Molly: 1990

Papa was only 18 years old when he and mama got married--she was 17.  Before their first wedding anniversary, they had their first child, a stillborn baby girl.  From there on, until Papa was 40 years old they had a new baby at least every other year.  That was  a tremendous responsibility for such a young couple.  Times were "hard" in those days and farming and raising cattle and hogs were their only means of livelihood. Not too productive during the depression years.  He was a very strict disciplinarian, which was necessary in keeping a large family. Walking that straight and narrow path.  He rewarded truthfullness and honesty with a lesser punishment for our infraction of the rule than if you lied about it.  that was condusive to character building.  If you deserved a whipping, you had to go outside and cut your own switch.  Of course, I was just an innocent observer. Ha 

He certainly taught us responsibility.  We all learned and had to work at an early age. The most of us children at different times performed all the various chores necessary in raising a family on a large un-modern farm, such as: carrying water from the spring, searching for the cows over many acres and bringing them home and milking them, cutting wood for the cook stove and fireplace, cooking breakfast and making school lunches, etc.  The lesson I learned in responsibility was to be sure you find the cows whenn you go looking for them in the evening otherwise you had to get up early the next morning, go look fo rthe cows and find them, then take them home, milk them and walk three miles to school.  That was a powerful lesson in responsibility-another character building block.  

Papa always stressed the importance of education.  We weren't allowed to stay home from school for anything except illness and that meant being bedfast.  During the depression, many children had to drop out of school because their parents couldn't afford to buy their books or pay for their tuition, but papa paid our tuition in farm products and he was so proud of Gus when he went to College. He couldn't help much financially with Gus' expenses, but I do remember a cotton patch that was marked, "Gus' College Money."  

Papa was proud of all of his children.  I can remember him helping me with my 8th grad math.  He was very smart for a man of his day.  Mama said that he had a "good business head on him."  Another thing I remember about papa that made a good impression on me when I was a child was that when two of the children got into a fight, he would make them shake hands when the fight was over- another building block for good character.

Although papa was a very hard task master whenever he supervised your task, like pulling weeds out of the corn--he also had a soft touch.  He would take us fishing at the Buffalo River whenever our work was "caught up" on the farm.  He was always our "family doctor" and "dentist". He would tell us to shut our eyes when he was going to lance a boil or pull a tooth.  Rarely did we ever to go a doctor.

Joe, I remember how fond papa was of you.  Of course we are all very fond of you--you were so sweet & good.  Papa got you a little red wagon for Christmas when you were 6 years old.  Just before he was killed. he was "harder" on the older boys, but he was much easier on you and the other younger ones.  I think the best proof of the quality of our parents influence on us is to look at the lives and accomplishments of the 12 children they raised-some to adulthood and some through their formative years.

You have a heritage to be proud of, but along the way there have been some unfortunate events that have shaped all of our lives different than we would have liked it, but there remains that strong, loving tie that binds our family together and that of our departed loving mother and father forever.