Jerry and Davy

Jerry's favorite playmate as he got older was Davy Fuller.  He was my age, but he and Jerry had much more in common.  Davy's father, Burdette, was a great hunter and he passed that love of hunting down to his son and Jerry.  (Just a little side note about Burdette...I can remember being at their house one time and Burdette was putting on his boots, he had an end of a cigar in his mouth and was chatting with us as he was putting these boots on.  My gosh, it took him forever to get these boots on!  First he would have a wrinkle in a sock, or something else would be wrong. I kept thinking we would never get where we were going, or he would go without boots!  He was never in a hurry and neither was his wife Betty.  Good folks, loved to tell stories and laugh about it.) Burdette and Betty Fuller.

Jerry with a beaver that he had trapped.

 In the 1950's Burdette taught Davy and Jerry how to run a trap line and they both did that before and after school during the winter months.  Davy trapped the upper part of Catlin Hollow and Jerry did the lower part. They trapped muskrat, mink, fox and horned owl.  For muskrats, they would get $1.00 to $1.25 for the hide. a mink would bring between $20.00 and $30.00, a fox would come in at $4.00, and the bounty on a horned owl was $5.00.  I thought it was interesting on how they trapped for a horned owl.  They would cut the top out of an old tree and anchor an old roost out of a chicken house to the top of the old tree and bait it with the meat of one of the animals they had skinned.  Now I understand the horned owl is protected.

Red

In the late summer and fall they hunted raccoons. Jerry had a Redbone Coonhound that he named
Red.  He saved his money and ordered him from a magazine.  When he arrived he was a skinny looking thing, but Jerry fell in love with that dog, built him a beautiful house and put it out beside the garage and Red seemed very happy in his new home.  I will never forget the first time my Mother saw that poor dog when Jerry picked up the shipping crate, he was just a bag of bones covered with red hair, but he immediately loved Jerry. Mother thought she had to fatten him up quickly, she felt so sorry for him.  Everyone was pretty proud of Jerry for what he had accomplished.  He and Davy had a lot of fun with Red and we all loved to hear his bark when he spotted a coon or was on a track, he had his own sound.  A raccoon hide would bring in around $2.00 if it was a good one.

Jerry

In the late 50's Jerry and Davy decided to build a Cabin.  None of this Hut stuff for them now, they were on to bigger and better things, but they were back begging to Daddy for material to construct said cabin.  It seems that Daddy and Jerry had used a cross cut saw to cut down some pine and oak of Daddy's and taken them to Alan Raker's saw mill to have them cut up into lumber, so Daddy let them use some of that lumber.  They had railroad ties to use for the foundation, so now they just needed to supply the labor and that they did.  They constructed a two room cabin with a sub-floor and a main floor.  It had a nice roof and a real smoke stack.  They used a kerosene heater first for heat, then they remembered our cast iron brooder stoves that we had in our huts, so they scavenged one of those, and that worked pretty well until they caught the floor on fire.  They didn't have any water to put the fire out and had to use a barrel of cider to put out the fire that had already burned into the sub floor.  I guess the cider hadn't turned too hard yet or that could have been a big problem.  They later acquired a cook-stove that worked much better for their purpose.

In the picture, you can see that they had curtains in the window.  I asked them what the curtains were made from, but neither of them could tell me.  They both had a lot of fun at their cabin and spent many nights there.

I can remember being in the cabin only once and that was after I was married, in fact Jerry was married, and I think Davy was also.  We had been out spotting deer and someone shot a deer, so we took it to the cabin to dress it out.  When we went to open the trunk of the car, we found much to our surprise, the deer's tail was hanging out of the trunk.  Daddy was also surprised when he found the venison in his washing tubs in the morning.  Enough said.

Davy and Jerry

Jerry and Davy killed a rattlesnake on the way up to the cabin one time.  Davy said that he cut a stick to kill the snake with.  It started out to be a long stick, but by the time he got the stick the way he wanted, it was a little shorter than he would have liked.  At that time they could get a dollar for a rattlesnake and now it is illegal to kill one.  Davy recently told me a story that I had heard Aunt Charlotte tell before.  When Rodney was a baby Aunt Charlotte had him out in the yard playing on a blanket and when she picked up the blanket to bring him in there were two rattlesnakes under it! Burdette was called and he killed both of the snakes.

