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Note: 1900 US Census Seneca, Lake Co., Florida https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M367-FZP
R W Patterson Head M Nov 1848 52 Married 3yrs GA GA GA
Georgie S Patterson Wife F Dec 1861 39 Married 3yrs 10 7 FL GA GA
Aldon C Patterson Son M Aug 1898 2 Single FL GA FL
Walter A Patterson Son M Nov 1899 6m Single FL GA FL
Guy O Tucker Stepson M Mar 1882 18 Single FL GA FL
Effie E Tucker Stepdau F Apr 1888 12 Single FL GA FL
Eva L Tucker Stepdau F Jul 1890 10 Single FL GA FL
May E Tucker Stapdau F May 1891 8 Single FL GA FL
Joseph R Tucker Stepdau M Jul 1894 6 Single FL GA FL
Next door
1900 US Census Seneca, Lake Co., Florida
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M367-F89
Eli F Cooper Head M Feb 1859 41 Married 8yrs GA AL GA
T E. Cooper Wife F Jul 1873 20 Married 8yrs GA GA AL
James E Cooper Son M Aug 1883 16 Single FL GA GA
Thomas J Cooper Son M Dec 1888 11 Single FL GA GA
Mentie Cooper Dau F Jun 1893 6 Single FL GA GA
Next door
1900 US Census Seneca, Lake Co., Florida
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M367-F84
Eli Cooper Head M Aug 1826 73 Married 54yrs AL SC SC
Elizabeth Cooper Wife F Jun 1828 71 Married 54yrs GA GA NC
Frank A Lowry Boarder M Apr 1865 35 Single NC NC NC
Martha Elizabeth McEwen Cooper
Some of the Things my Mama used to do
Told in 1932 by her son, Eli Franklin Cooper
recorded by Nellie Cooper Rogers
Home life was much different when Mama was raising her family than it is
now. When we try to think of the things they used to do, we wonder how they
ever got it all done. Now, we never have time to do the things we would like to
do in our homes. The person who really makes an attractive home for their
family does not have much time for anything else.
The secret to how Mama did all the many things to be done is just this. She
rarely had company and she rarely went visiting because they lived far from
any neighbors. There were no churches to attend at that time, because there
weren't very many people in the area to make up congregations. She did not
run to town two or three times a day because they lived very far from any
town.
Homesteading
By Eli Franklin Cooper
Martha and Eli lived far away from others because they were homesteading.
What is a Homestead? At that time a man or family could get the land without
money, but they had to build a home on the land and live on it and grow crops
on at least part of it. Because of this, their homes were miles away from each
other and they couldn't do much visiting at first until gardens and crops were
planted and then roads had to be made.
Mama was only seventeen when she was married. They moved to the
homestead when her third child was a baby.
Sometimes she would go six months at a time without seeing anyone. She
saw no one outside of the family. Although she was barely twenty-three, yet
she did not loose her pride. She kept her family and her home clean and neat.
Every Sunday morning found all the family, even to the baby, bright and
clean. Although there was no Sunday School nor Church to go to, nor any
neighbors coming in, yet she felt the necessity of cleaning up and observing the
Sabbath as she had been taught as a youth. If food must be prepared, this was
done Saturday because Sunday was a day of rest for the Cooper family. The
Holy Bible lay on the table in the front room and was often read. (With her
great faith in God and teaching her children, we can understand why her son
recognized the Gospel of Jesus Christ when the Missionaries taught it to him.
He was already familiar with it.)
Fun on the Frontier
By Libbie Cooper Olsen
At first, Martha and Eli were quite alone, but not too many years went by
before the community had more people. As more people took up homesteads,
there came needs for stores, so towns began to be established with stores,
churches, schools, and community offices and services.
As more people moved into the area they found reasons to get together and
enjoy each other's company. It soon became the custom in those days to pack
the family in a wagon, roll the quilts into bed rolls, take food, and whatever the
family needed and to go a friend or relatives over Sunday. It was a big day.
Families would get together to go berry hunting. While the women and
children picked berries, the men hunted. Sometimes this was a family affair
but often two or more families got together. Of course the berry hunting was
for food, though they mixed work and pleasure.
There were harvest times when families and community would gather to run
the sugar cane through a mill and start boiling it down. They all gathered to
drink the juice. The young ones enjoyed the chance to play and the older
youth to court.
Then there were church picnics also. They would take their families in the
wagon and drive to church where after, or between services, they would spread
a picnic. Each woman would try to outdo the neighbors in lunch fixing.
