OF the EDDIE LEE MILLS FAMILY by Carol Mills Weiger December 25, 2011

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

OF THE EDDIE LEE MILLS FAMILY

Carol Mills Weiger

December 25, 2011

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Dear Family,

I hope you enjoy my attempt at creating a history of our family. Since I’ve had no formal education in writing a book please over look the mistakes, I write the way I talk so many of you will get a kick out of this. My aim is to give the grandchildren, and great grand children an idea of what life was like for our forefathers. I grew up in a time when no one locked a door, keys were left in the car, we were free to roam the woods, ride our bikes to Rockville, or Great Falls, go on hay rides to the beach, and no one worried about being kidnapped, mugged, or sued because someone got hurt. We were poor but we didn’t know we were poor because everyone else in our area was in the same boat. Our family has suffered many tragedies through the last 100 years but we are a strong willed bunch, we keep our heads up and look for better days.

I dedicate this book to my grandmother, Mammy, who set the example for all of us. Her words of wisdom to me many years ago were “follow the Ten Commandments, work hard, make the best of any situation and you will be okay”.

Hope you enjoy!

Love you all and God Bless,

Carol, Nana, Nannie, Aunt Carol, Cousin Carol, or whatever name you call me.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

PLEASANT MEADOWS DAIRY FARM OWNED BY EDDIE LEE AND BERTHA M. MILLS, 1907-1982

OPERATED BY PAUL D. MILLS, 1927-1982 14320 DUFIEF MILL ROAD GAITHERSBURG, MD

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

PLEASANT MEADOWS FARM

Winter of 1983 just before all the farm buildings were destroyed

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Top picture is the dairy, horse barn, and part of the cow barn also if you look very carefully in the woods at the top you can see Conrad Mills’ house. Bottom picture is of the meadow and Rich Branch.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Eddie Lee Mills – born September 7, 1881 – murdered July 7, 1927

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Chapter 1

HISTORY OF THE EDDIE LEE MILLS FAMILY FROM 1907 - 1945

The Mills family tree was traced back to 1650 by Jill Hudson-Miller, great-granddaughter of Eddie Lee and Bertha Mills. The first Mills’ came from Derbyshire, England and settled in Amherst and Louisa, VA areas. The first Mills’ recorded to settle in the Gaithersburg area was around 1749. Many of our forefathers are mentioned in a book The History of Gaithersburg, also there are numerous Mills’ buried in Forest Oak cemetery in Gaithersburg, MD.

Eddie Lee was the son of Charles Richard Mills and Mary Elizabeth Day. He had one brother Hezekiah. They were raised on a 180+ acre farm located on Dufief Mill Road, which today is known as Flints Grove. Charles was a machinist by trade and a crop farmer by choice.

Eddie Lee Mills married Bertha Mae Roberts January 22, 1907.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Bertha Mae Roberts Mills born June 15, 1886 – died June 16, 1974

11/29/2018 7:08 AM They began their married life in a four-room, two-story, clap-board, tenant house deeded to Eddie by, his father, on December 30, 1909. The house had none of the conveniences that we enjoy today. There was no electric, running water, bathroom or central heat only a cook stove for cooking, and heating the house in the winter. They used kerosene lamps for light. The bathroom was a little building out back of the house that was known as the “back house” or “outhouse”. All the water that was used for cooking, drinking, washing clothes and bathing, was carried up a steep hill from the spring. Their first son Paul Donald was born in this house on March 12, 1909. Dorothy Elizabeth their only daughter was also born there on November 1, 1911. Their third child, Sidney Lee was born in the new house on December 12, 1915.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

On June 2, 1913 Eddie Lee Mills purchased 114 acres from the George A. Crum of Washington, DC. George Crum had purchased the property from George Baughman and his wife Mary L. in 1908 for $1,900. I could not find out what Eddie Lee paid for the farm. This property joined Eddie’s father’s farm and the 2.7 acres Charles R. Mills deeded to Eddie Lee in 1909. With the addition of this new farm the Mills’ property now consisted of approximately 116.7 acres. Rich Branch ran thru the entire property. This creek supplied drinking water for the cattle, had deep holes for swimming and good size sun perch. There were several acres of woods and numerous out buildings. It had an excellent wood frame bank barn fastened together with wooden pegs that was built in the 1800’s it stood on a beautiful stone foundation. This barn consisted of four horse stalls, a tack room, an eight stanchion cow section, a bull pen, a large grain isle and three large free stalls used for raising calves and young stock. There was a large hay loft and a grain storage room on the top level. Unfortunately, this barn was destroyed in 1983 to make way for the Potomac Farms subdivision. The property consisted of other outbuildings, a chicken house, pig pen, smoke house, outhouse, corn crib, and a run-down farm house.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

(This picture is the original house on the farm purchased in 1913)

Eddie Lee immediately began construction on a new house. I can imagine him searching the woods for the oak trees to saw for rafters, steps, banister, and flooring, chestnut trees for the trim and plate rails, pine for the floor in the attic all were sawed by him at his saw mill located near the first house they had lived in. The new house was a lovely stucco nine-room dwelling with an attic and cellar. There was a wrap-a-round porch which had two front doors which had etched glass windows. One door went into the dining room and the other which everyone used as the front door went into the sitting room. To the left were the stairs to the second floor, straight back was the parlor which was only used at Christmas time, when the preacher came or when someone died. There was a wonderful old victrola in there that you had to crank by hand to hear the music. The dining room was the largest room on the first floor it had a bay window which looked out over Mammy’s garden, the cow barn, pasture and the road. Besides the usual dining room furniture Mammy’s organ was in there and later the telephone. The kitchen consisted of a

11/29/2018 7:08 AM cook stove, ice box, a Hoosier cupboard, a beautiful built-in cabinet with a stained glass door, large table, water spicket with a bucket under it to catch the water, and the pantry. The second floor had four bedrooms and a bath room however it was in the 60’s before the plumbing for the bathroom was installed, in the early days it was used for storage.

