Elaine Ila Preston
Elaine Ila Preston was born July 12, 1928 in Shefield, Illinois. Her father was William Franklin Preston. Her mother was Edith Phillips.
Excerpts from Living on the Farm...
We had a yellow tomcat and he was so mean. Mother would be down on her hands and
knees weeding and he would nm and jump on her back. Dad said enough. One Sunday
evening we put him in a gunny sack, put him in the trunk, and drove him way on
the other side of Buda and let him go. One week to the day, here on the back
porch sat the cat. Very thin and bedraggled but very much alive. Dad and Charles
castrated him and he turned into a very gentle and loving cat. Dad would laugh
at him. Dad would be getting corn for the pigs and here would be the cat right
beside him hoping Dad would find a nest of mice.
Every Spring Mom would go to the Wyanet Hatchery and buy baby chickens. They had
to be kept warm because they only had fuzz and not feathers. Mom would lay
papers on the kitchen floor near the stove. Then she would use the leaves from
the dining room table to make a pen for them in case one escaped. Inside the pen
she placed the boxes of chickens. By laying coats over the top of the boxes, the
baby chicks stayed nice and warm.
The baby pigs were often born on cold windy Spring nights. If the mama pig had a
large litter, the small ones many times were pushed aside by the larger ones.
When Daddy would find them, they would be cold and hungry .He would gather them
up in an old coat and bring them to the house and they would be placed on the
oven door of the old cook stove to warm up. It wouldn't take long and they would
be starting to stir around and grunting. Mother would laugh as she reminisced
about trying to feed the poor little things with a bottle-a slow and slippery
job! She soon learned, though, that all she had to do was put a saucer of milk
on the floor and direct their snouts. They were hungry and they ate. They were
so cute, pink, and soft. Yes, even baby pigs are cute.
One morning Dad commented he was going to go and kill a baby pig because he had
scurvy and worms. Mom said, "Let me see if l can raise him." She put lye water
in his food and every wash day he got a good soaping with the hot, soapy wash
water. He was so mad! He would run around the house and stop by us and shake so
that water would fly all over us. Then around the house he would go again. He
would do this 3 or 4 times. We named him Porky and all we would have to do was
call, "Here Porky" and he would come grunting, eager for the attention. Even our
cousins thought he was great and would insist on seeing him when they came to
the farm.
We would often have a calf in the house. It would be cold and many times after a good rub down it would be returned to the barn. But once in a while a calf would have to spend the night in the dining room in a pen made out of chairs. By morning he would be up and about, so to the barn he would go.
It seems that one day the family was riding in a car with some friends. They decided to stop somewhere for "eats and drinks." In asking what the friends preferred, they said "hamburgers or hot dogs." Elaine was only about two years old. When they bought and handed her a hot dog, she said, "Oh, it's not a hot dog! It's just a wiener." -Another time they were going to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and must have mentioned the name of the city several times. When they arrived, a disappointed little voice from the back seat said, "But, I don't see any rabbits!!!" --One last cute story. Edith said, "Oh, be quiet or I'll go right up in smoke!" Everything was quiet for a minute and then Elaine said, "Say, you stay down here!"
Dad rented the farm that I grew up on. The
only way to get water was to go out with a bucket and pump it. Mom used a
wringer washing machine and two tubs to rinse the clothes. Even in the winter
she hung all of the clothes outside. When it was below freezing the clothes came
in the house stiff as boards. It was a funny sight to see bed sheets, towels,
everything standing on chairs around the coal stove until they dried. It sure
added moisture to the room And the wonderful fresh smell is something I'll never
forget.
There was a pair of peach trees in the barnyard that had never grown one peach.
A visitor told my Dad that they needed iron and to pound some nails in the
trunks. It seemed like a silly thing to do but what did we have to lose. The
next year we had beautiful peaches from those trees. (Helen)
Every Spring Dad would plow up our large vegetable garden. Much of it was
planted with potatoes. Then there were beans, peas, radishes, onions, etc. which
Mom would can or freeze at harvest time. Meanwhile it was my job to keep it all
weeded. And when I was done with that garden. it was time to weed Mom's flower
garden. I grumbled and complained because I would have much rather been curled
up in a chair with a good book. But I'm glad that I was taught the discipline of
work..