Jerry and Davy

When we were kids, we could use our coaster sleds to ride down hill and we all had them.  We rode on the roads more than the hills.  The snow was always pretty deep and there were always deeper drifts to have to get through, so the roads were easy access compared to the hills.  People didn't travel the back roads much and they looked out for the kids back in those days too.

Davy made a toboggan out of some steel roofing one year.  He nailed wooden slats on the top of it so we would know where to sit.  As he tells the story, the first time down the Ice House Road, it went so fast that the slats flew off never to be seen again, as the road was glare ice and we literately flew down the road.  We had the week off from school because it was too cold to heat the school, so we kids rode down hill the whole week.   We rode down the Ely Hill Road or the Ding Dang Road and Ice House Road.  They didn't cinder then, as the cars used chains.  If it thawed during the day the road would freeze again overnight and we were ready to go again in the morning. When we got home our clothes were frozen stiff and could stand by themselves, but we had a ball.  It was a great week of fun, thanks to Davy and his toboggan.

Davy's parents also had a farm pond that we ice skated on, we had many skating parties there.  I remember having a birthday skating party there when I was a teenager.  After a day of skating we went back to our house and Mother fixed a big spaghetti dinner for all of us.  We had boys and girls at that party. All of the Bryant boys were at that party too.   It was great fun for all of us.  If we didn't have a dinner waiting for us, we always had hot chocolate and cookies.  Back then it wasn't the instant mix, it was homemade hot chocolate syrup with fresh milk from our own cows.

 If there was enough ice in the creek we would often have homemade ice cream and that was a special treat.  One of my favorite flavors was banana or grape nut, which was really Post Grape Nut cereal added to vanilla ice cream.  Daddy would take a burlap bag and an ax and go the creek and chop out some ice and bring it to the house then use a maul to break it up into small pieces that would fit in around the tank in the ice cream freezer.  While Daddy was doing that Mother would cook the custard for the ice cream using fresh milk, mostly cream and eggs from our chickens to make the base for the ice cream.  We would all take turns cranking the ice cream until it was frozen; the best part was being able to spoon off the paddles when the ice cream was frozen.  We kids got to do that, then the ice cream was packed in ice and salt until we were ready to eat, sometimes we were ready to eat it right now!!  We kids were always ready NOW!

Huts

Kathy, Jerry, Rodney, and Jim Hill

When we got old enough to venture  to the creek out behind the barn, life took on a whole new meaning, there was water, fish, tadpoles, frogs, fossils, stones to throw.  I remember when my cousin (Rodney Smith) who lived next door and was the same age as me, came down and we started a forget-me-not factory.  We pulled up the flowers and we all sat in different places in the creek and sent the flowers down the creek, we would spend a lot of time doing that keeping cool and having fun.

Some time later we decided to build huts over in the woods, actually it was Uncle Clyde's and Aunt Charlotte's woods who was Rodney's father.  We gathered lumber from anyplace that we could find it along with nails, rusty and crooked ones, Jerry and I learned to straighten them.  I can remember during the  construction period Daddy would look for something and not be able to find it and it would usually be over across the creek in the hut.  Jerry or I would have to scamper over and bring it back.  Daddy would always say, " I don't mind you using it, just remember to bring it back when you come back".  We used our little "Red Ryder wagon" to transport supplies from the house to our hut.  It is a good thing the creek wasn't high, because we had to ford the creek each time we went.

Once we got the huts built; yes we built two, one for Jerry and me and one a little further into the woods for Rodney, we had to furnish them.  Everything that we used in our playhouses had to be moved to our huts.  We were a little older, so maybe we should have a cook stove. Sure!  We would use a cast iron brooder stoves that Daddy once used the chicken houses, before we had gas brooder stoves.  Perfect!  Darn, they were heavy!  No problem with our wagons, one to pull, one to push.  It was rough going through the creek, but we made it.  It took us the majority of the day to haul two of those heavy dudes to both of our huts. Hey!  We have to cut a hole through our new roofs.  We didn't think of that during construction.  We needed stove pipe too, so another trip back to the house to hunt for stove pipe.  We found enough for both huts and by then it was almost supper time.  We did have lots of kindling in all of those pine trees; it certainly smelled good burning.  It was a success, we were happy kids!

