[Granville-Hough] 27 Apr 2009 - Lou Hough

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 07:05:38 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: LouHough - 27 Apr 2009

Lou Hough û Smith County Nurse
In my childhood, we had several nice pictures of Aunt Lou Hough in our 
home between Mize and Magee, MS. She was a tall, spare, handsome woman 
who was born 31 Dec 1868 as the third child of Nora (Miller) (Keyes) 
Hough and the first child of Frank Hough. Her birth name was Louisa T. 
with T. possibly meaning Talathy. (Frank had a sister Talathy Cuma who 
must have died young.) Lou was probably born on Hiram Miller land on 
Cohay Creek southeast of Mize in the middle of SullivanÆs Hollow. Her 
half sister, Nannie Keyes was six years older and became her natural 
caretaker and foster mother. Aunt Lou did not marry at the normal age 
but became a practical nurse. In those post Civil War days, there were 
no nursing schools and very few hospitals. You learned nursing by going 
with a doctor and observing what he did and by following his 
instructions. Aunt Lou is recalled as being the nurse for Dr. Andrew 
Tullos of Raleigh for many years in the 1890 and 1900 decades. She 
helped deliver dozens and dozens of babies at Raleigh and within horse 
and buggy range. She helped with many of her own nieces and nephews.
There is one interesting anecdote about a niece who was in the throes of 
delivering an illegitimate child. She was squalling all the while that 
she had never been with a man and was not pregnant. The child was soon 
born, a healthy daughter. Aunt Lou quickly cleaned her up and brought 
her to the young mother with the remark, ôItÆs time you stopped this 
squalling about not being pregnant and start suckling your baby. She is 
hungry.ö So Aunt Lou had no special procedures for virgin births. Just 
take care of the baby and get it suckling. Later in life, the young 
mother herself became a practical nurse, probably faced with similar 
situations. The hungry young baby daughter, I believe, became the first 
R. N. in the family. I cannot say that Aunt Lou was the first 
professional nurse in Smith County. I simply do not know for sure that 
was the case. Certainly in her time, she was the best known nurse, as 
well known as a nurse as Dr. Tullos was as a doctor. When lumber camps 
were established about 1900, Aunt Lou became a better paid nurse for 
lumber companies and worked for them the rest of her life. One of the 
postal cards we had kept was from Aunt Lou in a lumber camp in Bogalusa, 
LA. She wanted Lisha to meet her in Mize when she arrived on the Laurel 
Branch train.
Of course, lumber camps did not attract the social elite. Lumbering was 
rough, grimy, dangerous work; and the things a nurse had to do did not 
attract the squeamish. Accidents, mayhem, and diseases were endemic. 
Though Aunt Lou must have talked of her experiences, no one recorded 
them. When she died from dropsy (congenital heart disease) at age 47, it 
was probably aggravated by malaria or other diseases common to lumber 
camps. Though Aunt Lou did marry, she had no children. In 1910, she was 
listed with the Hough family as a widow Sinely. No one ever told me 
anything about a person of this name; but he was probably a lumberman. 
Later, she married a man named A. Camp, most likely in the timber 
business as the name is not common in Smith County. He and Lou had 
acquired some timbered land which they sold in order to go to Louisiana 
for a new start in life. Mr. Camp took the money and left for Louisiana 
and was never heard from again. This left Aunt Lou believing in Mr. 
Camp, but with everyone else telling her he had absconded with the 
money. Mr. Camp had been last seen at a house, presumably south of 
Raleigh, on the way to the railroad at Mize or Taylorsville. People at 
the house said they had seen Mr. Camp but that he had soon gone on his 
way. The people said that they, themselves, planned to move to 
California, which they soon did.
After Aunt Lou became reconciled to the loss of Mr. Camp, she lived with 
her brother, Rufus Hough, and presumably practiced her nursing skills. 
Her niece, Elma Lee (Hough) Butler once told me that Aunt Lou was 
engaged to marry Ingram Austin Bradshaw at the time of her death. Mr. 
Bradshaw indeed married Rose Ella Hough, younger sister to Lou. (I 
cannot work out the timing of this story. Aunt Ella had one child, Ilene 
Bradshaw, but her birth date of 1913 does not fit with the death date of 
1915 I have for Aunt Lou. My death date for Aunt Ella is 1926. Either 
Elma Lee did not have the story quite right or we have some wrong dates.)
I was told that Aunt Lou died from dropsy 19 Dec 1915 while still living 
with Uncle Rufus. I do not know where she was buried, but my guess would 
be either at the Dukes Cemetery near Whiteoak, or at Liberty Cemetery 
near Raleigh with her parents, Frank and Nora Hough. About fifty years 
after Mr. Camp disappeared, my brother Dueward Hough heard or read that 
the house where Mr. Camp was last seen had been torn down. When the 
earth where the house had stood was plowed up, a skeleton was found. 
DuewardÆs dilemma was what to do. Was he the only person who knew the 
story of Mr. Camp? Should he make a fuss and risk the emnity of a 
powerful Taylorsville family which was related to the house occupants? 
What if the occupants were still alive in California? The events had 
happened about the time Dueward was born in 1913 and he only had hearsay 
evidence passed on through many hands. He actually did nothing, and the 
incident was soon filed away when no one claimed the skeleton. I do not 
know the name of the family involved. (The total context of the events 
leads me to believe that Mr. Camp was a simple fellown who disclosed too 
much information to the wrong people and died from foul play.)
I have always believed that Aunt Lou was an honorable and respected 
person who gave her life to the service of others. Probably no one is 
now alive who benefited personally from her work, care, and practical 
knowledge. She may no longer be remembered outside the Hough family. We 
can say that, as a family, we have always thought highly of nurses and 
nursing. Aunt Lou was first.