See more pictures.
A Farm Story
A Farm Story
by
Anne Greer Denner
It was December in the year 1940 and it was cold. It was moving time for Nellie and Ike Greer and their two sons, "Junior" and Donald. They were moving from Botland (Nelson County), Kentucky to a mile just outside of Bardstown, also in Nelson County, Kentucky. Their new home would be close to good schools. That was what was important to Nellie. The boys could walk to school or their Daddy could take them. There were no school buses then.
Their new farm had only 80 acres and all their relatives said they could never make it on that little land. His brother had a farm with over 400 acres. They bought the farm and moved there anyway.
The house wasn’t much, my Mother said. It wasn’t nearly as nice as the two homes they had lived in prior to this one. But, it was going to be home, their home. On moving days, they did not hire movers but moved themselves. I do not know if they had help but suspect they did. First, they moved the furniture and the children. Then came the animals. They had chickens for the hen houses and cows for the barns and pasture. They had hogs for the front lot and also a pair of mules named Queen and Jewel who had their own stall in the new barn that was to be built. All in all, they had to make several trips from Botland to Bardstown, a trip of about seven miles one way. They hadn’t even moved the tractor or the drill or the plows yet. All of Daddy’s tools needed to be moved too. They finished the job before New Years 1941. They were never to move again.
Ike, Jr. (Junior in his younger years) who was eight was able to start school early the next year. He would go to a "real school" and not the one room school he had been used to. Donald would not begin school until the fall of the next year and would never miss a day of school in his twelve years at the Bardstown City Schools. He would also graduate first in his class (Valedictorian) in 1954.
Daddy grew barley, oats, rye, wheat and corn. The wheat he took to the Bardstown Mill to have it ground into flour. I always wondered why that was so important to him but later learned the mill was owned by his grandfather when he was a little boy. During the 1940's, it was run by his first cousins. This was one way he could visit with them and Daddy loved to visit. He had spent a lot of time at the mill because his Mother had died when he was five. He remembered his grandparents well. Daddy also grew tobacco but always less than an acre. That was the main "cash crop". Sending hogs and cows to the stock yards was another good source of income for the farm.
On the farm, where I was born in June 1942 (the end room on the right hand side), we had our own cows so we had our own milk and Mother made butter and ice cream. However, we drank "separated milk" or skim milk and sold the cream to the local creamery. We grew all our own vegetables and fruits. At one time, we had 10 peach trees in a row in the garden and an apple orchard. We also had a big pear tree by the chicken house and two large cherry trees in the back yard. There was another cherry tree in the chicken lot and still two more in the orchard below the hen house. My Mother and I did most of the canning in the "wash house". That is where we kept the jars and canner. We canned mostly in quart jars. The canner was old but allowed us to preserve most of our vegetables. The fruits could be preserved by cold-packing. The wash house also was built over a great cellar. That was where we kept our canned goods, potatoes, and onions. Canning there was a hot job but it kept the heat out of the main house.
That was important in the summer since we did not have air conditioning. We kept cool by darkening the house in the day time and by sitting outside under the shade trees in the afternoon and evening. We could also swing on the front porch. Nor did we have a furnace. We had two stoves in the house. In the kitchen, we had the combination wood/gas stove. It was great "to warm one side at a time" when we got up in the morning. We used wood we had cut up on the farm or that we had bought. This wood was kept in the woodshed, a small building attached to the meat house. The meat house was where my Mother cured the country hams and sausages. Mother was also able to burn some of the trash in the stove that we accumulated.
However, we accumulated a very small amount of it. My Mother recycled almost everything. She re-used egg cartons many times; she washed and re-used plastic bags; she washed and re-used aluminum foil; she reused cottage cheese containers for freezing and mayonnaise jars for canning. Even the plastic jars which came later in our lives she used for scraps of material for her quilting. She even took the paper off cans we purchased and burned that. We collected what little trash we accumulated in a barrel and took that to a sink hole on the farm and occasionally to the city dump.
Our other source of heat was the coal stove. It was placed in the living room and provided heat for the entire house... in a manner of speaking. The only heat for the upstairs bedrooms where we kids slept was an opening in the ceiling above the stove. It was called the "register". It was nice to stand on when we were getting dressed. Otherwise, it was not a great source of heat. However, my brothers had no stove under their register. It was very cold in that room.
We did have two fireplaces in the house but we used those only rarely. They were not efficient enough.
Daddy went to the mountains (Manchester, KY) every year to get a load of coal for the winter time. He brought it back on his old black truck and put it in the coal shed. It was our job to carry in the coal on a daily basis. We also carried out the ashes. I will have to admit; it was mostly my brothers who did those jobs.
Our chickens laid eggs and were the chief source of meat for the family. We did kill two hogs every year. My mother sugar cured the hams for the best hams you ever ate. After adding the salt and sugar mixture, the hams were hung to "cure" in the meat house. She also canned part of the pork. That was also the best thing you ever ate. I canned it for my husband and children when they were at home. I even brought some home to my mother who loved it.
The only time we had oranges, tangerines, and nuts in the winter was at Christmas time at my Mother’s Father’s (my grandfather’s) home.
As the years passed, we children grew up and none of us wanted to farm so Daddy retired and rented the farm out to one of my cousins. My cousin helped take care of the farm and my Mother after Daddy died in 1983. In 1987, lightening struck the home and it almost burned. The old tin roof was holding the fire in the house and causing it to spread. There was much damage but it was rebuilt. My Mother lived until 1999 and loved every moment of her life at that farm. They were not necessarily easy but she loved them anyway. In May 1999, when my Mother died, it was time to consider selling the rest of the farm. My older brother had died and Donald and I both lived outside of Bardstown. In 2001, the last portion of the farm was sold eventually to the Bardstown School Corporation who built a Primary School there. Later, they also built a school for early childhood education on the hill by the water tower.
The home that held so many memories for many of us had to be destroyed. The Bardstown Fire Department requested to use the home as a training area for their fireman. They needed to learn new ways to put out fires and save people from burning houses. By then, the beloved home was no longer useable. The barns and other outbuildings were also bulldozed and taken away.
And so the home that was over one hundred years old was no more... However, a beautiful new school with its wonderful playground has taken its place....... *This story was originally written for the library at the Bardstown Primary School. It was written to tell the story of the home, the land, and the lady (Nellie Catherine Marks GREER) for whom their playground at the Bardstown Primary School was named.
Please note that Isaac GREER Circle was named both for my father and my deceased brother, Ike (Isac Earl GREER, Jr. was born 26 July 1932 and died 09 November 1993) . Since the death of our mother and before the dedication of the playground, my other brother, Donald Leelan GREER (17 January 1936 - 31 March 2003) died.
No comments:
Post a Comment