April 19 , 2009 - 1 , 267 views Brady was born : It was July 28 , 1896 , when our first child ( Brady ) was born . There was no milk for him and neither of our cows ' milk was fit for him , so Watie got on a horse and swam the river to get milk for him . He was so hungry that he took two bottles of milk , then went to sleep and slept like a pig . Pine Grove School , 1897 : The spring of 1897 I taught a select school of small children in the old Pine Grove meeting house . I had a fair - sized school , which paid me well . They were a bunch of bright children and did good work . One day Jennie taught , and some of the larger girls tried to scare the little children by telling them they saw a ghost . John Bee ( the doctor 's boy ) just said , " All magination , all magination . " I enjoyed this school very much . Lower Bone Creek School , 1897 - 1899 : The next two winters I taught the Lower Bone Creek School . The winter before a girl had taught it , and she had not been able to manage it at all . They would not mind her at all and annoyed her every way they could . I had no trouble and enjoyed it very much . February 12 , 1898 , was the coldest time I ever saw . It was clear as could be , but the air was full of frost - that is , the moisture in the air was frozen into snowflakes . I had a black cow in a barn by herself , and she was covered with frost until she was white . We could hear the trees cracking in every direction . I had to go one - half mile to feed my sheep , milk the cows , and feed the stock , and then go to school . It was 10 a . m . when I got to school , but there was no one there . The fire builder had stock to feed by the school house ; so he had built a fire , fed the stock , and gone home for his breakfast . In one - half hour one came ; in an hour three more came ; and at noon Rupert and Arlie came . So we had six that afternoon - all boys . It registered 44 degrees below zero . Most of the orchards in the valleys were killed . All of the beech trees half way up the hills were killed , and nearly all of the dogwoods also were killed . Nothing like this was ever seen here before nor since . That afternoon it got much warmer , and by Monday the snow was gone and it was warm and nice . Measles Outbreak : Erlo Sutton came to the last day of school that spring with an awful cold , felt bad all day , and in the morning he had the measles . He gave them to everyone he saw that day , which was at least 75 . One girl about 15 in my school died ; also , an old lady in Berea . Jennie , Brady , and I had them at the same time . Erlo had no idea where he got them . The next spring the trustees asked me to close the school a day early to avoid the danger of spreading disease . In the fall of 1898 I bought an interest in a cane mill with Dad Sutton and made molasses until late fall . The next fall we began to make molasses the 29th of August and finished the 6th of October . After that we never made so many , for people quit raising cane . I enjoyed it , but it was hard work . We would begin before daylight and work until 9 or 10 at night . About this time I bought an interest in a reaper and binder with Ellsworth . We did a lot of work for three years . Then people began to quit raising so much wheat ; and I sold my share to Uncle Sam Stalnaker . The Stansburry School , 1899 - 1900 : In the school year of 1899 - 1900 I taught on Spruce ( the Stansburry School , and may I receive forgiveness for teaching in such a place ) . There was just one family which was interested in an education ( George Brissey 's ) , and they were the only ones coming at the end of the term . Mr . Brissey said he always had to furnish all the scholars the last month of school . The most of these first graders had no book but a speller ! I told each of them to ask their parents to get them a First Reader , for I couldn 't teach little folks in the speller . The next morning I asked the children what their parents said . Some said their mother said she would get a reader that day ; others said she would get one at the end of the week . The little girl before mentioned said that her mother said whenever they learned what there was to learn in the speller , she would get them a reader . I thought , " Poor kids ; they will never see a reader . " Their father was working in Ohio . When he came home , he got them a reader . Think of a country school of eight grades and 19 in the first grade ! Now this little girl I wrote about had a sister 7 and a brother 8 , and the girls were too mean to live . One day I was hearing a class when they got very much amused , and I asked what was the matter . One of the class told me that Flossie was spitting on Donie ; so I told Flossie to go up and sit on my seat . She began to cry and said , " Donie was spitting on me , too . " I then told Donie to go up and sit there too , which tickled her for she thought she would have a lot of fun . But when I told her I would sit between them , she said , " No . " I tried to get her to sit on the bench , but she wouldn 't so I held her on my lap . She fought and kicked and tried to bite , but I just held her while she yelled , " Let me down mister ; let me down . " I held her for about a quarter of an hour ; then she sat on the seat all right . They did not come back , and the mother said I was holding the girls on my lap so she had to keep them at home . When the father cane home , he sent them back . They were liars and had little idea of honor or right . I don 't think they were as much immoral as they were unmoral . They had a very low order of intelligence ; in fact , they did not want to know much . I will give one instance of lying without cause or reason . A boy got mad at a boy behind him for putting his feet under his desk and said to him , " If you don 't keep back , I 'll cut your guts out . " I whipped him . A girl got excused to go home at recess ( she was 14 years old ) and stopped at a house on her way home and told them we had had an awful time up there that afternoon . She said that Okey Bird had taken a knife and ripped Russell Haddox right down his belly and then cut him right across . Of course , she was bound to have known they would find out she was lying , but she just wanted to tell a lie - probably to keep in practice , but I don 't think she needed any practice . I had trouble with a McDonald who told that I had hurt one of his boys seriously . I sent him word to show up or shut up . When I saw him , he agreed to shut up . Of course , he didn 't , because that is not the nature of such people . But it did me no harm , for I still got schools without any trouble . Harold was born - January 1 , 1900 . He was a very happy little fellow who endeared himself to everyone . Of course , we did not know that he would not be with us for only two short years . ( If we could only know about these things , we might be so different . ) Lower White Oak School , 1900 - 1901 : This next summer I bought the Parker place of Aunt Polly Kelley and moved over there that fall . I taught the Lower White Oak School the winter of 1900 and 1901 . This was a rather long trip , but I had a very nice school . I had a very nice First Reader class of four . They each tried very hard to be the best in the class , so I told them one day that the next day I would tell them which was the best . The next day they were all excited about who would get the honor of being the best in the class . Of course , I was likely to get in bad ; but just watch what I told then . I told them that the best one in the class was the one that studied the hardest . Everyone was happy , and each one studied his best to let no one in ahead of him . One has to try many things to get the best results . Watie and Elzie Sutton ( Jennie 's brothers ) : Watie came home from New York with Maggie this winter . They lived in Berea for a while , and Watie got a job with Fox and Meredith . The next summer he got a chance to buy Steve Bee 's farm by the Deep Ford . I got the money for him to pay for it . He stayed here until he went to work for Flanigan . From there he went to Doddridge County to an oil pumping job , which he kept till he retired . He was a hard - working , honest , truthful man who could be depended upon every time . He and I were great friends . Every time I go to Salem , I go to see Wilma , who is his only daughter and a very nice woman with a very nice family . While I am writing about Watie , I will also write about Elzie , who was one of the finest boys one would want to see . He went to Salem when he was a young man and went to work for Uncle Lloyd Randolph about 1902 . He then went to work in Uncle James ' store . He stayed there until Uncle James broke up , when he went to work as a carpenter . In the meantime he married Ethel Lynch . He was so industrious that he exposed himself by working in the rain to finish a job and took pneumonia , which ran into tuberculosis . He went to Colorado , where he lived for ten years . Ethel and two girls are still living in Boulder , Colorado . Ethel is very industrious , saving , and a fine manager . She is a loyal worker in the Seventh Day Baptist Church at Boulder . Bobbie ( the third boy ) died at Berea nearly fifty years ago . Typhoid Malaria : In the summer of 1901 Jennie was very sick for several weeks , so that we had to have a hired girl . Watie and I raised a big patch of cane , and it was very fine . A good deal of the cane was down , and it rained nearly every day . We were wet nearly all the time while we stripped it . There was lots of typhoid fever in the neighborhood , and I felt sure I was taking it . So I went to the doctor and got some dope before we got the molasses made . We had 115 gallons . Sabbath noon , after we got through , I took a chill , went to bed and sent for the doctor . He said I had typhoid malaria . As soon as the doctor said I had the fever , the girl went home . Jennie could just walk about the house a little , and Brady was five years old . John came down that evening and gave me a sponge bath . He said he would be back the next night , but the next night he had the fever . Ellsworth had always helped , but Arley and Aunt Mat each had the fever , so they couldn 