My life has been one olio of events so intertwined that it is hard to separate the many things I did at home and at school. I have only told a few things about my life at the different stages. They all fit together even if I have not told them that way. I have had a lot of help from my family, sometimes they remember things I do not. Hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as I have had writing it.
I wish to thank Stephanie Smith (my niece) for correcting my errors and typing it on my computer.
My daughter, Jane for remembering.
My sister, Virginia for proof-reading
My daughter, Virginia for the final O.K.
This is a story about the life and times of my family during the 1890's to the present day especially 1910 to 1994. As a part of my story, I have included a profile of my grandparents as I remember them, my parents, who gave me every advantage, my siblings, my school days both as a student and as a teacher, my understanding husband, and my two loving daughters.
Each and everyone has contributed to my happiness and helped me to have a rich and full life. As you read my memoirs, consider the things that happened to me in relation to world events during my lifetime.
Chapter I..........Childhood Memories
Left Out Childhood Happenings Running Away Childhood Holidays My Piano My Driving Record
College Days 1930-1931 Wesleyan and WVU
1941 Scott Township 1949-1957 Jane New Martinsville Weddings Grandchildren Deep Creek Lake Vacations Cruises
Sistersville |
Chapter V.........Retirement
Sun City The Last Ten Years Moving Again
Grandmother Rixey Grandfather Rixey The Clovis Family Grandmother Clovis Grandfather Clovis Cassius Ellery Clovis Elizabeth Adeline Clovis My Father's Family Generation to Generation
Virginia Mabel Adeline Sarah Mae My Brother (Deceased)
A Little Bit of History Griffin Decendents E.L. Griffin D.D.S. |
My story begins in the year 1910 on a farm in Monogalia County, West Virginia. Since it was December 1st, I suppose it was a cold winter day. However, the family doctor (my mother said he had a drinking problem) made it on the unpaved lane. I say lane because the road was very, very narrow. My parents were living with my grandparents, Elijah and Catharine Lemley Clovis, and my uncle, Forna Clovis. I mention this because they were there at the time. When I was a teenager, my uncle told me a number of times, "You were the ugliest thing I had ever seen, you were red and no bigger than a mouse." Of course, I was hurt but, when he gave a great big laugh, I felt he was kidding. Who knows? It was a time before prenatal care was heard of and living in a rural community my mother was lucky to have a doctor. Anyway, we all made it and I am not as red or as small but a lot wiser.
Soon after my birth, my mother felt she had to have a place of her own. My father was working in the Bank of Hundred. Hundred was and still is a small village about fifty miles south of Wheeling, West Virginia. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ran through it on the way to Grafton, West Virginia. Since my mother had grown up in Wheeling and her mother and aunts still lived there, we could go by train to visit them. The conductor always had a treat for me. It was all right to give children candy at that time. I was really scared of the engine and would hide behind my mother until we were able to board the coach. It was the greatest event when we arrived in Wheeling and were met by my uncle Charles on my mother's side or my uncle Charles on my father's side of the family. We had a great time as I remember it.
Hundred is a small village of between five and six hundred residents. I understood from my parents that we lived in a first story apartment of what was called the hospital building. I have no idea why the building had that name. The B & O trains seemed to run more at night than the daytime. The apartment was just across the street. My parents and I moved to another apartment on Main Street. All was quiet until -----
A few months later we were joined on May, 27, 1912 by a sister, Virginia. She was a twelve pound baby and the talk of the town. Was I jealous? Of course, I did not understand. Everybody had to see her, but I was in the backgound biding my time.
One day we had a cloudburst as the natives called it. Since our apartment was across the street from a creek, we were flooded. My mother was afraid of storms. When she had lived at my grandfather's farm, the house had been hit by lighting and shattered the chimney and caused injury to my uncle. She had been told that a feather tick would protect her. As the storm raged, she took both children and lay on the bed. There was a board walk in front of the house. Every few minutes she would check to see if the water was over the walk. All at once my father and two men opened the front door and the water rushed in. Before we could leave the water was shoulder high. We went out the back where the water was not so high and went to higher ground. I was put on Mr. King's shoulder to leave. My father and the other gentleman helped my mother and sister. To this day, I am afraid of rushing water. When I was a senior in college, it took me six weeks to learn to float in water. On the final test when we had to swim the length of the pool, I had to be pulled out of the pool. I passed the course with a B for effort.
