Page 27

 the coal shed.   In the fall they were brought out and blackened and polished until

 they shone.  The stove pipe also had to be blackened.  Then came the fitting of the

 pipe and again Mother did it.  Dear patient Mother.  How she ever did all the tasks

 she did I don't know.  The pipe was wired and bent and then sometimes it came down

 with all the soot and mess.  when the fire was started there was a very disagreable

 smoke and odor from the new blackening.  The kitchen stove also came in for a

 blackening ever so often.  The ashes was always taken from the stoves with a shovel
which, of course, stirred up quite a dust.   In Eastern Iowa we used wood in the

 stoves, but in Western Iowa it was soft coal and very dirty.
In the furtherest corner of Father's farm was a piece of unbroken land and covered
with small jack oak trees,  while the trees were small the roots were large, gnarled
and very tough.  Father bought a mattock which had a pick on one side of the head and
a cutting edge on the other and worked hard getting the roots out so he could farm
the land.  Finally he had a man come with a very heavy breaking plow and several
teams of oxen which tore the oak roots out.
Our food was almost entirely raised on the farm.  Of course we had to buy flour and
sugar and a few other articles of food.  Father always had good potatoes both early
white and later red.  Ue raised cabbages of which there was always a barrel of sauer-
kraut.  Then Father dug a trench lining it with straw in which the cabbages, pulled
up by the roots, would be placed head down.   Some more straw and then soil.  These
kept quite well.  Then turnips which were planted in July and brought in by the
wagonload.  The cows got most of them but we also placed those in the ground the same
as the cabbage.   Then onions, which of course were dried.  Navy beans which made many
good meals boiled with some ham and baked.  There was the good bean soup of which
Father was especially fond.  we also had sweet potatoes.  Mother always saved quite a
few which she kept in a dry place near the chimney all winter.  Father made what we
would call now a hot bed, digging a long hole with wide boards on the four sides.  In
this he placed fresh horse manure and then soil over this.  Mother would lay the
sweet potatoes in the soil and the heat would start the sprouts from the eyes and
keep them growing until they were healthy plants.  She then broke them off and we
planted these into hilled-up rows.  She sold these to neighbors too.  I think hardly
anything field grown was prettier than those mounds of vines growing and covering all
the ground between,  we grew large patches of cucumbers which had to be picked every
other day and closely too so none would be left to go to seed.  This, of course, was
our job.  we put them in a barrel and then layers of salt.  The juice from the
cucumbers made their own brine mostly.  If we had more than we could use Mother could
sell them to the gorcery store in Shelby as they were taken from the brine.  These
had to be soaked and water changed for 2 or 3 times then placed in spiced vinegar
which we also made.  If when Mother had all the cukes that she wanted we could pick,
for ourselves and put them in a keg and get a little spending money selling them,
Father always grew wonderful watermelons and cantaloupe.  Every year the "Shelby
News" offered a years subscription to the weekly paper for the largest watermelon
brought in.  Father usually won the prize with melons weighing 40 pounds and more.
The cantaloupes were the long yellow kind.  we never had them for dessert or for
breakfast, as we now do, but Father would bring in 2 or 3 and put them in the cellar. •
The next day, or when they were cool, he would take them into the yard where there
was a temporary table and we would have a 'feast,
Of course we had tomatoes, of which we canned a quantity, lots of beans, peas and
other vegetables.  The first few years we had no fruit on the farm and we went to
Biglers Grove where we picked wild gooseberries and wild grapes.  That was a gold day

                                                                               Page 28
when we went to the woods for these.  Mother made elderberry juice for jelly and

 canned the first ones for pies,  I did not like the elderberry at all and even today

 I do not like even the lovely bloom of the shrub.   Mother even made pumpkin butter
and dried pumpkins which we used for making pies as pumpkins did not keep well for
winter.  These were very good.  Father planted an apple orchard which was getting
into bearing when Father moved away.   Some cherry trees which bore splendidly,  we
had strawberries, raspberries and blackberries.  Blackberry picking was not pleasant
but in winter canned fruit was wonderful,  we always had a lot of piccalilli of the
green tomatoes which we liked so much with fried potatoes.
Mother raised so many chickens.  She had some very good breeds.  Plymouth Rocks and
white Brahmas.  we always had a few turkeys but they were hard to raise,  we would
watch the turkey hens to see where they would hide their nests.  Sometimes we could
steal their eggs from the haystack or some deep shrubbery and put them under a
setting hen.  The best way seemed to let the mother hen turkey take care of them but
a sudden shower was often disastrous.  One morning just at daybreak while we were
dressing we happened to look out of the upstairs window and saw several turkeys
coming half running and half flying up the hill in the pasture across the road.  Two
wolves were after them but they started to fly and lit with a great racket on the top
of the house,  so escaping, and the wolves slunk back down the hill.   we had heard the
wolves barking down in the willows on the Powers place but that was the only time we
had seen them,  when in Fremont County we used to hear the coyotes with their bark
and then the long doleful wail.  Frank and I would stand close outside of the house
and listen to them and tried not to be so scared.
After going to Harrison County we had no church nearer than Shelby and that was too
far away.  There was a schoolhouse four miles away where services were held every two
weeks,   Reverand Hugh Lynn came from Shelby and always brought his wife,  we were
very fond of them.  Uhen closing his sermon he always said "There will be services
two weeks from today no Providence preventing".  He baptized Clara and me and we
joined the church there.
Later we went to the church in Persia which Father helped to build.  Ue also had
Sunday School,  we had preachers, good, bad and otherwise.  They were all good men
but ours was such a small church, which were listed at Conference as supplied, and we
must have had the left overs.  They were mostly older men or very young ones.  My
girl friend, Hattie Snyder, married one of them as did Clara's friend Effie wheeler.
These were especially good.  One Sunday morning one of the older and very redfaced
preachers stopped at our house.  He had forgotten his handerchief and being a very
warm day he wanted to borrow one as he was preaching at some schoolhouse.  Of course
Mother accommodated him.
The only other church in Persia was the Latter Day Saints.  The Mormons, on their way
to Salt Lake City, had stayed in and around Council Bluffs and Omaha for the winter
months.  Probably some of the travellers thought it a good place to settle so took up
land and built homes on most of the streams in western Iowa.  They had the best land
and were prosperous.  They had churches in most of the small towns.  One town north
of Council Bluffs was called Preperatiuce as that was one of the places where they
prepared to start on their- long journey,  woodbine, where I lived after my marriage,
had a lovely river nearby called the Boyer.  Near town was a large island in the
river which was heavily wooded.  The Latter Day Saints held a world Conferance there
every summer.  They came by the hundreds and camped for a week holding meetings.
They baptized many converts in the river.  Many of our neighbors were Catholics and
Page 29

they went to Portsmouth where they had a very large church building.


 Among the farm work that we helped with was the potato growing.  In the spring the

 whole family ware cutting potatoes for planting.  Ue brought in a tub or basket and

 cut the potatos so there was an eye or sprout on every piece.  Then after we had

 enough cut for planting they were taken to the field where the ground had been

 carefully prepared.  Father plowed a rather shallow furrow where we walked along and

 dropped the pieces of potato.  These were covered with the plow.  In the summer

 potato bugs would sometimes attack the plants and sometimes we were sent out with a

 tin can with kerosene and shook the bugs off into the can or pan where they soon

 perished.  In the fall we went again in the wagon to the field where Father went down

 the potato row with the plow and turned out the lovely large patatos.  we followed

 along again with buckets picking them up and piled them into the the wagon.  That

 became a tiresome job before the end of the day.  Me usually stayed out of school for

 a day or two to help with this job.  Father usually found some potatoes that were

 better than the usual and when he found a good kind would have some to sell to his
neighbors for seed.  There were two bins in the cellar, one of early and the other

