga, and
was lost to all knowledge of his
friends). My daughter, Mary McPeck,
lives near Jewett, Ohio. Latham A. is
living in West Milford, Harrison Co.,
W. Va. Alexander J. is living near
Tucson, Ariz.
"In September, 1830, my wife and
I went to that wild woodland that I
had purchased in Tuscarawas County, to
fix upon a location for a cabin, and
after wading through the high weeds
and brush for awhile, we located the
site near a spring. I had my ax in
hand, ready to cut down the large oaks
that stood all around. I looked at my
better half, and asked if she thought
we could make a living in that place.
Her eyes began to fill with tears, and
turning her back to me , she walked off
to a large oak tree down, the
one I had intended for the foundation
of my house, this being the first
break on those 100 acres. I soon had
my cabin up, and I soon finished my
chimney, then commenced grubbing for
my next summer corn field. When there
was snow on the ground I would chop
rail timber, and when there was no
snow I either split rails or grubbed,
so when the time came for planting
corn I had three and a quarter acres
cleared and well fenced; also in the
meantime had made 2,000 rails for my
neighbors. I will also say my wife
was often seen picking the small brush
on the clearing after working the
Title
Day by Day (p. 79)
Description
[corresponds to unnumbered page 75 of Day by Day]
little garden that I had prepared soon
after we had moved to that place. We
continued on this place until December
1, 1835. During our stay there I
cleared and fenced about twenty-five
acres of land, and made about 8,000
rails for my neighbors. I made oak
rails at twenty-five cents, and
chestnut rails at twenty cents per
hundred.
"In the fall of 1835, my health
failed, and during much of the time I
was prostrated. This was the cause of
our selling our land at that place and
moving to Freeport on the first day of
December, 1835. In April, 1836, I
bought some goods and went into
mercantile business on a small scale.
In the summer of 1837 I changed my
business, and moved out on the Crab
Orchard Creek. In October 1837, I, in
company with a brother, went to
Blackford County, Ind., and bought
eighty acres of land. In November I
rented what was called the Dewey Farm,
on Crab Orchard Creek. Here we
remained for seventeen months. In
1839, having bought the interest of
some of the heirs of the farm on
which I was reared, I erected a house,
where L. D. Latham now lives, and
moved to that place. On May 8, 1842
I received, from the Methodist
Episcopal Church, license to exhort,
and on February 8, 1845, to preach the
gospel. On June 23, 1850, I received
a deacon's orders by the hand of
Bishop Janes, an elder's orders on
March 20, 1864, by the hand of Bishop
Scott. In December, 1845, I rented
the mill property belonging to Nelson
Driggs, moved to that place, and
remained there until the day of April,
1847, when we moved to what was known
as the Barrett Mill, having bought an
interest in that property.
"Here we remained until the
first of April, 1851, when , having
sold my interest in the mill property,
we moved back to the mill and farm
property of Nelson Driggs. About the
time we had our corn planted, Driggs
sold his mill and farm to Andrew
Stewart, and came to me and requested
that I release the rent on the farm,
and he would pay damage. Stewart
wished to repair the mill, but wished
me to continue to farm and cut the hay
and tend the corn. In December, 1851,
Driggs put a nice lot of goods in the
house where Turner now keeps his meat
shop, and requested me to move into
that house on the 8th of December,
1851, and took charge of his goods.
In March , 1852, Driggs sold all his
store goods on both sides of the
street to Isaac Holloway and Benjamion
Parsons, and they placed all the goods
in the brick house where Peairs Bros.
now have their store, employing me to
sell their goods for one year. About
one month after I took possession of
the goods Sheriff Boyd of Cadiz came
and demanded the key of the store-
house in favor Driggs' Eastern
creditors. I had then the privilege
of being idle awhile. The owners of
the good replevined them, it soon
passed though the court, and the goods
passed back to Holloway & Parsons, and
I began in my former business. We
remained in the store until April
1853. For the past two years we had
been receiving rent from a farm of
eighty acres near Tippicanoe, which I
had bought in 1851. In 1851 I rented a
small farm from Samuel Green, and
moved there in April. On January1,
1854, I bought from John Vandota the
farm we now occupy, and moved upon it
March 1, 1854. On the 4th January,
that year, I was appointed by
Presiding Elder J. G. Samson, to take
charge as pastor, of the Methodist
Episcopal Church at Sewellsville and
Salem, and there I labored nearly six
months, and received into the church
over fifty members . Soon after I
finished my labors there we attached
ourselves to the Tippecanoe Class,
Deersville Circuit; I was called upon
to preach to the people. In 1855, in
a quarterly conference at the Valley
Church, a resolution was offered and
unanimously passed that my family and
I should be exempt from paying
quarterage. This exemption continued
for a while, and I thought, lest there
be some jealous feelings toward me by
my brethren, I would propose a change
in the matter. I addressed the
following letter to the quarterly
conference, I being sick and not able
to attend:
Tippecanoe, August 27, 1858
Dear Brethren of the Quarterly Conference of
Deersville Circuit, Pittsburgh Conference:
Whereas, at the quarterly conference,
held at Pleasant Valley, there was a resolution
unanimously adopted that myself and my family be
exempt from paying quarterage, and while I
highly appreciate and shall ever feel bound to
appreciate the act of my brethren in passing
this resolution unanimously as a a compliment to
me, I move that the above resolution be
rescinded, and the names of myself and my family
be place among the paying members of the
circuit.
