BOLING FAMILY HOME by MARIE BOLING CORNELIUS Submitted by Bus Cornelius , copyright May 2001; transcribed by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Transcriber's Note: All material, including spellling and punctuation, was typed as it appears in Marie's original document. Brackets [ ] indicate places where material was missing or illegible. Sarah + Otis Boling (My father + Mother decided o[ ] the way home from Oklahoma to bypass Gree[ ] and go on to Kansas City where my Grandfather + Grandmother Lee resided at this time. My parents rented a small house is Armourdale Kansas and I can remember my mother Sa[ ] telling "how wonderful it was to get her family out of a wagon and into a house" as it was late fall and the days were crispy, the nights cold. My father along my two brothers Lee and Harry who were ow 16 + 14 respectively went to work for "Armour" at the meat packing plant. We lived at this place until sometime in 1905 the "Kaw" or (Kansas) river flooded us out and we went Grandfather Lee for a few days and then my mother and father decided to move back [ ] Greeley Kansas where dad would take up his stone mason trade once again. I was now about two and a half years old and its funny about Memory, I cannot remember one thing about that house in Armourdale but I can remember that colored people lived not far away and they used to come down our street, Lee and Harry would catch frogs + toads put them under a shoe box on the sidewalks, they would jump [ ] black kids would roll their eyes and shie around and run like the devil, the boys got a kick out of this, I can also remember the stone wall and the steps in front of the house, I also remember the huge family that lived across the street from us, the mother would boil a half bushel of potatoes, dump them in the middle of the table, _no dish_, set out a couple of pounds of butter and they would eat this and nothing else My people used to laugh when I would tell them this and would say "You were too young to remember", so one time Ruby, my sister and her husband Robert Day drove me to Armourdale and said "now you pick out the house where we lived as it looks just like it always did", I was perhaps about twenty five years old at this time, I picke[ ] out the place and they were amazed, I guess th[ ] frog episode chained this in my early memories When we arrived in Greeley dad needed plenty [ ] room for his large family but couldnt find a house that would take care of us, Tolliver Bump was erecting a commercial building for some people a[ ] they wanted to sell it, my father bought the building unfinished and moved us in. On the east side of the house downstairs we had a huge living dining room and big kitchen, acorss [ ] was a living room bedroom and a big room my father used for a work shop and also to "give we kids a good talking to or once in a while to spat our backsides when we needed it. A stairway went up the center of the house an[ ] the west side of this was two huge rooms with very high ceilings, the east side was divided int[ ] three large bedrooms, there was one thing about this house that always puzzled me even as a child in the front of the house upstairs were lovely Fre[ ] doors that opened on nothing, being an commercial building and right on the sidewalk you never cou[ ] have built a porch so why the doors, I know they were always nailed shut. I can see our dining room table yet, it must ha[ ] been at least twelve foot long as we could all sit comfortably even with guests. Probably the reason I remember that table is, on[ ] time at "noon" dinner we had fried potatoes, I was sitting next to Bill, he wanted to hold the dish while helped myself but -- _I_ wanted to hold the dish and we quarreled, dad took me to the "workshop" and paddl[ ] my pants (not very hard as I was his favorite child) [ ] got back to the table my mother was standing, [ ] face an angry red, she didn't say a word but I knew even as a four year that she could have killed him so of course that soothed my wounded feelings. From this house I did all my wandering, whe I go[ ] up of a morning I didn't know which way to go to fin[ ] the most excitement. Over south to the blacksmith sho[ ] and up the alley to the old barn where people by the na[ ] of "Fink" had a big loom on which the wove carpets from strips of old rags sewn together and rolled into [ ] balls, this we did in the cold winter time so we could have new carpeting when it came "Housecleaning time, how we hated that word, everything in the house was taken down + out to be dusted, scrubbed, repaired or thrown out, mother was an expert paper hanger so we always had fresh new walls. About this woven carpeting, it was quite thin so you laid straw or lots of newspapers under it and then tack it to the floor, now this had to be stretched very tight or it would wrinkle up and Sarah