A Bee???
By Libbie Cooper Olsen
A "bee" is a time when friends and neighbors would gather together to
complete a job or big task for someone. In those times, there also were quilting
and husking bees.
What is a "quilting bee"? Sometimes the women and older girls would gather
to make quilts for a friend that needed quilts, and sometimes they would bring
their own materials and with many hands helping, each woman would go home
with a guilt made or nearly so. While the women worked, the children would
play outside. And as the children got older there would be more social activities.
What is a "husking bee"? Families would gather together to help "husk" the
harvested corn (that is to take off the leaves that cover the corn on the cob) so
the corn could be dried for grinding into flour or for cattle food.
A barn or house "raising" would be a time when the men would all get
together for a day or a half a day and try to complete as much of a building as
they could. Often at these times the whole family would go. The women would
cook the meal, and maybe sew or quilt while the children would play. Every one
enjoyed these times of getting together to talk, laugh, and work together.
These neighborhood get-togethers were the highlight times for these
homesteaders. They were looked forward to, and fondly remembered. The rest
of their lives were busy with necessary and hard work.
Often the men would sit outside talking and chewing while the women went
to the house to talk. The children were gathered up and taken in with the women
to play quietly, while the young lovers wandered off in the cool evening. It was
a quiet, sweet way to end the fun work filled day.
Mama's Great Knowledge and Skill
Taught to Her Children
Information by Eli Franklin Cooper
recorded Nellie Cooper Rogers
By the time we were in our early teens we knew how to make a living for
ourselves, how to survive well in the world we lived in.
Mama supervised most of the work done by the children. She taught us
how to properly cut up or butcher animals for food. They had no refrigeration,
so all meat had to be specially prepared, by being cured, smoked, or dried.
Martha had learned how to do these things when she was young, and she taught
her family to do them too. This way the family had meat to eat for period of
time afler slaughtering the animal.
And of course the cows not being raised for meat, were milked. From
the milk Mother made the cottage cheese, and from the cream, she made
the butter. Of course we had no refrigeration, so all meat had to be specially
prepared so we could eat the meat for a period of time after slaughtering the
animal.
Mama also taught us to properly work the hides in the tanning
process so that we could make Feather to be used for whatever we needed to
make from it. We made a lot of different things from this leather. We used
this leather for gloves, for soles for the shoes, harnesses for the horses, as well
as for chair seats. Mama was the only one in the family that could make gloves
from the leather.
She taught us where to find and also how to pick berries, fruit, and
vegetables, and how to dry them for use during the winter.
Household Items
Information by Eli Franklin Cooper
Up until 1880, all the light that the family had at night was from
Mama's home made candles. The tallow that the candles were made of
was saved from the beef and mixed with beeswax. After 1880 kerosene
lamps were brought into her home.
The soap that was used to wash the faces of her children, wash the
dishes and the clothes was made by Mama's own hands.
She made lye from the ashes secured from the stove. She taught us all
how to make lye out of wood ashes so soap could be made. But the girls
did that most of the time, because the boys were doing the heavy field
work.
A very fine mattress is one made from moss. The moss was secured
in the swamps. It grew on trees and was very long. The moss was
gathered and put in water for about three months. By this time all was
rotted except the fiber, which still remained. The fiber was then washed
thoroughly, then dried. Only then could the tick be filled. A "tick" is the
fabric for the top and the bottom of the mattress, sewn together on three
sides. The moss fiber was stuffed into this tick, and then the fourth side
was sewn shut. The mattress was tacked by strong thread, fastening the
top covering to the bottom covering to hold it together. Then it was then
ready to use.
Cloth and Clothing
Information by Eli Franklin Cooper
recorded by Nellie Cooper Rogers
Mama made all the hats we wore. She made them from wheat straw,
pine straw, and wild palm or palmetto. I even had a hat made from
wiregrass. Mama had a spinning wheel and weaving loom. These she
used to make all the cloth used in her home.
If she were going to use cotton, it would have to be picked from the
cotton plants they grew. Then the seeds removed by a small hand gin her
husband had made her. After that the cotton had to be carded. This meant
that she used what would look to us like a flat brush, but instead of bristles
(like used to brush hair), it would have wire. To card means to lightly stroke
the cotton (or wool, or whatever you were going to use) to get all the fibers
going in the same direction. Then this could be spun into thread. To spin
means to twist. A hand spindle or a spinning wheel helps one to twist the
fibers while stretching it into a thread (or yarn). Then this thread or yarn
could be woven into cloth. Then after all of that work, the cloth could at
last be made into some article of clothing.
