Wife of Bert Carl Acuff
Daughter of John Esco & Zobedia Armanda Russell McBee
Following provided by cousin Lu Ann Kline:
My Early Youth in Western Kansas,
by Eunice McBee Acuff
I was the oldest of a family of 8 children. We lived on a farm. Father ( John Esco McBee) and his mother ( Mary Emaline Woods Mcbee) came to Kansas from Union County, TN in Abt 1890 and homesteaded. There were no modern conveniences. We had coal oil lamps, outdoor privies wash tub baths. I remember since a small child that mother set the dish pan on a chair and washed clothes on a scrub board. I washed diapers for most of the family except the 2 next younger than I.
Started to school at age 5. The country school was 1 mile from home. There were usually 30-35 students, some older than the teacher, in one room. All classes were held together. For play time noon and recess we played games on the school yard. In nice weather the favorite seemed to be anti-over. That was throwing the ball over the school house and one side against the other to see which side would win. When there was snow on the ground we played fox and geese and skated on near by ice ponds. Most students walked to school. We had some severe winters and sometimes the snows drifted high and crusted hard and we could walk home on top of the snow without breaking through the crust or having to climb over or crawl under the fences.
Folks had to make their own entertainment. Those who had barns large enough with hay mows could hold county dances when no hay was in the barn and the whole neighborhood enjoyed that. Music was usually furnished by a few neighbors capable of playing a fiddle, guitar or banjo. As we grew to be teen agers, we had parties and played such games as Miller boy, Pig in the parlor, Old Dan Tucker, Skip to my Lou etc. Sometimes we stayed most of the night. Refreshments were served and partners were chosen to eat with each other. Although my father owned his farm, we lived conservatively. Dad used to hook up a team to a lumber wagon on Saturday and put on the high side boards and take us older children to pick up cow chips to use for fuel. They almost kept 2 people busy in putting the chips in the stove and one to carry the ashes out. We also burned corn cobs and they made a real hot fire. Later on the folks bought a kerosene burner oil cook stove. They were much cooler for summer time use. It had a separate oven to set over 2 burners for baking. When I started to High School, I drove a horse and buggy the 4 1/2 miles we lived from the small town where the school was. That first year, I only spent 3 weeks in town with a cousin during stormy weather. Next term I drove the same horse and buggy, except I stayed the cold winter months with a lady and worked for my room and board. The 3rd year it was still horse and buggy ( my father was about the last in the neighborhood to buy a car) and my younger brother was then in high school and we rented a small house in winter in town for he and I to live in so he could play Basketball ball. The next year, my sister joined us in the same little house. After my graduation in 1923, I went to normal training school and got a teachers certificate and taught one term of school before my marriage. I taught in a one room stone school house with only 8 pupils but had all grades by 2. Had 2 -1st graders and 2 -8th graders. I boarded about 2 miles from the school and again it was the horse and buggy as the folks where I stayed had their 1st child ready for the 1st grade and wanted a teacher that would stay with them and take the little girl to school. I had all the janitorial work to do at school besides have to care for the horse. We had some deep snow that winter and had to keep school closed one week because pupils were unable to get to school. I married Bert Carl Acuff on November 27, 1924 at Utica,Lane County, Kansas When we met, I was driving in the buggy to town with my mother, and we found him under a Model T Ford that he and Von and Valk Acuff had turned over. We unhitched the horse and pulled the car off of Bert, then took him and his brother and cousin home and cared for him. The others returned to TN but Bert stayed with Art Hagens and worked for him until we got married. That happened when Bert was about 14--so it would have been in 1917 or 18,
and it was several years until either of us were old enough or ready to get married. Bert's schooling was interrupted when his parents died when he was about 9, he had never really learned to read. We spent a lot of cold winter nights as I taught him and he became a very good reader. Our girls started coming, and Beulah Carmen was born November 24, 1925 at Utica. Carlene Inez came along Oct 21, 1929, and Vonda Gail was born Feb 5, 1934. In 1938,
Bert got a hankering to see the family back in TN and we made a trip back there. this is a letter I wrote about the trip. Dear Friends back home: So many of you asked me to write you about our trip and about Tennessee, I feel I can not take time to write each one separately, so am taking this way of telling all. As you know, we left there the morning of Sept 25th. We reached the home of my friend, Mrs. Ludlow, who will be remembered as Vera Pearce, at -----feild Kansas the first day. The second night we stayed with Mr and Mrs Al White, formerly of Utica KS, near Harrison Arkansas. They have bought a home there and like Arkansas well. We loved our visit with them. The third night we spent at Forbes City Arkansas. Had a nice little cabin, and a colored man waited on us there. We had planned on reaching Knoxville on Saturday evening of the fourth, but not being acquainted with the roads and knowing traffic would be heavy we decided to stop at Cookville, TN, 122 miles from Knoxville and stay overnight. We had a double cabin and it was so chilly they fixed up a stove for us. We reached Knoxville about 10 o'clock Sunday morning. We ran into rain at Newton Kansas and it was rainy and foggy all the way. Never saw the sun after we left home till the morning we got here. We traveled over 1400 Miles, and reached here with Kansas air in our tires. Most of the country we came through after we left KS was rough and the roads very winding and on some of them we could not see but a few feet ahead. In part of Arkansas, the land was as level as KS land. I think rice was the principal crop there. We saw hundreds of acres of cotton in northeastern Ark. and northern TN.
