NYDELAWA-L Archives

From: Ruth A Messick< >
Subject: Rock Royal Memories
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 08:41:12 EDT

I was reading Louise Little's accounts and it brought back memories too.
My mother, Ruth Ann Earl was born on the place in Rock Royal, also
taken for the dam. The upper part of the property is right along the
road
and I am always glad for that as I remember every time we went there,
my mother would feel like the farmers that Louse described.

Mother was born there in 1910, daughter of Selah James Earl and Irena
Southworth. Each time we drove around Delaware County, I heard the
same stories. She would point up the roads, at buildings and tell
stories
about people. In later years, I would jump ahead of her and say, "Now up
that road, you went to a dance at so and so's barn and you wore the blue
dress and had a white bow in your hair" . What seemed repetitious, is
now
so dear to me. I remember the first Memorial Day after she died, I took
a young
gal, who was very into genealogy, with me and I told all these stories
to her. It suddenly occurred to me that weekend wasn't about decorating

graves so much as it was "going home to visit" for mother.

When they flooded the valley, mother would stand at her place and point
up
and down the road and name the spots for each family that lived nearby
with
a sadness of loss. The happiest experience at that spot was when we
walked
around and she pointed out where the house was, there was the old apple
tree
and right over there is where "Dad put me in a flower garden the year
before he
died." When she walked to that spot, she found the iris area, just
loaded with iris.
We removed some for her to take home, since they were originally a gift
from her
father. Those iris have multiplied many times since and their
descendants are now
at the homes of all of her descendants, friends, and at her grave.

Moving the people from each of these sites also broke up the neighborhood
kinship because they didn't all end up next door to one another, and that
was
a second loss to suffer. Some probably never saw much of one another
after
that. There are some things you cannot measure and this loss is one.

Mother, at the age of 9 use to crochet and she continued that until her
death at
age 74. I have a box of her trims that were samples she had from the
1920's
as she would crochet the lace trim that ladies would order to put on
their clothing
and underclothing. She gave the name of the women who taught her each
pattern
or style of her samples. I wish I had written that down.

Seems like she use to tell about rattlesnakes in the earlier days. Does
anyone
recall that? I think they worked their way up from PA and found
wonderful
places to live amongst the rocks.

Does anyone one have any info about Rock Royal people? They lived from
the
covered bridge and up toward Trout Creek and up around Bullock Road.

God Bless
Ruth Ann


------------------------------

This thread:

• Rock Royal Memories by Ruth A Messick< >