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[pg. 18] I had to do all of my counting of my threads for my weaving through my head. It puzzled me sometimes to get through. I took all of the weaving that I could do. I wove all kind of cloth, heavy jeans for men’s clothing, twill blankets, all wool heavy coverlets for bedspreads, flannel for dresses, check flannel for skirts and half wool for underwear. |
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[pg. 19] Mr. McAninch was my future husband (Cyrus Clark McAninch). He came from Indiana. His work was in the timber, chopping wood and splitting rails. He took in work to pay for a forty acre farm. When he got it all paid for he put a log house on it and that was our home. When I had taken in enough (work) to furnish what we could get along with in the house, we thought that was getting along fine for young folks that had to work by day’s work to start on to make our living. [Notes 5, 6] |
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Father gave me a cow and he (Mr. McAninch) worked and got him one horse so we thought while he could use the ax and I could use the loom, we was all right to start out for to make our living. |
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[pg. 20] Mr. C. C. (Cyrus Clark) McAninch and Mariah Case |
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We was married November the 9th, 1870. We stayed in my Father’s home a short time till we got things arranged. Then we went to our home, one large room. It was for a short time till we could have another room. We had to improve our home. There was nothing on it. Right out on the prairie, no fence of no kind. The cattle ran all over the wild country. They would come right around the house so we had to begin to rustle fencing and to do all kind of work to improve our new home. It was not long till we had a nice little home. |
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[pg. 21] We began to build rail fences around our little farm. We was about four miles from Father’s home. It had not been long since the Indians had been camped on our place. The Indian grave yard was about two miles from our place. |
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Mr. McAninch was hunting one day and he found one of their tomahawks. We have it in our home now. We have some of those beads they had. There was some real old Indians that would come back to their old ground and camp for a week at a time. They would come to our place for hay and corn to feed on. They brought one of those bead satchels to trade for eggs. I bought it just to get it to keep to show others how nice it was made. |
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[pg. 23] For the first two or three years the time passed off so fast because we had so much to be done. We could always find some thing to be doing. Within a few years our home was blessed with a little boy (Oscar L., 8-05-71) and girl (Mary Elizabeth, 2-10-73) which we was very proud of. The country was settling up fast. All around us, there was three families that was married in the same year that we was (and) settled down within one mile of us. We felt like we lived in town! Then we could go to see our neighbors and they could come see us so we all enjoyed country life together and had a fine time with one another. |
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[pg. 32] In 1891 the children began to scatter and go to different places. Now, in 1894, there were seven girls and five boys still at home and one little boy died (Lenna). There was a large family so I had to take more work on hand. I bought another loom and began to weave carpet. So I wove all kinds of carpet, plaid, sizes, all kind of stripes, brick, wool, pepper and salt and honeycomb. I would weave in spring and fall and do my housework and raise geese and chickens. I have had to pick seventy-six geese in one day. |
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Journal of Mariah Case McAninch (2 of 6), transcribed by Marjorie Waggoner and Betty Jo Barker |
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McAninch Family History NL, VII-3 July 1999 Copyright Frank McAninch page 1999-20 |