Practically all the people we saw were Negroes--they say the population of Knoxville is about half Negroes. The trees were pretty along the way. The leaves had just begun to turn and there were so many colors of them. I thought the red ones were the most beautiful. We saw lots of corn growing on hillsides that were nearly straight up and down. Don't see how they even stood in fields to plant it. Crossing the Mississippi river was quite a deal. We saw lots of grain barges on the water, but no steamers. We crossed two toll bridges along the way.
I like TN real well so far but Bert says he likes Kansas better. Of course I could not say I didn't like Kansas too, but I feel like the trip has been educational for all of us. The people are so friendly, I certainly did not feel I had come among strangers. Kansas doesn't have all the crime either, as there has been people killed so far this year in Knoxville, by cars and almost all the deaths have been caused by drunken drivers. I would be afraid to undertake driving here as they drive too fast for safety. the ways of cooking are quite different than out there. the women season nearly all their food with lard instead of butter and cream. I never saw any mashed potatoes like we make them, until we set up housekeeping. the majority of the women here use snuff, but not all. I was in my sister-in-laws store(at Redhouse) one day when a poorly clad woman, mother of 15 children, came in carrying a small pullet. It weighed out 28 cents and the first thing she got was a 10 cent box of snuff, then she got a 15 cent package of dye and penny lead and 2 cents worth of salt, trading out her pullet. Some of the stores here have more tobacco than any other article.
If a woman votes here she must either pay poll-tax or show a tax receipt. In some localities most of the women vote and in others not many of them do. Some feel it is not right for them to vote. We went to see the Norris dam that is being constructed. It is surely a sight. They expect to have it finished soon. People here are worrying about the outcome of it. they say that if Roosevelt is not elected again that east Tennessee will be dead, because the T VA project has brought them prosperity in a way. I think it is awful the way people have had to sell their homes and leave everything, since all they had is underwater and the was the best wheat land in this section of the state. We had just been here two weeks when Bert got work with the Tennessee Public Service Company. He has got to work steady since he started, but there's the constant fear of being laid off. they laid off 14 men two weeks ago and Bert felt sure he would be next, but her hasn't and most of the others have gone back to work again. the company sent several of their linemen to Florida to help repair the damage done by a cyclone which was the reason they laid them off. the company is building new lines and doing everything they can to keep the TVA power out of Knoxville. there are some advantages to Bert getting to work for a power and light company. He gets free passes on the street car to and from work and we get our lights at half cost. Last month our light bill was 47 cents.
I think one can live here some cheaper than in Kansas. Flour is higher here, but canned goods much cheaper. Fresh vegetables and fruits are about the same. Milk is 10 cents a quart and eggs 35 cents a dozen. Coal runs from $2.00 to $5.00 per ton. Most of the people in towns burn coal, but nearly all of them in the country have their own wood to burn.
The girls are liking school here real well. they have to catch a bus at 7 am and Bert leaves for work at that time too. Vonda Gale and I have a long day to ourselves.
We have three rooms in an apartment house and like it real well. It's quiet here and we are away from street traffic. We are just out of the city limits. We are just batching as we got just what we had to have to get along with. I don't think Bert is going to be satisfied here. He keeps talking about the big wheat crop You are going to have out there in KS next year. I hope you'll have it! It's raining here today and snowed this morning for the first time this season. The weather has been nice most of the time. There is not much wind here to speak of. I have not seen a wind mill in this state. Hope everyone in Kansas is well. Was sorry to hear of Granddaddy Buckman's death. Am glad Neoma bought the Utica paper. I know she's got the stuff to make a good editor and I wish her all kinds of luck with it.
Eunice Acuff and family, Knoxville TN RT 5, in care of M L Reed. (Eunice and Bert were married 50 years when Bert died.)