Now I know you young folks are wondering where you went to the bathroom and how you took a bath if you didn’t have inside plumbing. Each room was equipped with a chamber pot which you used at night and slide under the bed till morning when you empted it out. Each bedroom had a wash stand with a wash basin and water pitcher. The wash basin and pitcher set were usually very decorated and also had matching containers for combs and a soap dish. You carried cold water to your bedroom every night and washed up before going to bed but you only took a bath once a week in the kitchen with hot water in a tin wash tub.

All of the trim in the house was wormy chestnut which was never painted it was a beautiful wood and remained natural until they remolded. The central source of heat came from a coal furnace. The heat came up through a grate in the floor. This furnace was used until 1965, my grand mother was in her late 70’s and went to the cellar morning and night to shovel the coal in the furnace or to “stoke the furnace”, as she called it. This furnace was great as long as you stood right over it, if you moved a few feet away you would get cold. I especially enjoyed the furnace in the winter when I was young, because you dried off and got warm quick after sled riding.

The shell of this grand old house is still standing and is located at 14310 Dufief Mill Road, North Potomac, MD. Even the address has changed our mailing address use to be Gaithersburg. In the 40’s I remember family members saying we didn’t know where we lived we had a Gaithersburg address, a Rockville telephone exchange and we voted in Travilah. Anyway the house was remodeled in 1988 and again in 2001 it was lost to foreclosure in 2004, set empty until it was sold in 2010 to a young couple. None of the wormy chestnut trims remain. The room configurations are now different, and the built- in-cabinet with the stained glass door is gone. The original oak staircase with a broken banister still remains today. The banister was broke while Sidney and Paul were rough housing when they were young. One of them grabbed the banister while the other tried to pull him down the steps.

According to all sources my grandfather was an excellent businessman, he wasn’t afraid of hard work or being in debt. Most of his cows were registered Jerseys and some cost over $300, that was a tremendous amount of money in the early 1900’s. According to records from the American Jersey Cattle Club the first Jersey cow was registered in my grandmother’s name in 1907. I don’t know for a fact but being the romantic I am I like to think this may have been a wedding gift or an engagement gift from my grandfather.

My grandfather milked his cows by hand, into a five gallon pail, twice a day. The raw milk was taken to the dairy to be cooled and stored. The milk cooler, consisted of stainless steel coils with cold spring water running through them. There was a square stainless steel box that fit on top of the coils. You poured the milk from a five gallon milk

11/29/2018 7:08 AM pail, into the square box on top of the cooler. The milk trickled down the coils, ran out the spout into a strainer that fit into a ten-gallon milk can. The milk can was then placed in a trough filled with cold running spring water. Every other day the ten gallon milk cans were loaded on a wagon pulled by a team of horses, and hauled one mile to Travilah Road. The milk cans were left on the milk stand until it was picked up by Tom Lowe and taken to Washington, DC to be processed.

Milking cows was not the only means my grandfather had for making a living. He raised wheat, oats, barley, hay, corn, and peas. He owned a thrashing machine, which he charged a fee or bartered for the service of thrashing wheat for local farmers. Another source of income was from a saw mill that he owned and operated.

In January of 1924, a group of nine young men got together and formed the Montgomery County Jersey 4-H Club. The group consisted of: Paul Mills, Sidney Mills, George

(Early photo courtesy of Blaine Young taken at the W. C. Stiles & Sons farm, known as Walnut Farm, on Shady Grove Road, at a judging practice, I think the person with the bull on the left is George Stiles, next one is an Umpstead, skip the next boy, then John Stiles and Daddy is on the far end. Daddy was a sharp dresser even in the 1920’s.) My guess this picture was taken between 1926 and 1927.

Stiles, John Stiles, Herman Volmer, Gordon Umpstead, Russell Umpstead, Marvin Umpstead, and Aubrey Walters. The officers for the first year were Paul Mills, President; John Stiles, Vice President and Russell Umpstead served as secretary- treasurer. To guide these young men through their first year, three local Jersey breeders

11/29/2018 7:08 AM in Montgomery County accepted the responsibility of leading the club. They were Frank Hutton, F.A. Heithmiller and Francis Brenniss. All nine boys showed their Jerseys at the Rockville Fair where John Stiles entry won grand champion female in both 4-H and open classes. Seven of them exhibited at the Maryland State fair that year. I understand that they walked their animals to Gaithersburg then boarded the train to take them to the fair grounds in Timonium, MD.

Picture from a Sentinel news paper article I found taken in 1927 at the Old Rockville Fair. I think this may be the heifer of Uncle Sidney’s that I refer to later in

11/29/2018 7:08 AM the story. They won 1st and 2nd. I used this picture for a display at the MOOseum with the ribbons.

This picture appeared in the Washington Post on July 8, 1927

The dairy barn consisted of 15 stations for milk cows, a large feed room, hay loft and one silos. The second silo with scaffling on the right was under construction when my grandfather was killed. The silo was never finished because unfortunately there was no money to finish it after my grandfather’s murder on July 7, 1927. Early on the morning of July 7, 1927, someone dressed in black ran out of the woods and shot Eddie Lee six times while he was driving the cows in to be milked. The murder still remains unsolved. His untimely death left his widow Bertha, with a large debt and three children, my father, Paul 18, Dorothy 16 and Sidney age 12.

In an effort to make ends meet my grandmother had a public auction in the fall of 1927, and sold everything except the bare necessities needed to survive. All of the registered Jerseys were sold, with the exception of one old cow, and Sidney’s 4-H Jersey heifer. Sidney’s heifer was listed on the bill of sale but on the day of the sale he got up very early, took his heifer deep into the woods and hid her. I understand he really got in trouble for that stunt but he still had his beloved Jersey heifer.

