Mathews County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Biographies.....Hudgins, Grace June 8, 1889 - August 5, 1979 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Schnittka chrisschnittka@hotmail.com November 24, 2022, 3:32 pm Author: Grace Mae Hudgins Guy Memories of Growing up on Gwynn’s Island Grace Mae Hudgins Guy Transcribed from the original hand-written notebooks by her great granddaughter, Christine Guy Schnittka All text in italics are added by Chris Feb 28/ (19)56 10:40AM Book 1 The Hymns are beautiful this morning requested by the housewives on tide water, played by Art Barett on W.C.M.S. Norfolk Va. Sitting here in this arm chair with the blinds up high so I can look out on this beautiful body of water, some call it a river. Geography says it’s Hills Bay but to me it’s a picture no artist can paint. Today the wind is blowing very hard and the white caps are rolling in over two shades of green. Dark black and light moss out to the edge of the deep. White caps are racing towards this once sand beach where we children played many years ago. We built castles in the sand and dug wells with shells then watched them come in. Strip off our clothes and run in for a swim. 1895. I remember when Mama would call to us a warning not to wade out too far because there were ups and downs. Ups and downs until one would go over their head. When the tide went out then we could dig for long neck clams. We called them butter fish. The time I like best was when we could catch the soft shell crabs and take them to Mama for to cook for lunch. There’s no food to me like the soft shell crab when it is tender. One would look under pieces of drift wood to find this new born crab. Some were very small, medium, and large. If I saw one by its shed, I knew it was soft. Sometimes the hard crab would be round the old shed also looking for a nice soft crab for its lunch. It took me a long time to learn this, but I did learn not to pick up these crabs with my hand so I took a stick. These crabs have sharp teeth and a strong snap grip. The bull fish with a wide flat head and big mouth made their bed under some of this drift wood. A nice deep place. Just the place for the crab to shed, so when the black slippery bull fish left his bed, the crab slipped in. If the fish returned before the new crab crawled out, the bull fish had a nice lunch. The water gets very warm and the crab likes a nice cool place to shed its coat. Time also changes. Today the state took over. Now there are stone and rock that have covered over this house’s wells and footprints of us children. These waves and white caps have washed up and crumbled these nice high banks. Not even the swallows come back to make its nest. I never could see a nest which they made. I wanted to know first how far these birds went into the bank. There were no flashlights in that day. The storms came and hit this bank with such a force, beautiful tall pine trees would fall down on their face until their heads reached the waters edge after the wind went away and the water would go out to its normal place. Then we would walk The Pines until Pa would take his axe and cut the trees up for wood to burn in the kitchen stove and logs for the fire place. After the storm the birds would come back and make a new nest. It didn’t take too long because the bank was soft- not much clay. Once or twice a year those high winds and storms would come. The banks of the island took a shrinking wider and wider. The river grew while the island gets smaller. But the rocks, will they save the island? One mile of this beach must be rocked in years to come if the bridge road is to survive. This road was once called Ferry Road because the people of the island had to have a way to get to the county seat. Pa did something about it. In at that time the men left their surry and buggy also two wheel carts on the main land. They got in boats and swam the horses behind the boats. Something had to be done. Grandpa and Pa built a Ferry boat. After it was finished, Pa hitched up his horse Fancy to the buggy and like a lady she walked aboard. This was the biggest thing that ever came to the Island, a way to get off this island. The church was also on the other side. When the next big thing for the island was the day Uncle Frank organized a Sunday school under a big old oak. There was no church, no school. Later a little one room school was built. they hired a dignified old laudanum drinker that slept half of his time so the children were neglected. They learned their a.b.c.s in Sunday school. They learned the Bible by little pictures 3 by 2 with questions and answers on back. The golden rule under the picture. These are what they call the good old days. People were poor but healthy. Mother, and nine out of 10 had 8 children in the home. I remember the apple orchard. There was the golden ginnies. A little sweeting. Pa found this tree in the woods one day when he went after straw to put in Fancie’s stable. The Pig Pen. Cow Pen. Also the sweet potato hill. My Pa always looked after the livestock. Nice clean dry beds. I remember the day my sister Sadie wanted to have some fun. She asked Uncle Jack Crack Corn if she could fill his pipe out of Pa’s tobacco can. Yes ma’am. First she put in a little gun powder. Then some of Pa’s tobacco. He was on the inside of the cow pen close by the house. I always knew that old nigro could jump but not that high. He went up in the