Emeline Tyler Roper - Notable Women Ancestors
Emeline Roper

We had great fun and enjoyment, translating her Memories! She must have been a truly lovely woman to have gone through what she did and still maintain such an eager outlook and joy for life. Emeline's daugther, Lura Belle urged her to write down her life experiences in 1918. She died 3 June 1919 at the age of 86 years. Her husband, John Augustus Roper died April 19, 1926 at the age of 96 years.

Emeline didn't use any punctuation and she spelled words as they sounded to her. I have put in some necessary corrections so that the material would make sense but I have done them in italics so that you can tell when it was my correction. I hope that you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed it.

(I've typed these pages in the order in which I have them. Toward the end of the papers she got confused on the numbers, so I put them in, what I could determine, was the correct order. These are handwritten on 5 x 8 sheets of paper, for the most part on one side - 73 pages.)

Suzanne (Brandenburg) Wood
Patricia (Brandenburg Seabolt

Emeline & Edith
Edith McIntrye
Emeline Tyler Roper
handwritten page

Actual handwritten page

Memerys of the Past

I was born eighteen hundred and thirty three in the State of New York Hurkimer (Herkimer) County Town of Windfield. My fathers name was SAMUEL TYLER the first thing that I can remember very plain is that my father and mother had a large family of children and I was the sixth childe and I was four years old the eighteenth day of July and my Uncle and wife came to visit us he was my mothers brothers and he wanted to take one of my mothers children. This is March 1918

page 1 This that I am writing is what I can remember of my passed life the first thing I remember very plain is my borhter next older than I am and my sister next younger than I am and I can remember of a baby sister that we loved so much my brother BRUCE (Eliza Brewster) that was two years older than I and my sister MODENIA that was two years younger than I was we always played togeather and when I was four years old my mothers brother and his wife came to visit our folks my Uncle JOHN GOFF was liveing with his second wife and the children that he had by his first wife was all growen up and gon and he did not have any children by his second wife he had one son his youngest childe was twelve years old

page 2 and he had to go away from home to schoo(l) and my uncle and wife wanted one of my mothers girls and my sister Modenia was to young to leave mother so they took me and I felt so bad to go away from mother and the children. I was four years the eighteenth day of July and they took me before Christmas and how well I remember that ride it was in winter was good roads and they had one horse and a cutter and they fixed me a seat in front of them and cover(e)d me up with blankets and I was nice and warm but I just sat and cried for I was leaveing my dear mother and the children but I did not make any nois(e) for I was afraid of my uncle and aunt and we had to stay over night in a hotell all night for it was a long way to my uncles home and I felt so bad that I could

page 3 not eat anything and they thought I was sick but when we got to there home my cousan that was home on his vacation was good to me and made nice little things for me to play with but I did not like him when I first got there for he was such a big boy and my brother that I played with at home was a little boy but I liked him better after a fiew days but when the vacation was over he had to go away to school and then I was all alone for they did not have any neighbours near my uncles but they had a little black dog his name was Martin Vanburan and he liked me and he would always go with me every place I went (.) the school was so far off that I could not go to school for I was to small and when my

page 4 Aunty was able she would teach me at home but she was not well and I remember that the little dog and I use to wander around in the fields and when the chesnuts and walnuts and beachnuts was ripe I would take my little basket and go to get the nuts and little Martin Vanburan would always go with me and would scratch around in the leav(e)s and help me find the nuts how I did love that little dog he was all the company I had and when I got my little basket full of nuts Mart and I would go home and my aunty would say that I could (have) the nuts and put them in my play house for you know i always had a play house and I had to make my owen dolls out of rags that my aunty gave me she never made me any dolls for she was always sick and just as soon as I was big enough I had to wash the dishes and peal potatoes

page 5 but my au(n)ty would let me go and play and I would rool up rags and make a big family of dolls and I would have them all have a name and of corse I would visit with them for they was all I had to talk to but I had to read every day with my Aunt ROXY that was her name (John Goff md. as his second wife ROXANNA CADY, Moravia, NY on the 21 Apr 1837) she was good to me but once when I was washing the dishes I broke a tea cup and I went and hid it and when my Aunty asked me where it was I told her I did not know and she got a whip and said she would whip me for telling a lye but not for brakeing the tea cup and I tell you I did not ever tell any more lyes I was so shamed and I remember once when I was washing dishes that my uncle scholdid me for being so long washing the dishes he said EMELINE aint you ashamed to be so long washing the dishes when you are

page 6 eight years old and that summer I went a long ways off to schoola nd I could not go but three months just in the summer for it was so far and I was afraid of the teacher and all the big boys the teacher was a man I just went a little that summer that I was eight years ou(l)d and I went a little the next summer and in the fall after I was nine years old my Aunty was sick all the time she could not speak loud she just had to wisper and I was so sorry for her when I was seven years old my father and mother came to see me and when they went back home how I did cry I wanted to go home with them and my mother cryed but they did not take me home with them but in the winter after I was nine years old my Aunty died and then my uncle took me back home

