Caldwell County MO Archives History .....KERN FAMILY OF KINGSTON TOWNSHIP 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 1, 2008, 4:44 pm

THE KERN FAMILY OF KINGSTON TOWNSHIP
	Narrator:  Mrs. Martha Ellen Baker, 78, Hamilton, Missouri

	Home Made Clothing                    Ox-team Rides

     Mrs. Baker is the widow of Edgar Baker who came into Caldwell County with 
his parents 1869.  She is the daughter of Margaret Ann Zachary who married 
first Daniel Z. Cox (1817-1851) who is buried in the Brown Cemetery and who is 
the grandfather of Mrs. Josie Borden of Hamilton, second F.J. Kern, who was 
the father of Mrs. Baker.  Her parents were both early settlers.
     As a girl, Mrs. Baker lived north and east of Kingston.  Mrs. Kern, her 
mother carded all the family wool on a pair of cards.  She spun all the yarn, 
and wove all the cloth for every article of clothing except boots, shoes and 
hats.  She insisted on her children wearing woolen hosiery all year around.  
She and her girls knitted diligently to keep up a supply.  She striped the 
dyed yard with bright colors for stockings.  She knitted mittens and even 
gloves which were not clumsy.  Mrs. Baker says she can't recall seeing her sit 
down with idle hands.
     For colors, she used white oak bark, which being boiled with the yarn or 
cloth gave a golden brown color.  The red and yellow dyes had to be bought at 
the general store or drug store.
     She also wove carpet for herself and customers.  The carpet loom was 
rarely empty.  Sometimes the rags would be assorted for striped carpets, 
sometimes mixed for hit and miss.  Sewing rags was a fine way to put in a 
winter evening, with a dish of apples near by.
     Mrs. Baker's brother Charles Kern often drove the ox-team (Tom an Jerry) 
to Kingston in the sixties.  Both Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Josie Borden her niece 
had ridden behind them.  The oxen wore a yoke instead of collar and the driver 
used no lines but directed them by his long ox whip and by gee (right) haw 
(left).  These orders were plain to them and they went along nicely.  Usually 
they were allowed to go their own way - a brisk rolling walk.  If pushed they 
went into a dog trot.
     Interviewed  July 1934.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/caldwell/history/other/kernfami106gms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/

File size: 2.6 Kb