would never stan[ ] for that, each spring + fall that dam carpeting had to come up, be washed and repaired, then dried in the hot sun, the old newspapers were taken up, floors scrubbed wi[ ] lye water fresh papers put down and then stretched an[ ] tacked down again, even I as a small child got in on this, your knees would be raw by the time th[ ] job was completed, think about removing all those tack which couldnt be more than two inches apart, the floor would be soft + springy for about 2 days th[ ] it was hard again but at least it was warm. Now if I didn't want to go the blacksmith or the loom barn I could go east to the Artists shop and watch him paint beautiful pictures or anoth[ ] block would land me in the tin shop where [ ]uld pick up the wonderful curlicues to take an[ ] often cut my hands on, they were exciting to a small girl with not many toys. Or I could go west and smell the bakery the[ ] on to the river and the swinging bridge, the Fox family lived by the bridge and bred horses, they had a girl my age her name was "Tin" and she was sort of a gypsy like me so I could enti[ ] her for a few runs across the swinging bridge its a wonder we both didn't fall into the river a[ ] drown because we would dare each other to run across without hanging on, we both got real expert [ ] this, once in a while we got real brave and walke[ ] across the railroad bridge out to the pumping station we would play around the reservoir and then run all over the station which had stairways and walkw[ ] around huge grinding, gnashing wheels + cogs, I won[ ] yet how come the workmen didnt run us off, and I often wonder too how come some of us kids didnt fa[ ] into those uncovered wheels and be killed, I never hea[] of anyone being hurt there. And to the north there was always Daisy, and [ ] ice house, being two years older than Clinton I could think of more devilment than he could so we both usually ended up in trouble, but Daisy wa[ ] pretty tolerant and never squealed on me, the ice house was just across the road and we watche[ ] for "Mr Champ" to come down for a load so we could pick up the slivers that broke off, how good that was on a hot day. Daisy used to give us hug[ ] chunks of hot bread dripping with butter and brown suga[ ] Oh! The supreme joy of short hair, bare feet an[ ] yellow butter running between your grimy fingers Life went on pretty much the same, dad (Otis) worked hard to feed our hungry mouths, [ ] got into the housemoving business along with his st[ ] work and also ran most of the cement sidewalk as up to the time Greeley had none, a lot of the sidewalks there today, although being repaired man[ ] times, are his handiwork, Otis move[ ] many houses + barns around Greeley and Lane Kans Otis + Sarah lived in Herington + Garnett Kan at some time but this was not a part of my life Many of the lovely old stone buildings in Garnet[ ] are a part of my dad too, when I go back home I look and touch those stone that my dad cut so presicely, and laid so expertly and think, "he was quite a man. My Grandfather Lee died, I think about 1905 an[ ] Grandmother Lee came to live with us, My mother [ ] have been a very strong brave woman to [ ] able to put up with that woman, and her big fa[ ] Grandmother Lee would dress each day in her [ ]ack taffeta skirts and fussy blouses with a big jabot at the neck like she was going to recei[ ] royalty while my overworked mother was washing cleaning, canning and sewing for everyone in the to[ ] or maby out in the country papering a ten room house, I can never remember my grandmother eve[ ] coming in our side of the house, ever sitting dow[ ] at our table or ever being in our kitchen, Mother Boling always served her meals in her two big room[ ] the best ones in the house, she was an autocrat, I know she had money but she never gave we kids a penny or a loving glance or pat, in fact she just igno[ ] us, it may be a terrible thing to say but I think we were all relieved when she had a series of strokes and died when I was five years old, even as a little child, I felt this. Lee Boling, my brother, and dad had some word over work, my dad was a good man but he belie[ ] in hard long hours and as long as the boys were living at home they deserved no pay, Lee got tired of this and left home to wander, it broke Mother[ ] heart as she was always partial about her boys, we didnt hear anything from Lee for several years whi[ ] I think were miserable for the most part, he almost died of dysentery alone on the plains, he was almost hanged for horsestealing which he was innocent of and he was haunted with homesickness all t[ ] time, he was a tender, sensitive man and longe[ ] to see his mother and the family. Harry Boling was a happy go lucky personality who rolled with the punches so he made it alright with dad, Bula at an early age did houswork for peopl[ ] Ruby went