THE HISTORY OF OUR FAMILY - DOUGLAS*

Attached are 3 versions of this history by Maybelle Effie Douglas 1877 – 1974. Maybelle was the daughter of John who, along with his siblings and parents (Jeremiah and Margaret), migrated from Maine to Wisconsin. So this is a second-hand account of their journey. Just about as authentic as can be found anymore unless you can find someone's travel diary.

The Douglas family are descendents of a younger brother of Lord Douglas of Scotland. The Douglas clan were of the Highlands . They had their own plaid which is blue, black, green and white, with possibly some yellow threads. It is dark in color.The Douglas family are descendents of a younger brother of Lord Douglas of Scotland. The Douglas clan were of the Highlands . They had their own plaid which is blue, black, green and white, with possibly some yellow threads. It is dark in color.

As was the custom, the chief inheritance fell to the eldest son Lord Douglas. To make a fortune for himself the younger brother crossed the ocean to America. He landed on the coast of Maine. The rugged and rocky coast reminded him of his native land and he decided to make his home there. He settled on the bank of the Penobscot River in what afterward became Penobscot County.

Mr. Douglas had three sons who, as far as we know all settled in Maine. W.L.Douglas, the shoe manufacturer is a descendent of one of these sons. About forty years ago he and other descendents endeavored to obtain the quarter Million Dollars in Scotland which belongs to the Douglas heirs. They finally decided that the expense was too great to make it worth while.

About the year 1793 Jeremiah Douglas was born, He was a grand nephew of Lord Douglas. He had two brothers and possibly more. He was born in Penobscot County. He and his wife - Margaret Smart - established their home there in the town of Howland. Here their seven children were born- Emily, Sophia, Charlotte, Jeremiah, Josiah, David and John. The youngest son John was born in 1828. There was about two years difference in the ages of the various children, making Josiah born about 1824.

The sons of an older brother of Jeremiah's, Frank and Cushman, had journeyed westward and after a few years Jeremiah received a letter telling him of the fertile land in Illinois and Wisconsin and urging him to join them there. Having the spirit of the true pioneer and growing tired of tilling the stony soil of Maine, he sold his home there and prepared to join his relatives in the West. This was in 1838. The entire family accompanied their parents, traveling in pioneer style. The clothing, bedding, cooking utensils and supplies were conveyed in covered wagons, in which the women rode, while the men took turns in walking to lighten the loads. The journey occupied several months. Roads in many places were only trails and streams must be forded. at night the family camped in the forest unless they were fortunate enough to find a settlers home where the women could sleep inside. At the villages they bought supplies. Game was plentiful so there was always an abundance of food. Whether in a village or in the forest camp was never broken on the Sabbath Day. Jeremiah Douglas and his family were strict Baptists and they lived their religion.

By late autumn the family had reached the western part of Indiana and chose a spot near Danville in which to spend the winter. Some kind of a home must be built quickly before winter set in, so they cut logs and put up what was known as a "half-faced camp". Three sides were built of logs, with a sloping roof of split logs. The fourth side was covered with a curtain of skins at night but during the day this was drawn aside so the camp was warmed by the fire that was always burning in front. The cooking was done by this fire. The food through the winter consisted of wild meat, corn bread and potatoes, with now and then a little white bread served only on special occasions. They also had dried fruit, honey and molasses. I have heard my Father say that nothing ever tasted as good to him as the white bread for they grew so tired of corn.

When spring came the family journeyed on into Illinois, somewhere north of Bloomington. Here they found a small farm with a log house that the owner wanted to rent. They stayed there long enough to raise one crop. As soon as the harvest was over, the covered wagons were again loaded and the family journeyed on to Wisconsin. They settled on a piece of land near Madison which became their home. This was in Dane County.

During the summer spent in Illinois the oldest daughter, Emily was married to a young minister by the name of Young. I do not know much about her family except that she had two boys.

I have heard my Father tell about the log school house in which he attended school. The seats were long benches without backs. The room was warmed by a huge fireplace into which the boys piled big logs. Sometimes they had to help cut the logs for wood. The master ruled with a stout hickory stick as was the custom of that time.

A circuit riding minister preached in a rude log church once each month and the weather was never too severe for the entire family to attend the long service.

The other two girls soon married. Sophia married Goodridge Cummings and moved with him to Iowa. Charlotte married her cousin Harrison Douglas. They lived somewhere in southern Wisconsin. Jerry married and established his home near Stoughton. Josiah, your grandfather, married Nancy Damon and settled near his father's farm.