page 7 he took me in the spring and I was ten in July after and I was so happy to get home with my brothers and sisters my mother had two children born when I was liveing with my Uncle my little sister MATILDA and my brother ELON (Elon Joseph) I had never seen until I went home my brother Elon was a baby one year old and my sister Matilda was five years old and how glad I was to see them my brother Bruce was so glad to see me for he remembered me but of corse my sister Modenia did not remember me but we soon got acquainted and she was the one that I had to sleepe with and she got mad at me one night and she bit me and I tell you I did yell and my sister CARLEY (Caroline Axenia) came to our bead and she talked to Dena and Dena was sorry and she never

page 8 bit me again but we use to fight she could run faster than I could and when we got a quareling she would pull my hair and hit me and then she would run and I could not ketch her but we loved each other the best of all the children when I first got home my little baby brother loved her better than he did me and he would cry to have her hold him and he would not go to me for he did not know me and I would cry becaus(e) he did not love me so much as he did her but she and I was always playing together I had two brothers and two sisters that was grown up my brother WELLS (Samuel Wells) was the oldest one of my fathers family and then my brother CHAR(E)LS was next and then my sister ELIZABETH (Elizabeth Persis) was next and then my sister CARLEY (Caroline Axenia) was next then my brother

page 9 BRUCE (Eliza Brewster) and then EMELINE that is myself and then my sister MODENIA and then my sister FIDELIA and then my sister MATILDA and then my little brother ELON (Elon Joseph) the last one of ten children that was a big family but how happy we was all togeather how we all loved our dear Mother my sister Elizabeth was a very smart girl to work and she thought that my sister Modenia and I must work some and one day we was playing out in our barn and sister Lib came out and said we should come right in and she had some knitting work for us both and she sat us down in some chairs and said when we had knitted twenty times around that stockin we could go out and play and Modenia cried and said she would not do that and I said just knitte and we watched

page 10 her and just as soon as she left the room we both got up and ran over to our Uncle ORANGE GOFFS they had two girls just our ages there names is ELIABETH and ERMINA and we did like them and we liked our Aunt PHEOBE and they was glad to see us they did not know that we had run away and the girls took us up stairs and we had such a nice time playing and eating maple sugar for the girls knew where there mother kept the maple sugar and we staid until it was dark and then we had a little piece of woods to go through to get home and we was afraid and we ran all the way home and when we got there and had our supper sister Lib said we must knitte and I sat down and went right to

page 11 knitting but my sister Denia began to cry and said her head ached and in a little while Lib said we could go to bead but in the morning we m(us)t knitte that twenty times around before we could go out and play and so we both knitted til she was gon then we ran out in the barn my brother Bruce had to go and work for one of our neighbours do his chores and go to school and Denia and I had to go to school one day there was a man came to our hous(e) and told my father that if he would let him have me he would cloth me and send me to school for the work that I could do a helpin to take care of his little girls and he took me and I tell you I did feel very bad but I had

page 12 to go for my father was a poor man and he had ten children but of corse my brothers that was young men both worked and took care of them selv(e)s and my sister Elizabeth worked she spun wool for the folks that was makeing cloth she could spin very fast and every one all around wanted her to work for them she was so good to work my sister Carley had to stay at home to help mother and go to school Elizabeth was my oldest sister(.) the man that took me did not let me go to school they kept me at home takeing care of three children they had three little girls the baby was eighteen months old and the oldest girl was five years old and there

page 13 and the biddle (middle) one was three years old and I had to be with them children all the time I hat (had) to do everything for them so there mother could do her work and not have to keepe and haid girl and I had to wash dishes and get the vegitables ready to cook so of corse I could not go to school and they would both go away to town and leave me to take care of the children and they would stay until twelve oclock once they satid until one and I was so afraid of something comeing that I just suffer(e)d the children liked me but of corse when the baby woke up she would cry for her mother and then I would have to walk the floor until she went to sleep again of corse they would let me go to school some of the time

page 14 but they never bought me any cloths they never gave me so much as an apron and I staid there eight months and then I was sick and my father sent for me to come home and when I got well MR FOX came to take me back but my father would not let him have me he told MR FOX that as he did not send me to school or get me any cloths he could not have me again but MR FOX did not want to give me up he said he would do better if I would go back but I tell you I was so glad when he left for I did not like him he was always cross to me but the children loved me and I loved them and I liked her when she was good(.) I know she was sory for me when I was afraid to stay alone with the children

page 15 in the night for she said I could have the big dog come in the house and stay when they was gon and he was a big dog and I liked him(.) she said I must not go to sleepe until she got home I tell you I was glad to get home to stay then I went to school with our children and when I was twelve years old my father sold his farm in New York and went to Wisconsin that was in the Spring of 1846 and what a buisy time we all had getting ready to go of corse us younger children ws glad to go but my poor mother felt so bad to leave our DEAR OLD GRANDFATHER he was over ninty years old (this was John Goff born 7 May 1755 who married Elizabeth Coston) and of corse my mother felt so bad to leave him but we all went my mother had a brother liveing in Wisconsin (probably her brother Theodore)