 late, which provided us plenty for winter use.   In the fall when the corn was ripe
and corn picking time came we girls were sometimes pressed into that job.
Mother and we girls made cotton flannel mittens which we all wore if we went to the
field.  It was sort of romantic to start out at daylight to hear wagons rumbling into
the field.  One fall Frank and I went with a team and wagon following Father,  we
brought in our load of corn the same amount Father had picked.  During the noon hour
Father unloaded both wagons and after dinner we were off again.  The worst thing that
could happen was a snow storm when corn picking was a real trial.  In many
communities, in fact in most, corn is still harvested in the way we did it but the
mechanical corn picker is used in many Iowa fields, as I observed when I was there a
few years ago.  The old fashioned way with the high wagonbox with the throw board is
still the romantic way for me.   I do not happen to be growing corn any more.
washing clothes those days was a terrible task.  The water was very hard unless we
had cisterns and we never had one.  we had a rain barrel which stood in the corner of
the house and the ell and caught soft water that way.  As usual though we filled the
wash boiler with water, made a hot fire and when the water boiled would put in lye.
That would cause a scum on top of the water which we would skin off.  Then the water
would suds when soap was added.  Otherwise the soap in the water would curdle and
could not be used for washing.  I think I have mentioned Mother making soap.
Before the folks left Harrison County farm Mother had made quite a bit of soap and
when I was married gave me some.  She must have made it extra strong with lye for in
using it in washing and washing dishes my hands became so sore it really made me
sick,  we finally got a bar of "white Russian" soap, which was yellow, and which I
thought smelted abominably.  It was used by most people but we had always used the
homemade soap.  we did have toilet soap which we bought,  when we came to Colorado
and found the wonderful soft water it seemed heavenly.  A friend from Iowa said "I
wonder if you appreciate the water here".  I assured her that I surely did.  with
the water softeners now, and again the soaps and detergents and up-to-date machines,
washing is not the awful task it used to be.
I think threshing time was the most exciting event of the year.  The wheat and oats
which we watched as it grew and ripened,  when ripened and the heads of wheat were
heavy there might be a rain or wind storm which would lay it flat and then cutting

                                                                               Page 30
with the binder would be very difficult or impossible.  If the weather did not
interfere the binder would cut and bind the sheaves.  Frank and I would carry jugs of
cold water to the men working.  The horses would be sweaty and the men would stop
often to let them rest as it was usually very warm.  Then the sheaves were stacked up
into shocks with a spread sheaf on top to shed rain.  we girls, Clara and I,
sometimes helped shock grain.  I became very ill after being out all forenoon, a
terrible hot day, and Mother thought I had a slight sun stroke.  Sometimes Father
would thresh from the shock, and then a number of neighbors would come with hay racks
and keep the sheaves ready for the machine.  Other times he would stack them and then
the machine was placed near the stacks and not so many neighbors would be needed.  If
stacked it was left for a time for a process called sweating.
we watched with great interest when the huge machine drove into the yard.   we
delighted in the hustle and bustle of the men and the horses.  It took some time to
set the machine.  Usually five teams of horses would go around a central machine
where a man stood upon a small platform above the cogs and urged the horses to keep
going round and round.  There was a tumbling rod which the horses stepped over every
time around and which connected the center to the main machine.  The rattle of the
trace chains, the clash of iron rods and the talk and laughter of the men was music
to our ears.   They threw the bundles off the hayrack or stack into a board where two
band cutters cut the straw bands or binding twine.  They then shoved this into the
machine and out would come the lovely grain which was dumped into a wagon and taken
to the granary or market.  Mother and we girls worked very hard frying chicken,
making pies and bread, mashing potatoes and making quantities of cole slaw and then
lots of coffee for dinner.  At noon time we put out basins on a bench by the well and
clean towels.  The man coming in had a wash up and then they would come trooping in.
I remember one time they held the screen door all the time they were coming in and I
was so distressed with the swarm of flies coming in with them.. One of we girls would
keep a branch off a tree waving over the food while they ate.  when we were smaller
Mother would dress us up in the afternoon and let us go to watch, which was a great
treat,  when we were older we did not go.  Now they have blowers on the machines to
blow the straw and chaff away but in those days men with forks had to keep it back.
One time when we were not much grown Father had a small amount of threshing left on a
morning he put Clara and I on the straw stack instead of having more men come.  we
felt so very important,  A team ran away with a hay rack and we felt we were really
seeing things.                ;
After the threshing was done we emptied the bed ticks, which filling by this time was
almost like chaff, and filled them with new oat straw.  The oat straw was not as
stiff as wheat straw.  For a while these straw ticks were rather high and so full we
might roll out of bed.  The beds were not easy to make as we had to put our hand
inside the tick (which had a long buttoned slit in the top) and stir and smooth the
straw, and woe unto us if we struck a piece of wild rose bush with thorns.  Then on
top of this was a feather bed which had to be tossed up and smoothed on top of the
straw tick  Most young people can hardly appreciate the mattress and easy bed making
of today.   One time when I went to Harlan to Teacher's Institute a large girl and I
had a room together and had a newly filled straw tick on our bed.  we had to climb
onto a chair to get on top of this straw bed and for two or three nights had trouble
staying on or getting any sleep.
when Grandmother lived with us Father would save out a bundle or two of the oats and
she braided straw hats for Father and Frank.   She would put the cut straws in water
until they were pliable and then would use more than three straws, but I can't

                                                                                Page 31

 remember how many, and braid long strands then sew them together and shape it for a

 hat,   when it was finished she blocked it over a jug or bucket or anything that gave

 it shape,   we girls made some for ourselves for every day wear.   Father liked the

 hats for they were cool but much heavier than the straw hats of today.  About this

 time a man came by one day who was a salesman for bed springs,  we had never seen any

 of these things.   The man persuaded Grandma Smith to buy one.   He put it on the bed

 under all the ticks but she was sure she could feel the springs, so he came and took

 them away and she never did have any springs on her bed.

 The first fall that we lived in Harrison County, while Father was picking corn, I was

 sent out to herd the cows, letting the cows feed on the husked corn stalks and

 keeping them out of the unhusked field.  Father would fix up a shelter of corn

 stalks.  One morning when Father took me out to my shelter we found it all warm and

 Father said a wolf had made his nest there during the night.  Later we had to take
the cows down the road to a pasture,
My one grand accomplishment was to make the black snake whip pop as loud as Frank
did.  This was done by swinging it around one's head and then giving it a quick jerk
and it would pop like a gun.  This whip had a short stocky handle with a long braided

 lash.   After the younger children grew older driving the cows became their job.
Later when I was older the cows were brought in one evening and such brawling and
bellowing one never herd.  Father, not knowing the results, had turned the cows into
a field where there was a lush growth of wet clover.  Feeding on this caused bloating
and the poor cows with distended stomachs could hardly walk.  Father sent one of us
running down the hill for Uncle Ned Powers.  He usually knew what to do for live
stock so he said they would have to stick a knife into them and let the gas out.  So
they went about doing this, but at that three of them died.  Clara was teaching
school in Shelby and just then came home and found us weeping all over the place.  As
she came in she said "what is the matter?  Is someone dying?"  And I said, "All of
the cows are dying", and I thought they were.  Mother, as usual, was out helping and
I expect she did some of the sticking herself.  She was much better than Father with
sick animals.  If one of the horses was sick Mother knew much better what to do and,
ffiore  than  that,  helped  do  what  was  to  be  done.    If  one  of  the  horses  had  the  colic
Father would keep it walking and would give it sharp slaps on the stomach.
we had, in the earlier days, what I suppose was called a washing machine.   It had two
corrigated wooden rollers similar to rolls on a wringer but larger.  It fastened on
the tub as a wringer does and the clothes were soaped and run back and forth and down
into the water.  As I remember it worked rather well.  Later we had the hand powered
machine and a wringer.  At best, with all the heavy washing for a large family, it
was dreadfully hard work for the women folk.  Sometime two of us, one on each side,
would work the handle which made it easier.  One day Mother and I were working the
machine together on the walk outside of the house.  The large dinner bell, of which
Father was very proud and which called them in from the field as well as all the
neighbors, hung just above us.  It was quitting time and Amy pulled the rope to ring
the bell.  For some unknown reason it came loose and fell.  I was standing directly
under it but Mother saw and gave me a push.  where I had been standing the boards
were splintered.  Father never put the bell up again.
One of the tasks that seemed to come my way was cleaning and filling the kerosene
lamps which was a daily task.  The chimneys had to be washed and dried and shined
with paper.  The kerosene can made multiple trips to town especially in the winter.

