By this time my Grandma Francis had moved up the path to another the house across the creek from us. The other family who had lived there had had a girl and boy. The boy had been a little older then Shirley. The house had a tree in the yard with his initials and an A.D. carved into it. For all I know it could have been mine but I never looked twice at him.
When i came home for visits, I would go over to stay the night with Grandma Francis. Sometimes she told me stories while she made quilts. She always chewed tobacco and would spit into a coffee can wherever she was.
Here’s one of the stories she told me: when she was a young girl there was old woman who lived down the hollow from her parents in Kentucky. One day, her father brought a cow from her but this cow never gave them any milk. He went back to the old woman and told her she put curse on the cow and must be a witch. She said he deserved it since he tried to cheat her and not pay her what the cow was really worth. Grandma Francis said she caught the school bus every morning with this old woman's two daughters and they were friends.
Well, one morning the daughters didn't show up for the school bus or come to school that day. And that evening when Grandma Francis got off the school bus and walked by this old woman's house, she came out the door and called Grandma Francis over. The woman asked her if she had ever seen green flour before. Grandma Francis said no and didn't know there was such a thing as green flour. The old woman said that morning she had gone to the store where they had sold her some spoiled flour and it was green! She asked Grandma Francis if she would like to see it.
She said yes she would; who wouldn't want to see green flour? The old woman took her to the bedroom and showed her the spoiled flour. It was green alright. Grandma Francis said the room had been empty except for the green flour which was everywhere and it sparkled!
The next thing she knew was her brother Ben was waking her up. It was now dark and she had been laying on the side of the road beside a log. Her father had sent her brother to go look for her since she hadn't come home from school yet.
Grandma Francis also told me how witches could come across the mountains, turn into mist and get into your house under the door.
Showing posts with label grandparents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grandparents. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
My Family: Chapter 46
My Grandma Francis lived with us off and on since my Grandpa died. There wasn’t anything Mom wouldn’t do for her. But I will always remember she didn’t like Shirley, Lucille, or me - a fact she didn’t try to hide. It’s not that Grandma Francis would hit us or anything, she just talk hateful to us. She would take Ronnie’s and Sonny's side in everything. I remember once, Grandma Francis got her Social Security check and bought a bag of candy. She called Ronny into the pantry, which was off of the kitchen, and feed him the whole bag. I stood on the outside and listened to her tell him not to give us any of it.
Out of Grandma Francis family she only care for her granddaughter, Sue. Even Aunt Alice who wouldn’t lift one finger to help her mother. Uncle Vondon never came home to visit with his mother, he wrote her letters instead. I don’t think anyone knew why he didn’t visit, and if Mom knew she wasn’t saying. All I ever heard Mom say was Uncle Vondon was ashamed of his family. After the war, he moved to Ashland, Kentucky and got married. I don’t think we would have ever found out he had gotten married if his wife hadn’t found Mom’s address and wrote her. She told Mom she didn’t know Uncle Vondon had a family. She wanted to come for a visit and meet his sister and mother. Mom invited her to come and visit for a week.
When Uncle Vondon’s wife got to our house, I heard her tell Mom that Uncle Vondon had said if she came for visit he would divorce her. She asked Mom if she thought he would? Mom said she didn’t think so. But later she wrote that when she got home Uncle Vondon had filed for a divorce while she had been away. The next time that we heard from him, he was living in North Carolina with a different lady.
About this time, Grandma Francis came to live with us again but now Mom found her a house across the creek from us. The old man who had lived there had died and Mom moved Grandma in before it could be torn down. At one time there had been four one-room homes with porches across from us, but they either burnt down (once with an old man inside) or were torn down. Now there was only two houses left.
Mom said she wanted that house because she didn't like for Grandma Francis to spend the night alone without someone close-by to run for help if needed. So guess what? It was me who had to spent the night with her when I was at home. I think the real reason she couldn't live with us was because of my parents partying on the weekends.
Out of Grandma Francis family she only care for her granddaughter, Sue. Even Aunt Alice who wouldn’t lift one finger to help her mother. Uncle Vondon never came home to visit with his mother, he wrote her letters instead. I don’t think anyone knew why he didn’t visit, and if Mom knew she wasn’t saying. All I ever heard Mom say was Uncle Vondon was ashamed of his family. After the war, he moved to Ashland, Kentucky and got married. I don’t think we would have ever found out he had gotten married if his wife hadn’t found Mom’s address and wrote her. She told Mom she didn’t know Uncle Vondon had a family. She wanted to come for a visit and meet his sister and mother. Mom invited her to come and visit for a week.
When Uncle Vondon’s wife got to our house, I heard her tell Mom that Uncle Vondon had said if she came for visit he would divorce her. She asked Mom if she thought he would? Mom said she didn’t think so. But later she wrote that when she got home Uncle Vondon had filed for a divorce while she had been away. The next time that we heard from him, he was living in North Carolina with a different lady.
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| Grandma Francis (home) |
Mom said she wanted that house because she didn't like for Grandma Francis to spend the night alone without someone close-by to run for help if needed. So guess what? It was me who had to spent the night with her when I was at home. I think the real reason she couldn't live with us was because of my parents partying on the weekends.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
My Family: Chapter 11
After we moved to Macbeth, Shirley and I made friends with the kids at the bottom of the hollow. They played in the cemetery.