page 16 and my father had a sister liveing in Wisconsin my two brothers Charley and Bruce took my fathers horses and lumber wagon and drove them to Buffalow and father and mother and the other children went to Buffalow on the Era Canall and how well I remember that trip the canall boat was just like a small house(.) we all slept in bunks made on the sides of the boat it was nice in the boat and thare was a big long rope fassand (fastened) to the boat and that rope was hitch(ed) to a horse on the land and a boy road the horse on a nice smoth path and the hors(e) drew the boat of corse we did not go very fast and where we went under the bridges us children would get off of the

page 17 boat and run until we came to another bridge then we would get on the boat again we children did enjoy it so m(u)ch the weather was lovely and when we got to Lockport they open(e)d great doors and our boat was put in and then they let the water in and raised the boat up and then the boat went in another place and the water was run in until the boat was raised again until it ws raised five times and then we was up on the levil water and the rope was hitched to the horse and he took us on the same as before(.) I think we was seven days before we got to Buffalow how well I remember when we first go there my brother Charley and Bruce was there to meete us and how we all did work to get all of our things

back side of page 17 my sister Carley was liveing with my mothers brother HIRUM GOFF he lived in the City of Albyon he was a lawyer there and when our boat went through there my sister and our Uncle came on the boat to see us my sister Carley was liveing with my Uncle and going to school we all felt bad to leave her

page 18 off of the canall baot and then we all went to a big steam boat the name of the big boat was the Era and after we all got on that boat we was on Lake Era and it was night and of corse we all went in our beads but the next morning we children was all sick and could not eat any breakfast but after a fiew days we got better and we had a nice time for the weather was fine and the boat run very smoth and one day a very nice man came and wanted me to go to his room and take care of his little girl when he and his wife went and ate there meals and I went and it was a dear little girl and I did love to take care of her and I went every day and we was on that boat three weeks and we had a

page 19 nice trip we got to Milwaukee the first day of June 1846 then Milwaukee was small we went to a Hotell and it was a long woodden building near where we got off of the boat and we all staid there over night and then we all road in our big waggon and how well I remember that ride the weather was lovely and the Perarias (prairies) was all cover(e)d with beautiful wilde flowers and we children would get of(f) of the wagon and run on ahead of the team for there was such a big load in the waggon that the horses could not go fast and we would pick our aprons full of the beautiful flowers how nice everything looked to us we was so happy we was going to Jefferson County that was where my Fathers

page 20 sister lived we did not stay there but a fiew days then we went to Dodge County my mother had a brother liveing there and my father bought a farm there and thare was a log house on it but it was not finished it did not have any doors or windows in it but my mother went in it(.) my brother Charley had to go back to Milwaukee and get our goods that we could not bring with us and he had to go with our horses and waggon for there was not any other way to get them in those days and it was fifty miles to Milwaukee and it took him about a week to go there and get back but our mother had a fiew thing(s) that we brought with us and they hung blankets up for doors and they boardid up

page 21 the windows and we made beads on the floor so we could stay there nights we had an upstairs in our house but no stairs to go up on so my oldest brother was with us and he made some stairs just as soon as he could he made doors and got the windows ready just as soon as he could but when we got supper the first night they built a fire out side to make tea but when we wanted to go up stairs to sleepe our big brother had to put us up there and take us down in the morning but the next night he got the stairs done and then we could go up all right and when our brother got home with our things we brought a stove and beads with us but us children was so happy for every thing looked beautiful to us but mother

page 22 was very home sick for she had left our dear old grand Pa back in New York of corse we felt very sorry for her(.) how well I remember the first summer that we lived in Wisconsin there was not any school for us children to go to and my brother would dig potatoes for every seventh bushel and my sister Modenia and I had to go with him and pick up the potatoes of corse we had to walk a long way to get to some farmers potatoe field but we went and worked all day with him we got a nice lot of potatoes and in the fall we would go and help husk corn and they would give us every fifth bushel and that is the way we got our corn and when we got our corn and wheat ground to make flower and meal my father had to take a load of corn and wheat and go to

page 23 Janesville to get it ground to make our bread(.) it ws over thirty miles but there was not any milles nearer and no way too go onely with our horses and wagon that was when the country was new there was lots of ingans (indians) around and we children was afraid of them sometimes they would come and look in our windows and we would run and hide(.) that summer we all had soar eyes and had to be in bead for a fiew days and we all got well but our sister Fidelia her eyes did not get well and mother had an old docter come to see her and he said he would have to take her home with him so he could take care of her eyes all the time and she went and my sister Modenia went with her to take care of her Fidelia was

page 24 eight years old when they went it was fifteen or twenty miles from our home and they stayed with that old docter family three months then the docter brought them home(.) her eyes was well but one of them was blinde how glad we was to have them home but so sorry for our dear sister she had beautiful eyes before they got soar but she had to ware glasses(.) the next year after we got to Wisconsin they hiard a lady to teach school and one of our neighbours had just built a big new barn and he said that they could have his stable to teach school in and she taught school in that stable three months and we went to school there and the men would be drawing there hay in on the barn floor when was was reading and the hens would cackel