Daughter of John Esco & Zobedia Armanda Russell McBee
Following provided by cousin Lu Ann Kline:
My Early Youth in Western Kansas,
by Eunice McBee Acuff
I was the oldest of a family of 8 children. We lived on a farm. Father ( John Esco McBee) and his mother ( Mary Emaline Woods Mcbee) came to Kansas from Union County, TN in Abt 1890 and homesteaded. There were no modern conveniences. We had coal oil lamps, outdoor privies wash tub baths. I remember since a small child that mother set the dish pan on a chair and washed clothes on a scrub board. I washed diapers for most of the family except the 2 next younger than I.
Started to school at age 5. The country school was 1 mile from home. There were usually 30-35 students, some older than the teacher, in one room. All classes were held together. For play time noon and recess we played games on the school yard. In nice weather the favorite seemed to be anti-over. That was throwing the ball over the school house and one side against the other to see which side would win. When there was snow on the ground we played fox and geese and skated on near by ice ponds. Most students walked to school. We had some severe winters and sometimes the snows drifted high and crusted hard and we could walk home on top of the snow without breaking through the crust or having to climb over or crawl under the fences.
Folks had to make their own entertainment. Those who had barns large enough with hay mows could hold county dances when no hay was in the barn and the whole neighborhood enjoyed that. Music was usually furnished by a few neighbors capable of playing a fiddle, guitar or banjo. As we grew to be teen agers, we had parties and played such games as Miller boy, Pig in the parlor, Old Dan Tucker, Skip to my Lou etc. Sometimes we stayed most of the night. Refreshments were served and partners were chosen to eat with each other. Although my father owned his farm, we lived conservatively. Dad used to hook up a team to a lumber wagon on Saturday and put on the high side boards and take us older children to pick up cow chips to use for fuel. They almost kept 2 people busy in putting the chips in the stove and one to carry the ashes out. We also burned corn cobs and they made a real hot fire. Later on the folks bought a kerosene burner oil cook stove. They were much cooler for summer time use. It had a separate oven to set over 2 burners for baking. When I started to High School, I drove a horse and buggy the 4 1/2 miles we lived from the small town where the school was. That first year, I only spent 3 weeks in town with a cousin during stormy weather. Next term I drove the same horse and buggy, except I stayed the cold winter months with a lady and worked for my room and board. The 3rd year it was still horse and buggy ( my father was about the last in the neighborhood to buy a car) and my younger brother was then in high school and we rented a small house in winter in town for he and I to live in so he could play Basketball ball. The next year, my sister joined us in the same little house. After my graduation in 1923, I went to normal training school and got a teachers certificate and taught one term of school before my marriage. I taught in a one room stone school house with only 8 pupils but had all grades by 2. Had 2 -1st graders and 2 -8th graders. I boarded about 2 miles from the school and again it was the horse and buggy as the folks where I stayed had their 1st child ready for the 1st grade and wanted a teacher that would stay with them and take the little girl to school. I had all the janitorial work to do at school besides have to care for the horse. We had some deep snow that winter and had to keep school closed one week because pupils were unable to get to school. I married Bert Carl Acuff on November 27, 1924 at Utica,Lane County, Kansas When we met, I was driving in the buggy to town with my mother, and we found him under a Model T Ford that he and Von and Valk Acuff had turned over. We unhitched the horse and pulled the car off of Bert, then took him and his brother and cousin home and cared for him. The others returned to TN but Bert stayed with Art Hagens and worked for him until we got married. That happened when Bert was about 14--so it would have been in 1917 or 18,
and it was several years until either of us were old enough or ready to get married. Bert's schooling was interrupted when his parents died when he was about 9, he had never really learned to read. We spent a lot of cold winter nights as I taught him and he became a very good reader. Our girls started coming, and Beulah Carmen was born November 24, 1925 at Utica. Carlene Inez came along Oct 21, 1929, and Vonda Gail was born Feb 5, 1934. In 1938,
Bert got a hankering to see the family back in TN and we made a trip back there. this is a letter I wrote about the trip. Dear Friends back home: So many of you asked me to write you about our trip and about Tennessee, I feel I can not take time to write each one separately, so am taking this way of telling all. As you know, we left there the morning of Sept 25th. We reached the home of my friend, Mrs. Ludlow, who will be remembered as Vera Pearce, at -----feild Kansas the first day. The second night we stayed with Mr and Mrs Al White, formerly of Utica KS, near Harrison Arkansas. They have bought a home there and like Arkansas well. We loved our visit with them. The third night we spent at Forbes City Arkansas. Had a nice little cabin, and a colored man waited on us there. We had planned on reaching Knoxville on Saturday evening of the fourth, but not being acquainted with the roads and knowing traffic would be heavy we decided to stop at Cookville, TN, 122 miles from Knoxville and stay overnight. We had a double cabin and it was so chilly they fixed up a stove for us. We reached Knoxville about 10 o'clock Sunday morning. We ran into rain at Newton Kansas and it was rainy and foggy all the way. Never saw the sun after we left home till the morning we got here. We traveled over 1400 Miles, and reached here with Kansas air in our tires. Most of the country we came through after we left KS was rough and the roads very winding and on some of them we could not see but a few feet ahead. In part of Arkansas, the land was as level as KS land. I think rice was the principal crop there. We saw hundreds of acres of cotton in northeastern Ark. and northern TN.