We kept making improvements to our huts all summer long and they were looking better each and every day.  One afternoon we were climbing trees and I was pretending to be a squirrel.  I went out on a limb that was dead and down it came with me on it.  I hit the barbed wire fence!  Of course, back then girls didn't wear pants.  I was wearing a dress and nothing to protect my legs, so a barb took a hunk out of my leg and scratched down the side of my left leg.  It bled like crazy and it scared all of us. We ran back home quickly for help.  Mother cleaned it up and put on some of Grandpa Gerow's Black Liniment and a bandage.  To this day, I still have a horrible scar. I am pretty choice on what trees I climb now!

We had a lot of fun in our huts and decided to stay overnight one warm summer night.  We got everything ready, but by the time it got dark, we chickened out and ran back to the house to sleep on the front porch!  There were lots of strange sounds after dark!

Jerry, Kathy, Rodney

One year Rodney and I put up a Christmas tree in our huts and decorated them.  They were so pretty! We had a very mild winter and enjoyed being over there during our vacation.  After Christmas we were both in our huts playing.  I looked towards Rodney's hut and could see smoke, so I quickly ran over to his to see what was wrong.  When I got there, he was outside and he told me that he thought he would burn up his tree in his stove.  It was a bit much for his stove and he about burned down his hut!

Rodney and I were great friends and did many things together all of our lives.  We built a radio station together and did little broadcasts and played music together.  Aunt Charlotte was always encouraging us to play together because he was an only child.  We had fun together and spend a lot of time going back and forth between our houses.

Uncle Clyde, Aunt Charlotte, and Rodney 1960

Once we got to high school, he got me in trouble with different boyfriends.  Rodney was still my best friend and boyfriends didn't understand that.  We went to movies together, called each other, rode the bus together and sat together, danced together, walked in the halls together, went to graduation together and parties together, rode to work together.  We were friends after we were both married, I helped he and his wife after their babies were born.  I miss him so much now that he is gone.  Truly a best friend from the time we were old enough to be friends.

Playmates

Jerry and Kathy

Growing up in the country as my brother (Jerry) and I did, we didn't have a lot of close neighbors to play with.  There were not any little girls, so I played with the boys and didn't think anything about it.

Actually, the best playmate was my brother and we  played  together all of the time.  We were good buddies, Mother said that we didn't fight and never had bad words to say to each other.  We were all we had and were only 18 months apart, so we grew up close and stayed close as playmates.

Kathy

I can remember Jerry got a tricycle (blue) before I did.  He got his for Christmas and rode it in the house.  Around and around he went, but I didn't have one to ride.  That just didn't work for me!  Then came my birthday in January.  I  got my red tricycle and then there were two of us riding around the inside of the house.  We banged holes in the woodwork in every doorway that we traveled through, but Mother didn't say a word about it.  Secretly I think she was glad to see Spring come that year.

Once outside we could ride up and down the driveway, through the mud puddles.  My doll got to ride with me.  Jerry had to put his new holster and cap-gun on to ride his.  We played house and cowboys and Indians a lot and spent a lot of time playing with miniature tractors, wagons and farming machinery.  We made little mounds of hay to put in our pretend barns, anything that Daddy would have done we did.

We had playhouses in old chicken houses that we cleaned out. Mother would give us old cast off things that just delighted us.  We made curtains out of feed sacks, had old dishes with cracks, washed tin cans.  We even used to stir up flour and water, put in the sun to dry then pick strawberries and put on the dried flour and eat it and think it was a great food.

One time I wanted to have a play house in the back of the barn and Daddy told me I couldn't because the Milk Inspector wouldn't allow it. Determined to have my play house, I went to check when the inspector had been there last and told Daddy he wouldn't be there for a while, so Daddy told me I would have to move my stuff by the end of the week.  I was cleaning out a spot while Daddy was milking and there were cobwebs hanging from where I wanted a light bulb, so I took a metal spoon with a wooden handle and I cleaned out the cobwebs, but in the process I hit the socket and blew a fuse. Everything went dark and the milker stopped! Daddy called my name and I knew I was in trouble.  I answered him and said, "Here I am."  Daddy came in to make sure I was alright and then took me by the hand to the fuse box.  After he inserted a new fuse, we went back to the cows that had milkers on them, then to my to be playhouse to see what I had done.  He explained to me that if that spoon hadn't had the wooden handle I could have been killed.  After that, I decided I didn't need a play house with electric lights!!

