The Use and Need of the Life of Carrie A. Nation [14]
and the
south. My father saw that Missouri would be the battle ground and he,
with many others, took their families and negroes and went south, taking
what they could in wagons, for there were no railroads then in that section.
There was quite a train with the droves of cattle, mules and horses.
One wagon had six yoke of oxen to it; had to get into it by a ladder,
the kind that was used to freight across the plains. The family
went in the family carriage that my father brought from Kentucky.
I remember the time when this carriage was purchased, with the two
dapple gray horses, and silver mounted harness, and when my mother
would drive out she had a driver in broadcloth, with a high silk hat,
and a boy rode on a seat behind, to open the gates. This was one of
the ways of traveling in Kentucky in those days. My mother was an
aristocrat in her ideas, but my father was not. He liked no display. He
was wise enough to see the sin and folly of it.
{illust. caption =
THIS IS THE PICTURE OF MY GIRLHOOD HOME IN CASS COUNTY, MO.
UNDER THE TREES OF THIS DEAR OLD PLACE I LISTENED
TO THE SWEET STORY OF MY LOVE OF A MAN MURDERED BY DRINK.
"WHEN THOU HAST LOVED ONE LIVING MAN, THEN MAYEST THOU LOOK
UPON THE DEAD."}
After being on the road six weeks, we stopped in Grayson County,
Texas, and bought a farm. As we started from Missouri one of the
colored women took sick with typhoid fever. This spread so that ten
of the family, white, and black, were down at one time. As soon as we
could travel, my father left the colored people south, and took his family
back to Missouri. That winter south was a great blessing to me, for I
recovered from a disease that had made me an invalid for five years--
consumption of the bowels. Poor health had keep me out of school a
great deal. My father at one time sent me to Mrs. Tillery's boarding
school in Independence, Mo., but I was not in the recitation room more
than half of the time.
After I recovered my health in Texas, it was my delight to ride on
horseback with a girl friend. The southern boys were preparing to go to
war. Many a sewing did we attend, where the mothers had spun and
woven the gray cloth that they were now working up so sorrowfully for
their sons to be buried in, far away from home. They thought their cause
was right. There were many good masters. And again there were bad
ones. Whiskey is always a cruel tyrant and is a worse evil than chattel
slavery. We were often stopped on our trip by southern troops, in the
Territory and Texas, and then again by northerners. We passed over the
Pea Ridge battle ground shortly after the battle. Oh! the horrors of war.
We often stopped at houses where the wounded were. We let them have
our pillows and every bit of bedding we could spare. We went to our
home in Cass County, Missouri.
Shortly after this we, with all families living in that country, were
commanded by an order from Jim Lane, to move into an army post. This
reached several counties in Missouri. It was done to depopulate the
country, so that the "Bushwhackers" would be forced to leave, because of
not being able to get food from the citizens. This caused much suffering.
But such is war. We moved to Kansas City. I was in Independence, Mo.,
during the battle, when Price came through. I went with a good woman
to the hospital to help with the wounded. My duty was to comb the
heads of the wounded. I had a pan of scalding water near and would use
the comb and shake off the animated nature into the hot water. The southern
and northern wounded were in the same rooms. In health they were
enemies, but I only saw kindly feeling and sympathy.
Mothers ought to give their daughters the experience of sitting with
the sick; of preparing food for them; of binding up wounds. It is a pitiful
sight to see a helpless woman in the sick room, ignorant through lack
of experience and education, of ways to be useful at the time and place
where these characteristics of woman adorn her the most of all others.
After we returned from Texas, being the
south. My father saw that Missouri would be the battle ground and he,
with many others, took their families and negroes and went south, taking
what they could in wagons, for there were no railroads then in that section.
There was quite a train with the droves of cattle, mules and horses.
One wagon had six yoke of oxen to it; had to get into it by a ladder,
the kind that was used to freight across the plains. The family
went in the family carriage that my father brought from Kentucky.
I remember the time when this carriage was purchased, with the two
dapple gray horses, and silver mounted harness, and when my mother
would drive out she had a driver in broadcloth, with a high silk hat,
and a boy rode on a seat behind, to open the gates. This was one of
the ways of traveling in Kentucky in those days. My mother was an
aristocrat in her ideas, but my father was not. He liked no display. He
was wise enough to see the sin and folly of it.
{illust. caption =
THIS IS THE PICTURE OF MY GIRLHOOD HOME IN CASS COUNTY, MO.
UNDER THE TREES OF THIS DEAR OLD PLACE I LISTENED
TO THE SWEET STORY OF MY LOVE OF A MAN MURDERED BY DRINK.
"WHEN THOU HAST LOVED ONE LIVING MAN, THEN MAYEST THOU LOOK
UPON THE DEAD."}
After being on the road six weeks, we stopped in Grayson County,
Texas, and bought a farm. As we started from Missouri one of the
colored women took sick with typhoid fever. This spread so that ten
of the family, white, and black, were down at one time. As soon as we
could travel, my father left the colored people south, and took his family
back to Missouri. That winter south was a great blessing to me, for I
recovered from a disease that had made me an invalid for five years--
consumption of the bowels. Poor health had keep me out of school a
great deal. My father at one time sent me to Mrs. Tillery's boarding
school in Independence, Mo., but I was not in the recitation room more
than half of the time.
After I recovered my health in Texas, it was my delight to ride on
horseback with a girl friend. The southern boys were preparing to go to
war. Many a sewing did we attend, where the mothers had spun and
woven the gray cloth that they were now working up so sorrowfully for
their sons to be buried in, far away from home. They thought their cause
was right. There were many good masters. And again there were bad
ones. Whiskey is always a cruel tyrant and is a worse evil than chattel
slavery. We were often stopped on our trip by southern troops, in the
Territory and Texas, and then again by northerners. We passed over the
Pea Ridge battle ground shortly after the battle. Oh! the horrors of war.
We often stopped at houses where the wounded were. We let them have
our pillows and every bit of bedding we could spare. We went to our
home in Cass County, Missouri.
Shortly after this we, with all families living in that country, were
commanded by an order from Jim Lane, to move into an army post. This
reached several counties in Missouri. It was done to depopulate the
country, so that the "Bushwhackers" would be forced to leave, because of
not being able to get food from the citizens. This caused much suffering.
But such is war. We moved to Kansas City. I was in Independence, Mo.,
during the battle, when Price came through. I went with a good woman
to the hospital to help with the wounded. My duty was to comb the
heads of the wounded. I had a pan of scalding water near and would use
the comb and shake off the animated nature into the hot water. The southern
and northern wounded were in the same rooms. In health they were
enemies, but I only saw kindly feeling and sympathy.
Mothers ought to give their daughters the experience of sitting with
the sick; of preparing food for them; of binding up wounds. It is a pitiful
sight to see a helpless woman in the sick room, ignorant through lack
of experience and education, of ways to be useful at the time and place
where these characteristics of woman adorn her the most of all others.
After we returned from Texas, being the