Submitter’s note: The story we share with you today is from “Brown County Remembers” and is not signed. It is a personal accounting of the writer’s growing-up days. We hope you enjoy the stories we share here with you.
Our story begins in 1902. Life in the early years of this century was uncomplicated, by the mere simplicity of it. Lack of all the entertaining, amusing, and time-saving gadgets which we now enjoy required a high rate of ingenuity to fill in the gaps.
We enjoyed the simple life more than anyone would think who knows only the luxuries of today’s living: especially during the winter evenings, the children playing, drawing, coloring or studying, Mother usually sewing, Dad reading, and all hovering around a kerosene lamp in the cozy warmth of a wood-burning stove or fireplace in the living room.
When a deep snow fell, Dad would hitch two horses to a large sled with sideboards and hay or straw covering the bottom to sit in and take us to school. There were five of us, and other children going and coming the same way we went were welcome to get in and ride with us. If there was no room for Dad to ride, he walked along side in his big high-topped gum boots and drove the horses. They called them gum boots then. That was before plastic existed. They were made of rubber. All the men wore them in the winter and wet weather. The ladies and the children didn’t seem to own rubbers or overshoes. Later on, ladies could get overshoes to wear over their good shoes. These were made of rubber and called galoshes. I can remember the first pair of overshoes I acquired. They were big and awkward with two long clamp fasteners with slits to permit fastening loosely or tightly. Preceding that time, we merely wore heavy leather shoes which Dad kept heavily oiled to prevent water from soaking through. He kept our shoes in good repair. He had shoemaker’s tools and was his own repairman. He half-soled or stitched or did anything required.
The roads were muddy and miry, but one could usually devise a path by the roadside. It is difficult to rationalize how boys and girls of teen-age and older could become attracted to each other; because of necessity, the clothing had to be so utilitarian that it certainly did not lend itself to being conducive to sex appeal. There were very few gravel roads. No hard-surfaced roads and, in the winter, the rains and the freezing and thawing often made the roads impassable except by horseback, and then sometimes the horses mired down almost to their knees. The shiny buggies and scurries with the fringe on top (those fortunate to have this type) had to be relegated to the shelter of the barn (no garages) until the spring thaws were over and the mud settled and hardened. As winter progressed to very cold, one had better hie himself to the furrier or blacksmith shop to get the horses roughshod before an icy time because horses are no more sure-footed on the ice than humans, and if they fall, are usually injured badly or perhaps break the shafts to which they are hitched.
Farmers usually did not go to the grocery or department store but once in a week. That in our case, and many others also, included the post office as well. So, you had mail only once a week unless you lived on a rural route, and rural routes were few. So, you went to pick up your mail personally. Dad was always anxious to get his weekly newspaper. He always took the Toledo Blade and that kept us informed as to what was going on in the world, even though the news was a little stale when it arrived.
Now more about the roads. Not being hard surfaced, they were highly susceptible to washouts during heavy rains, gullies and ditches and continually needed some repair. The arrangement was that if men wanted to pay their own taxes this way, they could simply go out and work on the roads and keep account of their time and turn it in against their taxes. They were allowed about a dollar a day for their work if that.
The rural courtship of boys and girls, if they went anywhere together in wintertime, was by the girl riding behind the boy on the horse, cozily wrapped in a heavy horse blanket without a saddle. The attraction would have to be strong to weather this kind of travel. I was too young during our rural living to be interested in girls, so it puzzles me to understand how any courtships could blossom into marriage under this regime. I love horses, but I have never been able to associate them with romance.
About the only chance boys and girls had of meeting and becoming acquainted other than at school or church occurred by attending the night church services, protracted meetings of itinerant preachers, of which there were usually plenty during the winter season. They would usually last a week and sometimes several weeks, depending upon the interest generated. People came from near and far for the meetings held in churches or schools. These did not occur in the summer because farmers were too busy raising their crops. The boys would choose a girl to their liking and ask to accompany her home.
Summer courting was different and more appealing. The boys would drive to the girl’s home in a nice, shiny, horse-drawn rig and take them to some gathering, usually a basket dinner somewhere or a square dance or possibly to a baseball game on Sunday afternoons between different neighborhoods. They had some fairly good players who had uniforms. Then some of the more affluent young men would drive a phaeton. This was a boxless carriage, low slung and without sides: one could step in wearing a tight skirt. Phaetons usually had a top, but not always. Now these were “class.”
The entertainment for the married folks consisted of quilting parties and fancywork for the ladies. All enjoyed the big threshing dinners and get-togethers and the hog and calf butchering. Several people would come help and the ladies would cook and bake all day.
Weekends were marked by cooking and baking for Sunday. Sunday meant going to church and usually company for the rest of the day. We always had itinerant preachers and they were invited for dinner. Usually two families in the neighborhood took care of most of this, ours and one other. Then Sunday afternoon, young folks would gather for fun and conversation and possibly a baseball game.
This might all sound very boring, but this era preceded the advent of the rural electrification, radio and television, and there were very few telephones. Life was simple and uncomplicated, and we enjoyed it. There were several years of no war. Sometimes, I think it was better than the present day, but we are told to put our hands to the plow and not turn back.
Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society
