Viola Cokonougher Autobiography 1985

      The 1985 Autobiography of Viola May Hester Cokonougher - The Early Years.

         

          (My mother, Viola, wrote this autobiography in 1985, at my request.  She got all the way through her early years before she got bored with the project, and stopped. Her husband, my father, had just died an early death the year before.  He had told us many tales of his parents' lives and his own life.  He didn't write them down, though, so the stories disappeared with his death, except for those few we, his children, could remember.  I suggested to mom that her descendants would like a written record to remember her by, if something similar were to happen to her.  She agreed to make a few notes and write a few stories from her past.  This story is the result of her efforts.  This story was her first draft, and I have transcribed the grammar, punctuation, and spelling was just as it was in the unfinished document.  I'm sure her final draft, had she got around to making one, would have been much easier to read, and would have had further clarifications, but we are lucky and should be thankful to get this much.  Most relatives don't even bother to leave something like this for those who will follow them after they are gone.     Ralph Cokonougher)

           "Viola May Hester Cokonougher was born at Fruitdale, Ohio in Ross Co. on Sept. 21, 1928 to Harold and Nora Ellen Spurgeon Hester.  I was born in the house where Cora and Ralph Hoffman lived thru most of their lives.  I was born in the bedroom off from the kitchen.  At 6 mo. Old I took the Old Fashion measles, Double pneumonia, and the Whooping Cough.  I had all of them at One time.  I was told by my family.  My grand parents Lilly and Alex Spurgeon and uncle Lafe all lived with us at that time.  Dr. Glenn from Greenfield, oh. delivered me.  Uncle Lafe and my dad had to walk to Greenfield thru big snows and the freezing weather for a doctor for me.  They all claimed they walked the floor with me day and night until I was well. 

          when I was around 4 yr, old we lived on the Robert parett farm, where my father worked until I was in the 3rd grade in school.  The ladies Bess and Elizabeth Parrett bought me and my sister Martha each a dress one was red poka dot And the other blue.  And each Sunday they took us to the presbertarian church in South Salem, Oh. 

          I remember One christmas in my small child hood before I went to school.  Santa woke me and I remember one big beautiful doll that I received.  Their was always lots of candy & fruit at christmas time. 

          I started to South Salem, ohio school in the first grade in 1934, I walked around 1/2 of a mile to meet the school bus.  On real cold days their was a family named Hen and Jenny Rupple, and they would take me in to wait on the bus, One time after they had moved I missed the bus, it always went around Slate Hill Rd and back around the circle to where I got on the bus.  I froze my feet at the time and Mr. Green the Janitor at the school was most of the day thawing my feet out. 

          The other tenent that lived. on the Same farm was a family named John Roosa, his daughter, Flossie walked with me to the bus lots of days, she had farther to walk than I, she had a mile to walk out to meet the bus. 

          Their was around 3 times a winter they always had a butchering day.  It seems as tho they were always held at out place.  dad and Mr. Roosa got out their big iron Kettles and built their fire under the kettles to get the water boiling.  Then the hogs were shot in the head and their jugler Vein in their throats were cut to bleed well.  Then the water was put in large barrells and the hogs were pulled up and down with pulleys to scald the hair.  Then the hair would loosen and it could be scraped or pulled off.  Then they were hung up and split open and gutted  cold water was throwed on them to help cool them. 

          dad got paid 50¢ a day, our house, corn for our chickens and a cow to milk and our meat to butcher as wages for a ways  I remember at night when I come home from school a lot of boiled chicken.  Cocoa for breakfast, whtch made me sick with out anything else on my stomach.  On Sat. when dad went to go to town.  I remember everything on the grocery list was 25¢ like for 5 lb of sugar or flour or what ever was needed.  We raised a big garden. 

          dad set traps in Buckskin creek to get muskrats, mink & coon to make extra money.  I played with the muskrats and played like they were my doll babies.

          When I went to school they called me muskrat and groundhog.  One time Margaret Kennedy now Margaret Cokonougher coaxed me to go home with her to see her dolls, so one night I got off the bus and went home with her.  I saw all of the dolls, I wondered how I was going to get home, and her aunt Blanch walked me across the woods and fields to my home close to dark.  The older girls lots of times held me on their laps to help keep me warm on those cold and snowy days on the school bus.  I was very small.

