My name is Jessie Lee M., this is a true story of the early years of my life. Some of the things that happened in the early years are kind of unusual, so I have been told I should write it down.

My G’pa and G’ma always lived with us, or near us. He always worked with my Dad. Dad had been apprenticed to learn a trade at an early age. So he became a blacksmith, but he could make or build anything. If he didn't know how, he would figure it out.

Where ever we lived, we always had some acreage, anywhere from eight to forty acres. And between Mama and G’pa, they raised all of our fruit and vegetables. We always kept a team of horses, pigs, chickens and a couple of cows. So we raised whatever was needed to feed all of us. At that time stores were scarce, when you did find one, they never had fresh meat or vegetables, there never was any electricity, or refrigeration, unless you were in a city. So if we wanted to survive, you stored all the food you could, by canning or in a root cellar. Mama and G’ma were kept very busy, they washed clothes with a tub, washboard, and home made soap. They made their own soap, planted corn, potatoes, fruit, vegetables and what ever else was needed. Besides canning, they made jellies and jam, pickles of all kinds, ketchup and what else they could think of. Everyone worked from early morning, to dark.

G’pa had arthritis real bad, and he had one leg shorter than the other. He had a history of broken bones, and this one time his leg was broken, and smashed up badly, that the Dr. told him he would have to amputate, G’pa tried to talk him out of it, but the Dr. went back to get tools. G’pa had G’ma get his shotgun, and laid it on the bed with him. The Dr. returned, and G’pa told him to set his leg, and to fix it up the best he could. The Dr. refused, but G’pa held his gun on him, and said if he tried to saw his leg off that he would be a dead man. So the Dr. did the best he could, and G’pa recovered, and had a limp the rest of his life, but he said it was much better than a peg leg.

You never wanted to underestimate G’pa, whenever he made his mind up, that was it. He farmed our acreage, helped Mama with anything she needed done, worked at the shop helping Dad, and always had time for us kids. He pulled his own teeth, he would heat a wire in the forge, get it red hot, then kill the nerve in the tooth that was aching, then use a pair of pliers on it. Sometimes he worked on one tooth for two or more days, but he always got it out in one piece. One time G’ma said they should quit drinking so much coffee, so G’pa said why don't we just quit. So for two days, no coffee, the third day G’pa smelled coffee, he said I thought we were quitting, G’ma said she just couldn't, so she kept on, but G’pa never drank another cup, he drank tea from then on.

[After moving to Tennessee from Ohio] - Dad rented a house not far from there, and soon had us moved, and he also rented a shop, it was right across from the railroad tracks. Soon he had a business going. As soon as we were all settled, Dad bought some land with a barn on, but no house. So G’pa and Dad worked every spare moment, until they had a real nice house. He also built us an outside toilet, a two-holer, they were called. None of the neighbors had an outhouse, so Dad got a lot of extra work, building outhouses. When asked how they got along without an outhouse, they told us the men used the outdoors, and the women chamber pots.

I don’t know how long we lived there in that house, maybe two or three years, but someone came along and offered Dad such a good price, that he didn’t turn it down, so we moved again. We rented a farm about five miles from Abiff, called the Gray farm. 

This house was a lot different from any we had ever lived in before. In the front was two large rooms, divided by a huge fire place, it was open on both sides, so heated the living room, on one side, and a bedroom on the other. Then at the back of the living room, a door opened onto a long porch. There were four doors opening off of the porch, the first led to a large kitchen and dining room, the next three doors led to bedrooms. No one room had access to another, without going back onto the porch.

Another great feature of this place was springs, we didn't have to pump water, there was a cold spring up by the house, and back farther were hot springs, nice to bathe in, also G’ma and Mama would load their wash tubs, dirty clothes, and wash board in the wheelbarrow barrel, and wash the clothes right there, the water was just like soft rain water. They always made their own soap too, all winter they saved every bit of fat drippings, they would strain these drippings, then use them to make soap. They had a large iron kettle, this was set on three large stones, then a fire built under it, first wood ashes and water were cooked together, and boiled down, this made the lye. Then the lye and fat and possible water were boiled down, when it was thick enough, it was poured into molds, and left to harden. I think that made about a year’s soap. After you scrubbed a batch of clothes with this soap, you were lucky to have any skin left on your knuckles.

