The House with Five Gables ~ The House That Built Me

Miranda Lambert has a country song called the House that Built Me. This song recently resonated with me when I learned that our family farmhouse was scheduled to be demolished [2020]. I didn't realize the emotional attachments I still have to the farm which we moved away from in 1975 when I was merely 13 years old.

When I read the text, I let out a gasp. Michael asked me what was going on. As I tried to read the text to him the tears began to flow and I could not speak out the words. This home was not only where I spent my young years but also where my father grew up. On top of that, the house has/had historical value being the first farmhouse west of the Alleghany Mountains with running water and electricity.

I have been meaning to write about the house but never took the time. I guess it's time to get this in black and white. Dad (Gene Dawson) wrote out the things he remembered and my sister, Kandy typed it up and sent it to me.

So here we go on a trip down memory lane. My added notes are in purple.

The House that Built Me or The House with Five Gables.

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To my daughter, Mandy Farmer, granddaughter of Elwood and Leona Dawson.  I am the son of Elwood.  I thought it might be of interest to fill in some details of Mandy’s report.

We [Elwood, Leona & 4 children] moved from Jefferson County to Stark County in 1942.

We bought the farm from Wayne Yoder, the oldest son of Forest Yoder.  Wayne’s brothers were Blanchard, Joe, Ray, Russell and 2 sisters. I got the details of this report from Russell.  Russell owned an airport in Louisville.  Wayne Yoder was the oldest of the Yoder family.  When he was 12, they were bringing in the hay.  Wayne was driving the team when a thunderstorm came up.  His dad took the reins.  Lightning struck the team, killing the horses and Wayne’s dad.

Wayne Yoder was about the same age as Elwood. When I (Mandy) lived on the farm, he and his wife lived just down the road across the street from Uncle George and Aunt Sandy. I remember going to their home trick or treating. They always gave out large candy bars!

Who is Russell?

 The farm became quite a showplace.  

The barn was built in 1887 (100’ by 80’, largest in the county). The farm had the name, Superior Excelsior Farm.  All the lumber was cut from the farm.  A 16' x 30' silo was built from the clay on the farm. All the buildings had a slate roof.  The slate was shipped in on 3 railway cars. 

The house was built in the early 1900s.  It was the first farmhouse west of the Allegheny Mountains to have running water, electricity and central heat (heated water pipes).  The house had 13 rooms with 3 dumbwaiters, one from the basement to the attic (4 floors).  Water from the house roof was collected and stored in a tank on the 2^nd floor.  This was used for washing. The overflow then was piped to an earthen cistern, resulting in running water for livestock in the barn.  The hog pen had a large heated water tank used to help with butchering. 

Water from the storage tank also supplied water for the house.  Water from a strong spring was pumped to the house and stored in a different tank and used for drinking. This was an ingenious system of using the flow of the water to “pump” the freshwater to a smaller tank on the 2^nd floor of the house, resulting in running water for drinking. 

The house had a belfry with a rope leading to the kitchen to call for dinner. 

The house also had a Delco electric system.  When we moved there, there was one basement wall with shelves filled with acid batteries used to generate the electricity. 

(see this link for more info on this system –note from Kandy:  https://www.farmcollector.com/farm-shows/delco-light-plant-zmlz13janzbea )

Quite a house!

Gene Dawson

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The House Fire of '57

Things Elaine told Mandy

There was a house fire in February 1957 which gutted the house. My parents, Gene and Elaine had their wedding gifts stored in the attic. Mom had just visited and taken a few serving items to have a birthday party for Dad. 

The cause of the fire was apparently a bird took a burning ember into the eaves of the house to build a nest. When the firemen arrived. They sprayed their hoses on the roof but the slate tiles kept the water from getting to the fire. Before they could extinguish the fire, the house was gutted. 

Mom's wedding dress was stored in a cedar chest in the attic. It was found sitting on a ledge still up in the eaves. Though they had to knock it down and retrieve it in the basement, they found the cedar chest has sealed shut, her wedding gown and a few other dresses unscathed. 