to work at the "Central office" in Greel[ ] when phone service was first established, Bill was still quite young and loved school, he would hav[ ] gone on if he had of been encouraged but as I sai[ ] Otis believed everyone should make their own way just as soon as they could, Ila and I were still just playing around, Ila read a great deal and was poking my nose in everyones business and know I got in several jams about that. One thing I wanted to get in this about that bi[ ] old house was, as I said "it was right on the sidewal[ ] with one cement step into the house, on hot summer days and that hot cement burning my bare feet, I wou[ ] pound on the door and jump up and down until M[ ] would come an dopen the door, she would alway[ ] scold me for not coming to the shady back door but I never learned, I just kept on jumping + down on that hot cement, but she never failed to let me in she should have smacked me a good but she never did [ ]ow many simple things a person remembers, when Grandfather Lee died Mother was away for a few days [ ]d it must have been summer because we had bushe[ ] of green beans, dad couldn't see them go to waste and the girls knew nothing about canning so we all helped him pick "a wash boiler" full and stem them, he put that boiler on the old wood stove, cooked those bean[ ] and threw in some salt and a gallon of vinegar then canned them, I can taste them yet, they were delicious Dad sold the big old square frame house when I was about seven years old and bought another one which he fixed up real nice and we even ha[ ] a bathroom with a barrel on the roof, in summer we had warm water but in winter it had to be drained on account of freezing, we had to heat a kettelful of water on the stove and by the time you poured it in that cold tub the water wasn't even luk[ ] warm, well I guess we just didn't take many baths in those days. Daisy lived a block east of us at this time and had Clinton + Harry, Lee + Ella lived a half block west of us and they had Esther whom I adored, t[ ] later had a son Clyde who died in infancy, Harr[ ] lived a few blocks from us and he and Lena ha[ ] a son Harold and was expecting another, Bula had married Harry Baker so that left only Bill, Ila and me at home, a friend of dads "Daly Davis" talked dad in the notion of moving to his poor old r[]n down farm at Bush City, nine miles south eas[ ] of Garnett, we just as well moved to the North Pole, we were twenty miles from Greeley and our family + friends and twenty miles over mud roads in thos[ ] days was something, you had to have a pretty good team to make it, you packed a lunch and traveled from dawn until nightfall to make it in one day Dad put all our belongings on a "hayrack" loa[ ] Bill Ila + I and on a cold old February day star[ ] for the farm, Mother stayed behind because Lena and Harry Boling were expecting their second child and needed her, I can remember that cold miserable day, our lunch froze and we nearly did too, we got to that place and of course a fire was the first thought, the poor tired horses had to be watered + fed, and then we ate -- I guess," all I could think of was gettin[ ] warm, getting the beds set up and sleep, I dont know yet how we made it, no wonder so many people in those days had guts, you had to have to just exis[ ] you just built character day by day. Then it snowed and on top of that windy hill t[ ] snow was 4 feet deep on the level, three kids who had never been out of town with gas light before and no mother to cook for su, Ila + Bill couldnt boi[ ] water, dad held us together someway, I know he made some biscuits and they were beautif[ ] but instead of using baking powder or soda he had used what was known as "Rub-no-More" it was a compound that you softened water with and almost like lye, we could have cried, but any way the pigs liked them. I can remember in later years saying to Mother "the months we spent at that old farm without you were terrible," she said "Honey, it was exactly 2 we[ ] Well it seemed like forever to me and I remember that lovely spring day, it was muddy but the snow was gone, the sun was warm when Mother called from Greeley that she would be in on the train at Bu[ ] City, talk about "bells clanging," we couldnt wait Dad harnessed the team to the wagon as the bug[ ] wouldnt hold the goodies Mother was bringing to her starved family and besides that the roads were too muddy for the light buggy, I will never forget w[ ] that wagon returned with my beautiful Mother rid[ ] on that high seat witha perky little hat on her lovely hair, no princess or queen could have been [ ] precious, we loved and kissed and were all over her, how we loved her. Can you imagine how that house must looked [ ] and no doubt dirty [Transcriber's note: my copy of the original document ends here] ---written by Marie Boling Cornelius, April 2, 1973