Family History

Charlotte's Web Site

Dedicated to the memory of two wonderful people - my parents, Ray & Irma Mefford, married 62 years.

Irma left this world Sept 28, 1999. Ray followed just six short months after. He died of a broken heart. He didn't know how to go on without his "Irmy". They had been together since they were kids. We will miss them always and forever until that day when we see them again in Paradise.

THIS IS THE STORY ABOUT MY PARENTS, BORN IN EARLY 1900'S. THEY LIVED A LIFE TIME OF MEMORIES. FOLLOWING ARE JUST A FEW OF THOSE MEMORIES.

MY MOTHER was the second oldest of 7 children. She grew up knowing hard work and how to care for others. I'm sure by the stories of her life, she knew how to be a mother at an early age. Kids those days were usually born at home and not in a hospital. In fact, the oldest probably helped deliver babies at an early age. Mom knew how to cook, clean, raise children, milk cows, feed pigs and basically work the farm.

Mom was born at home on the farm. She was delivered by old Doc Cummings and her grandmother, Emma Meek. When Mom was born she already had a two year old sister, Ione, waiting there. She already lost a baby brother who only lived seven months. She was 1 1/2 years old when her sister, Bonnie, was born, delivered at home 15 minutes before the doctor arrived. Mom was three years old when her brother, Junior, was born. My grandmother gave birth to four children, raising three of them all within five years time. They also packed up everything and all the kids to move to another farm. I can't imagine what it must have been like to have few conveniences, have several children, pack up and move to another place. I know how much work it is to move in modern times much less in that situation. Somehow my grandparents managed it.

Doctors made housecalls back then, when it was necessary to use a doctor. Most of the time you were expected to treat yourself and just see it through. My mother fell when she was 10 years old and had a serious injury that could have kept her from having children. She was hurt so bad she was actually taken to the hospital in their old Model T car by the family. There were no ambulances to come to her rescue. I'm very thankful she didn't die then or was kept from having children because I wouldn't be here to tell her story. Amazing when you think about events like this. How one life could affect so many.

When someone was dying, they usually died at home with family gathered round. Mom said she went to her first funeral when she was 9 years old when Aunt Molly died. Then my great-grandfather (Mom's grandfather) died when my she was just 10 years old. This was the year my aunt Retabess ws born.

Schooling was either done at home or in a one-room school house with kids of all ages. One teacher taught them all, unless you were old enough to go to high school. I picture it very much like "Little House on The Prairie". Mom started high school when she was 14 years old, of course not like the high school we remember today.

At 15, Mom was going through 8th grade while her youngest sister was just in her first year of school. Mom's youngest sister was about to be born one month before Mom's 16th birthday. I don't know exactly what happened but in October that year, my mother and her cousin, Richard, decided they would hitchhike from Kansas to California. I wish I had written down all the stories she told me about that experience. I guess they set out on this adventure together and made it to California unharmed, only by the grace of God. Of course, in 1936 there wasn't as much craziness in the world but people are still people and anything could have happened to them. My grandmother was worried sick about her and with just having a new baby I'm sure she must have been beside herself. Mom wasn't there to help her but was off on a dangerous journey across the states.

My mother said she remembers sending postcards to let Grandma know she was alright and eventually they tracked her down and mom came home. I know it was wrong of her but I'm glad my mother had something of an adventure like that. It was one of her memories of doing something wild and crazy, something that was just about her and nobody else. I imagine she got tired of helping take care of the family and the home, going to school and working the farm in a small town in Kansas during the "Dirty 30's" -- dust bowl days. The Depression was hitting everyone hard and farmers were having it really rough. It must have been a hard life to live.

I think this is why my mother was the hard working soul that she was. She never had it easy at all. I am so very proud of her and I'm glad I know my family history.

Irma's Diary

Back in the 20's and 30's when I was growing up on a farm south and east of Moran, Kansas, I had a wonderful time as a child. I helped my Dad and Mother do a lot of work on the farm. I learned a lot about life. We had a small creek that ran thoughout our farm and my brother and I did a lot of hunting, trapping and fishing.

I had a riding horse that we called Spider and I would put the bridle on her. We had no saddle so we rode bareback and I rode over the whole farm (age 13 & 14)and to the neighbor's farm close by.

We lived half a mile from the highway, so we would have to go that far mile to get the mail every day. We also went to school at the little school house named Walnut Grove, also half a mile (just across the highway from the mailbox).

I had four sisters and a brother. We all walked every day that we could to that school. We all went through the 8th grade there. We lived in a two-story house that had one bedroom, dining room, front room, kitchen all downstairs and 2 bedrooms upstairs. We had no running water just a cistern and no electricity. Our mother washed our clothes on a washboard and cooked on a wood stove. she made most of our clothes by hand. Later she got a trendle Singer sewing machine. She always made bread every week and sometimes more than just once a week. Mother canned a lot of fruits and vegetables from the garden. We would pick gooseberries, blackberries and wild grapes so we could have jellies and pies.

Mother and Dad always did all of their own butchering so we had our own meat -- beef, pork, chicken, turkey, sheep, duck, geese and guineas. Dad always had a lot of milk cows and a lot of horses. He did all of his farming with horses. We had one horse we kids all rode (Spider) but Dad worked her with the other horses too.

I was milking from two to four milk cows every morning and evening when I was 9 years old until I left home and got married. We always had a dog to help us go after the cows and horses in the pasture. We also had a mean bull we had to watch out for. I learned a lot about giving birth with the animals because I had to help my Dad a lot of times with the animals having their babies.

We lived three 1/2 miles from town so we didn't get to go to church every Sunday but Daddy would take us into town sometimes so we could go to the Methodist Church. I got to go to some partys they had but our folks would tell us all about the Bible and told us we was good Christians and what was wrong and was was right and he wanted us to remember that he read a lot of books to us in the evening after we all had our chores done and Mother would sew for us and listen to him read. We only had about two lamps so we would all listen to him read before we had to go to bed. They also was very good about helping us do our school work for the school.

I remember her (mother) and I cleaning the school house one Fall and we found a bum asleep in the school house. He had got in through one of the windows, he just left when he seen us. We didn't say a thing to him but I sure was scared.

Mother helped the neighbor women cook for harvest men and if she couldn't go, she would send me or my sister. Dad did the same thing. They all helped each other in the neighborhood. If one of the neighbors got sick or hurt, the neighbors would all go in and help get his crop harvested. I always liked it when it was time for the grain to be thrashed. A big thrashing machine would come to the neighborhood and thrash all their grain. The women wuld feed all the farm hands and the men that run the machines. Sometimes, we would feed 10 to 15 men and if they didn't get done in one day we would have to feed them again the next day. I helped Mother and also I got to help Daddy in the field. The neighbor men said that I made a farm hand because I wasn't afraid to work hard and I knew how to harness the horses and hook them up to the machine.