We must have lived there a year or two, then G’pa wanted to move again. He was helped along by Mama, [sister] Barb had been having sores all over her arms and legs. Mama tried her home remedies, but nothing seemed to help. She finally took her to a Dr., he told us to take her to a different climate. I want to say here, that Mama raised seven children, and we had most of the diseases children normally have, and you could count on your one hand, the times she had to call a Dr. G’ma had been corresponding with her sister and brother, they lived in Michigan, about fifteen miles north of Clare. So after much discussion, everyone decided that’s where we would move. Dad made it clear, that this would be our last move.

Before we leave Tenn., I will tell you what little I remember about it. There were all kinds of beautiful flowers, and trees, black walnut, hickory nut, and pecans, also loads of fruit trees, the one I liked best, was the persimmon, the fruit, when ripe was so sweet and juicy, but if not real ripe your mouth would be so puckered up, you wouldn't believe it.

Clint wanted to build a barn, they always made the sides and ends, then had a barn raising. Everyone in the area, came and helped, men, women and children. The women cooked, the men put the barn up, and the kids played, and watched. I loved to watch the men work. Everyone had a good time, like a party.

Our G’pa, never did anything wrong, not in the eyes of us kids. He always had time to tell a story, and always had a nickel in his pocket for us. He never used tobacco, never used liqueur, and was our idol. However he did like to play a joke on someone, once in a while. When the men were called into dinner, a man in front of G’pa laid a cub of tobacco on top of a fence post, intending to chew it again, after he ate. G’pa threw it away, and put a fresh hunk of hen manure, in its place. When the man came back out, we were all watching, he grabbed up the tobacco, slapped it in his mouth, and made a run for the horse tank. He was so mad, he looked like he would have a stroke. He spent the afternoon trying to find out who was to blame. G’pa even offered to help him find the culprit. Good old G’pa, always helping someone out.

While we lived on the Gray farm, G’pa raised sugarcane. It grew ten feet tall, and when it was ripe, he cut it down, and ground the cane up, and made molasses. He set up a grinder in the yard, then laid a wagon wheel flat on top. He then hitched a horse up to the wheel, he let one of us kids drive the horse around and around, and G’pa fed the cane into the grinder. Then he put it through a press to extract the juice. He strained it, and then built a fire under the old iron kettle, he stirred and cooked until it was as thick as he wanted it. It was called sorghum molasses. We used it on pancakes, and made cakes, and cookies. G’ma was the cookie maker of the family, she made the best rolled out sugar and molasses cookies, they always stayed so nice and soft. I watched her make them many times, but I never could make them turn out like she could.

Mama always baked bread on Monday morning, usually enough to last all week. She also made a large pan of rolls, she called these light bread biscuits. She would put a large pot of navy beans on to cook, for lunch we would have bean soup, and rolls, fresh out of the oven, with home made butter, this was a meal fit for a king. One of our neighbors was so impressed with the bread, she asked Mama to teach her how. So Mama showed her how, even gave her a start of yeast. When she saw her again, Mama asked her how her bread came out, she said the bread tasted good, but she had an awful time mixing, and kneading it. When Mama asked why, she said she just couldn’t get the hang of using her left hand to do everything with. We all had a good laugh over this. Mama and three of us girls were all left-handed.

To get back to moving again. Dad was in trouble, he planned on shipping everything on the train, so he sold off all of the livestock, and whatever else we didn’t want to move. But when he wanted to sell the team and wagon, G’pa put his foot down, he didn’t want to sell them, he said he would drive them north. Well, they argued for a few days, but G’pa won out. So Dad began to make the wagon into a covered one. First he extended the sides, he put a twenty inch board on each side of the wagon, this made the wagon about twenty inches deep, and forty inches wider. Then he bought canvas and made the covered top. He also made flaps for the front and back, they tied on the inside, so they could be closed and fastened at night. Then he put a small laundry stove on a corner in the back. This was used to cook on. He put springs and mattress on top of the front of the wagon, this was so he and G’pa would have a place to sleep, because he wouldn’t let G’pa go alone. When G’ma heard this, she decided to go along, to cook for them. We had a large collie dog, Barb and Esther’s pet, so as long as the wagon was going they wanted to take the dog, and they would go along and take care of it. That left mama, Ethel and me, Mama was about 5 months pregnant, so Dad wanted her to take the train, but the trip sounded like a lot of fun, so she coaxed Dad into letting us all go. So Dad put a mattress under the other bed, and in late March or early April, we started out. 

