Snodgrass Family History Book

wasn't very old but he would set on the rear end of the log
which \Vas 20 or so foot long and use the brake when '"'C
went down a slope or hill. I will always rc1nember those
days. Well, one day the people in the camp across the creek
from where we lived had two boys and they would have to
carry water from our spring. One day they made Denver and
1ne n1ad so Denver said lets whip those boys and run them
home. So we challenged them and they ran. So we picked up
so1nc rocks and chased then1 into their tents and they never
bothered us again.
When I started to school in 190 I mother would send us
children to the store in Salem Springs, Arkansas. That was
about 2 1/2 miles south of where we lived. Denver and Ray
or sometimes Bess and I would go to the store. One time
Mother told Ray she could have the money left to buy
whatever she and Denver wanted. So the price of eggs had
gone up a fe\v cents a dozen and the merchant. Mr. James
told them what they had let! and Ray and Denver said they
wanted it all in crackers and Mr. James told them they had
enough left to buy material for a dress. But they said, oh yes,
but we want crackers and so they when home eating their
crackers and they stopped at every branch to drink water and
then would cat some more crackers.
At the time there \Vas two General Stores, one Bank, and one
Drug Store. One time Sister Bess and I were going to Salem
Springs to take our eggs to buy groceries and some of Dad's
Tie workers were in the woods cutting timber for ties. So we
came upon a fellow behind a tree (going to the bathroom). I
guess he had a tummy ache and couldn't wait. Bess said tum
your head and don't look at him. So when we got even to
where he was hiding I pointed my finger at him and said
BOO! When we got home Bess told Mother what I had
done. Bess thought Mother would whip me, but she just
laughed, and said that I shouldn't have done that. This
happened in 190 I , l think.
Our closest neighbors were Mr. Jim Armstrong, Mrs. White,
Mr. Jim Smith and a family named Cheatham. My Uncle
Henry Nunley (Mothers brother) lived about a mile from us.
One time Denver and I were riding a white mare my Dad
owned. Vv'e were going over to Uncle Henry's and Aunt
Nancy's. The mare got scared at a hog or something and
gave a great big jump, so off fell Denver and myself. In
1902 or 1903 Father bought a threshing machine: Because of
this Father was gone most of the summer threshing for his
neighbors. He hired a bachelor named Bill Dildrie to help.
Bill's mother was old and afraid to stay by herself at night so
Denver and Ray would stay one night then Bess and I would
stay the other. We didn't like to stay because she never had
much to eat. Some times we would have a piece of bread or
bacon and gravy made with water and flour (no milk) and
for dinner Navy beans without any seasoning, and
sometimes the beans would not be done. We were always
glad when threshing season was over.
Snodgrass Family Documents, Stories & Articles
In the fall Father and Mother would always dry a lot of
apples and peaches, they had a small apple dryer and we
always had plenty of dried fruit and black-eyed peas and
whippoorwill peas. I remember one fall a neighbor by the
name of White had a large field of peas so Dad and Mother
took all us kids up there and we picked a large wagon load
of peas. We really ate a lot of dried fruit and peas that
winter. Father always had plenty of wheat for flour and corn
for cornbread. In the early I 900's the only breakfast cereal
we had v..ras oatmeal and not much of it. Mother would take
corn1neal and cook it until it v.•as real thick and mushy and
vve would put cream and sugar on it and we really enjoyed it.
Father would kill 5 or 6 large hogs and we always had plenty
to eat. Some winters he would kill a steer, hang it high and
we would have beef to eat. Dad's mother stayed with us
about a month a year. His Father passed away in 1882, so
Grand Snodgrass just stayed here and there with her
children. I remember one winter she stayed with us. She
couldn't read or write, but she sure could smoke. She would
ask me to get her clay pipe. The pipe had a steam about 6 or
7 inches long. Then she asked me to get her some hot
embers to use to light it with. Instead of embers I took her a
piece of coal that was hot and she said, "Throw that coal of
fire back and get me hot embers to light my pipe. I asked her
what was the difference and she said ashes of hot embers
were sweeter. So when no one was around to sec me I tried
the coal and then the hot embers and she was right embers
were sweeter. So Grand was right.
We then left Possum Holler and moved to Dominic or
Pleasant Hill about 2 _ miles west of Star Hill (Lincoln) in
the fall of 1903 or 1904. Father bought old house from his
sisters and brothers. There were 80 acres of land and had a
good log two-story house with two rooms downstairs and
two rooms upstairs. The rooms were about 16 x 18 or 20 feet
with an 8-foot hallway in between. Each room had a large
fireplace and boy-o-boy it kept us boys' busy cutting wood.
No holidays for us, only one day for Christmas and then on
the forth of July, we had no firecracker. However we would
take an auger or brace and bit and dril I a hole in a large
stump or log and fill it with black gunpowder and then light
it and run like the dickens. I think Dad had as much fun as
we did.
In our home the rooms were all sealed with J" thick boards
and had thick-gray felt paper on the walls and ceiling. The
logs outside the house had siding. The house was built real
warm. About the first thing we did was to set out about 15 or
20 acres of apple trees. There were two wells on place and
several large apple and peach trees, just enough for our
household use. After we lived there a few years, Father
worked at a saw mill for S 1.00 per day and his room and
board, He worked out enough lumber to build a bed room ...
kitchen and dining room on the south side of the house and a
large porch on front and also a new roof. Then in a few years
he worked out enough for a ne\v barn. The old house was
north of the present house that we helped build. My brother,
Denver and I helped Dad build it in 1919 just after the First
7/9/01 The Norwood Family History Page 10-145