Greenbrier Ridge, Hocking County, Ohio
at the
Turn Of The Century, 1900

In memory of my mother, born October 16th, 1885---
One hundred years ago.
Written by: Estry Wiggins (Wagner) McCluskey - 1985.

THE AUTHOR

The historical account which I am giving you will mainly cover Greenbrier Ridge, Hocking County, Ohio but some mention will be made of the areas of Laurelville, Haynes, South Bloomingville, Goose Creek and Salt Creek Narrows, which surrounded Greenbrier Ridge.
    I will not be giving exact records, for much must be given from my memory as a young child. I spent every summer of my childhood on Greenbrier Ridge and this spot became a little bit of heaven to me. The Civil War was long since over, our country was at peace, newspapers came maybe once a week, and a few people had telephones. At the turn of the century, 2900, here was a place where you could spend a day as deliberately as God made it; no hate, no waste, and no bother.
    I am Estry Gay Wiggins and I was born July 4, 1905, in the original log house of the George W Daughtery homestead on Greenbrier Ridge. My home is Columbus, Ohio and I also own the Daughtery homestead. I have two brothers, Glendon A. Wiggins, South Bloomingville and Wayman K. Wiggins now living at Bon Secor, Alabama.
My father was Leland 'Dick" Wiggins. He was the youngest son of Henry and Catherine (Featherolf) Wiggins. He was a rolling stone and by the time I was eleven years old we had lived in thirty-four different houses in Ohio and Indiana. By trade, my dad was a barber and an excellent one. At the time he and Darryl Haynes were Laurelville village barbers. He had a nice personality and was always well dressed, even to the point of being a dude. He was an excellent violin player. When I was about eleven years old my mother divorced him.
    Dad had four brothers - Daniel, Samuel, Burton and Delano.
    Four sisters - One sister, Lilly, died young, Carry Wiggins Kennedy, Laura Wiggins Johnson, and Grace Wiggins Bookout.
    Delano and Etta (Starkey) Wiggins had not children. Their home was on the bank north of Rt. 56 at the run up Harpers Hollow Road.
    Grace (Wiggins) Bookout. Aunt Grace and Uncle Omer had two sons, Clarence and Nolan. Their home was in Indiana.
    Daniel and Belle (Bookout) Wiggins had five children, Garnet, Wava, Talmage, Twins, Ruth and Naomi. Their home was in Indiana.
    Samuel was married twice. His first wife had one son, Rockford. As I remember it, she owned and managed the village hotel at Laurelville for years. I never knew her. The old, landmark, which also housed Tommy Mettler's General Store, is now in the process of being torn down.
    Uncle Sam and his second wife, Aunt Mary, has a large family. I can remember the names of the following: Agnes, Wayne, Irma, Melvin, Mahala, Pansy, Nina, George, Mildred and Virgil. Their home was at the foot of the hill where Grandpa Wiggins lived.
Burton and Edna (Seitz) Wiggins also had a large family. I can remember these: Dessie, Raymond, Chloe, Gustav, Vivian, Fay, Magdalene and Carl. Their home was back in the first hollow south of Rt. 56 on Salt Creek Narrows road.
    Laura (Wiggins) Johnson. Aunt Laura died before I knew her. She and Uncle Richard had four children: Raymond, Audrey, Hazel and Thelma (Johnson) Smith. They lived in the area of Haynes and Uncle Richard ran a grocery store at Haynes.
    Carrie (Wiggins) Kennedy. She had four or five children. I can remember these: Porter, Josephus, Mazie, and Hallie. The Kennedys has a nice home overlooking Salt Creek and near the Narrows.
    The Wiggins family were the first settlers in the Salt Creek Valley area and I believe my great grandfather, Moses Wiggins, established the first sawmill on Salt Creek.
    Great Grandfather Moses Wiggins, and a few other family members, are buried in a small fenced in family plot on a hill at Haynes. Many of the Wiggins family are buried in Mt. Carmel cemetery on the Blue Creek Road.
    My mother was the youngest child of George W. and Matilda (Scott) Daugherty. She had four brothers and four sisters: Frances, Narcissa, Louie, Abbie, Charles, Alfred (Bud), David and Ilio. My mother's name was Eura Mahala Daugherty.
    George and Matilda were both born, reared and married in the area of Harrisville, Ritchie County, W. Virginia. Grandpa was a Civil War veteran, a private, Company E, 6th Regiment, W. Virginia Infantry. He enrolled as a volunteer August 31st, 1861. Early in the 1880's Grandpa migrated to Ohio and purchased 42 acres of land on Greenbrier Ridge, then sent for Grandma and the children who were still living at home, Abbie, Ilio and my mother Eura. Mother was four years old at that time.
    Mother's sister, Frances, was married to Mr. Ellison, and they lived in West Virginia at the time my grandparents moved to Ohio. Aunt Frances has a daughter by this marriage, Welcome Ellison. This marriage was bad so Frances divorced Ellison, moved to Ohio, then married William North. She had two daughters, Dovie and Mable, and one son, Willie, by this marriage. Aunt Frances died at the birth of Willie. Williewas adopted by the Steel family in the Greenbrier Ridge area. Welcome was about nine years old when her mother died, she didn't get good treatment at home, so she made her home with Grandma Daugherty, I do not know who took Dovie and Mable to raise. Since Grandma and Grandpa raised Welcome, she became more like an aunt to me.
    My mother married Leland "Dick" Wiggins soon after the turn of the century. I, Estry Gay Wiggins, was born July 4, 1905, and was their first born.
    In 1949 I married Harold Wagner. Today in 185, I have two children, Five grand-children, and one great-grandchild. My son, Harold, has three children; Cynthia, William, and Amy. My daughter, Jean Hendricks, has two daughters; Terri and Becki. Terri married James Krause and she gave me my first great grandchild.
    The family burial plot is in the cemetery at Chestnut Grove Church on Greenbrier Ridge where the road forks to Goose Creek and Pretty Run. All in a row is Aunt Francis, Grandma and Grandpa Daugherty, Aunt Abbie, Uncle Ilio, Mother and my step-father, Thomas Snyder.
    Aunt Abbie married William Carpenter and moved to Columbus, Ohio. Uncle Ilio married and moved to Marion, Ohio but later returned to Greenbrier Ridge and bought a section of the Walton farm. These two Daugherty children, who had migrated to Ohio with Grandma and Grandpa, were laid to rest in Chestnut Grove.

