August 20, 1981
My parents met when they were children, having attended the same country school.
Mama moved to Ridgeway, SC, while small, lived there 4 or 5 years and then moved back to Chester County. She remembered that they moved back by train. She boarded in town to go to first and several people because she was not able to walk the long distance to school because of ---- ---- ---- from Polio. She was a good student and attended school until she had reached the level of her teacher's ability to teach. She wanted to teach but because of her mother's health in World War I was not able to continue her education. Some were buried in Ridgeway. Grandmama and Granddaddy and one child are buried at Bethlehem Methodist (also great granddad Paul Moses Craft and Elizha Bean) Church Cemetery in Chester County. One of my great-great grandparents is buried in a church cemetery at White Oak, SC, in Fairfield Cty.
Moving by train meant that they could not take everything with them. Mama said her last sight of the old house was of the clock still sitting on the mantle and some other things that were left behind.
When she moved back to Chester County, she was in her teens and she and Daddy met again and at the time of World War I just before Daddy left to go overseas they were engaged to be married. Daddy gave her a wedding band to keep until they could be married. She wore it from then[,] 1918[,] until her death in 1980. During her last illness, she could not keep it on her finger as she had lost so much weight. We took a gold chain to the hospital and she wore it around her neck. She gave it to her granddaughter Emmy Susan Bennett. Emmy being the only granddaughter named and called Emmy.
Mama had Polio as a small child. Just 2 1/2 or 3. When she recovered she was not able to walk. Grandmama [Beam]soaked her leg and exercised it each day and encouraged her to be active and she regained use of her leg. However this leg was shorter than the other and her foot was smaller. She overcame this handicap and reared six children of her own and helped with her orphaned sister and brothers. We children never thought of her as being crippled in any way. One rule however was enforced by my father in regard to this. When Mama called us we were to go to her even if for punishment.
Mama loved growing things and I learned to love plants from her. Working in the garden was one of my chores. (I was always a little leary of the cows - so did not learn to milk them).
Daddy planted a big garden and we canned enormous amounts each summer. With 8 people to feed it was always used before the next crop Canning in those days was an experience. Water had to be carried from the well or pump. The well was quite a distance from the house. Fruit jars were carried from the smoke house into the kitchen. Water was heated on the black iron wood stove. The jars washed and scalded. Then veg[etable] or fruit were gathered - more water to wash them was carried. They were prepared for the jars. Packed cold in jars or cooked first then packed in jars. Then the jars were placed in pans of hot water and boiled for up to an hour to insure safety. Later a pressure cooker was bought which cut down on the time.
Remember this was before air conditioning or electric fans. On a hot day in July, on a canning day, which would be almost every day as Mama canned or preserved enough veg for a family of 8 for the winter, the temperature in the kitchen could easily remain at 90-100 or higher.
Mama fried chickens and fried out saus[auge?] and canned these too. I believe this was done only after pressure cookers were available.
After a day of such hot work we would usually have leftover veg - cornbread and cold buttermilk for supper. Believe it or not this was a delicious meal. It must have been good for us because all 6 of us grew up to have good health.
We didn't have Bar-be-ques out doors but in August we frequently took our supper outside in the cooler air to eat. I remember watching shooting stars from the yard during this time.
Daddy was a farmer all his life. He had rented his own farm and lived on it before he was drafted into the army in [on] July 23, 1918 - [mustered out] August 15, 1919. I have a pie safe which he purchased for his house before he was married. [Harry Jr. now has this pie safe.]
Can you imagine a young farm lad, who had never been far from home suddenly being taken into the infantry[,] trained a scant few months, then put aboard ship and sent to Europe to fight in a war?
He was terribly seasick on the way over. By the time he arrived the war was almost over. He was kept there as part of the occupation forces[,] came home on August 15, 1919 to be married a few days later [August 18, 1919].
I have a picture of him still in uniform - also one of Mama and Daddy - his brother William Pierce McKeown and his wife Mary Woodward taken on their wedding day.
I wish I could remember more about his experience. He talked about the army mules - this was before motorized warfare - he talked about guard duty - guarding both German prisoners and recalcitrant American prisoners. Of being on the Rhine after the war on the 4th of July and seeing fireworks over the river. After Daddy's death Robert our youngest son said to me "I wish I had been old enough while Granddaddy was young enough so I could have asked more about World War I". He like me was not interested until it was too late.
I must find out from one of my sisters more about Daddy's war years. I have his discharge paper - his uniform insignia and two silk han[d]kerchiefs which he sent Mama while in the service. They are all framed to preserve them.