Even after the auction it was difficult for my grandmother to provide for her family. My father often told me about the hardships they endured. How my grandmother would work in the fields beside him during the day then sewed late into the night making clothing for clients in the District of Columbia. When the Farm Woman’s Market opened in Bethesda, MD in the 1930’s she made homemade bread, cakes, pies, butter, cottage cheese, dressed chickens, turkeys, ducks, guinea fowl and sometimes a smoked ham or two which she sold at the market. She continued this practice, every Saturday, until the late 1940’s to supplement the farm income. In the spring she planted hot beds and grew tomato, pepper, cabbage, and sweet potato plants which she sold to local gardeners. My dad helped out by taking a job hauling stones for the construction of Glen Road. He was paid $1.00 a day for his labor and a team of horses. Dorothy went to work at Shine’s 5 &

11/29/2018 7:08 AM 10 cent store in Gaithersburg; she made $6.00 a week and paid Aunt Nannie Briggs $3.00 for room and board. (According to Beulah Demory Briggs, Beulah also said that often Aunt Dorothy didn’t have enough money for lunch and she would treat her. Beulah was living at home and didn’t have to pay rent).

In 1929 a lady Mammy sewed for, Ms. Myra Shultz, made a proposal to my dad. She had six registered Jersey cows she would give him if he agreed to give her back the first heifer calf of each cow. This was the beginning of Pleasant Meadows Home Delivery Milk Service.

He managed to get a loan to buy the equipment he needed; a bottling machine and a truck. He used the same cooling system his father had. The bottling machine worked as follows; you poured the cooled milk in the big round stainless steel bowl-like top, set the milk bottles on a hand rotating cylinder, stepped on a peddle which released the milk into the bottle, filling the bottle with the desired amount of milk and then you released the pedal, and pulled the cylinder around to the next bottle. After you filled each bottle on the cylinder you used a hand *capper to seal the bottles. The capper held round paper disc that fit snuggly on top of each glass milk bottle. There were two kinds of bottles cream tops and straight neck. The cream top bottles had a round bulge where the cream would settle. There was a special spoon to dip off the cream for your coffee or you could dip it out to make butter. No butter today tastes like it did back then. After the milk was capped the bottles were placed in steel crates which held 12 bottles, then each crate was placed in the cooling room for delivery the next day. The cooling room was a large insulated room attached to the dairy with spring water running through it, and blocks of ice cut from the Potomac River were lifted up to racks near the ceiling. (Note: this information is from my Uncle Franklin Johnson it was before my time. What I remember was an electric compressor used to cool the milk room, however the spring still ran through it.) After all the milk was bottled, you had to wash down the dairy with hot water and a sanitizing detergent. The water was heated by a large boiler in another room attached to the dairy. This boiler was powered by wood or coal, depending on what was available. Cutting wood to fire the boiler was another job for the dairy farmer which was considered a winter time job. You always fired up the boiler before you started to milk the cows so the water would be hot in the reservoir.

In the early days my father milked the cows by hand, cleaned the barn by hand, bottled the milk, and delivered it. His milk route went from Travilah Road to Rockville to Bethesda to the District line. He delivered milk every day except Sundays, alternating delivery points each day. He usually returned home around 11:30 am after delivering the milk, washed the dirty milk bottles by hand that he had collected that day and then had lunch. After a short rest there was field work and manure to haul until 4:00 pm when the

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

(Picture courtesy of Mary Louise Thrift on the back she wrote Paul Mills, Milk Truck 1929, Pleasant Meadows Dairy, Dufief Mill Rd, Travilah. Thank you Mary Louise.)

11/29/2018 7:08 AM Milking process started over again. In the evenings, after a light supper, there was machinery to be fixed, records to keep, and bills to be paid. This was a 365 day a year job with virtually the same routine every day. There were occasions when milk production would drop off and we would need to supplement our milk with milk from another dairy farmer. We usually bought milk from Clay Plumber, in Gaithersburg, when this shortage occurred, to fill the orders for our customers.

(Picking corn in field by Uncle Sidney’s house on Dufief Mill Road. NOTE: dirt road to left which is Dufief Mill Road. Fred Jenkins on tractor with back to picture.)

11/29/2018 7:08 AM In addition to raising hay and corn, for silage to feed the livestock, he raised wheat, barley, rye, clover seed, sweet corn and peas to sell. The sweet corn and peas were sold to the Gaithersburg cannery in Gaithersburg, MD located across from the entrance of the Montgomery County Agriculture Center. During the harvest seasons extra hands were brought in to help. Many a young man in the Travilah area earned his spending money working on the farm during the summer months. Daddy expected a fair day’s work for a fair days pay. Many parents asked him to use their sons during the summer.

Every November was when we butchered our hogs. Our day for butchering was always the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. When I was a child, I loved this activity and begged to stay home from school even though I wasn’t much help in the early years. Family and neighbors showed up bright and early to help. Those helpers always went home with a goody bag of fresh pork plus they all enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by “Mammy”, my grandmother. Back then lunch didn’t consist of just a sandwich. You had mashed potatoes with lots of gravy, homemade bread, fried chicken, lima beans, pickled beets, applesauce, homemade pies, cakes, brownies, taffy and homemade root beer. Traditionally my grandmother made black walnut taffy at butchering time. I always looked forward to this treat but could never understand why she made it only at butchering time. It was so good. At lunch time, if my grandmother was in a real generous mood she might share some of her homemade dandelion, grape or blackberry wine with the men, never the women. Believe me the men never got much unless they took some when she wasn’t watching. The men were always fed first, in the dining room; the colored helpers ate in the kitchen or on the back porch. The women and children waited the tables, and when the men were through eating, the women and children ate. ADD BUTCHERING PICTURES

From 1907 to 1936 the farm was run primarily by family members. In 1936 things began to change. We got electricity and hired someone to help in the dairy. Our new dairyman was Clarence Dyson and his wife Nora. I found it interesting that none of the farmers or other residents on Dufief Mill Road wanted electricity. My dad paid for the poles to be installed and the wires to be run back to the farm. Later when other farmers wanted electricity the power company charged them a fee and reimbursed my father for part of the initial installation.

In 1937, daddy bought an electric milker which made the milking process more efficient. During WWII we never had any labor problems. There were men who preferred working on the farm instead of going to war. When the war was over and there was no danger of being drafted those able bodied men went looking for an easier way to make a living and our labor problems began.