They got cardboard boxes and slid down the hill. Sonny must have been with us, I just don't remember him too much except for he slept at the foot of my bed and lived in the same house as I did. I claimed him as a brother and he claimed us as his family, but he had his own set of friends and we had ours. I think the reason I don't remember too much about him has a lot to do with him being a boy. He was such a good son, never got into any trouble - I think he was a little bit afraid of Dad. I feel sorry for him because he really loved his birth mother but you could count on one hand how many times she came to see him the whole time we had him. And when she did come, he would hang on her hugging her but she would push him away. My parents gave us love and attention in their way but not by hugs and kisses. Dad gave us love by playing with us when ever he could or was home and he told everyone he had the prettiest daughters.
Macbeth hollow had a Presbyterian church, but we belonged to the Church of God, which is a Pentecostal denomination. Mom didn’t care if Shirley and I went to Sunday school there but she wouldn't go. We went every Sunday. One Sunday, they were giving away little Bibles and we wanted one, but in order to get a Bible you had to be baptized. So we got baptized and they gave us each a Bible. When Mom heard we got baptized she got so mad that she gave us a whooping and took the Bibles away from us. She took the Bibles back to the minister and told him that he didn’t have the right to baptized us without her permission, that she didn’t believe in his church, and that we wouldn’t be coming back. We never went back again.
Remember how isolated Mom felt living at Macbeth? It really was lonesome. I remember this one time an old woman who lived by herself in the last house up Macbeth got bit by a rattlesnake. It was a while before she got any help. I can still see them carrying her out of the hollow. I don’t remember if she died. Still, Mom nagged Dad to get her out of Macbeth. I forgot how bad Mom nagged; you would do anything just to shut her up. I can remember sitting out on the front steps listening to Mom cry, and she cried a lot while we lived up Macbeth hollow. Mostly because Dad was gone so much and she was left to take care of the children.
Grandma Dillow died of cancer while we lived up Macbeth. I was ten years old and had just gotten over the mumps. Dr.Vaughn said it was the first case of mumps he had seen in years. I was lucky and wasn't that sick - I had them only on one side. Shirley wasn't so lucky, she had them on both sides and still had to go to Grandma Dillow's funeral - she was very sick. Do you recall I mentioned that the family sits up with their dead for two or three nights before they bury them? Well, one night while the family sat up with Grandma Dillow, Grandma sat straight up in her casket! The next morning, my aunts and uncles were too excited to listen to the funeral director as he tried to explain the reason to them.
Wasn’t long after Grandma Dillow's funeral, Dad came home from work and told Mom there was a family who wanted to trade homes with us. A man had approached Dad and told him his wife wanted to move, he thought she would feel better up Macbeth as it would get her away from people. The main reason was her father was a bootlegger. West Virginia is a dry state that means that you can only buy whiskey in a state store and not on weekends. And although her father had stopped selling whiskey, people were still coming to the house all night long. She had two small boys, so her husband thought it would make her happy to move away from the people that kept coming to the house. The family had lived in the house for years. The wife's brother and her were born in the house and her father did many improvements. He had added a bathhouse and put in hot and cold running water. We traded homes but we got the best of the deal because we got a sink with a cabinet above it, hot and cold water in the kitchen, and a bathhouse with two showers.
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| Graveyard up Rum creek |
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| Small Church in Logan, WV. |
Remember how isolated Mom felt living at Macbeth? It really was lonesome. I remember this one time an old woman who lived by herself in the last house up Macbeth got bit by a rattlesnake. It was a while before she got any help. I can still see them carrying her out of the hollow. I don’t remember if she died. Still, Mom nagged Dad to get her out of Macbeth. I forgot how bad Mom nagged; you would do anything just to shut her up. I can remember sitting out on the front steps listening to Mom cry, and she cried a lot while we lived up Macbeth hollow. Mostly because Dad was gone so much and she was left to take care of the children.
Grandma Dillow died of cancer while we lived up Macbeth. I was ten years old and had just gotten over the mumps. Dr.Vaughn said it was the first case of mumps he had seen in years. I was lucky and wasn't that sick - I had them only on one side. Shirley wasn't so lucky, she had them on both sides and still had to go to Grandma Dillow's funeral - she was very sick. Do you recall I mentioned that the family sits up with their dead for two or three nights before they bury them? Well, one night while the family sat up with Grandma Dillow, Grandma sat straight up in her casket! The next morning, my aunts and uncles were too excited to listen to the funeral director as he tried to explain the reason to them.
Wasn’t long after Grandma Dillow's funeral, Dad came home from work and told Mom there was a family who wanted to trade homes with us. A man had approached Dad and told him his wife wanted to move, he thought she would feel better up Macbeth as it would get her away from people. The main reason was her father was a bootlegger. West Virginia is a dry state that means that you can only buy whiskey in a state store and not on weekends. And although her father had stopped selling whiskey, people were still coming to the house all night long. She had two small boys, so her husband thought it would make her happy to move away from the people that kept coming to the house. The family had lived in the house for years. The wife's brother and her were born in the house and her father did many improvements. He had added a bathhouse and put in hot and cold running water. We traded homes but we got the best of the deal because we got a sink with a cabinet above it, hot and cold water in the kitchen, and a bathhouse with two showers.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Perry Francis and Hattie Sluss part 2
Remember my mom's parents, Perry and Hattie? Perry Francis died on April 05, 1941, two weeks before I was born; he dislocated his shoulder from shoveling sand and died from blood poisoning. The Company doctor didn’t treat him for a dislocated shoulder but just gave him a pill that was a cure all. His whole arm swelled up to twice the normal size, but by the time he went to the hospital, it was too late. He was sixty-five years old. The cemetery where my Grandpa Francis is buried are still in Chambers. The family Chambers owns the land and takes care of the cemetery. My cousin, Thurman, married a Chamber’s girl. Harris Funeral Home made a mistake on their files, they had the location of Grandpa Francis' burial at Macbeth, but Grandma Francis and their children said that he was buried at Cham graveyard. Maybe they made the mistake because my mother lived at Macbeth and he was laid out at home - not in the funeral parlor. In those days the funeral home would bring the casket home, and set it up in a room for the family to sit up and view him all night. However, Grandpa Francis was laid out at his friend’s home. My Aunt Hannah and my Grandma Francis told me, at different times, that something strange happened after Grandpa Francis' funeral. Grandma had put Grandpa’s clothes in a box which was placed in a corner of the viewing room. While everyone was sitting around talking after the funeral, the box raised up off the floor. My Aunt Hannah said she never did understand how that happens.