                                                                               Page 32
The cork to the spout was always becoming lost so the grocery man would stick in a
potato which kept the oil from seeping out on the rest of the groceries.  Later we
had the Rochester lamps which we thought very wonderful and they did give a much
better light.
Clara was given for her middle name Mother's maiden name 'Lotspeich'.  My middle name
was Almira which was Father's mother's name.  Frank was Eden who was Mother's
father's name.  Amy was Malinda which was our Mother's mother's name.  Milo was
Uesley who was named for Uncle Ues, Mother's brother.  Uncle Ues said he would give
him a gun and a dog if he was named for him.  He did not do it for he said they did
not call him Uesley.  Edna's middle name is Amelia, Mother's name.  Father said he
wanted names for his children that could not be nicknamed, but when Amy was learning
to talk she called Clara Calla.  Me she called Namie.   Frank was Hank and Milo was
Barlo, and soon Father was calling us those names too, much to our surprise.
Milo and I were the only brown eyed ones of the family.  Father's eyes were a lovely
blue and Clara and Amy had eyes like his.  Mother's eyes were a hazel and I guess
Milo and I got our brown eyes from her.  Frank and Edna had very pretty blue gray
eyes.   Clara and Amy had curly hair and I think Frank had too but the rest of us had
straight hair.  Clara and Milo were stouter built than the rest of us.  I was not
slender but Amy and Edna were and Frank was very tall and slender too,  Clara would
sometimes wear my dresses but she was stouter and would burst them out as they were
made rather tight.  More often, to my distress, I wore hers which were made over for
me.   A few days after I was married we met Mrs. Jordan,  one of our good neighbors but
who was rather talkative and blunt,  we were in a store in Shelby and she shouted to
me "well now,  I suppose you won't need to wear Clara's made over dresses".   I was
quite embarrassed as for some time I had been buying my own clothes.  The first dress
that I made was when I was about sixteen.  It had a tight fitting waist, long
sleeves, high neck and a very full skirt which just touched the floor.  It was a
brown figured print house dress and Father said it was very nice and I thought so
too.
Clara and I did a good deal of outdoor work, chores such as feeding stock, milking
and almost anything that had to be done.  Father and Frank were always in the field
so we had it to do.   In the summer we had to get up very early to get the milking
done before the flies got awake and in the evening wait until late until they had
gone to bed.  As Milo got older he helped a good deal with watering the stock and the
milking.  By this time Father had dug a well and put in a pump for watering the
stock,   I remember Milo pumping and pumping and thought he was a very patient small
boy.  At the house we continued to draw water with buckets.
One of the good times we had in the fall was going hazel-nutting,  we would go to
some field that had not been broken and which would be covered with hazel brush,  we
would take sacks and pull off the cluster which would contain several nuts.  we would
let these dry and then shake the nuts out.  One of those days is outstanding in my
life.  Father was going to town on such a lovely day such as Iowa could have, Indian
Summer haze with the cobwebs floating in the sky.  He let me out at a hazel brush
patch where I was to pick nuts until his return.  There were a good many trees and I
never will forget how thrilled I was with the beauty of the day.  The quiet of the
wooded place and the feeling of aloneness.  I guess that was one of the times when
God was very near.  Uncle Ues had a field of hazel brush where we got most of our
hazel nuts.  Some farmers had fenced their hazel brush patches and in the fall turned
the hogs in, and they fattened on the nuts that, by this time, had fallen to the
page 33

9'round.


 when Frank and I drove to Persia to school I wore a horrible thick brown veil over my

 hat and completely covering ray face which nearly smothered me.  And when I might be

 so warm and pushed it back my face would, burn with the wind.   Thank goodness those

 days are over and I can't say they were the good old days, but we were happy and

 didn't know there was any other way.  They really were the good old days in more ways

 than we knew, for we were so proud of our country and there seemed to be peace

 everywhere.  Me did not have the daily papers and every morning- and night get a

 recital of crimes and all the trouble and strife in our own and foreign countries.

 we did not know what children do now of other countries and people and those places

 were so far away and very mysterious, and what little knowledge we had was so very

 interesting.  The Civil war was over and everything settled, as we thought, for all

 times.  Little did we think that our children would be in a war and then our grand-

 children in another one.  Thank goodness we did not know of cosmic rays or atom

 bombs,

 As time went on Clara worked for her board in Persia and went to High School there.

 She lived with the Randee family and walked over a mile to the school.  Then she went
to woodbine to the Normal School there.   She was a very good student and soon had a

 teacher's certificate.  She taught near Persia and again worked for her board with
the Randees.  Then again she went to the Woodbine Normal and stayed until she
graduated.
Father, being a Civil war veteran, always thought much of Memorial day.  we always
went to Shelby when there was a parade.  The county schools were dismissed and each
school, with a banner with the name of the school accompanied by the teacher, were in
the parade.
On the 4th of July we usually went to a picnic in some neighborhood grove.  One 4th
Frank and I decided we wanted to go to Persia as the folks were going to Best's Grove
so,  of all things, we walked the Mi miles.   However we had a ride home with some
neighbors, or at least Frank did as I stayed all night with a girl friend.  I was
about 1& at that time.  One 4th when I was 13 we went to Portsmouth, which was 6
miles away, to the celebration.  Father had only one spring seat for the lumber wagon
so made board seats with cleats on the under side so they would not slip off the
wagon box.  we all went, Grandmother too, making nine of us.
As a rule I think we were rather healthy youngsters,  when we lived in Eastern Iowa I
seemed to be the one that every fall had a very sick spell which they then called
intermittent fever.  Mother said, as I grew older, that it was probably malaria,  I
did not have it after we went to western Iowa.  Amy and I had diptheria after we
moved to Harrison County,  we were put in Grandmother's room for the safety of the
rest of the family.  Mother swabbed our throats with permanganate of potassium which
I think was a good remedy,  I do not know how she knew of it.  we had the usual
mumps, chickenpox etc, as all children have.  Milo did not have the measles until he
was staying in my house in woodbine and in school there.  He was terribly sick as
were Gladys and Marshall's brother, Arthur, who with his mother, was visiting us.
Gladys had an ear infection and for some time suffered terribly and lost her hearing
but recovered finally at 7 years of age.  Edna had bad tonsils and had to have them
removed and this was the first time we had known of such an operation.  Milo pushed a
hazel nut up his nose when he was about three.  Mother, who was always able to handle
most things, did not know about this, so Father went to Persia and the Doctor came

