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BY OSCAR HOAR
The following happened in Kansas, five miles north of what is now Woodston. My mother and father (William Bramwell Hoar and Mary Helen Churchill) came to this country in a covered wagon, from Fulton County Illinois in the year of 1877. At that time they had their choice of Government land. After much deliberation they chose a claim where there were few trees and level land as my father was weary of farming up and down hills and more than weary of clearing the land of timber. It must have been a hopeless looking task at the time, as there were no horses. I am sure my mother must have had a few moments of doubt as to the wisdom of moving so far away from the familiar things of home. There must have been fear in her heart, as she looked at her six small children.
It was not so with my father, his stout heart knew no fear and as he looked around he was pleased with what he saw. He began at once to put up a house as that was the first thing needed. For this he used a sod plow the regular side of it being 12" wide. When he had enough sod broken to put up a house he cut it in 24" pieces and laid two pieces of sod length wise all around the house. Then he laid one piece cross wise to break the joints. When the house was as high as desired he cut poles to lay across to make a roof. After this, 12" boards were laid over the poles and covered with sod. Then father got white rock clay and put over this sod roof to seal up the cracks and keep the roof from leaking.
Most of the "Soddies" had dirt floors, lucky was the house wife who had a board floor. She was the envy of all the neighbors even tho the floor was made of common 12" borards and were rough and splintery. It was almost impossible to put a baby on the floor as he would get his hands and legs full of splinters. This was the kind of house I was born in, July 7, 1879.
At the age of six I started to school, walking two miles each way. If the weather was snowy or bad my older brothers and sisters would see that I got to school.
When I was nine years old we moved into a frame house which was quite different. We were proud and happy as we were modern now. The frame house was not as warm in winter or cool in the summer as the "Soddy" had been.
At the age of eleven I was able to take a team of horses and cultivate corn, walking of course. When I finished grade school my folks were too poor to send me to college (we had no high schools) so I went to work for the nieghbors. I got the handsome wage of $13.00 a month. The last year I worked out I got $75.00 for 75 days work pitching wheat to a thrashing macine. By that time I had saved enough to buy me a team of four year old mules. They cost me $125.00. They were wild and wooly and I had some merry times getting them broke. I then rented forty acres of wheat land and with a 14" plow, the mules and I walked and plowed this 40 acres doing two acres a day if we were lucky. I planted wheat that fall and had a good crop. It made 20 bushel to the acre and I got 56 cents a bushel for it.
About this time I was busy continuing the courting I had started with Grace Lambert while in school.
The school marm was boarding at grandmas house at the time Pa started courtin Ma. Their courting days started by Pa walking Ma home from school. Ma started getting home late from school, Grandma started asking questions. The school teacher knowing the questions, cooperated, by staying at school late writing letters in order to give the young lovers a chance to get home before she did, so that there would be no questions asked.
Even then as now some one tried to foul "Dan Cupid." One evening Horace Pauley saw them walking home from school holding hands and took it upon himself to tell Grandpa that Pa and Ma were spooning on the way home from school and that explained why Ma was late getting home from school.
Now Grandpa Wicker being a stern old gentleman with ideas of his own as to how his daughter should be courted, promptly asserted himself, Grandma not to be out done promptly put in her two cents worth as to what she thought of Horace Pauley for being a snitch. This cooled Grandpa down to zero.
With the obstacles out of the way "Dan Cupid" went to work. Thanks to Grandma Wicker and the school teacher, true love was winner, and we now have our Pa and Ma.
We decided to get married which we did on June 23, 1900. We had no place to live, but my father had a farm he had bought just recently. The house had burned down, but it had a basement which was walled up and in good shape, we put a roof on it making a room 12 by 28 ft. Here I took my bride.
I had $38.00 with which to buy furniture. We bought a little old cook stove to cook on and to keep us warm. We had no money to buy fuel and very little timber, so we had to burn cow chips. If you never burned cow chips you don't know what a vicious circle it is. It consists of a continual stream of cow chips going into the stove and another continual stream of carrying out ashes. The odor was never to fragrant. This was pretty tough but as my elders said; a good lesson for youngsters. At any rate we made out and our first baby was born here, a little girl and we were really proud parents.
From there we moved to a farm close to Webster where our first son was born. We had climbed up the ladder as far as living conditions were concerned. We now lived in a sod house in place of a dug out and burned cobs in place of cow chips. Cobs do not burn quite so fast or make quite so many ashes as cow chips and the aroma is much better.
We then moved back to a farm north of Woodston for a few years. After farming there for a while I decided I would like to go into the meat business. In fact I thought that I might as well, as the neighbors were always after me to butcher for them, especially if it was cold and snowy.
I had a sale and moved to Woodston where I bought a Meat Market. I didn't know a thing about running a store but was determined to learn. I soon found out all people didn't pay for what they bought which didn't help the business prosper very much. When I bought the store I only had $800.00. I paid $600.00 for my equipment and didn't have much left to go on. My first beef cost me 2 1/2 cents a pound on foot. After six months I added a few groceries and continued for 38 years. I was broke several times but nobody knew it but me. Lots of times it was a hard pull, seven mouths to feed and money on the books but none in my pockets. Part of the money on the books I have not been able to collect to this day.
I always made it a point not to buy too much at a time and I did have a good reputation for paying my bills which kept me from having to hand over the keys a number of times. Really the whole thing that kept me going was Mom. She was very conservative and saved every thing usable. Nothing ever went to waste.
I worked 12 hours every day all these years except Saturday and then 18 hours on Saturday. At the age of seventy years I have decided to retire. With good luck and normal living I think we can get along.
In this 50 years six children were born to us, three girls and three boys, one girl died in infancy.
WORDS OF OSCAR HOAR
MAY GOD HELP US TO CARRY ON THIS HERITAGE OF OUR FATHERS AND MOTHERS, THAT WE MAY ALSO DO OUR PART TO HELP MAKE THIS A BETTER WORLD.
OBITUARY
Oscar Hoar, son of Mary and Wm. Bramwell Hoar, was born in Ash Rock Township near Woodston, on July 7, 1879, and departed this life August 21, 1957 at the age of 78 years, one month and 14 days, at the Plainville hospital in Plainville.
He was united in marriage to Grace Lambert on June 23, 1900. To this union 6 children were born.
Most of his life was lived near and in Woodston. For 40 years he was in the grocery business in Woodston until the time of his retirement. He served a number of years as mayor and was active in the community in various capacities.
He was converted in the early years of his life, having remained an active member of the Assembly of God Church more than ? years and was serving on the board until his passing.
He was preceded in death by his father, mother, 4 sisters, 2 brothers and one daughter, who died in infancy.
He leaves to mourn his passing his wife; 2 daughters and 3 sons; Mrs. Eva Conn, Salina; Harold, Woodston, Victor, Winfield, Kenneth, Great Bend, and Mrs. Zelma Dunlap, Woodston; 10 grandchildren; 14 great grandchildren; 2 brothers, Henry Hoar, St. Louis, Mo., Wm Hoar, Osborne; 2 sisters Mrs. Cora LaRue, Mankato, Mrs. Mary Allen, San Leandro, Calif. Also a number of other relatives and friends.
Funeral services were held at 10:00 A.M. August 23, in the Woodston Assembly of God Church with Reverend G. S. Willard officiating and Reverend Ivan Christofferson assisting. Interment was in the Ash Rock Cemetery.
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The H600 Project Genealogy DB
1879 - 1957 (78 years)