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Facts and Events
Written by CLARA MAE LUTZ (b. 1900 - d. 1990) (Married name: CLARA MAE FORD) (Married Ralph Cossaboon Ford)
(Daughter of John Bareford Lutz and Annie Ellen Litsinger)
This story begins back in 1900; no as a matter of fact it begins a good many years before that or this story wouldn’t be written.
My mother and father met at an amusement place on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. They were properly introduced by a friend and started a friendship which finally ended in marriage. Mother’s parents died rather young, which placed the responsibility on her shoulders of bringing up her younger sisters, the youngest being 5 years old. Mother, when asked to be my father’s wife, hesitated when pressed for an answer, thinking of her responsibility. Finally she put the problem up to my father; he must have loved her, because he accepted the responsibility. They were married and mother’s sisters thought as much of my father as they would have their own father.
My father was in the glass business. In those days men traveled to different places; of course, the place traveled to was supposed to be the better place.
My father came from New Jersey and my mother from Maryland.
My two older brothers were born in Marion, Indiana. After this is where the 1900 begins. Just before this time, father, together with a group of good glass men, decided to form a Glass factory. They decided on a place, which was in a small town in Georgia. They tried to make a go of it. The men put everything they had into this venture, including money, but fate or whatever it was, decreed otherwise.
During this period of worry, I was born. At this time my aunts have grown up and married and have families of their own, except one, who retained her single blessedness.
The youngest sister has stayed near us all our lives and her children and my mother’s children seem like one large family. In fact two of her children were born in the little town in Georgia, where I was born.
The factory finally folded up and, of course, the men went to various parts of the country. My father went to a small town in Tennessee. My aunt and her husband also went where we did.
My younger brother and sister were born in Tennessee. Also, my aunt’s other three children were born there. Maybe now you can understand why we seem like one family. All our escapades were generally together.
When I was 3, my two older brothers were started in school. One day my mother wanted to go somewhere and didn’t know what to do with me. She didn’t have anyone to leave me with, so she sent a note to the Kindergarten Teacher and asked if I could be a pupil with my brothers for a day. The Teacher wrote that I could and after that day the Teacher wrote my mother that I could attend with my brothers if my mother would allow it; well she sent me after that.
We used to have a colored woman to come and help. She took care of us when my mother was ill. I suppose she wasn’t available or my mother thought my younger brother and I would be too much for her, so she sent me to Kindergarten. We thought the colored woman was the nicest person and she thought there weren’t any other children like us. She was wit h us off and on for 17 years. There wasn’t a more honest person in the world.
About this time when I was still 3, my two older brothers and another boy, his parents had a cow and he had to go quite a distance to a pasture for the cow ... Early one morning he invited us to go along to get the cow; well when we arrived there, the boys decided to go in the water (there being a small pond there). They undressed except for their underwear and took my dress and underskirt of land I went in too. We had a wonderful time. Finally we got the cow and returned home. My mother was horrified. She didn’t even know where we were. It was summer and our underclothes were dry by the time we arrived home. My mother very seldom whipped us; she just lectured us and boy that was worse than anything. At that time I was too small to realize the danger and my brothers were the ones that really got the worst of it. I don’t ever remember going off again.
There was a Church close by where we went to Sunday School. I can remember, I went regular and for good attendance I received a very pretty cup and saucer. I kept the cup and saucer for a long time; then one fateful day my younger sister broke the cup and that nearly broke my heart. I still have the saucer and when I see it; my memory goes back to the little Sunday School.
We moved to another section of the Southern town, and before I went to the School there, I used to stand at the window and cry because I didn’t want to go there. We finally started to School and one day we were late and the Principal took us in the office and scolded us and he had a switch in his hand and that made going to School worse.
We lived near a mountain, one day my older brother and a friend decided to take a trip up the side. Well, they went farther than they should and became lost. They were scared little boys, so finally they decided to pray and they did. After they finished and started on again, they ran into a man hunting and he took them down the mountain. They never tried that trick again.
We lived here quite a while. In the glass business the men were off 3 months in the summer and we generally went camping for t hat period. We had tents and my parents and my aunt’s family would ship mattresses and utensils and food supplies. Finally we would take the train into Alabama, where at a little town they would hire the supplies hauled up the mountain to Camp. Also hire a horse and buggy for the women; then the men and us children would walk up. It was considered 3 miles but it was all up grade; we enjoyed it. At the Camp site they would pitch the tents… make bunks for the mattresses and one year they built a little place to cook in. My mother always made bread. So we brought a stove one year and left it in the cabin. The people that owned the land kept this one place for us. One year Boy Scouts were there but they were leaving soon; so we all stayed together.
I remember a little colored boy used to be around and one day a yellow dog that used to hang around the Campground, lost his tail, and somehow this little boy was blamed and his mother brought him down and said he hadn’t cut the dog’s tail. She was excited and she said he wasn’t any angel but he had done quituated; she meant he had graduated. When we found out about it, my parents looked into the matter, and one of the Scouts owned up to it. So she went home satisfied.