                                                                               Page 34
out and soon everything was all right.   It was rather late at night before the Doctor
arrived and it seemed, like a very solemn affair.
As I was growing up I was like all young girls wanting to do what other girls did.   I
wanted earrings, and to wear them one had to have the ear pierced so the wire holding
them could be fastened.  I asked Mother and as usual she said, "Ask- Father", which I
did.   He said positively "no" and asked me if I wanted to look like a barbarian,   I
am glad he decided it for me but I do like wearing ear ring's the modern way.  And
then I wanted to wear bangs as all the girls were wearing them and I wanted to be in
style.  Again Mother said ask Father and again he said no.  At Xmas time Clara, who
had been away at school, came home and she had bangs.  Then again I went to Father
and he said, "well, if you think you would look any better go ahead".  You may be
sure I lost no time in cutting my hair and I think I did look better,   I could curl
this front hair which I did with a curling iron over a kerosene lamp.
As time went on we had spelling schools where everyone old and young would line up
along the wall.  Two persons, one an each side, would choose alternately until every
one was chosen.  Then if a person mispelled a word he sat down and the other side had
a chance.  Finally there would be two persons left and kept spelling until one was
left.   There was no special prize, only the honor.   Clara and I were usually the best
spellers.  Father used to spend a good deal of time drilling us on the old Swinton's
Speller.
when I was getting more grown up but still went to the country school, on the last
night of school we had a spelling bee and I'm quite sure I spelled the school down.
Mother had fixed me up a little more than usual and had even put a few curls in my
very straight hair using a heated stove poker to make the curls,  I had never had any
beaus except the school boys and much to my surprise Orvile Houston, the good looking
school teacher, asked if he could see me home.  It was a very dark night and the
roads very rough and as usual we had taken the lantern to help us see the way.  As
the group went on down the road they missed me, and of course, they all wondered
where was Jennie,  They sent Milo back with the lantern to look for me and when he
met us he asked if we would like to have the lantern.  Of course that was the last
thing in the world we wanted was a lantern but Orville took it and we were lighted
home.  On the way he said they were building a Normal School in woodbine.   I did not
know what a Normal School was but I didn't tell him so for I didn't want him to know
how ignorant I was.  Later I went to this Normal School,  I have never told anyone of
the lantern story and I doubt if Milo remembers it.  The summer following, Mother and
Father decided I could go with Clara to Teachers Institute, which was held that year
in Missouri valley.   This was the first time I had ever been away from home for more
than overnight but it was a wonderful experience,  we had a nice room which was
somewhere near the railroad tracks, and the first night there I was awakened by a
loud noise.   I called Clara and said "Get up quick.  There is a terrible storm",  we
jumped out of bed and rushed to the window and a more beautiful moonlight night you
never saw.  what we were hearing was the loud puff puff of a switch engine.  Missouri
valley was trying to get the County seat and thought being very nice to the school
teachers would help.  we all went to the hotel for our meals.  They sent us on a
special train to Omaha where we went through the printing plant of the Omaha Bee.
while there, Lillian Nordica, the most famous singer of the day was there too so we
saw her, which to a very countryfied young girl was really something.  They took us
all out to a football game which they played with woodbine.   (Marshall played in the
game I found out later). It was the first one most of us had seen and the ball was
handled entirely by kicking and not using the hands.  Then I took the teacher's

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 examination and again to my surprise I received a third grade certificate.  I did not

 $o to to evening school again and that fall Frank and I went to Persia High School.

 Father had a lovely gray mare and then getting a two wheeled cart we drove the 5

 miles to Persia,  we put our horse in a stable down town and then walked almost a

 quarter of a mile up a terrible steep hill to the school building,  we had to get up

 early for the milking and chores to be done before we started.  Mr. Crow was the

 principal of the school and he had the arithmetic class out surveying, girls and all,

 Then he would have a group of us, about 6 or 8, come to his home in the evening to

 work on tables of equations that he was using in the making of a chart on surveying.

 Father said we ruined the mare, which was a draft horse type, trotting her up and

 down hills.  It was hills all of the way so what could we do?  I wore a heavy brown
veil over my face so I wouldn't spoil my complexion as all the girls did.
Then on the Xmas tree my present was tuition for a term at the woodbine Normal. I was
too surprised for words.  Mother had been fixing my dresses, having made over a brown

 tricot with a polanaise, and made a new dress of gray flannel with red velvet reveres
on the basque and a shirred panel of the velvet on the side of the skirt.   These were
my dresses, the brown for school and the gray for Sunday.   I went with Clara on the
train and when we arrived there some boys, whom Clara knew, met us at the train and
carried our suit cases up to Profesor Riddell's where she had been staying and where
I was to stay too.  There were eight of us there and I was in a new world.  One day
they were trying to decide who were the best looking girls and they decided I was
second best looking.  I had never thought about my looks and I didn't then and
thought they didn't mean it but I hope they did.  I really had a good time and for
the first time in my life was away from home except for the time at the Institute.
we went on sleigh rides and to school affairs.   One of the young men who met us at
the train became very attentive to me and saw that I had a good time.  But it was the
year of the lagrippe when everybody was so terrible ill.  All the girls at Professor
Riddells had it but me.  And I was thinking how lucky I was.  Then it must have
struck me in the eyes for they burned like coals of fire and I had to sit up in bed.
I went to the Doctor and he said I must go home and that was a terrible blow.  I had
to wear dark glasses and I was so self conscious of them.   I felt as if everyone was
looking at me.  In the depot at Omaha a little boy looked at me a minute and said
"boo" and I was so embarrassed.   It was not long until I was able to go back again.
when I went back I continued to go with Jude, as that was his name.  I did not care
much for him, but he had a nice team and buggy and had a girl friend to whom he was
then engaged and who some time before would not introduce me to him, so I guess I was
naughty and sort of getting even.  I had decided that had gone far enough and soon
after this Marshall, whom I had scarcely met but saw as usher in the church every
Sunday, asked to see me home from church.  That was usually a first approach for a
date with a girl.  He was, I am sure, the best looking and most popular boy in town
and I felt very much flattered and very happy,  when I went home he wrote to me and
one Sunday, not long afterward, he came to see me.   I stayed at home from church that
Sunday and got the dinner,  we had a new gasoline stove by this time and I fried the
chicken and cooked the potatoes and kept wondering how he was going to like my
family.  It seemed to me there were so many of us, six children, but I was proud of
every one of them.  After that evening two or three weeks found him coming again and
when he asked me to marry him I was very happy indeed.  Clara went back to Woodbine
to school after teaching a while,
My first school teaching in the fall of 1890 was in a good looking country school.
It was a two mile walk from home.   As I stayed at home I tried to do as much as I

                                                                               Page 36
could to help Mother.  I usually helped with the milking and cared for the milk.
After breakfast I would have time to help with the dishes.  I always enjoyed the walk
to school and felt as if I could go farther but after the school day was over it was
a long tiresome walk home.   I had all grades but very nice children so I got along
fine.  My practice teaching work at woodbine Normal helped me so much.  The children
played ball and all sorts of games and occasionaly I would go out to watch them and
sometimes take part for a while.  This school house was on a slope up from the road.
From somewhere they had found a barrel and amused themselves rolling down the hill in
this barrel.  I wonder they were not injured,  when Arbor Day came we planted trees,
digging the holes, ourselves.  They carried water from a farm home not too far from
the school.  At Xmas we had a tree.   Such a lot of popcorn balls for me to make and
so many things to do.   If it happened to be very stormy in the winter Father would
come for me in the bobsled and such a load of youngsters that were going my way.
Sometimes I would have the pony to ride.  I rode side saddle and had a long blue
skirt.   I guess it was calico.  That had to be long so my shoes would be covered.
One time a terrible storm was coming up and rain was very near so I came galloping
down thru the gate.  There was a barb wire fence next to the gate and my flowing
skirt caaught on that or a nail and half way down the lane to the house I landed
sitting down.  It was a terrible jolt but the pony stopped and we both walked the
rest of the way.  Mother came running out sure that I was killed but aside of some
soreness I wasn't hurt.  Burk, the pony, ran away with me twice, so Father put a
double bit on him which I think must have hurt his mouth.  One time he turned into a
field where a gate was open and I could not turn him around to go back.  I finally
had to dismount and lead him back.
One time Marshall came to vist me at my school.  This was great fun for the children.
I had ridden the pony that day and he went out to saddle him.  Now the pony had a
trick all of his own of swelling up when we went to tighten the girth.  I would give
him a slap on his stomach and he would let in.  I forgot to tell Marshall that so
when the saddle was on he climbed into the side saddle and it leaned with him and off
he went.   Most of the youngsters were watching and of course that was really funny.
Thirty years afforward I met a girl, now a woman, who remembered the color of the
necktie Marshall wore and all about the saddle turning.  As my school was nearly out
and I was planning to go to woodbine to see Clara graduate, I was having a dress made
in Shelby and I also wanted to get a new suit case.   So after teaching all day I rode
the pony 6 miles to Shelby where I got my dress and suit case and rode home which was
8 miles more and was I tired when I got home.
we planned a picnic for the last day of school which was to be held in Best's Grove.
This was a grove of fine trees and many picnics were held there.  Governor Best, as
every one called him, asked the teacher of their school and me there to stay all
night to talk over our plans as we were having the picnic together.  There were seven
boys in this family, most of them at home, and they set out to give us a time.  They
set the alarm clocks going off at different times in the night and numerous other
things,  we really didn't mind and we all had a good laugh.  They were not at all the
bashful type as most country boys were.
The next week was commencement week at the woodbine Normal and Clara was graduating.
we planned to go, that is Father, Mother and I, but in the morning it began to rain
and we decided that we could not go.  Then it seemed to be clearing and we started,
All the way, (20 miles) the rain came down in torrents.  The roads were very muddy
but we went.  By the time we got there the rain had ceased but Clara, who had tickets
for Father and Mother and Marshall for me, had sold the tickets as there never was

