This was the
rememberings of Richard Alvin Saxton when he was staying
with his daughter Blanche Saxton Blocher in the winter of 1966:
Winter of 1966
From Richard Alvin 'Allie' Saxton
when he was staying with his daughter, Blanche G. (Saxton) Blocher.
Things Allie Saxton talked about. "When my family (the Wm.
Alvin Saxtons) lived in Lansing on Mt. Hope Ave., they had a baby die at
birth and the neighbors helped my father build a little
wooden coffin. They buried it in the backyard in a fence corner.
Mary, my sister that died, looked like Aunt Bessie and Maudie
like Aunt Nellie; they both could play the organ, all of the
children seemed to be musical. We lived in Lansing when Gen. Grant
died in 1885; it took news a long time to get through then.
When my dad used to go look for a job he'd just pick up his tools and
start in and usually they'd hire him. He only got 50 cents
a day when he cleaned off brick, but that bought quite a bit of food
except for sugar which was 10 cents a pound. One day my
teacher asked the children "How many had tasted ice cream" and no one in
my room had, so she said she knew how to make it, and she asked
different ones to bring things in, I had to bring 2 pounds of sugar;
so 20 cents was a lot for us. You could only buy sugar at
the drug store
(they used sugar to mix with
medicines)." "When I was 10 I got
between two piles of something ground up and nearly died before I dug my way
out. When 14 years-old I worked for Mr. Rowley, who had a
dandy dapple-gray horse that I used to drive and she was fine if you
let her run up the hill. One time my mother and father were
going some place and my dad drove, he didn't know about the
horse, and he tried to hold her back going up the hill; she balked
and then backed us all the way down the hill and we nearly
tipped over. Then my mother said "you let Allie drive" so my
father said "Alrite'" and the horse went running rite' up the hill
fine. Some guy came by and bought her, and I felt so bad, but he
then brought her back in a week and said she couldn't be used
for farming; I was glad." "There was a man, Mr. Wylie I think,
used to buy cider in a barrel and then he'd let it stand for
vinegar. My mother needed vinegar one day so the man
told me to get the horse and they'd roll a barrel of it up for her
so she'd have all of the vinegar she needed." Allie Saxton talked
about Ernie and Carl Pray so much and Charlie McKenny; he played with them
when he was a boy. There were two sisters, Kate and ?, one of the
Prays liked one of the girls. Allie used to lie in hammock and Kate
would hug him to make her boy friend jealous. "My grandma Coppess
(Mary Martin??) kept peacocks, guinea hens, and all kinds of different
fowl. She was a large woman, looked quite a bit like my mother (Catherine
Coppess)." "I'll never forget a
pair of high red boots with copper toes my folks got me. I went to the
saw mill and jumped in the sawdust, it got into my boots and my
heels got sore and I couldn't wear the boots for four
days." Allie's folks lived up
at McBain, Michigan, when Pres. McKinley was shot and died in 1901, his father
(Wm. Saxton) knew Ida Saxton, Pres. McKinley's wife. William
Jennings Bryan ran on the Democratic ticket against McKinley and his wife was a
Baird, a relative of Omar Baird. "When the five children
had diphtheria, his sister Minerva was a nursing baby and didn't get
it. Gracie could play the organ at 5, and Maudie next to oldest about 8
1/2 or 9 could play real well. She was playing the organ
and it was a real bright day outside, but she said she couldn't
see would they light a lamp, so they did and she still couldn't
see well so they lit another, and all of a sudden she just slumped
over and died." "Mary, the oldest, asked
my father to carry her to see the others and he said when she was
better in a day or two and left the room. When I looked up she
was standing in the doorway and she looked so bad, I called my father
and she fell into my father's arms; he picked her up and
carried her and she died in his arms. An old man, Mr.
Whitney, came to see them every day, he wasn't afraid to catch it.
