Vera
Auxier Parkhurst
1899 - 1993
Mary Belle's Birth
I must have been seven at the time and it was early in the spring when we reached Springfield, Missouri. Dad had a close friend, Fred Wilcox, in Oklahoma, who had come from Missouri. He and his parents had taken claims in Oklahoma. Fred Wilcox had his brother-in-law, Bert Miller, meet us at Springfield, the nearest railroad station. Burt met us in a spring wagon and we drove miles to his place where we stayed till he and Dad found a place to rent. Dad may have bought it. Seems Dad paid $300.00. There weren't many acres and it wasn't much of a place.
The Millers were very crowded with us there and they had two boys near Sam's age and two girls in my range and a baby, besides Grandpa and Grandma Wilcox. The grandparents were very old and not able to work. They were cherished and always came first. All us kids had to eat at the second table and there was never enough to eat. We had sassafras tea to drink. The first table got coffee. We'd always had coffee at home and I was so glad when we left here so we could have coffee too. They did have biscuits. Think how many it took.
The house we moved to was made of logs. The front was two stories and had a fireplace. There was a shed kitchen and a smokehouse in the back yard. No screens of course. There was a corn crib at the side of the front yard and a big Willow tree that leaned over and made good shade. It was in a low place and there was deep yellow sand which we played in by the hour making roads and putting the damp sand over our feet.
Ma got some goose eggs and set them under a hen and hatched three geese. We decided which goose was Mints, Sam's and mine. We'd take the geese and feed them corn and watch the side of their necks fill to the bills till they couldn't find room for another grain. They got to settling themselves for the night on the front steps and it made Ma mad. Once she picked up each one by the neck and threw it over the yard gate. We thought for sure they would be killed but it didn't hurt them.
Ma wasn't well. Being ill while she was pregnant made her cross, especially with Mint. Mint hated to do dishes. I did too as I had to dry. Mint read everything she could get ahold of. After the baby came her excuse was "I'm holding the baby, or "Wait till the water gets hot". Once Ma told her to do something but it wasn't the dishes. Mint was so deep in her story she answered "Wait till the water gets hot." We tease her about that.
Mint might have known Ma was going to have the baby but I didn't, and I don't think Sam knew. George took typhoid and it's a wonder he lived. I don't remember having a doctor. Dad got medicine from Springfield. It was a wonder George and Ma didn't die. She was sick a lot too.
Late one afternoon, Ma called us in from play and told us we had to get cleaned up. She was going to let us go over to Jack and Rhoda's. We were never more surprised. She said we could play with their little girl. We'd never been there and we had no use for that dumb kid. She wouldn't play with us when she came to our house. She wasn't much more than four and just sucked her finger and held on to her Ma's skirt. Ma got the cake of lye soap and scrubbed us. We put on clean clothes and went. They lived across the creek from us and you had to cross on a log.
We thought they weren't going to give us any supper but finally Jack went and milked the cow and we had warm milk and cornbread. Rhoda put us right to bed. All three in the same bed, a feather bed. Sam was on one side, Mint on the other and me in the middle. Then she covered us with another feather bed. In June! I got so hot I could hardly stand it and never went to sleep.
Around 11 o'clock we heard Dad call that he had come to take us home. He said we had a new baby girl to show us. We got to the creek and I was shivering, not only because the air was damp and I had been so hot between the feather beds but because the water running under the log made such a noise. I was the last to cross and Dad came part way to meet me.
Grandma McKinney was there with Ma. She was the only midwife Dad and Ma could locate and she wasn't a capable one. A few days later Ma had an infection. Grandma McKinney came every day for a while to care for Ma and the baby. The third day she picked the baby up and shook it upside down till the baby's face turned blue. It scared us kids to death. Grandma McKinney said it was to shake up the liver.
Ma had made long dresses for the baby. Dad named her Mary Belle after Uncle George's wife and his sister Mary.
Vera Ethel Auxier Parkhurst