          My 3rd year of school we moved to So. Salem, oh. which now called Main St. beside the Hesters produce building. 

          Then I was sick most of the time in my 3rd year of school, I had appendicis attacks every few days. and missed lots of school. My father would not sign for the operation I needed.  So that way I was sick the biggest part of my life.  So I missed lots of school all thru my school years because of sickness.  I had to take 3rd grade the 2nd yr because of it. 

          My grandmother Rose Hester learned me to milk cows at 5 yrs old.  And when I was 12 yr. old she learned me how to use a sewing machine.  She also taught me to cook at a very early age. 

          When I was in the 3rd grade in 1937 Our house burned where we rented in porter Holler where Mrs Hattie Neal now lives where they built another one.  my father worked on W.P.A. at that time.  He had gotten paid the day before, And He had bought our supply of groceries until time for the next check, Mom also had lots of home canned food.  Every thing burned we had.  My self and Martha was at Bourneville school where we had went for 3 weeks.  dad had an old panel truck.  Mom was out doors trying to help dad get it started  snow was about 2 ft deep.  Mary was asleep behind the heating stove on a blanket when the house was on fire and Lawrence drug her out from behind the stove.  We then moved in with grandma and grandpa Hester on Lower Twin  stayed with them for a few months.  Then we moved to the old Cox place on Lower Twin Rd. until our new house was built on Turkey Ridge Rd. 

          We had 2 milk cows at that time.  Every day for 2 times a day I walked and milked the cows.  I had to go from our house and thru the woods to grandma which it would have been a mile or so each way.  When the Weather started to get cold, I walk thru the frost without shoes to do the milking.  We usaly started to school bare footed, We were to poor to buy shoes.  We always got new outfit for Christmas, we alway got 3 or 4 buckle artic at that time because snow was so deep.  My mom wrote letters to the school principel lots of times for the school to buy shoes for us.  One year 3 women went togeather and made me a winter coat,  They were Doris Wilson, Mrs Beatley, Mrs Bess Hollaway.  I believe I was about the 5 or 6 grade and the coat was a size 6.          

          When ever mom & dad went any where I was left to watch the kids.  I was in the 6th grade of school when one of our neighbors under the hill supose to have shot his self.  His name was Farell Chaney.  a few minutes before, he came by our place with his shot gun all apart.  He stopped and talked a few words with me.  Their was some other family liveing in with them at the time.  I heard the shot that killed him.  And from the time he left our place to where he was shot, I can't see no way he could have put the gun togeather.  So one of his children came running up and asked for some one to go for help.  So I run all the way thru the woods to my grandparents.  and the chaney children went the other way for help. 

          My mother picked Blackberries to sell.  some people would come out to pick them up.  Some times all of us would take them to Greenfield along with some my grandmother and Aunt Hazel picked.  Then their would be 2 get out to peddle the berries  one on each side of the street.  I remember sometimes we only got 10¢ a qt.  Later we got 25¢ a qt.   

          Lots of day when they were no orders my brother Lawrence and I would walk to South Salem and pack one big bucket apiece.  We werent dare to spend a penny of it. So one day we picked the berry Quart we had to measure in along the way and sold it for 50¢ then we split it and got us something to eat and drink.  But we didn’t tell we done it because if they had Known we would have had to give the money to mom & dad.  We hardly ever got a ride.  Mr. Ed Cox picked us up on our way home a couple of times and a couple of other people a time or so.  Dad worked away from home on the B. & O. Railroad and run a spreader, so he was only home on week ends.  So we walked 2 & 3 times a week to So. Salem to sell the berries. 

          I was Now at the age where I done milking all the time.  More often as days past.  Their wouldn't be any supper for me when I'd get the milking done.  If I didn't eat at grandmothers Hesters, I had to cook something after I got in with the milk. 

          The old Cox house on Lower Twin where Aunt Hazel & Erskie Beechler lived and where we moved when we left grandmaws after our house burned.  My dad bought it at a land tax sale for $100.00 on the court house steps at chillicothe, oh.  But any heir could pay up the taxes before 30 days and redeem the place.  So Ed Cox went and paid up the taxes and got it back.  But my father never spoke to Ed Cox as long as he lived.  Then grandpa Hester (Mutt) gave dad 10 acres up on Turkey Ridge road and his brothers and neighbors helped build it because we had to get out right away.  But dad would not move until we could get into our new house.  Also when my father-in-law was a young man on his own before he was married He lived in a shanty that was part of the old cox house and worked on a saw mill their.  John would sit on the porch after I married his son Howard (Bill) and John would tell me this story lots of times of the saw mill.  Lawrence & I neither would tell that Ed Cox gave us rides from South Salem.  I believe I was in the 4th grade when I moved to the new house but any way it was late spring or early summer when we moved into the new house.   

