Country Living in
As
a boy reared in rural central
One
of my fondest memories comes from a long solo, exploratory, hike that I took
along one of the many creeks that flow in the hollows between ancient hills
that push the skyline high into the air.
The sun had dipped below that skyline by the time I found my way back to
familiar territory. With still plenty of
light, I left the creek to take a shortcut across a flat field of perhaps 5
acres that likely had been the bed of some ancient lake. To my surprise I came across a section of an
old log house. All the walls were gone
except a single partial wall made of huge square logs that sloped from the
remains of a stone fireplace to the ground where once side-walls had
stood. I was standing what had been the
inside of the house. My surprise gave
way to fascination for a gray-stripped lizard that watched me from his perch on
one of the logs. This ruin was now the
home of a lizard.
While
the sights of that afternoon froze in my memory, undoubtedly helped by the
experience of seeing the lizard, it was not until many years later that I
realized I had come upon a scene from a long past era. When I described my discovery to my
grandfather that evening he responded with, “Yes, that was the old home
place.” That was the first time my
attention was focused on the existence of a past in which people did not live
as we do today.
As
I reminisce about that snapshot in time I can now piece together other
information, stories, pictures, and facts from then and from decades preceding
and subsequent – knowledge gleaned from my genealogical research. My mother had been born in that house, as had
her father and her grandmother. The 80-acre
farm had been purchased by my 3rd great grandfather in 1853,
inherited by his son and kept in the family for the succeeding decades.
“Improvements”
would continue with the construction of roads, homes, barns and granaries as
the population grew until it finally arrived at the point of the “modern” homes
and roads of the 21st century.
Modern plastic-covered, air-conditioned houses filled with appliances
and all sorts of electrically powered devices for communication and
entertainment now dominate the landscape.
While
change is inevitable, it leaves in its path an eclectic assortment of the
past. Memories and pictures made at
various points along the 200-plus year time-line freezes the respective eras in
their time. Nostalgia drags those that
remember those scenes of not too long ago to a longing for the
good-old-days. Although we can not turn
back the hands of time, one of the things that we can do is collect, assemble,
and try to present tidbits of history that both help to quench nostalgia and
communicate to those who do not have such memories.
In
the pages that follow an effort has been made to bring you pictures and
information about some of the 1900 era history of
This
picture trip begins in the late 19th century with the building of
the some of the farm buildings. It
continues through much of the 20th century with several of the
pictures being taken in the early 21st century.
The setting – View of a typical Monroe County Farm
Maps of Lee Township, Monroe Co., OH
Thrashing – washing for dinner
Provided by Monroe County Historical
Society