DAULTON Yumpu upload 2018 01 30

This
We emember
The History of the Daulton/Smith Family

This
We Remember
The History of the Daulton/Smith Family

Front cover image: Daulton family on Easter Sunday in Clarksburg, 1951.
From left: Joyce, Patsy, Essie holding Richard, Sheila, Howard, Buster, and Shirley.
Page ii image: a holler in rural northeastern Kentucky.
Back cover images: Daulton Family Reunion, August 19, 2017 (courtesy of John Blausey Photography).
Photos clockwise from top: Emily Gallo sinks the putt!; (standing, from left) Will Daniels, Wes Daniels,
Doug Menzmers, Justin Broeze, Marshall Gallo, Clay Daulton, Brent Soles,
and (seated, from left) Eddie Menzmers, Kurt Wisner, Tim Hammond, Andy Daulton, Jason Fought,
Enzo Gallo; (from left) Rhyan Fought, Brent Soles, Josie Soles, Aimee Soles; (from left) Richard Daulton,
Andy Daulton, Aimee Soles, Justin Broeze, Gwen Daulton; (standing, from left) Lilliana Hammond,
Elizabeth Menzmers, Lisa Menzmers, Eleanor Menzmers, Emily Gallo, Ryan Fought, and (seated, from left)
Carol Daniels, Dana Fought, Delilah Hammond, June Gallo, Kaitlin Daniels, Aimee Soles, Josie Soles.
Copyright © 2018 by Howard Breckinridge Daulton II. All rights reserved.
Produced by Personal History Productions LLC
Helping companies, organizations, and individuals record their histories
as a legacy for families, employees, customers, beneficiaries, and the public.
707.539.5559
www.personalhistoryproductions.com
iv

CONTENTS
Opening Note from Howard (Buster) Daulton
Foreword xi
Family Tree xiv
ix
PART 1 ESSIE FAY SMITH DAULTON and
HOWARD BRECKINRIDGE DAULTON and their children 1
Howard’s Early Years 3
Country Schoolteacher Marries a Farmer 10
The Favorite Son 13
Essie’s Early Years 19
Getting Married and Starting a Family 33
Joyce’s and Shirley’s Births 37
Moving to New Jersey 40
Patsy’s Birth 44
Moving to Biggs, California 46
Sheila’s Birth 53
Moving to Clarksburg 54
Howard’s Birth 64
Richard’s Birth 66
Moving to Yuba City 67
Living Near the Levee 71
A New Parsonage 72
The Floods of December 1955 76
Helping Essie at Home 79
Church on Sundays 82
A Funeral to Remember 84
vii

viii
CONTENTS
Family Council Nights 85
Adventures in Babysitting 86
Trips Back East 86
Visiting Grandma Anna and Grandpa Willie 89
Visiting Essie’s Family 92
Family Vacations 95
Rare Visitors to California 96
Parenting Teenagers 98
College a Must 99
Moving to Santa Rosa 100
Moving to San Jose 106
Essie’s Later Years 110
Howard’s Later Years 116
Enduring Family Bonds 117
PART 2 THE DAULTON SIBLINGS 121
Joyce 123
Shirley 126
Patsy 128
Sheila 131
Howard (Buster) 133
Richard 136
A Note to Future Generations 139
Daulton/Smith Family Genealogy via DNA 142

FOREWORD
W
hen they married on December 24, 1933, at the height of
the Great Depression, Howard Breckinridge Daulton was
19 years old and Essie Fay Smith had turned
18 just two months earlier. Marrying young
was not uncommon in those days, especially
not among the folks living in the sparsely
populated, remote hollers of the Appalachian
Plateau that Howard and Essie called home.
Both had been born and raised in an agricultural
area of northeastern Kentucky known
as the “Knobs”—a series of low hills that are
part of the Outer Bluegrass region. Over the
course of their 46-year marriage, Howard’s
career as a Methodist minister would lead
them to pack up and move their family seven
times and would take them clear across the
continent to California—thousands of miles
away from their families and the people and
communities they had known in their early
years.
Together, Howard and Essie had four
daughters and three sons, all of whom are
still living except their firstborn child, Clay
Owens, who died as an infant. Their next six
children all went on to marry and have children of their own. Today,
Essie’s and Howard’s legacies live on through their children, grandchildren,
and great-grandchildren. An essential part of their legacies
is the stories of their childhoods, their respective families, and their
many years together. Although neither Howard nor Essie were ever
interviewed about their lives, some of their stories are recounted
Howard and Essie’s
wedding picture (married
December 24, 1933).
xi

