My Mother wrote these childhood memorys of her
grandparents, and my great grandparents,
George and Rossa, for her cousins who were not forunate enough to have known them. They lived and raised their family on the farm pictured above. Many things have changed, but part of the present house owned by my aunt is the orginal house, which was built over a century ago. Rossa was one of the most beloved women of our community. She worked hard to take care of her family and feed the many men my grandfather had working for them. Her "sweet cakes" were the best around. My mother didn't allow us to stop after school, so we crossed the creek below grandmothers house and came through the back yard, where she would be waiting at the back door to give us our treat, and then we would be on our way, as we walked two miles to and from school each day. Grandpa ran a large farm, approximately 664 acres, plus he owned a sawmill and was in the timber business. I remember one five acre plot was devoted to a peach orchard, another to a plum orchard, plus many acres of mountain side was covered with apple trees of all types. The sawmill was moved from place to place on the farm, as the timber business progressed. There were several large barns to shelter the live stock neededin running the farm and timbering business. One of these barns also sheltered the grist mill used to grind corn into meal. People from miles around came to use the mill. There were always pigeons in these barn lofts and they would fly away when we children tried to catch them. Grandpa had a martin Box built like a tower that was around 20 to 25 feet tall and had many hundred nesting places for the martins, which returned each spring. These birds were benificial to the farm as they controlled the insect population. Not only were the hugh trucks on the farm used to haul logs and produce to market, but they were also used for pleasure. The family would place rails, or "side boards" as we called them, on the truck. They would gather up the family, and half the heighborhood, so it seemed, to make the yearly trips to Aunt "Liz" Godbey's in Cabell County, or to visit some Uncle or Aunt in another county, I remember that after the Hager Reunion we always visited Uncle Charley Workman on Six Mile. On Saturday it seemed there was always a large group of people who came to visit grandfather. I knew they came to listen and ask questions about his views on all subjects, especially the Bible. In the last few years i have realized that a great many of these people were related to us in one way or another. Not only related, but that they respected the judgement of my grandfather. Today it seems impossible that our lives were centered on the farm. We were content to attend school, do our chore's and play. We depened on our parents for our food and clothing. Our religious and patriotic training was given to us by our parents. Supplemented by the teachings of an old fashioned school teacher. I believe now, that we had the best standards of all living. Of course, we had hard times along with everone else, but we didn't seem to notice.
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