When the Health Department required all milk must be pasteurized, my father began looking for alternative methods of making a living. Finally he decided to sell his milk route to Martin’s Dairy in Olney, MD and go out of the dairy business.

In October of 1945 my dad had a public auction and sold the cows, work horses and miscellaneous machinery. His new business was custom farming which he continued

11/29/2018 7:08 AM until 1982. Daddy bought the first New Holland bailer in Montgomery County. When it was delivered to our farm a mechanic and several officials came from New Holland, PA to demonstrate it. Other farmers were invited to see how this bailer operated. The demonstration didn’t go too well because all they got were broken bails all over the field. It took three days to get the bailer operating correctly.

The legacy of my family’s farm lives on through King’s Barn Dairy MOOseum and the Montgomery County Jersey 4-H Club. In 1946 I became a member of the same 4-H club my father was president of in 1924. I recently discovered that my first Jersey heifer, which I purchased from Holly Beach Farm in Annapolis, MD, was a descendent of a cow originally owned by my grandparents. Holly Beach Farm was located where Sandy Point State Park, Annapolis, MD is located today.

The Montgomery County Jersey 4-H club is still in existence under the leadership of Bruce Connelly. I’m proud to say that I was a 4-H member of the Jersey club for 11 years, a local leader for 27 years, and each of my three children were fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to be members of the same club that my father helped organize so many years ago.

I have many fond memories of my 4-H years and I’m still in touch with friends I made during that time. I treasure these memories and I can’t imagine my life without 4-H however, those stories may be another book someday.

Chapter 2

EDDIE LEE’S MURDER AND EVENTS FOLLOWING JULY 7, 1927

STILL WORKING ON THIS

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Chapter 3

MAMMY

Who was Mammy, as far as I’m concerned she was the most influential person in my life and I dearly loved her.

“MAMMY” was born on June15, 1886. She was the third daughter of William McPherson and Emma Elizabeth Russman Roberts. Her birth name was Bertha Mae, but she was always my Mammy. I remember the day I named her. I was behind the old cook stove, playing with a new litter of kittens, and the radio was playing “Mammy’s Little Baby Loves Shorting Bread”. I thought that was a cute song and decided right then and there that was what I was going to call my grandmother. She was Mammy from that day on. I was three or four at the time.

Mammy grew up on a farm located on Turkey Foot Road. Today there are million dollar homes on the farm. I remember the large two story white house with a wrap-around porch, on top of the hill; with a long curved drive way. The house burned on Christmas Eve in the fifties or early sixties and several people died in the fire. There was a large, red bank barn, down the hill and to the left. Down near Turkey Foot Road there was a stone spring house, with an ice pond nearby. The Dufief’s lived across the road and ran the Duffief’s Mill. Mammy walked from Turkey Foot Road to Travilah Road to go to school at Travilah Elementary School not the present day school. This was the same two room school that my dad, Paul graduated from and I went there until I was in the third grade when it was closed. It was located on the left hand side, on the sharp bend in Travilah Road just before you reach the cross roads of Glenn and Travilah Roads. INSERT PICTURE OF SCHOOL. The old school burned I believe in the 50’s a black family was living there at the time. Mammy completed the eighth grade and then stayed home to nurse her sister Emma. She was a member of the Travilah Baptist Church and a Sunday School Teacher for many years. She had four sisters and one brother. They were Bessie Virginia, (1881-1964) who married Jessie Magruder: INSERT PICTURE Charles William (1884-1955) who married Elizabeth Curtis, (married Sept. 2, 1916);

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Mattie Grace, (1889-1978) who married Frederick Schwartzbeck;

Nannie Katherine, (1895-1979) who married William Briggs (Sept. 23, 1915):

11/29/2018 7:08 AM There were two sisters who died Virginia Emma (1878-1897) and Blanche Belle (1899- 1918).

11/29/2018 7:08 AM A page from the Emma Roberts’ Bible courtesy of Margie Briggs

On January 27, 1908 Mammy married Eddie Lee Mills. Back then weddings were usually held in the winter months because that’s when there was less work to do on the farm. Mammy was a wonderful seamstress. I have a silk cap and camisole she made for her wedding its pale peach and has hand tatted or crocheted lace. (I never could tell the difference from tatted and crocheted.) They had three children. Paul Donald was born March 12, 1909, my dad. And then twenty months later Dorothy Elizabeth was born on November 1, 1911. Sidney Lee, their second son was born on December 31, 1914.

Mammy was a hard working, strong willed, religious woman. She endured many hardships in her life but her love for her family was evident by the things she did for each of us. Her way was to show you love not waste meaningless words. I don’t think she ever told me she loved me but I always knew she did. The special birthday cakes, brownies at Halloween, helping me with my first embroidery project in the fourth grade, saving me from Sister Superior in the seventh grade by finishing my embroidery project, making me my special coffee in the mornings, (it was mostly milk and sugar), fixing lunches for us on show day at the fairs, walking up to my house at the age of 84 the day we brought Kandi home from the hospital, teaching me to cook, and always there with advice or scolding when needed.