Read about the wedding dress here.

The house was rebuilt but only two floors.

Not sure who the girl is here. Kandy or a cousin?

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The Barn and Other Buildings

Mom, Dad and 4 kids (Gene, Elaine, Doug, Kandy, Mandy, & Alex) at the time moved to the home place about 1966. I (Mandy) was about 5 years old. When we moved to the homeplace, Dad took charge of the farm. Grandma and Grandpa bought a house not far away on Easton Street.

Dad added a milking parlor. Not long after this, there was a barn fire destroying the old barn (1970). We only lost one sick calf and also were able to save the new milking parlor. The neighbors milked our cows. The Amish came in and helped rebuild. They built a free-stall barn, a hay barn, a calf barn, and a machine shed. Dad said it still wasn't as much storage as that one original barn. I wrote about the barn fire HERE.

This is the milkhouse and you can see to the right is the new hay barn.

Our family sold the farm in 1975 and moved to Wisconsin. See my memoirs HERE. I don't believe the farm was ever again a working dairy farm. The barns have been long gone with the exception of the machine shed.

__________________________________________

More to Come

Uncle George and Aunt Sandy still live just down the street. (The Bishop Place purchased by Grandpa at some point. Mom and Dad lived there when I was born.) They and their kids were given an opportunity to walk through the house one last time. 

Susan Dawson Vaughn sent me some pictures which I would like to share in a future post only with memories that come to mind. I welcome friends and family to send me memories/pictures/news articles of their own. Let's get them in black and white.

Mandy

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Baby, It's Cold Outside

I awoke this morning here in the deep south and my husband said, "It's 32 degrees outside." My mind went immediately to, "We've got to get up and check all the water lines to be sure nothing has frozen up." :)

I've been away from the farm since 1980 and living in the south just as long. So I have no idea why this came to mind today other than to write a memoir.
I don't recall much of cold weather when we lived in Ohio but then, I was fairly young. But Wisconsin, that is a different story.

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/wisconsin-wi-united-states-usa.html

Welcome to Wisconsin

The first time I arrived at the farm in Wisconsin was November 1974. I road with my dad to take some equipment up to the new farm we had recently purchased. You can read that story here. What I remember is that the ground was already to frozen to plant any flower bulbs that Mom had sent along in hopes to have some pretty flowers in the spring when we arrived. Those bulbs remained in a bag in a cabinet until the next April. But they had sprouted we found them.

One memory of those cold winter days was trying to keep the water lines from freezing up. The body warmth from the cows usually keep the water flowing but occasionally a pipe would bust and send water everywhere.

Another thing I remember about Wisconsin cold was there always seemed to be an ice storm in March. Even if the weather had warmed up you could guarantee one more bad storm before spring came in full bloom. Since we moved to Wisconsin in the spring of '75, we didn't really "get" to experience winter until the next year.

In 1976, Wisconsin had the worst storm in recorded history. 

Photo Credit: Wisconsin Sentinel

Ice was recorded to have collected on trees and poles as thick as 5 inches. Utility poles came down like dominoes for many miles( I think someone said 100 miles. Don't quote me on that). And several counties were declared to be in a state of emergency, including our own, Columbia County. Schools were closed for about two weeks since there was no electricity.

Now, the ice is quite pretty on the trees but that is about as far as it goes. Ice is heavy and it tends to beak tree limbs or whatever it has frozen onto. Somehow, (I think the Lord's care because we didn't even have a generator at the time) we were one of the few farms that still had electricity. Farms all around us had no electricity. You could hear the cows bawling. They were hungry and thirsty since the wells need electricity to pump water and silos of grain need electricity to unload the grain. It was quite an experience.

We invited the neighbors to bring milk cans and get water for the animals.

Can you guess how much water a cow needs in a day?  

According to Dairy Herd Management,

A milking dairy cow drinks about 30 to 50 gallons of water each day...Water weighs 8.35 lbs/gal, so a milking dairy cow may consume as much as 420 (or more) pounds of water daily.

