This article was originally provided by MyrnaWalker99 on Ancestry.com, 30 April 2008. Myrna asked Bessie to write what she remembered about growing up in the John and Molly Davison family. I transcribed this article for this family blog. This article reads as:
JOHN MILTON DAVISON-MARY LUCINDA CUNNINGHAM
John Milton was born on August 31,1876, and was the second boy born in the family. He married Mary Lucinda Cunningham in Bolivar, Missouri, on December 26, 1897. Mary Lucinda was 17 at the time, being born on June 25, 1880, and John Milton was 21 years old. Reverend Jeff A. Johnson married them in his home, and J.H. Horn and Florence Neuhart were their witnesses.
John Milton and Mary Lucinda (Molly, as she was called) had met at Mount Olive Church near Bolivar in a revival meeting. One night they shared the same song book as they sang. Later, Molly told her sisters that she was going to bring "that big Davison" home with her that night. They were shocked, saying that she shouldn't flirt like that, but somehow she managed to make good her word. Since John just had one horse, he walked her home leading the horse--a distance of about 3/4 mile. Since Molly's family was a big one, they could not go inside the four-room house to "court". So they sat on the porch. They were married about three months later.
Mary Lucinda was the youngest of the nine children, and she had a very fine sense of humor. She must have, because she and John lived in a tent near Cliquot, Missouri, at the first of their married life! They soon bought some land near Halfway and built a one-room log cabin on it. Their first baby, born about a year after their marriage, died at birth. Molly had a midwife to help her instead of a doctor, and problems developed. She developed an infection and was unconscious for four days. John declared that they would never have another baby. He changed his mind, but all subsequent children were delivered by a doctor in their home. John and Molly had eleven children born to them between 1899 and 1921--six boys and five girls--one child about every 26 months. Their children were:
Glen--January 5, 1899--died at birth
Fred Ernest--January 26, 1901-June 23, 1979--married to Lilian Cox (1925),
Lorraine Thomason,
and Lillian Lawson (July 30, 1949)
Bessie Pearl--September 18, 1902- --married to Olin Locke
Jessie Opal--February 6, 1904- --married to Wm. Floyd Middleton
Paul Gladys--January 15, 1906-December 25,1964--married to Naomi (Oma) Ragsdale.
Silas Leonard--December 21, 1909-December 18, 1936--married to Gussie Farmer
Clifford Cunningham--August 26, 1912-Jan., 1987--married to Marjorie Anderson
Mary Joletha--March 29, 1914- married to Truman Abram Duff
Martha Mildred--October 30, 1917-November 23, 2008--married to Berkley William Hite
John Milton--March 19, 1919- 1995?--married to LuLu Mae Frieze
Dorothy June--June 22, 1921- --married to Lois (Louis) Sterling Hayter
Silas died of Hodgkin's Disease, and both of his children died of diptheria. Paul died of cancer of the colon.
As more and more children were born John would add onto their house. Eventually it became a pretty good-sized house! After the death of Mary Joletha, her little house was moved up to form a dining room and kitchen, and the family built on a porch on either side of the house. The kids thought they were relay getting a wonderful house then! John and Moly told their children a few stories about themselves when they were growing up, but they did not talk much about their past lives. Two stories they did tell were as follows: John and his brother had once tied a corn shuck dipped in kerosene onto a cat's tail and set it on fire to scare the cat, but the car ran under the barn and the barn burned to the ground. John's sister Julia (Julie) married a man who would not work, so once, while he was asleep at a mill, she tied him up in a sheet and beat him!
John and Molly kept very busy on the farm..John would go get fresh water and check the weather indicator every morning without fail--and without a hat or coat! He was a farmer and he specialized in pigs, and he could never make much profit because he had to use the money from the pigs to pay off the money they had borrowed to buy corn for the pigs. He also owned cows, a goat, stallions, and jacks. He was a deacon at the Pleasant View Baptist Church were the family always attended, and where he helped to build the new church.
A lady once asked Molly how she found the strength to get all of her family ready and to church on time every time the doors were open. Molly replied that her strength came just day by day. She would start planning for Sunday on Monday. But if it rained, the family could not go to church because of the open wagon, and the kids would all cry. When the family began to grow, Molly would bake eight loaves of bread twice a week, besides the daily cornbread. Later she had to bake twelve loaves on Saturday, plus a big pan of rolls. By Monday morning, she would have to bake again!
She did all of the sewing, plus making quilts and rugs. Molly would churn butter every morning before breakfast because she liked fresh butter for her family. They would also have gravy and biscuits, or oatmeal, or often they would have rice with cream and sugar for breakfast. They did not have eggs to eat except on Easter for a treat, because they sold them to buy sugar. (That is one reason Martha ate two of them for breakfast for much of her adult life!)They ate meat when they had it, but they did not usually have it in summer. They would also eat squirrels or fish. The cornbread that was so basic to their meals would be eaten crumbled up in milk. They loved this and called It "crumb up". About 1 1/2 gallons of milk would be drunk in this way per day.
About once a week Molly and a son would go to Halfway to shop. They would buy flour, sugar, baking powder, bib overalls, and material for 10 cents a yard. About everything else would be made or grown. The family also had a big orchard, and they pick peaches and apples. They would make apple butter in a big brass kettle outside, and the two oldest girls would stay home from school to help stir it. They would also pick blackberries and gooseberries a lot. The apples would be sold during the summer for about one dollar per bushel, and John would heap the bushel baskets just as full as possible. At the end of the season, the family would dig a big hole, line it with straw, bury the apples, and cover it with straw and dirt. They could then have apples in the winter.
