Person:Lucy Custer (1)

Watchers
Lucy Adelaide Custer
b.14 Jul 1861 Washington Co, IA
d.4 Dec 1948 Taft, Kern Co, CA
m. 30 Jul 1879
  1. Ivy Viola Smith1880 - 1964
  2. Lester Dekalb Smith1881 - 1964
  3. Eddy Elsworth Smith1883 - 1982
  4. Frank Leroy Smith1886 - 1956
  5. Albert Marion Smith1891 - 1960
  6. Virgil Custer Smith1897 - 1968
Facts and Events
Name Lucy Adelaide Custer
Gender Female
Birth? 14 Jul 1861 Washington Co, IA
Marriage 30 Jul 1879 Benton Co, ORto Charles Marion Smith
Death? 4 Dec 1948 Taft, Kern Co, CA
Burial? Monrovia, Los Angeles Co, CA

Story by Edd Smith, 1979: Now it might be interesting to hear something of the early work of my mother, Adelaide Smith.She used a wood burning stove with a reservoir attached to the back of the stove for heating water. Water was carried into the house in pails from a well. The well was dug by hand and had a frame over it. A windlass was attached for pulling the water up. The water was very hard, so in the summer my mother took the clothes to be washed to a spring, about 300 feet away, heating the water in a big iron kettle hung on an iron rod supported by stakes over the wood fire. Laundry soap was home made by using fat, lye and water. Lye was made by putting ashes in a barrel and adding water. As this liquid seeped into a container you had the lye. The lye water was heated, also the fat in another container. When both were about the same temperature they were mixed together. As the mixture cooled, it thickened and was then poured into a container and cut into bars when cold.Ironing was done with a triangular shaped iron with an iron handle heated on top of the stove. Three irons were necessary to keep one hot enough to use. Also the stove needed to be kept full of wood. Bread was always made at home. Mother's first churn was a half gallon glass jar filled almost to the top with cream. Then my brother and I would roll it on the floor to each other until the butter came. The next churn was a dash churn and then a barrel churn. To keep the butter and other things cool, mother would hang them in the well. She put them in a container which was fastened to a rope, and the other end was tied to the well frame.Hog butchering time in the fall meant lard rendering, curing meat, and making sausage. She fried sausage in patties, put it in crocks and covered it with melted lard. The lard hardened, kept the air out, and kept the meat from spoiling. Groceries were handled differently then than now, as dry beans, rice, soda crackers and such were all in the bulk. We bought brown sugar by the 50 pound barrel. No white granulated sugar was available at that time.

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