THE DAUGHERTY HOMESTEAD

    The Geo. W. Daugherty farm starts at the foot of the big hill in Harper's Hollow, extends east along the road to the Hankins farm of Greenbrier Ridge, south to the Brown farm, west to the Warehime farm, thence north to the starting point.
    The Chestnut Grove road cuts the farm in half. A private lane, which we call the Warehime lane, cuts the east half of the farm into two sections. This lane was opened primarily to give John Lee an exit to his farm.  Much feuding existed between the Warehime's and the Daugherty's over this lane and was finally settled by a court ruling. This court ruling stands until the right of way is sold.
    The original log house was located along the road on the northeast section next to the Hankins home. It burnt to the ground in the 1890's. The house which still stands was built by good neighbors. It was a story and a half shell of a house, built like a box, and covered with red tin which looked like brick. The roof was galvanized metal nailed to rafters. This type of roof conducted heat in the summer time until you could almost fry an egg in the upstairs. On the other hand, in the winter time it was an excellent freezer.
    The flooring in the upstairs was laid on top of the downstairs rafters. A hole was cut in the floor along the east wall, and a set of steps heading into the downstairs north wall was the only means of exit from the upstairs. Downstairs a muslin curtain concealed the steps.
    The main part of the house was divided into two rooms. A pot-bellied, wood or coal burning stove was in the sitting room; no heat in the bedroom. A stove pipe went up through a hole cut in the floor above. A shelf type of Structure stood on the floor upstairs, and a brick enclosure was mounted on top of this and extended through the roof to make the outside chimney. The stove pipe extended from the stove, through the woof floor, the wood shelf structure, and into the brick chimney.
    The floor was covered with a hand woven, wall to wall carpet. Portier es made of wall paper, rolled over a pencil, then strung on string of different lengths, made coverings for open doors.
    A kitchen and back porch was attached to the main part of the house. A wood burning cook stove stood in the corner of the kitchen and beside it was a large wood box. Here again the stove pipe went right up through the metal roof. A can of coal oil and a bucket of chips was always handy to start a fire.
    A 36 x 73 inch homemade wood table set on the inside wall of the kitchen. It was always kept covered with a white table cloth and jelly, preserves, spiced fruit, and maybe leftovers, were left on the table. A clean white cloth covered the food.
    There were no screens on the doors or windows so, at meal times during the hot summer months, we used sassafras branches to fan the flies from the table. Shortly after the turn of the century fly paper became available to hang around in the kitchen. This was a  sheet of heavy paper about 9 x 13 inches, covered with a very sticky, sweet smelling, substance. The fly was caught when he tried to land. The paper would sometimes get so black that there was no room for more flies.
    Grandma and grandpa had a box type telephone which hung on the wall. It had a crank which was turned to get your number. A code system was used. Grandma's signal was a long, short, long. All people on Greenbrier Ridge were on a single line and when a call was made everyone on the line lifted their receivers to hear what was going on. To contact anyone outside the party line, or long distance, we had to ring one long to get Central, then she got our number.
    Now, let's take a look at the outside. There was a fenced in garden lot east of the house. All vegetables were raised in the garden to supply our needs for a year. There was a patch of sweet corn, tomatoes, beets, turnips, cabbage, parsnips, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, green beans, Kentucky Wonder yellow wax beans,

 peas, and multiplier onions. A long grape arbor skirted the east side of the garden and this supported Concord and White Niagara grapes. The garden was fertilized with manure from the barn and the soil was very rich.

