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THE GOOD OLD DAYS........

By Mary Alberta Martsolf Robinson (1915 - 1996)

Dad owned a farm in Brady Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania. I put in my first appearance on September 1, 1915.  I was one of seven children of James and Elizabeth McBride Martsolf. John, Helen, Ruth, Arthur, myself, Dorothy and Dean were our names. Arthur died when he was 13 months old and Dean was stillborn at birth. On this farm, Dad kept a nice team of horses and he also owned a coal mine. One mine was located between Grandpap Lou's and our farm. Another mine was near John's house and another mine was near Helen's place. We had cows, pigs, sheep and chickens. Dad worked in the oil country where he pulled rods and wells for Willis Ruby. Every day he left at 4:00 in the morning and came home at 9:00 at night. In the fall he would haul coal home in the wagon with his team of horses and deliver coal to the neighbors and the school. He would shovel coal on and off the wagon for 8 cents a bushel. John Crothers helped him often and they also worked together on the farm. John Crothers was the man who called me "Billie Boy" and that is how I got my nickname, "Billie".

 

James Martsolf and his sons 
working the Martsolf Farm

 

Spring was always a busy time on the farm. Mother had a large garden from which we would do all our canning for the winter. There were no stores nearby and we got what supplies we needed from Butler every Saturday evening in an old 1915 car. I remember the A&P Store, Dillons Meat Market and other stores. Mother raised baby chickens by having 8 or 10 mother hens set on nests to hatch the peeps. Later she bought an incubator to raise the chicks that had already been hatched. She would feed the chickens that were used to supply us with eggs and meat, which we depended on every day. We had cows that we milked daily and we made our butter from the milk. When I was very small we had to carry our water about 400 or 500 feet from the spring house to the kitchen. When I was about 6 years old, dad piped the water into the cellar through a big tile and collected the water in a stone container which had an overflow down a drain. This was our refrigerator where we kept the milk, butter and eggs. Later on dad got a hand pump that pumped the water up into the kitchen. My, that was a wonderful day! Now we didn't have to fight about whose turn it was to fetch the next bucket of water for our daily needs, but the fight was still on for whose turn it was to fill the coal bucket with coal from the cellar for the coal stove. Mother did all the cooking and baking on a coal stove in the kitchen. I remember the delicious bread, pies, and chicken dinners.

House cleaning in the spring was a major event. My job was to take the rugs outside and hang them on the clothesline. My sisters and I would take turns beating the rugs with a rug beater. Two girls would beat and the other two would clean the wallpaper with wallpaper cleaner by rubbing the putty up and down the walls. The putty would be black in color when the rooms were finished. We had only two rooms that were wallpapered and when one can of cleaner was empty we had another one to open. Mother had to inspect the rugs before we could lay them on the ground.

Next we scrubbed them with Austins rug cleaner and dried them thoroughly in the sun. To clean the windows we used old sheets with soap and water. First we had to take the lace curtains down, wash them by hand, and starch them with thick starch water made from flour. The lace curtains would be stretched on a wooden frame with small nails on each side to hold the curtains while they dried. We would buy the same size so we could stretch two at a time. Our fingers would get pricked on the nails as we pulled the curtains from one side to the other. When the curtains were dried they would be so stiff that they would stand up by themselves. Since we had only one set of frames, we would let one pair dry, then wash and stretch another pair. This would take all day! The following day we would replace the rugs and curtains and move the furniture. The rooms smelled so good. This was a yearly ritual for most farm houses.

We four girls, Helen, Ruth, Alberta and Dorothy, had one big bedroom upstairs. Ruth and Helen slept together and Dorothy and I were in another bed. Every spring the bed ticks were made from straw and they had to be emptied from the covering, which was then washed and filled with new straw. These ticks would be stuffed so full and be so high that we could hardly crawl into bed. This was great fun for a few weeks. Each of us would nestle in the straw to make our own little bed and fall fast asleep. Early in the mornings, about five or six o'clock, the whippoorwills would sing from the window sills. Helen and Ruth would throw their shoes at them. In the morning they would have to run down the stairs and outside to get their shoes.