xii
FOREWORD
here by their six children, now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Individual
interviews with Joyce, Shirley, Patsy, Sheila, Howard II (Buster), and
Richard were conducted between September and December 2016 by
Susan Milstein, of Personal History Productions LLC. During those
interviews, the six siblings shared stories they each had heard about
Howard’s and Essie’s early years and family backgrounds as well as
their own recollections of growing up in the Daulton household.
The following account was drawn from those interviews and supplemented
by genealogical and historical research.
Susan Milstein
Andi Reese Brady
Personal History Productions LLC

ESSIE FAY SMITH DAULTON
and HOWARD BRECKINRIDGE DAULTON
and their children

Howard’s Early Years
Howard Breckinridge Daulton was born in Fleming County,
Kentucky, on May 26, 1914, just two months before the first
gunshots that would lead to World War I were fired in Europe. But
the overseas conflict was a distant
event in the minds of most folks who
populated rural Kentucky. The residents
of Fleming County in those
days were mostly farmers who grew
Burley tobacco, a light air-cured
plant used in cigarette production,
and raised dairy cows. Their main
concerns centered on the weather,
their crops, their health and the
health of their children, and local
and regional issues. Some farmers, of
course, were required to leave their
farms to serve their country during
the war. In fact, military records
show that Howard’s father, William
Delmore (known as Willie) Daulton,
registered for the draft in September
1918 at age 35, but apparently, he
was never called up to serve.
Howard’s mother and father—Willie and Anna Bell (née
McDowell) Daulton—started out as sharecroppers and eventually
saved up enough money to buy their own fertile farmland in Fleming
County. A search of deeds archived at the Kentucky Department
for Libraries and Archives in Frankfort reveals that Willie and Anna
William (Willie) Delmore
Daulton and Anna Bell
McDowell Daulton.
◀ Kentucky foothills.
3

4 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
Flemingsburg
Kenton
Boone Campbell
Plummers
Landing
Gallatin
Bracken
Carroll Grant Pendleton
Trimble
Mason
Lewis
Owen
Robertson
Greenup
Henry
Harrison
Oldham
Boyd
Nicholas
Fleming
Carter
Scott
Jefferson Shelby Franklin Bourbon
Bath Rowan
Fayette
Elliott
Bullitt
Spencer Woodford Montgomery
Lawrence
Anderson
Meade
Clark
Menifee
Hancock
Jessamine
Morgan
Nelson Mercer
Powell
Johnson
Henderson
Martin
Daviess Breckinridge
Hardin Washington
Madison
Wolfe
Union
Estill
Magoffin
Marion Boyle Garrard
Lee
Floyd
Webster McLean
Larue
Grayson
Breathitt
Ohio
Lincoln
JacksonOwsley
Pike
Crittenden
Taylor Casey
Rockcastle
Knott
Hopkins
Hart
Perry
Livingston
Green
Muhlenberg Butler Edmonson
Caldwell
Clay
Adair
Laurel
Leslie Letcher
BallardMcCracken
Lyon
Pulaski
Warren Barren Metcalfe Russell
Christian Logan
Knox
Carlisle Marshall
Cumberland
McCreary
Harlan
Trigg
Todd
Wayne
Graves
Allen Monroe
Hickman
Simpson
Clinton
Whitley Bell
Calloway
Fulton
A map of Kentucky counties.
acquired a total of 326 acres in Fleming County by purchasing a
tract or two at a time over the course of 46 years.
Their first acquisition, recorded in 1912, was a 25-acre parcel
on the banks of Crain Creek, near the unincorporated community
of Plummers Landing in eastern Fleming County. They purchased
the parcel for $250 in cash from George and Emma Cooper and
Millard and Jennie Cooper. A second acquisition, recorded on April
26, 1920, was a 35-acre parcel, also along Crain Creek, purchased
for $1,000 from William and Lula Bumgardner. (Of the total, $500
was paid with a promissory note due in a year with six percent
interest, and the remaining $500 plus interest was due in two years.)
The deeds seem to indicate that these first two acquisitions were for
contiguous properties. Only Willie’s name, and not Anna’s, is listed
on these first two deeds. On the deeds, Willie’s address is listed
as Nisi, Fleming County. (Nisi must have been an unincorporated
community that no longer exists.) The 1920 U.S. Census listed Anna