          Martha, Lawrence, Dorothy, Mary, all had the old fashion measles.  I remember a very sick bunch.  I was the only one that could go out side this was at the old cox house.  The measles had a funny smell. 

          That fall we started school from Turkey Ridge road with Joe Cokonougher driving our bus.  He turned just below out house.  The Chaney Kids got on when we did.  Their names were James, Tom, Catherine, and Thelma.  We carried our water from their spring up a hill.  They made home made root beer and put in glass jars and put it in the spring to cool.  Dad and some others help dig a well on our place around 20 ft deep I believe.  Uncle Leslie or some of them droped a shovel on dad head when they were drawing up dirt in a bucket.  It made a pretty big cut in the top of his head.  But he didn't go to the doctor.  It was over the hill at the back of the house.  So we carried it for years up the hill.  Around 9 or 10 yr later he put a electric pump in and the first day they pumped the well dry. 

          One morning I had to get up early to go hunt the cows to milk some morning.  I'd have to go clear to grandma Hester thru the woods, barefoot and had to run to get done to go to school.  If I missed the bus, I'd get whipped.  Sometimes I'd leave the cows tied to the trees all night so I'd wouldn't have to go hunt for them.  Mom or dad would say you must not of had to go far this morning.  I say they never left the woods.  If dad had Known I left them tied to a tree I'd would have gotten beaten to death.  Dad rented pasture from Kate Olaker at the end of Turkey Ridge and Lower Twin Rd.  sometimes I got the milking done and could ride home as dad come from work.  I could stand on the running board and hold the milk with one hand and hold the car with the other.  We had an old Model A. Ford.  Sometimes we sat on the fenders and ride if too many was in the car. 

          One school year I was in the 7th grade And dad bought Martha and I one dress apeice for school.  Mine was green with small flowers  Martha was pink with flowers.  So each night in order for me to have clean clothes for school.  Id wash mine out for the next day.  As nothing else was fit to wear.  So I'd go to milk as usual and have to hurry to dress for school.  So about a week I'd put up with wearing martha dirty dress, mom would not made her take it off.  So one day I was so mad I tore the dress off of her.  So then she put on her own to wear and I tore it off of her.  Mom gave me and awful whipping with a switch for it.  But that was one day neither of us went to school because ther was nothing fit to put on.  If they was a movie or something at school, I asked grandma or grandpa Hester, They most generaly gave me the money to go.  The cost then was like one cent to 5 cents to get in.  Sometime There would be me and a couple of other kids that didn't have money to go.  So either the teacher or the school let us in free. 

          We carried our lunch mostly.  In the early years I carried home made bread, potato, sandwich spread, eggs meat that was home butchered.  Sometimes got free dinners.  Worked some for it.  But not to often because their were too many poor kids that needed it.  After dad got his job on the B&O. railroad, they let me go to John and Anna Schmidt and get things to eat on the bill which he run from pay day to pay day.  Then I always had 2 or 3 girls keep their money and try to get my dinner to eat, that walked up town same time as I did. 

          I remember in the 3rd grade a boy named Herbert Hyer (Jr) had to go to the bath room, and the teacher wouldn't let him go.  But she would let others go.  So they would go and bring him back toilet paper And he really had a pants full of paper.  He sit across from me and boy did he stink. 

          In my school years the kids made a lot of fun of me.  Today some of those people treat me better than my own people. 

