Beacon Aug 2023

Page 10A THE BEACON August 2023
The following excerpt is
from a book written in 1930
by a lifetime resident of Ripley
County, Yorkville, and Manchester.
The BEACON is honored
to share another chapter
of the book each month thanks
to Mary Randell’s descendants.
Previous chapters are
available online starting with
the August 2022 print edition
at goBEACONnews.com/
print_edition.
This issue features part two
of chapter 12. The first half of
the chapter can be found in
the July issue of issue of The
BEACON.
By Mary M. Greiner Randell
Chapter XII- Part 2 of 2
At this place we used no
matches. We had a big fireside
and kept a hickory chunk
covered with ashes that would
hold fire for a week.
When I was fourteen years
old my father took me to
Greeensburg to find a place to
work. In those days, the girls
would go to the minister’s
house and the minister’s wife
would find a job for her or
maybe have lined up already.
If the girl wanted to give her a
piece of money she would
Author
Mary Randell
take it, but
she made no
charge. I
found a
place with a
young
couple who
had one
child. In
those days
the working
girls did the washing and the
ladies all wore trails on their
dresses. They would walk
downtown that way with their
skirts dragging the sidewalk.
Every time they went out they
had to put on a clean dress. It
took more time to do up those
dresses than to do all the other
housework.
About eight or nine o’clock
at night I had to carry the
baby to sleep while the parents
were reading. Sometimes
I would be so tired I would
almost drop the baby. When
I would tell the mother I was
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tired she would say, “Oh carry
her a little while longer.”
When I would stop walking
the baby would cry.
One day this lady took me
to Cincinnati with her, and
then it was worse than ever.
She would go out to see her
friends and I was left with the
baby to take care of. We were
there five weeks and if I could
have found a different job I
would not have come back
with her. But in those days
work was scarce. So when we
came back she put on those
long dresses again and I got
tired of washing them. My
mother came to see me and
she acted so hateful that we
sat up all night and the next
morning my mother went
home. I didn’t stay long after
this.
I wrote to Indianapolis and
asked the minister’s wife to
get me a place to work and
told her that I would pay her
for it. So I told the lady I was
going and her sister found
it out. The sister begged me
to stay, but I said I couldn’t
stay any longer. She was a
very good woman; she and
her husband went to the same
church that I did and before I
left they bought me a Bible.
They told me to read it and
not to forget that Jesus suffered
and died on the cross to
save the whole world. They
prayed for me before I was
converted. So I did what they
told me. I have never forgotten
those words. They have
helped me all my life.
When I went to Indianapolis
to work I worked in another
girl’s place until her mother
got well. The name of this
family was Tudweiler. But she
didn’t get well, she died when
she had been sick a month.
Then the girl came back and
I got another place to work.
At this place I didn’t have to
wash by myself. The lady of
the house used to go out riding.
She would take the children
with her and one day one
of the children took a spasm
and fell off the seat onto the
sidewalk. I heard her scream.
I picked up the child and put
it in a tub of warm water, then
took it out and wrapped it in
a flannel blanket. By this time
the doctor had come and she
asked him if that was the right
thing to do. He said, “She
couldn’t have done anything
any better.” Then she asked
me if I could unhitch a horse
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
Making My Own Way
and I told her I had unhitched
many a horse.
I liked this place of work,
but I was only a helper and
I was afraid I would forget
what I knew about cooking.
In those days they didn’t have
any cook books; at least I had
never seen one.
At another place where I
worked they were American
people. Mr. Span was a real
estate man. The first child was
John, the second James, the
third child was a girl named
Mamie, and the fourth child
was Charley. This man would
go to market and buy quail
and wild ducks. One time he
bought a half of a deer. He
hung it in the wash house and
his wife asked him where
he expected us to wash our
clothes. This was on Tuesday,
and on Sunday I put the
last of the deer in the oven to
roast. There were ten in the
family, counting an aunt and
a niece. At this place they had
a woman to help me wash,
but not to iron. No shirts were
sent to the laundry either,
and in the winter the washing
had to be carried up two
long flights of stairs to the
attic. These people had also
a girl to do the upstairs work
and wait on the table. They
had a colored man to black
their shoes every night and
set them in the hall in a row.
He tended the furnace every
morning and took care of the
yard. He went to market with
Mr. Span and carried a heavy
basket; and in the afternoon
he took the family out riding.
This man bought two houses,
and had them moved away so
he could have a place for the
boys to play croquet.
One day these boys brought
home some limburger cheese
and put it in the cupboard.
Their mother was such a little
woman that she couldn’t
reach everything even when
standing on a chair, so she
had to hunt for it. They had
put it in a tureen with a lid on
it. The two oldest boys were
about 20 years old when I
worked there. After I left they
went to New York, and when
each came back brought a
wife with him. The morning
I left they gave me two vases
and I have them yet.
Well, in the next place I
worked I could cook, and that
suited me fine. They were
Jewish people and believed
in lots of cooking. I had
chickens to dress and geese
and ducks; and we surely did
enjoy eating them. I learned to
pluck geese before I got there.
