Autobiography of Julia Ann Barr Hamilton

Part 6 Of 8

Spent the next few weeks visiting, going to parties and church on Sundays. Finally, we rented a house about four miles from Mother’s. Now we didn’t have much furniture. I cooked in a fireplace. It had one skillet and lid, one pot that held about one bucket of water, a frying pan, not many dishes.

I had a box nailed up in one corner of the room for a safe. In the other room, we had one bedstead. We had two chairs that Mother gave us. We had two or three horses, a sow and six little pigs.

Papa took a notion to move so we began to kill and eat those pigs. At first they were very good, but before they were gone I didn’t like pig meat and don’t care for it yet. That is, little pigs!

Our Papa made saddles, both mates’ and ladies’ saddles. He would go out in the woods, cut down a tree, cut off a forked piece to make the horn, then would take some of the rest and make the side board and back. Then take a cow hide, soak it in water until the hair would slip, then scrape all the meat off the other side, paint it yellow and put his initials on it, cover saddle, and sew it with a string cut from the hide. And when it got dry, it would be as transparent as glass. He didn’t trim them because he didn’t have money to buy the leather, but could sell all he could make at $3 or $4 a tree, as they were called before they were rigged or had the stirrups, girths, and other things on them.

He made a very good Irving for us then, but wouldn’t count much these days. Mother Hamilton stayed with us most of the time. Papa made a scaffold in one comer for her bed.

We had to cany our water two miles, only when it rained there was a little branch about half-a-mile off. Papa had a ten-gallon keg. He would go to the river or branch, fill the keg, put it in the saddle, and get up behind it and home he would come.

One time I hadn’t washed for two weeks. It had rained and I was going to the branch to wash. Papa taken the tub and pot, I guess the rub board. Had to take everything on one horse, so he came back to get me and the other things. Well, I had a seamless sack full of clothes, a bucket and soap. He got on the horse, and I gave the things to him. He rode up to a fence. I stalled to jump on and as I jumped, the horse jumped, and I sat on the ground. I got up and went on. Just had one tub, one bucket, a little pot to wash, rinse and boil all those clothes. Oh yes, Papa brought me a nice dinner Mother had fixed for me. He stayed for about an hour, had to go back to work, and I washed until about sundown. He came after me. He helped me finish rinsing my clothes, then we had to gather up the wet clothes in the bottom of the sack, and put dry on top. We went home and hung the clothes out. Mother Hamilton had supper ready, but I didn’t want any. I guess I must have been nervous, but I didn’t know anything about nervousness. Then I got sick after I went to bed. Sure, it was bad for a while, but Mother was a good doctor. She treated me and the next day I was all right. Well, we aet all the little pigs and I don’t know what we had done with the sow. We went over to Mother’s and stayed a few days, got a wagon, put our belongings in it, and went to Bosque County. We went to John Pane’s, Papa’s sister’s husband. They lived on Ham’s Creek. It was a beautiful place. The valley was surrounded by cedars on little mountains. The little creek was as clear as water could be, and good to drink. There was a very deep hole at the head of the creek. They said it had no bottom. A story was told of a man by the name of Ham who had drowned himself in that hole and that was why they called it Ham’s Creek.

John had taken up a little valley there, had built a little log house on it and so Papa looked around, found a beautiful valley with the creek on one side, a little mountain covered with cedar on the other.

So, there we built a little log house. It wasn’t much too large for a bedstead and a chair or two, Then he went to cut cedar logs to build a house. It was 16’ s 16”. He hewed the logs, put them up and Mother Hamilton wanted to weave a piece of cloth, so she borrowed a loom, put it in the house, and wove a piece of cloth. He hadn’t got the floor down either and it come a rainy spell, so he put the wagon sheet over the loom.

We had a few chickens and got a cow to milk. I made butter and had cornbread most time.

Some places Papa would work at home a while then goes off and work a while.

We didn’t have lamps or candles part time, just a grease light, a wick in a saucer or tin plate with grease in it. We didn’t read much after night.

Well, one night the stork made us a visit and brought us a little girl and she sure was a beauty. The doctor said she had silk hair. He always called her his silk baby. We called her Fredonia Elizabeth. Her grandmother thought Billy’s baby was the prettiest and sweetest baby of all her grandchildren because he was her favorite child. As well as I remember, she weighed eight pounds when she was two weeks old.

On Sunday after Friday, we went to see her Uncle John and Aunt Nan and stayed all day.

Sometimes we would go horseback riding and leave her with her grandmother. She always wanted to keep her.

(To be continued)