All of us kids were small, Esther was 10, Barb 8, I was six, and Ethel was two, G’ma never was very large, so with two kids in the front, and G’ma and another in the back, we all slept well enough. We all walked all the way, except G’pa, and at night we probably were all so tired, we could have slept outdoors, and we never would have known the difference.

On the first day, we crossed a small stream, it was so swift that we had to hold onto a rope, or we would have not been able to stay on our feet. None of the streams had bridges, you just waded across, and drove the horses and wagon right through the water. I have often wondered where our clothes, and groceries were stored, but I guess they must have found a place somewhere. At that time stores and towns were few and far between. But we never went hungry. I wish I would have asked a lot more questions, while my folks were alive. Esther did keep a journal, she kept track of where we stayed every night, and how many miles we made that day, and all of the interesting things we saw, but a lot of years had passed, and she lost track of it.

We usually made between fifteen and twenty miles a day, all depending on the weather. (At that rate the 650-mile trip would have taken longer than a month) If it was stormy, we quit early. In the evening, we always had a hot dinner, and there was enough food made to last us through breakfast and lunch of the next day. We didn't have the stove going while we were traveling, afraid of fire. When we stopped for the night, and there was a farm near, someone from the farm would come out and visit, everyone was very friendly. If we were near a farm, and it was storming, the farmer nearly always asked us to drive in the barn, so we would be more comfortable. Everyone was interested to know where we were going, and where we were from.

A few times some men tried to hold us up, but Dad and G’pa slept up front, and they always had a loaded shotgun, and a rifle laying between them. I think Dad slept with one eye open, because no one ever succeeded in robbing us. I am sure Dad had every cent he had on his person. I don't remember him to ever use a bank. Later on when I was in my early teens he had me keep his books, and order his supplies, he gave me the money, and I got a money order from the mailman.

That trip was an experience for all of us, and we enjoyed every minute. One night we camped along the road, there was a large brick home, it was setting way back from the road. After we had eaten, several men came out, it was home for disabled war veterans. They kept us entertained all evening. One man had a peg leg, so G’pa had to tell how he almost ended up with one. G’pa did enjoy the evenings, and the visiting. We had always had homemade butter, but I suppose the amount we brought along was all used up, because when we came to the next store, Mama bought some oleo. We had fun with this new concoction. It looked just like lard, but there was a coloring capsule in the package. You were supposed to mix this yellow coloring in the white stuff. Well, we were limited to the amount of utensils, I suppose just the bare necessary things were brought. So we didn't have a mixing bowl, or paddle. We ended up with white oleo on our bread.

One afternoon we came to a large river, we had to be ferried across, and the wind was so strong, they refused to make another trip that day. So we made camp on the bank, and there was quite a slant, so Dad had to put blocks under the wheels. We were near a large city, [Possibly Louisville, KY, and the Ohio River, or Indianapolis, Indiana, and the White River] Dad went and inquired, and there was a train going out, so Dad came back and told Mama he had tickets to Coldwater, Michigan. 

And wanted her and Ethel and I to leave that evening. Mama hadn't been feeling very well, so we packed and left. I didn’t want to go, but no one paid any attention to anything I said. Soon after the train pulled out, a man came through with a basket of ham sandwiches, Mama bought us each one, and I don't think anything ever tasted so good. We must have left before we had supper.

Mother had a good friend living in Coldwater, and she had written and told her we would stop. She was an artist, and always had an easel set up, she worked on her painting whenever she had a spare moment. I can remember an older lady living with her, and she had a son about fifteen. He had curly red hair and freckles. But I don’t remember seeing a husband. I loved to watch her paint, a few days after we arrived, was my seventh birthday, she gave me a bag of hickory nuts, and told me if I would crack some nutmeats, she would bake me a hickory nut cake, for my birthday. Mama always made a strawberry shortcake for my birthday, while we lived in Tenn., the first picking of the season. My mother was a very good cook, the pie crust she made would melt in your mouth, between Mama and G’ma we fared very well, as any of our family can testify. They always said it was because they had so much practice.