At this place I had big loads
of wash. The girl that did
the kitchen work always had
to do the washing and the
ironing. The upstairs girl had
to wait on the table and take
care of the children, and take
them out in the evening and
undress them and put them to
bed. When it came her turn to
go out and be free one afternoon
each week and every
other Sunday, I would take
the children out. Of course,
this pleased the mother very
much. She would give me
some money to spend for the
children. One time we went
to an outing and stayed until
dark expecting to come home
on the street car. When the
first car came along it was
crowded; then I waited for
the second and it was more
crowded, so we started to
walk home. I put as many as
I could in the baby buggy.
There were four children and
we were three miles from
home. Sometimes I carried
one on my arm and wheeled
the buggy with the other hand.
This gave me a lesson never
to go that far from home
again. I got three dollars a
week at this place and all the
clothes that I needed to wear.
The names of this man and
his wife were Mr. Lieberman
Mosler and Rachel Mosler.
The first child was called
Issie, the second Isabel,
the third Moras, the fourth
Blanche, and the fifth Gertrude.
It may be that some of
them may come across this
book. My name then was
Mary Margaret Greiner, but
they called me “Maggie.”
There were eleven in this
family, and I had to do all the
cooking for that many outside
of the wash days and ironing
days- in those days they didn’t
know anything about sending
their clothes to the laundry.
Skirts had to be done up at
home, and in the winter I had
to carry them up two flights of
stairs to the attic to hang them
up to dry. That was sixty years
ago.
With all this work I got
only three dollars and a half
a week. This was before girls
could work in factories. Nowadays
white working girls are
scarce. With all the work I
used to do, I would go to her
sister’s next door and sew on
the sewing machine. I made
clothes for the children to get
more money for myself. I was
with this family five years
and they liked me so well that
they bought nearly all my
clothes. When the nurse girl
would have her afternoon off,
I would arrange my work so
that I could take the children
out. I was also paid for that.
That was on Thursday afternoons.
While I stayed at this place
the lady of the house went to
Cincinnati to see her parents.
She took one child with her
and one Saturday night; the
robbers cut the slates on the
shutters and a piece of glass
out of the window so they
could unlatch the window.
This was in the second story.
The man slept in the same
room where the children
slept. We girls slept in the
third story and never heard
anything. He said he had $80
in gold under his pillow. The
robbers took that and his gold
watch.
Once when I was working
at Indianapolis all or nearly
all of the horses got sick and
they had to send away to get
oxen to pull the bakers wagons,
the milk wagons and the
butchers wagons. The folks
that went to the grocery had
to carry their goods home or
do without. Those that had
carriages had sick horses and
those that didn’t have haulers
to do it for them had to carry
their goods home themselves.
The hired girls had too much
to do to go to the stores.
In those days the girls had
to pick (pluck) the feathers
off chickens and dress
them. Nowadays they go to
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the butcher shops and get
the chickens all dressed, also
geese and ducks and turkeys,
quail and pigeons and guineas.
Everything like that had
to be done by the hired girls.
The bare kitchen floors had
to be scrubbed, kneeling;
nowadays one uses mops and
vacuum cleaners.
When I was sixteen years
old women wore dresses
with trails when they went
downtown. When they came
back of course the dress had
to go in the wash. In those
days there was no laundry. If
a girl didn’t know how to do
up skirts, she couldn’t hold a
job as kitchen girl. Kitchen
girls had to do the cooking
except on wash days when the
upstairs girl had to do it.
One thing I failed to mention
was that hired girls would
quit their jobs and get work in
a new place to avoid buying
new clothes. After this I got
another place to work, with an
American family, where I had
to have lots of patience. The
lady I worked for was always
dissatisfied about everything.
One day her minister’s wife
came to see her and offered
her a music box. But, she
said, “I couldn’t stand any
music.” Then the minister’s
wife offered to bring her Polly
parrot down to Mrs. Pattison
for company, but she refused
that too. Then the minister
came to see her and she
complained to him that the
high board fence bothered her.
He said, “Well there won’t be
any in heaven,” and he went
home.
At this place I had time to
sew. I got $2.50 a week and
had a chance to make some
of my wedding clothes. There
were three in the family, Mr.
and Mrs. Pattison, and a girl
named Nellie. This girl laid
her diamond ring down on a
chair and three men came to
put up a stove, but I saw the
ring and saved it for her.
This woman wasn’t very
kind; she had trouble with
her feet, and was very hard to
please. So I did my sewing at
the minister’s house. While I
was there I also took care of
her children, so the minister
and his wife could go out
calling among the members.
One day she wanted me to do
some stitching for her. I didn’t
think it suited her, but I didn’t
rip it out because I knew it
was alright.
I used to tell the minister’s
children some of my childhood
stories and I don’t think
they had time to think of their
father and mother, let alone
cry after them. One day, when
they came home, the children
said, “I wish you and Daddy
had stayed out longer, Mary
has been telling us some
stories.” Now, all those that
can’t tell children stories
should get a book and read to
your children. A child likes to
be entertained. I always loved
children. Just two years ago,
I was at my son’s house and a
lady came with two children.
She began to worry about
them and I offered to take
care of them. She said, “Oh,
what a relief.” I showed them
some pictures and when they
got tired of those, I cut out the
pictures and mixed some flour
paste and spread newspapers
on the floor. They pasted
until they went home. I kept
a wet cloth lying on a chair
so I could wipe their hands.
When they were just outside
the door began to clean up the
mess and it didn’t take five
minutes.
Children should be treated
in such a way that they should
have confidence in you
and come to you with their
troubles instead of going to
the neighbors. I have raised
seven good children.