Of Charlotte's children I know very little. Jerry had one girl named Arabell. She married Horace Tusler of Stoughton. Josiah's children were Willard, Jerry, Marilla, Maggie, Ora, Carrie, Nelia, Mason, Edward, Flora and John. (I think I have missed one) They were a fine family and an unusually good looking family.

After all his children were married excepting David and John Grandfather (Jeremiah) moved to Adams County Wisconsin, where he spent the rest of his life. His farm lay along the bank of the Wisconsin River. David died a few years after moving to Adams County. John married Isabel Oakes after the death of his mother. Their children were Jeremiah (Jed) Edward, Maybelle and Libbie.

When Grandfather moved to Adams County he took with him his team of horses. For some time this was the only horse team in that community. Their nearest general store was at Portage, thirty miles distance. Whenever he or his son drove to Portage they shopped for the whole community, even buying cloth for wedding dresses and wedding bonnets.

Grandfather was a great hunter and trapper. Often in the fall of the year he and his son John took their canoe and went up the Fox River near Green Bay to hunt and trap. Their only shelter and their beds were made of Hemlock boughs. They knew well the habits of the fur-bearing animals and were very clever in trapping them. The sale of these furs helped much in the expenses of living in a new country.

Jeremiah and his good wife Margaret are both buried in a little cemetery near Volga City, Iowa, both having passed away while visiting their daughter Sophia, though their deaths occurred several years apart.

The Douglas men were rather tall. They had high foreheads and sharp piercing eyes. They were stern men of dignity, possessing strong personalities and having a strong sense of right and wrong. They were true to their religion and the children they gave to the world have been respected citizens of the communities in which they have lived.

______________________ • Scanned copy of a family history sent to my father, Charles L. Douglas, in 1936 by the writer, his cousin.

The following is another version of the Douglas family history attributed to Maybelle Effie Douglas and also includes a history of the Oakes family and their intermarriage with the Douglases

Since in Scotland the title, the castle, ancestral acres and most of the wealth descends to the oldest son, a younger brother of one Lord Douglas came to America to seek his fortune. This was sometime in the 17th century.

The rocky coast of Maine reminded him of the rocky coast of his native land and here he took up a grant of land and established a home. It was probably along the Penebscot River.

Grandfather, Jeremiah Douglas, a descendent of his, was born in Penobscot County about 1785. He built a home in Rowland Township. The timber was heavy, making it hard to clear the stony land. However, Jeremiah and his wife, Margaret, cleared the land, built their log house and reared their family of four sons; Joshiah, Jeremiah, Jr., David and John; and three daughters; Emily, Sophia and Charlotte.

Some of Grandfather’s friends and two or three cousins had tired of the stony soil and long winters in Maine where the snow often reached the eaves of their log houses. They journeyed westward with their families and covered wagons until they came to the fertile praries of Illinois. Then came to the more timbered land of Wisconsin. Later on their friends and relatives wrote to Grandfather urging him to join them in the West.

So with true pioneer spirit, he sold his farm in Maine and with their household goods, plows, drags, and cultivators loaded into two covered wagons, he and his family started out for the West in the spring of 1839.

My father, John, was the youngest of the family and was 10 years old. He rode most of the way in one of the wagons with his mother and sisters, but his older brothers and his father took turns driving the team of horses and walking to lighten the loads. I have heard Father tell of his journey. Sometimes they passed through prosperous settlements. Other times the road was a mere trail through dense forest. Many streams had to be forded. The wagon boxes had been built so that they would float if necessary. In some places corduroy roads had been built through swamps. This was done by laying the trunks of small trees side by side so wagons could pass over them crosswise and not mire. Of course, it was rough riding.

Grandmother and the girls cooked the food by the wayside. They brought wheat for seed and what flour they could from their Maine farm. This supply was replenished when flour could be bought in the villages they passed through. All kinds of wild game were plentiful so their meat problem was taken care of. Maple sugar and molasses gave them their sweets. The men’s summer clothing was cotton jeans and coarse cotton shirts. The women wore cotton and linen. There were some cotton mills in Massachusetts and other eastern states at that time weaving cotton cloth. Grandmother and the girls had been busy in Maine spinning wool from their sheep into yarn and weaving it into cloth from which their winter garments were made. Socks and stockings were knit by hand. The men’s boots, reaching almost to their knees, were made from cowhide. The high shoes worn by Grandmother and the girls were calf hide.