Essie’s Early Years
19
Essie’s Early Years
When Howard was just 16 months old, another baby was
born in nearby Morgan County, Kentucky: this was Essie
Fay Smith. Essie was born on October 2, 1915, in Jeptha, a small,
unincorporated rural community about 60 miles southeast of Flemingsburg.
She was the fifth of six surviving children born to Rebecca
(née Roseberry) and Raney Rufus Smith.
Her older siblings, in order of birth, were
Auta (known as Autie), Ota (known as
Otie), Ocal, and Ova (known as Ovie).
(There apparently was another daughter
who died in either infancy or early
childhood, but her name and placement
in the family is not known.) The baby of
the family, Woodrow, was born when
Essie was seven years old. How Rebecca
and Raney came up with their children’s
unusual names is a question that no one
in the family today can answer.
Essie’s mother, Rebecca, was one
of eight children born in Kentucky to
Henry and Levisa “Visie” (née Conley)
Roseberry. Henry Roseberry was a
“circuit rider,” a traveling Methodist
preacher, in Kentucky in the early 1900s.
Essie’s father, Raney, was one of seven
children born to Peter S. and Nancy J. (née
Moxley) Smith. Rebecca and Raney married
when they were 15 and 17, respec -
tively. Raney worked on farms and as a
manual laborer on the railroad for many
years. His 1918 draft registration card lists his occupation as “timbering”
and his employer as Lenox Sawmill Co. (He is described
on the draft registration card as of medium height and build with
Raney Smith holding his
youngest son, Woodrow
(Essie’s brother).

20 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
A Smith family portrait about 1930: (from left) Autie, Ocal, Raney, Ovie, Rebecca,
Essie, Otie, and Woodrow in front of Rebecca. (This is the earliest existing picture of
Essie.)

Essie’s Early Years
21
Essie’s eldest brother, Autie Smith, working at the train roundhouse in
Portsmouth, Ohio, where Raney also worked.
blue eyes and brown hair.) His occupation is listed as “farmer” in
both the 1920 and 1930 censuses, but his family remembers him as
working on the railroad. Essie’s eldest brother, Autie, also worked
on the railroad. Essie told her children stories about how as a child
she rode in the train’s engine with her father while he hauled train
railcars down the track to be connected to each other. When the
Great Depression hit, Raney was laid off. Afterward, he worked as a
coal miner. Like many of his fellow miners, Raney developed black
lung disease. He also may have had tuberculosis. After suffering for
10 months, he died at age 54.
“My mom grew up dirt poor,” Sheila said. “She had three dresses.
She had one for school. She had a church dress. And she had a
play dress.” Living miles and miles away from the closest cities, the
Smiths depended on the land and nature for almost all their food
and medicines. Sheila said her mother described herbal remedies
that her family used to treat infections and other ailments. She also
told her about eating plants that grew wild and were free for the

22 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
picking. “She talked about how in the
spring, when the dandelions came out
during the very first rain, they would
eat nothing but dandelion greens,”
Sheila said. Essie learned as a young
girl not to be wasteful, and she never
forgot that lesson. “She was very
thrifty,” Sheila said.
U.S. Census data shows that in
1920, when Essie was four years old,
the Smith family was living in the
unincorporated community of Paint
near the town of West Liberty in
Morgan County, Kentucky. The census
record reveals that in addition
to Raney, then 38, and Rebecca, 36,
and their five children, the household
included Rebecca’s parents, Visie and
Henry Roseberry, who were both 68
at the time. Life in the Smith household
was warm and joyful, according
to Essie’s children. “I get a sense, after
talking with Ocal, that they had a very
strong family,” Buster said. “Raney was
a very strong father but very fair. And
Rebecca was very caring.”
As a child, Essie endured various
health problems. According to Shirley,
Essie was prone to developing painful
Levisa “Visie” Conley Roseberry (Essie’s maternal boils. She also suffered a bad accident
grandmother) stands between her daughters Rebecca
as a child in which she slipped and fell
Roseberry Smith (Essie’s mother), on her left, and Polly
Ann Roseberry.
and gouged the side of her neck on the
tip of a rocker of a rocking chair. “She
almost bled to death,” Shirley said. Patsy recalled Essie telling her
how after the accident her father held her in his arms, applying wet
cloths to her wound and trying to comfort her. “It was pretty serious.
People were coming to pray,” Patsy said. Since there was nowhere