Mammy had a schedule for everything on Monday morning at 6:00 am a huge boiler was put on the cook stove, which she had started earlier, and filled with water. Then she fixed breakfast it never matter if it was breakfast for one or for ten, you got toast, cooked on top of the cook stove, eggs, home cured bacon or country ham. Her theory was you needed a hearty breakfast to start the day. After breakfast the dishes were washed and put away then the outside chores had to be done. Her chores consisted of feeding and gathering eggs from two chicken houses, one turkey house, feeding the pigs, and bringing in wood for the cook stove. Of course she chopped her own kindling. Then the old Maytag wringer washing machine was pulled out, for Monday was wash day. In the summer you washed the clothes on the back porch in the winter you washed in the kitchen. A bench was placed next to the washing machine on the wringer side this was to hold the tin wash tub for the rinse water. The hot water in the copper boiler was dipped out into a bucket and carried to the washing machine. After the washing machine was filled with the boiling water a cake of homemade lye soap was added. All white underwear was always put in the remaining water in boiler and left on the cook stove to boil before they were put in the washing machine. Clothes were sorted according to colors, white items, like sheets, pillow cases etc., were washed first, then under ware, then colored articles, (like feed sack dresses, aprons, etc.), the last things washed were the men’s work clothes. After each load was washed you then turned on the wringer, you had to pull the clothes out of the washing machine and feed them into the wringer. From the wringer they went into the rinse tub with the blue water, you had an oak stick to stir the clothes around in the rinse water then you reversed the wringer on the washing machine and fed the clothes into the clothes basket. The next load was added to the washer and you took the clothes basket to the close line and begin the process of hanging the clothes out to dry. Mammy had a special way that the clothes were to be hung. On the

11/29/2018 7:08 AM first line you hung the white sheets, pillow cases, bath towels, tea towels, white handkerchiefs, wash cloths. Growing up I don’t remember any of the above being anything but white. On the next line the ladies dresses were first, next came the under ware, (these garments were in the middle so no one could see them), then came the aprons, and children’s clothes, the third line had men’s coveralls, shirts, socks and colored work handkerchiefs. This order never varied back then I couldn’t understand why but I guess it was all in the presentation. I often heard comments about other ladies in the community whose laundry didn’t quite meet Mammy’s expectations it wasn’t real white or they didn’t know how to hang out clothes. These were important things to Mammy. If it rained you still washed but all the clothes were carried up two flights of stairs to the attic and hung there until they dried. It was usually around 11:00 am when the washing was completed, all the clothes were hung out to dry, and the wash water was distributed to all of the flowers. The washing machine, boiler, wash tub, and bench was dried off and put away. Since we did not have running water in our house we washed our clothes with Mammy’s and mother always helped do the washing besides the washing machine belonged to mother.

Now it was time to peel potatoes, and start lunch which was another hearty meal. After lunch was over, the dishes were washed by hand, dried and put away. Would you believe she took a rest, she would read her Bible, newspaper or do her mending. Occasionally she would dose off but not for long. Aunt Dorothy usually came around 1:30 in the afternoon after her stories were over. They would chat, shell peas or whatever needed to be done.

In the summer she spent the afternoon in the garden. Of course she had to take down the clothes fold and sprinkle the things she would iron the next morning. Her day’s not over yet because the chickens need to be fed, as well as turkeys and the pigs and gather the eggs. She had to bring in more fire wood for the cook stove.

After a light supper she would sit on the front porch and shell peas or whatever she had picked from the garden. In the winter she sewed or made rugs.

TUESDAY was the day you ironed and believe me everything was ironed except bath towels, wash cloths, and dish cloths. Children were expected to iron handkerchiefs, under ware and sometimes pillowcases.

In the afternoon after the rest period you cleaned the upstairs.

WEDNESDAY afternoon was Mammy’s day to go to Gaithersburg to grocery shop, and get her chicken feed. No one else could get the chicken feed at Bowman’s Mill except her. She would carefully select the chicken feed. The reason for carefully selecting the chicken feed was not because of the content but because of the design on the bags. She never let anyone pick out her chicken feed bags because she used those bags to make dresses, aprons, and bonnets. She also made pillow cases and tea towels out of white flower sacks. While in Gaithersburg she would stop in Shines .05 and .10 cent store for some buttons or sewing needs, maybe go to Thomas’ hardware store for a new hoe or rake. Then she would go visit with one of her sisters, Nanny, Bessie, or Grace. I think she

11/29/2018 7:08 AM had a schedule for which sister she would visit on the first Wednesday of every month the second and so on.

Aunt Dorothy always took her on these shopping trips to Gaithersburg in the later years because Mammy gave up driving sometime after 1935. I’m not sure why or exactly when but I know she drove Charles Mills to the lawyer’s to make his will before he died and he died in 1937.

THURSDAY - she began preparing to go to the Farm Woman’s Market in Bethesda which was held on Saturday. In the morning she would put the copper boiler on the stove, fill it with water. Then she would go out to the chicken house and select the roosters and/or old hens, catch them, tie two chickens together by the feet, hang them on the clothes line and cut their heads off. After they had bled out she would take them down dip each chicken into the boiling water, pick all the feathers off. (She always saved the soft duck and chicken feathers from around the breast area. This is called down and used for pillows and comforters, which she made.) After each chicken was plucked clean she would make an incision in the tail area and remove all the internal organs. The chickens were washes thoroughly and placed in ice cold salt water to soak for ½ hour. Then the chickens, ducks, and/or turkeys were carefully wrapped in wax paper and placed in a brown bag and put into the refrigerator or taken to the large dairy walk-in refrigerated box.

FRIDAY – was my favorite day of the week, it was baking day. Mammy would make rolls, several cakes, cookies and/or brownies for the market. I always got some dough to play with. I made rolls in a jar lid; later in life I often heard that my rolls were a little on the dirty side because my hands were not very clean while I played with the bread dough. Mammy was a great cook and I’ve always been grateful she spent the time to teach me. In the afternoon was clean the downstairs day.

SATURDAY was Market Day and Mammy got up extra early because she had all her chores to do, fix breakfast, pack the car or truck depending who was going with her and be in Bethesda by no later than 7:00 am. She usually was home by 2:00 and most times she was completely sold out. Also, when she went to the market she would pick up sewing from the Bethesda ladies and work on the articles during the week and return them on the following Saturday.

Saturday evening she would always soak her feet; while they were soaking in the wash basin she would lay a newspaper over them so no one could see them. After they had soaked for a while she would dry them and cut the calluses’ off the bottoms with a razor blade. Then she would place the tin wash tub in the kitchen, fill it with water and take her bath and wash her hair.