Our farm had 100 milking cows, plus young and dry stock. So you do the math. Then multiply that by every farm in the county. Yikes!

Now, I haven't even mentioned that you need electricity to milk the cows. So most farmers were back to milking cows by hand. And allowing it to go straight down the drain in most cases. That's a lot of loss.

We were blessed.

We were very thankful that the Lord took care of us. And we used that blessing to open our doors not only to the cows on the neighboring farms but also to friends who came to our home for a shower or a hot meal.

We endured many blizzards over the next few years. Neighbors were always saying, "It isn't usually this bad." But year after year, we could depend on getting a "good" blizzard or two.

Schools in the Winter Cold

No, we didn't have to walk 6 miles uphill both ways to get to school. One thing I do know is that the schools seemed to usually find a way to stay open. Many times school opened two hours late. Other times the buses didn't run but the town kids still had to show up for school. ha, ha!

The most memorable time was when the storm came on the day of the conference basketball championship. Every school around was closed. But not ours. We weren't going to miss playing that conference championship. The local radio announced that they would air the game so that other schools wouldn't be tempted to try to drive out in the weather to see the game. What a day! I'm pretty sure we won the game because in those days we were rated number one and many times played in the state finals.

Well, that's some of my memories of growing up in the cold winters of Wisconsin.

Til the Cows Come Home

It's my birthday.

 I was just sitting here thinking about birthdays on the farm which led me to think about the birthday when I was 9 or 10.

I remember that they made me go out to bring in the cows for milking. I wasn't happy at all about that. I complained and grumbled to myself the whole time because I thought I shouldn't have to do the chores. After all, it WAS my birthday.

Photo credit: Kathy & Yale Dawson
Pictures from my cousin's farm

All in all, bringing in the cattle was not all that bad of a job ...unless it was raining. The cattle don't cooperate too well especially if the wind is blowing. They want to turn their backs to the wind, so if the wind is blowing the opposite direction it is quite a challenge to get them to do anything. (Who can blame them)?

Speaking of driving cattle in the rain

We once had a young man from Germany come to the farm as an agriculture exchange student. Bringing in the cattle was Franz's job every morning. One morning, a great thunderstorm came just at the time for bringing in the cattle for the morning milking. I'm not sure whether Franz had even seen a thunderstorm before since storms in the midwest are not the same as those in Germany.

My father rose to the sound of thunder and went to tell Franz that he should wait to bring in the cattle. But it was already too late. Franz had gone out into the storm to bring in the cattle. My father drove down in the truck to find him. To my recollection, the winds were blowing the wrong direction and had driven the cattle to the far end of the pasture with their back to the rain! Since Franz is still connected to us, maybe he'll be willing to share "the rest of the story".

Back to my cattle driving story

In Ohio, we had this creek bed that would turn into a bed of mud nearly up to your knees.  Crossing that mud bed can be a real challenge for a short kid like me. I remember many times walking right out of my boots! There I would be standing in the middle of this mud with one leg and a socked foot up in the air. In retrospect, I should have just taken off the boots and socks and walked through barefooted. It could be that I did figure that out after a while because I was always the first one to go barefooted in the spring.

When we moved to Wisconsin, I think this job was awarded to the younger kids. Though we did buy a good cow dog when we arrived.  I do recall having to do the job once though, (sadly with the same grumbly attitude). But Jack and I headed off towards the pasture to bring in the cattle. In a few moments, Jack was nowhere to be seen and I started grumbling about the worthless dog. UNTIL, moments later when the cows met me coming. Jack had run on ahead and brought them in. I only had to treck half way down the pasture. That's when I found a new appreciation for dogs. Up until then I really didn't have much use for him.

Back to my birthday story

I'm sure you can figure out how it all turned out. When I got back to the house, the dining area was all set up for a little birthday party. That can make a person feel really guilty.

It reminds me of a little wisdom found in the Bible

  ...and it comes right after we are told to have the same attitude as Christ.

Do Everything Without Grumbling12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[c] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

 I'm pretty sure the Christ would not have complained and grumbled about doing a simple chare little bringing in the cattle. Our selfish attitudes can most times get the best of us especially when we find out later that our "trials" were all for our good. There was something good at the end.

And don't we all know that is true? God has something very good at the end for us. Much better than cake and ice cream. Let's persevere with the attitude of Christ.

P.S. Hey, farm friends, and family. Share your story about bringing in the cows in the comments

Another Lesson from the Farm

This post is inspired by a prompt in the journal, "Reflections of a Mother's Heart". The Prompt: Did you ever have a special hideaway?"

 Each year, the challenge was different.

Once the hay was all in the barns, each of us would take the challenge. Somewhere in the huge stack of fresh hay bales was a tunnel. Not just a straight tunnel through the hay, but one that took various turns. Left. Right. Up. Down. Once, I remember a rather large opening in the middle.

It was a specialty of my brother Doug. He stacked the hay and created the tunnels. Not sure what got him started doing it. Maybe just for a challenge to change up the doldrums of stacking bale after bale in order. Or maybe the loft was just that much too large. All I know is that we enjoyed finding our way through.

Speaking of stacking bale after bale

I'm reminded that Doug took a lot of pride in stacking the most square and orderly wagon of hay. Back in the day, hay was not rolled up in a huge ball and left in the fields. It was baled into a rectangle. Some farms had a bale thrower which baled the hay and then threw the bales into a wagon. 

But on our farm

Wagon built by Dad & brother
maybe others

The bales were carefully stacked on the wagon usually by Doug. I laugh thinking about the times we hired some high school boy to come out and stack the hay. Those wagon loads were a sight to see. And many times, they didn't make it back to the barn before the hay was falling in every direction on the road.

Anyway, Doug took real pride in having an orderly load of hay, stacked nice and tight. They only thing that kept this from happening was ... uh, the driver which was usually Kandy or me. :(


Picture This

Doug takes the bale from the baler, carries it to the already stacked hay, and lifts the bale above his head to toss it up on the top row. About this time, there is a large clump of hay being baled, the driver realizes she must slow down or the baler will shear a pin due to too much hay at one time. So she puts her foot on the break. This causes a chain reaction. You know, 

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."

Since Doug is focused completely on tossing the bale up and back, he has no idea that the train of equipment is stopping.... uh, maybe somewhat abruptly. I think you know the result.

Usually, he wasn't all that happy with me,  I mean, whoever was driving. But the result was really six to one, half a dozen to the other. Because he didn't get happy over a sheared pin either.
And either probably resulted in extra work.

But regardless, we got the job done. 

And most of the time we drove into the barnyard with a beautifully stacked wagon of hay. 

I'm not sure who or how Doug was trained, but there was certainly an example set before him. It may have been Uncle George. Here is a picture of him and my big sister climbing one of those lovely wagons of hay. 

Climbing the Hay Wagon

Doug and Kandy 1962

Lesson Learned

1 Corinthians 14:40(NLT)  be sure that everything is done properly and in order.

Whatever you do should be done properly. If you do it well the first time, you don't have to go back a correct the problem. If hay is stacked haphazardly, it usually will fall causing a huge clean-up job and lost time.

1 Corinthians 10:31 (NLT) whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Take pride in what you do. Wether you enjoy doing it or not. Whatever work you are doing, do it as if you are working for the Lord.

Just another lesson from being "Raised in a Barn"

Farm Trucks, Close Calls and Prayers

I have been working on a series of devotionals and was reminded of an incident from the farm that went along with a point I was making. I couldn't remember all the details, though. Since the incident involved my sister, Kandy, I asked her to fill in the gaps for me. She did that and more, thanking me for bringing back to mind such a traumatic moment in her life! :)


I Can't miss the opportunity to share with you what she shared with me!

Photo by Wisconsin Historical Society

not our truck, but it may have looked kinda like this

Undesired Chores

Dad had an arrangement with the cheese factory where we sent out milk to haul whey for the cattle. It was fed as a nutrition supplement. He had acquired an old milk truck with a tank in order to pick it up. It was my unfortunate duty to occasionally go pick up the whey. There were actually 2 instances where I was clearly protected by God from disaster.


In order to funnel the whey into the truck, I had to pull alongside the building where the large whey tank was located. The driveway sloped down to the end of the building where there was a cross-street, then a short grassy bank into a small river.

Traumatic Instance #1

I always set the parking brake, of course. But on this day, after I was done loading and back in the truck with the motor running, I noticed that the spigot from the tank was dripping. So I hopped out to turn the faucet tighter.

Oh, I neglected to mention that my little brother, LeAdam, had come along for the ride.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed the truck moving. As I turned back toward the truck, I took several steps, jumped up on the running board, and slammed my foot on the brake. I stopped mere inches from the river bank.

All I could see in front of me was water. 

I shifted carefully into reverse and quickly backed up the slope. LeAdam sat there with his eyes wide open!

I also narrowly missed a school bus that had just passed - the driver stopped to see if I was ok.

NOT REALLY OK!! :)

Traumatic Instance #2

Another time while driving home from picking up whey, I came upon a railroad crossing in town where there were no crossing bars or flashing lights. 

I must have been daydreaming because all of a sudden I heard a loud sound, and realized a train was coming. If I hadn't stopped, I would not have made it across the tracks.


So there it is. The sordid tale.

Thanks for bringing up that terrifying moment! Ha!

Kandy
-Gettin' Back to my Roots



Anytime, Sis! You can always count on a sister to remind of times you would rather forget!


The point of dredging up this scary moment in time is to talk about the prayerfulness of our mother. If there was ever a prayer warrior, it would be her. The day of the second story mentioned above, Mom had a premonition while washing the dishes. A concern for Kandy.

Immediately, she stopped what she was doing and began to pray. It was quite a shock to hear Kandy's story when she arrived home.

The Moral of this story:
When prompted to pray,
stop immediately and pray!

Note:
If you are interested in my devotionals, you can receive one once a week by e-mail. Just click on the purple box along the right side of this blog, "Oh Lord, How Long?"

Miguel Comes to the Farm

After I posted Pedro's story, his brother, Miguel offered to share a little of his experience also. What a blessing to hear these stories again!

Mandy

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Summer of '72

Miguel at about 14

In 1972 as I finished the 6^th grade I was excited for summer to begin. Little did I know that THIS summer would change my entire life.

My older brother, Pedro, had been working on this farm in Louisville, Ohio for about a year. My mom and dad decided that I, too, should go and work on this farm. {See Pedro's story here}

When I found out I was very upset and angry that I had to work all summer. I was almost 13 years old and I didn’t realize that “A farmer's work is never done.” 

Once I accepted the fact that I had to go I thought, 

“Surely I can work a few hours a day and get by.” 

Miguel around 17

But oh no! The work on the farm was seven days a week from 4am ‘till the cows came home. I mean until milking time, which was about 5:00-5:30pm, if I remember correctly. The work on the farm was hard,  but bailing hay had to be the hardest work for a 13-year-old. 

But on Sunday we could only milk the cows in the morning and the evening; no other work was done. The owner and his family were Christian, and at the time I didn’t know what a Christian was. I was brought up being Catholic and that’s all that I knew.  On Sundays, we would always go to church (a Methodist church).

My day on the farm would begin at 4am. I would get up to bring the cows in for milking. I remember that it would be cold or cool that early in the morning, so when a cow would get up from the ground I would lay down where it had been laying and man, was it nice and warm. The cows would basically walk in by themselves, they all knew the routine. All I did was walk behind them and close the gate. 

By the time all the cows were in, Mr. Dawson would be up and ready to start milking. While the cows were being milked, I would bed down and feed the other calves and the bull that were in the other barn. By the time I was done, the milking would also be done so I would help my brother, Pedro, clean and hose down the milk house. By the time we were done, it would be breakfast time and, man, breakfast was always good.

At breakfast, we would get our daily instructions. There was always something that needed to be done. With all the work and not much else to do, my only escape was to daydream.

SEBRING CAMP

 One day I can’t really remember, but in my mind, I remember Mr. Dawson asking me if I wanted to go to a Christian camp. To me, going to a Christian camp was the farthest thing on my mind. I’m not sure if Mr. Dawson told me or if I thought of this on my own.  .....

Senior picture

 “There will be girls there.”  

Hmmm. Now that’s a different story!

Anyway, I decided to go to this camp.

  Sebring  Camp was like nothing I had ever experienced before. 

There was no bickering or fighting. 

I kind of liked it. 

Plus, anywhere was better than working on the farm. 

We had a lot of classes to attend and free time also. But around 6pm or 7pm every evening we always had a big church meeting. I started to look forward to these meetings. 

Main tabernacle at Sebring

At one of these meetings, the preacher, it seemed, was talking directly to me. At the end of the service, he asked If anyone wanted to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I had never heard the salvation message before. I know that the Methodist church teaches and preaches salvation, I had just never heard it before. I guess it wasn’t my time yet.

Well, needless to say, I remember having a battle in my mind. 

One voice I heard, or sensed, said

 “Miguel, go up there. That’s what you need.” 

The other voice in my head would say,

  “Don’t go up there, all your friends will laugh at you if you become a Christian. Plus, you won’t be able to do any fun things anymore.” 

I didn’t know it then, but I do now. My spirit and my flesh were having this battle. I remember we were all standing up and I was grabbing the back of the chair in front of me. I told myself that I would not go up there to the front of the church in front of everyone. 

The pastor asked one more time, 

“Does anyone want to accept Jesus into their hearts and have all your sins forgiven and have eternal life with Him?”

 I grabbed the back of the chair, but before I knew what was happening I found myself walking down to the front. I became a Christian that day.

Response to an invitation at Sebring

Life Since Then

Life for me has been a rollercoaster ride simply because of some bad decisions that I’ve made in my life. But I know, without a doubt, had I not said ‘yes’ to God on that late July day in 1972, that I would not be alive today. 

Miguel today

It’s now been about 6 years that I have come back to God and have been going to church and I thank him every day!

There is more that I could share, but maybe at another time.

Thank you, Mandy!

-Miguel De Los Santos.

I would like to add one more thing, and that is that because  of the Dawson family my whole family (brothers and sisters) have come to know the Lord. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Gene Dawson.

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And thank you, Miguel for sharing your story!

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Don't forget that anyone who posts below will be entered in a drawing for a CD of teh Dawson girls singing! Drawing November 1.

Big, Bad Pedro at Sebring Camp

{excerpt #2 from the memoirs of Pedro De Los Santos}

SEBRING CAMP

Two weeks after the 4th of July, Mr. Dawson asked me if I was interested in attending Sebring Camp. I did not know what it was, so I asked him to Explain. 

He said that every year, Doug and Kandy went to the town of Sebring, Ohio where they had a holiness camp. It was aimed at young teenagers but there were also plenty of adults. They had a youth program that involved lots of fun activities but there was also Bible study and worship. I had never been to a summer camp before, so I told Mr. Dawson that I would really like to go. He said he had already arranged for me to attend with Doug and Kandy. 

Sebring Camp was a wonderful experience. I made a lot of friends and enjoyed all the activities they had prepared for us. I really enjoyed the biblical teachings and the worship sessions too, especially during the evening services. 

It was during one of these evening services that I made a decision to give God control of my life by accepting the salvation that Jesus had offered to us all by dying on the cross. I felt great joy and happiness knowing that my sins no longer counted against me and that God had forgiven me and welcomed me with open arms. It was the happiest moment in my life that I can recall and it made the rest of the Sebring Camp experience that much more wonderful. 

BIG, BAD, PEDRO

I became friends with a guy named Ed Green at Sebring Camp. He loved to play the guitar and was always playing it and singing songs. He wrote a song about my misadventure at the swimming pool where I almost drowned. 

He called it “Big Bad Pedro” and sang it to the tune of “Big Bad John”. He went to other summer camps around the state and he would play that song during talent nights. That song made me famous, at least in summer camps around Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

About four years later I went to a summer camp in Columbus, Ohio where 

somebody asked me my name and I told him it was Pedro.

Upon hearing that he asked,

 “Are you the same Pedro that almost drowned

 at Sebring camp a few years ago?” 

I said “yes, how did you know about that?” 

To which he replied 

“Oh, everybody around here has heard the song and knows your name.” 

The rest of the summer was uneventful. 

Sebring Camp lasted only two weeks and I went back to work on the farm until it was time to return to Waynesburg so I could go back to school at Sandy Valley.

Thank You Pedro for sharing this part of your life with us. I have good memories from those times!

Pedro Comes to the Farm

THE SUMMER OF 1971 {est.}

After my last post, "Grafted Into the Family", I received so many comments. (YOu need to go read them) Pedro De Los Santos offered me an excerpt from his memoirs. The next two posts are from him ...

{an excerpt from the Memoirs of Pedro De Los Santos}

As soon as school was out, I packed my bags and went to Louisville, Ohio to live and work with the Dawson family at Elgendale Farms. I forget who took me there but I remember mom and dad went along to see what kind of conditions and what kind of people I was going to live with for the rest of the summer.

 Mr. Vergara, my Spanish teacher, went along also to introduce everybody. Mr. Gene Dawson and his family struck me as very friendly and eager to take me in. Mom and dad were pleased to see that the farm was clean and orderly and that the Dawsons were good people. 

The only thing I know my dad was not happy with was that the Dawsons were Protestants and they insisted I should accompany them to church every Sunday. We considered ourselves a Catholic family and dad was not too happy about allowing them to brainwash me into changing my religion. Mom was a little more understanding and practical. She said “As long as he is worshiping God and staying out of trouble, it doesn’t matter what church he does it in.” 

Dad reluctantly agreed but I could tell he was not too happy about it. My dad practiced his religion a lot more than anybody else in the family. Right or wrong he had his little altar in the basement and prayed every day for God’s blessings on his family. He taught all of us about the importance of having faith and relying on God for everything. Unfortunately, he never read the Bible and was unaware of the many discrepancies between the teachings of the Catholic Church and what the Bible actually says.

THE FAITH OF THE DAWSONS

I quickly realized that religion played a big role in the Dawson household. They prayed before every meal, something I was not really accustomed to, and they prayed every time there was some major or important decision to be made. They were sincere and humble people and not at all like the religious fanatics I had been taught to believe all Protestants were. 

They were not forceful about their religion but they were also not ashamed of it. They gladly explained anything I was confused about but never tried to shove their religion down my throat.

More than anything, they lived the Christian life rather than just talk about it. Slowly but surely I began to realize that what they had was real and that it was something that I wanted in my life. But I did not jump right into it; instead I decided to wait to see what would happen.

THE FAMILY

The Dawson family consisted of Mr. Gene Dawson and his wife Elaine, plus
five children; Doug, Kandy, Mandy, Alex and Marcie. Two years later, the last year I spent with them before I left for college, they had another baby
whom they named LeAdam.

Doug was a year or two younger than me but about 30 pounds heavier. It was all muscle, the result of growing up on the farm. I weighed about 143 pounds but by the end of the summer, I was about 150 pounds and not an ounce of fat on me.

LIFE ON THE FARM

Life and work on the farm was hard. My daily routine began by getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning to chase the 80-plus cows into the barn for milking. The cow pastures were anywhere from one-quarter of a mile to one-half a mile away from the house. I had to walk in the dark and avoid all the electric wire fences that surrounded the pasture fields.

This was no easy task, because we changed their location regularly to
give the cows fresh pastures to graze in. The cows had developed the
uncanny ability to know exactly where these wire fences were located,
even in the dark. I knew that we were getting close to an electric fence
because the cows would shy away from that area and avoid it at all costs.



I learned to follow the cows to the barn to avoid getting electrocuted. Later on I learned that the same cow was always the last one to go in. Mr. Dawson had named all the cows and could recognize them at first sight. 