My sisters and I went in search of Grandpa Francis' grave, but since the grave had no marker it is lost to us. However, if we go by where Aunt Belvia said that he was buried in the Chamber's cemetery then we think that we found the grave but since it's unmarked, we have no proof. Especially since the Chamber's called the funeral home and they said that he was buried at Macbeth cemetery which is no longer there. Grandma Francis once told me she thought Mom was going to miss her father’s funeral because I was going to be born. Grandma said that Mom was washing clothes when she went into labor with me - Mom always did the wash on Monday. So I was born eleven days after my Grandpa Francis' burial.
Grandma Francis died on Dec. 26, 1964 at the age of sixty-six, she died from leukemia and a heart attack. Grandparents had five children while living in Rum Creek hollow. These are some stories about them:
Their oldest daughter, Alice, got to close too the fire place when she was about four years old and caught her dress on fire. She had some ugly looking scars on one side of her body for the rest of her life. She was lucky to be alive maybe that's why Grandma babied and favor her. Aunt Alice had a stroke and died in a nursing home in Logan, West Virginia. She was eighty-seven. Two of her three children died from heart attacks in their forties.
My grandparent's oldest boy, Vondon, never had any children that he claimed. Once, when he left our house in Orville and went to Ashland, Kentucky, which is across the river from Huntington, West Virginia, to work. He met a girl from Huntington who later said that she had given birth to his son. But Uncle Vondon said that the baby didn’t belong to him and that was the end of that until the boy grew up. After his son grew up he went looking for his father, and found aunt Belva living in Logan and explain who he was and gave her a picture of himself to send to Uncle Vondon who was living in North Carolina at the time. When Vondon got the picture, he showed it to all his friends and asked them who they thought it was? The son looked so much like the father. Vondon had made arrangements with his son, through my Aunt Belvia, to meet in Logan at aunt Belva's but before they could Uncle Vondon died of a sudden heart attack. Aunt Belva went to uncle Vondon's funeral while there she ask his wife if she had something of uncle Vondons that she could give to the son , she gave her Uncle Vondon’s Air Force service ring. When the son show up for the meeting aunt Belva gave him the ring. Uncle Vondon never came home to visit his mother - he didn’t go to his mother’s funeral either. However, he did come home to visit my mom. Aunt Belvia said one time she didn’t know that he was home until she saw him on the streets in Logan. He died from a heart attack at the age of forty-eight.
Aunt Tince was married twice and is still living. She had five children. She lost her youngest son, Ronny, to a heart attack just before his fifty-fifth birthday.
My mom died at the age of forty-eight also from a heart attack.
Aunt Belvia married but never had any children. She died at the age of seventy-eight of cancer.
My sisters and I went in search of Grandpa Francis' grave, but since the grave had no marker it is lost to us. However, if we go by where Aunt Belvia said that he was buried in the Chamber's cemetery then we think that we found the grave but since it's unmarked, we have no proof. Especially since the Chamber's called the funeral home and they said that he was buried at Macbeth cemetery which is no longer there. Grandma Francis once told me she thought Mom was going to miss her father’s funeral because I was going to be born. Grandma said that Mom was washing clothes when she went into labor with me - Mom always did the wash on Monday. So I was born eleven days after my Grandpa Francis' burial.
Grandma Francis died on Dec. 26, 1964 at the age of sixty-six, she died from leukemia and a heart attack. Grandparents had five children while living in Rum Creek hollow. These are some stories about them:
Their oldest daughter, Alice, got to close too the fire place when she was about four years old and caught her dress on fire. She had some ugly looking scars on one side of her body for the rest of her life. She was lucky to be alive maybe that's why Grandma babied and favor her. Aunt Alice had a stroke and died in a nursing home in Logan, West Virginia. She was eighty-seven. Two of her three children died from heart attacks in their forties.
My grandparent's oldest boy, Vondon, never had any children that he claimed. Once, when he left our house in Orville and went to Ashland, Kentucky, which is across the river from Huntington, West Virginia, to work. He met a girl from Huntington who later said that she had given birth to his son. But Uncle Vondon said that the baby didn’t belong to him and that was the end of that until the boy grew up. After his son grew up he went looking for his father, and found aunt Belva living in Logan and explain who he was and gave her a picture of himself to send to Uncle Vondon who was living in North Carolina at the time. When Vondon got the picture, he showed it to all his friends and asked them who they thought it was? The son looked so much like the father. Vondon had made arrangements with his son, through my Aunt Belvia, to meet in Logan at aunt Belva's but before they could Uncle Vondon died of a sudden heart attack. Aunt Belva went to uncle Vondon's funeral while there she ask his wife if she had something of uncle Vondons that she could give to the son , she gave her Uncle Vondon’s Air Force service ring. When the son show up for the meeting aunt Belva gave him the ring. Uncle Vondon never came home to visit his mother - he didn’t go to his mother’s funeral either. However, he did come home to visit my mom. Aunt Belvia said one time she didn’t know that he was home until she saw him on the streets in Logan. He died from a heart attack at the age of forty-eight.
