Written by Lenora Skeen Freestone, a daughter in the 1960’s
I am going to talk about our home and family as I remember it. It was a happy and fun home with lots of hard work. There were always people around and they were always welcome.
In the summer it was farming and there were always hired men to cook for. When they were in the hay, Mother would cook a hot dinner and send it to the field. It was my turn to take it down, so I hooked up the pony and my friend went along to hold the black currant pie. We decided on the way we would cut the pie in enough pieces so there would be some left over. So it was cut in 13 pieces, but the men ate so much there was none left for us.
In the fall there were beets to harvest and the threshing to do. We cooked three meals every day and the harvest lasted for a week. Then it was time to kill the hogs and beef for the winter meat, and the wood and coal bins to fill.
It was school time and sleigh riding and parties, oyster stews and candy pulling. We had dances every week and on all the holidays.
Father was a contractor, he built roads for the railroad and canals in Utah and Idaho. John Maw and Father would ship carloads of coal and the the boys would haul a load to all the widows in town. It was free to them.
Charles was the oldest boy. He stayed home and helped on the farm, as the others went away to school. When Blaine and Wilford got older they took over the farm, then came George and Dick who helped.
Father was a great horse man, he owned a lot of good horses. We had our own ponies and did a lot of horseback riding. He traveled all over the United States buying horses for the Army. He went to England and shipped horses home. On one trip he brought an Englishman with him. Tommy stayed with us for a year. At mealtime if the food was out of his reach he would jump up and run around the table to get it. Blaine and I were sent away from the table for laughing.
Mother was always home when school was out. Hot bread and pies baked. She was noted for her pie making. She worked hard to keep a good home. She was a wonderful Mother. She was seriously ill and Father brought the Chinese cook from the construction camp to do the cooking.
Our entertainment was the neighbor kids and us playing run sheep run and hide and go seek at night. The fun would last until 9 o’clock. We would go skating on the ponds below the hill. We would start on the Richardson pond, then to the Singleton pond and Long pond to the barrens, and it was a long way back. We would make a bonfire and roast potatoes and tell ghost stories and then we would be afraid to go home.
I remember the first electric lights and the first electric iron. I think we ironed everything in the house the first week. Our first telephone number was 45R2. There were ten on a line. Everyone knew everyone else’s business. Our first car was a Chandler. Father didn’t drive so I got a lot of trips. There was a train that came to Plain City, we called it the Dummy. It made three trips a day and on Saturday they would run a late car. We could go to town to a show and supper.
It was a must that we go to church on Sunday. My sister Ivy was the first lady missionary to go from Plain City. She served in the Northwestern States Mission.
One fell said the Skeen’s have had their day. It’s time someone else took over.
There are only two, Jennie Cook and I (Lenora Freestone) left of the original pioneer family and I am proud to be one of them. I was married to William Freestone on October 6, 1920 in the Salt Lake Temple. We were blessed with eight children, six are still living. We have 17 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. I have lived my entire life in Plain City and love the town. We have many good friends and neighbors here. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.