After a while, I began to recognize the cows not only by their spots, but also by their behavior. Each one of them had a distinct personality and always behaved a certain way. I learned that the last cow to walk to the barn for milking would always be “Rita”. She would wait for all the cows to walk by and then she would get at the end of the line. This helped me out because I knew that if Rita was on her way in, all the cows had been accounted for and I did not have to go looking for them. Another advantage to having Rita go in last was that she was the only cow that allowed me to touch her and even ride her into the barn.

All the other cows would shy away and not let me touch them if they could help it. So once all the cows had begun walking toward the barn, all I had to do was to jump on Rita and she would take me all the way into the barn. I did not ride Rita cowboy style. Instead, I would lie on my stomach across her back like a sack of potatoes.

After the cows came into the barn, I had to turn on the auger That extracted the cow feed from the silo and into a long trough so the cows could have their breakfast. 

Then I had to go into another barn and feed the young calves, clean out their stalls, and place fresh straw down in their stalls. I also had to feed the cows fresh hay. By then, Mr. Dawson was already up and getting ready to milk all the cows. He had four milking machines and eight spaces for cows to stand while they were getting milked, four on each side of the milking pit. I had to help him bring in the cows and plug in the next milking machine on the cows, after washing their utters, of course. It took us close to 3 hours to get all the cows milked. By 8 o’clock in the morning I had already done a half-a-day’s worth of work (4 hours) and I hadn’t even had breakfast yet.

Mrs. Dawson would prepare breakfast and call us all in between 8 and 8:30. By that time everybody was already up and doing their respective chores. During breakfast, Mr. Dawson would lay out the plans for the entire day. 

Depending on how early or late it was in the summer, we would either have to plow, plant, rake, or harvest the fields which consisted of corn, hay, alfalfa, wheat, or anything else Mr. Dawson had planted that spring. We also had to mend fences, build new fences, clear out fields by picking up all the stones that were dug up by the plows, mow and bail hay, and any other farm chore that Mr. Dawson could think of. There was always something to do and rarely did we sit around saying,

 “Well, there’s nothing else to do .... 

so we might as well go back to the house to watch TV.” 

FREE TIME?

The Dawson’s owned a TV set but I really don’t remember ever sitting down to watch a TV show in that house, especially when Mary the Amish girl came around to help clean up the house.

Mary was another hired hand who came around regularly to clean the house, wash and iron clothes, and do other household chores that needed to be done when Mrs. Dawson was busy with other farm chores.

Mary, like most Amish in the area, did not watch TV and considered it a
sin. However, she would ride in modern automobiles, unlike most other
Amish in the area. 

Like I said before, there was always something that needed to be done and not enough hours in the day to do them. Sometimes we still had chores to do after dinner and we would not get done and ready for bed until past 9:00 pm. Lights out was at 10:00 pm every night and we were all glad to see it come. We would all gladly go to bed at 10:00 pm to get the much needed rest. That only gave me 6 hours of sleep, so most of the time I would try to go to sleep earlier if I had finished my chores. Four o’clock came very early in the morning.

Saturday was just like any other day and we worked our regular 11-12 hours. The cows had to be milked every day so even on Sundays I had 

to get up at 4 in the morning and do all my morning chores before breakfast. 

After breakfast we went to church and had the rest of the day off until it was time to do the second milking. The cows were milked twice each day so we didn’t really get much of a break. 

Pedro's 16th Birthday
with Dan B., and Doug D.

We did get a little break on Tuesdays because that’s when we had 4-H club meetings and square dancing. Mandy, Kandy, Doug, and I had joined the 4-H club. We had a regular meeting every Tuesday night around 5 pm and it 

was always followed by square dancing. I liked it because it was the only chance we had to meet girls outside of church and have some fun.

In spite of all the work, I consider those summers spent on the farm as 

the healthiest and best summers of my teenage years. I had no time or energy to get in any trouble and everything I did there helped me get strong and healthy not only physically, but spiritually as well.

Watch for our next post ...Big, Bad, Pedro