Garden seeds were started early in the spring in a hotbed. This was a boxed in area on the ground, covered with glass. Fresh cow manure was in the bottom covered with a layer of nice rich soil. Young seedlings could get an early start, without danger of freezing, until planting time out in the garden.

There was a small fenced in area surrounding the house. Our water supply was an open 30 foot deep well, hewn through solid sandstone. Water supply came from the ground water and rain water from the house roof. The well was covered with a wood top. A long rope was attached to a bucket and, to get water, we lowered the bucket down into the water then pulled it up when full. This is quite a chore on wash day. We kept a bucket filled with water in the house at all times for drinking and cooking. A common tin drinking was used at the water bucket.

There was a cave type milk house just off the back porch. This was an 8 x 8 foot pit about six foot deep, covered with a wood floor and small shed on top. The floor was clay, as nature made it. The milk house was the nearest thing we had to refrigeration.

The barn lot was a series of sheds. Just outside the yard gate was a lean-to coal shed. This can be seen in the picture of the Daughtery homestead.

The necessary element was a leaning, well air-conditioned, two-holer. The lower back side was open for ease in cleaning.

We had a chicken house equipped with roosts and boxes for laying hens. Chickens ran all over the farm during the day, but at night were closed in. Hazards to the chickens were foxes, weasels, and black snakes. It was a frightening experience to reach into an egg box and touch a coiled black snake. He loved his eggs for breakfast. The sly fox haunted the hen house at night if the dogs were not around, for he loved his chicken.
The granary was the best building on the farm. It was well built, had a large grain bin,
 a nice wood floor and a tight door.
A covered lean-to was attached to the granary which was used for a buggy shed. The corn crib was another separate shed.
The old barn had three stalls for horses and a hay mow above. There was a lean-to shed on two sides of the barn to cover farm equipment. This equipment included a horse-drawn plow, furrow, cultivator, hay rake, mower, seeder, and  wagon. Horse drawn corn planters were just coming on the market.
In June the field of hay was cut, allowed to dry, then raked up into doodles. As we got to it, these doodles were pitched by hand into the wagon and hauled to the barn where it was pitched into the mow.

Grandpa had two horses, old Mollie and Duke. Mollie was old, nice and gentle and a good riding horse. Duke was a young dapple grey and full of fire. Both horses were used for farming.
We had two cows, Daisy and Cherry, ant they were kept in open pasture. We always tried to have one cow giving milk. Calves were sold when they were one year old. Rail fences around the farm were not too good, so occasionally we had to put a yoke on the neck of the cow or horse to keep them from jumping. The yoke in the picture is form a solid piece of wood.
Heavy snow in the blizzard of 1975 brought the old barn down. I retrieved some pieces of the harness.
We had a field of wheat, a field of corn, and a field of buckwheat. We generally always planted pumpkins and navy beans in the hills of corn. When the beans got ripe and dry, grandma and I went along the rows of corn, pulled up the beans by their roots, took them to a shade tree, and hulled them out. Grandma's apron reached her ankles, the same as her dress, and this made a perfect bag to carry beans in.

We had a nice orchard and had very few problems with the wormy fruit. There must have been about ten varieties of apples in the orchard. I can remember the Pumpkin sweet, Belleflower, Ben Davis, Winesap, Early Harvest, and a hard sweet apple, Russet, and a real late winter apple. We had a couple of pear trees and three or four peach trees, including a white peach which has a flavor all its own.

To the tune of the facts in this chapter we must add God's own orchard. Quail were plentiful, haunting the fields of grain, so the call "Bob White" and an answering call was a part of the daily chorus. A stroll through the pasture stirs up a meadow lark. His sweet song is soothing to the nerves. In the evening, The Whip-poor-will comes pouring forth from the ravines. Occasionally a bird would land on the post of the garden gate and give you an exuberant solo. In the middle of the night you might be wakened by the weird tremulous sound of an owl. You shiver a little tighter around you. But, all's well! you need not be afraid.

Greenbrier Ridge

There were five means of access to Greenbrier Ridge; Harper's Hollow Rd., Greenbrier Ridge Rd., Brown Rd. off of Goose Creek Rd., Chestnut Grove Church Roads off of Goose Creek and Pretty Run. Map No. 1 shows all of these roads. Harper's Hollow Road is nine miles southeast of Laurelville on State Route 56.

