Now I will write about my father as I remember him ( my favourite character in this family biography).
He told me that he had been born around 1865. He went to school till he learned to read and write and do sums. The he quit school as did his three younger brothers to help their father on the farm. I wonder what they did to have fun? There didn't seem to be any time for fun. When winter came they were sent to Plattsville to look for jobs.Idleness would have been "a deadly sin" to their parents! Boys must have work to keep out of mischief!
He became an apprentice in a harness shop and went back every winter until he had learned the trade.
When he turned twenty he decided he'd like to have his own shop. His father loaned him $400 and with the money he bought a harness shop in Dashwood. Soon he took on an apprentice whose name was Pat I knew him very well because he boarded with us. The business flourished. In a year's time he had paid back his debt to his father with interest.
When he had enough money saved he took a wife, the prettiest girl in the village, Emma Mabel Fried, the daughter of the miller, Noah Fried. It was quite a large mill and hired many men. In fact , "Dashwood" was once "Friedsberg" named after my grandfather Fried.
During the following years he built three houses, each one larger. There were three daughters, Olive, Lloy and Ruth and my brother Graham. There was 5 years difference in the the sisters ages. My brother Graham was born after we moved to Parkhill. He was nine years younger than me.
I remember only the big house. It still stands in Dashwood. It wax a two story house of white brick. There was a big bay window at the front and another at the side that flooded our dinning room with sunshine. Such a bright cheerful room! Both windows were filled with mother's ferns and Christmas cactus plants that really bloomed in the Christmas season.
There was a front lawn, a side lawn and a back lawn, but on the other side of the house there was an orchard by a Mr Kellerman where we played Except when chased out by his horrible son who ,would cut down our swings and destroying our playhouses telling us we had no right to be there because the orchard was his father's property.
On the side lawn father built a duck pond for our three pet ducks he brought home for us. I think he had brought them home for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners - but they became tame. When father came home they would follow him around thae yard quacking loudly. Now I ask you how could we possibly kill and eat our pets? (we couldn't). I suppose later they were given away to a farmer.
Pigeons nested in the loft in the barn. They became a nuisance as they were always breeding and flew all over the village. They were known as Fenn's pigeons and no one seemed to like them but Olice Lloy and I. We wept bitterly every time father suggested getting rid of them.
There was also a yellow bulldog we called Peg who our constant companion. He was a stubborn dog though ashe refused to go into any of the dog houses we built for him in the yard out of the bricks left over from the house.
Then of course we had a cow, chickens and a horse.
It must have been a large house with many bedrooms upstairs. The hired man, Pat lived with us, then mother's hired girl,Vicky had the room next to the nursery where Olive Lloy and I slept. After he retired my grandfather Fried lived with us part of every year.
Father enjoyed his daughters more than my mother when we were young...I think through us he found all the childhood pleasures he had missed when he had to work so hard on the farm. He was the gayest of companions.
Sunday morning he did not go to church because the service was in the German language. He and mother attended the evening service delivered in English.
Our hired girl, Vicky, went to her home in the country on the weekends( note here I refer to Vicky as our hired girl; never in those days did you call a domestic, a maid servant) Vicky ate all her meals with us and was considered one of the family.
On Sunday morning mother was treated like a real lady. She stayed in bed until noon and we would fight over who would take up her breakfast tray. We got up to help father prepare breakfast and tidy up the house
Then we would be off in into the country. We would roam through the fields and woods and wade in the streams. In the springwe'd pick wild flowers, later we would fill small pails with wild raspberries - and in the fall there were beechnuts to gather; we'd store them in the attic for winter evening consumption.
I remember dad teling us all about birds. I think my love of nature dates back to those early days in my life.
He told me that he had been born around 1865. He went to school till he learned to read and write and do sums. The he quit school as did his three younger brothers to help their father on the farm. I wonder what they did to have fun? There didn't seem to be any time for fun. When winter came they were sent to Plattsville to look for jobs.Idleness would have been "a deadly sin" to their parents! Boys must have work to keep out of mischief!
He became an apprentice in a harness shop and went back every winter until he had learned the trade.
When he turned twenty he decided he'd like to have his own shop. His father loaned him $400 and with the money he bought a harness shop in Dashwood. Soon he took on an apprentice whose name was Pat I knew him very well because he boarded with us. The business flourished. In a year's time he had paid back his debt to his father with interest.
When he had enough money saved he took a wife, the prettiest girl in the village, Emma Mabel Fried, the daughter of the miller, Noah Fried. It was quite a large mill and hired many men. In fact , "Dashwood" was once "Friedsberg" named after my grandfather Fried.
During the following years he built three houses, each one larger. There were three daughters, Olive, Lloy and Ruth and my brother Graham. There was 5 years difference in the the sisters ages. My brother Graham was born after we moved to Parkhill. He was nine years younger than me.
I remember only the big house. It still stands in Dashwood. It wax a two story house of white brick. There was a big bay window at the front and another at the side that flooded our dinning room with sunshine. Such a bright cheerful room! Both windows were filled with mother's ferns and Christmas cactus plants that really bloomed in the Christmas season.
There was a front lawn, a side lawn and a back lawn, but on the other side of the house there was an orchard by a Mr Kellerman where we played Except when chased out by his horrible son who ,would cut down our swings and destroying our playhouses telling us we had no right to be there because the orchard was his father's property.
On the side lawn father built a duck pond for our three pet ducks he brought home for us. I think he had brought them home for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners - but they became tame. When father came home they would follow him around thae yard quacking loudly. Now I ask you how could we possibly kill and eat our pets? (we couldn't). I suppose later they were given away to a farmer.
Pigeons nested in the loft in the barn. They became a nuisance as they were always breeding and flew all over the village. They were known as Fenn's pigeons and no one seemed to like them but Olice Lloy and I. We wept bitterly every time father suggested getting rid of them.
There was also a yellow bulldog we called Peg who our constant companion. He was a stubborn dog though ashe refused to go into any of the dog houses we built for him in the yard out of the bricks left over from the house.
Then of course we had a cow, chickens and a horse.
It must have been a large house with many bedrooms upstairs. The hired man, Pat lived with us, then mother's hired girl,Vicky had the room next to the nursery where Olive Lloy and I slept. After he retired my grandfather Fried lived with us part of every year.
Father enjoyed his daughters more than my mother when we were young...I think through us he found all the childhood pleasures he had missed when he had to work so hard on the farm. He was the gayest of companions.
Sunday morning he did not go to church because the service was in the German language. He and mother attended the evening service delivered in English.
Our hired girl, Vicky, went to her home in the country on the weekends( note here I refer to Vicky as our hired girl; never in those days did you call a domestic, a maid servant) Vicky ate all her meals with us and was considered one of the family.
On Sunday morning mother was treated like a real lady. She stayed in bed until noon and we would fight over who would take up her breakfast tray. We got up to help father prepare breakfast and tidy up the house
Then we would be off in into the country. We would roam through the fields and woods and wade in the streams. In the springwe'd pick wild flowers, later we would fill small pails with wild raspberries - and in the fall there were beechnuts to gather; we'd store them in the attic for winter evening consumption.
I remember dad teling us all about birds. I think my love of nature dates back to those early days in my life.