          In the 7th grade the teacher failed me for no reason.  I had passing grades but I had to take it over.  He also failed 2 or 3 others but their parents went to the Superintendent and got to go on.  So that year I didn't do much studeing as I remembered most of the things.  I had two people, rather boys that would take my papers while I would be away from the room.  But one day the two got caught.  Before that the teacher said some copeing was going on.  She just said 3 people had the same grades and the same answers.  So on either a study hall or at noon hour she got the ones.  They were John Buck and Fay Wisecup.  One set behind me and the other across from me. 

          dad and grandpa Hester went to chillicothe to sell some coon & oppossum carcaces.  So on the way home they saw Uncle Harry pass and they all stopped to talk  grandpa got out and went across the road to talk to Uncle Harry and a car comeing down Rt 50 run over grandpa & broke his leg.  Delbert Wisecup came along and brought mom an who ever else was along and took grandma back to chillicothe hospital.  When dad and all of them got home that night grandpa groceries was brought in.  He always had blood pudding and balogna.  A whole bushel of bananas.  Grandma said more bananas to kill another kid.  They said that was what Killed dads brother Oscar. 

          Lots of people brought and gave us things because of the fire.  But most of it was not fit for a dusting cloth.  The cans of food looked as if it had been canned for Years and couldn't be eaten.  Grandpa H always growed big truck patches.  He peddled lots of it for a living.  He growed strawberries.  I helped pick for 1¢ a qt.  later I got 3¢ a qt.  I also picked strawberries for Billy Schmidt on Lower Twin.  Ray Rayburn picked their also with other kids in the country 

          I had to go to the woods and saw or chop pieces of wood in small enough pieces that Lawrence and I could carry.  It seemed as tho Lawrence and I got all the outside hard work to do.  We had to get enough in to last for a night & a day.  This seems impossible but we did.  Once and a I while mom would make Martha go to help but she caused more trouble and caused us a lot more time to get the work done. 

          One cold snowy night dad came home from work and the pigs hadn't been fed.  So dad asked who fed the hogs.  I spoke up and said I'd milked and got wood in.  So he made Martha & Lawrence go to slop the hogs.  So dad watched out the window and saw how far their light went.  So they came back and said yes they went all the way.  So dad took the lantern and went to where he saw them stop and they poured it out before they got half way to the pigs. 

          I picked tame blackberries for Alice and Oscar Beechler at the old Charlie Kerr place  also baby sit and washed dishes for Bus and Libby Althouse, they had 3 girls.  They lived with Charlie Kerrs before Alice & Oscar lived their.  I believe that Oscar bough the Kerr place when he came home from the service.  Any way I made several nickles and pennies their.

          Their was an old church called Beech Grove where we all had fish frys an ice cream socials.  on lower Twin Road below porter Hollow Rd.  then a little piece down the road we went into a big field for a big hay day.  Their were fiddlers, fish fry, lots of different things, dancing on a wagon.  It was called medcalf place.  Then at Lyndon every year we had what they called the Old Farm picnic.  It was about the same as the other two places.  I remember on Sat. nights grandpa Hester had one of the first radio.  All of the men would gather to listen to Joe Lewis boxing matchs.  when grandpa radio quit they all would get in their old cars and head for uncle Harrys.

          Not too long the radio with dry pack batteries came out.  We were about one of the first to have one of them.  All the men around came in eveings and week ends to listen to it.  World War II had broken out about this time.  They gathered then to here the news.  Then most people went to getting their own radios.

          The men played cards.  My husband Bill came and played cards a lot with dad and my uncles.  Mostly on Sat. nights.  Then the uncles started going into the service.  Uncle Leslie belongs to the National guards.  Uncle Les and Homer Wisecup both left at the same times.  Homer Wisecup and his brother Roy who now lives in Kananas city Kananas. visited my grandparents and our house very often. they lived on the old Wisecup home place on Wisecup Hill Rd.

          My grandfather (Mutt) played the violin and lots of dances were held sometimes at his house sometimes other places.  Around this time Daisy and Charley Stuckey moved into their new log cabin on lower twin across the road from grandma & grandpa Hesters which still stands and is owned and occupied by the Ebright boy one of my cousins. 

          We visited aunt Cora Hoffman a few times when I was a child which was a great occasion at that time.  I remember my grandparents Alex and Lilly Spurgeon.  granddad Spurgeon died April 1938.  He was ill most of my child hood.  I remember going to their house on Sundays  it was a big old house on the old Bayless farm.  now owned by Clifford Wisecup where his parents Ed & Gladys Wisecup lived.  This old house was very old and we all gathered their on Sundays for dinner.  Their was lots of pies and all kinds of food a table big enough to sit at lest 25 to 30 people.  I believe every body brought lot of food.  But seems a tho the table was always ready when we arived.  As Daddy was alway late for any thing, no matter what. 