SUNDAY – naturally it began with her breakfast, then the chores and then dress for church. When I was young Mammy had very long hair which she brushed every night twenty times. She would braid her hair and wrap it around her head in a knot; well this made her black hat with the red flower sit a little crocket on her head. Also, on Sunday’s

11/29/2018 7:08 AM she wore rudge, (today you call it blush, in fact I have her silver rudge container), and lipstick. Sunday school started at 10:00 am at the Travilah Baptist Church where Mammy taught Sunday school for about 40 years. Everyone had their special seating spot for church which started at 11:00 a.m. and you best not sit in their spot. Aunt Bessie and Uncle Jessie Magruder always sat of the left hand side next to the pot belly stove and often you would hear Uncle Jessie snore. Aunt Grace played the organ and Uncle Fred Schwartzbeck sat on the right side of the church in the corner about four rows back. Mammy and her family sat in the second or third middle row. You never knew what time the service would be over it just depended on how long winded Rev. Claude Brewbaker would be. As soon as church was over Mammy headed home to start frying chicken because there was usually 15 or 20 for dinner. The men were always seated first in the dining room; the women waited on them and fed the children in the kitchen. When the men were finished eating they went out on the front porch to smoke and tell stories. The women cleared the table, heated up the leftovers, reset the table and had their lunch. This was their time to gossip and have fellowship. Sometimes we would have homemade ice cream for dessert which the children and men would churn while the ladies ate. After all the dishes were washed, and put away Mammy would open up the old pump organ and begin to play. Everyone gathered around and sang mostly gospel songs. I guess that is why I love gospel music to this day. Everyone was usually gone by 4:30 or 5:00 because they had to get home to milk, and do their chores. Bedtime was no later than 8:00 p.m. in the winter and sometimes earlier. In the summer you usually got to stay up until dark everyone went to bed at the same time. In the summer sometimes it was so hot in the house I remember Daddy going outside and sleeping under a tree. We might go down to the creek and take a quick swim to cool off before going to bed. We did not have an air conditioner and I was at least seven years old before we purchased our first electric fan.

Mammy always had boarders or roomers Buster Miller was one of the first. I don’t know when he came to Mammy’s but I do know all of his things were packed in the attic during the war and he lived with Mammy after the war until he married Edna. In the summer of 1945 I remember Sammy Shanks, spent the summer working on the farm and stayed at Mammy’s, I loved that because it was like having a big brother around. Most of Mammy’s boarders were good hard working people from PA who came to the Washington, DC area for a better job. They usually were only here from Monday night until Friday going home for the weekends. All the years Mammy had boarder she only had one bad one and he robbed her. She didn’t realize it at first one day she noticed that her wedding ring was missing from her jewelry box and some of her mother’s jewelry. She told Aunt Dorothy and they called the police but Mammy wouldn’t press charges she only wanted him out of her house. I can remember arguing with her about pressing charges not realizing that she was afraid to go to court because of what she had endured at the my grandfather’s trial. The good thing about this was he never found much money because Mammy hid her money under the living room carpet. The jewelry was never recovered and I think she was always very sad about that.

Mammy was strong willed and proud to the very end. The doctors wanted her to stay in the hospital she said “NO, I’ll die in my own house”, and she did just a few days after her 89th birthday.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

11/29/2018 7:08 AM Chapter 4

HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

When I was growing up for special occasions we made homemade ice cream. This event took place on a Sunday afternoon after church and a large dinner at Mammy’s house. Since I always loved ice cream this was something I looked forward too. The ingredients you need to make ice cream are sugar, eggs, cream, vanilla, lots of ice, rock salt and lots of man power to turn the churn handle. The only ingredient we had to buy was sugar. We had eggs from our chickens and all you had to do for cream was go to the dairy and scoop off the cream from the milk cans cooling there. In the summer ice was the problem and often we did not have enough ice. You really had to plan to make ice cream. There were no automatic ice makers, you made ice by pouring water in metal trays, with little square sections, put the trays in the freezer section of the refrigerator. This freezer was not the large side-by-side freezer of today it was about 12 inches x 12 inches and you made four trays of ice at a time. You must remember too that there were no 7 Elevens to run too, but there were ice houses. I remember the two closest to us, one was Tom Lowe’s, located across from McCrossin Lane on Travilah Road and the other one was Esworthy’s located at the corner of Esworthy Road and Seneca Road. I don’t remember any in Rockville. There was another and the longest operating one that I know of located in Gaithersburg on Diamond Avenue near the fire house. We seldom went there until many years later when the others went out of business. Making ice cream in the winter wasn’t a problem you used snow and long ice sickles, broken into bits. We also made snow cream in the winter it consisted of milk, sugar, vanilla, and enough snow to make it the consistency of ice cream. It gave you a brain freeze if you ate too fast.

The hand powered churn was kept in the pantry on the floor behind the door and I really got excited when Mammy said, “Go get the ice cream churn”. Mammy’s pantry was a full size room in fact I believe when they remolded the house it is now the laundry room and bathroom. All kinds of good stuff were kept in the pantry. That’s another story.

We had two different recipes for making the ice cream one was you cooked the eggs, sugar, cream until it was the consistence of custard then you added your flavoring usually vanilla. The ice cream freezer consisted of a wooden bucket and a metal cylinder containing a set of paddles attached to a crank to whip the liquid mixture into ice cream. You placed the custard mixture into the metal cylinder, put the cylinder into the wooden bucket, put the paddles into the cylinder attached the crank and you packed ice around the cylinder. The next step was to add rock salt. Rock salt makes the ice colder than cold, so cold you can’t put your hands in it for more than a second. We always used a large wooden spoon to pack the ice in the churn. Then you begin to turn the crank, and you crank, and crank. You are not always guaranteed to have solid ice cream, sometimes it’s more like a milk shake. All you do is exchange the waiting bowls for large glasses.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM WARNING: You must eat this ice cream very slow or it will give you a brain freeze. This is very hard for you to do believe me. It is so good, no ice cream today tastes like the good old cranked homemade stuff.