Aunt Tince was married twice and is still living. She had five children. She lost her youngest son, Ronny, to a heart attack just before his fifty-fifth birthday.
My mom died at the age of forty-eight also from a heart attack.
Aunt Belvia married but never had any children. She died at the age of seventy-eight of cancer.
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| William P. Francis 1876-1941 |
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| Hattie Sluss 1898 - 1964 |
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| Golden Alice Francis 1919 - 2006 |
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| Ida Marie Francis 1921 - 1969 |
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| Vondon Lee Francis 1922 - 1970 |
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| Vicy Jane (Tince) Francis 1924 - ? |
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| Belva Louise Francis 1926 - 2005 |
Friday, December 2, 2011
Abraham Dillow Family part II
My Grandpa and Grandma Dillow moved to a farm in Gallipolis, Ohio when they left Dehue. My grandpa work for other farmers, where the farmer would live in another house close by and my grandparents would live in the farmhouse and work the farm for them.
In summer of July 4th 1947 when I was 6 yrs old, Mom and Dad took us on a vacation to visit our grandparents in Ohio. We went then because that's when the miners got their vacation - the first two weeks in July. Also at their house those weeks was my Uncle Woodrow and Aunt Gladys with their three sons and a daughter; my Aunt Wanda with her husband, Woodrow, and their two sons. Living at home still were Uncle Richard and Aunt Hope. So with my parents and my two sisters and myself, we had a full house.
All of us grandchildren were close in age. We would run and chase each other, and roll down the hills, and get ticks on us.
My Grandpa Abe was in the barn one morning, milking the cow while all of us children were running around upsetting the cow. Grandpa hollered at us and told us to stop. My Aunt Wanda's oldest boy, Jimmy, was showing off by pulling the cow's tail. My grandpa Abe told him to stop before the cow kicked him but he didn't listen. I can still see that cow kicking him, hearing him scream and watching him going up in the air to the first floor ceiling, it was a two story barn. I don’t remember how bad he was hurt, it couldn't have been too bad because later he still tried to drown me in the creek which was close to the house where our parents let us play. The other kids ran up to the house and told my Dad, he came down and pulled Jimmy off of me giving him a spanking. When we got older, Jimmy and I loved one another like brother and sister. I went to stay with his mom, my aunt Wanda, in the summers off and on from ages fourteen to seventeen - so we grew up together.
Another time, my sister, Shirley, and I found Aunt Hope's Shirley Temple doll that one of her brothers had sold chances to get for her. The chance was a push-out card and each number someone bought was a different price from five cent to ninety-nine cent. It was a lot of money for someone to be spending on a chance card but if you were lucky you got the prize. But this time it was for a Shirley Temple doll. It took her brother a long time to get that doll. The doll was thirty-two inches high so it was a big doll and my Aunt Hope had hid it while all the grandchildren were there. But my sister and I found it in a closet and started to fight over it, Shirley was pulling it one way and I was pulling it another and we pulled it apart that's when Aunt Hope found us. She screamed at us and our parents came to see what was going on. Aunt Hope was crying and Grandma told her that we were just babies and she was too old to be carrying on so over a doll, she was sixteen at the time. Now that I‘m older, wiser, and been married for all these years, I know what happen to that doll - it could have been fixed. All we did was break the rubber band that held its arms together, but at the time the doll was destroyed and had to be thrown away.
That was the best summer vacation, I remember my Grandfather put us all in the hay wagon to give us a ride out of the hollow to the bus stop so we could go home. The wheel broke off of the wagon and Shirley and my Dad spilled out - no one was hurt. We came away with pictures of the best time in our life. The next time that we went and visit my grandparents, they lived in Kermit, West Virginia across the river from Kentucky. By that time Hope had gotten married. I don’t remember how long that we stayed I only remember the house and yard.
Aunt Hope married Uncle Ray, a Minster in the Church of God. She would come to visit other relatives and I think she visited us only because we lived a couple of houses away. Dad would have not let her forget it if she should come up the hollow and not stop in. She only came to our house once that I can remember. She wouldn’t let us feed her three children, they weren’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink. We thought she was very strict. They made no fuss when she said that they couldn’t have the pop that we were offering them, most children would make a fuss especially them being so young. Later her daughter, Ruth, said something I think went for when they came to our house, too. She said that Aunt Hope didn't like the way Aunt Wanda kept the house. She didn't think it was clean enough.
Once when I was staying with Aunt Hannah, Aunt Hope asked me if I would come and watch her children, she had five children by then. Her and her husband wanted to go away on a retreat for the Church. I had no trouble with the children. Aunt Hope and Uncle Ray came home the last day and took us all back to the Church for the day. I stayed with them for an extra couple of days after we got back to their house and got to see my first couple to get married. The couple knocked on the door and asked Uncle Ray if he would marry them. He married them in his living room.
My grandparent moved away from Ohio to Kermit, West Virginia. I think it was because my Grandma Hester could no longer keep up with canning and take care of the farm. After living in Kermit they moved to Black Bottom in Logan, West Virginia. This one time, I remember Dad had taken us all for a visit. Grandpa Abe always would like to wrestle with us girls. Sometimes he would play with us all together and other times only one of us. If he got hurt, he would get mad and want to whip you. Grandpa and I were sitting on the front porch which had no banister and our feet were hanging off when he reach over and knock me backwards. I got up and pushed him backwards. Dad happened to come out of the house and this is what he said to his father. "You can play with her but if she hurts you, old man, and you get mad and want to hurt her back. I will hurt you."
