Appalachian History

Following is a family history written in 1985 by Ethel (Barrows) Shilling, of Washington County, OH. Grand Ma & Grand Pa Seevers were: Mary A. Severs (1821-1909) & Samuel Severs (1809-1877)

Some History of Grand Ma / Grand Pa Seevers.

Reports are and have been they have Indian blood, and perhaps they have; who hasn't? But, I too perhaps think Grand Father might of been of the Indian Tribe. I'm that age. Seems the public wants to class them of the Indians. I never heard of any comment from my mother as such. They surely could of been associated with them in those days.

Grand Mother knew a lot about wild life, nature, etc. You name it. She was a great Herb Doc. She was the main Doc of the county, and saved a lot of lives and brought many lives into the community. Emma Limpert says Grand Ma brought her into the world. Also she saved one of her sisters from diphtheria, from her herb doctoring.

Grandma lived in a log house as I remembered, one side sloped down to ground like a shed, an outside dug cellar with sod banked at the side, herbs of all kind were hanging inside drying. She had curly hair (of which I don't think Indians have), wore black, and a black hood or a fascinator, she chewed tobacco, pieced comforters and quilts (by hand sewing) in the winter. She also knew how to rob the squirrels of their winter nuts; by finding them in rotten logs and stumps she would always come up with all she could pack.

I used to sometimes sleep with her. Before going to sleep she would make noises of different animals, especially like a bear. I used to curl her hair when a little girl.

When she got older, so I understand she pieced each grandchild a quilt. These pieces were very small; she never had no waste to throw away. Her fingers were very much drawn crooked by her age.

She stayed with us when she got old. My father built her a bedroom all her own. We lived down on Fountain St. Uncle Jim Seevers her son was her guardian. This log house was joining Uncle Sam Seever’s farm, back a lane, perhaps a mile. She went fishing in what you call Little Lake close to her home. She was a great fisherman.

She was quite a person in her age. She passed away at the age of 87. Her funeral was at the Logan Church. I was about ten years old and well remember it all. She passed away at Aunt Tan Cole’s home. She and Grandfather and two babies lay at Six Corners Cemetery about in middle of the big section with a large brown marker. The only brown I think in that side. You cannot miss it.

I cannot give you any dates. I don't have any records of such. Only as I remembered down through time. My mother never said much about the life or I was too young to get it.


Source: http://www.geocities.com/mikehall7142003/histories.html



granny women, Washington County OH, appalachia, history of appalachian history,

“Well I'll tell you I came from up in Washington County. Washington County, Ohio. Lived up in the country there with my grandmother. My mother died when I was a little fellow and I lived with my grandmother. Lived up there in the country and all you could see was the steamboats. There was nothing else up there to look at except the trees and the farms, and one thing and another. So I lived there until I got to be sixteen years old. Watched the boats and went down when the boats landed. I got acquainted with some of the fellows on the boat and after awhile I got a job on the boat ...

"... The man never made any money out of [the water circus]. Well, I’ll tell you, he went down the river, we followed the river down here, made all the river towns aware, that there were any justified to stop at. Got out of Paducah and after he got to Paducah he decided he didn’t want to go down the river any farther, he wanted to come back. He lived at Ironton and he didn't want to get too far away from home.

“His name was Newman. So he came back up the same way he came down, what they called backtracking, and he didn't do much business. He lost his shirt. He had a few [animals], but not very many. He managed to sort of get along without them because they was too hard to handle and too hard to acquire. They'd be liable to get loose and eat up some of the audience.


“He had a lot of performers. He had trapeze performers and he had the fellows that’d do these cartwheels and all that kind of stuff. They'd get up and swing around on the trapeze and turn flip flops in the air. Oh they had a lot of things there. Had a couple of fellows under a great big old blanket and get them up in a certain way and made kind of an animal at of it they called a jocko. It was a kind of ridiculous looking thing but it sure did bring the house down. They made a hit every time they put it on. Didn't mean anything.

“You've seen two men under a blanket I expect. That's about all it was, but it made a hit. Another thing he had was an imitation of an automobile. At that time there was no such thing as an automobile, hardly. People had heard of them, but nobody had ever seen them hardly. He had a thing there on the boat that had four wheels on it and it was supposed to represent an automobile and boy there was a crowd around that thing all the time looking at it. It wouldn't run. They had to pull it around when they wanted to move it and there wasn't an engine or anything of that kind but it made a hit. Just goes to show how things were changed since that time.”

Captain Jesse Hughes
of the riverboat “The Cricket”
which he piloted 1900-1903 along the Ohio & Big Sandy Rivers
1957 interview

Source: http://www.uis.edu/archives/memoirs/HUGHESJ.pdf

Related post: "Last of the Packet Boats"


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