Practically all the people we saw were Negroes--they say the population of Knoxville is about half Negroes. The trees were pretty along the way. The leaves had just begun to turn and there were so many colors of them. I thought the red ones were the most beautiful. We saw lots of corn growing on hillsides that were nearly straight up and down. Don't see how they even stood in fields to plant it. Crossing the Mississippi river was quite a deal. We saw lots of grain barges on the water, but no steamers. We crossed two toll bridges along the way.
I like TN real well so far but Bert says he likes Kansas better. Of course I could not say I didn't like Kansas too, but I feel like the trip has been educational for all of us. The people are so friendly, I certainly did not feel I had come among strangers. Kansas doesn't have all the crime either, as there has been people killed so far this year in Knoxville, by cars and almost all the deaths have been caused by drunken drivers. I would be afraid to undertake driving here as they drive too fast for safety. the ways of cooking are quite different than out there. the women season nearly all their food with lard instead of butter and cream. I never saw any mashed potatoes like we make them, until we set up housekeeping. the majority of the women here use snuff, but not all. I was in my sister-in-laws store(at Redhouse) one day when a poorly clad woman, mother of 15 children, came in carrying a small pullet. It weighed out 28 cents and the first thing she got was a 10 cent box of snuff, then she got a 15 cent package of dye and penny lead and 2 cents worth of salt, trading out her pullet. Some of the stores here have more tobacco than any other article.
If a woman votes here she must either pay poll-tax or show a tax receipt. In some localities most of the women vote and in others not many of them do. Some feel it is not right for them to vote. We went to see the Norris dam that is being constructed. It is surely a sight. They expect to have it finished soon. People here are worrying about the outcome of it. they say that if Roosevelt is not elected again that east Tennessee will be dead, because the T VA project has brought them prosperity in a way. I think it is awful the way people have had to sell their homes and leave everything, since all they had is underwater and the was the best wheat land in this section of the state. We had just been here two weeks when Bert got work with the Tennessee Public Service Company. He has got to work steady since he started, but there's the constant fear of being laid off. they laid off 14 men two weeks ago and Bert felt sure he would be next, but her hasn't and most of the others have gone back to work again. the company sent several of their linemen to Florida to help repair the damage done by a cyclone which was the reason they laid them off. the company is building new lines and doing everything they can to keep the TVA power out of Knoxville. there are some advantages to Bert getting to work for a power and light company. He gets free passes on the street car to and from work and we get our lights at half cost. Last month our light bill was 47 cents.
I think one can live here some cheaper than in Kansas. Flour is higher here, but canned goods much cheaper. Fresh vegetables and fruits are about the same. Milk is 10 cents a quart and eggs 35 cents a dozen. Coal runs from $2.00 to $5.00 per ton. Most of the people in towns burn coal, but nearly all of them in the country have their own wood to burn.
The girls are liking school here real well. they have to catch a bus at 7 am and Bert leaves for work at that time too. Vonda Gale and I have a long day to ourselves.
We have three rooms in an apartment house and like it real well. It's quiet here and we are away from street traffic. We are just out of the city limits. We are just batching as we got just what we had to have to get along with. I don't think Bert is going to be satisfied here. He keeps talking about the big wheat crop You are going to have out there in KS next year. I hope you'll have it! It's raining here today and snowed this morning for the first time this season. The weather has been nice most of the time. There is not much wind here to speak of. I have not seen a wind mill in this state. Hope everyone in Kansas is well. Was sorry to hear of Granddaddy Buckman's death. Am glad Neoma bought the Utica paper. I know she's got the stuff to make a good editor and I wish her all kinds of luck with it.
Eunice Acuff and family, Knoxville TN RT 5, in care of M L Reed. (Eunice and Bert were married 50 years when Bert died.)