Our next move was to the second floor of a house farther up the hill. Soon, however, my father was able to buy a house even higher on the hill. We were very happy to have a two story house high on the hill. It was a seven room house with basement and bathroom. At street level there was a door that led to the basement. Steps led to the first floor. There were two entry ways as the house had an el porch that faced on the east and south side. This floor had an entry hall that was as big as any room in the house. Behind this was the parlor. To the left was a large kitchen. Behind the kitchen was the dining room. Doors from both the kitchen and dining room led to the back porch, well, and washhouse. The top floor had one large bedroom at the top of the stairs, a hall, two small bedrooms and a bathroom. We were delighted to have so much room. My mother liked the kitchen as she could watch us at play and keep up with the neighborhood. Our dining room was where we spent most of our eveings. We used it for studying, listening to music, playing games and of course for meals. Everyone sat at the table when a meal was served and must be excused before they could leave. We had gas heat from a stove that was by the chimney. Later, my father had the house wired for electricity. The batteries were so large they took up one whole side of the washhouse. These batteries had to be recharged everyday with a gasoline motor. As we could circle from dining room to parlor, to hall to kitchen and back to dining room, wehad great marching parades to music from our Victrola. "Stars and Stripes Forever" was a favorite.
The basement consisted of two rooms, a large one for general storage the other was a small fruit cellar. We needed this as most of our food was home grown. My mother either canned or brined it. Of course I was afraid to go down there by myself as I knew that ghosts lived there with the spiders. Each time animals were butchered on the farm we had plenty of pork and beef. In those days there were no refrigerators or freezers. The beefsteak was packed with salt in a big earthenware jar, covered with a clean cloth and a huge rock. The pork was ground into sausage, packed in crocks, and covered with lard. The fruits and vegetables were canned and placed on the shelves. This little room I called "spooky room". Our staples were ordered from Sears and Robuck several times a year. We had plenty to eat, dressd well, and had a warm place to live. Except the house, it was not insulated and was drafty at times.
It was a bright summer day and two little girls, three and four years of age, decided to run away from home. We had no reason to do this except we thought it would be fun. Our house was on the same street as the schoolhouse and Methodist Chruch. We did not stop at the schoolhouse as there was no place to hide. The church had a basement with an outside entrance below ground. We decided to go down the outside stairway and hide in the corner. Shortly, we heard our names being called, but we thought it a good joke and remained very quiet. When discussing this with my sister recently, she told me some of what happened. My mother and neighbors kept calling for almost an hour, when our mother found us. You can imagine how she felt. Two little barefooted girls in summer dresses and a bob or bowl haircut huddled in a corner. My sister took the blame so my mother took a small switch to her all the way home. We were then made to sit on chairs for at least the amount of time we had worried our mother. The worst of all was that we could have fallen into an open grave near by.
I was telling my daughter, Jane, this story when she reminded me how I had worried when my grandson, Griff, hid from me at our lake condominium. We found him too and was a little angry, but spared the rod.
When I was seven years of age, my Uncle Charles and another man came for dinner. They had both just returned from World War One. I was listening to all the adult talk about the war and had began to move on my chair a lot. Since they were both doctors, I believed everything they said. All at once they said if I did not sit still they would take me to the hospital and cut the "wiggles" out of me. I was so scared I could not eat. My uncle finished my peaches and laughed at me. That did it for doctors for me. It had been difficult for me to get over that impression.
One day my father brought dinner guests home. He had called my mother at the last minute to tell her. She had prepared a company dinner. We were all sitting at the table when my brother made the following annoucement. "Dad, I'm glad you brought someone home for dinner. If you hadn't we would have leftovers."
