OUR MOTHER YEAR 1965 MAY AMELIA KINGSLEY ENSLEY TOWNSHIP, NEWAYGO, MICHIGAN By Hennrietta Clarke Our mother, May Amelia Kingsley, was born May 1, 1865; the youngest daughter of William D. Kingsley and the youngest of a family of six childern. Mother received lots of attention from her three sisters each in their turn help to care for her. 1. Aunt Etta was 18 years old. 2. Aunt Augusta was 12 years old. 3. Aunt Jennie was 8 years old. The older sisters helped whith the house work while Aunt Jennie carried her around and took the most care of her "Little May" . She did not grow tall until she reached her teens and she was not a sickly little girl, her worst sickness was the red measles. She had them for the second time the first year that I taught school and she was awful sick. We nearly lost her then. Mary Eyer took care of her. Mother began her school days in the summer of 1870 in the newly built Crandall school house. It was Aunt Jennie's last year of school. Their teacher was "Aunt" Martha Stoddard(Phillips), whose youngest brother Wesley married Aunt Jennie when just a very young girl of 17 years. He was 19. At the time schools were open the year around and mother went all four terms. It was easy for her to attend the year around due to the fact that she lived across the road. She would tell me abot the great forest fires and when Chicago burned she would hold her apron out and catch the cinders in the which was so dense with smoke that no one could see the neighbors near by. Upon completion of her school days at Crandall, she entered the Sand Lake High School at the age of twelve years. Grandfather Kingsley made plans for her to board with a friend and minister of ot the family, Rev. Henry D. Jordan, at the Sand Lake Methodist Parsonage. She was to furnish her board from home which was an easy matter for her to do, as her home was always well supplied with food. But, when she went into the Jordan family home, she soon found that they did not have enough food for their family. Mother told her girl friend, Georgia Crabb Goul, and Ed Goul then got busy around the town and raised money. When Grandfather was told, he also got busy. Grandmother began to bake, cook and pack food while mother and her father called on the "mill boys", and Methodist Church members of Ensley. They had a sleigh load on Sunday night for which Rev. Jordan was most thankfull. As soon as mother could not go any farther in Sand Lake Schools, she went down to Cedar Springs High School to finish her schooling. She stayed with Pa and Ma Collyer and went to school with Julia Collyer, her chum, and Uncle Wesley Stoddard's niece. Mother graduated in 1881 and took her first teacher's examination at Croton on a Muskegon River boat, which was the home for lumbermen at work in the forest. The examination consisted of half oral and half written material. She scored high and recived her certificate that day. This was in June, 1881. She was sixteen. In the summer of 1881 the school board of Flowing Well school in northwest Ensley hired her. There is a lady that lives there whose father went to school to her. From here, she went to the Kinney school, where she taught in 1882 and boarded with the Thomas house in northeast Ensley. May Warren went to school to her. The following year found her teaching in her home school in Crandall District. Among her pupils were the Englewright boys from Englewright Lake north of us. Also Jonnie and Hattie Harding who lived for a while with Uncle Wesley and Aunt Jennie. The there was a very sweet girl, Hattie (Cosper) Jewel, who always rang the bell for mother. She was one that we all knew and loved dearly. She came always to see her and called mother, "May". She spent her summers at Baptist Lake. She passed away Christmas 1963 in Grand Rapids. Her daughter is Mrs Charlie Nelson of Ensley Center. Mother's brother, Uncle Norman Kingsley' childern, George, Hattie and Frank went to school to their Aunt May Kingsley. Hattie is alive and the only one of that family living. Cousin Hattie is in her 90's now and lives at Los Gatos, California. Mother was gifted in music. She bought her new Kimball organ with her teaching money. She had a nice voice and sang at church and for Christmas programs. She would sing a great deal in our home and played hymns on her organ. She composed a melody on "Home Sweet Home", of her own which was very nice. Julia Collyer taught mother to play and music was easy for her. Charles Zank, came down to our Christian Hill Christmas tree and heard mother sing. Uncle John Crandall told mother he would give her more money to come and keep books for him than what she could eard teaching. So her teaching days ended and she went into the store. Uncle John had a crew of 40 men working for him which necessitated a lot of clerking and book work besides the selling and buying that had to be doen, as they sold everything from socks to soap, lumber, tobacco, horse shoes, canthooks, and ect. The store was on the corner one mile south of Crandall School. Mother was baptised by Elder Fry the same day that Aunt Etta was Baptised. The ladies helped Brandma prepare a dinner for everyone that came after church was over; it was held in the Crandall schoolhouse. Of course, Uncle John Crandall and family came over as Uncle John was the Sunday School Superintendent. Mother always told about going when a little girl with Grandpa blackberrying in Carpenter's woods. She had to stay upon logs because the hogs all ran wild and were ugly. She filled her pail with some Mandrake apples and topped it with blackberries. Grandpa laughted! Aunt Augusta bought some fruit trees and mother helped Grandpa plant them about 90 years ago. There is one still standing in the front yard of the "Old Home". Grandma always baked cookies, breads, and beans for Grandba to take to the Indians who would stop and camp on our march where the gravel pit is. Mother would ride on Grandpa'a back and she would not get off no matter how much the Indians coaxed her. The always stopped for a while, spring and fall, to do their washings and hunt but never stole from Grampa. When the Old Stage Coach stopped at Brinley's Inn (which today is the Twitchell house, Martha Lemoine's)(note added Howard Gross now owns this place), Aunt Augusta and Grandma would go over and bake and cook all day. Our mother spent one winter with Aunt Jennie and Uncle Wesley and attended Payne School. They lived one year on the Stoddard farm. She went there because smallpox was all over Ensley in lumber camps. One summer day, Mother and Aunt Jennie schemed to get Grandma to goto Aunt Gusta's house. Then Mother walked to Sand Lake and back with wallpaper, they cleaned house, papered the living room, white washed the ceilings and had everything washed; curtians, bedding and floors were all clean. When Grandma came home, she was so surprised, she would laugh then cry. (She was very Happy.) Grandma Kingsley went many times into home around the neighborhood to care for the sick and she did not always get any pay either. Our mother would care for the hame and goto school also. Aunt Jennie would go up and help mother, then they would come down here, "home", because Aunt Jennie was alone nights. Uncle Wesley would carry a lantern across thro' the woods to Carpenter's Mill where he would night-watch. One night (early morning) they were coming across our march when the Lynx started for Englewright Lake to catch them. They started to run but Aunt Jennie was short and chubby while mother was tall and lanky, so our mother picked Aunt Jennie up and ran with her, up the steps into our front room the lynx was then in the road in front of our house. Mother was stronger than Aunt Jennie. Not long after this Uncle Wesley was milking their cow by the old oaken-bucket well when he heard the lynx barking near by. He came up onto the upright steps and called Aunt Jennie and mother outside. There was the animal eating blackberries. And some "mill boys" were passing by. Uncle shot his gun and it went away. Soon after an "old Hunter" got the lynx in the wood out in front of our house. Everybody was glad it was gone.