Caldwell County MO Archives History .....THE CLAVES, GRUNDY COUNTY PIONEERS 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 3, 2008, 6:53 pm

THE CLAVES, GRUNDY COUNTY PIONEERS
	Narrator:  Mrs. Wm. Shepard, 84, of Hamilton, Missouri

     Mrs. Shepard, or as her husband tenderly called her "the old woman" is a 
daughter of Alex Clave and Catherine Crawford both Emigrants from Scotland 
before 1841.  They lived for awhile in New Jersey where Mrs. Shepard was 
born.  Clave got a homestead in Wisconsin and took up land there.  Then 
followed a long list of moves in various counties of Missouri.  Finally they 
bought a Grundy county farm home where Mrs. Shepard met her husband.
     Mrs. Shepard is well known over the State because she and her sister Mrs. 
Jeanette Briggs of Trenton are probably the oldest living twins (84) in the 
United States.  They are still quite similar and as young women it was very 
difficult to tell which was which.
     She described the home work of the girls of the sixties in Grundy 
County.  Their father had his own sheep.  They used the wool for clothing and 
filling for comforts and quilts.  The girls carded the wood, spun it and wove 
it.  No wonder they wove their own wool and cotton for muslin those days cost 
$1 a yard, other goods accordingly.  The Mother was clever at cutting out 
garments and that was her job.  Styles of patterns were not changed for 
several years.  Five years was a medium time for a style.  The color of the 
wool was varied by dye.  Maple bark made purple and the purple thread mixed 
with the natural tan homespun made a beautiful stripe.
     Every girl carried a starch bag around her person made of a three inch 
square gathered together and filled with starch.  It corresponded to the 
modern girl's powder puff, and took the shine off the face.  The girls wore 
corsets and hoop skirts and later bustles tied around the waist.  Occasionly 
the knot would slip and the bustle dropped down and made the wearer feel very 
cheap.
     Mrs. Shepard said, "that in Grundy County days, Christmas did not mean 
much."  Pappy took a load of punkins to town and got toys with the "punkin 
money."  There were mainly sweet sugar candy animals made in bright colors and 
put up on a shelf to look at but not eaten for months.  Most other candy was 
home made.  Pop corn balls were nice treats for Christmas.
     Interviewed  July 1934.


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