I hope to periodically post some Butler family history, as I receive information from various sources. I expect some of it is unknown to younger (or even older) family members, so this blog will serve as a way to retain some interesting family facts.
For the first entry, here are some notes I found in my mother's bible, which she had hand- written some years ago. It is incomplete, as page 1 is missing, so it starts on page 2 in mid- sentence:
".....and after that we moved to 615 (?) Central Ave where Nelson died with diphtheria. He was 4 years old. Anne wanted to live on the south side, so we moved to 525 Cross St.
Mom had eight children, 4 boys, 4 girls and 1 miscarriage. Mom's weight was one pound when she was born. They wrapped her in cotton, put her in a shoe box and in the oven and fed her with an eye dropper. She lived to be 85 yrs old and weighed 150 pounds.
They were both the best of parents, never a cross word to each other. Pop raised chickens and rabbits. That was most of our meat. He worked a garden and we had lots of vegetables.
He went to the garden one mile away on Bradley St. When he wasn't at the mill he was there and he worked hard.
Em and I got the groceries at the A&P in Bob's wagon, up near Court St bridge. Mom made all our bread, cakes and cookies. Five loaves of bread at once. She had real big washings. In winter Pop took the clothes off the line frozen. We had outside toilets, an iron sink with a pump for cistern water. Had to carry drinking water from a pump on the corner. Mom's brother Frank lived on the corner where we got one quart of milk. He had cows.
Mom and Dad met here again and were married at Hope Presb. Church on Leray St opposite Court St bridge. Pop made $11 a week. He was a beater engineer at No 3 paper mill in Brownville. Almost every day after school I had to take his supper to him and rode the streetcar to Brownville 5 miles for 5 cents. He met the streetcar and waited for the next car to take me home."
That's the end of her entries. Hopefully her memory was accurate.
1 comment:
Wow, this is great!!! I hope we can get some more stories like this from others. I will pump Gram and read this to her. I think she will love it. However, I am sure she won't understand how or where it is published. Aunt Carol has many stories as well. She shares some of them with Gram in the cards I read to Gram from her. How about posting a picture of your Mom as a little tribute? I can remember her at the cottage taking care of Great Grandpa and Grandma when I was a little kid. If my mind serves me well they had some small dogs (Chico? maybe one??? I know they had 3 puppies one summer). I also know Grandma used her mother's pie crust recipe in every pie she made. Thanks for the story I hope more will follow.
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