We all had to take turns going to the outside bathroom and we used Sears Roebuck pages for toilet paper. Dorothy always had to go to the bathroom at night. It was my responsibility to light the lantern and take her since she was the youngest.

Summer time was hot. Ruth and I had to haul hay, bring in the cows to be milked and help with the farm chores. There was always work to do. In late summer, threshers, about ten men, would come to our farm to thresh the wheat and oats. This was a big day and everyone worked hard. The women would all get together to cook a full meal for the men. For fun in the summer time we could go swimming in the creek, but first we had to pick all the potato bugs from the potatoes.

Fall was always a busy time spent butchering meat for winter. Dad and the neighbors, Lou Martsolf (father), John and Billy Wick would slaughter 4 or 5 pigs in one day and hang the sides of pork on hooks in the barn. The cows, or beef, were slaughtered another day. Dad would cut up the pork and smoke the hams in the smoke house to cure so they would not spoil for winter. We would can the tenderloin part of the meat. Dad had to grind up the sausage with a hand grinder, then we would can the sausage in jars. The lard was rendered in a big kettle outside over a very hot wood fire. Grandma (Mary) Martsolf rendered lard all day the day before she died. She caught a cold while rendering lard outside in the bitter weather in December of 1932. Grandfather (Lou) then went to live with Aunt Florence and his other daughters.

Dad and mother had always lived in Brady Township and had met near their homes. Mom taught school and dad would take her home many times. Mom had 8 brothers and sisters. Minnie, John, Sam, Harold, Dewitt, Edith, Robert and Dasse. Dad had four sisters, Etta, Clara, Laura and Florence. Dad and Mom were married on May 29, 1906. Her brother, John, married dad's sister, Clara. Dad's sisters, Laura and Etta, married brothers Nick and Dan Ifft. His other sister, Florence, married Orren McCurdy. Mom and dad lived in a log cabin on the hillside above the white farm house, which dad and his father later built. A big red barn
was also part of the farm. Dad always took good care of this farm and his team of horses. Once a year he would bring in the harness to be cleaned and oiled. He would take the big white rings off to be soaked and scrubbed in the soapy water and replaced for another year.

We walked approximately one mile to a one room school house called Barley. Some of the games we played were hopscotch, jacks, jump rope, tag and Andy, Andy Overhead which was a game that a ball was thrown over the school house roof to the other side.

In 1923 Helen and Ruth went to stay all week in Slippery Rock to go to high school. Dad, mom, Dorothy and I would drive the car on Friday evening to retrieve them, then on Sunday we would take them back to school. It was always a special treat to stop at Isaly's for a big ice cream cone which cost five cents.

In Barley School, a little Italian boy named Jeno Johns attended.  He had an Italian accent in his speech and to his manner. When Dorothy and I were homesick for Helen and Ruth, who were attending high school at Slippery Rock, our mother would mimic Jeno Johns to entertain us. This is how mom got the nickname of "Jeno" from all her family.

One day in October of 1923, Jeno was sick in bed and I had to stay home from school to help cook. Dorothy had gone to school and I was getting dinner for dad and two hired hands. After boiling the potatoes I proceeded to drain the water from the pot and one potato dropped to the floor. After making a kettle of tea, I walked across the floor to pour the water into the cups and slipped on that potato and scalded my body with boiling water from my waist down. When dad picked me up, he pulled my long underwear and garters down, but my flesh came off with the garters clear to the bone. Dr. Campbell came often to clean the burns and used Savol cream to help heal my legs. I had to stay upstairs in bed for six weeks because the burns would not heal. Dad carried me downstairs for the first time on Thanksgiving Day. Aunt Etta stayed at night to give Jeno a rest because the burns hurt severely. May Ifft would have to walk across the field to visit me.  She would bring her "Johnny Doll" to help me feel better. That year Jeno made me a rag doll for Christmas that I treasured. After a long time, my legs finally healed and I returned to school.

