August 23, 1987
A lady from Bowman, Tennessee, writes that her ninety-eight-year old mother swears there was a Kull-Yengel Brewery in Chariton years ago. She remembers going there for her mother and getting a little bucket of yeasty liquid that was used in bread making. The mother was right, and the brewery stood along the Cinder Path, between Business 34 and regular 34, on the east side. It seems that many went there to get yeast starter. Once you had some, you could keep it indefinitely. Sometimes by accident you would lose this yeast source, or it might just peter out. Then you would have to go back and get fresh starter. Mrs. Schotte was an early Chariton resident and she told me she would send her son Boyd to get this yeasty liquid. Older people will remember Boyd as an excellent cabinetmaker. Mrs. Schotte also told me this yeast worked, but it was not as predictable as the yeast one buys today. She said one had to watch the dough rather closely to have a good outcome. It was a good deal like using wild sage. From season to season wild sage varied in strength, as did the brewery yeast from batch to batch.
When you read a sign there are two things you can do. Obey it, or disregard it and take the consequences. At the Jimmy Dean plant in Osceola the sign says “NO HOGS PURCHASED WEIGHING LESS THAN 500 POUNDS.” A man from Georgetown had observed the sign, but thought he would test the rule. The total weight was 2600 pounds, but two were less than 500 pounds, and three were over 500 pounds. They didn’t take the two, and they were brought back home, and one was lost in the heat. The reason I tell this story is because this man seemed to develop a new philosophy of life. His wife says he has learned a lesson and delights in telling about the hog deal to everyone he can. When she or the children drive away from home, he never fails to say, “Watch the signs.”
Here are a couple of quotations of Chariton people from the bookFavorite Quotations of Chariton People. Mrs. H. B. Stewart liked this saying: “Wear the old coat, and buy the new book.” Howard Culbertson liked this rather homemade one: “Do unto others before they do unto you.”
A daughter of Lloyd Hook, who was an optician here years ago, wrote saying that she knew of nineteen people who had drowned in the old ponds that were close in to Chariton. She doesn’t name the people or the lakes. I can think of only fourteen. I wrote to her for exact places and names, but she doesn’t have them. She got the figure from a diary her father kept. Here are the ones I could think of: two in Coolbaugh’s Pond right across the tracks south of the Wennerstrum home; two in Lake Como where Yocom Park is now; two in Spring Lake at the far end of South Eighth Street; four at West Lake; three at Curtis Pond at the north end of Eighth Street; one at Kubitsek Pond on Auburn Avenue just east of town. You old-timers make a count of your own and give me the total.
A lady from Lima, Ohio, writes saying she was born in White City, and wonders how the dozens of houses that were moved into Chariton proper got across the Rock Island track. They crossed on South Avenue, and she is right. Many were moved to Chariton proper. I was taking to an elderly man yesterday who worked for Don Lewis, a house-moving contractor. This man said one house was moved to Chariton and moved back due to a law suit. This crossing on South Avenue was on the old state road, out of town to Albia. It followed roughly the route 34 does now, but was more or less a country road. Traffic went on the old Bluegrass Trail southeast of Chariton to Russell.
Our ride -
We took Esther Belle Karn along today. George Dunshee, Charles Prior and myself left here at 2 p.m. and got back at 6:15 p.m. We picked up Esther at her house. I drove, with Charles up front and George and Esther in the back seat. Went to Swede Hollow to see Frazier’s new four-and-a-half-acre pond. Then to Brinegar Cemetery west of Norwood. New ground to us and pretty country. Went from there to the Stoneking Cemetery area to see the Joe-Pye weed. We were too late as it had gone to seed. That is really wild country. Saw some people riding mules. They were part of the Saddle Club.
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