          Their was a lane that went on past this place where Aunt Rean & her family lived.  It was an old log not to big for their big family.  Then they lived and worked for Siegle Mossburger  they lived in the white house on the bend.  Uncle Glenn worked of and on for several yrs. 

          grandpa Spurgeon always gave me ice cream when he had any.  I got where the rest did not.  Almost to the day he died I was near him when they lived where the lake is now on the Edgenington Rd.  This is where he died and I saw the big ball of fire roll down the road from the curb on Edgington Rd at the top end of the lake now.  It went in behind the kitchen cook stove and disapeared.  grandma Spurgeon was having time getting help. 

          Uncle Lafe worked on the Edgerington farm.  He had a lot on his shoulders at this time.  His money went to help with the living.  grandpa got the old age pension.  At this time Uncle Lafe went to church a lot.  My school was selling some bible verse pictures and the winner got a bible to give the buyer.  So Uncle Lafe finished buying what I hadn't sold and then he gave it to me & said keep this all your life, and do as it says.  No matter what any body says.                We was now living on Turkey ridge in our first new house  my mom was having my brother Harold Dwight Jr. who was born Nov 9, 19__ and mom was sick for 2 months.  Dad was at work and mom got to seeing things.  Aunt Hazel Hester stayed and helped us a lot over the yearss.  So she sent me after grandma Hester.  We walked back over the fields thru woods and over the hills.  Mom was seeing bats, black birds, and all kinds of thing.  I remember all trying to convince their was nothing their.  Then I got to trying to catch and trying to kill them with papers.  But that night dad called Dr. Cutright & a another fetus was born in January.  Then not long after Harold Jr. died of heart trouble.  The body laid in the front room of the old house.  That was my first pair of silk stockings. 

          Now long not many years after my sister Barbara Ann was born.  she lived to be 16 mo. old  on mothers day mom said I could go to grandma Hester's.  But she said why don't you take Barbara along with you.  I was learning to sew on the old treadle sewing machine, had been cookeing for a good while  I was __ years old then.  The Friday before this the rocking chair in the front room was rocking and creaking on the old board floor.  I raised up and it would stop  after several times I called mom.  before she got down stairs it would stop, so the 3rd time she saw it.  I slept down stairs on a cot  every body else up stairs.  They was 4 to 6 Kids in each bed.  if any body else stayed the night their were more to slip into bed with every elses. 

          Barbara Ann accidentily got Kerosene and drank it.  granny and I ran with Barbara for help.  I believe Bob Storts came by and granny flaged him down.  He took us to Greenfield hospital.  They pumped out her stomach and sent her home.  Some body telegramed dad on the Railroad and he got right home and they took Barbarba to the children Hospital in Columbus.  This was on a Sunday.  Mom & dad blamed me for Barbarba death, dad until he dided stated to me you killed her.  I was only a child my self.  She came from the front room from where grandma was.  granny said you build a fire and I could get dinner.  she would watch Barbara.  So I got the wood in the stove and poured Kerosene over the wood set the can on the edge of the old cook stove struck the match and lit the fire.  Then I heard a choke.  And Barbara had the little oil can which was an old Bakeing powder can, before I could get it up where she couldn't reach it.  But I never did see her while I was fixing the fire.  But I was made feel guilty all my life.   

          During this time mom picked berries and sold them.  I got to pick some but if I picked when mom had to pick I got no money for it.  But if granny or Hazel picked and I went with granny would either give me some money if I'd go to the store with her or buy me some material to sew. 

          I also washed cans for the neighbors during canning time for about 25¢ a day.  One neighbor Emolt Storts told his wife one time he needed help planting corn so she sent me while she canned.  He tried to make me do sex and I run all the way to the house grabbed my things and went home.  I would not let him bother me nor would I ever go back to their house unless both was to be their.  But I would never tell any body.           

          Howard my husband, was my first and only boy friend.  He tried to get me to go one morning on my way to school, must have been early May.  He just said let go get married.  I just laugh and told him he was crazy.  He was pretty drunk and Hollie & Homer Knapp was with him   I just thought he was Jokeing. 

      

       Viola Hester. 1944.