page 25 of corse we learned some we all liked the teacher she was a lovely girl but the third year that we was there they built a school house it was nearly one mile from our home and in the summer they hiard a lady to teach and in the winter there was a man to teach for all the big boys went to school in the winter and then the teacher always had to board in them days my father had four children that went to school in the summer my brother Bruce and I worked out my two oldest brothers was away moste of the time and my oldest sister Elizabeth worked away from home moste of the time when we had ben in

page 26 Wisconsin three years she was married to WILLIAM CADELL and she went to Illinois to live how sorry we was to have her go so far away to live but when she wrote that she had a good home and kinde husband we felt better she lived there four years and she had two children and they her husband died with colery and how well I remember the night she came home she had two children one little baby six weeks old and a little girl three years old how glad we all was to see her and I can think now how sad she looked and she was so thin and she looked so sick but the baby was such a nice little boy he was so good we all loved him but little GEORGY ANNA

page 27 was three years old and she was the smartest little childe of her age that I ever knew she had a black doll and she called in Dina and she had a little chair that she sat in and held her Dina and when she got up in the morning she would sit in her little chair and of corse all us children would be around her and she would tell us what she dreamed and I never heard a little childe tell such wonderful dreams as she would tell us of corse we knew that she did not dream it but we all did love to hear (her) tell her dreams(.) I tell you she was a very smart child and she made a very smart woman she was always a good woman and of corse we all loved her like a sister for she lived in our family until

page 28 she was elev(e)n years old but the dear little baby boy lived onely one year then he was taken sick and died how sorry we all was for we loved the dear baby then after her baby died she got better and she went away and worked but little Georgy lived with my mother she and our brother Elon was children togeather but my sister Modenia and I had to work out for we had to earn our owen cloths we had to do house work for there was not any other kinde of work to do but we was glad to get that work(.) how well I remember when we had ben in Wisconsin three years I think it was early in the spring of 1849 the small pox came in a little town called Oakgrove it was three miles from us and

page 29 my mother had the small pox when she was small and my Uncle THEADORE GOFF had it the same time my mother did and the people at Oakgrove sent for them to go and take care of the sick and of corse they went that was before my sister Eliabeth was married she was home with us and we all had to be vaxenated and we had to eat just corn meal pudding and molassis for six weeks we all did not eat anything but that then we all had small pox and our mother had to go home to take care of us we was all sick but some of us was quite sick our little brother Elon had ben vaxinated for kind pox before that and it worked so strong that he was not sick we was all vaxinated for kinde pox the same time that our little Elon was but it did not work in any of our arms but his and it made very sick (this is how the sentence is!)

page 30 and he is a man now and he went all through the Civil War and had to go and take care of the small pox and he never had it(.) but after we all got well It ell you we had a time washing and cleaning every thin(g) that was in the house(.) the country was so new then that everyone lived in small log houses and everyone done all there owen work and each one took care of there owen sick we did not have any nurses in the country when we went to Wisconsin the country was so new that Juneau was not named it was called Dodge Center and Horicon was called The Foot of the Marsh(.) once the first summer that we lived (there) I went to visit our cousan that lived on the east side of Rock River and my cousan WALLACE GOFF was with me he and I was the

page 31 the same age and when we came home we was riding in a lumber waggon and when we got to Rock River we took off our shoes and stolkins went acrost the water was low and wadid acrost and there was not a house there and now it is a nice little city and its name is Horicon(.) when we first lived there we use to see droves of prarie wolv(e)s and hear them bark we was afraid of them and there was baggers arount (I think she meant beggars, or badgers) but that was when we first lived there when we had ben there four years the survaiors came there to get ready for the rail roads to come there and the towns grew larger and Juneau was named and then Horicon was named and one time there was give hundread indians taken away from Horicon they took them to there reservation(.) after we had ben in Wisconsin five years my sister

page 32 Carley came from Albion and then of corse there was a lot of young folks always comeing to our house for we had two brothers that was young men and one sister that was a young lady and they would have so many parti(e)s and my sister Carley was a very lovely lady and she was very nice lookin and the young men liked her and one of the young men wanted to marry her and he did not want to wate for there was so many fellows that liked her he was ancious and New Years six or seven young men got up a big load of young folks they had a big wagon with some kinde of a rack on it with seats all around it and buffalows and blankets and my two oldest brothers and the oth(er) young men that was with them all had there girls and of cors my sister Carley and the young man that wanted

page 33 her was with them his name was SHELDON GRAHAM and my brother Charley had his sister (Charles married Emeline Graham, sister of Sheldon) and my brother Wells had the girl with him that he was going to marry and they had four horses and a man to drive that was use to driving four horses(.) I think there was seven couple(s) in that waggon they all went to Waupun to a dance when they came home they came to our house and they was a jolley coumpany and the boys said that they wanted to be married then and the girls was willing and so they sent for a man his name was DEACON ANDERSON of corse he had the right to mary them and my oldest brother Wells was married first and then my sister Carley and Shelldon Graham was married and then my brother