Essie's Early Years
23
Rebecca Smith feeding her chickens. Date unknown.
nearby to take her for medical treatment, Patsy explained, “somebody
stitched her up with a needle and thread, basically.” She was
left with a visible scar on her neck, which her children all noticed
and asked her about.
At some point during Essie’s early years, her family moved to
Ohio, near the town of Portsmouth, just across the Kentucky state
border on the Ohio River. Essie attended her first three years of
school in Ohio, according to Shirley. After a few years, however, the
Smiths apparently moved back to Kentucky. The 1930 federal census
shows that when Essie was 14, the family was living in the unincorporated
community of Hillsboro, in Fleming County, Kentucky. By
then, the two oldest siblings, Autie and Otie, were no longer living
at home and the youngest, Woodrow, was seven years old. In the
census ledger, Raney Smith’s profession is listed as “truck farmer”
in business with two of his sons, Ocal and Ovie.
Essie told her children that she attended school only up to 8th
grade. According to the 1940 federal census, conducted seven years
after Essie and Howard were married, Essie stated that she had
continued on page 32

Henry Roseberry, a Methodist circuit rider and Essie’s maternal grandfather, is
seated, middle of the front row (#5), with colleagues from the Ministers of Enterprise
Association, August 1911.
Henry Roseberry, standing in the middle of the group, with members of his congregation.
Date unknown.

Essie's Early Years
25
Henry Roseberry and wife, Levisa Conley Roseberry (Essie’s maternal
grandparents), seated, with Nancy Jane Day Conley (Essie’s maternal
great-grandmother) standing, and an unidentified child, pre-1911.

26 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
ESSIE’S CHILDHOOD
This material is adapted from the memories
of Essie’s sister-in-law, Emma Cooper Smith
(married to Ovie), in her book Yours and Mine:
Growing Up in Rural Rustic Kentucky.
Essie’s family relied on oil lamps for lighting.
Oil was brought to the little country stores
on wagons, and sometimes in winter the roads
were impassable. The family would run out of
oil, so they would have to use pine torches and
the fireplace for light. Many a time the children
had to hold a pine torch for their mother to get
breakfast by. There seemed to be no other shortage,
as they were dependent on their own selves
for much of their needs.
They burned wood to cook with, but for heat
they burned coal in their fireplace, on grates.
They had their own coal mines and their own
coal for winter use.
They may not have lived entirely off the land
but pretty near it. They had their own sheep
for wool. Rebecca, Essie’s mother, carded the
wool and had a spinning wheel. She made yarn
and knitted the family’s socks and mittens.
She would send the yarn off to have Lindsey
blankets made as well as material to make little
Lindsey shirts. Rebecca made the small children
(even the boys) little dresses from this material.
The family had chickens and geese, and
they picked these geese in a certain time of the
moon. The down would come off easy. From the
down, they made nice feather beds and pillows.
Their mattresses were ticking filled with pieces
of corn shuck and corn silk, which is very soft.
The feather bed was laid on top of the shuck
tick. You talk about a good warm soft bed, this
was it. Every fall the tick shucks were emptied
and filled with new shucks.
The family had hogs to kill for meat and their
own milk and butter. They had honey and sorghum
molasses. They dried apples and beans.
Beans were strung on strings and hung behind
the stove to dry. Red peppers and pumpkins
were cut in rounds and hung on a stick over the
fireplace to dry. Many foods were canned, and
beans were pickled. They had corn, cabbage,
mustard, and cucumbers. Their gardens were
“hill and truck patches” that grew vegetables.
Also, they had watermelons and mush-melons,
popcorn and broom corn. They made their own
brooms. Their winter gardens were mounds of
dirt where they buried potatoes, cabbage, and
turnips. They put their sweet potatoes in big
boxes of dry sand from the creek.
Many things grew in the woods and were
gathered: huckleberries, raspberries, and blackberries,
rhubarb, apples, plums, and peaches.
Everywhere there were grapes. There was much
to be gathered from the woods to sell. For
instance, there were American chestnuts, which
used to grow in abundance. The family would
gather them by the bushels for sale. They also