air and over the fence. To Sadie that was fun. To me, I ran fast out of the way. Sadie was too big to be spanked by Pa. Pa was gone most of the time. He was captain of a barge that ran up the bay freight, oysters, watermelons, and such things. At one time during one of our storms he ran his boat up on the beach. The bow spirit was up over the bank. They let down the sails and walked ashore by the way of the bow spirit. Pa was some glad to get off that boat. He said that was the worst storm he ever tackled. That was some storm. All of us remembered that storm. All the Ferry Road went down the bank. Then Mother lost several yards of Mother’s beautiful garden. Mother had a reputation of being the best gardener on the island. She kept this all of her life. She saved the seed from her garden year to year and she always had some for her neighbors besides others. She planted what she called black mustard. All through the years this was preserved. She’s been out of this world for the past 27 years. I took over her hoe at the time. So far I’ve never let this seed dwindle to nothing. I have passed them on far and near. The kingdom of heaven is like fruit fine seed. The word is passed on. This seed is sure the same that Christ spoke about. The mustard seed that grew like a tree and the birds of the air rested upon the limbs. The cold can’t kill it. I look out into my garden here in late February and see its green leaves. Mama could cook the best greens and cabbage then black eyed peas. She would cook in a large black iron pot. Also one of hominy. Mother raised these peas and also made the hominy from the corn which Pa raised. We had no need of ice. These would freeze out in the dairy. Pa raised all the meat Mama needed. She smoked this and sausage. I remember when rows of sausage hung in the smoke house. There were plenty ducks and geese for Christmas. Pies, my Ma made them some of every kind at Christmastime. I don’t remember ever seeing a doctor in the house when we children grew up. I remember finding snow on the bed we children had. Our beds upstairs. There just the shingles and the north wind would whip the fine snow through. I don’t remember ever being sick when I was a child. I remember many things from my youth. I remember Mama making me a pair of red flannel shoes out of scraps left from Pa’s shirt. I was proud because they were my first. Mama finished them with a cord with two strings to tie them on like she finished Pa’s long drawers, Grandpa's nightcap. I remember the first doll I ever had, and the last. Mr. Nelson, the Englishman that found his way to this island taught school and married Mama’s aunt Mary. Her sister Sarah these three lived in a little house up the road a few hundred yards from us. This little one room house had an attic. Sarah had her bed up there. It was an ideal place to play. Between us was a nice woods with tall pine trees, beautiful trees that stood close to this bank. Mr. Nelson was on the road, cane in one hand, and a bag in the other. I was swinging on the woods gate and he called to me. He said come here I have something for you. No one had ever given me anything. For me and my sister Emily, a doll. China head. Sawdust bodies with China arms, China legs. My doll's head was black, Emily was white. I was so happy, I didn't know what to say, but he was pleased because he saw what was in my face. This doll had to be dressed. I had to make it a dress because my rag doll, corncob doll’s clothes wouldn't fit. Mama also thought it a lovely doll. I made it a dress with the help of Mama, a little red coat with the help of Mama. The shoes were printed on so the doll needed no shoes. I loved that doll and made it many dresses. I loved to sew, but not Emily. I don't think she ever made a dress for her white headed doll. Mr. Nelson went away and never came back. Then one day a man and woman with a little girl my age came to see us. Mama seemed to be excited by the way they were talking. Mama called him Uncle Dick. The little girl they called Susie. She had light hair like Emily. I liked her very much and picked a tick off her face. They had come a long way. Mama took them in the kitchen and fed them with milk and sweet potatoes. They were going to live with Aunt Mary. She gave them the attic for their bedroom. Susie was just what I needed to play with. She told me of their long walk from Georgia. We made play houses in the woods that separated the two houses. There were much straw. We had chairs, beds, tables all of straw. Most everyday when we went back, some old mean boys had been there and kicked the straw all over. But we never tired of building it all over again. When we go look for something to eat, we would jump down the bank, catch a crab, mash it. She take half, I half, and then we wade out into the water. And hold it in our two hands and call the minnows. Minnow, Minnow, want some bait? Sometimes we would catch two or three at a time. Then after several or more, we would clean them then dig a hole in the sand, put in some straw and sticks, make a fire and cook them. Just stick them on a piece of wire. We never did cook any crabs, we didn't know how to clean them. Crabs had dead men in them. We were told not to eat the dead men. There were many huckleberries in this woods. Some of the bushes grew close to the ground. The nice large ones grew on bushes that stood six feet tall. These were the nice big blue ones, and it didn't take long