page 34 Charley and EMELINE GRAHAM was married all in our house the same day what a jolley time they all had and my sister Modenia and I had to help mother do the work but we was just as happy as we could be for we had two new sisters and one new brother I think that was 1850(.) the next day after New Years then of corse after a fiew days they all went away my sister Carley went to her home her husband had farm east of Horicon and my brothers went to Plainville, Adams County it is near Kilborn and us younger children worked out in the summer and went to school in the winter and of cors my sister Modenia and I was getting to (be) quite young ladys and then there was a lot of young girls and boys of our age

page 35 then I was sixteen and my brother Bruce was eighteen and there was all kinds of partys around some was big dances in Juneau and some was little partys in there homes and my sister Modenia and brother Bruce and I was always to all the partys and at our home partys and if we did not have any music then I would sing for them to dance sometimes we would have some one come that could play the acordian I tell you we was all happy(.) after sister and I was older then we went to the big dances with the young men and I comenced going with AUGUSTUS ROPER and my sister Modenia went with MARTIN RICH I was seventeen in July and I went with him at Christmas and sister was fifteen and she went with Mart Rich they was

page 36 was very near of an age of corse he was called little Mart Rich and he and Gust Roper always went togeather every Sundy they would get a nice span of horses and double carrage and come to our house and take sister and I out riding my fathers house was small and they always came togeather and always took us to all the partys and of corse after we went togeather a long time we was engaged to be married how well I remember the Christmas before we was married Gust took me to Watertown to a dance his brother FRANK ROPER lived there and we went to there house that was the first time that I had even see(n) them they had two children WILLIE and LOUESA(.) Willie was five years old and Louesa was two they was little children Gust had two sisters there MARY ANN and LOUISA and

page 37 we all went to the dance togeather that was the first time that I had ever seen the young folks walts it looked so nice to me to see them but I never could walts very good that was the first time that BEN PAY saw Mary An Roper and he asked Gust to introduce him to his sister and he fell in love with her then and he was married to her the next December and Gust and I was married the seventeenth day of April 1853 his brother Frank Roper went from Watertown to Juneau and he and Gust took the Juneau House (I believe that they bought or managed it) it was a big Hotel(.) there was five coupal(s) of us went to our ministers house and Gust and I was married it was a lovely day and we all had nice horses and carrages and after we was married we went to Bever Dam

page 38 it was ten miles we was married at noon we stayed in Bever Dam and had our supper and then came home to the Juneau House for Gust and his brother was keepeing the Hote(l) and that was our wedding trip(.) there was twenty five sleepeing rooms in that house and a big long dining room and a big siting & (she inserted a word that I think is "room" but it's too small for me to be sure) down stairs and a big seller khitchen where all the cooking was done it was three storrys high and sometimes we would have it full of boards (boarders)(.) I tell you we all had to work we kept three girls and a boy all the time and if one of the girls had to leave us it was so hard on us until we could get another girl we had so many men that was survaing for our new

page 39 railroad we staid there two years and then we left and went on a farm my first childe was born in the big Hotel it was a little daughter but she onely lived eight hours we felt so bad to lose our baby we lived on the old farm two years our little FRANKY was born there he lived one year and ten months and he was taken sick with puenmonia and onely lived one week how well I remember one Sunday morning befor he was taken sick of getting ready and putting him in his little buggy and walked two miles to see my sister Fidelia she married CHANCY BABCOCK and when I got there I found such a pretty little girl baby two weeks old and they was so happy with it

page 40 how glad I was go find it there and Chancy took me home(.) after our little Franky died I had a little daughter her name was GLENDORA when she was ten months old Gust and his brother JOSIAH ROPER he married Chancy Babcock sister MALISSA and I all went to Minnesota in a cover(e)d waggon I had my baby ten months old but Sy and Malissa did not have any childe I tell you we all remember that trip it was the first of May that we started I think it was 1859 we was on the road over two weeks Ben Pay and wife had gon to Minnesota two years before we went they was on a farm in Blue Earth County three miles from Mankato and that was

page 41 whare we wanted to go and it had rained all through April and May and the roads was all mud and our horses had a hard time to get through and when we got through the land was so wet that no one could do any work on there farms and it kept on raining and Gust would not stay there and we went back to Wisconsin in September then we went on a farm near Juneau and when my little Dora was two years old she was taken sick with disentary and she lived two weeks and died that seamed terriable to us then we had lost three children but we had to live through it all and how well I remember when our

page 42 new railroad was finished to run from Fan Du Lac to Chicago it went through Juneau and there was so many of the nice people and there familys was invited to go on the excurtian some in Juneau went and they all felt so happy and when the train got by Watertown as they was runing through a field where there was a lot of cattle one big bull saw the train comeing and it made him mad and he ran on the track and the engin struck him and it threw the train off of the track and there was sixteen killed and a lot of them hurt that was a sad time Gust was well aquainted with some that went from Juneau and he was in Juneau when the train came in with the dead and wounded it was a sad

page 43 sight and a fiew years after that thare was a beautiful large boat build in Milwaukee and the same was the "Lady Elgin" and the first time that she saild there was so many of the grand people from Chicago and Milwaukee again on that excursion and the boat was loadid and they was all so happy and after she got out the boat took fire and burned up and there was three hundred lives lost I tell you that seamed terriable and in 1861 the Civil War commenced and then that ws terriable for four long years our country was in mourning no one thought of anything but war in the spring of sixty one the Tenth Wisconsin regment was got up and all the boys in our neighbour hood was going