't help . The neighbors were so afraid that they would not come near . A neighbor boy ( Creed Collins ) came and offered to go and get me a school ( I had no school ) , but he would not come into the house . He got me the Upper White Oak School . I was glad for that friend . Brady gave me the medicine and water , and Mama got us something to eat . I was up in two weeks . It was in late September , and I had to stay in bed for a few days as there was no wood to warm the house until Riley Davis ( our pastor ) came down and cut some wood . A friend in need is a friend indeed , so I have never forgotten Creed Collins and Riley Davis . One more I must mention . Someone ( I never found out who ) went to one of my trustees and told him that I had got me another school . At the same time I was in bed with the fever Tom Bee was carrying the mail in that neighborhood , so they came to the post office to ask him . He told them I had the fever , but when the time came I would be there and teach them a good school . The first chance I got , I thanked him for it ; I have thought more of him ever since . Jennie 's father had the fever , and I went there and waited on them . I think there is where I got it . There were over 30 cases of fever about Berea that summer and fall , and only one death . Whooping Cough - Harold Died , Ashby was Born : I had a fairly nice school this winter . But it was a very sad winter , for Brady and Harold got the whooping cough . When I came home at the end of the week ( January 17 ) Harold did not come to meet me . Jennie said he was sick , that she had had the doctor and that he said it was brain fever . Just one week later ( the day Ashby was born ) Harold died . That was a sad day for us . We kept Brady in another room in hopes Ashby would not catch the whooping cough . It worked , and Ashby did not get it . We had a very nice girl ( Edna Campbell ) working for us . Brady would get lonesome as he could not go into the room where Jennie was ; so Edna would take him up and sing to him . In fact , she taught him to sing . This winter I boarded with a Baker near the school . They had five children in school . Mrs . Baker would help them in their studies every evening after supper . There were three in the same class , and the youngest was the best of the three . They treated me very well . Middle Fork School : The next winter I taught on Middle Fork . The winter before a girl had taught who could do nothing with the children at all . When she said anything to the big girls , they would jump up , shove up their sleeves , and tell her to look at their muscles and that she couldn 't do anything with them . They took a B - B gun to school , put a mark on the blackboard and shot at it in time of school . I soon tamed them some and had a very nice school . I fixed up a house on Elva and Dow 's farm and lived there as it was too far to go from home and there was a river to cross . This was a very pleasant winter for us although there was some deep snow and some cold weather . We were all well and happy . We kept the house good and warm , with the best hickory wood you ever saw ; and we had plenty to eat . So what more could anyone want ? Friends in Ritchie County : Yes , and we had good friends near , which made it still nicer . I wonder if we ever appreciate friends as we should . We have always had friends , but I still think of the friends back in Ritchie - Mr . Haddix , Mr . Colgate , John Meredith , Mintee Fox , Mr . Wagoner , John Bee , all the Maxsons , Jack Hudkins , Mr . Kelly , Karl Bee , Art Brissey , Maynard Brissey - yes , and so many more that I can 't begin to name them all . But I must mention Uncle Frank and Uncle Herman , Reuben and Albert Brissey , Ves Collins . Yes , and I mustn 't forget Jess Kelley , with whom we used to hunt so much . Sun Rise School - Avis was Born , October 30 , 1903 : The next winter I taught at the Sun Rise School . This was a long trip , so when Marshal Ehret wanted us to move into his house and feed his cattle and let me have hay for my horse , I agreed and moved up there . Before we could move , our only girl ( Avis ) was born . We had a very pleasant and profitable winter there . I will tell one thing that happened at the house while I was at school . The stove pipe went up through the roof without any flue . One day when Jennie was alone with the baby , she saw that the roof was afire . The spring was a quarter of a mile from the house . She had a pan of dish water on the table and a rung ladder set against the side of the house . She grabbed the pan , climbed the roof , threw water on the fire , and put the most of it out . Then she took her hands and scraped the coals off the shingles . She burned her hands some , but she saved the house . This took lots of grit , but she did it . The baby was only a month or six weeks old . We did not take our cows with us as there were several there . He promised to pay for the feed for the hens if they didn 't lay enough to pay . Snow came right away , and they didn 't lay enough to amount to anything ; in fact , not a dozen all winter . He