Dad taught us girls how to wrestle and be tough, that is how he himself played with us. Sometimes as we walked by him, he would try to trip us or push us in our backs with his thumb which always started a wrestling match. I always enjoyed going to visit my Grandma Hester's, I remembered what a good breakfast she would cook for us when we stayed overnight with the house was always full. My grandparents lived in a three room house with a front porch. I fondly remember how she would show us that she could drop her front teeth. We didn't know it at the time what false teeth were. That's where they lived when my Grandma Hester passed away - I was ten years old.
In summer of July 4th 1947 when I was 6 yrs old, Mom and Dad took us on a vacation to visit our grandparents in Ohio. We went then because that's when the miners got their vacation - the first two weeks in July. Also at their house those weeks was my Uncle Woodrow and Aunt Gladys with their three sons and a daughter; my Aunt Wanda with her husband, Woodrow, and their two sons. Living at home still were Uncle Richard and Aunt Hope. So with my parents and my two sisters and myself, we had a full house.
All of us grandchildren were close in age. We would run and chase each other, and roll down the hills, and get ticks on us.
My Grandpa Abe was in the barn one morning, milking the cow while all of us children were running around upsetting the cow. Grandpa hollered at us and told us to stop. My Aunt Wanda's oldest boy, Jimmy, was showing off by pulling the cow's tail. My grandpa Abe told him to stop before the cow kicked him but he didn't listen. I can still see that cow kicking him, hearing him scream and watching him going up in the air to the first floor ceiling, it was a two story barn. I don’t remember how bad he was hurt, it couldn't have been too bad because later he still tried to drown me in the creek which was close to the house where our parents let us play. The other kids ran up to the house and told my Dad, he came down and pulled Jimmy off of me giving him a spanking. When we got older, Jimmy and I loved one another like brother and sister. I went to stay with his mom, my aunt Wanda, in the summers off and on from ages fourteen to seventeen - so we grew up together.
Another time, my sister, Shirley, and I found Aunt Hope's Shirley Temple doll that one of her brothers had sold chances to get for her. The chance was a push-out card and each number someone bought was a different price from five cent to ninety-nine cent. It was a lot of money for someone to be spending on a chance card but if you were lucky you got the prize. But this time it was for a Shirley Temple doll. It took her brother a long time to get that doll. The doll was thirty-two inches high so it was a big doll and my Aunt Hope had hid it while all the grandchildren were there. But my sister and I found it in a closet and started to fight over it, Shirley was pulling it one way and I was pulling it another and we pulled it apart that's when Aunt Hope found us. She screamed at us and our parents came to see what was going on. Aunt Hope was crying and Grandma told her that we were just babies and she was too old to be carrying on so over a doll, she was sixteen at the time. Now that I‘m older, wiser, and been married for all these years, I know what happen to that doll - it could have been fixed. All we did was break the rubber band that held its arms together, but at the time the doll was destroyed and had to be thrown away.
That was the best summer vacation, I remember my Grandfather put us all in the hay wagon to give us a ride out of the hollow to the bus stop so we could go home. The wheel broke off of the wagon and Shirley and my Dad spilled out - no one was hurt. We came away with pictures of the best time in our life. The next time that we went and visit my grandparents, they lived in Kermit, West Virginia across the river from Kentucky. By that time Hope had gotten married. I don’t remember how long that we stayed I only remember the house and yard.
Aunt Hope married Uncle Ray, a Minster in the Church of God. She would come to visit other relatives and I think she visited us only because we lived a couple of houses away. Dad would have not let her forget it if she should come up the hollow and not stop in. She only came to our house once that I can remember. She wouldn’t let us feed her three children, they weren’t allowed to have anything to eat or drink. We thought she was very strict. They made no fuss when she said that they couldn’t have the pop that we were offering them, most children would make a fuss especially them being so young. Later her daughter, Ruth, said something I think went for when they came to our house, too. She said that Aunt Hope didn't like the way Aunt Wanda kept the house. She didn't think it was clean enough.
Once when I was staying with Aunt Hannah, Aunt Hope asked me if I would come and watch her children, she had five children by then. Her and her husband wanted to go away on a retreat for the Church. I had no trouble with the children. Aunt Hope and Uncle Ray came home the last day and took us all back to the Church for the day. I stayed with them for an extra couple of days after we got back to their house and got to see my first couple to get married. The couple knocked on the door and asked Uncle Ray if he would marry them. He married them in his living room.
My grandparent moved away from Ohio to Kermit, West Virginia. I think it was because my Grandma Hester could no longer keep up with canning and take care of the farm. After living in Kermit they moved to Black Bottom in Logan, West Virginia. This one time, I remember Dad had taken us all for a visit. Grandpa Abe always would like to wrestle with us girls. Sometimes he would play with us all together and other times only one of us. If he got hurt, he would get mad and want to whip you. Grandpa and I were sitting on the front porch which had no banister and our feet were hanging off when he reach over and knock me backwards. I got up and pushed him backwards. Dad happened to come out of the house and this is what he said to his father. "You can play with her but if she hurts you, old man, and you get mad and want to hurt her back. I will hurt you."
Dad taught us girls how to wrestle and be tough, that is how he himself played with us. Sometimes as we walked by him, he would try to trip us or push us in our backs with his thumb which always started a wrestling match. I always enjoyed going to visit my Grandma Hester's, I remembered what a good breakfast she would cook for us when we stayed overnight with the house was always full. My grandparents lived in a three room house with a front porch. I fondly remember how she would show us that she could drop her front teeth. We didn't know it at the time what false teeth were. That's where they lived when my Grandma Hester passed away - I was ten years old.
