August 9, 1987
A short time ago, I was given a little pamphlet by Greta Winder of Des Moines, who in turned received it from Pearl Lewis. Pearl was a reporter for the Chariton newspapers for years. She made all the trains, and there were a lot of them. The title of this little book isFavorite Quotations of Chariton People. It was printed in Indianola, Iowa, in 1899 by Herald Printing house. It has thirty-nine pages. Seemingly, people were asked what their favorite quotation was. Some were from the Bible, some from famous authors, some from an anonymous source and some were original. It was written before my time, but many of the names I had heard of and some I remembered. Now and then I’ll quote from this book.
The weather makes me think of 1936. It was hotter and drier than this by far. We were feeding hogs, and everything we had left was made into ensilage. The hogs didn’t like it at all. Father, in desperation, went back in the hills and bought ten jugs of moonshine for fifty cents a gallon. Each day we sprinkled a little of this mountain dew on the feed and our problems were over. The hogs ate everything in sight and finished out in no time.
Virgil Johnson told me Sam Beardsley was out collecting bills. He came to a farm and was walking up the path, surveying the scene all the while. The father had died some time before, and it was evident things were not in great shape. He turned, walked back to the car, tore up the bill and drove away.
My father was noted for giving children mittens when he found they had none. I heard my mother say one time to Father, “Do you notice if our children have mittens?” I never could understand this, as our store sold gloves and mittens and Mother kept us supplied.
Virgil Johnson told me another rather humorous thing. It seems he and his dad had gotten up before daylight to do the farm chores. On the way back to the house for breakfast they heard a buggy going by. As it was just beginning to get light, they couldn’t tell who it was. Just the outline of the buggy was visible. A few minutes later Dave Lindquist came by and asked if they had seen a buggy go by. They said they had heard one. It seems the man had stolen Dave’s chickens. They all got out on the road and followed the man. They located the buggy east of Baker’s corner. It would have been the Hayes Gillespie corner back then. Other people joined in the search. It was a serious offense in those days to steal chickens and carried an automatic sentence of twenty years. Virgil remembers blood hounds being brought in to help in the search. He says, as he remembers it, the hounds were out for a romp rather than work. The buggy and horse were taken to the livery barn. They were kept until their keep was more than their worth. As far as anyone knows, the man is still in the woods.
A lady from Des Moines stopped in last week looking for rock candy to put with whiskey, making a cough syrup. It makes a very effective cough remedy, according to old-timers. This lady reads the Chariton paper and shares it with Louise Speers. Many old-timers will remember Louise as she was a member of the Joe Speers family located in east Chariton. The Speers family was colored and I have written of them before. I had no idea any of this family were still alive. Anyway, Louise enjoyed the articles about colored families in early Chariton. Remember, they were colored folk in those days, not blacks.
Got a letter from a lady in Dalton, Nebraska, wanting to know several full names of some people buried in Chariton Cemetery and in Melrose Cemetery. I also located two great, great aunts of the girl’s husband. I have sent her their addresses. One lives in Creston and the other in Ottumwa. They will be able to answer all her questions. While my girls were here, they had a lot of fun looking in drawers and up in the attic for old things. They found an essay that I had written in the fourth grade on George Washington. It was in a little folder tied with a pink ribbon. The teacher was Ida Boyles and the school was Bancroft. The name had not been changed to Alma Clay as yet. The girls had a lot of fun with it, but since they are gone, it has been put back to rest until next year.
If someone asked me to name the meanest, nastiest bird of the smaller bird order, it would be the half-grown red-headed woodpecker. They fight with abandon, using their heavy-boned wings to beat down other birds. Their parents put them on their own early and they have to fight. I have watched them for years at the cemetery during plum time. They fly up from the Chariton River bottoms in groups of eight or ten. They literally knock all other birds out of the trees, such as crows, jays, cardinals, kingbirds, redwings, orioles and others. This knocks off lots of plums and the other birds can eat off the ground and are just as happy.
For years I have handled good old smelly salt fish in brine. In later years we have to buy so many, I have taken to wholesaling to some other towns far enough away that it wouldn’t bother my local sales. One merchant wrote saying he wouldn’t want any this year. He explained his wife had died and he had married a nice lady that had worked for him. She promptly announced if he handled these fish, she wouldn’t work. However, he did sell his order to another merchant. Everything is OK, and women won out again.
Our ride -
George Dunshee, Charles Prior and myself left here on our ride at 2 p.m. in George’s car and got back at 6 p.m. Went north on all back roads we could. Went to Newbern, Bauer, Motor, Melcher, Rosemount. Words discussed were clues and leads, such as in a murder case. Also discussed flammable and volatile.
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