Tag: Ella Viola Daniel Roberts - Heritage Ramblings

Jasper County, Iowa schoolhouse. It was used to store hay when this picture was taken, about 1972. The schoolhouse is gone now.

Roberts Family (Click for Family Tree)

The Jasper County, Iowa farm of George Anthony Roberts and Ella Viola (Daniel) Roberts was very close to the one-room schoolhouse that their three children, George Anthony Roberts, Jr., Ethel Gay Roberts, and Edith Mae Roberts attended. Edith described the proximity in one of the stories she wrote for her grandchildren. She was a captivating writer, and set the scene remembered from when she was just four or five, even before she described anything about the school. She called her story, “A Winter Afternoon 1904.”

“Mother and I had had a nap and I was playing in the kitchen, while Mama was taking out of the oven huge loaves of bread and a pan of six inch high biscuits.

“There must have been a dozen in this particular pan she always used for these biscuits. The fragrance from the freshly baked bread was delightful. The golden-browned tops were well greased, making them even more delicious to eat. Mother used a potato water starter. I don’t know just how she did it. I do know that sister was always warned not to upset the cup of starter on the table in the pantry. She baked once a week.

“These winter afternoons were quiet and comfortable as I think back on them.”

Jasper County, Iowa schoolhouse, taken about 1972. The image would have been taken probably in mid-July, judging by the stage of the corn around it.

Edith continued:

“It was about time for the kids to come home from school. If I timed it right I could stand on a chair and watch for them to leave the school grounds. We were just a quarter of a mile from the school-house.

(The Roberts farm was in Mound Prairie township, in Section 25 and 26 in the years these photos were taken. Their house sadly burned down sometime around the 1970s.)

As an adult Edith could not stay still- always working, doing something with her hands while listening to her favorite farm programs or PBS shows, or a good conversation. She must have been a very busy child, and admitted that in the following:

“This afternoon I was standing on a chair jugging from one foot to the other with a carpet ball in my hands. A big basket of them was under the resevoir [sic]. Also near the stove was a tall can of thick cream. It was being warmed to churn the next morning. Mother had warned me to be careful. Finally, while I was shouting; “They are coming, they are coming.” she said sharply; “Edith Mae Roberts, if you drop one of those carpet balls in that cream you will get a hard spanking.” Under my breath I said; “I wish my name was not Edith Mae Roberts.” I was teased about this for years. “So you don’t want to be called Edith Mae Roberts huh?”

Apparently the carpet balls (torn up old clothing that would be made into a household carpet) did not end up in the cream- or, Edith never admitted they did. The most important thing at that moment was the schoolhouse, as the two siblings she loved so dearly were running out the door, running up the hill, and coming home to her:

“The kids came in all hot and breathless and covered with snow. All hungry as little bears. I knew mother would fix them one of those fresh biscuits and I would get half of one too, with either plum butter or apple butter on it. Delicious! I can almost taste them now.”

Georgie and Ethel may have spent the last part of their school day thinking of the delicious treat they might find when they got home- they knew which day of the week was baking day! The two of them may have run the whole quarter mile home to get to that biscuit faster- and get out of the cold Iowa snow.

The biscuits were a wonderful treat, to be sure, but their after-school snack was also fuel for hardworking farm youngsters on a cold winter day with snow to trudge through as they did their after-school work. Georgie was 15 years old in 1904, and Ethel 13; they were expected, by that age, to do practically the job of an adult on the farm.

“Brother and sister would change their school clothes and get outside to do the chores. If I didn’t have a cold I could go too. What fun it was to tag my brother through the snow. Gathering a few eggs in the chicken nest, and leading the horses to water, and putting corn and oats in their feed boxes. The barn was warm and noisy with their movement and eating. We would go up in the hay mow and throw to put [it] in their mangers. Brother helped mama milk, and I would have to go Protesting to the house, because I couldn’t be in the cow-barn where they were milking. Sister would start supper, and another winter afternoon had come to a close.”

Edith was protected for a while longer from the dangers of farm life, such as a restless cow kicking her or a large work horse not seeing her and smashing her against a wall. She most likely protested quite heartily as she was scooted to the house, and knowing how spunky she was, she likely would have been persistent as well, but her safety would have won out.

She understood why, and that the family loved her:

“As I look back on my early childhood, I seem to remember this feeling of contentment, happiness and always being busy as were everyone in the family. We were happy and had concern for each other. Of course there were spats with each other but when we needed each other [all] the family rallied around. There was not much show of affection, in fact I can’t remember ever seeing my mother or father being hugged or kissed by sister or brother. I think it was frowned on. Not me. I loved them all and showed it, but I was the baby. Maybe this is what made the difference.”

Edith would go on to attend that same one-room schoolhouse, but she would take her education even farther than did her brother or sister. But that is another story.

Notes, Sources, and References:

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Those Places Thursday: Jasper County Schoolhouse

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