Submitter’s note: This is Sophia Lucas Vossmeyer’s story, continued from the March 30 issue of the Brown County Democrat. Another installment will run in the April 27 paper.
The furniture in the large log room was just as great-grandmother left it. A huge bed was in the corner at the left of the fireplace. This was where four of us were born. Grandpa and his brothers and sisters were born there, too. An excessively big dining table sat near the kitchen door. There were rocking chairs and other easy chairs in front of the fireplace. They faced the opposite way in summer. There were two tall bureaus and a floor-length mirror and a dish cupboard at other places. A pie safe could be seen in the kitchen.
The floor was made of wide, yellow poplar boards. From the threshold of the wide front door were cut grooves in the floor, the shape of a sundial, to tell the time if the clock stopped. On a cloudy day, we were out of luck, so someone jumped on a horse and rode to a neighbor.
There was no carpet in this log part of the house, only some handmade throw rugs. The hearth was the biggest I ever saw, made of smooth, flat creek-bed rocks, not always a smooth surface but of lovely different colors. This hearth was large but safe if hot coals popped out of the fireplace.
My mother liked the big table all set just as my grandmother left it, when she died. She liked the fringed linen tablecloths with the bright colored borders. Grouped in the middle of the table were always a tall spoon holder and a tall, pressed glass stemmed bowl with a glass lid. Circled around these were glass cruet-shaped containers for syrups, then, the usual creamer and sugar and butter dish. To cover them was a beautiful, embroidered cloth, the housewife’s pride. No little fingers should ever be caught touching underneath. What our little fingers wanted were soft lumps in the sugar bowl. We never knew what granulated sugar was. The plates and mugs were placed upside down on the table as soon as they were washed. In little dull silver or pewter rings were little fringed napkins. At mealtime, there were only knives and forks to be placed on the tablecloth.
The first addition the log house was frame, not log, and was built at the end of the house. At first it was used as a parlor but with an increasing family it became a sleeping room. The trundle bed was on rollers and could be pushed under a big bed in the daytime and pulled out at night. The cradle was a rocker. Mother used to rock the baby back and forth while she knitted yarn stockings for the family’s winter use. The cradle was the baby’s bed. Two almost identical spool beds built high with bedding stood in the farthest corners of the bedroom.
The second fireplace was directly behind the first fireplace and used the same chimney. It was smaller than the big fireplace. In the righthand corner of that fireplace was a built-in clothes press which reached to the ceiling. The upper part stored bedding and some old-time beautiful clothing worn by ancestors. I used to try on the Basque; Basque is a style of waistline found on women’s formal dresses. All were made of silk and fully lined.
Between the beds was a stand table with a fringed cloth and a beautiful kerosene lamp, richly painted. Two easy chairs were beside the table, the only pieces that made it a parlor. A Bible and photo album were beside the lamp.
After my brother and I outgrew the trundle bed, we slept in the big “fat” beds. The only worry was that we might fall out in our sleep. We had to use a footstool to get into the beds. Ropes crisscrossed the frames to serve as slats, which came later. Instead of mattresses, there was blue striped ticking with a slit in the middle lengthwise filled with golden wheat straw. These were fluffed up each morning by hand. On top of the straw tick was placed a big fat featherbed of goose feathers upon which we climbed and sank down deeply. After the unbleached muslin sheets came the handwoven yarn blankets and coverlets. Most were blue and white geometric patterns with tapestry-like weaving, often with fringed sides. On top of the coverlets was the pride of housewives, a lovely quilt for daytime.
Soon a new sister, Gladys, took the cradle, and two years later, sister Edna took the cradle and Gladys slept in the upper trundle bed. It would be five years later when we moved to Elkinsville, then another baby came.
Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society