It was late fall when the family reached Danville, Illinois. By that time the snow was too deep for the wagons to go further. Danville was a little village then and no house was available, only what was known as the “half faced camp.” This was a shed, a roofed building with three sides enclosed and the fourth side facing south and open. In front of this a fire was kept burning, and skins and blankets were hung to keep out the cold. Feather beds and wool blankets kept the family warm at night.

Father went to school that winter. The seats were rough benches without backs. The schoolmaster ruled with a hickory stick. As soon as the roads permitted in the spring, the family moved forward into Illinois somewhere in the region of Decatur where friends of Grandfather had settled. They persuaded him to rent a farm there and put in crops. He did this but was not satisfied there; Wisconsin was calling him. As soon as the corn could be harvested, they again loaded their covered wagons and started out. Emily, the oldest daughter, married a man named “Young” and stayed in Illinois.

About 12 miles southwest of Madison, Grandfather found a location that suited him. He bought a farm and settled down. Father said they ate “Johnnycake” made from the corn they had raised in Illinois until he hoped he would never see anymore for as long as he lived. The school he attended there was little better than the one at Danville. He said the benches were long, seating eight or ten boys each. At a given signal the boys would all give a shove one way, and the poor fellow sitting on the end would find himself in the aisle sitting on the floor.

Josiah and Jerry , as he was called, bought farms near by, married and lived there the rest of their lives. Both brothers came to visit Father once when I was just a little girl. They wore beards and were both so serious, I remember being afraid of them. Father wore a beard, but he had a real sense of humor. Jerry and his wife had one girl, Arabel. But Josiah and his wife, Nancy, had a large family; Jerry, Steward, Maggie, Marilla, Ora, Mella, Carrie, Mason (Flora’s father), Edward, Floria and John. Sophia married Goodridge Cummings and lived in Iowa. They had three children; Eliza, Nancy and Thomas. Charlotte married a cousin Harrison Douglas. I do not know much about her family or Emily’s. Grandfather’s cousin Frank Douglas persuaded him to sell that wonderful farm that he had near Madison (I had seen it) and buy the farm adjoining his in Adams County. Frank then owned the place that Rufus now owns. The place that Grandfather and Father, who was then 21, bought was the one we know as the John Heitman place.

The road then ran north and south through the farms following the course of the Wisconsin River. The house was a story and a half building and had a lean-to kitchen. Besides the kitchen, there was a sitting room with a bed-sink (a bed-sink was an alcove just the size of a double bed), a bedroom and one or two bedrooms upstairs. The house was pleasantly located near the bank of a little creek about 10 rods from the road with plenty of shade trees around it. After the folks had lived there a few years, Grandmother went to Iowa to visit the daughter Sophia. She took a severe cold, died, and was buried out there. Years later Grandfather was buried there beside her. I have visited their graves in a little cemetery near Volga, Iowa.

When the folks first moved to Point Bluff, as the place was then called, they had the only team of horses in the neighborhood. The other farmers were using oxen. There were no houses at what was later Kilbourn, but a few houses were on the west side of the river. Portage was the nearest town having a dry goods store. Father made two trips to portage each year with the team and wagon. It was a day’s drive each way. They neighbors sent him for yard goods, thread, shoes, hats and many other things. When he arrived there in the late afternoon, he gave the lists of articles he was to purchase to Mr. Pettibone. He kept the general store. Mr. Pettibone put up the orders that evening so that they were ready for Father to load and start back in the morning. He bought Mother’s wedding bonnet from there. It was white silk and had little pink roses inside the brim.

History of Our Family – The Oakes

Now a little about Mother’s family. Her name was Isabel Oakes. The picture above is of John Douglas and Isabel Oakes. Her father was Edward Oakes. He married Nancy Lawrence. They owned a farm in the town of Greehoush, Penobscot, Maine. They had 17 children. Of this number, 13 grew up and married. The boys were; Edward, Albert, Levi, Henry and George. The girls were; Elizabeth Evans, Mary Woods, Francis ___________, Angeline Cummings, Maria Smith, Isabel Douglas (Mother) and Susan Carsley. Grandmother Oakes was a very energetic person. Besides her housework, caring for her family, and preserving fruits, she spun yarn and wove cloth, which she made into clothing for the family.