Wife of Bert Carl Acuff
Daughter of John Esco & Zobedia Armanda Russell McBee
Following provided by cousin Lu Ann Kline:
My Early Youth in Western Kansas,
by Eunice McBee Acuff
I was the oldest of a family of 8 children. We lived on a farm. Father ( John Esco McBee) and his mother ( Mary Emaline Woods Mcbee) came to Kansas from Union County, TN in Abt 1890 and homesteaded. There were no modern conveniences. We had coal oil lamps, outdoor privies wash tub baths. I remember since a small child that mother set the dish pan on a chair and washed clothes on a scrub board. I washed diapers for most of the family except the 2 next younger than I.
Started to school at age 5. The country school was 1 mile from home. There were usually 30-35 students, some older than the teacher, in one room. All classes were held together. For play time noon and recess we played games on the school yard. In nice weather the favorite seemed to be anti-over. That was throwing the ball over the school house and one side against the other to see which side would win. When there was snow on the ground we played fox and geese and skated on near by ice ponds. Most students walked to school. We had some severe winters and sometimes the snows drifted high and crusted hard and we could walk home on top of the snow without breaking through the crust or having to climb over or crawl under the fences.
Folks had to make their own entertainment. Those who had barns large enough with hay mows could hold county dances when no hay was in the barn and the whole neighborhood enjoyed that. Music was usually furnished by a few neighbors capable of playing a fiddle, guitar or banjo. As we grew to be teen agers, we had parties and played such games as Miller boy, Pig in the parlor, Old Dan Tucker, Skip to my Lou etc. Sometimes we stayed most of the night. Refreshments were served and partners were chosen to eat with each other. Although my father owned his farm, we lived conservatively. Dad used to hook up a team to a lumber wagon on Saturday and put on the high side boards and take us older children to pick up cow chips to use for fuel. They almost kept 2 people busy in putting the chips in the stove and one to carry the ashes out. We also burned corn cobs and they made a real hot fire. Later on the folks bought a kerosene burner oil cook stove. They were much cooler for summer time use. It had a separate oven to set over 2 burners for baking. When I started to High School, I drove a horse and buggy the 4 1/2 miles we lived from the small town where the school was. That first year, I only spent 3 weeks in town with a cousin during stormy weather. Next term I drove the same horse and buggy, except I stayed the cold winter months with a lady and worked for my room and board. The 3rd year it was still horse and buggy ( my father was about the last in the neighborhood to buy a car) and my younger brother was then in high school and we rented a small house in winter in town for he and I to live in so he could play Basketball ball. The next year, my sister joined us in the same little house. After my graduation in 1923, I went to normal training school and got a teachers certificate and taught one term of school before my marriage. I taught in a one room stone school house with only 8 pupils but had all grades by 2. Had 2 -1st graders and 2 -8th graders. I boarded about 2 miles from the school and again it was the horse and buggy as the folks where I stayed had their 1st child ready for the 1st grade and wanted a teacher that would stay with them and take the little girl to school. I had all the janitorial work to do at school besides have to care for the horse. We had some deep snow that winter and had to keep school closed one week because pupils were unable to get to school. I married Bert Carl Acuff on November 27, 1924 at Utica,Lane County, Kansas When we met, I was driving in the buggy to town with my mother, and we found him under a Model T Ford that he and Von and Valk Acuff had turned over. We unhitched the horse and pulled the car off of Bert, then took him and his brother and cousin home and cared for him. The others returned to TN but Bert stayed with Art Hagens and worked for him until we got married. That happened when Bert was about 14--so it would have been in 1917 or 18,
and it was several years until either of us were old enough or ready to get married. Bert's schooling was interrupted when his parents died when he was about 9, he had never really learned to read. We spent a lot of cold winter nights as I taught him and he became a very good reader. Our girls started coming, and Beulah Carmen was born November 24, 1925 at Utica. Carlene Inez came along Oct 21, 1929, and Vonda Gail was born Feb 5, 1934. In 1938,
Bert got a hankering to see the family back in TN and we made a trip back there. this is a letter I wrote about the trip. Dear Friends back home: So many of you asked me to write you about our trip and about Tennessee, I feel I can not take time to write each one separately, so am taking this way of telling all. As you know, we left there the morning of Sept 25th. We reached the home of my friend, Mrs. Ludlow, who will be remembered as Vera Pearce, at -----feild Kansas the first day. The second night we stayed with Mr and Mrs Al White, formerly of Utica KS, near Harrison Arkansas. They have bought a home there and like Arkansas well. We loved our visit with them. The third night we spent at Forbes City Arkansas. Had a nice little cabin, and a colored man waited on us there. We had planned on reaching Knoxville on Saturday evening of the fourth, but not being acquainted with the roads and knowing traffic would be heavy we decided to stop at Cookville, TN, 122 miles from Knoxville and stay overnight. We had a double cabin and it was so chilly they fixed up a stove for us. We reached Knoxville about 10 o'clock Sunday morning. We ran into rain at Newton Kansas and it was rainy and foggy all the way. Never saw the sun after we left home till the morning we got here. We traveled over 1400 Miles, and reached here with Kansas air in our tires. Most of the country we came through after we left KS was rough and the roads very winding and on some of them we could not see but a few feet ahead. In part of Arkansas, the land was as level as KS land. I think rice was the principal crop there. We saw hundreds of acres of cotton in northeastern Ark. and northern TN.