We had a seating arrangement at our dining table that allowed my brother to sit across the table from my sister and I. He would make funny faces when my parents were not looking. We would get the giggles and were often sent from the table until we stopped. It was great fun growing up in our family.
One day we decided to play "Follow the Leader". Guess who the leader was, yours truly. My father had prepared a flower bed for planting. This ran the full length of the yard. Of course, I took all of us right through the prepared bed. When my father saw the damage, he decided we needed to be punished. He produced a rubber hose to spank me. I ran and sat in the high chair. It received most of the lashes. This is the only time I was ever punished in this way. There were two forms of punishment at our home. We either sat on a chair for a certain amount of time or our privilages were curtailed. Both seemed to work with us girls but my brother ignored them and repeated the behavior when he chose.
My childhood was a happy time as I remember it. My sister and I played dolls, church, and house. We did not always agree but we had our fun and "squabbles". We pulled hair, hit each other, and tumbled around. Since our house was a two story one and the stairs turned halfway to the top and formed a square landing, this was a wonderful place to play. When we could not agree, we were known to tumble down the lower half of these stairs. Of course, neither one caused the tuble. My mother took over and we were put on chairs in different rooms until we could play without "fighting" as she called it.
We each had a toy piano. We loved to play church and sing. We had two churches in our town. They were across the street from one another. We had placed both pianos in one of our make believe churches. When my sister was asked why we had both pianos in one church, she replied "The Camelites do not allow pianos in their church." We always sang "Jesus Loves Me."
We were well dressed. We never had any "store" clothes except our shoes and stockings. Since my Grandmother Rixey was a tailor, she could make our dresses in the latest style by looking at pictures. I have a picture of us dressed in fancy white dresses, white stockings, and white buttoned shoes. My sister is so chubby that the top button of her shoes can not be buttoned. My dress has a beautiful crocheted collar and my sister's dress is trimmed in eyelet ruffles. What no jeans you say? The only people that wore denim were farmers and laborers. We wore "made over clothes" as we did not throw anything away. Everything was used over and over again. One day at school, a girl made fun of my sister's dress. Since my father believed in paying cash for everything and the girl's family was always in debt, my sister said "It's paid for." We wore pinafores over our dresses so we could make them last longer.
Childhood diseases were very serious to me. I had the chickenpox and as a result I had pheumonia. I never had an overweight problem as food was not my forte. I missed almost all the first grade with an infected ear. My father had me reading in the first reader before I went to school, thus I was promoted to second grade at the end of the school term. It also helped that the first grade teacher stayed at our house. Since my parents believed in learning, we had a very strict rule at our house--lessons came first.
When I was five, my brother was born. My parents had a bargain, my mother would name the girls and my father would name the boys. My father named him, George Washington. Since my brother was not a cooperative as we girls had been, things changed somewhat. He was a very sickly child, was allergic to many foods and had to be pampered. He was always threatening to leave home if he did not get to do as he wanted to do. One day, my mother packed his bag and told him to go ahead and leave. She was worried all eveing, but shortly after dark she heard the porch swing creak. She peeked out and sure enough he was there, however, she pretended he had not come home and left him there all night. He still wanted to go to my uncle's farm that had four boys. I suppose he thought that was better than being with girls. Later in life, he was very popular with the girls. He had red hair and no one seemed to know whom he inherited it from. One day my mother went to a Chalfant reunion and almost everyone there had red hair. That took care of the hair color.
In June 1917, we were joined by another sister, Mabel Adeline, another redhead. She was a beauty and very aggressive. She was a "tomboy". She pestered the twins that lived out the street from us. She would meet the twin's father when he came home from work to tell what the boys had done to her and her brother that day. The father would believe her and the boys would get what he thought they deserved. Next day the boys would get even. Life went on.
