[Granville-Hough] 23 Sep 2009 - Civil War
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough-trust at oakapple.net
Thu Jan 13 06:29:59 PST 2011
(GWH: Just about the saltiest stories I ever
heard came from my grandmother Mary (Arender) Richardson as she repeated
what she had been told about activities of Smith County women during the
Civil War. That was her mother's generation. Not all followed the models
described below from Smith County History, pages 80-81.)
Civil War Home Activities.
While the men at war were suffering hardships, the women were having a
struggle at home trying to provide for the family. A few men were
detailed to render service at home, such as making shoes for the
soldiers, or grinding meal. At this time grist mills were several miles
apart and the people had to go for miles to mill. Where there were no
boys in a family large enough to go to mill, the mother would put a
small child on a horse with the corn, and she would walk and lead the
animal. She had to work hard and late at night, as after the days work
was complete, the night task was begun. Some children would have to
break so much wood, some pick a certain amount of seed out of the
cotton, or burrs from the wool, from which the clothing was to be made.
Some
would card cotton or wool so it would not require so much work for
mothers when they got ready to make the rolls (of thread on the spinning
wheel). The woolen cloth they made was called linsey (the garments,
linsey-wooley or linsey-woolsey) and each lucky member of the family got
a new suit each year. (Later this year, my friend Harold Hopkins has a
discussion about "Fuller's Earth," and its role in making linsey-woolsey
more wearable.)
Before the war closed, it became necessary for the ones at home to keep
their food hidden for fear some deserter would steal it, or some of the
Union forces would take it or destroy it. They would hide it in various
places; some would raise the floor and dig holes in the ground in which
they would place their food and put the floor back into place. Not only
during the war did these hardships last, but for years afterwards.
(People remembered and spoke darkly about a group called the Leaf River
Gang, possibly a take-off from Newt Knights deserters from the
Confederate forces and the "Free State of Jones.") A number of men who
returned were crippled and disabled, and those who could work had
practically nothing with which to work, as their homes and farms had
been pillaged. The few implements they had were crude, and they turned
to using oxen, as the horses had been worn out in Army service. For
years after the war, clothing was made at home. (Oxen were standard
until 1900, and I even saw an ox team loading second-growth logs onto
freight cars in Mize in the late 1930s. My father could handle oxen
better than he could handle mules. Mules replaced oxen as work animals,
and horses could not compete with automobiles. Then tractors replaced
mules in the 1940s.)
Salt became a precious commodity, and available sources were used to
cure meat for the Confederate soldiers. The soil in the old smoke houses
was dug up and boiled to extract what salt had dripped off the curing
meat over the years. That gave you some salty brine with a taste like
hickory smoke, but it was better than no salt at all.
Lamps were unknown by the majority of people. They used tallow candles
home-made in molds with wicks made from spun cotton. The wicks were
placed in the mold, then hot tallow poured into the mold, the the mold
was set aside to cool and harden. These candles were placed in home-made
holders with a saucer to catch the melting tallow, which would be
reused. (Lighter wood knots were also used as torches, but they were
dangerous.)
It was a problem to keep fire, as there were no matches, and flint was
hard to come by. The flint rocks were used to strike metal surfaces
quite fast so that sparks would go into cotton or other flamable
material. Once the fire was started, every effort was made to preserve
the flame, or at least hot coals, so a fire could be started again. If
for some reason, the fire went out, someone had to run a mile or so to a
neighbors house to get some fire, then get it back home in an old
coffee pot or some other container to keep the wind from blowing it out.
(It was said in admiration of my uncle Elijah Hough that he always had
fire, meaning in the later days a box of safety matches.) There was a
shortage of needles, and every family had special places to keep their
needles. Pins almost disappeared, and honey locust thorns became
substitutes for pinning clothes together.
Brides usually made their own trousseaus, and made their own dyes for
clothing and hosiery. One man in Smith County had an extra nice suit
which everyone borrowed for weddings. He made lots of friends. Dyes were
made from different kinds of bark, such as sweet gum, maple, wild peach,
and walnut. The Laurel bush was used as well as indigo. They got
copperas out of rocks in Leaf river to set the dye. (Grandma Richardson
once demonstrated how to use green walnuts to make a beautiful brown
dye, and she dyed some old clothes just to demonstrate. She also had
several walnut trees just for that purpose.)
In making woolen cloth, the wool from black and brown sheep was highly
prized, as it did not have to be dyed and would not fade. (Grandma
Richardson seemed to have been proud of her ability to spin and weave
the clothes for her family, and she was still doing it in the 1900 era.
When she was demonstrating at her spinning wheel in the 1930s after she
was past sixty years old, it was remarkable to see her finger dexterity.
Clearly, she had had much practice. My mother, however, was a
disappointment to her as far as wool was concerned. She was absolutely
allergic to it, though she could work with cotton without any problems.)
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Inerrancy and its conclusions. A pastor was visiting one of his Sunday
School classes and asked Johnny if he thought Noah did a lot of fishing
when he was on the Ark. To which Johnny reflected a bit and said "No,
how could he; he only had two worms." So I ask you, where does literal
inerrancy lead you?
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Granville, I love sage! It is reputedly quite medicinal and good for
fighting infections. A healthy "sick person's soup" from one of my
favorite cookbooks combines sage, garlic, thyme sprigs with water or
chicken stock. Cook for 20 minutes, remove herbs, and drink as is or add
potatoes, cabbage...whatever you happen to have. April. (April Sayre of
Indiana, first cousin once removed, responded to my recollections of
sage. It was also April, not her sister Cathy Ballard of Virginia, who
responded to my discussion about pokeweed.
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