Practically all the people we saw were Negroes--they say the population of Knoxville is about half Negroes. The trees were pretty along the way. The leaves had just begun to turn and there were so many colors of them. I thought the red ones were the most beautiful. We saw lots of corn growing on hillsides that were nearly straight up and down. Don't see how they even stood in fields to plant it. Crossing the Mississippi river was quite a deal. We saw lots of grain barges on the water, but no steamers. We crossed two toll bridges along the way.
I like TN real well so far but Bert says he likes Kansas better. Of course I could not say I didn't like Kansas too, but I feel like the trip has been educational for all of us. The people are so friendly, I certainly did not feel I had come among strangers. Kansas doesn't have all the crime either, as there has been people killed so far this year in Knoxville, by cars and almost all the deaths have been caused by drunken drivers. I would be afraid to undertake driving here as they drive too fast for safety. the ways of cooking are quite different than out there. the women season nearly all their food with lard instead of butter and cream. I never saw any mashed potatoes like we make them, until we set up housekeeping. the majority of the women here use snuff, but not all. I was in my sister-in-laws store(at Redhouse) one day when a poorly clad woman, mother of 15 children, came in carrying a small pullet. It weighed out 28 cents and the first thing she got was a 10 cent box of snuff, then she got a 15 cent package of dye and penny lead and 2 cents worth of salt, trading out her pullet. Some of the stores here have more tobacco than any other article.
If a woman votes here she must either pay poll-tax or show a tax receipt. In some localities most of the women vote and in others not many of them do. Some feel it is not right for them to vote. We went to see the Norris dam that is being constructed. It is surely a sight. They expect to have it finished soon. People here are worrying about the outcome of it. they say that if Roosevelt is not elected again that east Tennessee will be dead, because the T VA project has brought them prosperity in a way. I think it is awful the way people have had to sell their homes and leave everything, since all they had is underwater and the was the best wheat land in this section of the state. We had just been here two weeks when Bert got work with the Tennessee Public Service Company. He has got to work steady since he started, but there's the constant fear of being laid off. they laid off 14 men two weeks ago and Bert felt sure he would be next, but her hasn't and most of the others have gone back to work again. the company sent several of their linemen to Florida to help repair the damage done by a cyclone which was the reason they laid them off. the company is building new lines and doing everything they can to keep the TVA power out of Knoxville. there are some advantages to Bert getting to work for a power and light company. He gets free passes on the street car to and from work and we get our lights at half cost. Last month our light bill was 47 cents.
I think one can live here some cheaper than in Kansas. Flour is higher here, but canned goods much cheaper. Fresh vegetables and fruits are about the same. Milk is 10 cents a quart and eggs 35 cents a dozen. Coal runs from $2.00 to $5.00 per ton. Most of the people in towns burn coal, but nearly all of them in the country have their own wood to burn.
The girls are liking school here real well. they have to catch a bus at 7 am and Bert leaves for work at that time too. Vonda Gale and I have a long day to ourselves.
We have three rooms in an apartment house and like it real well. It's quiet here and we are away from street traffic. We are just out of the city limits. We are just batching as we got just what we had to have to get along with. I don't think Bert is going to be satisfied here. He keeps talking about the big wheat crop You are going to have out there in KS next year. I hope you'll have it! It's raining here today and snowed this morning for the first time this season. The weather has been nice most of the time. There is not much wind here to speak of. I have not seen a wind mill in this state. Hope everyone in Kansas is well. Was sorry to hear of Granddaddy Buckman's death. Am glad Neoma bought the Utica paper. I know she's got the stuff to make a good editor and I wish her all kinds of luck with it.
Eunice Acuff and family, Knoxville TN RT 5, in care of M L Reed. (Eunice and Bert were married 50 years when Bert died.)