One year another uncle and some friends of the family went with us. This uncle was a fisherman and hunted snappers. They had 2 large snappers so they cleaned them, got a lot of vegetables and a chicken, made afire in the open and cooked them. They had a sheet of tin back of the large can to keep the wind from blowing the fire, so everyone was sitting around waiting. It was just about done when a great big puff of wind came along and blew the tin over and that pushed the soup can over, with all the snapper soup, on the ground before anyone could do anything about it. Such sorrowful faces I have never seen in all my life.
My mother had just baked a large batch of bread. She hurried up and took some to all of them. They fixed something and had this hot bread. It helped quite a bit.
My mother used to store her bread in large lard cans that had been cleaned. She would put it in these cans and then put the lid on tight before we went to bed. In the morning the bread would be gone. This happened quite a few times. The men decided it was an animal and set a trap. They caught a wild cat. It must have been a tame cat gone wild. It sure fought when they put the barrel of the gun in the trap.
One year my father went home early and transacted for a house in the north part of the town where we lived. There were 3 houses all together and built alike, so my aunt and an uncle bought the other two.
One summer some friends of the family went with us camping. We hired an ox cart and took a trip to a rock called Split Rock that was famous in those parts. You could drop a stone in the crevice and you couldn’t hear it land.
There was certainly some beautiful scenery around. There was a little river ran close by. We used to swim in a certain part. I can remember my cousins had a little boy friend wit h them this summer and my mother had taken my picture and when she finished. I ran and jumped in the water. This boy turned to my cousin and exclaimed “Can she swim?” In those days girls didn’t go in for swimming much.
One day my younger brother and one of my cousins built a raft and they wouldn’t let us try it out with them; so we went up on the bridge and just to be mean we threw stones in the water and the cousin’s sister was afraid they would be hit so she started yelling “chout” instead of saying “watch out” she shortened it to “chout”. Well, the old raft finally sank. I guess we were satisfied when this happened.
My mother and aunt were quite religious and they wouldn’t allow us children to go in swimming on Sunday. So one year my father and uncle didn’t go camping with us. My father was building a room on our house. They found out the house wasn’t large enough after a couple of years. I don’t know why my uncle stayed home. Well, all of us children were there camping with just my mother and aunt. There were campers around but not where we were; they camped around by the falls. There was a very pretty falls and below the falls the water was deep. Most of the river and falls was of rock formation and it was the prettiest sight in the summer. I never have been there in the winter but imagine it would be just as pretty. A lot of the men went swimming here in the falls; so this Sunday a fellow from a town near the railroad came to visit the people camping and decided to go in swimming under the falls. Well he was taken with a cramp and drowned. They finally got him out. We heard that his father didn’t know he was there and resented him being there and wouldn’t even look at him.
This episode upset my mother and aunt so, that they packed up the next day and went home. We, the children, certainly begged to stay, but to no avail. My elders said it was the work of God, because he went in on Sunday. It might have been who knows.
We never went camping again unless the men were with us.
All of us older children could swim. My father gradually stopped going in swimming. He used to get cramps in his body. I must take after him because I don’t think I have ever gone in swimming that I didn’t get a cramp in my right foot. I just massage it awhile and go on. That seems to do the trick.
There used to be a natural hole in the rock under the water and my uncle used to go down and stay along time; at least to us it seemed long. It seemed like he stayed just long enough to get everyone jittery and then he would appear. We children would try to stay there but didn’t succeed very well. One day my uncle went down and somehow he became lodged in the hole. Whether he had put on some weight we don’t know; anyway I think he became frightened, but he finally came up. We didn’t know for a long time after what had happened. After that the whole act was finally done away with.
When we grew older our trips ceased. We all had other interests.
One year my brother became Assistant Scout Master and my cousin belonged to the same troop and they played in the Band. That winter the Scouts had a party and I was invited,’ that was the thrill of my life. They had a Band and my brother and cousin played in it. The Band played at this party and they were really good. I remember one of the fellows took a liking to me, but nothing ever happened. Later the Scouts played at a Church service and I was there. This same fellow saw me and wanted to know who I was, and my brother told him I was his sister; so this fellow’s family threw a party for the Scouts and I was invited, but I wasn’t in the mood for a party so I didn’t go.
My mother, as I told you, was very religious and she found out my brother was dancing and to her that was terrible; so she wrote and asked if they would not let my brother dance. When you know my brother kept going for a while, but soon stopped going because it isn’t very pleasant to go to parties and just stand around.
We kids were 5 in number, the 4 older ones, myself included, were the outdoor type, on the go most of the time. My sister, the youngest, had double Pneumonia when she was very young and seemed to be sickly most of her life, and she didn’t play outdoors like we did,’ so I had 3 brothers to play with and 2 boy cousins and their boy friends. We played baseball. (There weren’t many girls around to play with.) I could play ball as good as any of them, shoot marbles with the best, climb the mountain as well as the rest, go on fox and geese hunts, especially when the music teacher was due at our house.