There was 4 years age difference between my brother Charles and my sister
Barbara. Also 4 years between Barbara and Elaine. Mom and Dad thought their
family was complete but then 12 years later they got a surprise: me. But Mom
said it had been a blessing because it had kept her young. In those days, there
were Parent Teacher Association (PT A) Meetings and Mom was faithful about
attending. Elaine graduated from High School in June and I started First Grade
in September. Mom never had a break from PT A. Charles was 20 years old when Mom
was expecting me. He was embarrassed that his Mother was going to have a baby.
Not one person told l2-year-old Elaine until one day when she exclaimed,
"Mother, your stomach!"
In July it would be time to cut the oats and place them in shocks to dry. A
shock was made by placing four bundles standing on end against each other and
one across the top. I can't recall why Dad was laid up but he couldn't run the
binder so Bobbie drove the tractor and I rode the binder. We got the oats done
and we even put them in shocks. Gosh, the oat stubble was hard on the ankles.
The neighbors, 16 of them I believe, had an old engine, Iron Horse, and a
separator. They had to hire 2 engineers to operate them and they would travel to
each of these eight farms to thresh the oats. Charles always pitched the oat
bundles into the separator. Dad would run the water wagon. And all those men had
to be fed. In July it was hot to have that old cook stove going starting in
early morning. Pies had to be made, meat roasted, and potatoes boiled. Being
young my job was to churn the butter on the front porch in a pan of cold water.
But Bobbie had to help Mom inside. The Roberts and the Hand girls thought it was
fun to come out and help wait on tables.
It is a wonder we didn't have trouble with migrants since we lived close to the
Rock Island railroad track. One time we were all sitting around the table
reading the paper and doing our lessons when the latch on the back door clicked.
The door opened a little and then closed again. I remember Dad looking around
the table and saw everyone was still there.
The sound of Fall was waking in the morning to the sounds of Dad yelling to the
horses, "Get up" and then, "Whoa." Also the steady banging of corn hitting the
back boards. It must have been overwhelming knowing you had all of the corn to
pick by hand.
Charles knew early on that he didn't want to be a farmer but he knew he couldn't
leave Dad to farm with the old horses. Charles was working at Breisers Farm
Implement in Sheffield and had heard of a F-12 Tractor for sale. He took Dad to
see it and they bought it. But Dad just knew it would pack the ground down and
it wouldn't plow as deep as the horses could. Well it took one pass down the
field and he was amazed at what little time it took and what a good job it did.
As for the horses, Belle (who was blind) and Brownie, they were kept for small
jobs. Eventually, though, Dad did sell them because it was too costly to keep
them.
Dad had to carry the water from the tank across the barnyard over to the hog
house. He got smart and put a barrel on skids and used the tractor to haul the
water.
One year the corn in one field was flooded out so Daddy planted some watermelon
seeds. We had more watermelons than we knew what to do with. I guess that was
the first time I had my fill of watermelon.
Mother had put me, as an infant, in the front yard in a buggy. She saw Barbara (
4 years old) go up and give me a slap. It must have been hard for Barbara to
accept a baby in the house.
One time Mom asked Elaine to set the table which she did not want to do. Mom
started chasing Elaine around the table and said, "Some day you will know what
it is to be tired." After raising 4 children, Elaine does understand now.
Mom had a rooster that chased after Elaine one day (Mom chased her and now a
rooster did. Hm-m!) Elaine was yelling as she ran. Dad thought he would scare
the rooster so he picked up a brick and tried to throw it close to the rooster.
To everyone's surprise, the brick hit the rooster in the head and killed him.
Can you guess what Mom served for supper that night? That's right! Chicken and
noodles.
Kids have always suffered from peer pressure. Barbara and Elaine did not want to
be teased by the other kids at school. Mom would make them wear long brown
stockings. They walked the quarter of a mile down the lane to the road where the
bus picked them up. Before the bus came they had rolled those stockings down to
their ankles. Mom never knew about it until she was told years later.