With Helen and Ruth at school, we had to do all the work. Jeno would milk 5 cows and I would milk 4. Jeno had a sister named Dassa who had died at a young age and left behind four children. One girl named Mary came to live with us about this time. While Jeno and I did the farm chores, Dorothy and Mary would make breakfast. In the winter we would have sausage, eggs and buckwheat cakes with syrup. Almost every Saturday, Jeno would kill and clean a chicken for Sunday dinner. We baked bread and cakes on Saturday so we could rest, visit with family and enjoy time off from work on Sunday. We faithfully went to church and Sunday School every Sunday morning. We did not have electricity until the late 1920's when Dad bought a Delco Light Plant. For the first time we had electric power and electric lights. Later REA came past our house when the line followed Route 528. At that time dad had the whole house wired for "ELECTRICITY"!!!!!

In 1928 Helen and Ruth graduated from high school. Ruth continued schooling for two more years to become a teacher. Helen went to the Butler Hospital for nursing. In 1929 on November 20th she married Art Cratty. My brother, John, married Agnas McClymonds on June 30, 1928. Their wedding day was the same day as both the Sunday School picnic and Agnas' 21st birthday. Their wedding pictures show everyone who attended the wedding and picnic. Ruth married George Courtney on June 1, 1932 and Dorothy married Wayne Dunn on October 23, 1933.

When I was about 7 years old, Ruth, Dorothy and I went to pick huckleberries about a half mile from our home. I fell into a black hornet's nest and was stung severely all over my body. Ruth carried me home on her back. My eyes swelled shut and I was in pain all over. The swelling lasted nearly a week before I finally started to feel better.

There was a train station at Isle. We would travel by train to Wick to see Aunt Minnie (Mom's favorite sister). Our cousins. Hazel, Gladys and Maxine, were our best friends. Our vacations in the summer consisted of the Sunday School Picnic, the Martsolf Reunion and the Butler Fair. After dad bought his car, he would drive us to Butler in the morning and we would spend the whole day at the Fair. Katherine Barkley (now Kelly) and I would run together all day. We had saved our money all year for this big event to play fish, toss a penny and see the shows from the grandstand. We would throw a big blanket on the ground and the entire family would enjoy a picnic. Mom would go with us but many times she would be sick for the Martsolf Reunions.

Bill was born on May 21, 1913 in Grove City where his father and mother lived with his two sisters, Ethel and Alice. Mr. J. M. Robinson, Bill's father, had lived in Halstead.  When he married Clara Lutz, they lived in a small house on Lindey Road before moving to Grove City where Bill was born. When Bill was five years old they moved to Black Town. About 1927, when Bill was 14, his dad bought a store in Isle from the Watson's. In the summer time Bill, Alice, and all the other young people would swim in the pond below our pasture.  I met Bill and Alice at this time. They would come to our home for cooked beans and fresh baked bread after school. They also bought milk from us. Bill went to the Butler High School and stayed one year with a teacher and her husband until he was able to drive. Once he got his license he would drive to school with a group of other young people every day. When Bill was a senior, I was a freshman and rode to school with him. Bill graduated in 1930 and attended Butler Business School the next year. Since he did not like it he only attended for a month. About this time Bill thought Art Cratty was making big money selling potatoes and he talked his dad into trading the store for a farm about ten miles above Mercer. On November 23, 1932, Bill and I were married and moved into the farm house with his dad and mother. Alice had married Paul McCool and they had four children. They lived in a house at Harrisville. Ethel married Tom VanDyke and they had five children.  They lived in Harrisville too.  About six months after we were married Bill and I rented a small house and Bill started driving a dump truck. I was pregnant, sick and vomiting so we had to move back to my parent's home. Before we stayed with my parents, Bill bought a dump truck to haul gravel for the roads. A gravel pit fell on Bill and his truck and scared me during my pregnancy. In January, our twins were stillborn. Dr. Rossman came to help with the delivery. One baby was born alive for a short time, but the other had died before birth. After awhile, we returned to the small house where we paid six dollars a month for rent. Bill bought a milk truck from Harry Lindey and started to haul milk cans every morning from the farmers to Rick's Dairy in Butler. In the afternoons Bill would haul coal in his milk truck to a greenhouse in Zelienople. He had to shovel the coal off the truck by hand. He would come home at eleven p.m. and leave at five a.m.