Daughter of John Esco & Zobedia Armanda Russell McBee
Following provided by cousin Lu Ann Kline:
My Early Youth in Western Kansas,
by Eunice McBee Acuff
I was the oldest of a family of 8 children. We lived on a farm. Father ( John Esco McBee) and his mother ( Mary Emaline Woods Mcbee) came to Kansas from Union County, TN in Abt 1890 and homesteaded. There were no modern conveniences. We had coal oil lamps, outdoor privies wash tub baths. I remember since a small child that mother set the dish pan on a chair and washed clothes on a scrub board. I washed diapers for most of the family except the 2 next younger than I.
Started to school at age 5. The country school was 1 mile from home. There were usually 30-35 students, some older than the teacher, in one room. All classes were held together. For play time noon and recess we played games on the school yard. In nice weather the favorite seemed to be anti-over. That was throwing the ball over the school house and one side against the other to see which side would win. When there was snow on the ground we played fox and geese and skated on near by ice ponds. Most students walked to school. We had some severe winters and sometimes the snows drifted high and crusted hard and we could walk home on top of the snow without breaking through the crust or having to climb over or crawl under the fences.
Folks had to make their own entertainment. Those who had barns large enough with hay mows could hold county dances when no hay was in the barn and the whole neighborhood enjoyed that. Music was usually furnished by a few neighbors capable of playing a fiddle, guitar or banjo. As we grew to be teen agers, we had parties and played such games as Miller boy, Pig in the parlor, Old Dan Tucker, Skip to my Lou etc. Sometimes we stayed most of the night. Refreshments were served and partners were chosen to eat with each other. Although my father owned his farm, we lived conservatively. Dad used to hook up a team to a lumber wagon on Saturday and put on the high side boards and take us older children to pick up cow chips to use for fuel. They almost kept 2 people busy in putting the chips in the stove and one to carry the ashes out. We also burned corn cobs and they made a real hot fire. Later on the folks bought a kerosene burner oil cook stove. They were much cooler for summer time use. It had a separate oven to set over 2 burners for baking. When I started to High School, I drove a horse and buggy the 4 1/2 miles we lived from the small town where the school was. That first year, I only spent 3 weeks in town with a cousin during stormy weather. Next term I drove the same horse and buggy, except I stayed the cold winter months with a lady and worked for my room and board. The 3rd year it was still horse and buggy ( my father was about the last in the neighborhood to buy a car) and my younger brother was then in high school and we rented a small house in winter in town for he and I to live in so he could play Basketball ball. The next year, my sister joined us in the same little house. After my graduation in 1923, I went to normal training school and got a teachers certificate and taught one term of school before my marriage. I taught in a one room stone school house with only 8 pupils but had all grades by 2. Had 2 -1st graders and 2 -8th graders. I boarded about 2 miles from the school and again it was the horse and buggy as the folks where I stayed had their 1st child ready for the 1st grade and wanted a teacher that would stay with them and take the little girl to school. I had all the janitorial work to do at school besides have to care for the horse. We had some deep snow that winter and had to keep school closed one week because pupils were unable to get to school. I married Bert Carl Acuff on November 27, 1924 at Utica,Lane County, Kansas When we met, I was driving in the buggy to town with my mother, and we found him under a Model T Ford that he and Von and Valk Acuff had turned over. We unhitched the horse and pulled the car off of Bert, then took him and his brother and cousin home and cared for him. The others returned to TN but Bert stayed with Art Hagens and worked for him until we got married. That happened when Bert was about 14--so it would have been in 1917 or 18,
and it was several years until either of us were old enough or ready to get married. Bert's schooling was interrupted when his parents died when he was about 9, he had never really learned to read. We spent a lot of cold winter nights as I taught him and he became a very good reader. Our girls started coming, and Beulah Carmen was born November 24, 1925 at Utica. Carlene Inez came along Oct 21, 1929, and Vonda Gail was born Feb 5, 1934. In 1938,
Bert got a hankering to see the family back in TN and we made a trip back there. this is a letter I wrote about the trip. Dear Friends back home: So many of you asked me to write you about our trip and about Tennessee, I feel I can not take time to write each one separately, so am taking this way of telling all. As you know, we left there the morning of Sept 25th. We reached the home of my friend, Mrs. Ludlow, who will be remembered as Vera Pearce, at -----feild Kansas the first day. The second night we stayed with Mr and Mrs Al White, formerly of Utica KS, near Harrison Arkansas. They have bought a home there and like Arkansas well. We loved our visit with them. The third night we spent at Forbes City Arkansas. Had a nice little cabin, and a colored man waited on us there. We had planned on reaching Knoxville on Saturday evening of the fourth, but not being acquainted with the roads and knowing traffic would be heavy we decided to stop at Cookville, TN, 122 miles from Knoxville and stay overnight. We had a double cabin and it was so chilly they fixed up a stove for us. We reached Knoxville about 10 o'clock Sunday morning. We ran into rain at Newton Kansas and it was rainy and foggy all the way. Never saw the sun after we left home till the morning we got here. We traveled over 1400 Miles, and reached here with Kansas air in our tires. Most of the country we came through after we left KS was rough and the roads very winding and on some of them we could not see but a few feet ahead. In part of Arkansas, the land was as level as KS land. I think rice was the principal crop there. We saw hundreds of acres of cotton in northeastern Ark. and northern TN.