         So in Aug 7 the same year we started dateing.  I run off to go with him.  I went on one of my milking trips.  I sent the milk home with some of the Younger Kids.  He took me to Bournville and bought me some ice cream then took walked me all most to the house.  When I got home dad & mom had locked the doors so they know when I got home.  I crawed in one window.  Buy then I was sleeping on the floor.  But when they woke up.  They give me a beating untill I could hardly walk.  I was never allowed to go any where But Martha could go & stay for days.  if I was gone their was no one to work. 

          So dad (Bill) said how about going out Wed. night.  So Wed. came & went and dad (Bill) didn't show up.  So about the middle of the next week here come Bill. And wanted to know if I was ready.  I said yes but that was a week ago  But first he asked my dad if he could take me to the movies.  He said yes.  But I didn't have any shoes.  I was sitting in the floor trying to put a pair of soles on my shoes.  So I got Martha shoes which was too big to wear and Bill gave me $20.00 and said go buy me a good pairs   I bought a pr. for about 2 or 3 dollars.  I was not used to have any big money spent on any thing.  Then when I came out of the store I returned what money was left.  It was the first time I ever bought any thing to wear.  He asked me to marry him right away.  But I wanted to be 18 yr. old. or I would have just to get away from home.  He asked dad about takeing me out because some people, Joe Poole, Liz Storts and others told him my dad had a shotgun waiting for him.  So he came up to see me.  My dad said who ever said that was trying to scare him. So Bill said he had just fought a war and guns didn't scare him.  So we set Oct 1, 1946 for our wedding.

          So we went to Aunt Retha & Uncle Floyds and she went with me to Hillsboro and got my wedding clothes.  Again Bill gave me the money.  I believe it was 2 - $50.00 bills.  I still didn't buy any thing expensive.  I was learned to get buy on the less you could.  I believe I spent around 30 to $35.00.  Aunt Retha said spend it all but I wouldn't.  Them Bill bought his suit after he said he was going to dress casual.  He went and got it the night before the Wedding. 

          We took mom on the 5th Sept to her moms for her birthday.  grandma Spurgeon always liked Bill. 

          So on Oct 1, 1946 we went to Greenup, Ky and got married.  With Elanors Storts as our witness.  On our way to Ky.  Mrs Storts spoke up I never did see any body get married.  So We Knew then her & Cecil Storts were just living togeather. 

          So after we got married we started out over the hills of Ky.  Got lost But finaly found the river bridge and headed home.  We dropped of Eleanor Storts at her home.  Then Bill & I went on to Greenfield, O. to stay at the Hotel.  But did not stay as I because of a personal thing so we went home to my dads. 

          I didn't tell them we were going to get married.  But they knowed something was going on because I got all dressed up.  But when Bill came after me his car had broke down and he had Cecil Storts old car with the whole top cut off, and he was fixing Bill carb.  the lights all went out with Bill going back to Storts.  He was staying their for a few days to where they moved from Jack Hester Hill to Rt. 28 W. of Lattaville to a small place Storts had bought. 

          I only weight 75 lbs.  my dad said to me one summer day if you plan on getting married you better can some food.  So Bill bought me 4 bushel of peaches and enough fruit cans to put it in.  So Ellen Storts got mad and said to Bill you better be putting those peaches where you are going to stay.  He told her he was.  And I guess they were mad at him. 

          Old Liz Storts tried to get him to not come near me by saying I'd never have any Kids.  Bill just said let him worry about that.  people told every thing on me.  some things that hurt.   

          I told Bill that if I'd marry him I wouldn't live with a drunk.  All that I'd seen was Uncle Floyd & Uncle Leslie and Bill sometimes at grandpa.  He promised he wouldn't drink.  So I said OK then.  But that only lasted a little over a yr. 

          Then in Nov of 1947 I got pregnant for my 1st Son Ralph.  I was over joyed. And of course all Bill talked about was a girl.  Of course, I wanted a boy.  I was so small that Ralph was pulled from me.  He had marks on his head.  He was turning blue on us.  But he had a big healthy yell.  I was so proud of him.  His daddy was too.  His dad set the alarm clock so he would wake up.  So Bill would pick Ralph up and rock him.  Soon this got old.  But same time each morning Ralph woked.  I forget now it was either 4 or 5 o'clock  He said he was learning him (Ralph) to rise when the roosters crow. 

