Beacon Nov 2023

Page 12A THE BEACON November 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.
By Mary M. Greiner Randell
Chapter XIV (cont.)
One time we had a big
clover field that was ready to
come in. When it looked like
rain, I hired a girl to stay with
the children. Pa and I worked
Author
Mary Randell
until eleven
o’clock that
night, and as
we were
coming
home, on the
second load
I heard the
children
crying. I got
off the load
and ran home to find that the
caretaker had gone and the
children were alone. My
mother-in-law was in the
same house, but she wouldn’t
have gone to them if they
cried their hearts out. I
always was good to my
grandchildren. She wouldn’t
take care of one in the cradle
or rock it to sleep when I had
to carry lunch. Later on,
though, I took good care of
her when she was sick. She
lived nine years after her
husband died. By this time
my two oldest girls were
pretty good size and they
would say, “I don’t see how
you can be so good to her.” I
told them that if she died
before I did, I didn’t want
anything to regret. I am now
seven years younger than she
was when she died. The Bible
tells you to be good to those
who despitefully use and
persecute you. Grandpa was
good to me and the children,
but when he got sick he had
his daughter from his first
wife come and take care of
him. He was sick six months
and died of a tumor.
His wife was sick with
pleurisy every winter for
nine years. The last time she
had it, she went to a funeral
down at her daughter’s house,
near Aurora. She wasn’t well
enough to go and she took
down and couldn’t come
home. She was sick seven
weeks and died. Then they
divided her things and, when
they were gone, the whole
house was ours. Then Louis
had a room for himself and
the girls too, when they were
at home. When Louis left,
Bennie got his room and
when Jennie left, Wesley and
Gilbert got this room. One
time, I rode horseback to Mr.
George Mendel’s to take a
message for my husband. I
got on my riding horse and I
had a side saddle and a long
black riding skirt. Nowadays
the women ride straddle on
a man’s saddle. I wonder
what they did with all the
side saddles. I sold mine to
a young girl. The reason was
that I had two children and
couldn’t very well take them
on horseback. Another reason
was that my riding horse
threw himself back when he
was tied with a strong rope
THE STORY OF MY LIFE
Life on the Farm
and choked to death. When
my husband traded for this
horse with two little mules,
the man that owned him said
not to tie him to anything, but
my husband said he wouldn’t
humor a horse like that. He
would fix an extra stall and
tie the horse with a strong
rope. Then, when he found
he couldn’t break the rope, it
would break him but instead
it broke his neck and we
found him dead. That broke
a hundred dollars out of our
pocketbook.
I told you in the beginning
how I rode to deliver a message.
When I got to the barn
to put his horse in a stable,
just before I got off a turkey
gobbler flew out of the barn
and scared my horse. Mr. and
Mrs. Mendel came out of
the house and saw the horse
lunge back and they called
to me to get off. But I kicked
my foot out of the stirrup and
waited until he got down on
his haunches (hind feet), then
I leaped off and the horse
turned over on his back, but
didn’t break the saddle. This
was on a hill; after it fell on
its back it turned over and got
up but wasn’t hurt, neither
was I. So much for practicing
all kinds of stunts with horses
when you are a child. My
sister fell off a horse one time
and never got on one again.
So had my mother. After this I
was thrown off only one time
that I can remember.
Once when we lived on
next day as they were going
to pick cherries. Pa was so
disappointed and said that
he wouldn’t bother with any
more hands. Then I told him
that the big field of wheat
would be spoiled before we
could take care of it, so when
I saw a farmer from Manchester
coming from town, I
went to him and asked him
if he could come and bring
some hands with him next
day. He said he would come.
At that time we had a fine
mule team and I told Pa that I
was going to run the binder. It
was a McCormick binder and
it cut the wheat and threw it
off in bunches, but didn’t bind
the bundles as machines do in
these days.
Sometimes, now, they even
cut the tops off the wheat and
thresh it in the field while
somebody follows along and
hauls it away.
When Pa saw those men
come driving up the lane
next morning, he asked me
what it meant. I said, “That
means we are going to cut
that field of wheat today.”
So I drove the binder and
Pa and the three men bound
the wheat and shocked it. I
came home with the team
and watered them and got
the basket lunch I had ready
and before the sun was quite
down the field of wheat was
in shock. I was thirty years
old then, now I am seventyfive.
It isn’t an easy job to
write a book at this time of
napolis. The children were
afraid to get on the street car
and part of the time we had
to carry them. We had supper
and put the children to bed
early and were talking of how
the town had built up when
all the church bells began to
ring. I asked what it meant
and Mrs. Mosler said that a
telegram had come that our
President Garfield had died.
I think it was about 50 years
ago. The people lighted up
their houses as far as one
could see to show their reverence.
The next day we went
down to the depot. We had
to cross nine railroad tracks
with those three children,
and they did some falling
down. I bought my ticket
and then Mother told me that
we would have to wait three
hours for the train. When
the train came the children
wanted to know if they were
going home. When we told
them they were going to meet
Aunt Lucie at Terre Haute,
we could hardly get them on
the train.
Some of the children went
to sleep before supper and
after supper we took a ride on
an express wagon. When we
came back the children were
still asleep. We didn’t want
to go riding again, for Aunt
Lizzie’s husband went over
such bumpy roads. They had
a grocery store ad that was
amusing to the children- to
see people coming and going.
This was the second trip my
the farm, I baked some life. It takes a lot of thinking mother had made.
cookies for lunch. We had to remember.
to
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take lunch into the field. Once my mother and I and Please read the next issue of
But when evening came, the three children, Gertie and The BEACON for the continuation
of Chapter XIV of The
two hands we had told Pa Louis and Bennie, went to
that they wouldn’t come the see some relatives in India-
Story of My Life.
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