I have heard Mother say that while there was always plenty of food, their parents did not think it necessary to have the shoemaker make shoes for the children until they were old enough to go to school. The younger children gathered large chips where the men were cutting wood. These they bound on their feet with strips of cloth when they wanted to go out to the barn to play in the winter. They could always stand on the warm bricks by the fireplace to warm their feet.

The path that they took going to school led through the forest. I have heard Mother tell of the moose that they saw and how one shook his head and stamped his feet when they came too near. When Mother was quite young, Grandfather Oakes was caught between two logs at the skidway and his back was injured so badly he was never able to do hard work again. Elizabeth, Amy, and Angeline were working in the cotton mill at Farnamsville, Massachusetts. They urged Grandfather and Grandmother to sell their farm and move to Farnamsville so they could board at home and help with expenses. At the age of 11 Mother was working in the cotton mill after school and during vacation winding spools for the weavers. Her sisters taught her how to run the looms. She was quick with her fingers, and by the time she was 13, she was a weaver.

When Mother was 16, Frances and Eunice married. Maria wanted to come to Wisconsin where she was to marry Charles Pelton. Angeline and Amy already had homes near Point Bluff. It was decided that Grandfather, who was almost helpless, Grandmother, Isabel (Mother), George and Susan should come to Wisconsin where the older girls could help them.

A small log house was built for them on the northeast corner of what is now known as Ketchums Corner, which is the intersection of Wisconsin Highways 13 and 82. Mother had been here only a short time when she and Father met one evening at her sister Angeline’s. She worked for a sick woman that winter. In the spring, on March 23, she and Father were married. He was 27 years old and she was not yet 17.

Before Mother came from the East, Father had been somewhat interested in Arabel Gates, a young woman whose father was a toll keeper at the wooden bridge that went across the river just below the narrows.

At that time the old Dell House, which stood near the east end of the bridge, was a favorite stopping place of rivermen as they brought fleets of lumber down the river. Indians were plentiful, but not dangerous. They often trudged past the farm with their furs, beadwork and baskets, taking them to Portage. The big Indians rode ponies so small that the rider’s feet almost touched the ground while their squaws walked and carried the articles for sale. Father bought Grandfather’s half interest in the farm although Grandfather and Uncle David continued to live there. David died a few years later and is buried in the Olin Cemetery.

Father and Grandfather were hunters and trappers as well as farmers. They were fond of taking a boat up near Green Bay (Wisconsin) in the fall of the year and then would hunt and trap their way back to Portage via the Fox River. They carried flour and salt pork with them, cooked over a fire, and spread their blankets on hemlock boughs at night with hemlock for a tent. They caught mink, muskrats, raccoon, fox, and sometimes a wolf or a bear. They worked fast and were back home before the river froze over.

The elder son, Jeremiah, (Jed) was born in 1857. Edward the second son was born in 1858. Father and Grandfather had deeded to the school district land on which a schoolhouse was built. The land was to be returned to them when it was no longer used for school purposes. This schoolhouse stood a short distance north of where the road crossed the creek. Jed and Ed went to school there.

When Jed was 18 and Ed 16, Grandfather developed symptoms of tuberculosis following pneumonia. The doctor prescribed mountain air for him. He sold the farm and the family traveled by train to San Francisco. From there they traveled by boat to San Francisco. From there they traveled by boat to Portland, Oregon. They spent the summer there in a cottage on the mountainside. Father and the boys worked in an orchard part of the summer, and then they bought a team of horses and cut and hauled wood to Portland. The mountain air cured the cough, so toward fall the family headed back toward Wisconsin. With a covered wagon they crossed the mountains to Red Bluff where they could take the train. It was a distance of 500 miles.

Frank Douglas was an old man when Father returned from the West and was ready to sell his farm (The Rufus Douglas place). Father bought that farm and it was his and Mother’s home for the rest of their lives. Here two daughters, Maybelle and Libbie, were born. Jed married Sarah Reeves and later built his home on the north 1/3 of the farm which Father deeded to him (Marion’s place). Ed married Hattie Morris. They made their home with Father and Mother. The old house grew as their family grew. Their children were: Henry, Celia, Cecil, Rufus, and Hattie. After the death of Ed’s wife, Mother cared for the children. The farm passed to Ed and was later bought by Rufus. Rufus’s daughter, Lois Fay, was born there. The central part of the house is now nearly 100 years old.