Practically all the people we saw were Negroes--they say the population of Knoxville is about half Negroes. The trees were pretty along the way. The leaves had just begun to turn and there were so many colors of them. I thought the red ones were the most beautiful. We saw lots of corn growing on hillsides that were nearly straight up and down. Don't see how they even stood in fields to plant it. Crossing the Mississippi river was quite a deal. We saw lots of grain barges on the water, but no steamers. We crossed two toll bridges along the way.
I like TN real well so far but Bert says he likes Kansas better. Of course I could not say I didn't like Kansas too, but I feel like the trip has been educational for all of us. The people are so friendly, I certainly did not feel I had come among strangers. Kansas doesn't have all the crime either, as there has been people killed so far this year in Knoxville, by cars and almost all the deaths have been caused by drunken drivers. I would be afraid to undertake driving here as they drive too fast for safety. the ways of cooking are quite different than out there. the women season nearly all their food with lard instead of butter and cream. I never saw any mashed potatoes like we make them, until we set up housekeeping. the majority of the women here use snuff, but not all. I was in my sister-in-laws store(at Redhouse) one day when a poorly clad woman, mother of 15 children, came in carrying a small pullet. It weighed out 28 cents and the first thing she got was a 10 cent box of snuff, then she got a 15 cent package of dye and penny lead and 2 cents worth of salt, trading out her pullet. Some of the stores here have more tobacco than any other article.
If a woman votes here she must either pay poll-tax or show a tax receipt. In some localities most of the women vote and in others not many of them do. Some feel it is not right for them to vote. We went to see the Norris dam that is being constructed. It is surely a sight. They expect to have it finished soon. People here are worrying about the outcome of it. they say that if Roosevelt is not elected again that east Tennessee will be dead, because the T VA project has brought them prosperity in a way. I think it is awful the way people have had to sell their homes and leave everything, since all they had is underwater and the was the best wheat land in this section of the state. We had just been here two weeks when Bert got work with the Tennessee Public Service Company. He has got to work steady since he started, but there's the constant fear of being laid off. they laid off 14 men two weeks ago and Bert felt sure he would be next, but her hasn't and most of the others have gone back to work again. the company sent several of their linemen to Florida to help repair the damage done by a cyclone which was the reason they laid them off. the company is building new lines and doing everything they can to keep the TVA power out of Knoxville. there are some advantages to Bert getting to work for a power and light company. He gets free passes on the street car to and from work and we get our lights at half cost. Last month our light bill was 47 cents.
I think one can live here some cheaper than in Kansas. Flour is higher here, but canned goods much cheaper. Fresh vegetables and fruits are about the same. Milk is 10 cents a quart and eggs 35 cents a dozen. Coal runs from $2.00 to $5.00 per ton. Most of the people in towns burn coal, but nearly all of them in the country have their own wood to burn.
The girls are liking school here real well. they have to catch a bus at 7 am and Bert leaves for work at that time too. Vonda Gale and I have a long day to ourselves.
We have three rooms in an apartment house and like it real well. It's quiet here and we are away from street traffic. We are just out of the city limits. We are just batching as we got just what we had to have to get along with. I don't think Bert is going to be satisfied here. He keeps talking about the big wheat crop You are going to have out there in KS next year. I hope you'll have it! It's raining here today and snowed this morning for the first time this season. The weather has been nice most of the time. There is not much wind here to speak of. I have not seen a wind mill in this state. Hope everyone in Kansas is well. Was sorry to hear of Granddaddy Buckman's death. Am glad Neoma bought the Utica paper. I know she's got the stuff to make a good editor and I wish her all kinds of luck with it.
Eunice Acuff and family, Knoxville TN RT 5, in care of M L Reed. (Eunice and Bert were married 50 years when Bert died.)
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