By the time I was almost twelve I had another sister, Sarah Mae. She was our pride and joy. My sister, Virginia, and I thought she was a real doll baby. We would bathe, dress her, and I am sure we taught her a lot of things we should not have. She had the best disposition of all of us and followed our example. She had blonde curly hair, a clear creamy complexion, and seem to love all the attention she received. We were a family that studied together, played together and even ate together.
Summer was a great time as we were allowed to play most of the time. However, we had assigned duties, picking up our own things, helping with the dishes, taking the carpet sweeper, dusting, and making our beds. We alternated jobs by the week. My mother said it was good training. Of course my brother did not have to help as he was a boy and males did not do housework.
There were several children in our neighborhood. We played group games. On a hot summer day, we were playing Hide and Seek. In case you are not familiar with this game, one person is "it". "It" counts to one hundred while the others hide. "It" then calls "Read or not you shall be caught". Since it was so hot, I had on a sleeveless dress and was in my bare feet. When I heard the call, I ducked under a boardwalk that was about two feet above the ground. Immediately, I was attacked by many, many wasps. I had rammed my head into their home which was the size of the bottom of a scrub bucket. They were stinging me everywhere they could make contact. I ran home, wasps and all, crying. My grandmother was visiting us at the time. She called the neighbor to ask if she could borrow some peach leaves. This was an odd request, but she began grinding them up, adding salt, and beating them with my mother's flat iron. All the stings were covered and I was very comfortable. I never had to use the remedy again as I was very careful where I hid from then on.
I was at a Sunday School picnic one spring. I tried on one of the girl's Easter bonnets. In a few days, I began scratching my head. I had shoulder length curls that were put up on rags every night. Again my grandmother had the remedy. First she used lard on my head, but that did not work fast enough, so she used kerosene and combed and combed some more to remove the "nits". Again she was successful. At the time I did not like what she was doing, but the lice were no more. Thank goodness for grandmothers.
When I was a child, Christmas was the best time of the year. We always had a decorated tree, gifts, and a special meal. Christmas activities began several weeks before the actual day. My mother would bake lots of cookies, breads, and cakes. My grandfather would send us a chicken from the farm. Almost all of our food came from his farm.
We believed in Santa Claus, thus presents were hid until Christmas Eve. One Christmas I wanted a rocking chair just like my grandmother's. One day I found it upstairs in the cupboard I was not supposed to be in. It just had to be mine. I was so happy and could hardly wait for the time to pass. On Christmas, I pretended to be surprised. I wish I had not found the chair before because it was so hard to pretend.
Most of our gifts were what we needed to wear, such as shoes, stockings, and underclothes. I can never forget the Christmas I received my first store dress. It was a beautiful rose color, had a big collar and was streight up and down. I probably would not like it today.
After supper on Christmas Eve, we were sent next door so Santa could come and decorate our tree. When we were called home, we opened our presents as my mother liked to watch and the next day she would be too busy cooking.
We always went to a church service and were taught the real meaning of Christmas. The rest of the day was spent in playing with the neighbor children. One Christmas, we received roller skates. It was a bright sunny, cold, day, but we skated all day, had sore muscles and skinned knees. It was well worth it.
Later in life, I always thought back to those times when we were all at home and having a good time.
When I was around twelve years of age, my parents decided we needed more music in our lives. We had a Victrola and plenty of recordings by famous musicians. There was a pump organ at the farm house in the country. I had expressed a desire to play it and was allowed to try when I was there. I had a cousin that played some and taught me to play with one hand. The greatest time was when we went to Uncle Clark's, as they had a player piano. This was my first acquaintance with "Rag Time". How I loved to play that piano. It had so much rhythm.
Finally, our neighbors out the street decided to sell their Chickering Baby Grand. It was made of mahogany, had German steel strings and ivory keys. Since they were forced to sell my father got a bargain.
There were no music teachers in Hundred that my parents approved of, so one was imported from Mannington, a small town about fifteen miles distant. My sister and I received our lessons free in return for the teacher using the piano to teach her other pupils. I enjoyed practicing and learned a few pieces. I found that it was a good way to release my tensions. When I was very angry, to the piano I would go and I always felt better after playing the few pieces I knew. My mother could play "by ear" and she would often entertain us.