Map No. 2 gives you an idea, as near as I can remember, of the people who lived there at the turn of the century. They were a charitable, God fearing people. The wayfarer was fed at the table with the rest of the family and was given lodging for the night. If the rest of the house was crowded he slept in the haymow.
Everybody looked forward to Sunday when they could lay their daily burdens aside, go to church and worship together with the neighbors. The preacher might be a neighbor a little better versed in the Scriptures. Very seldom did we have an ordained minister at Chestnut Grove. Occasionally we has all day meetings, and people would come from far and near bearing their picnic baskets. The women were all good cooks and the food was beyond description. Desserts were limited to pies, cakes, cookies and custards, for nothing else was available. The Grove was a pretty sight filled with happy people, picnic tables and horses and buggies. There were no screeching, howling noises, to distract your attention.
Here he was a man's world. Men voted, but not the women. The man was considered the head of the house, but he did not rule the wife. They worked together as partners. The children helped with chores on the farm and they did it willingly. When father or mother spoke it was a foregone conclusion, you did as you were told. I did not know of a single case of child abuse on Greenbrier Ridge.
A girl who succumbed to the wiles of a young man and got pregnant was an outcast in the community, generally. Her parents would look after her and her baby, but she never got pregnant the second time. I knew of only one case of pregnancy out of wedlock, but the girl later married and made a good wife.
Everybody was happy. Rich or poor, we all lived alike, We raised our food, made our own clothes; everything we bought was cheap, and we had plenty of everything we needed. We visited the sick and looked after those who needed assistance. Our gifts to the sick might have been a glass of jelly, a pound of butter, or a loaf of fresh home-made bread. The thing which counted most was the love and kindness which accompanied the gift.

All land was in grain or pasture land, and fenced in with rails fences, "Stake and rider" we called them. Only the steep banks along the gulley's were left in woods. Large patches of blackberries and black raspberries dotted the pasture land. Blackberry bushes were a horrible mess to get into because of their hooked briers.
Native trees were sugar maples, sorrel, shagbark hickory, pignut, black walnut, beechnut, chestnut, sassafras, jack pine, hemlock, white and black oaks, dogwood, redbud, witch hazel, sycamore, willow, cucumber trees, box elder, ash, mulberry, wild cherry and tulip poplar.
In the spring of the year the redbud with its lavender blossoms, and the dogwood  with its white, made a beautiful necklace around the woods.

The spreading chestnut tree was a sight to behold and, oh how the squirrels relished the chestnuts in the fall of the year. It was a very painful experience to walk barefoot under this tree and step pm a dry chestnut burr.
Shredded roots of the sassafras tree made  delightful drink. Roots had to be dug in March while the sap was down.
Sap from the sugar maples was collected in early spring. Trees were tapped, a drain was put in the tap, and a bucket was hung under it to catch the sap. When a quantity was collected, it was boiled down to make maple syrup.
Hickory nuts and black walnuts were gathered in the fall of the year and these went into cookies and cakes. Chestnuts were also gathered to be roasted in the open fire during the long cold winter months. Chestnuts had to be punctured before placing in the fire because the intense heat would cause pressure build up and the chestnut would explode. Heat made the nutmeat soft and changed the flavor somewhat.

Residents of the Ridge

Harper's Hollow Road

Starting at Route 56, which is a two lane gravel road, we will take the one lane Harper's Hollow road and amble along by foot. We cross a narrow gauge railroad track which emerges out of the woods, then we will take our time crossing the old iron, wood bottomed Queer Creek bridge. If we are careful we might see a turtle, water snake, or a school of fish in the clear pool beneath the bridge. Suddenly a startled frog leaps into the water. This pool was also an ideal swimming hole.
Just across the bridge was the home of Jesse Kitchen and his family. I did not know these people.
About two hundred yards on up the road, nestled in the woods along the creek to the right of us is an old tumbled down log house. My mother and dad had lived in this house at the time my mother was carrying me. Dad abandoned my mother while they were living here so mother had a sale and moved back up on the Ridge with grandma and grandpa. It was thus that I was born in the old home place. Nobody ever lived in the old log house after mother left.
There were no other residents in the Hollow. However, it is a treat beyond measure to walk another mile up the Hollow road. To the left of us is heavily wooded steep hills, to the right is the creek, and we are walking on a one lane dirt road etched with buggy and horse shoe tracks. An old rail fence skirts the edge of the woods to our left, if we can see it through the lush growth of four feet high ferns and mountain laurel.
On the steep hillside we can see a variety of woods flowers, some in bloom. A few of these flowers are the trillium. wild iris, blood root, adders tongue, Jack-in-the-pulpit, columbine, devils bit, Jacobs ladder and wild geranium. Nestling in beds of moss, or twining over moss covered rocks, is the trailing arbutus, partridge berry and rattlesnake plantain. Along the stream we observe  purple, white and yellow violets, bluebells, sweet Williams and Goats beard. Everywhere is beautiful vegetation unspoiled by human hands.
The creek begins to meander in close to the hill so the road drops down into the stream bed and we now have to pick our way over the small rocks, avoiding shallow pools. Our approach disturbs Crawdads, tadpoles, and minnows, and they scurry for safety under the flat rocks.
A huge rock appears ahead of us and half of it is jutting out in our creek bottom road. This was a hazard to us if we were traveling by horse and buggy. A buggy was top heavy and tipped easily, so it was necessary to stop the horse at this rock, get out of the buggy and hold it while the horse pulled t over and around the obstruction.
We pick our way along for about a half mile more and come to a spring along the hill to our left. This was always good for a nice cool drink of fresh spring water. Here the road swings up out of the creek and we are again on dirt road. At this point a narrow private lane breaks off to our right which leads up to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Shaw on Greenbrier Ridge. I can remember Mrs. Shaw and her two daughters, Leo and Myrtle, (My family)  but I never visited their home that I recall.
Getting back to the Hollow, the road now takes off through an open glade, then as the hills ahead close in at the Hollow stream, we begin a very gradual climb upward and we skirt the hill to our right. We notice now what the narrow gorge is full of pretty little gurgling waterfalls. We emerge from densely wooded hills and face the "big hill" leading up to the intersection of Greenbrier Ridge. To the right of us is the northwest section of the George W. Daughtery farm; to the left of us is the southwest corner of the Walton farm; both farms in pasture land.
The "big hill" is quite a pull for man or beast. On its ascent there are rest spots for horse and buggy so that the pill was taken off of the horses while he rested.
Half way up the hill we pause to drink in the beauty of a hillside farm. Across the now deep gully, to our right, is the pasture field of the Daughtery farm. Tucked over against the hillside is a large open spring and a well worn path leading in from two sides. This is a source of water for two cows and two horses. The hillside is dotted with patches of wild blackberries. Crowning the pasture is a field of red clover. The Greenbrier Ridge road separates these two fields from the rest of the farm.
We end our trip up Harper's Hollow road as it is a short climb now to the intersection. We will return to Route 56.