Essie's Early Years
27
A home in rural eastern Kentucky.
sold ginseng, yellow root, and mayapple root.
They gathered moss to sell to nurseries. It was
rolled up off rotten logs, put in sacks, and sold.
Chestnut oak bark was gathered, but it was
heavy and thick. They took it off trees, rolled it
up, tied and corded it, and then hauled it out of
the woods on a sled. Then the bark was put on a
wagon and taken to Redwine and put on a train
and sent to a tanning factory that made leather
for harnesses, shoes, etc.
Raney (Essie’s father) had to get up early
before daylight and walk to the Lennox sawmill
several miles away. He made homemade chairs,
and the family used hickory bark to make chair
bottoms, as well as baskets. Quilts were another
thing they made. The whole family could quilt.
They papered their rooms and spread sand
rock on their floors every spring. The kitchen
and pantry were papered with newspapers and
Sears Roebuck catalogs. For the floors, they
would go get sand rock from the banks of the
river and beat this up fine and spread it on the
floors. These were walked on several days, then
swept off. They would be spotless. So white,
pretty, and clean.
This all seemed like work, but they played
too. Fox and geese, foot races, checkers, baseball,
horseshoes, mumble peg, fox and hounds, foot
races, and other games. They rode horses and
raced them with other kids. They had dogs to
hunt with and sold furs they would catch.

28 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
The Smith family: Peter S. Smith and
Nancy J. Moxley Smith (Essie’s paternal
grandparents) are seated with their children
behind them. Raney (Essie’s father) stands
second from the left. (Raney’s siblings are
Ada, Sarah, William, and Christopher,
though we don’t know their order in the
photograph. Their sister Mary, not pictured,
died in 1918.)
(From left) Polly Ann Conley Gilliam (Essie’s great-aunt, her maternal
grandmother’s sister), Polly Ann’s husband, Mr. Gilliam (first name
unknown), holding their daughter, Jenny Gilliam (Essie’s first cousin once
removed). Standing on the right is Mr. Gilliam’s mother, Sarah Gilliam.

Essie’s Early Years
29
Peter S. Smith (seated
left) and his wife,
Nancy J. Moxley Smith
(seated right), along
with unidentified
family members. Peter
and Nancy were Essie’s
paternal grandparents.
Peter S. Smith (Essie’s paternal grandfather, or possibly her
paternal great-grandfather, Hiram Smith) on left, stands with
others unknown.

30 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
KING COAL
Coal has been mined in Kentucky since
1820. That’s when the state’s first commercial
coal mine opened in Muhlenburg County,
producing 328 tons. Coal production soon
took off throughout the eastern region of the
state. The soft bituminous coal found in the
Eastern Kentucky Coalfield burned warmer
and was preferred over the higher sulfur content
of the bituminous coal of the Western
Coalfield. As of 2012, the Eastern Kentucky
Coalfield had produced over 6 billion tons of
coal while an estimated 51 billion tons of coal
remained in the reserves.
Until the late 1920s the soft coal of Kentucky’s
Eastern Coalfields fueled steel mills
that produced tracks for the railroad. It also
fueled the steam locomotives that ran on
those rails. By the 1930s, the demand for coal
slowed as the market shifted to less expensive
energy sources, and coal-fired locomotives
were replaced with diesel engines. Still, there
were plenty of jobs in the mines. In fact, the
highest number of miners employed in Kentucky—75,707—was
recorded in 1949.
Coal mining has always been a dangerous
endeavor. Underground mining was the
most widely used extraction method until the
debut of strip‐mining in the 1950s. Most of
Kentucky’s underground mines used a method
called room-and-pillar mining, whereby
20 to 50 percent of the coal is left in the mine
to support the overlying rock. But when the
remaining coal pillars can’t bear the weight of
the overlying rock, the roof of the mine collapses,
trapping or crushing miners at work
deep under the earth’s surface. Roof collapses
also can be triggered by coal dust or methane
gas explosions.
Between 1930 and 1940, 24,855 coal miners
lost their lives, according to U.S. Department
of Labor statistics. Miners at work
underground when a roof collapses could die
instantly or suffer slow agonizing deaths. Those
who survived could be left with lifelong, debilitating
injuries.
Miners also risk developing black lung
from breathing in coal dust. Black lung begins
when inhaled coal dust causes the air sacs in
the lungs to lose their elasticity. When the dust
gets into the blood cells in the lungs, those cells
become lodged in the air sacs causing chronic
bronchitis and restricting the person’s ability to
breathe. The condition can result in high blood
pressure, enlarged heart, heart attack, or acute
pneumonia. In the 1950s physicians began to
recognize that black lung was a chronic terminal
illness. However, miners were unable to
get compensation until 1969, years after Essie
Smith’s father, Raney, died from the condition.