          Ralph had a sick spell when the weather got cold.  I took him to the doctor about noon.  This same night he got to chokeing  So the only doctor we Knowed to get him to was at Frankfort, ohio.  And Dr Garrett said he had Bronchitis and astmas together  When he was beginning to walk he took a spell and couldn't walk any more.  Never did Know for sure what it was  doctor said rumatic fever.  About 2 weeks later my dad (Harold) held out a penny and Ralph toddled to get it.  Ralph loved coins. 

          My dad gave Ralph watermelon when he was 3 days old.  I cried because I was afraid it would kill him.  Dad said it would not hurt him.  Him & mom was proud of him.  But had to many Kids of their own to really care. 

          Bill got tired of doing dishes and piled them in a big was tub.  He thought it would be easier.  But he never done that again.  He was all day doing dishes. 

          He got sausage to cook for dinner, It smelled so bad during cooking I refused to eat any of it.  So him & mom eat it for their dinner.  Bill got real sick at milking time And about died.  The next day mom didn't show up and she was so sick.  They got potomaine poisioning from it. 

          I learned Ralph to count at an early age.  He could listen to a radio and T.V. when we got one and he would tell me the news & weather if I was out side.  He helped count eggs which I washed and sold.  I used this money to help with groceries along with the cream I sold.  Hid daddy always left him with me.  So he was momma boy.  The first day of school he took his rubber doll to school.  But never again.  Also a time when he was around 4 yr old we lived the old Stemitz house and there was an old bridge between John Hollars & James Wisecup place.  The milk truck would make a big noise as it crossed the bridge and Ralph ran to the front window and yell tidy-duck tidy-duck  Then one big snow the mail was late and Bill was watching for the mail.  Bill said to Ralph if that mail man don't come pretty soon I'm going to pull his hair all out.  Ralph looked up and said daddy he don't have no hair.  The mail man was Max Bennett and he was clear bald. 

          Then I had Judy Sept 18, 1949   I had a very hard birth with her.  The doctor was called several times before she was born.  The day she was born Dr. Herbert Wilson came out that morning and said make her walk.  So labor will progress quicker.  I was in labor.  My water had broke back like July.  So I had a dry birth.  Bill had gotten his mother Amelia & Hazel Holler to come & be with me.  But (Maw) Amelia as I called her got mad because the doctor made me walk and made Bill take her home.  I guess maw & Bill had words But I never New what.  She waited a week before she came to see Judy.  Alto she picked her name.  So Hazel Holler and Hazel Wisecup came when I had Judy that night. 

          So next day he (Bill) went up to tell his mom & pop and pop was on the porch.  Bill said pop we got a big girl.  Maw came out and said you are lieing she couldn't had no baby yet.  So Bill said if you don't believe me ask Hazel Holler & Hazel Wisecup.  they were their. 

          I washed clothes now on an old motor ringer washer.  Before that when I was married I had an old wooden tub, the wooden rubber you moved side to side over your clothes.  One kind of washer I had was like a funnel and you stomped it up & down.  Then I also had brass & glass wash boards.  Then finaly about 1952 I got a electric washer. 

          I had both girls Judy and Shirley at the old Steinmetz house.

          When Shirley was a baby I was washing.  got a wrap around dress caught in the wringer cogs and had my clothes pulled in up to my breast.  I yelled for Ralph  He was around 4 I believe, to get me a butcher knife from the table.  I finealy got my toe on a wire to shut off the motor of the washer and cut my dress off with a Knife.  Bill always came home for dinner where he worked on the farm and he had to take the cloth out of the cogs before I finish washing.  My breast was so near it wasn't funny. 

          One day before Judy was born after the doctor left  Bill & John Wisecup got drunk and got a chicken  tried to cook it.  There was not enough fire to cook it so they eat it half cooked and feathers partly on it & blood running out.  My sister Dorothy was with me and about gaged watching them eating it. 

          I was put to bed and wasn't allowed out of bed.  Cecil & Ellen Storts Visited One evening and sit on my bed.  And I got lice for the first time in my life.  I cried like it was the end of the world.  Bill got Kerosene soaked my Head wrapped it in a towel & washed my head.  I cried & cried as I had been told you wet your head when you were menustration you would die. 

          in 1953 March 18 - I had Clifford   he was born when we lived at the Aunt Mazie Cokonougher place on Wisecup Hill Rd   the weather was beautiful that years   I gathered greens & mushrooms that year it was so warm.  That Next day I was haveing pains like the day before.  So Bill took me to the Doctor and he said go to the hospital but you will go home.  So I went up to the hospital and they gave me a shot and told Bill to go on home  I would go home by night So Bill said why take her clothes.  So he came back at noon, and I said you got a big boy.  He said you don't look like it.  I was wrapped in bandages until I looked pregnant.  He was born 9 min from the time they gave me the shot. 