Greenbrier Ridge Road and The Old Mail Route

We leave Harper's Hollow and from here on the east through South Bloomingville steep wooded hills rose to the left of us. The peaceful waters of Queer Creek flow very close to the right of the road, and beyond it is the hill which is known as Greenbrier Ridge.
At the first dirt road ot the right of Route 56 we turn and cross the narrow gauge railroad track, then a narrow bridge over Queer Creek. To the right of us, back against the hill, was the home of Charlie Shaw home I believe (My Great Grandpa). Charlie's wife, Dollie (Chilcote), was a very close friend of my mother. I recall when Dollie died mother was pallbearer, and to my young mind this was something very mysterious.
Now we start almost straight upward on a very long, narrow, steep hill. To the right of us is a deep rocky ravine adorned with hemlocks, oaks and mountain laurel. To the left of us the hill rises upward to new heights. Outbreaks of huge rocks form open caves and above the rocks are more hemlocks and oaks. Thick beds of bright green moss nourish pink lady slippers in abundance. This hill is very different from the Harper's Hollow hill.
At the top of the big hill, and to our left, was the old Vandegriff home. I never knew these people. About half a mile further south on the Ridge road, and at a sharp bend in the road, was the Walton home surrounded by some sixteen hundred acres of farm and pasture land. This house was a mansion and in my young eyes. Walton's had four grown children. I remember three; Clarabelle, Ettie and Frank. Frank ran a small grocery store on the land adjoining Chestnut Grove Cemetery.
Ben and Laura O'Hara lived in the next home to the left of us but their home was not visible from the road. A long private lane led back to their farm. The O'Hara house and barn were both built of logs. Their family was large. I went to school with three of them; Leota, George, and Henry. They had an unusually deep dug well and its depth struck me as awesome. It was framed in on top. The rope and bucket was on a roller and was lowered into the well by a crank.
Traveling on the south we come to the intersection of the Harper's Hollow road to the right and Brown road to the left. Since Brown road is a through road to Goose Creek we will turn off here and meet the residents. The road swings up hill. As we reach the peak we can now see the Daugherty homestead to our right. To the left of us id the south side of the Walton farm and we see a field of wheat almost ready to thresh.
At the top of the knoll is the Hankins log house. Jim and Rachel Hankins were two wonderful old people. Since I was born on the fourth of July, in the old Daughtery home, Mrs. Hankins always remembered me with a birthday card.
At the top of the Goose Creek hill was the last farm. This belonged to  a widow women by the name of "Teen" Chamberlain. Her husband, Charlie died before I was born. They had two teen age children, Carl and Alma. "Teen" was a haughty widow. When she went to town she put on her largest hat and all her finery. She would race past grandpa's house in her buggy, laying the whip to her horse, and raising great clouds of dust on the dirt road. She was a heavy set woman. At home she went barefoot and was not too neat. She was a little bit on the cruel side.
To the left of the road is the southeast corner of the Walton farm, and we start down a long steep hill to Goose Creek. Maggie Starkey lived at the bottom, and across the Creek and the Goose Creek road her son, Bill Starkey lived. He was a mail carrier.
Now, we will go back up to the Ridge to the forks of the road and start south again. Just over the hill, and to our right, is the private lane which is called Warehime lane. This lane led to the Elzie and Maude Warehime farm and the John Lee farm. Mr. and Mrs. Lee were nice old people and lived alone. They had one grown married son. Mrs. Lee smoked a corncob pipe and this was a novelty to me. My grandmother and some of the other older folks chewed home-grown tobacco. Grandma planted a patch of tobacco in her garden every year so that she could have tobacco in her apron pocket.
Maude Warehime was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hankins. "Else" and Maude had a large family. Floyd, Audrey and Violet were around my age. Hulda was younger and there were some other children.