Essie’s Early Years
31
Raney Rufus Smith (Essie’s father) holds his son,
Woodrow Smith (Essie’s youngest sibling), left,
and Delena Smith (Essie’s niece). Essie Fay Smith
is standing on the left, about 1930.
Essie’s uncle Harrison Roseberry and family.
Harrison Roseberry was the brother of Essie’s
mother, Rebecca.
(From left) Essie, Raney, and Otie on one of the
many rural farm properties on which the Smith
family lived. Their clothes suggest the picture was
taken on a Sunday. Portsmouth, Ohio, 1932.

32 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
Essie (left) and her sister,
Otie, posing in nature,
November 1932.
completed one year of high school before ending her formal education.
Shirley recalled Essie telling her that her parents pulled her
out of school so that she could help take care of her younger brother
and cook and clean the house while they both worked outside
the home to earn an income for the family. That sounds plausible,
according to other siblings. “Her family worked like dogs,” Buster
said. “They were either farming or shucking corn or doing this or
doing that—something to make money.”
For the rest of Essie’s life, she regretted ending her schooling at
such a young age. Although she was a smart, capable, industrious
woman, her limited schooling restricted the types of jobs she was
able to get and, more significantly, hurt her self-esteem, according
to her children. As a result, she always stressed the importance of
education and encouraged all her daughters and sons to pursue
higher education. “She had a strong conviction that every one of us
would graduate from college,” Patsy said.

Getting Married and Starting a Family
33
Getting Married and Starting a Family
The story of how Howard and Essie met is a matter of speculation
among their six children. According to the document
that Howard wrote for his children, his family and Essie’s family at
one point lived near each other in Plummers Landing. “Her parents
lived one year at Dr. Jessie’ [sic] place on the highway and another
year down the road from the store,” he wrote. (The store he is referring
to is the Frank L. Hinton store, which sold groceries, clothing,
and hardware. Frank L. Hinton’s descendants still own and operate
the store today, and the Daulton siblings still order their Kentucky
hams from them.) As neighbors around the
same age as each other in a sparsely populated
community, Howard and Essie surely would
have known each other.
Joyce, the eldest of the six Daulton siblings,
thinks her parents might have first met
at a church meeting. Shirley, the second-born
daughter, says they met when Howard was
preaching at a summertime revival meeting
near his family’s farm. Patsy, the third of their
six children, remembers it a little differently.
She says Howard first noticed Essie when she
drove past him in a car in the area where they both lived. “Mother
was driving somebody’s car, and she waved at him, and I guess he
thought she was pretty good looking, and that started it,” Patsy said.
(Patsy’s version is particularly amusing because Essie quit driving
after having a minor car accident in the 1940s, and never was willing
to give it another try for the rest of her life.) Sheila, the fourthborn
daughter, recounted a different story altogether: “My dad was
working on a roof and tossed a pebble, and my mom was walking
along with one of her friends, if my recollection is correct. And that’s
when she looked up and there he was. I don’t know how long they
dated, if for very long at all. I don’t think my mom had any other
boyfriends. If she did, I’ve never heard of them.”
The Hintons are still in
business today, as Frank
Hinton & Son. Both
Essie’s and Howard’s
families shopped at this
store, and over the years
many cured hams have
been shipped from the
store to the Daultons in
California for holiday
meals.

34 THIS WE REMEMBER: The History of the Daulton/Smith Family
Howard and Essie’s decision to marry apparently was not roundly
met with joy, since it was no secret that Howard’s strong-willed
mother, Anna, disapproved of the union. Anna had envisioned a
highly educated woman as a good match for her son, and she did
not look kindly on Essie’s limited schooling. “Grandma was disappointed,
and she let Mother know it,” Shirley said. “There was friction
right from the beginning.” Joyce said no one would have satisfied
Anna because, at the root of it, “Grandma had a hard time
sharing Dad. Mother took Grandmother’s baby from her.”
Although there well may have been an initial physical attraction
between Essie and Howard, the seeds of problems that would later
surface in their marriage seemed to be there from the start. “Their
relationship was unequal,” Buster points out. “She was from a big,
rural family and had limited education. And he was a whippersnapper
who had gone to college. It just intrigues me as to what would
have drawn them together, except that my mother was really pretty.”
Sheila noted that the well-educated, self-confident Howard would
have seemed to Essie to be a good catch. “At the time my dad wasn’t
a minister yet. But I think my mom kind of thought that she was
going to have this very nice life,” Sheila said. “They were going to
have a family, and she was going to be a housewife. She was young by
our standards, but she was certainly at a marrying age in that time.”
Howard and Essie’s wedding took place on Christmas Eve day
of 1933 in the pastor’s home, which was one of the few houses in
Flemingsburg that had electric lights, according to Shirley. To complicate
matters, the newlyweds at first lived with Howard’s parents in
the house on Cherry Grove Road on the farm east of Flemingsburg
where Willie and Anna were sharecropping. There, morning, noon,
and night Essie was under the eye of her highly critical mother-inlaw.
It could not have been a comfortable situation for the young
couple.
A year after they were married, Howard and Essie had their first
child: Clay Owens Daulton was born on January 3, 1935. At the
time, Howard was 20 and Essie, 19. Clay Owens would have been
born in the bedroom of the house on Cherry Grove Road since
there were no maternity hospitals in rural Kentucky in those days.