Yours fraternally,
L. H. Davidson
"On September 16, 1857, I was
Title
Day by Day (p. 80)
Description
[corresponds to unnumbered page 76 of Day by Day]
appointed agent of the American Bible
Society for Guernsey County, Ohio
commencing the 16th day of September
and ending the 29 day of January,
1858. Number of families visited,
894: number of days engaged, 104:
whole amount of cash received,
$402.19: number of addresses
delivered, 28: value of Bibles and
Testaments given to destitute
families, $17.66. A few years ago we
attached ourselves to a class in
Freeport on account of the
convenience, as we are in our
declining years. I have been appointed
executor of administrator of the
estate of the following persons: My
Father, Susanna Buffington, Robert A
Latham, Mary L. Hill. Asa Miller, John
McCormick, Amanda Bargar, Reuben
Allen, James B. Jenkins, and Guardian
for Ham Hogue's heirs and William
McCormick. Up to date, January 18,
1891, I have solemnized marriage
contracts between ninety-eight
couples.
My work is now almost finished.
There are a few of my early
acquaintances with me living on the
stage of action; Elijah Carver, Samuel
Wilson, James Kerr, widow John
Phillipps, Zera Davidson and wife,
Robert Mears, Bazil Steel, John
Miller, William Perdue, Robert Wilkin,
Robert Tedrick, Mary A. Stewart, widow
of Andrew Stewart: all these our
youth met each other with warm hearts
and friendly hands, but soon these
hands and hearts will be cold in
death. But if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also
which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with Him, and shall change our vile
bodies that they may be alike
fashioned unto His glorious body."
Taken from a book
on Harrison County, Ohio
held in
The Licking county
Genealogical society.
appointed agent of the American Bible
Society for Guernsey County, Ohio
commencing the 16th day of September
and ending the 29 day of January,
1858. Number of families visited,
894: number of days engaged, 104:
whole amount of cash received,
$402.19: number of addresses
delivered, 28: value of Bibles and
Testaments given to destitute
families, $17.66. A few years ago we
attached ourselves to a class in
Freeport on account of the
convenience, as we are in our
declining years. I have been appointed
executor of administrator of the
estate of the following persons: My
Father, Susanna Buffington, Robert A
Latham, Mary L. Hill. Asa Miller, John
McCormick, Amanda Bargar, Reuben
Allen, James B. Jenkins, and Guardian
for Ham Hogue's heirs and William
McCormick. Up to date, January 18,
1891, I have solemnized marriage
contracts between ninety-eight
couples.
My work is now almost finished.
There are a few of my early
acquaintances with me living on the
stage of action; Elijah Carver, Samuel
Wilson, James Kerr, widow John
Phillipps, Zera Davidson and wife,
Robert Mears, Bazil Steel, John
Miller, William Perdue, Robert Wilkin,
Robert Tedrick, Mary A. Stewart, widow
of Andrew Stewart: all these our
youth met each other with warm hearts
and friendly hands, but soon these
hands and hearts will be cold in
death. But if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also
which sleep in Jesus will God bring
with Him, and shall change our vile
bodies that they may be alike
fashioned unto His glorious body."
Taken from a book
on Harrison County, Ohio
held in
The Licking county
Genealogical society.
Dublin Core
Title
Day by Day
Subject
Davidson family--Genealogy
Day family--Genealogy
Ohio--Delaware County--Sunbury--History
Personal narratives--Doris Davidson Day (1917-2010)
Day family--Genealogy
Ohio--Delaware County--Sunbury--History
Personal narratives--Doris Davidson Day (1917-2010)
Description
This family history provides general histories of 5 generations of the Davidson, Day, Glenn, Cline, and Cowell families, from 1899-1995. Author Doris Davidson Day puts into print memories of her childhood, marriage, work, joys, and sorrows.
Creator
Author Doris Davidson Day
Publisher
Community Library, Sunbury, Ohio
Date
1995
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Format
Book
Language
English
Type
Still Image
Text
Text
Identifier
31093745
Collection
Citation
Author Doris Davidson Day, “Day by Day,” Delaware County Memory, accessed December 25, 2024, http://66.213.124.233/items/show/3127.