did not pay me anything as he said he had left some flour and meal , which he thought would pay for the hen feed . This was no pay at all , but I didn 't say anything as I expected to stay there some more because it was handy . I fed nearly 30 head of of cattle and calves . He came out and saw his stock just before school was out and was very well pleased with them . School went very well ; but , as in most of the schools , some of the children would not try to learn . Father Died , Fall 1903 : The fall of 1903 Father came to Salem for Conference , where he and many others got ptomaine poison . He got better and came out to Berea . On the train he got worse and was never out of bed after he got to Ellsworth 's . We had two doctors , but they could do nothing . As the children were all there except Virgil and Cleo , they decided to settle the estate at once . There was no will nor debts , so each would share alike . Mother Randolph said she only wanted enough to keep her while she lived ; if the children would give her 4 percent of their share per year , she would be satisfied . This was very generous of her , and I feel sure the children all appreciated it . Ashby had Scarlet Fever , 1904 : We went to Commencement at Salem in 1904 and left the children at their grandpa 's . When we came back , Ashby had the scarlet fever . He was very bad for two weeks . In fact , it did not look like he could live at all . He did not cry or make any noise except when we doctored him , which was every half hour ; then he would make a very peculiar noise . When he began to get better , he was too cranky to live . When we gave him a drink in a cup , if he wanted it in a glass , he would throw it as hard as he could . If he wanted it in a cup and we brought it in a glass , the same thing happened - we never knew which one he wanted . The first day I left the house I went a half mile to hoe my corn and stayed all day . When I got home , I found Jennie scared nearly to death . Aunt Sarah Colgate had been there and told her Ashby was deaf , for he wouldn 't notice when they called to him ; in fact , he wouldn 't notice anything they said or did . I told her of course he would do nothing they wanted him to do . This did not convince her , so I stepped out in the dark , picked up a board , hit the side of the house ; and he nearly jumped out of the cradle . This settled the question of his hearing . He did have a lot of trouble with his ears and nose that fall and later . I think this will be enough about Ashby for the present . Ellsworth died in 1905 : Ellsworth did not have his farm all paid for . He told me in the spring of 1904 that he could pay out by selling his stock . He was killed in the spring of 1905 logging for Zeke Bee . This changed many things for me , as we had always worked together . I would help him when he needed help , and he would help me . When Blondie was a very sick baby , we went night after night and sat up with him . Then when Ashby had scarlet fever , they came for two weeks and sat up with him . As I said before , " Never did any one have a better brother " . It was during this winter that Ashby was so very sick that he would not notice anything . We were alone for two or three days , but Ellsworth came up as soon as they heard of it and stayed all night . It was this night that he really began to improve . When something did not suit him , he cried for the first time he had made any noise for three days . Never was there a brother that stood by better than Ellsworth . Middle Fork School : That winter I taught again at Middle Fork . A young man had taught the winter before . He had paid attention to Ada Knight , which had made the Zinn girls very angry . When school began , I found that I had a job on my hands . If I smiled at the Zinn girls , the Knight girl wanted to kill me ; if I smiled at the Knight girl , the Zinn girls would try to kill me . They would not sit near each other at class . In two months they decided that Zinns and Knights were all the same to me ; so we got along all okay . One boy gave me a lot of trouble the first winter . He was easily influenced , and a big boy and girl put him up to mischief . But the second winter I got him interested . He studied hard and decided to go on to Salem , which he did and got a good education . I am always very glad when I can get a boy or girl interested in going ahead to school . I feel the school a failure if no one is inspired to go ahead along the road toward education . Every teacher should be able to fill his pupils with such a thirst for knowledge that they will never be satisfied until they have drunk deep of that fountain . I am proud of the fact that I have inspired many to go on in their studies . I am especially proud of the fact that , where no one had ever gotten a diploma from the eighth grade in one school in Braxton County , now more than a dozen have finished high school . I am proud because I know that I was directly responsible - but more of this later . My First State Teaching Certificate , 1905 : My certificate expired in 1905 , and I did not try for a