          Then Bill had problems.  I took phlebitis or (milk leg) as commely Known.  Amelia (Bill mother) refused to help him with Kids.  So I didn't let it be Known to the doctor how bad I hurt.  As I Knew I have to stay in the hospital and no money to pay the bill.  I believe the Dr. & the Hospital bill was $1,000 back then. 

          I went home Bills brother Cecil stopped every day at noon and built up the fire.  The night Clifford was born we had a big snow after the weather had been for days you didn't need a coat. 

          Ralph toated bread & put butter on it for me & the kids.  He took care of me like a little man.  one Sunday my dad came to see me.  he said, Bill Viola & the kids cannot stay here the house my get on fire.  So he took my bed, me & Judy Shirley, Ralph & Cliff home with him. 

          Then dad (Bill) moved back to the Steimentz place again.  my Kids and all of my brothers & sisters had the whooping cough.  Bill helped with food and Dr. Wilson came every other day.  I was in bed until Decoration that year.  Still have problems with my right leg. 

          As the children grew I canned, gardened, sewed, done cleaning for some of aunts. Viola Hester Rene Ryan, Margaruite Storts.  Most was done in walking distant, for Mrs. Storts  I cleaned for her one March, April & May. 

          Clifford had a broken hip when in the first grade.  I made him a pr. of White over alls to cover his cast with So I could take him places with me.  He was in a complet cast only With on leg from Knee down and his head & arms out.  At this time I still didn't weight over 75 to 80 lbs.  I take hold of the bar between his legs and hoist him over my shoulder and carry him to top of the hill & Maragurite Storts would come after me to work.  she still laughs yet today about me carring something as big as me. 

          When Clifford broke his leg, We all went that morning over Hollie Knapps to cut post to sell on the halfs.  The men just left the house and Florence & I heard this periceing screams.  I took off running & Bill got there about the time I did.  Bill picked him up & said my god mom he broke his leg.  His daddy had worked a week building the sled for the kids.  Hollie & Florences Kids also was out their with ours.  We went out and showed them where to go & stay but like kids they did not.  Ralph & Cliff was on the same sled.  The hit a bush or stump and cliff broke his hip and Ralph went with his head in a frozen cow pile.  We were out of money & didn't have enough to get home that night or to the doctor.  Florence gave us $20.00 and would not take it back.  I believe the post finally got cut.  I think posts were like 30 or 35¢ piece by a big truck load where somebody the came & then trucked them away.  We also helped pick Tame Blackberries from Hollie Knapp also.  If I remember they sold like $10.00 a crate of 24 qts.

          The Carl Johnson had a peach orchard out from we lived close to my dads. and I could get all dropped peaches I wanted if I got their first.  My Kids & I carried from with their wagon and what I could carry  If the wind had blown the night before I make 2 or 3 trips.  Some days I can 100 qts a day. but they fell in lots of grass which kept lots of bruises.  I canned around 400 qt that year of peaches. 

          Bill bought a bushel of tomatoes off of Harvey Hester on lower twin and the same day Hollie Knapp came with another guy.  Bill had told him he wanted some tomatoes.  But was not expecting them yet.  So he brought 4 bu.  Bill didn't have any money again that time of year.  He only had money comeing in from cutting weeds along township rds.  So he left the tomatoes.  So Bill & my self canned untill 4 o'clock I believe in the morning  we started around 1 PM. and worked & washed cans until finished.  He was a good helper if he wanted to be. 

          The only trouble we had was over drunks and him drinking.  I never had no place to go but home and that would have been just as bad.  If I had been able to drove I probably would have been gone years ago.  Altho I loved him very much their times I could walk off with out a blink of my eyes.  But I loved my babies to much.  I would not let them out my sight.  I always canned lots of fruits & Veg. each year.  I when Ralph was a Senior I worked in a bakery and ironed clothes for Lenora Lauderman to get some of his things and his suit."

                                                           THE END.