The Ridge road is now cutting through the middle of the Daughtery farm. Just after we pass the Warehime lane, and to our right is the one-room  Greenbrier School. Late in the eighteen hundreds my grandfather had deeded this acre of ground to the School Board.
Next was the Elijah and "Lise" Brown farm to the left and the Fannie Chamberlain place to the right. Lige and Lize had two children, Alva and Florence and they were my age. This couple had several children but they died in infancy.
Fannie Chamberlain was a sweet old widow and the mother, or sister, of Charlie Chamberlain. She had a hard life and very little of this world's goods but somehow she managed to raise two grandchildren, Marie and Ramel Eades.
Over the next hill, ant to our left, was the Pearl and Ettie Lowery home. They had one son, Artie, quite a bit older than me.
At the next bend in the road was the Tom Mills family and I can remember only their son, Elmer.
At the next bend in the road was the Jim Mills home. A road took off to the right here which led to the farm of Sade Mills and Karns. Sade Mills had two children, Jake and Charity. Karns had three lovely grown girls, Olie, Anise, and Opal.
Around the next bend in the road was the Wine home, I think.
As we reach the end of the Ridge road the Chestnut Grove Church and cemetery stand directly before us and we must turn down to the Goose Creek Road to our left, or the Pretty Run road to our right. We have completed our trip over the Greenbrier Ridge.

Education

School days were happy days. We received our educations in the one-room Greenbrier Ridge Scholl built in 1891.
Our teacher, John Strarkey, taught grades one through eight. We were taught the fundamentals to help us make our way through life; the three R's, "Redin, riting, and rithmetic". Mcguffey readers, grades one through eight, were standard in Ohio. All reading was wise sayings or stories with good morals. We learned how to spell. It was very gratifying to come out best in a Spelling Bee.
Pupils walked to school. Some walked from Goosecreek, Salt Creek, Pretty Run and Route 56, and, for some this entailed a walk of about four miles up and down hills, through rain, snow or sleet. If Goose Creek or Salt Creek was in flood stage they didn't get to school. Children came to school in family groups. If older children were needed at home during plating or harvest season they stayed home to help. Pupils never got out of hand in the one-room school for if they did the rod was laid to them, and they got the second licking when they got home. However, there never seemed to be any trouble at Greenbrier.
The teacher was respected, and was generally a man. A woman teacher had to be a maiden lasy so she taught until she was married. The teacher boarded with the family living near the school and so became almost a part of the family. The classroom accommodated about thirty-four  pupils and the welfare and education of those thirty-four pupils was the first consideration of the teacher. They gave extra time when needed and even shared lunch with pupils who did not have enough lunch to eat. Salary of a teacher was very little, so their motives in teaching was LOVE of the role they were playing in the lives of young people.
Looking at the floor plan of Greenbrier School, there was a recessed entry and a cloak area on either side of the door. There was a door at each end entering the classroom. Just inside one classroom  door was a stand with a water bucket and a dipper for all to use. Each day it was the responsibility of one of the pupils to walk out to grandma Daugherty's and fill the bucket with fresh water for the day. If one pupil got chickenpox everyone got it. In the middle front of the classroom was a platform for the teacher's desk and chair. A set of world maps hung on the wall at one side and directly behind was a blackboard.
A potbellied stove, coal bucket, poker and shovel, was in the center of the room, exposed stovepipe rising up to the roof and outside chimney. Two-seater school desks, ranging in size from small to large, surrounded the stove.
In school houses like this the great fathers of our country got their education.

Toot, toot, toot! Here comes Old Pokey crawling along on its narrow gauge tracks skirting Queer Creek. The engineer brings it to a halt at Harper's Hollow road to let a passenger off. The bell rings on it brief halt, then toot, toot, chug, chug, slowly it starts for South Bloomingville, and the end of the day's journey. It's origin was up near Circleville. It passed through Wyandotte, then lumbered along, first on one side and then on the other, of Salt Creek on its way down, stopping at nearly every dirt road crossing. It was a real experience to ride Old Pokey with its hard plush seats. Its energy was given by coal from the  coal car hooked on behind the engine. As the fireman shoveled the coal in, the black smoke and cinders belched out of the smokestack and this wafted back into the coach right into your eyes, if you had the window up.
My two brothers and I got off Old Pokey at Harper's Hollow crossing when we went to grandma's. Sometimes we would walk from the crossing up and pick a bouquet of wild flowers and ferns for grandma as we walked along. I remember one time when grandma brought ols Molly down for us to ride. Molly was getting up in years and when we three children got mounted on her back she took a few steps, then down she went throwing us in a puddle of mud.
A couple of times when we made our annual summer trip to the hills we got off the train at Kingston, then grandpa met us there with the horse and buggy. This was thrilling to ride behind a horse that knew his way home. The clop, clop of his hoof beats on the road was music to the ears. The buggy had curtains to fasten over the front in case of rain. Then too, in cold weather we heated up stone or brick, covered it with wool, and laid it at our feet to keep them warm when we went out in the buggy. We also had a good wool lap robe to throw over us. The horse had different shoes for winter weather. On long trips he had to be watered and fed. Villages had watering troughs and hitching posts to accommodate them. Oats were the bill of fare for the horse when he was on the road.
At the turn of the century we had four means of travel--- walk, horseback, horse and buggy, or train. The fastest we could go was a gallop by horseback.