school . In July Mr . Mason sent me word to come up and get the Sun Rise School . He said that Port Campbell was wanting the school but that the district did not want him . Mr . Mason , Mr . Hayden , and Mr . Campbell were the trustees . Mr . Campbell could not help hire Port , so he resigned and tried to get someone else appointed who would help Mr . Hayden hire Port . Mr . Hayden said he would be glad to sign my contract . I went up to see Mr . Mason and then to Mr . Hayden . We ran him down , and he squirmed like possessed . At last he said that I could have the school , so I got a certificate . This was my first state certificate . When Port heard I got the school , he said I could not get a certificate for I couldn 't get anything on " Grammar . " He got 65 percent on grammar , and I got 93 percent . He said the grammar didn 't suit him . It sure didn 't . Since that time Port and I have been good friends . Randal was Born : On February 3 , 1906 , our fourth son ( Randal ) was born . He was a delicate baby ; soon after we got to New York he had a serious case of pneumonia . We were lucky to get a very fine doctor for children ( Dr . Loughbead ) , who fixed a formula for feeding him , and he did much better on it . He was a Seventh Day Baptist at Nile , and we were very lucky that we got him . We sold some of our household goods and left some . Very little of what we left was to be found when we got back . We took some bedding with us , but little else . The weather was fine , and we had a very nice trip . A livery man took us from Cuba ( seven miles ) to Gene 's . We stayed there for over a month before they could get our house ready . We had a fairly comfortable house to live in . We put in several potatoes and some corn . Gene drilled a gas well near our house , but it was not much good . Soon after this , he got a contract to drill several wells in Pennsylvania . The boys went down there with him . He bought a new horse and came up to start harvest . When he tried to work the horse , it proved to be an awful kicker . He went back and told me to work her and they would come back and help me put the hay up when I got a lot of it cut down . They came back and put up 35 acres . He had 30 acres he wanted to get put up on the shares . I told him Brady and I could put it up ( Brady was nearly 10 years old ) . We put the 30 acres up , for which I think Brady got about $ 7 . This wasn 't much , but it was dear gain , and it paid Gene very well . In the early fall Gene 's family went down to Pennsylvania . We spent the winter in their home so we would have a warmer house and be closer to the feeding and milking . We had a fine lot of winter apples . I had so much work to do and no help that I only got a start when 8 inches of snow came ( the 8th of October ) . It only lasted a day or two , when I went on with the picking . Before I got them picked , we had hard freezing . I would just wait till they thawed out and go on picking . I finally got them all in the cellar , and we had apples till after the middle of July . Two years later the tenant did not get the apples picked till after a freeze and lost them all . The first summer we were there , Brady caught 25 woodchucks . He would hide near their den , wait till they got away from it , then beat them to it and get them . There are a great many woodchucks in New York . Brady had a lot of trouble in school . Some of the larger boys would beat up on him , and the teacher would just laugh at him . I , or we , got tired of this ( he was having a headache all the time ) and took him out of school . The teacher reported him , and the truant officer came . I was prepared for trouble , but he said that the former teacher , who lived in the district , told him the way Brady was treated and said she would not send him a day . A neighbor told him it was a shame the way he was treated and that the trustee said he told one of the boys to let Brady alone , but the boy said he would do as he pleased and he couldn 't help it . The teacher denied this , but the officer told her if she wouldn 't take care of the children he wouldn 't make them come . So he said he would get his stepson , who was a doctor , to give him an excuse . The teacher tried again , but the officer paid no attention . He told her he didn 't do his work twice . Trading a Kicking Horse : I spoke of a horse that could kick . We called her Maud , and she could kick ! She took it by spells . Sometimes she would work for several days without kicking any ; then she would kick things all to pieces for a few days . Oh , she was a honey ! I saw a man in Nile who wanted to trade for her . I told him she would kick some but that I had worked her at everything I tried but one and that was plowing . He wanted to know what she did . I told him she kicked , ran back , acted the fool , and did everything but plow but if we didn 't trade , I would plow her . We traded even , and he had new shoes put on the horse I got . The blacksmith where we traded told me that the man I traded with said he wouldn 't take less than $ 125 for her . There was a number by , and he thought he would have some fun at my expense . I just looked at him and said if she had suited me I would not have taken less than that , but she did not suit me so I let her go . The crowd roared . I never saw the man I traded with again , but I learned he was a regular horse trader so I presume he came out all right . The horse I got was a fine worker but very slow , so I came out all right , thank goodness , Ashby and Avis : The first summer we were at Gene 's , Ashby and Avis went with me up there ( Ashby was 4 and Avis was 2 ) . When I got the team ready to go to work , I told them to run on home , which was one - fourth mile away . It was thundering , and they were afraid ; so Cleo went along . Avis said , " We 's too good for thunder to hurt us , ain 't we , Auntie ? " They were very good just then . This next story was told by a doctor . He asked Cleo about her little children . She said she had no little children ; they were all grown up . Then he told her that he was going by there the year before when he saw two little children playing in a swamp and he said to them , " What are you doing , little children ? " The boy said , " We are catching bullfrogs . " Then the little girl piped up , " You mustn 't say that , Ippie ; you must say cow frog . " Cleo knew who they were , for Avis always said " Ippie . " Ashby had a lot of trouble with a gobbler that Cleo had . He could make it too much for Ashby . Gene had a collie pup he called Romulus which thought a lot of Ashby . Whenever the turkey would see Ashby , he would jump on him , and Ashby would say , " Come on here , Romulus , he 's coming . " Romulus would right off and run the turkey away . As soon as the turkey saw the dog was gone , back he would come ; and the same talk would happen again , " Come on back here ; he is coming again . " He never called for any of us to help , and the dog always ran the turkey away . It was not a very successful year . The cows Gene bought did not prove to be fresh in the spring , as the man he bought them of said they would . We did not get much milk ( which is the chief money crop in that neighborhood ) . Jennie was sick most of the summer and fall , and things did not look good for the future . Therefore we decided to come back to West Virginia , which we did in the fall of 1907 . I sold the team and some other stuff to the renter Gene got to take our place . Gene took the man 's note for the team . For the rest of the things I got some money , a cheap railroad ticket , and a little surplus which he promised to send - but of course he never did . On the whole I made a good deal with the man , so I never worried about the unpaid balance . Coon Hunting before We Left New York : The renter said he had a good coon dog , so Gene and the boys and I went out before we left . We got a coon in a little while , and later we treed another in a slump of trees . We decided to watch it . As it began to get daylight , we decided the coon had gotten away , so we started home . But the dog struck a track right away and in a few moments treed . Gene said he saw one and shot it out . I told him to let me have the gun , and I shot another one . This made us three coons in one night , which we thought was quite good . We stayed in a hotel the first night in Pittsburgh . The next evening Elva met us at Pennsboro with a wagon . We lived in a house on Uncle Elisha 's farm , where he had lived for many years . I taught the Upper Otter Slide school . This was a very pleasant school with one exception . Tom Gribble got mad at me about his son Paulie and took him out of school . He raised a fuss about my being partial toward my children . I called the trustees in and demanded a hearing . They failed to get Tom to come , so they came in and told the school that there was nothing to what he was telling so I let it go . The trustees were Al Kelley , Tom Ward , and I 've forgotten the other one . Tom Gribble objected to Ashby 's going as he wasn 't quite 6 ( Tom sent his children before they were 5 , and Ashby was there once ) . More about Ashby and Avis : As I have already said , Ashby did not go to school the latter part of December and until January 24 . One cold day Jennie got to wondering what the two were doing . She found them playing meeting . Ashby was the leader , and he told Avis to get up and speak . She said , " I don 't know what to say . " He told her to get up and say , " The Lord has gone from me , and the crows are carrying my chickens away . " How quickly children can learn to imitate older people ! Avis was very successful in getting her way with children , but Ashby had a fine way to get her to do as he wanted her to . He would say , " Avis , if you don 't do this , I won 't watch the snakes off of you . " She would always say , " I 'll do it , Ippie , if you 'll watch the snakes off of me . " She feared snakes very much and was certain that Ashby could keep them off of her . Children are so trusting , but they soon learn to doubt us for we fail to do as we say exactly all the time . Randal Died : We were to move into Pa Sutton 's house in