page 44 and Gust wanted to go but I was not well (she used this phrase to indicate when she was pregnant) and he did not go and he did not enlist but if he had ben drafted he would of went but he was not drafted(.) I had two brothers that went and when my youngest brother went it nearley broke our hearts for he was the youngest and one of ten children of corse he was our baby and he was not eighteen years old but he wanted to go with the boys that he had went to school with and he was very small of his age I never can forget the day that he left us my mother shut herself in her room and she could(n't) eat or speak to any one she felt so bad but we went and our country was full of sorrow after every battle that we read of there was mothers and widdows and orphans

page 45 to mourn all we ladys would get togeather and work we would make comeforters and knitte socks and make plasters and bandages and send boxes to the soldiers(.) my youngest brother went in September 1861 in Company K in the 29th Wisconsin he was gon four years and that December my little DENIA was born my oldest brother went in the Thirty Third Wisconsin regment our whole country was in trouble every one was in sorrow but my brothers was not sick much or was not killed and when our youngest brother came home he was six feete tall (I sent for and received his Civil War records and he was 5 ft. 8 in. tall. Grandma was a tiny little thing so he probably looked like 6 ft. to her!) h(e) had growen so tall in the Army how happy we all was when the terriable war was over and

page 46 our dear brothers and all of our loved ones was home and there was peae in our country again that ws in April 1865 and then that terriable thing happen(e)d our Dear President Abraham Linco(ln) was shot and then our country was in sorrow again and our Dear HATTIE ROPER died with diptheria she died Tuesday morning the eleventh dat of April 1865 and my little daughter Denia was taken sick with diptheria the next Sunday after and she died the first of May 1865 we all felt so bad that when I think of it seams like a terriable dark dream in a fiew days after our dear little Denia was burried I was taken very sick but

page 47 I got better in a fiew days we was liveing on the old farm it was a double house Father and Mother Roper lived in one part of the house and there daughter never had ben married and she lived with them and took care of them and Gust and I lived in the other part of the house ang Gust run the farm and we took care of all the hiard men but our country was in trouble for during the war our President had to free all the slaves and after the war was over something had to be done with all them slaves and our President was killed and the head men at Washington did not know what to do with them and they had some trouble with them but after a fiew years every thing got all right but I was so

page 48 sad and lonesome for I had lost four children and each one that died left me without a child but in two years I had another nice little daughter and how happy we was and when she was two years old I had a son and then we was so glad to know that we had two children and in four years I had another son then I tell you we was so happy for we had three children and then in three years more we had another little daughter then our family was just right two sons and two daughters I tell you we was so happy and when our second son was twelve yers old (ca. 1885) I had to take him into Chicago to have his throat operated on the docters there had to take his tonsils out we had a niece live in there

page 49 she was Frank Ropers daughter Louesa and she was married to JOHN PULLIN and they ahd two children HORACE and GRACE and of corse we went there and that wsa the first time I had ever seen electrick lights and they did look lovely to me we went to all the Parks and to so many beautiful places everything looked beautiful to me for I had never lived in a big city and when he got well we came home(.) when we had ben married twenty five years all the married people that we was going with would get up surprise partys and of corse when we had ben married that long they had a surprise party for us and they was afraid that we would expect them to come and they

page 50 waited until the next night and then they all came and I tell you we was surprised there was over forty came from Juneau and Horicon and they brought us all kinds of silver and they had a fine time and in a fiew years Mother Roper was sick and died and then in five months after her death Father Roper was taken sick and died and then we moved to Horicon and then in one year our neighbour ERVIN EDWARDS came and got Gust to go on his farm and we went and staid there one year and it cost us so much to run that farm that we went back to Horicon and we bought us

page 51 a home there and Gust and our oldest son MART (GEORGE MARTIN) worked at what they could get to do and our children JOHN (JOHN AUGUSTUS, JR.) and DAISY went to school and when John graduated he taught school near there and in two years my nieec and her husband JUDDIE and CORA CORNISH came to visit us and Juddie was in buisness in St. Paul and gave John a good job so John went to work for him he went in the fall and in the spring that Phillipyan War was and I was so afraid that John would go that I went to St. Paul but he did not want to go I staid there with my nieces and my sister Fidelia was there and her husband we went to see the soldiers getting ready to go to the Philliphens it was a sad sight to me for I had seen

page 52 such a terriable war that it made my heartache to see those nice young men so ancious too go I had a nice visit there with my John and my sister Carley came to St. Paul and sister Elizabeth was there and her daughter Georgy had married and lived there she was the dear little girl that we all loved so much I had a fine visit there and I went home and before this my oldest daughter BELLE (LURA BELLE) had been married to JAMES McINTYRE and they was liveing in Horicon and my youngest daughter Daisy was going to school there my son Mart went to work for the Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad company and when Daisy graduated from high school she taught school and