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| Hannah Dillow |
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| Hester and Abe Dillow |
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| Stephen and Hannah Dillow |
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| Uncle Richard and Aunt Lilly |
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| Jimmy |
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| Uncle Lewis |
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| Aunt Oma and Great-Grandma, Mary Jane Perkins |
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| Aunt Hope |
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| Aunt Wanda |
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| Uncle Woodrow |
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| from left to right: Uncle Woodrow, his wife Gladys, Uncle Lewis, Aunt Hannah, Aunt Hope, Aunt Wanda |
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Abraham Dillow & Hester Perkins Family part I
Grandma Dillo's mother, Mary Jane, was a single mom and the story goes that she met a rich man from England. When she told him that she was going to have a child, he told her that his parents would not allow him to marry an Indian girl from American and he went back to England - never to be heard from again. So my Grandma Dillo was born on April 12, 1884, not knowing her father. Great-Grandma Dillow had another son out of wedlock but he knew his father - they even claim one other as father and son. The son kept Great-Grandma's last name of Perkins. Great-Grandma's father, Lewis, was part Choctaw - a member of the tribe of Muskhogean Indians - who lived in Southeast Tennessee. Family tradition says when Lewis was 2-1/2 years old and he raised by a Perkins. Then when Lewis was 34 years old, he nearly cut his left foot off in an accident chopping wood for a furnace company in Kentucky on March 6, 1857. Lewis had a son from his first marriage who he left with a couple when he moved and got married again. After he hurt his foot, he went and brought the boy to help him raise his family of eight children. Lewis' daughter, Phoebe, thought he was just lazy but being an Indian was not easy - they were very poor.
Lewis' 8 year old son, Ep (whose birth name was James) earned most of the money to support the family working on a farm as a laborer *all of this information found in National Archives records under James E. Perkins.* Ep died on November 11, 1863 during the Civil War in Brashear City, Louisana. He was in the Union Army, Company 22, Reg's Ky. Inf. mustered in at Grayson, Ky. on Oct. 25, 1861 as a Private. He was 18 years old, 5'6" high, dark complexion, blue eyes, dark hair and was a farmer by occupation.
"Ep was missing in action on December 29, 1862 at Chickasaw Bluffs, near Vicksburg, Mississippi and listed as a deserter. He was on the muster list for August 1863. So he was missing for 7 months. Ep died from a kick in the abdomen by a Negro after Ep instigated fight. six days later Ep died of acute peritonitis. When he died he had as possessions, 1 pair trousers, 1 flannel shirt, 1 pair of boots, 1 knapsack, and one silk pocket handkerchief [ old]," per National Archives records on the Civil War. His father then applied for a pension as a dependent of James Epson Perkins.
Grandpa and Grandma Dillo met and got married on January 13, 1901 in Grayson, Carter, Co. Kentucky when Abe was 21 years old and Hester was just 16 years old. In the year 1919, my grandparents moved from Greenup, Kentucky to Lorado, West Virginia on Buffalo Creek. My grandparent’s moved a lot for people who had to pack up everything they owned and move it by horse and wagon. While still in Kentucky, five of Hester's nine children died and she didn’t want to lose any more of her children so she said to my Grandfather that if she stayed in Kentucky she wouldn’t have any children left. They moved to Lorado, West Virginia with the four surviving children: Oma, Steve, Lewis (named after my great-great-grandfather) and Woodrow. My father, Wilbur, was born after they moved to Lorado. When he was six months old, in 1920, my grandparents moved to Chapmanville, WV. Oma was married and also lived in Chapmanville - a couple of houses away from them - with her husband, L J. Oma was 16 yrs old when she married L.J. and she had her first child when she 17 years old.
Rumor has it that while they lived in Chapmanville, Grandpa Dillow got into a fight with another man and kill him. My Aunt Hannah said Grandpa had to leave home, walking across the mountain to Tennessee where he stayed for almost a year before he came back home. Back then when you killed someone all you had to do was leave the state and stay away for awhile, then when you got home just change your way of living and the deed was forgotten.
By the time my dad was two years old, my grandparents moved back to Lorado, WV, where they had two more daughters; Hannah, and Eloise. Then in 1925, they moved to Omar, WV and gave birth to their daughter, Wanda. Lastly, they moved again in 1927 to Landville, WV where their son, Richard, was born.
My grandparents had total fifteen children with ten living to become adults. Their first child, Burdick, was believed to have died due to an overdose of "worm" medicine. He was between one or two years of age. The fifth child, a boy, was stillborn and the sixth child, Retta, was believed to have died by an accident. A story is passed down that when Oma was making popcorn for Retta, age 4, she apparently climbed up on a chair and fell into the fireplace catching her dress on fire. Lucy and Dixie, the seventh and eighth children respectively, died due to high fevers and sickness.
Grandma Dillow named her fifth daughter after her mother-in-law, Hannah Dillow. My aunt Hannah said that her mother always thought her mother-in-law was a witch and that she put a spell on Dixie, the last child to die, when she touched her. My aunt goes on to say, that Dixie wasn’t sick until her Grandma came over to her house and ask to see the baby. She walked over to the crib, put her hand on the baby, and after she left Dixie took sick and died.
We thought the reason why my Grandma Dillo believed that her mother-in-law didn't want her son to marry was because grandma was Indian, but Grandpa Dillow clear that up when he said her being Indian had nothing to do with it as his mother was Indian herself. Grandpa Dillow told us it was because my great-grandma thought, at sixteen years old, grandma was too young for marriage. On December 16, 1911 my great-grandfather, Stephen, was struck by a C&O passenger train and killed instantly. Great-grandma lived another six years after his death.