One of the jobs for the Preston children was to collect the eggs that the hens
had laid out in the henhouse. If the hens were out scratching, eating, or
perched somewhere, then it was easy. But if they were still on the nest, you had
a problem. Elaine was good at using a corn cob to hold back the hens head so she
wouldn't get pecked. One day she was practicing this art on an old hen named "Biddie."
With one hand she used the corn cob. With the other one she reached under the
hen. She felt something warm and fuzzy and she jumped away. She was afraid it
was a snake. But as she thought about it, she knew it had to be some other kind
of animal since it was fuzzy .She reached under again and found that Biddie was
sitting over some baby kittens. Now that is a good mother.
When I was 12 years old Mom taught me how to drive our stick-shift car. She took
us out in the middle of a field to teach me. When Dad found out, he was very
upset. But he liked it when I drove myself to play practice in town all through
high school. (Helen)
Back at the farm, whenever an airplane went overhead, I would run out to see if
it was Chuck. One day at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon a very loud airplane
came in from the East, heading to the West. Mom, Dad, and I ran outside. We knew
without a doubt that it was Charles piloting that huge B24. It was so loud
because the plane was so low that it was barely above the tree tops. Mom kept
yelling (as though he could hear her), "Be careful of the wires." He flew off,
turned around, and buzzed a couple more passes over the farm house. Then he flew
off to land at Des Moines, Iowa. He phoned and said, "Dad, did you ever get the
cows rounded up? They were so scared, I saw them running in all directions."
Since this family loved and missed Charles so much, buzzing the farm was the
best present he could ever have given us.
Saturday was the day that Mom did a thorough cleaning of the whole house.
Everything was cleaned, everyone helped. My job as a little girl was to fill the
kerosene lamps, trim the wicks, wash the chimneys, and wash the windows of the
house.
On Saturday evenings, Dad, Mom, and I would load into the car the crates of eggs
we had collected and washed during the week. It was time to sell the eggs and
buy our groceries. Anderson's Store had all the food behind the counter where
they stood and wrote down your order. While they piled the staples into boxes,
Mom and I would browse over the rest of the store at their bolts of fabric,
thread, dishes, clothes, candy, etc. Dad worked hard on the farm all week so he
looked forward to playing cards with the men next door at the Pool Hall. This
meant that Mom and I had to wait a couple of hours until Dad was ready. We would
sit on the little stools which had no backs and turn around and around. If it
was a hot summer night, the fan above us would be whirling around. And we think
ceiling fans are something new .Wrong!
Mother's diversion was fancy work and Dad's was playing cards. He knew every
card that had been played. The men would play poker games all Christmas
afternoon. What fun they had!
The farm was directly East of Sheffield and seemed to be in the path of many
storms. There was one storm that came up during chore time. Helen Kay was in her
high chair in the dining room. The double doors to the living room were closed.
The wind came up with a vengeance and blew the doors open with a roar. Later we
found glass ground right into the piano stool. We looked out in the barn yard
and saw the wind blowing the hayrack across the yard. Helen Kay was screaming
and the wind was blowing. All at once, we wondered where Dad was. Mom and
Barbara made their way to the barn and found Dad calmly milking. He looked up
and said, "Hi." He didn't know about the storm. Poor Helen Kay. Every time the
wind would blow and a have a certain pitch, Helen would cry.
The little brick Methodist Church in Sheffield was our second home. Mom taught
Sunday School, was Sunday School Superintendent, directed Christmas Programs,
and planned church suppers to raise money for the church. I think every person
in Sheffield would come to those delicious dinners.
Father was not a religious man but he did go to a faith healer in a neighboring
town one time. Dad had some kind of a skin disease on his leg and no matter what
the doctor prescribed. it just kept spreading. Since he was getting desperate,
he went to the faith healer. They sat facing each other and the man laid his
hands on Dad's knees. He bent his head for a few minutes and then told Dad to go
home. In a matter of days the skin disease had completely disappeared! After
such a miracle from God, we had hoped Dad would start going to church. But he
wasn't interested.
Faith in God was a private thing for Mom. She didn't talk about it a lot but she
read her Bible and prayed and I knew her faith was deep. When her brother
Howard's wife, Leona, was addicted on drugs and expecting a baby she came to
live with us. Elton was born with his mother's addiction. Then when he was 9
months old, every inch of his little body was covered with boils. His screams of
pain were growing weaker by the hour until he was almost too weak to whimper.