Getting Married and Starting a Family
35
Essie in front of Howard and Essie’s first car, about 1933.
“It was difficult for my mother to be taking care of a child there in
Grandma’s house with Grandma, who was so hung up with her
son,” Joyce said.
Tragically, when he was 10 months old, Clay Owens developed
pneumonia and died. He was buried in the Daulton family plot
in the Hurst Cemetery in Goddard where Howard’s infant sister
Lorena and other family members were buried. The engraving on
his gravestone reads simply: “Clay Owens. Son of Howard & Essie
Daulton. Jan. 3–Oct. 18, 1935.” “It was very sad,” Joyce recalled.

ESSIE’S RECIPES
Lemon Bars
(via Joyce)
INGREDIENTS
· 3 T lemon juice
· 1 cup sugar
· 3 T flour
· 1/2 t baking powder
· grated lemon rind
· l cup flour
· 1/2 cup butter
· 1/4 t salt
· 1/4 cup powdered sugar
· 2 eggs, well beaten
INSTRUCTIONS
For crust:
Work first 5 ingredients together until of mealy consistency.
Press into a 9-inch-square pan. Bake 15 minutes at 350°.
For lemon filling:
Combine remaining ingredients and pour into hot crust.
Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. When cool, cut into
bars and roll in powdered sugar.
Store in refrigerator. Yields 15 bars.
Note: if using 9" x 13" pan, increase ingredients to 1-1/2
times the amounts.
Parker House Dinner Rolls
(via Sheila)
INGREDIENTS
· 1 cup milk
· 1 T sugar
· 2 T butter
· 3/4 t salt
· 2 T very, very warm water
· 1 package active dry yeast
· 1 egg
· 2-2/3 cup all-purpose flour
INSTRUCTIONS
In a heavy‐bottomed sauce pan, add milk and scald on
medium-low heat. Add sugar, butter, and salt and stir until
dissolved.
In a large bowl, add water and sprinkle with yeast. To the
yeast mixture, add the milk mixture when it has cooled to
lukewarm. Then beat in the egg.
Gradually stir flour into the milk mixture until it becomes
too thick to stir, and then knead in remaining flour.
Form the dough into a ball and place in greased bowl. Rub
butter over the top of the dough. Cover with a clean dishcloth
and place in a warm spot until dough doubles in size.
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface (not too thin). Cut
circles with floured glass, crease circles, and fold in half.
Press slightly to hold shape. Place rolls on greased cookie
sheet, cover, and let rise until they reach desired size. Once
risen, you can brush with melted butter.
Bake for 20-25 minutes in oven at 425°.
Serve with homemade jam, honey, or molasses.