In the fall of 1935, we moved to the big Alien house across the road from Clyde and Fanny Alien. The Alien's had three children; Wayne, George and Dorothy. The Baird's lived in the old store. Mrs. Baird became sick with pneumonia so I helped take care of her. Because I was pregnant I played out easily and had to stay with my parents for a month to rest. William Ronald, (Butch) was born on April 5, 1936. Bill continued to haul milk and coal. In August of 1937 we bought the store and all the merchandise from the Bairds for $3,500. This was a big event. Dad helped with the money and we paid him back as soon as we could. The store was on one side of the building and the house was on the other side. This house was a great improvement from our last home. There was a big porch on the lower side of the house and in the front. This house had gas heat, hot and cold running water and a bathroom. Our lives became busy when John Henry was born on January 28, 1938 and Carol Ann was born on April 11, 1939. Butch was only three years old so Mary and Dorothy came every other day to help me care for three babies and the store. I would give Jack a bath then put him in a blue basket with a blanket and set him on the counter in the store.  Harry Alien would come every morning to help watch Jack and play with him. Harry was blind except for a small amount of sight in his one eye. Mary gave William Ronald his nickname of "Butch" • She got this name from a radio program which had a little boy named "Butch" who she liked on the show, Mary was about 16 years old and Dorothy was about 18. I couldn't have done it without them.

Sometimes Bill and I would take a load of young people in the truck to Etna Springs or Stoughton's Park to swim and roller skate. Most of the Sunday School picnics were held at one of these places. We always went to church regularly and looked forward to Sundays when families could get together. The first preacher I remember was Reverend Warren, and then Reverend Lusk. I was saved under Reverend Lusk's ministry and baptized when I was 13 years old in the Muddycreek at Isle. Mrs. Lusk taught our Sunday School Class from the Bible. Their pay was about $4 or $5 a week.

Rev. Gray married Bill and I in the parsonage above the Isle store. Rev. Howard Blanchard and his family came to serve at the church in 1942 before I had my stroke. On January 9, 1943 a baby boy was born and he was fine. We named him Robert David. Fanny Leise and Hazel Smith came to help. Our baby was born on Saturday evening around 7:00 while Fanny was with me. About 10:00 p.m. I lost consciousness until Sunday. Everyone was there, including my sisters and parents, and they were trying to pour black coffee into me to wake me up. Dr. Rossman was called and came from Grove City on Monday. He said he had only seen three women like this and two had died.  He did not know I could hear until I reached to turn Bill's collar up, then the doctor realized that I knew what was going on. I was unable to move my right side, and I was only 28 years old.

George Pyle had a hearse and came Monday morning to take me to Grove City Hospital. I was there 10 days before I said "water". All the doctors and nurses came running! I started to get up and move with the nurse's help. In about 6 weeks I started to walk by holding onto the walls. Lesta Peters, Ida Christley's mother, came to stay with me during the next two years to care for four children; three boys, one dear girl, and a store. Bill continued to drive the milk truck every morning and haul coal the rest of the day. God was with me all those days and nights. My dad and mother had bought a new Scofield Bible for our wedding gift. I never had time to read it and would dust it off each week. After my stroke the only hope I had was the Word of God and radio messages. I can remember waiting for the radio programs of Jack Munyon and "Back to the Bible" broadcasts at 9:00 and 10:00 in the morning. God had promised to supply all my needs and my spiritual need was met by scriptures found in His Word.