Somewhere between 1927 and 1930, Grandpa and Grandma Dillo moved to Dehue, West Virginia to Rum Creek Junction which everyone just called Rum Creek hollow. They had one more child while living at Dehue, a daughter they named Hope.
Grandma Dillo changed the spelling of their last name by dropping the "w" off of Dillow because she kept getting Dillon mail. Their children didn’t put the "w" on the grand-children's last names, except for Steve - who we called Uncle Bud - he kept the correct spelling for his children. The rest of the grand-children's last names are spelled Dillo. Aunt Hannah took me over to see Uncle Bud (Steve) before he died. He told me how glad he was to see me, said that he didn’t expect to see any of his brother's, Wilbur, girls before he died. He was on an oxygen machine and could only stay off long enough to say hello.
My father, Wilbur, started to work for the coal mine in 1932 when he was thirteen years old with his father and three older brothers to help bring some money into the house and feed the family. Aunt Hannah said that they only worked one or two days a week during the Depression. After the Depression was over, my Grandpa Dillow went back to farming for other farmers but his four sons stayed to work in the coal mine. Their youngest son, Richard, never became a coal miner. He went to school and became an electrician.
When Uncle Richard and his wife, Lilly, had been married for awhile they found out that they could not have children. By then, my Aunt Eloise was having a hard time feeding her six children, and she had a few siblings that didn’t have any children - or as in my father’s case didn’t have a son - so Aunt Eloise gave Uncle Richard a daughter, who they named Glenna Lou, when she was born. Five years later, my Aunt Wanda let them have her son, Alex, when he was about two months old. Uncle Richard and Aunt Lilly took their family and moved to Charleston, West Virginia where Uncle Richard fell from a telephone pole. After he got out of the hospital, they moved back to Logan but he was in so much pain that he never worked again. Uncle Richard started to drink and became an alcoholic so his wife divorced him. They gave Glenna Lou back to Aunt Eloise when she was about 9 years old but kept Alex for a while longer but then gave him back to Aunt Wanda when he was about six years old. Alex always held it against my Aunt Wanda that she gave him away in the first place but his siblings told him that it was the best thing that could have happen to him; what did he want to do: stay and go hungry like the rest of them? My Uncle Richard lived with my Aunt Hannah for a while but she threw him out because of his drinking. Uncle Richard died at the age of thirty-nine from alcohol abuse and at the time he was living with Aunt Wanda.
We went to see my Uncle Lewis before he died because I had to ask him a question about a story I heard when I was a young girl about him and his first wife, Maude. It had been a rumor in the family that he divorced his wife shortly after they got married because she chewed tobacco. I wanted to know if this was the truth (because I didn’t think this was a good enough reason). He laughed and said there were other things involved besides her chewing tobacco. He told me a story about his and Maude’s daughter, Ellen. It seems Ellen and a girlfriend were walking up Rum Creek Road when Uncle Lewis and a friend drove by in a car and had seen these two nice looking girls, they stopped and ask them if they wanted a ride. Ellen said yes and they got in - Ellen was about thirteen - Uncle Lewis said he asked them their names and Ellen replied that her name was Ellen Dillo. That, of course, got his attention and he asked her who her parents were? And when she said that Maude was her mother, he knew that he had a daughter for the first time. Previous to this he had no contact with Maude so he no idea he had any children. He then went on to tell me how Ellen was visiting him and taking good care of him since his second wife, Missouri, died. His first wife, Maude, never got remarried and she lived up Rum Creek all her life. She's related to the Lowe's so she buried in Lowe's cemetery on Kelly Mountain.
Lewis' 8 year old son, Ep (whose birth name was James) earned most of the money to support the family working on a farm as a laborer *all of this information found in National Archives records under James E. Perkins.* Ep died on November 11, 1863 during the Civil War in Brashear City, Louisana. He was in the Union Army, Company 22, Reg's Ky. Inf. mustered in at Grayson, Ky. on Oct. 25, 1861 as a Private. He was 18 years old, 5'6" high, dark complexion, blue eyes, dark hair and was a farmer by occupation.
"Ep was missing in action on December 29, 1862 at Chickasaw Bluffs, near Vicksburg, Mississippi and listed as a deserter. He was on the muster list for August 1863. So he was missing for 7 months. Ep died from a kick in the abdomen by a Negro after Ep instigated fight. six days later Ep died of acute peritonitis. When he died he had as possessions, 1 pair trousers, 1 flannel shirt, 1 pair of boots, 1 knapsack, and one silk pocket handkerchief [ old]," per National Archives records on the Civil War. His father then applied for a pension as a dependent of James Epson Perkins.
Grandpa and Grandma Dillo met and got married on January 13, 1901 in Grayson, Carter, Co. Kentucky when Abe was 21 years old and Hester was just 16 years old. In the year 1919, my grandparents moved from Greenup, Kentucky to Lorado, West Virginia on Buffalo Creek. My grandparent’s moved a lot for people who had to pack up everything they owned and move it by horse and wagon. While still in Kentucky, five of Hester's nine children died and she didn’t want to lose any more of her children so she said to my Grandfather that if she stayed in Kentucky she wouldn’t have any children left. They moved to Lorado, West Virginia with the four surviving children: Oma, Steve, Lewis (named after my great-great-grandfather) and Woodrow. My father, Wilbur, was born after they moved to Lorado. When he was six months old, in 1920, my grandparents moved to Chapmanville, WV. Oma was married and also lived in Chapmanville - a couple of houses away from them - with her husband, L J. Oma was 16 yrs old when she married L.J. and she had her first child when she 17 years old.