Everyone participated in entertainment. About once a year Greenbrier School had a play and pupils would speak pieces. Box socials were held in one room schools. Ladies prepared the box dinners and the men bid on the boxes to eat with the lady of their choice. There were square dances at South Bloomingville in the Redmen's Lodge Hall. We had good  fiddlers and callers and an evening of square dancing was exhilarating. On Sunday the young folks got together in groups and walks miles to church. Young children found a world of wonders in nature in their daily life. At Christmas time we went out and cut down our own tree. We popped corn, then spent hours stringing it on thread for decorating our tree. Our Christmas tree was beautiful in its simplicity.

Our clothing was simple and comfortable. Women wore handmade muslin chemise. Men and women wore one piece underwear, with a slit in the back for the "bottom dump". During the winter months men, women and children wore two piece long flannel or wool underwear for the warmth and we were not allowed to change to lighter weight underwear until the first of May. Wool, knee length socks and stockings were also the order of the day. Dress length for women was to the ankles. High top button shoes were in vogue. My first high top button shoes were beautiful, I thought.  They were black patent leather and had a red tassel at the top. Now button shoes were hard to fasen by hand so most she stores furnished a button hook. In the winter time we carried a muff to keep our hands warm when we went out for special occasions. Women had long hair and they anchored their tresses with elaborate combs and ornaments. During the hot summer months we carried pretty fans to help make us comfortable.
The early 1900's was the passing away age of long hair, beards and mustaches for men. Barber shops had come into existence and they did a thriving business. Men were glad to have short hair and to be clean shaven. For home use men used a straight edged razor and it was an art to shave without doing a butchering job. Men wore stiff starched collars and cuffs on their white shirts. Cuffs were fastened with fancy cuff links.

How about health problems? We had a doctor at South Bloomingville, the only one within miles of us. He was not too busy at almost all sicknesses was diagnosed at home and home remedies were used to cure the ailment. A midwife delivered babies. However, the doctor delivered babies occasionally and made house calls o bedridden people and gave them medical assistance. I heard that once the doctor preformed an appendix operation on the table in the kitchen of a patient, using hot water to sterilize his instruments. The operation was a success. The doctor used whiskey for anesthesia.
Grandma and I would sometimes spend a Sunday afternoon in the woods hunting for blood root, yellow root, ginseng and rattle root, all medicinal plants. Pennyroyal was plentiful on the farm and we pulled this up by the root and dried it for medicine. Bark from wild cherry and the peach tree was boiled and the tea used for ailments. Gog fennel and tobacco juice were used for tooth ache. Turpentine was used on open cuts. One teaspoonful of coal oil and sugar helped sore throat and cough. These are just a few of the home remedies.

We had regular daily chores. Monday was wash day and it took the whole day. Water had to be drawn from the well and heated on the outside fire. Two galvanized tubs were used, one for washing clothes and one for rinsing. One by one each piece of washing was rubbed and rubbed on a wash board, then wrung out by hand and tossed into the rinse water or boiler. White clothes were put in a copper boiler with chips of homemade lye soap, and they came out whiter hand snow. Lye soap was never used on colored fabrics as they were not color fast. It was almost a tragedy if a colored piece got into the white clothes by mistake.

Tuesday was the day to iron and this was an all day chore. Everything had to be ironed. White shirts were especially tedious to iron because the collars and cuffs were starched to give the material body. We used two sad irons for ironing. We built a fire in the wood cook stove and placed the irons on top. When they got hot we were ready to start. The handle of the iron got as hot as the bottom so we had to use a potholder. When the first iron got cold we placed it back on the stove and used the other iron until it got cold, etc.

Wednesday was mending and sewing day. Socks and stockings were darned until they were no more. The foot pedal sewing machine had just come on the market, and grandma owned one. We didn't have to make clothing, sun bonnets or dust caps by hand.

Thursday was cleaning day. We used a straw broom and dust pan to sweep and clean up our floors. We had a hand woven carpet, wall to wall, in the sitting room and when we started sweeping, the dust raised up in clouds. At least once a year we had to take this carpet out, hang it on a line, and beat the dust out with a carpet beater. Wood floors were all mopped.