We had been in Coldwater for a week or so, when the rest of the family caught up with us. I don’t know how long we stayed, before we left for Uncle George’s, probably long enough to give the horses a good rest. One day Harold took us girls for a walk, back to a lake on their property, we were all bare footed, and before we had gone very far, we found out what thistles were, evidently that was the first time we had seen any. We finally started on the last legs of our journey, I don’t know if Mama, Ethel and I, went with the wagon, or if we took the train, but I think we went with the rest, because I think I can remember arriving at Uncle Georges. He and his wife (Aunt Rose), had three sons, Verlin, Russell, and Grant, later on they had one more son named Paul. He is the only one alive today. They made us very welcome, but they had a very small house, so Dad rented a farm house, just around the corner, and as soon as he collected our furniture and his tools from Clare, we moved in, and Dad started up his business in a small garage on Uncle George’s property.

We were out of the mainstream of traffic, and Dad wasn’t making a living, so he started looking for a different place to locate. He finally found a house, barn, and eight acres of land, this was in a place called Dover. It was six miles closer to Clare, was on four corners, had a grocery store, schoolhouse, and church. It was a much better location, so we bought it, and moved in. Dad soon had a blacksmith shop built, and a much better business going. The house was very large, a large kitchen and dining room, parlor, and two bedrooms down stairs, and loads of room upstairs. We also had a good sized orchard. We used to take a salt shaker, and climb up in an apple tree, and end up with a stomach ache. The house is still there, and better looking than ever, it part stone, and part wood. Whenever we go up that way, we go past the old place, we had a lot of good memories there.

All us kids went to grade school there in Dover, a one room schoolhouse, one teacher to teach twenty five or more students, all eight grades. The teacher drove about twelve miles each way every day, and probable made from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a month. Doris and Jean were both born in Dover, and started school there, when the tractors and trucks became more plentiful, and horses and wagons less in use, Dad’s business went down hill, until he was forced to close the shop. He moved to Flint, and started working for Chevrolet, he continued working there until his death.

[Following Jessie's timeline in 1915, her mother and father moved their family with two children by train from Ohio to a Tennessee farm. They built a new house, sold it, and rented another house nearby. They had a third child and moved again. This time they traveled 650 miles north by horse and wagon from Tennessee to another farm in Michigan and had two more children. Later Jessie's parents moved once more to Flint, Michigan so her father could work in an automobile factory. Sadly, he died in 1942 at 54 years old, after 27 years - half his lifetime.]

One time Dad had a model A ford, he took Mama on a camping trip, they went up across the straights, to fish, they had a tent to live in, they meet a whole tribe of Indians they were from Oklahoma, they were wealthy, from oil wells. They enjoyed fishing with Dad. So next year, on their way north they camped in our front yard. There were lots of cars, and trucks with supplies. They took Mama and Dad north with them. The head man liked Dad so well, that he offered to move us to Oklahoma, buy us a big house, and said Dad never would have to work again. But Dad turned him down. One of the young men, fell for Esther, she was probably fourteen then. We had a good time teasing her, about how much money she was turning down. That was the only time they stopped at our place, but Dad would get a letter from them, once in a while.

[These were likely Osage Nation Indians from Oklahoma. In the early 20th century, oil was discovered on their land and many Osage became wealthy through leasing fees generated by their oil shares. The "straights" Jessie mentioned were likely the Straits of Mackinac near Mackinaw City, and the Mackinac Bridge some 200 miles north of Jesse's home in Dover. The Osage were a long way from home to go fishing. Martin Scorsese’s 2023 movie Killers of the Flower Moon was based on the Osage people's story of 1920.]

Not many young people can begin to imagine what it was like to earn a living and raise a family, back then. Dad and G’pa worked from morning till dark every day, except Sunday. The women Mama and G’ma did the same thing. Without phones, or electricity, or running water, washing machines, refrigerators, modern stoves, and thousands of other conveniences, that we take for granted.