page 53 and then in one year our oldest son Mart was married to GRACE FARLOW and they lived in Horicon but Grace did not feel well and she wanted to go home and stay with her mother her home was at Minnesota Junction that was not far from Horicon and she went to her mothers and Mart could go up there every night and there little son MAURICE was born there and after she was well they went to Horicon again for Mart had to be there for he was baggage man for the railroad and that year Mart and his father built our house over and built a flat on the first floor above and then they built one story above there flat so we had three bedrooms and a hall built above Marts flat and Mart had nice rooms in

page 54 his flat he had two beadrooms and a dinning room and sitting room and kitchen they had everything nice and handy up there and we was so glad to have them live there(.) after Daisy graduated she was all hard out and we had her go to Minnesota and stay with her Auntys a fiew months and when she came home she was all right and then she got a school and taught one winter and the next winter she was studying with Professor Johnson so she could get a first grad(e) surtificate he had a class and how well I remember one Saturday morning they sent for Daisy to go for the docter for Mr. Johnson and I went right down there and he was up stairs and I went up and Mrs. Johnson was kneeling b(e)side

page 55 his bead a holding his hand and begging him to speak to her but he was dead he had taught his school all right Friday and at noon Saturday he wsa gon that was a sad time for us all and poor Mrs. Johnson was almoste crazy she had two little boys I tell you we all felt so sorry for her(.) (Emeline then wrote "two years after...", then she crossed that out.) in 1895 my daughter Belle husband sold his lumber yard in Horicon and went to California and took his family and that nearley broke my heart for they had two dear little boys and how we did love the dear little grand children they went in the spring and that was a lonesome summer for me but we had to live through it in nineteen two my daughter Daisy was married to EDWARD

page 56 MATTHIS she lived in Horicon(.) and in April 19(0)3 we selebrated our golden wedding then we had ben married fifty years we had a splendid time there was seven there that that was at our wedding and the minister that married us was liveing in Minneapolis he was not able to come and in September 19(0)3 I went to California I wanted Gust to go with me but he was night watch then in Horicon and he did not want to leave his work when I got there every thing looked beautiful to me the great Orang(e) orchards just loadid with the bright yellow fruit I never had see them before the trees looked so lovely I had a brother liveing in Los Angeles and he had six sons

page 57 they all had familys but one he was not married my daughter Belle and family lived in Glendale so I had a good many of my owen folks there and I never had seen the ocean before and that was a grand sight to me Belle and I and the boys would go to the beach and stay a fiew days and I would sit near the ocean and watch the tide come and go and I would think how it had done the same for millions of years and I would think of all the trouble that ocean had caused the people it was a wonderful sight to me of corse I staid with Belle in Glendale but I would go to my brothers and stay a coupal of weeks at a time and then

page 58 Belle would come for me to go home with her and brother Charley and wife would come to Glendale to visit us and of corse I had a find time the weather there was lovely all winter and in June I went to Roseburg, Oregon I had two nieces liveing there and my son John was workin in Portladn Oregon and he went to Roseburg to meete me and we made a visit there and I went to Portland with him he was workin for a railroad and navagation company I staid with him we boardid with a dear friend of ours and we had cousans there that we visited(.) I staid with him three months and we had

page 59 cousans and I had two nieces and a nephew liveing in Spokan Oregon and John got a pass for himself and me and we went to Spokan and visited our folks there I had a sister liveing in Anaconda Montana and John had to go back to Portland(.) I went to Anaconda and visited my sister Fidelia she and her husband was liveing with there daughter MATILDA WOOD her husband was workin in an office there(.) Anaconda is where the great copper works are and Matilda and my brother in law and I went all through the works we saw seven million dollars worth of machinery all runing and we saw five great furness whare they melted and run the

page 60 the copper ant we saw the great dishes that they run the hot copper in and then it went dow(n) in cold water and we saw them draw the big cake of copper that they drawed up out of the water there was a man went with us and explained about all the works he said that each cake of copper weighed three hundrid and twent(y) five pounds and he showed us the arsnick that they saved from the copper all that great machinery did not stop they haderues(?) of men that worked night and day they worked eight hours each ereu(?) I tell you it was wonderful to me to see it and one day while I was there my niece and I went to see the hot

page 61 we took some eggs and boiled them in one of them but it took an hour to boil them but it was a wonderful sight to me to see all those five springs a boiling and to sit and think that where is the fire and from Anaconda I went to Little Falls Minnesota to visit my sister Carley Graham and my oldest sister Elizabeth EDSON came from Winnegago to meete me there and she was very sick there but she got better in a fiew days and we had a good visit the great paper mills was there and my niece and I went all through and saw them draw the logs out of the water and saw them in blocks and then grind them and then they was run in great vats

page 62 and then it was passed over great roolers and then it was great sheets of paper it was corse heavy paper that they mad(e) out of wood but it was very interesting to see how they made paper and then from there I went to Minneapolis my son Marts wife came there to meete me and we had friends and realtives there that we visited and then we went home and they was all so glad to see me for I ben gon from one year and two months but it was a grand trip for me(.) that was 19(0)4 and in 19(0)7 we sold our home in Horicon and went to Spokan our boys Mart and John was there

