by Hanson, Lucinda Bundy.

See previous entry: Little Home Histories, Part 20 -- Historical Data Concerning Joel and Rebecca Doudna and Family: The 'Old Brick House'.

My father, Chalkley Bundy, built a milk house by and partly over the spring. I can remember when it was dug out square around it. Bill Starky came to break the stones for the house. This was done by hand with a hammer as I remember it. After breaking the stone he would smooth it the same way. The house was high enough to walk into. There were three steps from the spring down into the milk house. Two large pieces of stone were hollowed out to make troughs on the inside on two sides. The spring water ran through these troughs.

I used two gallon crocks covered with large, clean boards, and would set filled crocks in the trough to cool the milk. Each day I would skim the previous day's milk and put the cream in the cream crock. After this had soured, I would churn it into butter. The temperature of the cream had a great deal do with the quality of the butter. At the door of the milk house and around the side of the spring it was built with the stones. When the weather was good, I would churn here.

We would very often sit on the long, wide board that ran in front of the spring to amuse ourselves with our reflection in the water. One day sister Rebecca and I were bending over to drink from the spring. She tumbled in head first. The spring must have been three or four feet deep. I pulled her out by the heels and she was all right.

Above the spring on the little hill was a maple tree. We always had a play house under it. In the springtime, Father would tap it by boring a hole in it. Then he would insert a little trough and hang a bucket on it. The sap would drip into the bucket, and we would then boil it down into sugar. From sassafras roots, tea would be made. The Maple sugar sweetened it and it was good. Under the maple trees there was a fireplace which we used for washing. Large kettles hung by chains over the fire. There were five beech trees around the spring. My father was very fond of the nuts, and we children would gather them in the fall and he would reward us by paying us a penny for a given number.

Source: Written by: Lucinda Bundy Hanson, Richmond, Va., Feb. 12, 1942.

See next entry: Little Home Histories, Part 22 -- Historical Data Concerning Joel and Rebecca Doudna and Family: Tobacco House, Tobacco Growing, and Dog House.

For the table of contents and first entry in this series, please see: Little Home Histories, Part 01 -- Table of Contents and Introduction.

This entry is adapted from Little Home Histories in Our Early Homes, Belmont County, Ohio, which was published in 1942. Its publication was coordinated by Robert D. and Beulah Patten McDonald. This entry has been reedited for inclusion in the Pierian Press Fulltext eBooks database, and is included on the Stratton House Inn Website by special permission. This entry is licensed for use ONLY on this Website. It may be used for educational purposes and personal pleasure under fair-use provisions via this Website. Please note that the Stratton House Inn iteration of this entry does NOT include the subject headings assigned each chapter for use in the Fulltext eBooks database.

DATABASE: Fulltext eBooks: Copyright (c) 2002 The Pierian Press, Inc. All Rights Reserved
ENTRY NUMBER: EBK30013721

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