I have gotten away ahead of my story and shall have to go back to the year 1895 when I was six years old. A big event happened in my little life. My adored sister “Shade” (Sadie), who had been a second mother to me all my life, got married.
How well I remember her beautiful clothes. She was to me the most beautiful thing that ever walked upon earth. I almost worshipped “Shade”. The man she married, George Neely, worked for my dad in the blacksmith shop and was a widower with two children. He was twice my sister’s age, and I know now that my mother gave her daughter rather unwillingly, but he seemed to be a very nice man. My father was a good judge of people, and so they were married.
I remember how excited we were at the prospect of two more children, for my sister and her husband would live next door, while he continued to work for my father in the blacksmith shop. By this time [my] brother Millard had been added to the group, making seven. Musa and Ernest would make nine.
That next year my mother and sister Sadie both gave birth to baby girls. My sister’s baby little Sarah Edith died at three months old; my little sister, Mary Ethel died at sixteen months, and there was mourning at our house. I can remember the little coffins buried side by side in the Patterson Cemetery.
We learned to love the new children very much. Musa, a pretty little doll of a girl was six years old, just my age. Ernest, I a fat little fellow of four years, was very cute. It seemed that Musa had a little jealousy in her nature.
Since her mother’s death, she had lived with her maternal grandmother and aunt. No doubt they showed partiality to Ernest, he being just a baby. The aunt was not very good to Musa or so she told us how she would be punished very cruelly. I think she was very jealous of me because of my sister Sadie’s great love for me. I had always been “Shade’s Girl”, and maybe I was a little jealous too. Musa craved the love she saw showered on me by my family. She would tell little lies to get my brothers, sister and me into trouble. We were continually into scrapes, but as I had always been a truthful child, my story was believed. I do not doubt that at times Musa almost hated me, yet there was a genuine affection between us that outlived all those petty childhood jealousies.
About the year 1898, [Sadie and George] moved away from us to Washington County, Missouri, where George had been raised. My sister had another baby girl named Lenore Elizabeth, and Mother had a bouncing blue-eyed boy named Charles Ernest. The Ernest was after my sister’s little stepson. It was a real grief to us when my brother-in-law decided to move and take the children and my sister away. But children do not harbor grief, and by then I had other girl friends.
Floy, was my very close neighbor. She was an only child and a very much spoiled little girl. She had had a little sister whose name was Stella, same as mine, but she had died when very Page. Her parents were both old people. He had been married twice and had some children by a former marriage, but I never remember seeing any of them.
Mrs. Birdwell was undoubtedly an old maid when Mr. Birdwell married her. Her name was Jo English. The English family were some of the very oldest settlers of the Patterson community. Floy was very lonely and dearly loved to play with the Brooks children, so she was continually “running off”. Floy was not allowed much company; her parents were very strict religious people. They belonged to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, therefore did not go to the same Sunday school I did.
In later years the two churches merged and the old Cumberland Church was torn down and sold. Floy’s Papa was our postmaster. He had sometime in his life been minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church but I had given it up. He had to pass our gate to and from his work at the post office. He always gave me a big smile but when he would see Floy hiding behind me he would say, “Floy, Floy,” in such a stern way and point knowingly toward home. Floy’s little legs would fairly fly getting there before he did.
I liked Papa Birdwell, but I also feared him, and if I should be visiting Floy, I would try to leave before he got home. Aunt Joe was always nice to me. She usually had cookies to give us and I loved to see her rooms for they were so clean and orderly. Our house was not that dirty for my mother and sister Ruth worked their fingers to the bone trying to keep it clean but with seven or eight children it was a constant chore.
Nevertheless our yard was usually full, with two or three extra girl friends and a boy or so with my brothers. One time Floy went home and told her mother that Eli (my brother) had lice. Mrs. Birdwell, who was so particular, was astonished and said; “Oh, No”, Floy said “I know he has. I saw one fly off his head.”
Among my classmates at school was one girl I loved very dearly, perhaps even better than I did Floy, whom I mentioned earlier. Her father was Mr. George Montgomery, my first school teacher. They had moved in our house, the one my sister Sadie had lived in. After the school term was over he bought a store and entered the mercantile business and was our merchant for several years.
Gusta was a beautiful blonde, blue-eyed little girl and an only child. It seemed all my playmates were “only” children, and there were so many of the Brooks children. Gusta had had a little sister but she had passed away. Gusta always seemed lonely. She would beg and beg my mother for me to go home with her, and I just loved to go. She had so many toys and pretty things to play with. We would play for hours with never a harsh word.
While Floy–well arguments were continually coming up and she would get mad and fly home–but not for very long. It was too lonesome and she could see the Brooks children going ahead with their play, not even missing her. I never remember having a harsh word with Gusta, and it was indeed a sad day when her father sold his store and they moved to Piedmont. The roads were bad and it would take three or four hours by wagon to go into the city.
One thing I remember as a highlight in my childhood was my seventh birthday. My mother let me have a birthday party. All the girl friends I had were there: Gusta, Floy, Meekie Sebastion, Ethel Bunyard, Effie Angel and perhaps others I have forgotten. I remember Meekie Sebastian gave me a little pin cushion I kept for many years. Her father was our family doctor and brought most all of us into the world. I do not remember all my gifts but it was a very happy day to me.
I was very fond of Effie Angel, another only child. Her parents lived on a farm about a mile from town. She walked to school, and she would go by my home and ask Mother to let me go stay all night. We would come back to school the next morning, and many are the times I went home with Effie. They had cows, chickens, hogs and geese. It was a great pleasure for me to go to her house and sleep on those fat clean feather beds with beautiful hand-made quilts, for Effie’s mother was a hard worker and had everything nice and clean and everything to eat a farm produces.
Then there was Nan and Alpha Daffron. They lived on a farm just the opposite direction from where Effie lived. I spent many a night with them, and we would talk and giggle till all hours of the night.