Chapter 5

DIRECTIONS FOR CHURNING BUTTER

For the best butter you need fresh unpasteurized, cooled milk. The cream comes to the top when the milk is cooled. Skim off the cream, and place in a pan, do not put the pan in the refrigerator. The cream should be kept at about 75 degrees for several days. You may add more cream to the soured cream pan for several days until you get enough to churn. You need about 1 gallon of cream for a 2 gallon churn. When you get enough cream put it into the churn. Then you start turning the handle, as you churn the cream gets thicker and then it separates into little particles of butter.* You drain off the buttermilk, wash the butter in a small amount of cool water and drain. If you leave any buttermilk in the butter it will sour. After the butter has drained for several minutes, you place it in a wooden butter bowl and use a butter paddle to work out the remaining water. When you think the butter is ready you add ½ teaspoon of salt and mix well. Then you press the butter into a butter mold. A butter mold comes in different shapes and sizes there are round ones, square ones, and some have hand-carved designs, these are called butter prints, in the top to make the butter look pretty when it’s removed from the mold. As far as I can remember we never had a hand carved butter print. I have the one now but it was purchased in the 60’s. I also have the one I remember Mammy using which is plain square box.

*Note: the cream must be the right temperature or it will never make.

NEVER FAIL RECEIPE FOR MAKING BUTTER

1 gallon of cream, soured for several days at 75 degrees PLACE GLASS CHURN IN A LARGE PAN OF ICE FOR 10-15 MINUTES BEFORE YOU BEGIN CHURNNING. REMOVE CHURN FROM ICE Add cold soured cream to the churn Turn handle at a fast pace This method should take 5 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes of churning.

GOOD LUCK!

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Chapter 7

SPRING WHITE WASH TIME

When I was a little girl the first warm day of spring was “White Wash” day. Mammy would get her big five gallon bucket out of the backhouse (the reason the lime bucket was kept in the outhouse/backhouse is because after each use you sprinkled a little lime down the toilet to keep the smell down), and make her white wash. Then she would take a large brush, like the ones that are used for putting paste on wall paper, and off she would go to the apple orchard. Every tree in the orchard would have a new coat of white wash. If you took a tape and measured each tree it would be white from the ground to princely four feet up. Today, Daddy Paul’s house is right in the middle of where the apple orchard was. I think there were twenty different kinds of apple trees. I especially remember the Grimes Golden, because they were my favorite. Mammy liked the Wine Sap best because they made the best apple butter.

After all the apple trees were painted, Mammy moved on to white washing all the fence post around the apple orchard. From the fence post she would white wash the corn house. I have no idea why the corn house was always white washed maybe because it was so close to the main house. All of the other farm buildings were painted. Last on the list were the stones around the driveway. I must say it sure made everything look clean and fresh.

RECIPE OF WHITE WASH THAT WILL NOT RUB OFF (Just in case next spring you have a real desire to white wash your trees)

Mix up a pail full lime and water, then take one/fourth pint of flour, mix with water, then pour in that mixture a sufficient quantity of boiling water to thicken it. While it’s hot pour it into the lime and water. Stir all together real well and use.

Chapter 8

BUTCHERING

WORKING ON THIS CHAPTER

11/29/2018 7:08 AM Chapter 9

SMOKE HOUSE

The smoke house was 8 x 10 building with a shallow whole in the center of the cement floor. There was a shelf about five feet off the ground on three sides. The walls and ceiling had a small gage wire covering them this was to keep the mice and other varmints out. The smoke house was about a hundred feet from the house in line with the backhouse and the chicken house. After butchering day all the meat was stored in the smoke house. Mammy made a sugar cure and rubbed it on the meat. The sugar cure consisted of brown sugar and lots of salt and pepper. Her recipe was kept a secret from everyone. There was an unspoken contest between her siblings as to who had the best cured meat. Mammy held the title for many years but her nephew Russell Roberts came up with a better recipe in later years. After the sugar cure was rubbed on the meat then the hams, shoulders and bacon were hung by “S” hooks from the ceiling and Mammy started the process of smoking the meat. A small fire was started in the pit in the center of the smoke house using a hard wood that burned slow and smoked up the room. I understand hickory wood was preferred. I’m not sure how many days the meat was smoked but I think it was about a week. It seemed like a long time to me.

A slab of the bacon would be put in the pantry and you had to slice off the amount you wanted to fry for breakfast. Things are so easy today you go to Giant and buy a pound of thick or thin beacon.

All meat was fresh, canned or smoked. I never had spaghetti, or other Italian dishes growing up our meals were meat, potatoes and a vegetable. Venison was something else we did not eat because there were no deer in our area. We ate plenty of fish, squirrel and rabbit when they were in season.

Chapter 10

THE CELLAR

The cellar (it’s known as a basement in today’s vocabulary), in Mammy’s house was rather scary to me when I was little. It had a dirt floor and was rather dark as there was only one ceiling light in each of the rooms. You could enter the cellar two ways one was through the kitchen down steep steps; the other was through the outside cellar door and down six cement steps. The outside door was too heavy for me to lift up so I usually went to the cellar through the kitchen. The cellar was divided into two rooms by a stone wall which Mammy would whitewash every spring. The wall had two doors, one on the right and one on the left. When you entered the cellar on your left was a large cabinet this was the jelly cabinet where Mammy kept all her homemade jelly. On the right was the potato

11/29/2018 7:08 AM bin where the potatoes were stored; the pump which pumped the water out of the hand dug well: next in the corner there was a large wood panel with metal wires. This was an early electric panel; it held large batteries which generated the electric for the house and barn before 1936.

You would go in the right door to get to all the canned goods; the coal furnace was on the left. Also on the left was the coal bin which was used as fuel for the furnace. In the fall before Mammy did her housecleaning a big dump truck from Paul Wire’s, known as “Rockville Fuel & Feed Co.” located in Rockville would back up to the cellar window with a ton of coal. A chute attached to the truck was dropped down into the open cellar window and the coal was dumped into coal bin. Black coal dust would fill the cellar; cobwebs would be in the joist overhead. No place today is a scary at Halloween as that cellar was when the coal was delivered. Naturally, Mammy would have to clean the entire basement and wipe off all her canned goods.