When the girls died he helped my dad build their coffins. They
were buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery. They died about 7 days apart (this is
wrong, they died over a 3-week period),
2 died in 1889 and the other
in 1890. There wasn't any snow on
ground at that time of the
year, last of Dec., first of Jan." When Allie worked for
Mr. Rowley, he was about 13 or 14; Frank Baird worked there too. This
was in Lansing on Waverly Rd. They went to Waverly School. They
lived on what is now route 78, but was called Battle Creek-Lansing Rd.
then. He had a teacher about
his same age once, 14. Two sisters, Ruth and Esther Conn, taught school,
one of them was 14. Ida Webster was a teacher, also. If
they got $1 a week they were lucky and they lived around with the
pupils families. Allie also remembers
when they used to refer to the Sears catalog as "that new book." Allie won first prize
with blue cabbage at the fair when they lived in Lansing. Allie's Grandma
Saxton (Sarah Celeste Murray) had a Rambo apple tree and they buried the
apples in barrels in the ground and when they'd go away the
Indians used to come and get the apples. The Indians had
huts in the woods close to them. His Grandma Saxton bought him a cute
little hammer,
he had for a long time then
he lost it. The doctor, who
delivered him, was Dr. Williams, they lived together or anyway he supposes he
helped as they lived in same house with them. It got too
crowded and they built a log house for Allie's folks; he was 6 yrs.
old. That's where they had the old Grandfathers clock that they took
the top off to get into the house. Clock was left in wagon
shed, he doesn't know what happened to it then. Allie used to work for a
man (carpentry) and they would eat there too and after they'd ask the
blessing this man would reach clear across the table lengthwise and
fork a piece of bread. His name was 'Nopperkoski', his son was
called 'Nig'. "My dad, William Saxton,
used to pick a fight with anyone he could (he was a smaller man).
One day they were riding a bus and dad was standing on the back step; they
came to a butcher shop where a big guy was looking out the door and
another one in the window. Dad hollered out 'that must be a butcher
shop there's a calf's head hanging out the window.' The
man came out and told dad to keep still and dad said he'd mop the dirt up
with him if he wanted him too. So the guy went back in." When people got smallpox
they took them to the pest house at the cemetery. Allie remembers
them taking lots of people there when he was a boy; very few ever came
back. His Grandma Coppess made
all of their mittens, they had sheep and a spinning wheel; she did it
all. She braided straw hats out of rice straw just as nice as 'store
bought ones.' They lived in barracks in Ohio when his
Grandmother Saxton lived close by them. The year Allie was
married he worked in brickyard with his dad. Allie lived in Sunfield
and Laura Brovont lived close to Bill Brovonts' when he went with
her. Laura worked in the post office in Sunfield. Allie's
folks moved 20 times in 20 years, two places they stayed 3 years each;
so they moved a lot. Allie's folks used to go
visiting the Frank Bairds' a lot and one time they went and kids all took
comforters and slept on the floor, and they had a fireplace
they'd lie in front of. In morning they rolled all of the
comforters up and went to eat breakfast and smelled smoke and
burned several holes in them. They had rolled coals up that had
come out of the fire. When Allie's folks came
to Michigan they used to go to dances and Allie hated taking care of the
kids so much. His mother wore a hat then. His folks had
dances at their house every two weeks. They had a big house and lots of
room. His father sold tickets, his nephews furnished the
music. The boys used to go where they knew there was a girl and brought
them to the dance. Dick Hoofnagle used to take a load
home. He had three mules named Abaltges, Square Dance and
Shodish. When Allie was a little kid his folks owned a little show and
danced in public. They got paid for that. They joined
church in Ohio then sort of backslid. They started again after the children
died of diphtheria. When Allie was first
married he worked at the Foster saw mill; George Griswold worked there,
too. Allie (he was a carpenter and mostly built barns) figured out that
he worked on 63 new barns and about that many old ones, too.
Allie hauled all of the logs for Teeters' house. He went to
Millerton, took all day (to the sawmill to have boards made from the logs); he
put the second roof on all alone. His father, William
Saxton, was in jail when the family left Ohio;
he got out and they were looking for him. The family went on ahead to Michigan
and used the name of 'Henderson' so they couldn't find them.