IADECATU-L Archives

Archiver > IADECATU > 2005-02 > 1109204764


From: "Sherry Balow" <>
Subject: ELIZABETH HILL, Part 6
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:26:04 -0800


Betsy Jones managed the spinning, weaving and sewing. Polly Ann, Lucinda
and Nancy operated the spinning wheels. When Grant Jones was five years
old he was allotted some work with the preparation of the cotton. His task
was to pick the seeds out of a shoe full of cotton each night before going
to bed. Summer clothing was also made out of the home spun cotton. If
there was a surplus of cotton jean cloth it could be sold at the store.
The price seemed to vary, probably depending on the quality. Here are some
purchases by the store: 3 yards of jean $1.78; 8 yards of jeans $4.08; 6
yards of jeans$3.00 and 12 1/2 yards of jeans $6.12. The blankets for the
beds were made from wool that was washed, cleaned, combed, carded, spun and
woven at home. Comforters were made with cotton tops and bottoms filled
with woolen bats for the winter and cotton bats for the summer. These
quilts became an art form. Any cloth was valuable so every inch of good
cloth that could not be used for something else was kept and good cloth
rescued from worn out garments was kept to make crazy quilts, chair backs
padding and cushions. Some of these quilts and covers were tied with yarns
and others were highly decorated with embroidery stitches.
Babies were breast fed by the mothers or by a wet nurse. The wet nurse
usually had a baby the same age and had plenty of milk for two. It was
usual that babies were breast fed a long time because it was thought that
this provided a means of family planning. Many babies, Virginia among
them, were not put on a schedule but were fed whenever they cried or showed
they were hungry or cross. Nursing babies took a lot of time but this time
could not be spared from waiting task so the knitting needles or spinning
wheel were operated at the same time the baby was nursed. Some tasks were
too clumsy or noisy like the operation of the loom for weaving. Knitting
was less during the spring and summer for other work took the time.
The children and women usually went barefooted. The men working in the
woods cutting the railroad ties needed socks and shoes. The men and boys
who did the farming and followed the plow on foot walked barefooted in the
cool furrows.
Because the method of cooking meat over the coals in the fireplace was
very slow dinner must be started as soon as the beds were made. Meat in
one iron pot and black eye peas in another. Polly Ann must pick the wild
greens in the spring including dandelion, poke, dock, lambs quarter, wild
lettuce and young plantain. Greens prevented scurvy and provided minerals
and vitamins. There was also wild garlic, ramps and onions. Sometimes
asparagus went wild too.

Lucinda would skim the milk, make cheese from fresh clabber and churn the
butter in the 4 to 5 gallon earthen ware churn fitted with wooden lid and
dasher. The milk clabbered in 1,2,o r 3 days according to the weather.
To make the butter churning easier one usually chanted in rhythm with the
dasher:

DOWNUPDOWNDOWNUPDOWNUP

ComebuttercomePeterstandingat the gate
ComebuttercomeWaitingfor abuttercake
Comebuttercome

After the butter formed it had to be worked to remove the sour milk from
the fat and then salted and molded. A good spring house helped keep butter
firm enough to work the milk out.

Nancy was called away to drop beans in the hill with the corn. The
cornstalks acted like a pole upon which the beans could climb. Pumpkin
were usually planted in the corn.
Part of the day Grandma Jones worked on the cotton to get it ready for the
girls to spin. She also spent some time sewing the clothes to be worn.
Grant Jones and his brother Billy chuckled over the long tailed shirts they
usually wore as boys. The shirts came about half way between the knee and
ankle. It was fun to dare each other to lift the shirt and run through the
nettle patch or sit on a hot rock. The dye was not always permanent and so
they would come out of the shirts sporting a different color, bleu, brown,
indigo or copper . On church days or when company came the shirts were
taken off and replaced with a good pair of pants. Grant Jones mother wore
shirt waist and skirt that were worn in a loose Mother Hubbard fashion for
work and in fancy Basque waist for dress. The men wore pants that were
high under their arm pits. The mens overcoats were made of linen and wool
usually black wool and white linen spun together and called Nits and
Lice. These overcoats had big capes sewed on next to the collar and
covered the shoulders. Long frock coats were a part of their suit. Fancy
occasions might call for a cut away.
When noon came everything stopped to put the mens meal on the table.
That might consist of meat, beans, wild greens and cornbread. There was
always cornbread. After the dishes were cleared the girls went back to
spinning and weaving.
Sometimes Grandma Betsy Jones would make soap. The old grease had been
saved from cooking and to this was added tallow and suet. The hickory
ashes had been saved from the fireplace. The ashes had been wetted down
and placed in a big barrel with both ends out of it. The barrel was placed
on a slanted board with a trough to catch the lye. Barrels were secured
from the cooper or else a big hollow gum tree could be used. Some made
crude hoppers of boards or logs and lined the bottom with straw, cornhusks
or paper to keep the ashes in the hopper. Making the lye consisted of
pouring water from the rain barrel onto the ashes. It took two or three
gallons of water according to how much and how compact the ashes were. The
grease and lye were put into the big black wash kettle. It is estimated
that two pounds of grease was used for each gallon of lye water. A fire
was kindles around the kettle and the stirring began. You really have to
boil it to make it thick. Its just like Jelly. If it isnt cooked
enough you get soft soap. Grandma Betsy Jones poured her soap into
crockery container because tin containers would rust the soap. To make
fancy soap it was necessary to strain the fat and lye and add spring leaves
of ginger for perfume.
Grant explained that there was always extra work for his mother and
sisters besides their daily chores. In addition to the butter making, the
cheese making and the soap making, there were the straw ticks to fill with
clean bright straw at threshing time. Those newly filled straw ticks were
delightful to all but especially to the children . When apples began to
fall it was apple butter making time, beans to pick and dry or hominy to
make, elderberries to preserve, nuts to pick up and other endless tasks.
As the day drew to a close, the daily chores drew to an end, there was
still the evening meal. Families had mush and milk or left over cold
breads and milk. After supper when the loom and spinning wheels were
stilled there were sock darning, pants patching, seed picking out of the
cotton or the combing of the wool to choose.

Although Judge Jenkins, from Miller County court house records, documents
many hardship cases following the Civil War, fathers story does not
indicate that the Jones family suffered such hardships.. He said, From the
description of all the food we had to eat you may wonder what we did with
it. My father was a kind hearted man and he gave to the poor and the needy
as long as he lived. The only hard times he mentioned were when the river
flooded. Then the hogs were fattened on mast, hickory nuts acorns and wild
black walnuts. They also rooted up wild artichokes. They got fat on such
forage. Grant also mentioned that he tried to tie boards to his feet so he
could walk on the flinty, rocky land, not because he didnt have shoes but
because children and women went barefooted. Anyone trying to walk barefoot
in the creeks of southern Missouri knows what he meant. The flinty rocks
can cut through automobile tires. His shoes had thick soles filled with
tacks to protect the leather against the rock.
In the land records of Miller County on December 6, 1872 Lewis Jones and
wife placed their mortgage on their farm for $650.00 with 10% interest.
Part of the record reads as follows:

Said Lewis Joes and wife promises to pay $650.00 plus interest to W. C.
Brumley. If the interest is
not paid annually it is to become a part of the principal and be
assessed at the same rate of interest.
Filed January 21, 1873.
Grant Jones thought his father, Lewis, died in early February 1874 of
pneumonia. In 1875 Elizabeth Jones name appears on all business papers
alone.




--continued, Part 7


Sherry Balow




This thread: