My Father’s Family Legacy
Today, on Father’s Day, I think of my father’s family legacy. He’s been gone 14 years, but he left me with many memories I cherish.
I especially remember visiting in the homes of his many aunts and uncles. My dad’s mother contracted tuberculosis when he was a child and went out west to stay in a sanitorium. She only came back a short while, divorced and then left to marry someone she had met, leaving grandfather and my dad when he was 11. Consequently, Daddy, an only child, spent many days and summer school breaks with his dad’s parents and siblings. These people had a tremendous influence upon him and how he lived his adult life. He was especially close to his grandmother. I wish I had gotten to know her like my sisters did.
He never forgot what these relatives meant to him, and I remember many, many lazy summer days where we would visit one or the other great aunt or great uncle. I never looked forward to the visits because they were old and had no kids at home and no toys to speak of. I did, however, learn a lot by listening to their conversations and eat lots of good home-cooked food. They were very kind, generous people.
My Father’s Family Legacy – Noel Estes Edwards and his 11 Siblings
My great-grandfather, Julius Frank Edwards, had a son and the mother passed away. He then married his deceased wife’s sister, my great-grandmother, Lucy Elizabeth (Robinson) Edwards, and they had 11 more children. My grandfather, Noel, was their oldest.
In trying to find a picture of my grandfather and his siblings, I found a booklet my great Aunt Ethel wrote. It includes a great description of Daddy’s uncles and aunts in an interesting historical context. I am including excerpts from her booklet describing her family.
Julius, my oldest brother’s life dream was to be a lawyer but after 1 1/2 years in college his eyes failed him and he began working in a bank. Later he did realize part of his dream in his son Frank who became quite a successful lawyer. Julius started out working as a janitor in the bank but worked his way up to cashier and filled that place for 46 years. He passed away February 14, 1958, from a heart attack.
When Julius and I were small, one day we were making some red paint by pounding a soft red brick into dust and mixing it with water to paint our playhouse or mule barn. In the process, my finger got hit with the hammer, bursting it so that I will carry the scar to my grave. Another time Julius told Mama that Mary and I had rolled our yarn stockings down over our shoe tops coming home from school and we both got a good spanking.
— I do not remember Uncle Julius. I knew his three sons John, Frank and Ben. In Ben’s later years, Daddy became his overseer, as he had physical and mental difficulties. Ben spent many Christmases with us.
Noel taught school a few years, some at Flynt school and boarded at home. One afternoon Moss went running down the walk to meet him and said, “Guess what we raised today–a little baby boy (great uncle Lee) and a little jersey calf.” Noel graduated at Beasleys Academy and spent most of his life–42 years–as a postman in Columbia. He passed away December 13, 1973, from a broken hip and old age.
— Noel was my grandfather. I mainly remember him as a very quiet, giving and gentle man.
Mary never had very good health. She graduated from the University of Missouri and worked at the Missouri State Historical Society Library for some time. She died January 30, 1920, of flu and pneumonia.
— She passed away before my time and never married or had children.
Willie loved livestock, was always a farmer at heart, and farmed all his life. One time he and Bruce, along with the Sims boys who were close neighbors decided to break some calves to pull a cart. They got them hitched up and when the calves got hot and tired they started for the pond and no pulling or coaxing changed their minds till they were in the middle of the pond and there they stayed. The boys had to pull off their clothes and pile them on the cart seat while they unhitched and unharnessed the calves and pulled the cart ashore. They dared not leave any marks of their prank lest they get a scolding when they got to their homes.
Willie, Mary and I went to church and many other places together driving sorrel Maude, a good trotting mare, to a buggy. Mary and I wore linen dusters, a sleeveless robe sort of garment, in the summer to keep the dust off our pretty white dresses, and Willie tucked a handkerchief inside his white shirt collar to catch the perspiration. Papa, Mama and the smaller children followed behind in a spring wagon with Mama carrying an umbrella in hot weather to keep the baby from blistering. Julius and Noel usually rode horseback. Later on we had a surrey with a heavy fringe around the top that kept the occupants well sprinkled when it was raining.
Each church had a stile block and each wagon or buggy would drive up to it and the chivalrous man would get out and take hold of the hand of his wife, sweetheart, or any lady who might be riding with him and help her out. She would walk down the steps while the man drove to a shady place to hitch his horse or team. Mr. and Mrs. Chick came to church in a spring wagon and she was a rather large woman. The way he assisted her to the stile was to get behind and push her. It was rather amusing to us younger people.
The men didn’t sit with their wives in the church–the right side being for the men; the left, for women. The young folks sat with their dates in the back of the church chewing gum. That wasn’t any of our family for my parents taught us that it wasn’t dignified to chew gum in church. When we observed the Lord’s Supper, the wine was in a big cutglass bottle and there were two glasses to match–one being passed to the men and the other to the women, all drinking from the same glass. It bothered me, though, as a child, for a certain woman who the folks thought had tuberculosis to drink before Mama did, but it always seemed to work that way. There was so much t.b. (called consumption) in those days.
— I remember Uncle Willie well. He was fun and he had a very mischievous wife, Aunt Artie, who loved to pull pranks and tell jokes. Her daughter, Barbara, took on that trait. My dad also got tuberculosis and had to live in a tent in the yard and miss half a year of school. He said that is when he learned to love reading as that was all he was allowed to do.
I came next to Willie in the family. As a little girl, I spent much time playing with my dolls and playing house. My music teacher told my mother, “It’s a waste of money to give Ethel piano lessons. Her interests are along the line of housekeeping.”
My father always said, “Ethel has a solution for everything, whether it’s right or wrong.” One day a young calf got out of the barn into the pasture with a lot of mules. None of the men were at home so I ran down to catch it and put it back in the barn. I caught it but had nothing for a halter. By holding the calf with my knees against the fence, I stripped off my blouse and soon had a makeshift halter on the calf and led it to the barn, thus saving it from being killed by the mules. Mama just stood in the yard splitting her sides with laughter. She said how funny it would have been if visitors had come over the hill and seen me without a blouse and the calf wearing one.
The most important thing I ever did was when I became a Christian. I was baptized on November 15, 1903, in Salt River and joined the New Hope Baptist Church. We drove back home six miles with those wet clothes on. My next most important decision was when I accepted Quincy Harrington for my husband–but more about that later.
— I remember Aunt Ethel somewhat. She and Uncle Quincy lived further away so we didn’t visit them often. She had the largest family of all the siblings. I can tell you I was quite surprised when one day she and Uncle Quincy paid a surprise visit to me when I was in Kirksville at Northeast Missouri State University. I was impressed that they took that time to check on me when they had so many grandchildren they could have visited instead.
Bruce was always fat and jolly but sometimes we thought ill-fated. When he was just ten months old and learning to walk, our parents went to town and left him in the care of the older children. They got so interested playing with the little dog, Fanny, that Bruce was neglected and he fell against a red hot stove–just leaving the prints of his hands on it. The folks took him to Columbia and St. Louis to the best doctors they knew but he was left with his left hand cup-shaped because it was so drawn and his right forefinger grew to the palm of the hand. Another time he was riding his stick horse (maybe his horse became frightened?)–anyway, he fell on his arm and broke it. He was the only one of the 12 to have a broken bone as long as we were at home.
When Bruce was about four years old, Papa and Mama were dipping lambs (in a dip made by boiling tobacco stems in water) to kill the ticks, since the ticks seemed to leave the ewes after they were sheared and go to the lambs. As they dipped the first one, Bruce took off his hat and began to sing, “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand.” We had attended a baptismal service only a few days before, and it really impressed him.
— I knew Uncle Bruce well. We spent many Sundays visiting him and Aunt Nettie. If we were lucky, his grandchildren would be there and I could play with Lois, Vicky, Becky, Mary and Carol. My dad lived with Uncle Bruce during his last two years of high school. He helped out on the farm in return for room and board.
Harvey was our most handsome brother, and he was as handsome on the inside as the outside for he was so sincere, so trustworthy in everything. One thing I shall never forget was when he got his orders to report at the Great Lakes for the Navy. He left the house and as he went down the walk he was singing, “God Will Take Care of You.” I never knew the ache in my parents hearts until Quincy and I had to experience seeing Roy leave for the Army. Harvey died young, April 12, 1947, at the age of 52.
— I never knew Uncle Harvey but remember his wife, Aunt Mabel, and his children, Betty and John well. I was close in age to his grandson, Harvey Sydenstricker, who, to my surprise, always kept a close eye on the guys I would date in school!
Fannie taught in rural schools near home and drove Old Scott, hitched to a cart for transportation. Later on she got her degree from the University of Missouri and taught Home Economics in Sabetha, Kansas, and Eureka Springs, Arkansas. She was librarian at Mexico High School for about 19 years and then lived in Austin, Texas, for 14 years where she worked as a secretary in the University Baptist Church. She never married and when she retired, she moved back to Mexico and bought a house there.
— Aunt Fannie was one of my favorites because of her sweet disposition. She had lovely eyes and a sweet smile. My father ended up taking care of her affairs in her old age as she had no children.
Arthusa (Sue) loved cats as well as anyone could. When she was a child, she played with them instead of dolls. She graduated from LaGrange College and taught school at High Hill Rural School for several terms. She spent most of her life doing for others. She married one of the best men I ever knew, Basil Younger. After Bruce left home, she and Basil sold their farm and came and lived with Papa and Mama and cared for them as long as they lived. They also cared for Aunt Amanda Ballew for a few years before she died. They then bought the home place and put the “Welcome mat” out for any of us children to come home at any time. She passed away May 30, 1970, with cancer.
— I remember Aunt Sue and Uncle Basil well. She was a very hard-working woman who was not interested in everyday comforts for herself. She spent her life seeing after others, instead.
