Unionville Republican Newspaper

An article printed in the Unionville Republican, 30 July 1958

Relatives and friends will be interested to know that Pearl Fowler Hinkle now of 1212 Garden street, San Luis Obispo, California, is writing stories primarily for children. She is a sister of Mr. Herbert Folwer of Unionville, and of Roxie Yeager of Arro Grande, Calif. The following is the first of a series and deals with the early arrival of her family and others in Putnam county, which will prove of interest to many here. The series is entitled "Letters to Nancy", Mrs. Hinkle thought the first letter would be of local interest and sends it for publication. It is as follows. LETTERS TO NANCY.

Dear Nancy, Now that you are studying about pioneer days in America, I want to tell you about some of the things that happened in that long-ago time when your great-great grandmother Nancy, whose name you bear, was a little girl. That Nancy's parents came to Missouri from Kentucky in a covered wagon, driving a team of oxen. They had very few possessions. Neither the team of oxen nor the wagon belonged to them. They had six children, a "wudget" of clothes, grandfather's gun and axe, and courage.

Another family named Crabtree came with them. Their covered wagon was pulled by a team of horses. Nancy's oldest brother William, rode an extra horse. Mr. Crabtree owned both wagons and all the animals, but he was glad to have grandfather accompany him to the new land where both families expected to establish their homes.

William was a sturdy boy, heavily-boned, and able to do the work of a man, even though he was then only 14. Sometimes, he rode ahead a little way to find a good place to camp for the night. They had no trouble with indians but were constantly alert for danger along the trail. They rode through sunshine and through rain. Once when they crossed a river turbulent with recent rains, their wagon almost turned over. Almost-but not quite! Grandmother's two choice goose feather pillows tumbled out of the wagon, to go bobbing along in the water to goodness know where. Nancy watched them go, turning and swirling. She thought of the soft feathers inside them. She remembered seeing her mother pluck the feathers from their geese back home in Kentucky. Oh dear! How far away home seemed!

Now Nancy's father was named Darius Baugh and her mother's name was Sally. In our family they were always called Grandfather and Grandmother, and were our great-grandparents. Distinguishing them from "Grandpa" and "Grandma", my grandparents. That little Nancy grew up to become my grandmother, just as I am your grandmother.

Darius and Sally Baugh chose to settle in the eastern part of Putnam County, Missouri, in the Shoal Creek bottom land. The Crabtree family settled on what was called the prairie land, a section that was less rugged and where the county seat town of Unionville was later located.

Family legends say that wild turkeys were so fat and the virgin timber so tall, when game fell at the crack of Grandfather's rifle, the meat burst, At any rate food was plentiful. An abandoned one-room log cabin provided shelter for the family until another one could be built. The new cabin seemed quite pretentious for on the ground floor it had two rooms, separated by a large open space called the entry. Here the women of the household sat to peel their fruits and vegetables. The men and boys washed their faces at a shelf attached to the entry wall. Above the shelf, a small mirror hung. On the shelf sat not only the wash basin, but also the pail of drinking water with its gourd dipper --- good cold water carried from a nearby spring.

It was cool in the entry in summer. Sometimes an hour of leisure was brightened by music played on a treasured "Jew's harp". In the winter, a wagon loaded with fodder for the livestock was stored over night in the entry's shelter.

A loft over the ground floor gave sleeping space to three people, even though the dividing partitions reached only as high as Nancy's head. These partitions were made of slender logs. Larger logs formed the outer walls of the new cabin . The virgin timber supplied plenty of building material. Grandfather and his sons search for just the right trees to cut. This was to be their home in the new land and it was important that it be built right. How wonderful it was to move into the new house! How pleasing was the scent of the fresh logs! The cracks had been chinked with clay, then white-washed, giving the rooms such a clean look and such a light and airy feeling, Nancy thought.

Square openings were left in the walls to serve as windows. For many years they had no glass in them as our windows do today, but they let in the sun shine and fresh air and the songs of birds. Sometimes the rain came in too but coverings could be hung hastily before the small windows to keep out the rain in the summertime, while in the winter they could be securely fastened to keep out the snow and cold.

The house must have been well built indeed, for it stood for many years sheltering the growing family. Fifteen children in all were born to Darius and Sally Baugh That Nancy had a twin sister, Lucy. The twins were so much alike that Grandmother had some difficulty in telling them apart.

Grandmother cooked over the fire in a fireplace which was built into the corner of the kitchen. In later years she had another house with a cook stove in it, but she often went back to this well-loved kitchen and cooked what she called a decent meal at the old fire place, using the old familiar cast iron utensils. Her bare feet packed down the dirt floors to a smooth hardness. She used a twig broom to sweep it clean.

Nancy loved the sounds of meal preparation the ring of the iron cooking pot as Grandmother removed the lid to stir the contents, or the soft swishing sound as Grandmother brushed ashes with turkey wing feathers from the top of the iron spider before opening it, let the mouth watering aroma of corn pone escape. Nothing could equal corn pone, hot from Grandmother's dutch oven, split open drowning in freshly churned sweet butter, the steam still rising from its golden thickness Unless it was the fatty bread shaped by hand, still carrying the imprints of grandmothers fingers and filled with cracklings, those delightful morsels left over from the lard rendering. Sometimes Nancy could hardly wait for the moment when the heavy crane was turned out away from the fire and all was readiness.

Would you have enjoyed being a little girl back in those day, My Nancy?

There were days in spring when maple syrup was made. In fact, "sugar camps" as they were called were still in use in the Shoal Creek bottoms in the 1920's. It must have been as early as 1845 when the Baugh family began making maple syrup and maple sugar there.

In the fall, sorghum molasses was made from sugar cane which had been planted in the spring and tended through the summer. These two products supplied sweetening for the family.

Getting salt was quite another matter. It could be obtained from "salt licks", spots where wild animals found salt and returned to lick and lick and lick. These licks did not furnish very large quantities of salt at one time so it had to be brough to the settlers from St.Louis, Missouri. William Baugh became a freighter when he grew older. He drove a team to St. Louis hualing furs and hides to sell for the settlers and bringing back salt and other freight. Hence the term "freighting". It took three months for him to make one trip. On his return trip he distributed great barrels of salt to the families whose furs he had sold. Often he hauled other supplies and at times brought some long awaited mail. Salt was carefully hoarded and used sparingly.

Now Grandmother was known far and wide for her kind heart and her ability to nurse people back to health. It was not an uncommon sight to see Aunt Sally Baugh riding a horse accompanying a man who had come for her because there was sickness in his family. Doctors were so far away that the settleers depended on the wise older women for medical care. No matter what the occasion, Grandmother always went, taking with her a poke of various herbs which she dried for medicines and a wudget of salt. She said salt did more good than anything for it made food palitable again and interest in living increased and before you knew it the patient was feeling well again . Grandmother always kept salt tucked away for just such emergencies even though her own family went without it a times. Just think how important salt was in the life of that long-ago Nancy!

Blogger's note: Does anyone have information on Lucy? Also I know of only 11 children (counting Lucy, about whom I only know her name).