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 enough for everybody.  Somehow or other they got tickets for Father and Mother and
me.   Ue were so proud of Clara as she appeared in her pretty white dress.   Every
graduate had to give an essay without notes.  Always some poor soul forgot and that
was so terrible but Clara did hers beautifully. Uncle Ues and Aunt Adda and Rose came
from near Onawa (30 miles) in their fine new surrey with the fringe on top.  Ue all
took flowers, just roses, from our own gardens (never a bought bouquet).  After each
speaker the ushers would rush down to the platform with all the bouquets,  we wanted
Clara to have as many as any one and. I think she did.  I wore my new black satin
dress and I felt really dressed up.  It was a very fine piece of goods almost like
satin and had a lace trim on the neck.  The next day, which was Saturday, Father,
Mother and Clara went home and I stayed until Sunday afternoon when Marshall took me
home.
In August Clara and I went to Teachers Institute in Harlan, Frank taking us the 16
miles,  we had to take the Teachers Examination every year and when I got tha letter
with my certificate I ran into the parlor almost afraid to open it.  Father followed
me and when I opened it I had a first grade certificate.  Father said "I knew you
would get it", which was great praise from my father.
That fall Clara went to Shelby to teach and I had the Glendale School of which
Governor Best was director and which was 4 miles from home,  I rode the pony all fall
until it was too cold and then I boarded with a Swedish family.  A small girl shared
my bed and sometimes I woke up very uncomfortable.   It was the best I could do and
I'm sure they read all my letters and knew what was in my suitcase.
In August of 1891 I was twenty years old and Mother said I was to have a birthday
party, as I had never had any kind of a party since Frank and I had one together when
I was 13 and he was ten.  Then we had some school friends and played hide and seek
and games out of doors.  I still have a knobby milk glass cup which had a small
bottle of perfume in a nest of pink cotton.  It was brought to me by Frank Qreenlee,
the boy in school that I liked most.  This was to be a real party with lovely
refreshments.  I wrote the invitations when I was in Harlan at Teachers Institute,
My guests ware church and school friends from town.  The day before Mother and I
cooked chicken which she made into pressed chicken.  Ue baked the cakes and did what
we could.  That morning it began to rain and such a rain.  The morning of the party
the rain continued and no one came.  Four and one half miles of muddy, hilly roads,
and in the rain, was not to be considered and the family ate the refreshments.  One
Sunday Marshall came over and brought me what I thought was the most beautiful
photograph album that ever was made with a golden plush cover.  I still treasure it
with the pictures of our friends of those days.
That fall Mother and Father decided to go to Nebraska to see grandmother, Mother's
mother and where they were having a family reunion.  I had applied and was hired at
the school at Glandale, which was four miles away, and now was teaching there and
riding the buckskin pony from home.  Frank was to help at home with the work and
everything looked to be fine.  Amy was 12, Milo 10 and Edna 7 and they were all in
school, of course.  The day after the folks left a neighbor came and said he was
shelling his corn and wanted a man and team to help haul it to Shelby which, as I
have said, was 8 miles.  The fanners exchanged work and of course he had to go, and
at 6 o'clock in the morning he would start with the team and the wagon with side
boards to haul shelled corn.  He was gone all day as 8 miles with a team on the walk
is a long way and it was late when he would get home.   Ue all got up very early and
Milo and two small girls helped what they could.  Ue had the milking to do and all

                                                                                Page 38

 the chores, milk to tend to and meals to get.  Then I had to comb the girl's hair as

 neither could do it.  There were 2 small braids and then braided into 2 other small

 braids.  There was bread to make,   I would get it into loaves and leave it for our

 good neighbors to bake for me.  The milk was to be taken care of and churning to do.

 Then when I did the things that had to be done I would mount the pony and ride as

 fast as he could go the 4 miles to my school.  Then it was hurry home and at it

 again.  This wouldn't have been so bad but then the hogs began to die of cholera and

 Frank and I had to dig holes to bury them.  we had to work nights and he did most of

 the digging.  That was such a terrible thing to happen but a calf we found bloated

 when we got home from school.  Milo ran as fast as he could to get Uncle Ned Powers

 who always seemed to know what to do.  He stuck a knife into it but it died anyway.

 Uncle Ned said if Frank could skin the calf he could get $3 for the hide.  So I held

 the lantern and he did the job.  The next day he took it to Shelby and got $0.90 for

 it.   Then Saturday came.   Marshall had planned to drive over that week end but I had

 written him not to come.  He wrote back and said he did not think it would be

 improper for him to come over even if my folks were away.  I had not thought of it in

 that way but knew I would have so much work to do, so I wrote him to come if he liked

 but I would be very busy.   So on Saturday I ironed, made bread, cleaned house and

 everything else.  Clara had come home but she had things to do so couldn't help much.
Marshall came at 10 o'clock that night and I was churning.  And who should he bring
with him but Orville Houston, the school teacher who had brought me home from the
spelling school.  He had come over with him expecting to stay at the house where he
had boarded several years before but they were not at home so came on with him.
I had supper to get for them and the next morning there was no going to church for
there was so much to do and meals to get for 8 people.  Marshall and Frank spent most
of the day in mortuary work.   I could see Marshall wasn't feeling just right and
Clara said he thought I was paying too much attention to Orville of which I did not
seem to be aware.  They stayed all night again and helped what they could, saddled my
pony etc.  I was so tired I could hardly go, as I had to, to my school.  Father and
Mother came home that afternoon and I was so glad to get a chance to get some rest.
They felt badly to know things had been so hard for us and that things had gone so
badly, but we had done the best we could.
In October 1891  I wrote a letter to Marshall in which I told him that I had been to
the fair at Shelby and had heard a phonograph and said "It is wonderful how any one
could make a machine that can talk and sing and play a whole band".  This one was the
kind that one used ear phones.  Now with radio and television the phonograph of that
day seem small stuff indeed but that was the beginning of all else that has followed.
One day in the summer of 1891 we were sitting at the dinner table at our noon meal
when Father, out of a clear sky, said, "well, I have had a chance to sell the farm
and if you all will go with us we will go to California".  There was a shout of joy
from all the children except me, and much as I thought it would be fine to go to
California I didn't seem to want to go.  It came to me so suddenly that if I went I
would never see Marshall again.  I got up from the table and ran out to the poplar
trees where Amy and Edna had a play house and cried a little.  Then Father came out
where I was and said "Now that is all right, and if you do not want to go I will not
sell the place and we will stay right here".   I knew well that for a good while
Father had talked of going to California and now I knew he wanted very much to go.
Then I said "Yes I have decided I will go too".  From then on all of our plans were
for going to California.  Clara and I bought very large trunks.  I was to teach my
school through fall and winter and spring.  Clara was to complete her year in Shelby