to fill a can full. And how we did love huckleberries. One day the twins, Susie and I, ate too many wild cherries. All four of us were sick that night. Mama put a quilt on the floor and the four of us went to sleep on this quilt. All four of us puked at the same time. We were good and sick. No more wild cherries that summer. Then there was the black gum berries. After the frost came these would fall on the ground. Sometimes the boys would climb up the tree for us and shake the tree or break off some small limbs for us. The best I ever ate was from a big tree that stood on the edge of this woods, by the woods gate. One day Susie climbed up this tree when she reached for some berries she fell. I thought she was dead. I ran through the woods as fast as I could go to fetch her mother. Aunt Mary and Sarah came with Susie’s Ma. They brought her around. They all loved Susie and she was never again to climb up anymore gum trees. We thought that the most fun of all to climb trees. I would go up to the top of the apple tree and cherry trees. Lucy lived to the south of us. Susie and I would go round the beach as fast as our feet would carry us. At Lucy's there were a big black hart cherry tree. They were the best ever. She also had a big Mulberry tree with a wild grape running up it. Wild grape vines grew on most all the trees. Close by was high sand hills. Some old fort was under it. Just around the neck of land was JT Cricket Hill. We couldn't go there because we had to cross the water that was deep. We would watch the old steamers come and go pass us. When we went up close to where Pa and Grandpa put the ferry boat, we were too far away to hear Ma calling. Lucy's Pa would say get, get home to your Ma and don't let me catch you two here again. He was a big tall man. We tried not to let him see us. Then sometimes we would go north. Cherry Point wasn't too far away. We would always look in that direction and watch the boats come in and anchor until the wind changed so there would be fair sailing up the bay to Baltimore or wherever the boats wanted to go. There were several at the time would come in Cherry Point harbor. One master 2, 3, I think that is what started me off counting. I would count the boats. There were many boats under the point as they called this place, most every man had a sailboat. These people made their living out of the water. They had no engines in that day. When there was no wind, the men had to skull these big boats out on the oyster rocks, and home at night. Pa stop sailing and bought a smaller boat so he could catch oysters in the fall and set nets in the spring. When he was home, Ma made us tiptoe. If it was summer or warm weather I would take the twins out in the play house. Pa had to sleep. I loved to gather moss, deep green velvet moss. We would put it in the straw chairs for cushions and on the bed. I would lay down for a long time and look up through the tall pine trees and watch as the sway, catch a glimpse of the blue sky and wonder what is far away. Sam Kilby (?Kelly?) knew every fairy story that were ever written and we would sit for hours while he told us these stories. Sam was crippled. One of his legs were shorter than the other, and he had to walk with a crutch. Ma never let Sam go hungry. He never worked as I ever saw. Sometimes he would take us out in a boat to catch fish. If Susie and me would catch some crabs for bait, we caught what was needed. I thought Sam was awful strong when he pulled on those oars. That boat went like the wind and it made waves flash over the bow of the boat. I was never afraid when Sam was in the boat. Because some could also sink. He would make us bark boats with paper sails. We would sail then when the wind wasn't blowing. We would push a stick in the sand to tie our boats to. Pa had some nice long short pieces of twine left over from a net. Because Ma and the three older girls knit Pa’s nets. There was always a pile of net in the corner. Some of them had a board and needle. Knitting for dear life. I thought it fun. And hoped someday I would learn to also knit, nevertheless I would try when no one was around. Then later I would hear someone say, who's been fooling after this net? So what I had put in, someone else had to pick out. They all knew who it was. They would say to me, Grace if you don't let this net alone I am going to tell Pa. That was enough for me. Tell Ma, but don't tell Pa. I always did dodge Pa. I came along when he was sailing when he was gone so much. I didn't really know him. I never really got acquainted with him all my life. I would put my arm over my eyes if he said anything to me. Even when I was 10 years old. The house got too small for so many children and Pa started a new and large one below the garden and apple orchard close to Grandpa. I wasn't glad because the woods would be too far away, and Susie would also be far away. I could play on the beach, but no nice woods and Ma wouldn't let me go that far from her. There were too many things I did not see how to give up. The grape arbor by the door, these little pinkish grapes, I have never seen any like them from that day to this. The fig trees. The best in the world. The cedar tree that stood by the woods gate. When the birds came back in the spring several would build in it. By standing on a box I could peek in. I was told by Sam to never put my hand in a nest. If I did the birds would go and never come back. I could never have that to happen. That cedar would be covered with berries and flocks of birds would come. By Christmas not a berry could be seen. One day Pa brought home a little white kitten with a broken leg. He found it on the beach on the other side of the island. I wondered what could be so mean on that side of the island that would break a little kitten leg. This kitten grew up to be a nice Mama cat hopping along on three legs. No one did anything about Sam's leg when he was a boy. He jumped off the wharf and hit a half submerged floating power pole and knocked the hip bone out of place and broke his leg. No one set his hip. It should have been put back in place. Ma said it was so bad the doctors didn't know how to fix it and Sam's father had no money to send him to the hospital. Sam would pet the little white kitten and feel sorry for it. Pa said he named the kitten George so we called it George Cat. Pa had the body off the wagon most of his time. This was an ideal place for a play house. Ma would put the twins in it for a playpen. They made mud pies. Also made a bed for George Cat. Note inserted in the notebook Feb. 20, 1956: I asked WCMS to sing (In the garden) for me on the anniversary of Max’s death. They were very much impressed by what I said. The letter was read, and the song was sung Friday and again Monday 20. Thank you, Art Barrett. I would like to have a chat, someone to talk to beside TV to listen to. Note from Christine: This concludes Book 1. I have lost Book 2, but I remember it described Grace’s teen years sneaking out of the house and meeting up with friends. Oh how I wish I hadn’t lost that little book. I think I lost it in the car during a trip. What follows is Book 3. March 9/ (19)56 And the cows could rest in the shade while their little calf played. I remember when Ma’s old cow Pokey would find a calf. It would play and romp around the barnyard. When Ma had to wean the calf she would turn it in the yard. Pa had his yard fenced in. He also had the orchard. In this he would turn old Fancy when he wanted her to eat grass. There were nice shade in this place and Ma would also tie the cow to one of the apple trees. Not when the trees were in bloom. They loved the blossoms and Ma said she needed the fruit to can for winter. The cow could reach the low branches and the horse Fancy, the high ones. Ma called the cow Pokey. Ma had a wire fence around the garden and Pokey knew better than to go into her garden. I remember the gooseberry bushes. Sometimes Ma made a gooseberry pie. She also had raspberries in this garden, and sage bushes which we gathered the leaves for sausage when Pa killed the hogs. When the weather turned cold I remember those five or six big hogs hanging by their hind legs. The men would come and help Pa to kill. Pa had a big iron kettle which took all the water out of the well to fill. The men made a fire under this and stood around to keep warm until the water got hot. Pa dug a big hole in the ground and put in a barrel. The barrel was half on its side. In this they put in the hot water. In this went the dead hog, head first up and down the men would pull. Then pull him out and turn the other end. Then out it would come placed on a board. Then four men would take their big knives and make the hair fly so in no time this hog would be hanging by its hind legs. Then came the time for opening up the hog. Paul took Ma’s old big wooden tub and placed it just under the hogs head and with his big sharp knife he would come down and out would what was inside the hog. This was an awful time for me. I had to run through the woods to Susie’s until the hog stopped squealing. Sometimes I would cover my ears with a pillow. There were hours of hard work to be done. The sausage to be cut up and ground and stuff. The lard had to be cut up and cooked. Some cheese had to be fixed and cooked. The feet had to be cleaned. The ears, nose cleaned, cooked, and made into souse. I would need not eat any of this souse, not me. Sausage yes until it made me sick. Buck sweet potatoes with sausage and milk could I ask for more. Sam also liked these good things. Will never forget Sam. He was like to me a fairy godfather. As I said he knew every fairy story in the book. Sometimes Ma would let me spend the night with Lucy and I would tell her some of these stories. I knew every one. Lucy would go to sleep and leave me talking. Sometimes her mother would call upstairs and say, Lucy go to sleep. She never called but once. Then we went to sleep. Sam could also sing. He would sing: Little birdie in the tree Come and sing a song to me. Sing it long and sing it loud, Sing for me a pretty song. The summer is gone and the winters come. What will the poor little bird do then? Get in the barn to keep itself warm And wait until summer comes again. To me that was a beautiful sad song. It was a sad day for me when Sam sailed away on one of those big boats that came under the point. The captain of this boat came to the island to get water and food for his crew. Here he met Sam. This captain needed a cook, so Sam went to cook for the captain. He was gone before I knew it. For days I would look for that old boat to come under the point. It was a long long time before the “Nellie Bly” came sailing by our house. She didn't stop under the point. She came around narrow point, right past Cricket Hill’s Steamboat Wharf. Right up in front of Pa’s new house in Milford Haven and there she anchored and there she stayed. It was cold and the water froze all around. Sam brought the captain ashore, a young widower with five children, and here he met Sadie. She was twenty and he was 40. Sam had on a new blue shirt and a white shirt and a red tie. He also had a new cane. I was glad to see him but then Sam talked about the wind and storms. He talked to Ma, and told her of the food on the boat and how he cooked it, and how he often wished for one of her nice hot yams and a glass of Pokey’s milk. Sam was a little man, 5 feet tall. I am sure not one inch more. He had a black mustache. He told the captain about Sadie before he brought the captain to the house. Then the captain came too many times to please Pa. Then one day Miss Lucy went to Baltimore and took Sadie for a trip. When Miss Lucy came back home, after a few weeks, Sadie didn't come with her. The captain met her in Baltimore, married her and took Sadie to his home across the Bay. And we never saw her for a long time. She came home with her son Charles. We were living in the new home when she came. Sadie was always pretty. She was like a stately queen. She could sing like the Nightingale. She had gray green eyes and light golden hair. Pa went to Baltimore and bought a carpet and a parlor suite with six pieces. The carpet and the cushions in the chairs matched. He also bought an organ. Eunice could play because she took lessons, and went daily to the templars lodge to practice 1 ½ miles away. Sadie never had any lessons but she knew every chord in the book. Pa was very much pleased when Sadie played that organ and sang. Pa loved music. Before he played the fiddle in his young days for all the dances in his home place on Garden Creek. Pa was born in 1850, married when he was 22. When Pa and Ma left the old house, you could not feel at home in the new house. To me it was never home. Pa rented the old house to Uncle John and Aunt Sadie. I had to stay with them. Their little baby Buddie had to have someone to play with. When I got tired there, I could go to see Josie. Josie married Charlie before Pa moved to the new house. I didn't see her married, but Ma and Pa gave them a supper in the new house. The supper was served upstairs in the east room. (Note: The wedding was in 1894) Ma put the old wooden cradle by the window when the twins went to sleep. Ma put one up the head and one down the foot. People stopped by and commented on their beauty on the first floor which is now the parlor. They danced. I don't remember who played the music. It was the first time I ever saw anyone dance. Sam told me how the fairies danced so this is what the fairies did. Josie had on her wedding dress. It was white. I remember that. I was five at the time. Emily was seven, white haired freckle face. Eunice was twelve. She had long brown curls, brown eyes. She was a beauty so everyone said. No one knew she had eyes like a cat. The sight was oblong instead of round. Before she was born someone’s cat would jump up on the windowsill and Ma thought this cat had such nice eyes. When Eunice was born she had eyes like the nice cat. And no one noticed her eyes. No one but Ma. Ma knew a lot of things no one else knew. I never saw her cry but once. And that's when her little boy was buried. He was three weeks old, something was wrong with his navel and it wouldn't heal. I remembered watching Grandpa and Pa making a little box to bury their little brother of mine in. Everyone cried. Pa hitched Fancy to the wagon and Pa put the box in the wagon and he got up on the seat with Ma and all the children sat on the floor of the wagon and off we went to bury Ma’s baby. I was a very little girl but I remember. I was glad when the little boy came to live with us. Susie had a little brother. I couldn't understand why Pa had to take my little brother away. Ma had seven brothers. Her mother died and Ma helped to raise five of them before she married Pa. Then she had nine of her own. Josie had her supper and dance and then left home. Charlie took her away. She told me that I could come to see her when the weather got warm. When the weather got warm, we went to live in the new house. Ma went to work with her hoe. She planted fig bushes, grape vines, damson trees. Pear trees, apple trees, and rose bushes. She planted lilies and Pa fenced in some land for her garden. The big girls took over the house. It was all new to me. I was glad Uncle John and Aunt Sadie went to live in my old home. I just could not give up my playground and the trundle bed I slept in. So I played with Buddie and saw him take his first steps. Uncle John didn't stay in this house very long. He had one made of his own not far from the old and the new house and close to Grandpas house where Miss Lucy lived. I remembered the day Aunt Sadie moved into her new house. I knew I was leaving my home, old home, forever. Never again would I have a home of my own. I went from the new house to Uncle John, to sister Josie. Josie made me some pretty dresses. I thought they were pretty. She got Charlie’s sister to make me a red wool dress trimmed in pearl buttons. I loved that dress. It was the first red dress I ever had. From then on I wanted all my dresses red. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/mathews/photos/bios/hudgins233gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/mathews/bios/hudgins233gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/vafiles/ File size: 27.6 Kb