Mother hung pumpkin strips around the upstairs chimney on a stick. Went to grandmother's house with sister before father died. Father was an Odd Fellow with the Freemason, and originally father wanted them to live at the Odd Fellows Home, Liberty, MO, or the Masonic Home, St. Louis, MO, but no one would allow them and the girls did not want to. Grandmother was a seamstress but never charged for designs and taught the girls to sew. Grandfather had been a Union soldier in the Civil War and was born in Tennessee. Other grandfather lived in Missouri for the fur trade but his family lived in the East. A cousin in Oklahoma is a minister and is helping her with genealogy.
FARMHOUSE
Farm was about 40 acres. Bought only coffee and sugar for groceries. Raised own food and took wheat and corn to water-powered mill for flour and cornmeal. "…people would rush there and have their grain ground." Grandmother made soft soap with lye water gathered from a lye hopper filled with ashes and cooked with old lard.