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 and as she had a month more of school than I had I was to -30 into a dressmaking shop
and learn to sew.  Then we would, go to California together.  Everything we did and

 talked about was going west.  Later Mother had hired a dress maker, the one I was to

 sew with, to come to the house for a couple of weeks to sew for herself and for Amy
and Edna.  She had been out before and made for me a very pretty ash rose cashmere
dress which I liked so much.  Marshall felt badly that I was going to California,  He
wrote begging me to stay and we would be married.  I wrote him I had given my word to
Father and that I would not break it.  He then wrote me that his mother had sold her
property in woodbine and was going to Dufer, Oregon where his father was.  His
father, who was a carpenter, was a Civil war Veteran, had not been well and had gone
to Oregon some time before where 3 of his brothers lived.  He insisted that his
mother go too but she felt that the schools there in that very small town would not
be good.  Marshall had 3 small sisters and a brother so she did not go with him.
Marshall had worked summers, going to school winters and finally guit school and
worked all the time and from the time he was 16 he supported the family.  His mother
felt that if she went to Oregon where his father was now able to work that he might
have a chance to save something for himself and thought I might not go.  He came over
on a Saturday night soon before my folks and his were leaving.   He and I talked and
talked but I would not break my word to my Father.  The next morning, after
breakfast, Marshall went out with Father and when they came in Father called Mother
and the 3 of them had a conference in the living room.  Then they called me in and
wanted to know if I wanted to stay with Marshall and I said I did.  Father said I
probably wouldn't stay if I went and Mother said she could arrange it and we could be
married Saturday if Governor Best would let me off from my school.  Marshall had
already a teacher to take my place.  The next morning Father saw Governor Best, Clara
and I went to Council Bluffs to get my dress etc.  Father had his sale billed for
Tuesday a week following so everything was hurried.  The girl came to sew but instead
of making things for Mother and the girls made my wedding dress.   Marshall and I were
married at 12 o'clock on Saturday and Mother had a grand turkey dinner with wedding
cake and everything.  A few of the neighbors and.some of my friends were guests.
Mother insisted I be married at home before they went away.. At that time every girl
was married at home unless her parents interfered.  Marshall brought the preacher,
Reverend ward, from woodbine and John vanSc.oy (afterwards our brother-in-law) drove
another team bringing Marshall's mother and his three young sisters.  Reverend ward
went upstairs to brush up, and the younger children, who had been sent there, were
much amused when the preacher picked up a shoe shining brush and said "this is just
what I've been looking for" and brushed his hair with it.  His hair was very thick
and black and I guess it would not have made much difference.  Reverend ward visited
us many years afterward when we lived in Ft. Collins and he said I was the prettiest
girl at whose wedding he had ever officiated.  Reverend ward drove the family back
and Marshall and John stayed until Monday when they went back to woodbine.
Father had his sale on Tuesday and no one knows, except those who have experienced
it,  how it hurts to see ones belongings parceled off to neighbors and strangers.
Mother and we girls cried when the horses were sold,  Fred and Fanny, our pretty and
dainty buggy team, and the big team that Father had had so long and that used to run
away, Jo and Jake, our Lady, the dappled grey mare that Frank and I had driven to
school and old rawboned Flora.  And then last the buckshin pony that had taken us on
so many trips.   He was in much demand and brought a good price, more than Father had
paid for him which I think was $25.

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Mother always had such nice chickens and her Buff Coching brought a good price.  The
hogs evidently did not sell well so they drove them to Persia to the market that
afternoon and that must have been a terrible trip for men and hogs as it was bitter
cold.   I really don't see how they did it.   Frank took me in the lumber wagon with
top box on and a high spring seat to Persia where I stayed the night with my girl
friend Hattie Snyder.  I nearly froze to death on that trip even if I did have a
comforter wrapped around my legs.  I do not know where the family stayed that night
but, of course, with some neighbors or friends,
The next day, which was New Year's day, Father, Mother, Frank, Amy, Milo and Edna
started on the westward trip to California.  I went as far as Omaha with them where
Marshall met me.  He had come with his mother and 3 sisters and my family and his
family went off together on the same train as far as Ogden, Utah where they
separated, his folks going to Dufer, Oregon and mine to Paso Robles, California.
Marshall and I going to our new house in woodbine, Iowa.
From now, on New Year's Day, 1892, we were two families and some one else could write
the rest better than I.
This last part will be more about myself but it seemed to be the only way I could
tell about the change that took place in our family at that time.
On the trip to California the family went in a tourist car.  The cars were very
comfortable having berths for sleeping.  The seats were covered with rattan instead
of the red plush we saw in other coaches.   Milo seemed to have furnished some
excitement for the trip for he got up in his sleep and just walked out of the train -
almost,  I suppose the vestibules were not closed so well as now,  I have wished
Father had not gone to Paso Robles for as I have seen it on travelling through on the
train it seemed a rather desolate place.  Perhaps if he had gone to some more
developed agricultural place he might have remained there.  Of course he was raised
in a corn country and one cannot find that on the coast,   when I came to Colorado it
took me some -time to become accustomed to the flat beet and grain fields here.
After a few weeks the family went to Oregon where they visited for a time with one of
Mother's sisters. Aunt Kate Coad and her family.  Of course that was the rainy season
and rain, rain and wind was too much for Father.  So the family came east again in
March, and Father bought a 320 acre farm near Hubbell in Thayer County, Nebraska.
The house was small and the barn and outbuildings not too good.  Then began another
trying time of homesickness and trials.
This was a beautiful farm and for a time the crops were good and then drouth set in
and the crops were mostly burned up or very poor.  Frank came to woodbine to go to
school and made his home with us.  He was there two years and graduated from the
woodbine Normal in business administration.
The first Sunday the family went to church in Hubble no one spoke to Mother and she
was so hurt.  It was not long until they found very congenial friends in the church
there which they enjoyed very much and did thru the later years.

 In 1940 I drove to Persia,   There had been a bad fire and most of the store buildings
that we knew had been burned.  Quite a few new brick store buildings had replaced

 them.   I found only one person, Mrs. Doyle, who had lived near our country school
house.   She was very old and in a wheelchair.   I drove by the school house where we

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 went to school.  It looked a good daal the same but now having a bell tower and bell

 and an automobile by the side of the building.  The old coal house with a large stone

 holding up one side was still there also the same looking outhouses out back.  I

 stopped at the Powers farm which was a short distance from ours.  It was just the

 same with one of the daughters, Nora, living there.  Most of the family gone in death

 except Nora, Molly and Richard,

 I drove on to our old home where I lived from 1882 to January 1892,  It still looked
good and had some additions.  The two cedar trees that grandfather dug for Mother and
which she planted, one on each side of the path to the front gate, were still there,
One of the trees was always stunted and not so large as the other and still are that
way but good sized trees.  The last work grandfather did was to dig up these trees
for Mother.   I went into the house but it did not look natural at all.   I looked at
the place where Marshall and I stood when we were married but nothing rang a bell.  I
drove on 2 miles where I had taught school but no schoolhouse, just plowed ground.
Another 2 miles to Glendale where I taught school but no school house there,  I drove
on 4 miles to Shelby where I went to the cemetary where Grandmother Smith, Father's
mother, was laid to rest.  I was surprised that I had no trouble finding the stone.
It was a beautiful cemetary and so very well kept.
CLARA LOTSPEICH SMITH was born in Morning Sun, Iowa October 23, 1869.  Clara received
her early education in the county schools of Iowa and was graduated from the woodbine
Normal School in 1891,  She attended the University of Chicago and the University of
Nebraska and held a life professional teacher's certificate.  She came to Lincoln,
Nebraska in 1895 and since that time has been active in the civic, political and
educational life of the state.  From 1922 to 1930 she was a member of the State
Republician Central Committee and from 1922 to 1924 a member of the Executive
Committee,  She taught in the city schools of Iowa and Nebraska and had done clerical
work in the University of Nebraska and in the office of the State Superindent of
Schools.  After that she was in the real estate business.  During the war she was
president of the Red Cross organization of University Place.  She belonged to the
First Methodist Church at University Place, the Parent Teachers Association, Lincoln
woman's Club and the Young Woman's Christian Association.  Her fraternal and
political associations included the Order of Eastern Star, the Daughters of the
American Revolution, the Daughters of veterans, the Rebecahs and the Patriarch
Milatants Auxiliary.  She was also a member of W.C.T.U.  Her hobby was gardening.
Clara was a chubby child with lovely curls.  She was old for her age and sort of
sponsor for all we younger children.  She was always head of her classes and very
clever in mathamatics.  She never seemed to have any trouble with getting or
remembering her lessons.  Clara was never married but the whole family belonged to
her as well as all people that she came in contact with her from day to day.  She was
a brave soul and always ready with a laugh or a joke.  She loved a garden and was
always planting where ever she lived.  In the house garden she and Father had lovely
flowers.  The last two years of her life she was helping a friend landscape a city
park as well as the friend's back yard.  She was civic minded and interested in the
development of all city projects in Lincoln, Nebraska where she lived.  At one time
she had charge of putting flower gardens where children were caring for them.  At
another time she had a girls canning class before 4H clubs were organized.  A Mrs.
Mott (formerly Miss Uilliams) living here in Denver said "Oh yes, I knew Clara Smith.
She was the light of Lincoln and I was in her canning class".