We used to play hide and seek at night. One night we were playing and we had a large carriage shed and stable and my oldest cousin was hiding behind it, and a nail was sticking out and he caught his eye on the nail and he swore someone did something to him; he was a suspicious person anyway, so that ended that night’s game.
The schools get out earlier down South than they do in the North; so before the glass factory shut down for the summer, we kids used to carry our father’s lunch; we loved it, only for one thing; we walked down the railroad and that was the hottest place on earth and we had to wear our shoes. We loved to see what was left in the lunch box and divide it; generally, two of us went along.
If you have never been in a glass factory, let me tell you it was the noisiest place you would ever want to be in, but we didn’t mind. It was a funny thing; my father was deaf, but he could hear better than anyone in that noise.
One summer my father decided to raise a couple pigs, so he bought 2. The colored woman that lived in back came by and we told her we didn’t know what to call them; so she said to name them Julie and Artie after her two children. She said it might bring us luck. Well we had them in a pen on a lot and one day Gypsies camped on the lot; well the next morning the Gypsies were gone and so was Artie; we never knew what happened to him; but Julie grew and had a litter, but she was so stout she killed them; we finally sold her. We always hated to see anything sold. I can remember our cow had a calf and we called it Brownie; well it was sold; I can hear my sister now, in the house crying her eyes out.
I can remember the electrical storms we used to have. Our house was hit by lightning a couple times and went through it once; it hit the chimney once and soot went every direction. Once it splintered a post on the front porch; and I was saying my prayers once while one of these storms was going on and I was stunned; my mother called but I couldn’t answer. The time it went through the house my brother and sister were playing and pretending they were out in the rain; they had an umbrella up holding on to the handle; the lightning went between them, (they were in front of the back door) went out the front door, across the street into a lot and killed a cow. When we looked at the cow it had the print of a tree (that stood by) on its side. That has always stayed in my mind.
Another time the boys were coming from town in the wagon and a storm came up. Well the lightning scared the boys and the horse. They said a bolt of lightning came between them and the horse and it looked just like a big ball of fire. They finally got the horse quieted and got home safe and sound.
I can remember our dog, Shep; he certainly guarded us kids and the house. Once an uncle (Uncle Wes) from Detroit visited us and one night there was an awful commotion and he went out; Shep had routed someone out of the chicken coop. He thought Shep was wonderful. I can remember, one morning we got up and we saw Shep lying on a little plot of grass and my brother called but he was awful still; so he went out and Shep was dead. Well he was buried and afterwards that plot of grass died; my brother said it was because he had died on it; we children thought about that and still do for that matter.
We had horses at different times. The Dapple Grey was the flightiest; anything loose would scare it to death. Once my father, mother, sister and I were going to town, a strap broke and began to hit him (We couldn’t use a whip on him). Well, he made for the woods; I tumbled off of the back and my mother held my sister and rolled out of the buggy. (How she did it I will never know, without getting hurt.) Finally, a man at the edge of the woods caught him. We went home quite shaken up.
Another time the boys had him hitched to what they used to call the dirt wagon; you could lift the boards up and dump the dirt out. (Of course, this was years ago.) Well, they were driving along an embankment and something frightened him and he didn’t do anything but take the boys’ wagon and all down this embankment out over a field. No one ever seemed to get hur
Once an uncle of mine decided to curry the Dapple; well he was all right until my uncle took a bran sack and shook it out. I don’t know why he did it, but we heard an awful commotion and ran out; here came a ball rolling out; it was my uncle. How he ever got out with the horse’s heels flying is something to think about. I don’t think he bothered the horse much after that. I guess the boys just knew how to handle the horse.
Another horse we had was Dolly; she was the nicest thing. We could do anything with her. We all rode her with saddle or in a buggy. The youngest boy, if he was in a hurry, would catch her and ride her (without a bridle or saddle) to school and then turn her loose and send her home, where she would be when we got home. We had many a good time with her.
I remember a cousin from New Jersey visited us and he went around with the boys in the buggy and he thought that was the grandest thing. In fact, we all did.
All five of us children think we had the nicest childhood any children could have, and I don’t think we had our ego or vanity or spirits (or whatever it is called) shattered because we had to mind our parents and respect older people and people’s property.
References
- ↑ Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census. (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006).
Online publication - Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: <a href="http://www.archives.gov/publications/microfilm-catalogs/census/1910/">NARA</a>.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1910.T624, 1,178 rolls. Civil District 4, Hamilton, Tennessee, ED , roll T624_1501, part , page .
- ↑ Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census. (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006).
Online publication - Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: <a href="http://www.archives.gov/publications/microfilm-catalogs/census/1910/">NARA</a>.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1910.T624, 1,178 rolls. Civil District 4, Hamilton, Tennessee, ED , roll T624_1501, part , page .
- ↑ Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census. (Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006).
Online publication - Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: <a href="http://www.archives.gov/publications/microfilm-catalogs/census/1910/">NARA</a>.Original data - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1910.T624, 1,178 rolls. Civil District 4, Hamilton, Tennessee, ED , roll T624_1501, part , page .
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