Reclaimed Memories

 think we must have lived in the house Dad built for about three years. Then we moved into Baker's Run. My dad bought a country store there and the post office was in the store at that time. The house and the store were connected. It was a nice, large building and the house was roomy. I have fond memories of that period. We five little sisters had a big room in which we played. I think this room must have been over a cellar or the wareroom of the store. It could only be entered from the outside of the house or store. My father's distant cousin, Ernest Crislip, bought the store and boarded with us until we moved from Braxton County to the Fairfax Farm in Wirt County, West Virginia, after the close of school in 1917.

There was one incident that happened while Dad was proprietor of the store that the family has recalled with glee. One day a lady came into the store with a pound of butter and asked to trade it for butter that someone else had brought in. Dad asked, "Why do you want to trade it? Is it strong?" If butter was kept too long it had a rancid taste and country people could tell by smelling it if it had been on hand too long.

She replied, "Oh, no! It is not strong.  I just churned it yesterday."

When Dad pressed her farther as to why she wanted to trade she confessed, "I found a mouse in my cream jar yesterday. I got it out right away, but just can't eat the butter myself, but what people don't know won't hurt them."

Dad agreed with her and taking her pound of butter to the wareroom he smoothed off the flower her mould left on the top. He altered its appearance so much that she could not recognize it, wrapped it in a different piece of paper and brought it out to her. She went home happy, but learned later what Dad had done. She then did not feel very kindly toward her neighbor, the grocer. Dad said to her, "Well, you know you said that what people did not know would not hurt them. You weren't hurt by eating your own butter, were you?"

The construction of the house at Baker's Run would indicate that the location for it had to be leveled quite a bit in order to build the large building. There was a long back porch and in back of the porch was a retaining wall for the back yard, which was some what higher than the level of the porch and house. As a child the wall seemed very high to me. The younger children could not jump from its top to the porch. It probably was not more than two or three feet, but we felt as we grew older that we had obtained stature and ability when we learned to jump the intervening space between the wall and the porch. Elma has since said that she was sorry when Opal was able to jump it. Somehow it meant that her younger sister was catching up with her and it was important, to her, not to be too closely identified with Opal. Opal did grow faster than Elma and sometimes people remarked that they looked like twins.

While we were still living in Baker's Run in the summer of 1912, Ruby, who was 12 Years old and I, who was seven years younger, went by train for a two week visit with the families of Dad's two sisters, Mollie and Lettie. Aunt Lettie had two girls around Ruby's age, so Ruby wanted to stay there the entire time. But I fell in love with Aunt Mollie. All her children were married and gone and she was very affectionate. She would hold me on her lap and hug and kiss me. With four smaller sisters at home I did not get many hugs and kisses.

Our father was one of the younger children in a large family and Aunt Mollie was the next to the eldest. She was probably better fixed financially than any of the siblings. My mother had remarked, before we left, that perhaps Aunt Mollie would buy me a doll while we were there. I had been begging for a doll and Mother felt they could not buy for one without buying for all and they could not afford to do that.

While I was there Aunt Minerva, the first born of my dad's family, was also visiting Aunt Mollie and the two women took me along with them to walk to the store located in the village of Valley Chapel. (Years later Troy served as pastor in the United Brethren Church in that village.) I was happily skipping along in front of the ladies when I remembered about the doll. I ran back and getting between them took the hand of each and looking up at Aunt Mollie I said, "Aunt Mollie, Mommie said you could buy me a doll if you wanted to." The women looked at each other and laughed. I soon forgot about the doll and went outside the store and was entertaining myself by swinging around one of the posts supporting the roof, when Aunt Mollie called me into the store. There on the counter, lined up side by side, were all the dolls in the store. Aunt Mollie said, "Elizabeth, you pick out the one you want." I have often wondered if she ever realized how happy she made a little girl that day. A short time after that Aunt Minerva came to our home for a visit and brought the four younger girls a small doll each.






(Below) When she received it at her 95th birthday celebration, she started to cry, she was so pleased. As the family gathered around, she told us the above story of how she received the doll.

One day a traveling photographer came by our home in Baker's Run and Mother decided to have her daughters' picture taken. The boys were not at home at that time. When we lined up for the picture I thought of my doll and ran into the house to get it. Ruth, who was three at that time, fussed to hold it and Mother made me give it to her. There I stand in the picture with a pout on my face and Ruth looking perfectly angelic!



Standing, Left to Right: Elizabeth, Ruby, Elma, Opal

Seated: Ruth with my doll, and Beulah



My dad was always into some project to make money. After selling the store to Ernest he invested the money in a saw mill which he operated for several months. It was located a few miles from our home and he employed two or three other men and took my two brothers to help. My mother would take the three younger girls and go with him to cook for the men one week. The next week Ruby would take Elma and me and do the cooking. It was fun for us. We liked sleeping in the bunk beds, but it must have been a lot of work for Ruby who was only about fourteen years old at that time. Elma and I helped with the dishes. However, I suspect that we just played most of the time or looked for Honest Snuff box lids, which we could trade at the store for candy. I remember that, no matter how rusty they were, if the big "H" could be seen on the lid we would be allowed a half penny's worth of candy for each one.

The men who worked on the sawmill with Dad would tease Elma and me by calling us boys. Elma remembers that she highly resented this and always corrected them by saying, "We are not boys! We are girls!" I was sixteen months older and more worldly wise, I guess. I do not remember that I resented it. Anyway, I used to wish that I were a boy, so I could wear overalls with all those nice pockets.

Baker’s Run was located about ten or twelve miles almost due east of Sutton and in a valley. Years later a big dam was built east of Sutton and a large lake was formed, which now covers what once was Baker's Run. We learned that would happen as the lake filled and Troy and I visited the area and went through the house before the lake was large enough to cover its location. Years later the lake and the surrounding area were developed for recreation and has become very popular for camping and boating.

I think it was in 1915 that each of the little sisters received a small doll for Christmas. Our parents never taught us to believe in Santa, probably because they did not want to build up our expectations. We did hang up our stockings for the candy treat that we knew each of us would receive. One year our stockings held an orange as well as a bag of candy. That was the first orange I ever remember seeing.

I do not know about the rest of my family but I never felt deprived. I think we had as much as the neighbor children, generally. I do remember that when we lived where Ruth was born that one of the neighbor children had a doll that I coveted. Mother ordered cloth printed with a doll pattern, which she cut out, sewed and stuffed. We should have had more than one for we almost drove her crazy fussing over that one. She warned us over and over that if we could not play with it without fussing that she would throw it away. Finally, she did just what she threatened. She threw it into a brush thicket on the other side of the road. We would go to the road and look at it, but we knew better than to bring it into the house.

Even though I did not believe in Santa I was thrilled the year that all of us got dolls, when Ruby wrote a note for us and put it in the stove. She said that it would go up the chimney and Santa would get it. Of course, being seven years my senior, she knew that the dolls were already on hand. What a wonderful Christmas it was for us! We each had a doll! There was no longer fussing about who would get to play Mother!