Chapter 11

MAMMY’S APRON

Mammy always wore an apron primarily to keep her dress clean but they had many other uses. She made every apron exactly the same and they were all made from chicken feed sacks she had handpicked at the mill.

From the chicken house the apron would hold eggs, baby chicks, and sometimes half- hatched eggs to be finished in the incubator. When it was cool she could wrap the apron around her arms for a bit of warmth. Of course it was used to wipe her hands, drying children’s tears, clean out ears, and to wipe noses if need be. Aprons were used as potholders for removing the lid on the cook stove to add more wood and remove hot pots from the oven. Those aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove. I’ve seen her bring kindling into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the popping peas were shelled, that old apron carried out the hulls. (Aunt Dorothy’s name for peas was “popping peas”. The story goes; Aunt Dorothy was crying because she had to help shell peas and they kept popping out of the shell, and rolling on the floor, “I hate shelling popping peas,” she said between sobs.)

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in the apples and nuts that had fallen from the trees. When unexpected company pulled in the driveway, you would be surprised how much furniture that old apron could dust in a few seconds especially the dining room table as she went by on the way to answer the door.

When dinner was ready, Mammy would walk out on the back porch and wave her apron, the men knew it was time to come in for dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that “old time apron” that served so many purposes.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

Oh by-the-way DINNER was the main meal of the day and it was served at 12 noon. SUPPER was a lighter meal and it was served at 6:30 p.m. and you were in bed by 8:00 p.m. Of course you were up at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. Kids were allowed to sleep later but usually there was so much noise you didn’t sleep much later.

REMEMBER: Mammy sat her pies on the window sill to cool. Today we set ours out to thaw.

Times have changed. Mammy’s pie crust were made from scratch with flour, lard, salt, and eggs, today your pie crust come from the grocery store and mine to. Gone are the days for making the pie crust and rolling out pie dough for five or six pies at a time.

FAMOUS QUOTES FROM MAMMY:

1. “You never sew on Sunday because you’ll have to pick all the stitches out with your nose.” 2. Nose itches “Company’s coming”. 3. Black Cat crosses the road in front of you – “Bad Luck”. 4. Break a mirror - “Bad Luck for Seven Years”. 5. “If you pee beside the road be sure to spit in it or you’ll get a sty.” 6. “Always say, ‘God Bless you’ if someone sneezes.” 7. “Never leave home wearing dirty under ware just in case you’re in an accident.” I guess it was ok to wear dirty under ware if you didn’t leave home. 8. There was something about salt, throwing it over your shoulder but I can’t remember why. There are some other famous quotes in other chapters.

Chapter 12

THE ATTIC

The attic is where I hung out on days when it was too nasty to be outside. The door to the attic was located in what was called Paul’s bedroom. It was the first door at the top of the steps next to the master bed room. Today that room is a bathroom and the entrance to the attic has been closed off. They now have a pull down stairs located in the hall. Anyway I loved playing in the attic it was unfinished but a pine floor, four dormer windows, and lots of boxes for a kid to get into. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. The ladies Mammy sewed for in DC always gave us their hand-me-down clothes. What Mammy couldn’t remake for us was cut into long strips about one inch wide. Then she braided three strips together making a long pig tail and when she had enough she sewed

11/29/2018 7:08 AM them in a circle by hand. Those old dresses and coats became a new rug for beside the bed or in the hall. She also saved Wonder Bread wrappers and made rugs out of them, they were usually used at the back door to catch dirt before you went into the kitchen on her clean linoum floor. Bucky Thrift bought all of those rugs at the sale after Mammy’s death he always promised to give me one however he died before I got my rug. I do have one rug she made from old dresses. Anyway back to the attic all of the canning jars were stored in that attic, old furniture, curtain stretchers, and old toys. I could entertain myself for hours playing dress up, looking out the windows spying on Mammy and the farm hands as they worked or just day dream. There was one problem with the attic mud dobbers loved to make their home in the attic and would get angry if you disturbed their mud home attached to the rafters. (Mud dobbers was Mammy’s name for a kind of wasp.)

Chapter 13

WORDS OF WISDOM

APPRECIATION OF A JOB WELL DONE

“If you are going to kill each other, do it outside, I just finished cleaning.”

“No matter what you do in life, give it your best. If you are a ditch digger be the best ditch digger ever.

RELIGION

“You better pray that will come out of the carpet.”

TRAVEL

“If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week.”

LOGIC

“Because I said so, that’s why.”

“If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you’re not going to the store with me.” Or “you will be sorry.”

FORESIGHT

“Make sure you wear clean underwear in case you’re in an accident.”

IRONY

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

“Keep crying and I’ll give you something to cry about.”

GENETICS

“You’re just like your father.”

CONTORTIOSIM

“Will you look at the dirt on the back of your neck?”

STAMINA

“You sit there until you clean your plate.”

WEATHER

“Your room likes like a tornado went through it.” This was usually followed by, “If you want to go swimming you better get it cleaned up right now.”

HYPOCRISY

“If I told you once, I’ve told you a dozen times don’t exaggerate”. Or “don’t lie.”

RECEIVING

“You are going to get it when you get home.” Or “Just wait until your dad gets home and sees what you did.”

MEDICAL SCIENCE

“If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.” Or, for sour faces my famous quote was, “I sure hope your face doesn’t freeze that way.”

JUSTICE

“Just remember one day you’ll have kids, and I hope they behave just like you.” Or, “I hope you remember this day when you have kids.” Or, “Paybacks are hell.”

I’m sure I used a few more quotes over the years; these are just the words of wisdom I still remember.

11/29/2018 7:08 AM

{Thanks goes to David Stiles son of George Stiles and the grandson of Nathan Stiles, of Walnut Farms located on Shady Grove Road for providing the information regarding the registration of the early Pleasant Meadows Jersey herd.}

*capper – this hand capper is on loan to the King Barn Dairy MOOseum along with a cradle butter churn and several other items from Pleasant Meadows Farm.