Mattie Jane Wilson grew to adulthood in the house she was born in. She graduated 8th grade but the time and place wasn't right for my Grandmother to go on to high school or college. Grandmother "wrote a beautiful hand" . . . meaning her penmanship was excellent! She could draw little flourishes, feathers and arrows and showed her granddaughters how to practice their penmanship so as to improve their handwriting. Mattie Jane was educated and informed, with just a country school 8th grade education. (it is my understanding that the old 8th grade certificate was more the equivalent of today's high school diploma). But believe me or not! I can't prove that. I know my mother had Latin in High School in the 1930s.
My Gramma could play the piano. I heard my Dad, Forrest, say that she "chorded" on the piano and I don't know about that because I just thought it was playing the piano. She loved to sing. I don't remember Gramma Mattie doing any handwork like embroidery or crocheting. I know she would have sewed up little girl's dresses and little boys' shirts. She would have made her aprons and her own clothes until really late in life. I remember her good dresses as being store bought when I first can remember.
Robert Briggs Austin, my Grampa is in this picture I think. He helped his father build a log cabin at Allendale, Mo when he was 12 years old. I'd better check my facts! but I know they were at Allendale just before they moved to Shannon City.
When my Dad was fourteen, they moved to a small place just west of Shannon City and, of course, the rest followed. Some lived in Tingley. They (Nancy -- the Austin children) seemed to follow my Granddad around. I think because he had a small disability pension from the War. But the Austin boys were diggers. They would dig wells, caves, or tile ditches. Now, there weren't many backhoes around then and they dug with spades and shovels.
Well, my Granddad Wilson's farm south of Arispe was pretty flat and didn't drain too good so he hired the Austins to dig tile ditch.
I don't know if they stayed there nights or went home, but anyhow they got their dinner. That's where my Dad met up with my Mother, Martha Jane, nicknamed Mattie. They were married in 1908. I don't think my Grandparents were too happy with this union but I wonder if she didn't enjoy the life she had more than if she'd settled on a farm and went to Ladies Aid and quilting bees. She was easy going, took things in stride and made many friends along the way.
Well, Granddad Wilson had done well. He gave each of his boys 80 acres of land and the girls 40 acres . . . I think he helped him start farming on 80 acres just north of the Shannon City corner on the west side of the road. They lived there two years and my oldest brother, Robert 3rd, was born there. Dad said it rained all the time both years, 1909-10, and they couldn't raise a crop.
Forrest Austin, 10/27/1994
Mattie and Robert, on the 2nd day of July 1908, harnassed up a horse and cart and rode on over to Creston, Iowa, the county seat, and got married. Mattie's dad set them up on 80 acres just north of Shannon City. They lived there a couple of years.
Mattie Wilson and R. B. Austin's wedding photograh
July 2, 1908
Creston, Iowa
When I was just a small girl, Gramma told some of us granddaughters that she "lost" her first baby when she was kicked by a cow. Gramma said it was a little girl. Her second baby, Robert, the first to live, was born in 1010, Leonard was born in 1912 and Forrest, the 3rd, in 1914. So now, besides carrying water and cook stove wood, doing laundry in a tub over a fire and scrubbing the whites on a wash board, hanging clothes on a clothes line or whereever she could find inside in the winter, planting a garden, canning and drying fruits and vegetables, using an outhouse . . . now Gramma at age 24, was married and had 3 boys and another on the way. And then went to homestead at Pine Island, Mn in 1913. They lived in a log cabin.
I swear tho, I bet my Gramma was still singing and smiling. I hope I would have done the same. Make the best of it.
I bet Mattie Jane was singing as they loaded up and moved to northern Minnesota to homestead. They moved there with two young sons and some of RBs brothers and families but it wasn't long before Mattie was expecting again.
Robert B Austin was a conversationist, my brother Marion told me. Marion said Grampa could converse on a wide range of subjects and strike up a conversation with anyone. I imagine that came in handy being a barber and a poker player. Was it developed, being a barber? Or was it inhertant -- which helped him in the barber/poker trade. I wish I had been one of the older grandchildren so I would have known my Grandfather Austin better. My brother Gary, as a teenage, worked with Grampa at my dad's junkyard. Gary worked along side Grampa junking cars and rebuilding car parts. Gary had stories and knowledge of Grampa -- I wish I could remember them all!
Robert, Rob, Bob or RB as he was known lol! when times got tough and the family poor, Rob had a habit of going off and staying away then coming back with enough money for whatever the latest or next endeavor was. Stories when I was a kid said that Grampa went off to "barber". It is true he had learned a trade, had trained to barber and we know he did support the family some that way.
Later when I was older, when we children were all grown up, the stories took a different turn. Now the stories hinted that Grampa went off to gamble. Grampa Austin probably was a poker player. Family stories reveal that Grampa would return to his family with a "pocket full of coins" or a bag of coins, or a sock full of coins.
well, I'm going to publish this chapter. There's surely another chapter or two to be told . . . and about 40 Chapters to be conjectured about! To imagine. To wonder what the real story was. I wish I knew it all!
But still, not knowing, I love my Gramma for being happy, for carrying on, for playing practical jokes -- for singing and loving and laughing.
2 comments:
WOW!! He won a hotel?! And they were a beautiful couple!
They were a beautiful couple! In the barbership pic, I think I see a resemblance between mom and her grandfather R.B. . . . something in the eyes and mouth.
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