                                                                               Page 42
Clara was fond of a business life and liked executive work.  She was very generous
and often could not resist sending something that she saw in a store to anyone of her
nieces or nephews,  we all have in our homes the results of these shopping tours and
we also have in our hearts a living remembrance of her.
Clara had a boy friend, Homer Abbott, a very fine young man.  They were engaged and
we never knew what caused the breaking off of their plans.   For a long time Clara was
very sad and kept all her sorrows to herself.  The first time she said anything at
all about it was in a letter shortly before her death which I quote;   "Abbott was a
very fine young man with red hair and a son of one of the leading families of Shelby,
Iowa.   He did not marry for many years.   He lived in Chicago and practiced law with
his brother".  Also the letter enclosed here from Clara:
December 16, 1941
Dear all of you.  The family band box of letters came Saturday and I hasten it on its
way.   So many thing's of interest occurred to be jotted down for us by you..  that the
budget was most interesting.  I received a letter from Amy this morning'.  So
impressed me, I sent it on with the rest.  She says "we are csim" which is in keeping'
with what our entire loyal family should feel and I think does.  Our Puritan
ancestors - when 4 or 5 families came from England in 1630 with Governor winthrop to
Salem and Boston, Mass which they helped found, with bravery, calmness and
determination to establish a lasting feeedom, g'ave us a loyal spirit which mixed with
the spirit of other patriotic families has made us what we are.   The Ensign who
brought Oliver back to us at the close of the world war said to Marshall "How is Mrs.
Hall"? (Ethel).   "She is very brave" Marshall replied.  To which the Ensign said
"Blood tells in a time like this".
I think Jane is going to Billings so John please send the letter to her there ('The
Maynard address is 128 Spruce St).  /fudge and Gueng'el store closed its doors last
week.   Belonged to a large Jewish chain and as it was not paying they closed it.
Gold's bought the stock and fixtures.
Jane mentioned her wedding of 50 years ago this f?tb of December.  Great day for the
Smith Family.  Her family have all been a welcome adjunct to said Smiths.  This
reminds me that 50 years ago this month I met and was engaged to Homer Abbott who
lived in Chicago.  A prince among men, a scholor, charming personality, graduate of
Oberlin, Ohio College, lawyer in Chicago, later a judge there.  Our wedding day was
set for my birthday in fS93.   In the gay nineties you see.   we broke up before the
day came.  No man has, for me, approached him in fineness of character, so I have
turned a deaf ear to all.  Some day you may see among my books a couple of finely
bound books revealing his love of the beautiful.  Twelve years later be married, and
lived in a beautiful home in Chicago Heights.  None of my family ever met him so his
place in my life probably meant little to them.  He died a few weeks ago.  Gone
perhaps to be my guardian angel where we shall know as we are known.
After her death our brother-in-law, John van Scoy, wrote an appreciation of her which
he sent to his four boys and to Eunice, their adopted daughter.
CLARA SMITH  an Appreciation:  The world i's filled with ordinary people and Clara
Smith would be the last to claim that she was any but an ordinary soul, but she
moulded the common clay into something quite beautiful and different.

                                                                                   Page 43

 Her strongest characteristic was her inordinate interest in, and kindness to, every-

 one she met.   She wanted to know all about you, and always believed the best about

 you.

 After she became pretty well informed about you she wanted to do something" for you,

 and g'enerally did.  She was not adverse to playing' Providence and shaping' lives the

 way she thoug'ht they should be.

 witness an example;  She knew Amy and I wanted a s'irl to balance up a houseful of

 boys, and she knew -a fine little Eunice, who needed a home.   So her g'uiding' hand

 chang'ed a little g'irl's destiny,  and let Eunice say whether the destiny suits her.

 Franklin knew two g'irls, both determined to g'et him.  Clara decided it should be

 Mildred, and did some famous work at Lincoln, while Franklin and Mildred lit out for

 ffippey and g'ot married.  Just as Clara expected them to.   Let them say whether it was

 a kindly Providence materially aided by Aunt Clara.

 we will never know how many others she helped find what they wanted to do and helped

 them to do it, but we know there are many.

 Once I took Clara down into a-coal mine.   Sitting- with her back affainst the coal vein

 and with a miner's cap and lamp, which they g'ave to her, she had a g'reat visit with

 the miner.   He ffave her a complete account of how the whole thinff was done.   By the

 time it was finished they were old friends.
Clara was no wishy washy person.  She believed in God, the Methodist Church and the
Republican Party, and for one I commend the soundness of her creed.  She worked for
Sod, her church and her party and for any one else who would let her.

 bhe was sweet and not bitter, happy and not sad and went on her way rejoicing', and
helped, always helped.   "Friend of better days.  None knew thee but to love thee,
none knew thee, but to praise".

                             John Van Scoy
Clara, when she began to grow up, wanted to be a doctor but in those days lady
doctors were almost unheard of, and then there was never the means to finance that
sort of career.  So she went to Persia School, then to the woodbine Normal and then
taught school for a while.  Then she went back to the woodbine Normal and graduated.
She taught school in Shelby for several years.   She taught in Chadron, Nebraska, then
in Lincoln grade school for many years.   During the years of school teaching she did
summer school work in Chicago University and University of Nebraska.  In later years
she did substitute teaching in Lincoln Schools.   In the mean time she went to South
Dakota and lived on a homestead she bought out.  She moved a small cabin onto the
land and took quite a few pieces of furniture from home.   She had a small organ and
fixed her house up very cozy and pretty.  She taught a school near her place.  She
had no way of transportation but had a good neighbor who saw that she got to town
occasionally.  The town nearest was Newell but I don't know how far she was from
there.   She found a former school mate. Grace Greenlee, who was married and very busy
with her own family, on another homestead.  Clara had a dog that was a lot of