Berea as soon as school was out . Aunt Rachel had not moved out yet , so we had to wait a few days . I was working for Dow and had just gotten back to work after dinner when we heard Jennie calling that Randal ( our baby of two years ) was dying . She had carried him for about one - half mile . He was dead . Jennie thought he had choked to death , but he hadn 't . He had taken some kind of fit or spasm and died without a struggle . Had he choked , he would have struggled for breath and his face would have turned black , none of which happened . He had never been strong . We were glad he went without suffering rather than being sick and suffering for weeks . It was a terrible blow to us , especially to Jennie . Although she did not talk much about it , I doubt if she really got over it until after the birth of Elmo . Even now it is a sad thing to write about , so I will write no more about it . A Big Bass : We moved to Berea and raised a garden down at the Polly Place as well as in Berea . One day Brady and I were down there working in the garden when Brady got tired and wanted to go down to the river . He said he heard a big fish on the riffle . I told him to go on as he had worked very well , and I thought he was tired . As soon as he got down there , he began to holler , " Come down here quick ! There 's a big fish here . " I knew there was no big fish that we could catch , but I went to please the kid . When I got there , what do you suppose I found - a bass one - half as long as your arm in a hole of water 10 feet long , 3 feet wide , and 6 inches deep , with very shallow water on each side . I told Brady to drive him up to the upper end where I had put a cross tie so he couldn 't get away , and I would kill him with a club . I didn 't think he would go below , but he seemed to be afraid of me and only came part way . All at once he went by Brady on the dead run . I yelled at him , " Now you let him get away . " The water was so shallow that he had to turn on his side and flop . Brady rushed for it and hit it on the head with all his might . That was the end of the bass ! It was 18 3 / 4 inches and weighed 3 lbs . 14 oz . and made more than we could all eat in a meal . A Home in Berea ; Lower Room at Berea School : That fall I sold the Polly Place and bought the house and lots where we lived in Berea . I got the lower room to teach at Berea , and Ernest Campbell was principal . I did not ask for a place at Berea . When the one they gave the lower room to would not teach , I got it and had a very nice time . I had to teach the first five grades as Ernest would only teach three . He would not try to keep his boys from running over those in my room . One day at noon my room and some of the upper room were playing trim a Christmas tree when Orin Hammond came down and began to tear it up . Then Hose Brake made for him , and they had a time . Orin never bothered my kids again . I had a bunch of girls from 8 to 10 who were said to be so badly spoiled that they could hardly be controlled . I found them as good students and as nice to get along with as one could ask . They were Guerney Brake , Jessie Hayhurst , May Douglas , Darla Bee and some others . They would do anything I wanted them to do . They each wanted to do more than the others . This winter Guerney Brake came to school the first day with the mumps . We all had them but me , and I still have not had them . Brady had them very hard , for he took a backset on them . Auburn School , 1909 : The summer of 1909 I taught a school for advanced scholars in Auburn . I had a large school , which paid me quite well . I had 40 students . I did so well with the lower room that they gave me the principal 's place the next winter . This was a much harder job , but I got along fairly well . I got the ill will of Tom Jackson and Ell Douglas , which caused me a considerable trouble . The Grange : About 1908 they organized a Grange , which did a lot of good for a few years . Two years we had a Farmers ' Institute with fine speakers from other parts of the state . This was very fine . Then for two falls we had a Farmers ' Picnic with fine speakers . The fall of 1912 we had five or six of the best speakers in Ritchie and one ( a very able speaker ) from another section . There were hundreds of people there , and it was a very successful affair . I was lecturer and had charge of the program , and I think I had a small part in its success . We tried to start a Grange store . We bought a suitable building and lumber to fix it up , but we failed to find a manager . We sold the property , lumber and all so that we did not lose anything . Mr . Wagoner moved away , we went to Salem , and the Grange died . Building onto our Home : After finishing my school at Auburn , I decided to add another story to my house as it was a one - story house . I took some of the ceiling and upper floor from the Polly House , which I still owned . This was red oak and hard maple , very fine , tongued and grooved . I also bought some fine dressed lumber at a sale very cheap . This way I was able to have a good two - story house .