(Taken from her notes … transcribed by her dauther

Eleana S. Hurst , April 1980)

My folks moved from Taylor, Arizona to Fruitland, New Mexico on the bank of the San Juan River, where I was born. At that time the folks had 7 children… 4 boys and 3 girls. My sister LaVina was 2 years old. Jesse was born 25 August 1896, 2 years later. I never knew my eldest brother as he died shortly after my folks moved to Fruitland, New Mexico.

I was born prematurely. Mother was very ill at the time. Neither she or I was expect to live. Mother said that she could hear the neighbors deciding which children they would adopt. Mother said she felt that some of them were sorry when she lived, because they wanted her children. I was born September 3, 1902.

I was very frail for years. Because of some infection in my system I would at times go into convulsions. At one time I had a sick spell and fell in an ant bed and was stung all over my body before I was found. I remember this and that I had to be carried around for a long time. The last one I remember was at the dinner table. We loved to eat peach pits and mother seemed to think it was these pits that caused the convulsions. I still can’t eat many walnuts and peach pits…never.

I do not remember much about living in Kirkland. From there we moved to Jewett, New Mexico. I think it was in Jewett where we had a large apple orchard. I remember Father carrying me back and forth to the orchard. I think they were the best apples that ever grew.

I remember a few people there. The Baldwins who had a store near a rock mountain called the Hogs Back. They had two girls about the age of my sister Ruth and me. Seemed like we spent more time roaming over the Hogs Back than we did at home. They had some Guinea hens that would hide their nests in the rocks. We would hunt for them. They had a lot of exciting things to play with. . . . things that we could not afford. Teddy bears, I remember so well and loved to play with them.

Another family that I remember was a dear old lady. Mother would send us there to get buttermilk. She always had goodies for us. I liked the goodies, but always hated and screamed when her white mice would come near me. When I was 7 years of age we moved to Redmesa, Colorado. We moved in wagons… the trip seemed long, but was very exciting.

Again I became ill with dysentery and after trying everything that she and the neighbors could think of without any results, someone told Mother to feed me blackberries. And so to the La Plata Mountains that Mother and Dad took me for a week (where the blackberries were) and I began to get better.

Because of poor health, I didn’t start school until I was 7 years old. Because of the distance to school, which was about 2 miles, I couldn’t go when the weather was bad. It was a one room school heated with a wood stove. Tramping through the snow up to our knees I got rheumatism. At least Mother thought it was that. Anyway my legs became so stiff and my joints pained so much I again had to be lifted from my bed to a chair and miss school.

My brothers and sisters were very good to me. In fact spoiled me very much, and I began to throw tantrums and usually got my way. We were a very happy family, in spite of the fact that we were very poor. Dad tried to be a farmer and do a little blacksmith work, but twelve mouths are a lot to feed and clothe.

I never knew the older children very well. As soon as they were old enough to work, they left home to do so.

Mother was a good seamstress and she sewed for the community, enabling her to help out with the livelihood. Mother was a very proud woman and she always saw that we were well dressed. Even though our dresses were handed down or made over, we were the best dressed in town.

I think I was about 12 years of age when our house burned down. Most of our family were away picking up potatoes at the Burnham place. I know that Mae and I were home. I can’t recall who else. Mae was ironing and baking bread when the fire started. We dragged the organ and a couple of quilts out but nothing else. The whole neighborhood turned out to help us. We were taken into different homes for a short time. Mother couldn’t stand to have the children in the different homes. She wanted us all together again. Dad had built a log one room house that we used for a milk room. Mother and Dad got a large tent and between the milk house and the tent we were all together again. The neighborhood helped us out with bedding and clothing.

The folks mortgaged the farm for some milk cows and between sewing and the milk, we began to plan for a new house.

Again fate struck home. Jesse, Ruth and I came down with Typhoid fever. Most of the community had it. Found the germ in the drinking water.

The folks were determined to have better water so Dad began to dig a well. Everyone laughed at Dad. They thought he was wasting his time trying to reach water. The other people used cisterns. Dad did strike water and it was free of the Typhoid germ. Even though it was the dry season, our well always had water in it and people would come from miles away to have water when their cisterns had gone dry.

Jesse and Ruth were over the fever when Mother had an opportunity to cook at a lumber camp. My brother Walter was already working there. We lost our hair. I was still very sick. Mother left me in care of Dad and the older children. She knew that by her going we would be able to have the house that much sooner.

But she was there only a short time and she worried so much about me and was so homesick without the family that as soon as I was able to be up, Ray Dean, the owner of the saw mill sent for me. With Mother’s care and the good food, I gained my strength fast. My hair began to come back in.

I loved to play the phonograph. There were a lot of Hawaiian records and Mother and I were so homesick, we would both cry when some of them were played.

Walter and Mother took their pay in building materials. Walter went home to help Dad build the new house. Mother and I stayed just until there was enough material to finish the house.

The reunion was great and we thought the house was the most beautiful in the country. We moved into it before it was finished. In fact I believe it never did get painted on the outside. The new slide windows were just out of the world and I will never forget the wall paper on the living room wall. It was lilies all in bloom. Everyone turned out to see it.

I didn’t enjoy school very well. Having missed so much I was behind my age group. Finally finished the eight grade. Georgia Pinkerton was my teacher and she helped me a great deal. Another teacher that I remember was Mr. Frank Bush. He took the entire class to Durango. My first trip to a large city. I tasted my first weaney. Stayed in tents overnight. Girls in one and boys in another. Of course the chaperones… Miss Wagner, Carol Decker, Mable Green and others.

Our community had to make their own entertainment… which consisted of dinners, house parties and dances. Old as well as young went to the dances. I never enjoyed dances. Seemed that my legs were too stiff and my feet were always where they shouldn’t be.

Mother was for higher schooling for the kids. Mae and Ruth went to Fort Lewis to High School. Mae went one year and was married. The summer I finished the eight grade, I went with my sister LaVina to help in the Mess Hall at the Indian School at Shiprock, New Mexico. It was just for the faculty. LaVina did the cooking and I and an Indian girl named Julie set the tables, served and washed the dishes.

The next winter I went to Fort Lewis to High School. Ruth and I had one rom. We cooked, slept and what not in this one room. But it was fun and we enjoyed being with the young people.

During the winter our dorm burned down and everything we had was burned for the second time. The building was insured and we had better clothing than we had before. Ruth and I were given work in the dining room and the commissary to pay for our board and room. We lived in the dorm and ate in the dining room. Got along much better.

Ethel W Smith