Schools and our Church

Catlin Hollow Church

Thought I  would give a little history of Catlin Hollow to start with.  It is located in Charleston Township and  was organized in December, 1820 and  was taken from Delmar Township, which was organized in 1873.  It would seem as Dartt Settlement was being settled, several other pioneers came further northwest and settled in what is now known at Catlin Hollow.  Among those early settlers were Daniel Dennison, Edward McInroy, Jessie, William and Nelson Catlin.  Many of these people are buried in the Catlin Hollow Cemetery.

There was a pioneer saw mill constructed in Dart Settlement in 1816 in what was called Catlin Hollow Run,  that supplied lumber for the homes and various building that went up in the communities in the area.  Many of the pioneers were involved in farming, there was an established carding machine that ran for a number of years.

The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Catlin Hollow was organized about 1850.  Among  the early members were Cyrus Catlin and wife, Joel Catlin and wife, Edward McInroy and Dexter Catlin and wife.  I have always found it  interesting to find that the Baptist and the Methodist have shared this church throughout the years and obviously the Episcopal were involved with the Methodist at one time.

My family attended this church all though my growing up years, in fact, I was the last person to be married in this church and it eventually was closed and sold, with the money earned from the sale going to the Whitneyville Methodist Church and it was used to help build a new parsonage.

I am in possession of the original doors that were on the church and some of the stained glass that was in the windows.  I had a hanging made for each of my children so they could share in the history of this beloved church.  Many happy memories are involved in the four walls of this church and the beloved people that attended the services there.

Schools: 

The schools of Charleston were maintained by subscription and it was felt that in this township they were the best of any township.  They had good teachers usually graduates from the State Normal school at Mansfield.

The garage at our Homestead had been the Old McInroy School.

This came from the school in 1908 (compliments of Joyce Tice)

If you go back and look at the "beginning" pictures and see the garage, you can see what it looked like.

I can remember Daddy talking about the school he attended on Reese Hill, close to where he lived growing up.  On a winter day, they talked their teacher (he called her the school mom) into getting on their sled at lunch break and they rode all the way to Hills Creek and didn't get back until to dismiss that evening, so they didn't have class in the afternoon.  He said they couldn't talk her into that again.  He stated that the fire in the school house was out when they got back and they were cold, but they all had a good time.

Charleston School

The first consolidate school in the county was opened in 1909 and remained active until 1956.  It is really neat to me to think I went to school in the same school that my parents did.  You could roll a marble down the steps from the eighth grade class room and it would hit the water fountain and bounce and end up in the furnace room.  I think every kid knew that trick.  Now that school had memories!!

Now by the time Jerry and I went to school there, they had to construct two additional little buildings on each side.  On the right side was the second grade class room, and on the left was the third grade class room and then when we got to the fourth grade, we got to go back inside.  Each of the little building had their own coal stove, and the boys all had to take turns helping the teacher keep the fire going.

This was our second grade class room

This is where Jerry and I attended second grade.  This picture was taken by George Riebe.  He is the son of the people that were responsible for us to have hot school lunches in later years and his father was a janitor at the school.  One year after I had moved to Ohio and was home visiting, I stopped to visit them and asked them if I could go through the school one last time.  I knew they were going to tear it down and I so wanted to have a last look and he honored my request.  What a joy it was to walk those halls again.  Mrs. Carrie Olson was my first grade teacher, I later had the joy of caring for her as a patient and talking about her teaching career.  Second grade was our pastor's wife, Mrs. Barbara Finch, third grade was Mrs Shelley and we were all scared to death of her, fourth grade was Mrs. Christine Selleck, another lady that was my patient, fifth grade was Mrs. Cassie Gross whom, I dearly loved, she was suffering from leukemia and died soon after.  Sixth grade, we moved upstairs and we got to change classes, I had Mrs. Adeline Hess, Mrs. Doratha Wetmore and Mr. Brace.

It was sometime in these years when I was upstairs that it was decided our school was no longer safe and we would all be transferred to the Charleston High School in the newly constructed class rooms to finish up our elementary education.  If we were going to continue on to college we would go into Wellsboro to continue our education, and that is when I left a lot of my Charleston friends and transferred to Wellsboro.  That is another story, as I really missed those kids, but did make new friends.