Rumor has it that while they lived in Chapmanville, Grandpa Dillow got into a fight with another man and kill him. My Aunt Hannah said Grandpa had to leave home, walking across the mountain to Tennessee where he stayed for almost a year before he came back home. Back then when you killed someone all you had to do was leave the state and stay away for awhile, then when you got home just change your way of living and the deed was forgotten.
By the time my dad was two years old, my grandparents moved back to Lorado, WV, where they had two more daughters; Hannah, and Eloise. Then in 1925, they moved to Omar, WV and gave birth to their daughter, Wanda. Lastly, they moved again in 1927 to Landville, WV where their son, Richard, was born.
My grandparents had total fifteen children with ten living to become adults. Their first child, Burdick, was believed to have died due to an overdose of "worm" medicine. He was between one or two years of age. The fifth child, a boy, was stillborn and the sixth child, Retta, was believed to have died by an accident. A story is passed down that when Oma was making popcorn for Retta, age 4, she apparently climbed up on a chair and fell into the fireplace catching her dress on fire. Lucy and Dixie, the seventh and eighth children respectively, died due to high fevers and sickness.
Grandma Dillow named her fifth daughter after her mother-in-law, Hannah Dillow. My aunt Hannah said that her mother always thought her mother-in-law was a witch and that she put a spell on Dixie, the last child to die, when she touched her. My aunt goes on to say, that Dixie wasn’t sick until her Grandma came over to her house and ask to see the baby. She walked over to the crib, put her hand on the baby, and after she left Dixie took sick and died.
We thought the reason why my Grandma Dillo believed that her mother-in-law didn't want her son to marry was because grandma was Indian, but Grandpa Dillow clear that up when he said her being Indian had nothing to do with it as his mother was Indian herself. Grandpa Dillow told us it was because my great-grandma thought, at sixteen years old, grandma was too young for marriage. On December 16, 1911 my great-grandfather, Stephen, was struck by a C&O passenger train and killed instantly. Great-grandma lived another six years after his death.
Somewhere between 1927 and 1930, Grandpa and Grandma Dillo moved to Dehue, West Virginia to Rum Creek Junction which everyone just called Rum Creek hollow. They had one more child while living at Dehue, a daughter they named Hope.
Grandma Dillo changed the spelling of their last name by dropping the "w" off of Dillow because she kept getting Dillon mail. Their children didn’t put the "w" on the grand-children's last names, except for Steve - who we called Uncle Bud - he kept the correct spelling for his children. The rest of the grand-children's last names are spelled Dillo. Aunt Hannah took me over to see Uncle Bud (Steve) before he died. He told me how glad he was to see me, said that he didn’t expect to see any of his brother's, Wilbur, girls before he died. He was on an oxygen machine and could only stay off long enough to say hello.
My father, Wilbur, started to work for the coal mine in 1932 when he was thirteen years old with his father and three older brothers to help bring some money into the house and feed the family. Aunt Hannah said that they only worked one or two days a week during the Depression. After the Depression was over, my Grandpa Dillow went back to farming for other farmers but his four sons stayed to work in the coal mine. Their youngest son, Richard, never became a coal miner. He went to school and became an electrician.
When Uncle Richard and his wife, Lilly, had been married for awhile they found out that they could not have children. By then, my Aunt Eloise was having a hard time feeding her six children, and she had a few siblings that didn’t have any children - or as in my father’s case didn’t have a son - so Aunt Eloise gave Uncle Richard a daughter, who they named Glenna Lou, when she was born. Five years later, my Aunt Wanda let them have her son, Alex, when he was about two months old. Uncle Richard and Aunt Lilly took their family and moved to Charleston, West Virginia where Uncle Richard fell from a telephone pole. After he got out of the hospital, they moved back to Logan but he was in so much pain that he never worked again. Uncle Richard started to drink and became an alcoholic so his wife divorced him. They gave Glenna Lou back to Aunt Eloise when she was about 9 years old but kept Alex for a while longer but then gave him back to Aunt Wanda when he was about six years old. Alex always held it against my Aunt Wanda that she gave him away in the first place but his siblings told him that it was the best thing that could have happen to him; what did he want to do: stay and go hungry like the rest of them? My Uncle Richard lived with my Aunt Hannah for a while but she threw him out because of his drinking. Uncle Richard died at the age of thirty-nine from alcohol abuse and at the time he was living with Aunt Wanda.
We went to see my Uncle Lewis before he died because I had to ask him a question about a story I heard when I was a young girl about him and his first wife, Maude. It had been a rumor in the family that he divorced his wife shortly after they got married because she chewed tobacco. I wanted to know if this was the truth (because I didn’t think this was a good enough reason). He laughed and said there were other things involved besides her chewing tobacco. He told me a story about his and Maude’s daughter, Ellen. It seems Ellen and a girlfriend were walking up Rum Creek Road when Uncle Lewis and a friend drove by in a car and had seen these two nice looking girls, they stopped and ask them if they wanted a ride. Ellen said yes and they got in - Ellen was about thirteen - Uncle Lewis said he asked them their names and Ellen replied that her name was Ellen Dillo. That, of course, got his attention and he asked her who her parents were? And when she said that Maude was her mother, he knew that he had a daughter for the first time. Previous to this he had no contact with Maude so he no idea he had any children. He then went on to tell me how Ellen was visiting him and taking good care of him since his second wife, Missouri, died. His first wife, Maude, never got remarried and she lived up Rum Creek all her life. She's related to the Lowe's so she buried in Lowe's cemetery on Kelly Mountain.
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