Potato Salad
(via Patsy)
Buster asked if I would try to re‐create this recipe, and since there has never been anything
written down as to how one ends up with potato salad that tastes like Mom’s, here is my
“so‐called method.”
INGREDIENTS
· 6 large russet potatoes
· 1 bunch green onions, thinly
sliced
· 2 T sweet pickle relish, plus
more as desired
· 1 t dill pickle juice or bread &
butter pickle juice (my preference)
· 2 large eggs, hardboiled and
finely shredded
· 1 t mustard, regular or mildly
flavored (no Dijon)
· mayonnaise as needed
· 1-1/2 t celery salt, plus more as
desired
· onion powder
· garlic powder
· salt and pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Boil potatoes until the skins start to break a little.
Check with a thin fork to be sure they are cooked all
the way through (fork will slide in and out easily). Cool
and peel. (You don’t want them cold, just slightly still
warm or room temperature. Then just peel them in thin
short pieces across the potato, or make small cubes of
potatoes.)
While the potatoes are cooking, in a large mixing bowl
combine green onions, sweet pickle relish, pickle juice,
and eggs.
When the potatoes are cooled and peeled, add them to
the ingredients in bowl. Start stirring all of it together
with the mustard and at least 2 big tablespoons
of mayonnaise to wet the ingredients. Add more
mayonnaise as needed to bring the salad to a creamy
consistency. You should end up with small pieces of
potato and almost some mashed potato in the bowl. (If
you think the potato chunks are too big, take a potato
masher and mash the salad a few times.)
Then add celery salt, a dash each of onion powder and
garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy!

ESSIE’S RECIPES
Mom’s Peach Cobbler
(via Shirley)
INGREDIENTS
· 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
· 3 T all-purpose flour
· 7 cups (3-1/2 lbs) peeled,
thinly sliced fresh peaches
(add more peaches if making
a large cobbler)
· Rind of 1 medium-size orange
and its juice
· Pie pastry
Tamale Pie
(via Richard)
INGREDIENTS
· 1-1/2 lbs hamburger meat
(80/20)
· 1 package taco seasoning
· 3 cups yellow corn meal
· 1 medium can diced tomatoes,
drained
· 3 green onions, chopped
· 2 small cans sliced black
olives
INSTRUCTIONS
In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar and flour. Add
peaches, orange rind, and orange juice. Gently toss till
coated. Add a little more flour as needed. Transfer filling to
a 1-1/2-quart casserole dish.
Prepare and roll out pastry till it’s slightly larger than
casserole dish. Cut into strips.
Place strips in a criss-cross pattern on top of peach mixture
in casserole dish.
Lightly brush strips with water or milk and sprinkle with a
bit more sugar.
Bake in 375° oven for 40 to 45 minutes.
Serve warm or cold, with or without ice cream or whipped
cream.
INSTRUCTIONS
Cook hamburger meat with taco seasoning. Set aside.
Prepare the corn meal per package instructions, making
sure it is creamy but smooth.
Assemble the pie:
In a large oven‐safe bowl, stack ingredients, repeating the
layering twice:
· layer of corn meal at bottom
· layer of hamburger
· layer of diced tomatoes
· sprinkle of green onions
· sprinkle of olives
In a preheated 350° oven, place the bowl on the middle
rack and bake for 40 minutes, checking the pie a couple of
times till the top layer of corn meal has turned a medium to
light brown.
Once the pie is cooked, remove it from oven. Serve with
refried beans and a green salad.

Baked Spareribs with Stuffing
(via Patsy)
INGREDIENTS
· Two whole sides of pork ribs
(approx. same size) (do not use
baby back ribs)
· Crisco
· Salt and pepper to taste
· 1 medium onion, chopped
· 3 large stalks celery, chopped
· 6 cups (or more) white bread,
stale and torn in small pieces
· 2 T poultry seasoning
· 1 t celery salt
· Egg, whipped
INSTRUCTIONS
For the spareribs:
Wash pork ribs and pat dry. Then rub with Crisco, and
salt and pepper them on both sides.
For the stuffing:
In a medium saucepan, boil the onion and celery in
water until soft. Strain and reserve broth.
In a large mixing bowl, add bread, onions, and
celery. Season the mix with poultry seasoning, salt
and pepper, and celery salt. Add egg, along with the
reserved broth, as needed for texture, and mix well.
(Hands work the best for mixing.)
Putting it together:
Lay one side of ribs on a flat surface, meaty side down,
and carefully place the stuffing on the ribs. Then lay the
second side of ribs, meat side up, on the stuffing.
Using kitchen string, run the string around the meat,
starting at one end and either crisscrossing the string
with each loop or using a blind stitch to make sure
each loop around the meat is hooked to the next
circular loop the whole length of the meat.
Place spareribs in a V-shaped rack inside a baking pan
and cover loosely with foil. Bake slowly (325°) for about
3 hours or until the meat starts to loosen from the bone
at the edges. Uncover for browning the last 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and let the meat sit for a few
minutes. Slice through both sides of the rack so each
serving looks like two large ribs with dressing in the
middle.
Use the drippings to make gravy. Serve with mashed
potatoes and gravy and another colorful vegetable.