Moss was a quiet, good-natured deep thinker, and never had much time for mischief. When he was small and working in the field, they gave him the most gentle team of mules to work and when the dinner bell would ring at 11:30 a.m., the time when Mama put the corn bread in to bake, no matter where he was in the field the mules turned around and started for the house. He graduated from the University of Missouri in Engineering. He surveyed the big cemetery just off Highway 40 in Columbia and laid off the driveways through it. (Memorial Cemetery) This is where Papa, Mama, Noel, Opal, Lois and her baby rest. At the time of his death from an intestinal obstruction, January 25, 1939, he was County Surveyor of Audrain County and City Engineer of Mexico.
— He passed away before my time. I did know his daughter, Jane.
Ruth, our baby sister, was so sickly that she had a hard time getting through her second summer. The doctor called it “Summer Complaint”. She could eat nothing, drinking only boiled milk with a pinch of salt in it. She got so thin and cried so much begging for a “piece or a bite” of something. We would hitch a horse to a cart and take her driving most of the day to entertain her. She graduated from Stephens College and taught school most of her life, although she married and raised three girls. She just loved to teach.
— I remember Aunt Ruth as being a very bubbly, jolly woman. She lived farther away and we didn’t visit much. Her daughters were close to my sisters’ ages.
Lee, the baby of the family, and plenty spoiled by all of us, graduated from high school and took some college work. He was always playing pranks on others but one night he got one played on him. The boys took turns turning out the horses at night. That night Harvey ran ahead of Lee, got into the barn and when Lee poked his hand through the hole to unhook the door Harvey grabbed his hand, and Lee said, “I was so scared I’d have pulled him through that little hole if he hadn’t turned loose.”
Lee worked for the A. P. Green Brick Company most of his life until retirement. Part of the time he had to live in New York, Indianapolis, and Houston, Texas. The last several years he was a salesman for the A. P. Green Brick Company. He was the youngest of the four brothers, Willie, Bruce, Harvey, and Lee, who made up the Edwards Brothers Quartet which sang at many, many funerals. Sue played for them.
— I do remember Uncle Lee as the most spoiled. He loved to sit around at the Edwards family reunions and brag about his job and advise everyone about politics. Frankly, he was pretty obnoxious. All the men would just sit around in lawn chairs listening to him and smiling. Many rarely agreed with him. My dad and I share his name, Leslie Lee, Leslie Bruce and Leslie Ailene.
My Father’s Family Legacy – My Great Grandmother Lucy E. Edwards
Daddy became very close to his grandmother, and I have read his writings about crawling onto her lap when he was lonely and missing his mom. She had to be a wonderful woman to raise such fine children during far harder times than we have today.
In her spare time, she took to writing poems. She wrote one to each of her children, which I have a copy of. She also wrote one to my dad.
TO LESLIE BRUCE EDWARDS
June 6, 1938 By Lucy E. Edwards
The time is fast approaching and the day is very near
For my two grandsons to graduate who to me are very dear.
To some it may seem that all lifes hard tasks are now done
But remember that your lifes work has just now begun.
Now set your standard high above riches, power, or fame
To a clean Christian character and an untarnished name.
Take Christ as your pattern and each single day
Help and cheer some downhearted one on life’s rugged way.
The work you have chosen, will have opportunities not a few
To help and encourage the unfortunate in their work to do.
To earn an honest living as a reward for their toil
From our good mother earth with her tilable soil.
We are taught in God’s word to acknowledge Him in all our ways
For His blessings of sunshine and rain, we should always give Him the praise.
For His power to send or prevent the pests that destroy
Our fields and gardens that bring us food and much joy.
Now you have started a home in a way of your own.
With a lovable companion and you’ll not be alone.
Start each day off by going to God in earnest prayer
For wisdom and His guidance and His protecting care.
Put selfishness entirely out of your heart
And in all things possible do more than your part
To make this Home the dearest place that you know.
And cling to each other as on thru life you go.
And may each heart in love grow stronger as side by side you go
Through lifes sunshine and shadow, and joys and woe.
In trouble and pleasure, in sickness and health.
In strenuous poverty or abundance of wealth.
When old age creeps on and health and strength most gone
You’ll not regret time or talent that has helped someone along.
You may not be appreciated and get censure when you deserve praise
But you will be happier in life’s closing days.
My Father’s Family Legacy – From Generation to Generation
From these various relatives, Daddy learned the value of
- Living for Christ
- Working the land
- Serving others
- Going to church
- Respecting our elders
- A good education
- Hard work
- Perseverance
- Being a good parent
- Loving Unconditionally
These ancestors taught my dad a good way to live. He, in turn, taught me and my sisters. I now endeavor to teach my children and grandchildren the same things.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF YOUR INFLUENCE
I hope you have enjoyed my trip back through memory lane. But, more than that, I hope you are fortunate enough to have lots of genealogical knowledge about your family. It can be so enlightening and interesting. Remember to leave your family written memories they can cherish in the future. And, finally, never underestimate the power of your influence!
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DADDY! The Edwards legacy lives on in your heirs. I know we all loved you, respected you, admired you and miss you!
If you enjoyed this, you might want to read My First Hero.