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company.  I think she was very brave to have stayed there alone for the months until
she had proved up on her land.  They had the promise of water on that land but she
paid taxes on it for several years and finally sold it.  The water came to that land
in later years but not for her.
After Clara retired from school teaching she worked for the State Superintendent of
Schools in the State House.  She save teachers examinations and corrected the papers.
Later she was in a Real Estate office and kept up her teacher examination work.  She
did nursing for a couple of years which was her last work.   She always continued to
have a garden and flowers as long as she lived.  At one time Clara had a very severe
illness and was in the hospital in Linclon.  In some way she left the hospital, got
into a train, and went to Manning.  Edna's Husband, Dr. wyatt, diagnosed her trouble
as sleeping sickness and treated her for that.   If she had stayed in the Lincoln
hospital she would not have lived.  It was quite a long time before she fully
recovered.
As a letter writer Clara was unexcelled and no matter whether we wrote or not here
came the large envelope with enclosed letter and news from all the relatives as she
kept in close touch with all of them or at least a good many.  She also had choice
bits of humor, political patter and so many things of interest,  we miss her letters
and it seems we are already losing track of our very numerous relatives most of whom
we seldom see and gradually will altogether lose track of and hear of no more.   Of
course she was a Methodist and to her church she was truly loyal
Clara lies in the same lot in wynka cemetary in Lincoln with Mother and Father.  In
May 1941 Clara and I drove through this cemetary and it was so beautiful with tulips,
redbud, snowball and so many varities of flowers and I am glad Mother, Father and
Clara are at rest in this lovely place.
Clara had many interesting experiences.  At one time, when she was working at the
State House in Lincoln and Father was still on the farm, she made a trip to Alliance,
Nebraska, where the Lotspeich cousins, sons of Uncle (?) lived.  That is in the
northwestern part of Nebraska, and they lived on a cattle ranch in the sandhills.
The coyotes were thick and often killed the calves.  So they kept a pack of hounds
and when they had time would get out on a coyote hunt.  The hounds would gang up on a
coyote and usually get it.  when Clara was there they gave her a hound pup and made a
crate for her to take the pup home.  On the way she stopped at Lincoln for a few days
and had to take the pup out of the crate,  when she was ready to go the pup was put
back in the crate but in the mean time he had grown and she could not get him all in.
So part way in she carried him to the depot,   when at the depot she met the Governor
and some other men from the State House which caused her quite a bit of embarrass-
ment.   She finally got the pup home and he kept growing until he was a big full grown
dog, mostly legs, and followed Father about the farm.  Father was always after weeds
and carried, a corn knife.  In threshing the weeds he accidentally cut off the end of
the hound's tail.  I do not know what became of the hound.  Father still kept after
the weeds,
FRANK EDEN SMITH was born August 19, 1874 at Mt, Union, Henry County, Iowa.  He was a
quiet boy and as he grew up he was working in the fields with Father when very young.
Father was very proud of him and they were good pals although Father was never much

 of a talker he probably talked to him more than we other children,   when Frank was 17
he came to woodbine and lived in my home, as Marshall and I were married then, and
went to the woodbine Normal.  He took the business course and graduated.  He worked

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on the farm in Nebraska for a while and later went to Alliance. Nebraska where ha
worked in a bank.  He was tall, about six feet I should think, fair with grey blue
eyes.   I suppose he was not as strong as we thought he was although he did have
stomach troubles when at home or maybe he did not become adapted to inside work.  He
had a nice room and took his meals at a hotel and probably did not have the food he
should have had.  At any rate he became ill.  His employer, the president of the
bank, had recently lost his wife by death and was so grieved he went to Europe for a
while.  Frank wrote him telling him he wanted time off for a rest.  But this man, a
doctor himself, when he came home had hay fever and said he would have to go to the
mountains and to stay on a little while longer.  At last when he was able to work no
longer he did come home but tuberculosis had gotten hold of him.  It is possible,
knowing as much of the disease as we do now, something could have been done for him.
Clara went with him to Albuquerque but it was too late and he became worse.  He came
home in April and Clara sent for me to come home which I did.  I could not visualize
anything so terrible until I saw him.  This was before they left for Albuquerque.  He
came home in April and passed away in July.  Father was so grieved when he saw him
coming home and knew then what the end would be.  He said afterward that his heart
was broken through.  It was such a blow to all of us and my childhood pal was gone
but his beautiful character was a benediction to all of us.  Mother was so patient
and did everything she could and took the brunt of everything.  Father had had Amy
with Max, who was a baby, and me with my two little girls, come home.  It was such a
sad summer, but we kept cheerful as possible during the day and cried our hearts out
after we had gone to bed at night.
Frank was engaged to a lovely girl who came from Alliance to see him, but it was so
sad for both of them and didn't help much.   So at 26 years of age a beautiful young
life was ended here on earth for him but for us that were,left sad hearts but sweet
memories.  Frank was laid to rest in the cematary in Hubb-^ Nebraska.
Copy of Obituary of Frank E. Smith from HubbNV paper.
"Frank Eden Smith was born in Mt. Union on August 19, 1874 and died at his home near
Williams on Saturday July 20, 1901, Aged 26 years 11 months and 1 day old.  The
untimely death of this highly respected young man was caused by serious lung trouble.
All that could possibly be done to restore health was done but to no avail.   It will
be remembered by many of our citizens that only last spring he, in company with his
sister, visited several health resorts in the south but returned a short time ago
only slightly improved.  The young man was an ideal son and his place can never be
filled at home.  The funeral services were held in this city on Sunday, July 21 by
Reverand C, A. Hale after which his remains were laid at rest in the Hubble cemetary.
A large concourse of friends were in attendance.  The people of this vicinity
sympathize with those who have lost one so near and dear to them".
AMV SMITH vAN SCOY was a very lovely child more obedient and very responsive to good
things than most children.  She went to the country school in Harrison County and
then again at the home school in Nebraska.  She went to High School in Hubhfc^/
Nebraska and graduated from there.  She was married to John van Scoy in December
1898.   They had 4 sons, Max, James, Franklin and Herbert and was a wonderful mother
to them.   She was religiously inclined and'was always found in the church and Sunday
school with her family.  She worked faithfully in all the social and religious work
of the church.   She was a staunch Methodist.   She was a good musician having first
taken lessons when a child on the old organ that her mother brought from her mother's
home in Iowa.  As time went on she took piano lessons.  She played the piano for all

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church services for many years.  Later she learned to play the accordian which gave
her much pleasure as well as her friends.
Her hobby was making angel food cakes at which she was very adept.  She often took
prizes at fairs etc.  She was an ardent Republican and understood politics better
than most women.  Every year she had charge of Xmas Seals, sending out seals and
collecting the money.  She was a good woman and the results of her good life follow
her, and the small town of Kippey misses her,
Besides her four sons she was the mother of a lovely girl Eunice who was adopted and
who made her place in the house.   In July 1898 Amy, with Father, came to woodbine,
Iowa to visit us.   She had just graduated from High School and was a beautiful girl.
They attended the worlds Fair in Omaha.  There were many new things exhibited.  She
remembered at the Exposition when Montgomery ward had a big sign (Auto rides 10
cents).  They had leased a block on the grounds with a graveled road around the edge
of it.   People stood in line an hour waiting for a ride.   It was during her visit in
woodbine that she met John Van Scoy whom she married in December of the same year,
MILO UESLEY SMITH  was born near Randolph, Fremont County, Iowa  October 13, 1881.
The next year he went with the family to Harrison County, Iowa where he spent his
early boyhood days.  Amy, not being able to talk vary well called him "Barlow" and
Father, who was not having any nicknames, often called him that,  Milo was a sturdy
boy and very faithful to the chores assigned to him.  I have referred along in this
article of a good many of his boyhood doings so will not repeat.
He attended school at the woodbine Normal and graduated there in a business course.
while there he met Emily witter whom he married.  In 1904, when Father moved to
Lincoln, Milo attended Uesleyan University for a time.  Soon after this he took
posession of Father's farm which he farmed for several years.  He left the farm and
taught school for several years,  Milo and Emily had four children, 2 boys, Don and
Harold and 2 girls, Amy and Evelyn,
Milo had a very keen mathematical mind and we had great hopes for the genius in our
family,  while he did not reach the goal we had visioned for him it is for his sons
to have received the brains and reaching the goal.  Later he was appointed to the
position of Rural Mail Carrier out of Hubbfesijand which he worked faithfully for years
and finally retiring.  Since then he has lived in Hubbta! Nebraska.  At 72 he is well
and hearty and enjoying life.  He and Emily are pillars of the Methodist Church in
their community and are highly respected citizens.
EDNA AMELIA SMITH  was born at Persia, Harrison County, Iowa October 15, 1884.  She
was a pretty baby and seemed to be just what we all needed to complete our family.
She was very well and so good that she was a joy to all of us.  Of course she grew up
and soon was going to the county school,  when she was seven Father went to
California taking the four younger children and hoped to make that their home.  For
some reason Father did not find it as he thought he would, and in a few months they
were on their way back to the middle west and settled on a farm at HubbifeH Nebraska.
Edna went to county school and then to High School in HubbNl where she graduated,
and later went to Uesleyan University in Lincoln.  In the meantime Father and Mother
had moved to University Place, Nebraska, where Uesleyan University is located.  From
this house she was married to OrrAn Uyatt, a medical student.  From there she and