I, Maybelle, was married to Arthur E. Hart. Libbie married William Colburn. Their children are: Albert, John, Joyce, Chester, Owen and Maybelle. Grandfather Douglas was a Baptist. Father was also a Baptist when he was young, but later he and Mother both joined the Methodist Church. They were people of sterling character who lived their religion. They were honored and respect by their neighbors and loved by their children and grandchildren. They were always ready to lend a helping hand to neighbors in times of sickness or trouble.

• The previous copy of Maybelle's family history contributed by Penny Winchester

This next version was rewritten by Lois Fay Douglas Hart Barrett. It also has some history of the Oakes family, but this account is interesting in the detail it gives regarding their journey to the West and finally Wisconsin

DOUGLAS FAMILY HISTORY By Fay Douglas Barrett


Douglas is the name of an ancient and celebrated family of Scotland. The first mentioned in history is William of Douglas. The Good Sir James who fought with Bruce was a descendant of William.

The title of Lord was bestowed in 1388 and was passed down from generation to generation. At the present time the Earls of Selkirk are the only representatives of this family of Douglas in Scotland.

Scotch plaid is a woolen cloth worn as an overgarment over the shoulder to the waist or as a skirt-kilt, by the Highlanders of Scotland. Each clan has its own plaid. A square of the Douglas plaid is attached. Since in Scotland the title, the castle, ancestral acres and most of the wealth descends to the oldest son, a younger brother of one Lord Douglas came to America to seek his fortune. This was sometime in the 17th century. The rocky coast of Maine reminded him of the rocky coast of his native land so here he took up a grant of land and established a home. This was probably along the Penobscot River for this is where the Douglas families had their homes.

Grandfather (Jeremiah Douglas), a descendent of this brother of Lord Douglas was born in Penobscot County, Maine, about the year 1785. He built his home in Howland Township, Penobscot County. The timber was heavy making it hard work to clear the stony land. However, here Jeremiah and his wife Margaret cleared their land, built their log house and reared their family of four boys – Josiah, Jeremiah Jr., David and John (my father) and three girls – Emily, Sophia and Charlotte.

Some of Grandfather (Jeremiah’s) friends and two or three cousins had tired of the stony soil and long cold winters in Maine where the snowbanks sometimes reached to the eaves of their log houses. They journeyed westward with their families and covered wagons until they came to the fertile prairies of Illinois and some went on to the more timbered land of Wisconsin.

Later on these friends and relatives wrote Grandfather urging him to join them in the West. So with true pioneer spirit he sold his farm in Maine and with their household goods and farm implements loaded into two covered wagons, he and his family started for the West in the spring of 1839. My father, John, the youngest of the family was then 10 years old. He rode most of the time in one of the wagons with his mother and sisters, but his older brothers and his father took turns driving the teams of horses and walking to lighten the load.

I have often heard Father tell of that journey. Sometimes they passed through prosperous settlements and other times the road was a mere trail through the dense forest. Many streams had to be forded. Wagon boxes had been made water tight so they would float if necessary. Some places corduroy roads had been built through swamps. This was done by laying trunks of small trees side by side so wagons could pass over them crosswise and not mire in the muddy ground. Of course it was rough riding.

Grandmother and the girls cooked the food by the wayside. They brought wheat for seed and what flour they could from their Maine farm. This supply was replenished when flour could be bought in the villages they passed through. All kinds of wild game were plentiful so their meat problem was taken care of. Maple sugar and molasses gave them their sweets.

The men’s’ summer clothing was cotton jeans and course cotton shirts. The women wore calico and linen. There were some cotton mills in Massachusetts and other eastern states weaving cotton cloth. Grandmother and the girls had been busy in Maine spinning wool from their sheep and weaving it into cloth from which their winter garments were made. Socks and stockings were knit by hand. The men’s’ boots reaching almost to their knees were made from cowhide. Grandmother and the girls wore high shoes made of calfskin.

It was late fall when the family reached Danville, Illinois. By that time the snow was too deep for the wagons to go farther. Danville was only a small village then, and no houses were available – only what was known as a “half-faced camp.” It was a shed roofed building with three sides enclosed. The fourth side faced the south and was open. In front of this a fire was kept burning. Skins and blankets were hung to keep out the snow. Feather beds and blankets kept the family warm at night.

Father attended school that winter. The seats were rough benches without backs. The schoolmaster ruled with a hickory stick.