And he was too weak to eat. The country doctor came out one evening and said he
would be back the next day. Elton's wrinkled, withered skin was already turning
blue and he was getting stiff and cold. After the doctor left, Mom picked up
Elton. held him close to her body, and paced the floor. She prayed more
earnestly than she ever had before. For two hours she kept up this vigil before
she accidently touched his feet and found they were getting warm. The next
morning the doctor came on his regular rounds. He was just amazed to see little
Elton alive and said that it was a miracle.
Aunt Leona died young leaving Uncle Howard with three children of about high
school age. Aunt Leona's family was from Mineral, Illinois, and they took the
children. They wrote Mother one day and asked if she would take the two boys and
they would keep the girl. Mother was furious that they wanted to split up the
kids. She contacted Uncle Howard and told him she would take all three children.
That winter there were six of us kids.
Grandmother Phillips was dying of tuberculosis but she kept right on working.
She met everyone's arguments by saying, "I have faith that God will heal me. And
it is not enough just to say you have faith, you have to act like it." She was
such a good, humble soul that even her oldest daughter (Edith) did not know of
all her good works until after she had died. Then many came and told Mother how
Grandma had baked a pie or cake and taken it to someone in need. And she did
that after her long day of doing washing and ironings for a living and for her
big family. And she herself was so terribly poor!
Mom followed in her Mother's footsteps. At her funeral there were people telling
me of all the good things she had done for them.
We don't know anything about Stillman Preston, our Great Grandfather, except
that he came from New York. --Grandpa Russell Preston, Dad's father, farmed west
of Sheffield. Aunt Gene said every Sunday they would go to church. Grandpa would
let Grandma and the kids ride in the surrey and he would walk to church,
inviting others along the way to join them.
Mom and Dad had moved to Moline where Charles was born. They lived in an
apartment house where the LeClaire Hotel now stands. Dad worked in the wagon
works but didn't like the inside work and having someone to tell him what to do.
They farmed in West Bureau where Bobbie (Barbara) was born. Then they moved to
Sheffield and farmed for Harry Barton. From there they farmed the Gebeck place
for at least 30 years. It was hard work, just after the Depression. There was no
running water, no inside plumbing. No electricity. In the dining room was a
round coal stove to heat the whole house. When you stood in front of the stove,
you were warm on one side but cold on the other side. The windows would be
frosted over because we didn't have storm windows. In the kitchen was an old
cookstove. It always amazed me how Mom could bake a cake in a stove with no
thermostat.
Going to bed in a cold bedroom upstairs was not pleasant. Mom would heat up
bricks and put in the bed. And she would pile blankets and comforters on us
until we could hardly move under the weight.
We didn't have inside plumbing so, of course, we had the old outhouse. The worst
part was having to go out when it was raining or freezing. How many times
Charles would sneak out and throw a walnut at the outhouse and nearly scare you
to death.
Bobbie loved to be inside but I loved the out-of-doors. So I spent a lot of time
playing with the cats and the other animals. Dad always said I would make a pet
out of all the animals. But I had just learned that all animals respond to
gentleness, patience, and love.
The summers were hot, the winters were cold and grueling. It seems we were
either mudded in or snowed in. One winter the snow drifts were so high, it
looked like we were driving through a tunnel. I can remember walking on top of
the fence posts because the snow was so high.
In the winter, on Friday nights, the neighbors would take turns hosting an
evening of playing 500 cards. The Gebeck's and Eggimann's were always there.
Dad wasn't a hunter. Perhaps he would kill a rabbit once during the winter.
Being a farmer, Dad had to be home to do chores. There was no time for
vacations. I believe there was only twice Mom and Dad left the farm for more
than a day. One time Dad had someone to do the chores. He must have been in a
hurry because he didn't secure the milk cans in the tank. When we got home the
water was full of sour milk, the goldfish were all dead, and the cows were
thirsty because of no fresh water. I don't believe the folks went on a vacation
after that.
It's a good thing Dad was there the day the hog house caught on fire. Evidently
a sow had rubbed against the heater, tipped it over, and the straw caught fire.