Friday was baking day, and our appetites were whetted as we scented the aroma of homemade bread, cookies and pies coming from the kitchen. It was a treat beyond description to cut off a slice of bread just out of the oven and butter it with chunks of fresh churned butter, and maybe jam or jelly.

Saturday was shopping day, if we needed anything. Grandma shopped at the General Store in South Bloomingville, or the one at Laurelville, so we had to go by horse and buggy. The horse had to be hitched up. Eggs and butter had to be loaded in the buggy as grandma traded these for things which she needed. A huckster wagon, carrying staple goods, came down Goose Creek hill once a week. Occasionally we would walk down the Goose Creek hill and meet the huckster wagon, then we didn't have to make a trip to the General Store.
Saturday night as bath night for all. Water was heated on the cook stove for a sponge bath in a galvanized tub. The youngest child got the first bath, then the next, etc., until everyone had a turn.

Sunday was the Sabbath Day. Nobody worked.

Around the last of June and the first of July we picked raspberries and black berries to sell. Three times a week a peddler drove by the house to pick up our berries. There were times when we sold them for 20 cents per gallon.
In the late fall hogs were butchered. Hams and bacon were smoked in the smoke house over a hickory wood fire. Lard was rendered in a large iron pot, over an open fire. Sausage was hand ground, fried, and packed down in large stone jars in enough lard to cover them.
By the time the snowflakes started coming down the corn crib was loaded to the top; the wheat and buckwheat, and oats has all been thrashed and the bins in the granary were full. The busy thrashing season was over. A traveling thrasher had come by to do the job for you. At thrashing time the neighbors all helped one another; the women with the dinners, the men with the thrashing. It was nothing to have a dozen sweat covered men seated at the table for dinner, all hearty eaters.

We cannot close this dissertation without first taking a look inside the fascinating General Store. The potbellied heating stove sets in the middle of the store. Alongside of this is a large copper spittoon, coal bucket, small shovel, and poker. Three men are sitting on the wood bench over next to the wall, busily engaged in discussing statistics of the day, or trading a few tall tales. They are chewing tobacco, so at intervals, when they have a mouth full of tobacco juice, and have time to draw a free breath, they squirt and attempt to hit the spittoon over by the stove.
Hanging from the ceiling is an ornamental iron ball which holds a ball of wrapping twine. THe free end of the twine hangs down over the wrapping counter. A large scale sets on the one side of the counter. Behind the counter is a large roll of heavy white wrapping paper. All cheese, heavily smoked meats, and butter are sold by the pound, wrapped in the paper, and tied with twine.
The owner of the store, and his family, run the store. The owner listed anything we had for trade, and it's value. You gave him an order for what you wanted and he filled the order. A debit or credit slip was made for your next visit to the store. Very little cash was exchanged.
In front of the counter is four barrels, each containing staple goods in bulk. I remember the cracker barrel especially. Coffee beans, sugar, rice and navy beans, were all in bulk, sold by the pound, and put in small brown paper bags. Coffee beans were ground by us with our own coffee grinder.
One side of the store is filled with men's work shoes, overalls, women's shoes, hats, and some wearing apparel. The back end of the store is filled with yard goods and sewing needs. One wall displays some hardware and assortment of household needs.
The General Store had anything for sale from safety pins to farm equipment and feed for the livestock.

We are all ready for a good night's rest, so we pick up our coal oil lamp, carefully find our way up the steep stairs, undress, put on our nightgown, blow out the light, and crawl into a cord bed.  Did you ever sleep in one? Wooden pegs lined the head, bottom, and side rails, and rope was woven back and forth to form the base for a straw or feather tick mattress. Now, rope stretches, so the first thing you know you have rolled to the center of the bed, and, try as you will, you cannot stay out of the center.

Summary

I think what I have given you pretty well covers life as it was in the early 1900's. In summing it all up, we had worthwhile work filled days, we had good clean fun, and most of all peace and contentment pervaded our existence. What we did for ourselves made us almost self-sufficient. About all we needed from the rest of the world was  salt, sugar, spices, coal oil, shoes. thread and yard goods for clothing.

We had - Fresh vegetables from our garden
- Fresh fruit from our orchards
-  Our own cows and milk
- Made our own butter and cottage cheese
- Had our own chicken and eggs
- Raised and butchered our own pork
-Raised corn for feed for horses and cows, and
enough to grind into cornmeal for ourselves
- Raised our own oats- Our own wheat and buckwheat
which was ground into flour
- Made our own vinegar from apple cider
- Dried apples. peaches and corn
- Canned fruits and vegetables
- Made jelly, jam and preserves
- Raised our navy beans
- Harvested walnuts, hickory nuts and chestnuts
- Made our own starter yeast for bread and buckwheat
cakes
- Made our own maple syrup
- Prepared sassafras roots for tea
- Made our own lye soap for washing clothes
- Made our own clothes
- Cut our own wood for fire
- Took care of most of our medical needs
- Nursed our sick and took care of our parents in
their old age