If wool was to be used, the sheep had to be sheared, the wool washed
clean, then carded, spun into thread or yarn, and then woven into cloth. If
flax (for linen or "linsey") were used, there was a complicated procedure to
obtain fibers from the plant stalk before they could be carded and spun into
thread. The procedure for obtaining fibers from the flax plant for linen was
similar to working the moss so it could be used for mattresses.
Martha was very knowledgeable and skilled in her duties. She knew how
to spin yarn, how to weave fabric, how to cut that fabric and make it into
clothing for the family members, like shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, and
underwear, as well as into quilts, of beds to cover and other bedding. Mother
had lots and they were covered with bedspreads woven at home. There were
towels and curtains to be woven also.
Martha also knit stockings and gloves. Crochet was for decorating the
clothing or household items, and was done only if there was time as well as
extra thread.
Another thing must be considered. They had colored garments the same as
we have today, but they couldn't go to the store and buy dyes to dye the
yarn and cloth. Mama would gather plants from the woods and make their
dyes. She also taught the girls how to make dye out of plants so they could
color the wool and cotton that she would spin into thread and yarn, and then weave into cloth, to make into the clothes that her family wore.
In Florida
recorded by Nellie Cooper Rogers
The family moved from Georgia to Florida while Eli Franklin was still
a baby. The family hadn't been in Florida very long, when the Civil War
between the Northern States and the Southern States began. In fact, Eli
didn't really get the log cabin finished that he was building for his family.
The family lived in the part that had been built. By this time a new little
baby named Ann, had joined the family that summer of 1861.
It was at this time that the Confederate Army desperately needed more
men to fight the Civil War. Papa (Eli) refused to join the army because he
felt that killing another man wasn't the right thing. But, the army needed
more men, so he was conscripted into the army.
While Papa was at War
Information from Eli Franklin Cooper
and recorded by Nellie Cooper Rogers
By Nellie N. Olsen Ostler
With Papa away with the Confederate Army, it meant that Mama
(Martha) was left with the children on a homestead that wasn't really ready,
because Eli had not had time to clear very much land to raise food crops. The
mother and the children now had to make do without his knowledge and
strength. They continued with the animals and the planting. They cooperated
and worked so that they would have the necessities to survive.
William, although only a little over ten years old was the oldest boy and
had to take on the duties of a man and plowed the ground, while the girls
planted the corn, beans and potatoes. There was not a gun in the house to
supply meat because the father had to take it with him into the army. That
meant that the children and mother had to make traps and snares in which
they caught rabbits and birds for food.
At night, they could hear the wild animals in the swamp. Somehow with
Papa gone, these sounds were frightening. Especially frightening were the
wolves. The wolves sometimes announced their arrival at the farm by howling
before they tried to attack the farm animals.
The family tried hard to keep the animals securely safe at night. As time
went by it seemed that the wolves grew bolder and began openly prowling
around the log cabin. The mother and boys were especially careful to shut and
latch the window shutters and fasten the door securely.
One night the wolves kept circling the house, and then began pawing at the
door, Then they attempted to dig underneath the unfinished cabin walls. The
children were very frightened. Before long, they could see the paws of the
wolves as they dug underneath the bottom log. Mama was not only worried,
but also frightened for what might happen to the children if the wolves
succeeded in digging their way under the log walls. She was praying as she
frantically looked around the house. Seeing the horn that her husband had
made from an old cow's horn, hanging on the wall, she quickly snatched it
down and standing in front of the closed door, she blew as hard as she could
on the horn. She blew again and again.
The noise must have really frightened the wolves, because they quickly left
the house. The family were all grateful to God in their prayers that Mama had
been inspired to blow that horn.
She used that horn every time she heard the wolves, and every time, the
wolves left their home alone. There was great rejoicing in the little family when
the father finally came home.
Be On Time, or Go Without
(By Libbie Cooper Olsen)
One of Martha's granddaughters said, "Grandmother Cooper was a very
strong willed woman. She always had her way in the home. When she prepared
a meal she would give the family what she thought a reasonable time to get to
the table. If they did not come in from the fields in that time, she would sit
down and eat, get up, clear the table, wash her dish, and no one dared eat until
the next meal.
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