As soon as the roads permitted in the spring, the family moved forward into Illinois. Somewhere in the region of Decatur, friends of Grandfather had settled. They persuaded him to rent a farm there and put in crops. He did this but was not satisfied. Wisconsin was calling him. As soon as the corn could be harvested they again loaded their wagons and started on.

Emily, the oldest daughter, married a man by the name of Young and stayed in Illinois.

About 12 miles southwest of Madison, Grandfather found a location that suited him. He bought a farm of rich black soil and settled down.

Father said they ate corn bread made from the corn they had raised in Illinois until he hoped he would never see any more corn bread as long as he lived.

The school he attended there was little better than the one at Danville. He said the benches were long, seating eight or ten boys each. At a given signal the boys would all shove one and the poor fellow sitting on the end would find him in the aisle sitting on the floor.

Josiah and Jeremiah Jr. (or Jerry as he was called), bought farms nearby. They married and lived there the rest of their lives. Both brothers came to visit Father once when I was a little girl. They wore beards and were both so serious, I remember being afraid of them. Father wore a beard too, but he had a real sense of humor.

Jerry (Jeremiah Jr.) and his wife had one child, Arabel.

Josiah and his wife, Nancy, had a large family: Jerry, Steward, Maggie, Marilla, Ora, Nella, Carrie, Mason (Flora Heitman’s Father), Edward, Flora and John.

Sophia married Goodridge Cummings and lived in Iowa.

They had three children – Thomas, Eliza and Nancy.

Charlotte married a cousin Harrison Douglas. I do not know much about her family or Emily’s.

After Grandfather’s children were all married and settled but David and John (my father), Grandfather’s cousins, Frank Douglas, persuaded him to sell that wonderful farm he had near Madison, ( I have seen it.) and buy the farm adjoining his in Adams County. Frank Douglas then owned the farm that Rufus Douglas now owns. The farm that Grandfather and Father, who was then twenty-one, bought was the one we know as the John Heitman place. The road then ran north and south through the farms, following the course of the Wisconsin River. The house, a story and a half building, had a lean-to kitchen. Besides the kitchen there was a sitting room with bed sink, (a bed sink was an alcove just the size of a double bed), a bedroom and one or two rooms upstairs. The house was pleasantly located near the bank of the little creek and about ten rods from the road. There were plenty of shade trees around it. The sitting room had a large fireplace.

After the folks had lived in this house for a few years, Grandmother went to town to visit her daughter, Sophia. She took a severe cold, died and was buried there. Years later Grandfather was buried beside her. I have visited their graves in a little cemetery hear Volga, Iowa.

When the folks first moved to Point Bluff, as the community was then called, they had the only team of horses in the neighborhood. The other farmers were using oxen. There were no houses at what was later Kilbourn, but a few houses were on the west side of the river. Portage was the nearest town that had a dry goods store. Father made two trips to Portage each year with the team and wagon. It was a day’s drive each way. The neighbors sent with him requests for yard goods, thread, shoes, hats and many other things. Father said that when he arrived there in the late afternoon he gave the lists of articles he was to purchase to Mr. Pettibone, owner of the general store. Mr. Pettibone filled the orders that evening so they were ready for Father to load and start back home in the morning. He bought Mother’s wedding bonnet. It was white silk with little pink roses inside the brim.

Now a little about Mother’s family. Her name was Isabel Oakes. Her father was Edward Oakes and her mother was Nancy Lawrence Oakes. They owned a farm in Greenbush Township, Penobscot County, Maine. They had 17 children. Of this number 13 grew up and married. The boys were Edward, Albert, Levi, Henry and George. The girls with their married names were Elizabeth Evans, Amy Woods, Angeline Cummings, Frances ?, Marie Pelton, Eunice Smith, Isabel Douglas (Mother), and Susan Garnley.

Grandmother Oakes was a very strong energetic person. Beside her housework, caring for her family and preserving fruits, she spun yarn and wove cloth which she made into clothing for the family. I have heard Mother say that while there was always plenty of food, their parents did not think it necessary to have shoemaker make shoes for the children until they were old enough to go to school. The younger children gathered large chips where the men were cutting wood, these they bound on the bottom of their feet with strips of cloth when they wanted to go to the barn to play in the winter. They could always stand on the warm bricks by the fireplace to warm their feet.

• This version was contributed thanks to Phil Douglas

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