We don't remember how Dad got the fire out but he probably stamped it out with
his shoes.
The best part of the day was in the evening, just getting dark. The lightning
bugs would be out and one could hear the frogs from the slue. Dad would sit on
the porch. his back against the post, and Mom in the swing, gently swinging. The
end of a busy day.
Charles, being the oldest and, of course, idolized by his sisters, delighted in
giving us knuckle jabs on our anns or untieing our apron strings. Of course, we
would yell and Mother would just laugh. We would have been disappointed if he
hadn't done these things.
At Christmas time Mom would make up pans of fudge and butterscotch candy. She
kept them in the livingroom where it was cold. Every evening she would bring out
the candy and we could have a piece. What a treat. I can remember the huge
Christmas tree that stood in the gym at school, so tall it reached the ceiling.
On the last day of school before Christmas break the firemen would come to the
school, the sirens blaring. They brought a bag of candy. I didn't care for the
hard candy but I loved the soft vanilla candies. They also gave each child an
orange. This was a big treat because our family couldn't afford to buy oranges.
Mother did a lot of sewing and so I would learn from just watching. She had also
taught Bobbie and I how to knit and crochet. Mother was always working on
something such as crocheting a tablecloth, quilting, or making an apron. She
would have the quilting frames set up in the living room and on days when it
wasn't too cold, she would wrap up her legs and quilt for an hour or so or until
she got so cold she would have to quit. I can still see Mother sitting by the
table at night crocheting by a kerosene lamp.
Ironing clothes was done with flat irons. They were set on the coal cook stove
to heat them up. When they were hot, you attached the walnut handle and started
to iron. You would iron with it until it got cool and then you would go exchange
it for another one. We had 3 or 4 of them that we rotated. It was a big job
since Mom ironed sheets, dishtowels, handkerchiefs, and all our clothes. All
three of us girls learned how to iron.
We didn't get electricity in our rented house until the Fall of 1946. When I
came home from my job in Moline for the weekend, the dining room seemed much too
bright.
Actually, Mom loved to do an kinds of sewing and crafts. She did embroidery,
crocheting, knitting, tatting, and made many of our clothes. When I was a little
girl, we would pick out the feed sacks that had the material we wanted to make a
dress or skirt. Then she learned how to etch aluminum serving trays with acid to
make beautiful pictures on them. Also, she did leatherwork. making billfolds and
key cases which she stamped with designs and laced the edges. She never seemed
to run out of projects that she wanted to do.
Of course, growing a large garden and canning was a large part of our summer
work. After getting the vegetables ready and in jars, they would have to boil
for four hours. We may have been a little poor but we were well fed.
Except for chicken, we never knew what it was like to have fresh meat. In the
Fall Dad would butcher a hog and the meat would be fried and placed in fruit
jars to preserve it. Dad would take the hams and cure them in the basement. The
ribs would be cooked all day in that old cook stove. How wonderful they were.
Mother would cut the fat from the pig into 1" cubes and boil them on the stove.
The cooked down fat would be placed in crocks in the basement to be used later
for pie crust, fried potatoes, and homemade donuts.
Our faith, our Heavenly Father, and the work in the church helped bring us
through many rough times. One summer there was a storm with high winds and lots
of thunder and lightning. We all said the Twenty-Third Psalm. There was a
calmness and peace in that room. We didn't want to speak for fear of breaking
the spell. Another time when I was living in Moline, I had gotten off the bus
and had to walk four blocks in the dark. The streets were not lighted very well
and this little farm girl was a little scared. But I started to say the Twenty-
Third Psalm and again the calmness took away my fears and the peace carried me
home.
Well, now the old farm house and the barn are empty. The big maple tree in the
front yard that held the swings is gone. Yes, and even my dear parents are gone.
But my love of the animals and the joy of sewing and canning has been with me
all my life. I am thankful for my childhood memories of the farm.
At times we were cold. And we were poor and didn't have all we thought we
needed. But we always had plenty to eat. And we had lots of love and we had each
other. Who could ask for more?
Elaine Hast
Go to Louis and Elaine Hast
Elaine and Helen