The store became the gathering place for the neighbors and someone was always coming and going. The workers for WPA came at 6:00 in the morning to get warm and talk. In the evening the men would come to visit and loaf. One cold morning "little Noah", a boy who came into the store before going to school was there and I said to him, "It really is a cold morning!" "Yes," he said. "It is a two egger". There in his coat were two hard boiled eggs, one for each pocket. He would then eat the eggs for lunch. During the years the kids were growing up, I can recall how Jack and Butch would chase each other around the store counters and how I was unable to stop them. Carol was my faithful helper to clean the house. We had a long hall upstairs and our collie dog, Shep, would tear around the banister corner and slide all four paws across that waxed floor. Shep always headed for Bob to help him out when anything went wrong. When the boys were teenagers, they moved into the big room above the store. In the summertime, they had a huge tent on the ball field across the road. When Sam, Bill's nephew, was about 15, he came to live with us and became part of the family. Since he was not old enough to drive, he cut brush on the bank down with an ax. When he turned 16, he started to drive Bill's milk truck. During the summer all the kids and cousins would go swimming in Swamp Run under the bridge. In the winter time everyone would gather at Grandpa Jimmy's pond to ice skate and play hockey with tin cans for a puck.  A small chicken coup nearby had a stove in it's center we used to warm our hands and feet.

My sister, Ruth, would cut everyone's hair. We would take two big bottles of pop for everyone to enjoy.

Grocery orders were filled and taken to Fred McCall. I always sent Fred his Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners along with canned peaches and other canned goods. He always appreciated being thought of. Money was scarce but all our needs were supplied. We never made much money selling things in the store.  Maybe we helped other families with their needs before we concerned ourselves about any profits we made. Bill and I always tried to serve the Lord in many ways.

When the kids were small a man who owned two milk trucks died, and his wife sold them to Bill. He kept those trucks and made work for two drivers, John Shannon and later Art McCurdy. When Butch came home from the service, Bill bought steel trucks for the boys to drive. Sam, Jim-Bob, Butch and Jack were always on the road. The trucks would break down or upset and they would call back home for money. I would worry so much that I was a nervous wreck and had to depend on God for His strength. Bill had twelve steel trucks at one time and later sold the milk trucks. The children, one by one, joined the service, went to work, or married to start families of their own.

Our children went to a one room school called Hill School located at the top of Bunker Hill on Route 528 from first to eighth grade. They then attended Slippery Rock High School and graduated. We went every Sunday to Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Isle. Rev. Mechtly came to Mt. Zion in 1950 and stayed for ten years. He and his family became part of our lives and visited our home often. We watched their four daughters grow, Verna Rae, Wyliann, Lynee and Joy Bea. Rev. Mechtly was talented and could do many things along with his ministry like paint, play instruments and carpentry. He built our block garage and remodeled our kitchen. While Rev. Mechtly was Mt. Zion Baptist Church he built three new Sunday School rooms, a baptistery, painted a wall mural and made many other improvements. On Sunday evenings he would have musical services and paint a picture for the one who invited the most people. Large numbers of children attended Bible School in the summer time. God used his talents to bring many people closer to the Lord.

In 1954 dad had a stroke and was bedfast for two years. Mother took care of him during the day and Ruth and I took turns staying with him through the nights. On April 2, 1956 dad died and mother continued to live in the farm house by herself. In the fall of 1959, part of the farmhouse burnt from hot ashes that mother had left in a cardboard box to cool on the side porch. The kitchen, pantry, attic and upstairs were all burnt. Our family worked together to rebuild these rooms so mother could continue to live in her own home. About 1964 the state bought the farm, including the house, for the State Park of Moraine where Lake Arthur was to cover the land with water. The price that was paid was small compared to the value of our home.

Our store and land were also bought by the state for Lake Arthur. Bill and I purchased property in Prospect to build a brick house that Paul and Earl McDeavitt constructed. Every room was on one floor which was very convenient and comfortable for me. Mother came to live with us for many years until she died on December 5, 1973 from complications after she had fallen and broken her hip.  She enjoyed company and people.  Often she would visit other members of the family. During the winters Bill and I would travel to Florida and stay in our trailer in the parks of St. Cloud, Cornwell Campground in Kissimmee and later in Craig's Trailer Court near Arcadia which was about 60 miles south of Orlando. For fourteen years we spent our winters in Florida, until I decided that home was best. We then enjoyed staying in one place.

 


   

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This page was last updated on: Sunday, September 13, 2014

 

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