When the children were small, their toys consisted of simple things. A favorite toy was a round hoop that would be pushed with a stick to roll it. They walked miles doing this. They also loved to play "Barns". They would take sticks and string and make little fences, and they would cut off an old broomstick handle on a slant and make horse hoof tracks all over the yard. Caves were made by burying your hand in the dirt, putting a little water on it, and gently sliding the hand out. Later, they would make horses and animals out of corn cobs. They even made little halters to go on the horses. The "horses" would pull a spoon and plow the "fields". The children said that it was rough on silverware, but it was an awful lot of fun. Martha Mildred (born October 30, 1917) said that the kids could not wait to finish eating so that they could all go back and play "Barns". The youngest brother John would sometimes get mad and ruin the fences. But their dad would never let them fight very long. They were made to "kiss and make up" until they were laughing again. John received a horse and wagon for Christmas one year. The wagon broke, but the boy continued to play with the horse. One of his legs was in a raised position, and the boy wore the foot down by pawing in the ground with it.
Entertainment was scarce, but the family attended church and pie suppers at school. Each girl would decorate a box and fill it with food. The box would then be auctioned off. Each girl tried to keep her box a secret so that the others would not run up the price to keep her boyfriend from being able to buy it. On Saturday nights, the family would sometimes walk to the neighbor's house and listen to the radio with earphones. This neighbor, Sam Gordon, was a fairly wealthy man who had the first radio, water heater, and electric lights around them. He once had a beef barbecue and invited everyone. This was the first time that Martha remembers eating beef, and she was around 12 years old.
When there was no place to go, the family would gather around the organ and sing. When John Milton would finally say that it was time for bed, Fred, the oldest, would always want Opal to play one more song while they went up the stairs. On Sunday afternoons the kids would all ride the mules, spurring them so that they would buck. Other times they would play Crack-the-Whip, Annie-Over, and have corn cob fights. When the little carnival would come to town, John and Molly would gather up all the kids in the neighborhood and take them in the wagon. The fair would cost 25 cents if you were over 12, but only 10 cents if you were smaller.
Holidays were special only because John and Molly made them that way. Each child could pick out a small gift from the catalog. Sometimes the gift got there by Christmas but sometimes it was later--if it came at all. Molly would make lots of cookies, popcorn, and candy, and they would buy fruit. The children would hang their stockings on chairs because they did not have a fireplace. The gifts ranged from a knife or one dollar watch for the boys to a 10 cent ring or a rubber doll for the girls. One Christmas, Martha was told by her brothers and sisters that she would receive something that would sing. She imagined that it was all sort of things-- even a sewing machine. But it turned out to be a tiny celluloid five-inch bird in a little cage.
The children always looked forward to their older brother Fred's gift from California--a box of oranges. The oranges would all be divided evenly by size until they were all gone. Then each person would put his in a safe place. John Milton always ate the biggest one first. When he was asked by his children why he did this, he replied that this easy he would always have the biggest one left. For Christmas dinner, they usually had a goose or some guineas. But Decoration Day (Memorial Day) was really the biggest event in the whole year. Everyone got a new outfit and the family would take a lot of food to the church. They children would usually put on a program, and the day was very special.
The children attended Roberts School for first through eighth grade. The school was only one room, and the kids walked about a mile or more each way. If it rained, they did not go. They studied reading, writing, math, history, geography, and health. In order to graduate from grade school, a test had to be passed. Martha got to attend high school because a bus started coming by in 1931, so she started to Bolivar High school. For her second year, the Goodson bus ran, so she attended there. In her junior year, no busses ran, so she got a job with Mrs. Shaw at Halfway and lived with her, helping with chores for room and board. She could walk to high school then. When Mrs. Shaw died, Martha moved in with Bertha Miller and was able to attend Halfway school her senior year. She and another girl were tied for valedictorian of their class of about 16 students, but the other girl received the honor because she had attended there all four years. Martha and her younger sister Dorothy were the only children in the family who finished high school. The boys were needed on the farm, and the other girls married early.
The family never went to the doctor unless the sickness was very serious. Minor ailments were handled with mustard plaster, and a mixture of vinegar, kerosene, and grease would break up a cold when placed on the chest. When Silas, the third oldest boy, was a teen-ager, he got appendicitis. The doctor came and operated on him in the parlor. A nurse came to stay with him while he recovered, and the house had to be kept very quiet. The nurse fed him Jello, and it was the first time that any of the kids had tasted it. They did not like it because they thought it would taste like jelly, and they were disappointed.
John and Molly did not get the measles until the younger kids brought them home from school, and then they were terribly sick. Martha and her younger brother John both contracted diphtheria. Their dad rushed to Bolivar to get the doctor. His time was 28 miles in four hours--running the horse all the way. But perhaps the major tragedy was the death of Silas at 27 years due to Hodgkin's Disease. When he was about 20, a sister noticed a lump on his throat and they thought it was a goiter. The doctor said that it was just a cyst. Finally, they took him to Columbia. The doctor there wrote a letter to Molly explaining the disease, and Silas later asked to read it because he knew that something was wrong. The expected time to live with the disease was five years, but he outlived that by two years. Soon after he died, his two children died of diphtheria. The daughter died before they found out what was wrong, and the son died in the hospital not long after. The doctors were rushing to put a tube in his throat, and a tiny blood vessel broke. Because he coughed, the vessels broke further and killed him.
There were a lot of hard times. The children remember waking up to the sound of the rain barrel exploding because it had frozen, and seeing snow on the covers. The first thing you had to do when you awoke was to blow the frost off of your nose. John said of Molly that there was not another woman on earth who would put up with the hardships that she had withstood, and Molly said that there had been hard times, but she guessed that she was the happiest woman that had ever lived. John Milton died on January 18, 1958, and Molly died on September 80, 1958 in Bolivar. There were both buried at Mount Olive Cemetery.
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