page 63 Mart wifes father and all there family and Marts wife and there little son all went to Spokan togeather Gust and I staid in Horicon with my brother ELON TYLER two months and then we went to Spokan and we lived with our son Mart we liked Spokan and we lived there three years in 19(0)8 my daughter Belle McIntyre came from California to Spokan to visit us and my daughter Daisy came to Spokan and then my family was all togeather and in 19(0)9 my son John was married to BELLE FARLOW she is my son Marts wife sister my son

page 64 Mart went to work on the Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad and his run went to Tacoma and he was going to move to Tacoma for he could be with his family every week if he went there and Belle wanted her father and I to come here to Califronia and visit her and we came here in June 1910 and here we have staid we ike California very much in the year 1899 before we sold our home in Horicon my daughter Belle came from California to Horicon to visit us and in nineteen hundread she had a pair of twins bous (boys) born they was lovely babys but one onely lived three days and we all felt so bad for

page 65 to loos one of the dear little babys for we always thought twins was no nice of corse her husband came to Horicon and staid with us until she was well and he had to go back home to California and she staid with us until September then she had to go home to California how we did hate to have her go and take the dear children but her husband was so ancious to have her home again that she went and I never can forget that summer after she and the children was gon I felt so bad that I could not sleepe but after awhile I felt better but when that dear little boy was one year old he was taken sick and just lived one week and died then she had lost both boys

page 66 my sister Elizabeth Edsons daughter MRS. EMMA BUTLER she and her son bought a ranch in Soledad Monteray County California and they was liveing there and in ninteen fifteen I went to Soledad to visit my sister and I had a grand visit up there in the mountains I road horse back up the mountains and down in the canions but I had a nice time for I had not road on a horses back before since I was a girl how they did laugh to see the old woman on a horse and of corse they took my picture on that horse my sister could not go with me for she had rheumatis

page 67 now I am going back and write about the PAYS of corse after Ben Pay married Gusts sister Mary Ann we all got aquainted with the Pay boys and Bens father he was such a good man we all liked him very much he loved all little children and he was a very good singer and he trained twenty of the children in Horicon from eight to twelve to sing and speak and then he gave a consurt in a big hall there and the hall was croudid and the children done fine his two sons TOMAS and ROBBURT Tom sang bass and Rob sang tenor and there was two HUNTLY girls one sang soprano and one alto(.) They did sing lovely and they gave consurts how we did like to hear them sing that was back in 1853

page 68 this happened in the year 1912 the grandest boat that ever was built and the largest one that had ever ben built she started on her first trip acrost the Atlantic Ocean and she had one thousan(d) and five hundread and ninty five pasingers aboard her boat and they was so many of the richest people on both sid(e)s of the ocean on board of that grand boat and they was all so happy and thought that there could not anything happen to that grand boat but when she struck that ice burg it toar her side all opean and of corse she had to sink and they did not

page 69 have life boats enough to save one third of the people that was on the ship there was onely seven hundread and forty five people saved from that terriable disaster on the ocean and the ones that was saved suffer(e)d terriable from the cold a floating around in the life boats before they was picked up by the good "Carpathia" ship that came to there rescue some of them died just as soon as they got them on that ship and all the hundreads that was left on the "Titanic" went down with the ship and that beautiful band that was on the ship just stood and played "Nearer My God To Thee" until it sank

page 70 and here I am eighty four years old and I have lived to see this terriable war of nineteen and seventeen the wors(t) war that our dear old world has ever known and now we have got to see our dear boys taken to Engeland and France to suffer and die in the trenches or be blown up and sunk before they get there we fell that it is such wicked thing for our head men in Washington to do if they want any fighting don we wish they would go over there and do it themselves not send our dear young boys over there but all we can do is to hope and pray that it will soon be over but we must wait and see

page 71 and now I am eighty five and I have lived to see my dear grand children drafted and had to go to this terriable war three grand sons and one son in law all in the war one of my grand sons is in France now and he has seen all sid(e)s to this war he has ben in the terriable battles and in the trenches and he has had to sleepe in the water when he was so tiard out that he could not help it and he has had to ware his same cloths for weeks at a time but our Dear Lord has kept him from death and now the war is over and he can come home and how we do thank our Dear Lord for takeing care of our boy

(These next two pages are not numbered)

page // here I am eight four years old and I have lived to see this terriable war of ninteen seventee(n) worst war that our dear old world has ever known and they are takeing our young boys over there to be shot and die in the terriable trenches we all feel that this is a terriable wicked war but all we can do is to hope and pray(.) my oldest grandson PERCY McINTYRE had to go in October ninetee(n) seventeen and my second grand son WILMOT McINTYRE (this was my grandfather) is a fine chemest and they tooked him to Cleveland Ohio and put him

page // in an arsnal of corse to make gass he was working in a very dangeras place but that is where all the chemist have to work and he and nine other boys was terriable burned he was burned all over except his face and hands he had on a mask but he was in a hospital for months two of the boys that was burned the same time he was died but he is home now and all right but our dear Percy is in France and he is so ancious to come home he wrote his mother that it is the hardest part of the war waiting to come home

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