When I learned to read music, some friends and I had a group that met at least once a week to try our talents. We had a saxaphone, a violin, and a clarinet I believe. I do not know how the family and neighbors put up with us. My mother encouraged us and tried the saxaphone. One of the fellows could not believe old people liked saxaphones and told my mother so. She had a good laugh.
The piano served other purposes at our house. As you know, it covers a lot of floor space. When we had slumber parties, we would argue as to who would get to sleep under the piano. Most of the time the guests won. When not in use that way, we hid crusts of bread up on the shelf where the rear leg was attached. I did not like bread crusts.
My musical education continued my first two years of college at Fairmont. They had practice rooms so I did not annoy anyone.
At the end of my lessons, I was in a recital. I cannot remember the piece I played, but I do remember I played it for a long time afterward as it was so perfect. My mother and grandmother made me a beautiful, light green rayon dress. It had pointed tiers in three layers and I thought it was very stylish. When my mother was fitting it, she placed the hot iron on one of the tiers. Of course rayon at that time was very sensitive to heat. However, there were so many tiers that one of the points could be cut out and not missed. I wore the dress and no one knew the difference, but my mom and I.
After I left home, the piano was not used very much. However, when my parents were gone, my father willed the piano to me. I had it moved to my house in Morgantown. Many a Sunday afternoon one of my daughter's friends played for us.
Later, when my oldest daughter was married and had children, she said she would like the piano. We shipped it to her. She and both of her children took lessons. My grandaughter, Cathy, learned to play very well. The piano was then given to her. However, at this writing my daughter, Jane, has the piano.
After giving the piano away, I bought an electric organ. I still have it, but it is idle most of the time. Guess I was not as musical as I thought.
Catharine C. GriffinCatharine C. Griffin, 94, passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 1, 2005 at the Freedom Plaza Hospice facility after a brief illness.She was born December 1, 1910 to Cassius Ellery and Elizabeth Adeline Clovis on a farm in Monongalia County, West Virginia. Her family moved to Hundred, West Virginia soon after her birth. She was in the 1928 graduating class of Hundred High School with a class of 14. She then attended West Virginia Wesleyan College, Fairmont State Teacher's College, and was graduated from West Virginia University. During her second year of teaching, she married H. D. "Griff" Griffin and had two children, Jane Elizabeth Hamner and Virginia Anne Yeater. In 1950, at the age of forty, she returned to WVU and earned her M.A. For over 35 years, Catharine taught Home Economics at various schools in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.In 1974, Catharine and "Griff" retired to Sun City, Arizona, where Catharine pursued her "creativity". She sewed, she did needlepoint, macrame, quilting, knitting, and crocheting. She then found that weaving was the most satisfying craft she had ever done. In 1999, Catharine joined the computer world and wrote her memoirs. She has been honored by the Sun City Recreation Board as a Club Coordinator, wrote the newsletter for the Creative Quilters, was active in the Sun City Handweavers and Spinners Guild, helped with Sun City's 40th Anniversary, and volunteered over 2000 hours at the Sun City Library. Preceding her in death was her husband, H. D. Griffin; her daughter, Jane Hamner, and her first great grandchild, Amanda Lauren Yeater. Catharine is survived by her sister, Sarah Smith of Sun City Center, Florida; her daughter, Virginia Yeater; her grandchildren: Catharine Stell, Elizabeth Yeater, Shannon and Michelle Hamner, Max and Wendi Yeater; her great granddaughter, Alyssa Faith Yeater; and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held Friday, March 11, 2005 at 11:00 A.M. at Sunland Memorial Park. Memorial gifts may be donateed in her memory to the Sun City Library. Arrangements entrusted to Sunland Memorial Park, 623-933-0161. Visit this person's Guest Book at www.dailynews-sun.com.
Published in the Daily News-Sun on 3/9/2005.
