Rhoda Maria Brown was born August 17, 1883 in Camden County, Missouri, the oldest daughter of David Harrison Brown and Paulina Louisa Sweatt. She married George Ervin Green on November 28, 1909 in Missouri, lived in California for a few years and had her first two daughters there in Whittier. After returning to Missouri two more daughters and a son were born before the family moved back to California for good in 1934. She died in Long Beach, California on January 2, 1974 and is buried at Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier.
Rhoda Maria Brown was named after her paternal grandmother, Rhoda Malissa Neely, and maternal grandmother Louisa Maria Sweatt, and she went by her middle name, Maria, which her nieces and nephews pronounce "Meer-Ar". She was born in the farmhouse built by her father, David Harrison Brown, using logs removed from an existing log house on the 160-acre property which they homesteaded in Camden County.
Three years after their marriage, Ervin and Maria Green purchased a 40-acre tract of land with a house for $645 and established themselves as farmers. The house had no electricity or indoor plumbing, so Maria had to fetch water from their artesian spring some distance from the house. Lighting was provided by kerosene lamps. The last three of her five children were born in this house about five miles outside Lebanon, Missouri.
The Greens produced almost everything the family and livestock needed right there on the farm -- fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, eggs, and butter as well as feed crops for the horses, cows, and pigs. Once a week Maria's husband took her to town to purchase the grocery staples which they could not produce on the farm; for many years they went in a horse-drawn wagon, but eventually the family purchased a Model T Ford.
Maria worked very hard -- long hours in her vegetable garden, cooking on the wood burning stove, doing laundry in a large wash tub over an open fire in the back yard, then bathing the children in the wash water. She is remembered as a loving and dedicated mother.
Ervin was an excellent fiddler, who was in demand to play for barn dances. He also entertained the family at home during long evenings, and two of his daughters joined, one playing guitar and the other the organ. Music was important to the Greens. They had no radio but occasionally traveled to relatives' houses on Saturday nights to listen to their battery-operated radio where they heard the Grand Ole Opry with country singers such as the Carter family, Jimmy Rogers, and Roy Acuff. Ervin and the girls would then mimic their songs and music styles for their home entertainment. Maria was a spirited and fun-loving woman, and her nephews and nieces loved to goad her into jig-dancing to entertain them at family music jams.
To supplement the farm income, Ervin worked as a rural mail carrier between Lebanon and Linn Creek; he also bought and resold to Lebanon warehouses animal pelts and the excess produce and eggs which farmers along his route had to sell. (Ervin loved a little nip, and it is said he also was the local moonshine distributor!)
The Greens had a good, stable home life. Maria brought her children up with love and Christian teaching. Ervin and his son hunted and fished together. The family all went to the river to swim.
In the early 1930s the Greens moved to town where they hoped life would be a little easier for them. Ervin established his own business repairing farm machinery, but business was not very good during depression years. After hearing from relatives that California offered good opportunities, they sold everything, packed the car and left for California in 1934. Their youngest daughter, Blenda, had married in April 1934 in Lebanon, Missouri, and remained there, dying later that year after giving birth. Sylvia had married in September 1934 in Rolla, Missouri. The rest of the family settled in Long Beach where Ervin found work. Leslie enrolled in school, and they lived out their lives there. (Joan Bradley)
Rhoda Maria Brown was named after her paternal grandmother, Rhoda Malissa Neely, and maternal grandmother Louisa Maria Sweatt, and she went by her middle name, Maria, which her nieces and nephews pronounce "Meer-Ar". She was born in the farmhouse built by her father, David Harrison Brown, using logs removed from an existing log house on the 160-acre property which they homesteaded in Camden County.
Three years after their marriage, Ervin and Maria Green purchased a 40-acre tract of land with a house for $645 and established themselves as farmers. The house had no electricity or indoor plumbing, so Maria had to fetch water from their artesian spring some distance from the house. Lighting was provided by kerosene lamps. The last three of her five children were born in this house about five miles outside Lebanon, Missouri.
The Greens produced almost everything the family and livestock needed right there on the farm -- fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, eggs, and butter as well as feed crops for the horses, cows, and pigs. Once a week Maria's husband took her to town to purchase the grocery staples which they could not produce on the farm; for many years they went in a horse-drawn wagon, but eventually the family purchased a Model T Ford.
Maria worked very hard -- long hours in her vegetable garden, cooking on the wood burning stove, doing laundry in a large wash tub over an open fire in the back yard, then bathing the children in the wash water. She is remembered as a loving and dedicated mother.
Ervin was an excellent fiddler, who was in demand to play for barn dances. He also entertained the family at home during long evenings, and two of his daughters joined, one playing guitar and the other the organ. Music was important to the Greens. They had no radio but occasionally traveled to relatives' houses on Saturday nights to listen to their battery-operated radio where they heard the Grand Ole Opry with country singers such as the Carter family, Jimmy Rogers, and Roy Acuff. Ervin and the girls would then mimic their songs and music styles for their home entertainment. Maria was a spirited and fun-loving woman, and her nephews and nieces loved to goad her into jig-dancing to entertain them at family music jams.
To supplement the farm income, Ervin worked as a rural mail carrier between Lebanon and Linn Creek; he also bought and resold to Lebanon warehouses animal pelts and the excess produce and eggs which farmers along his route had to sell. (Ervin loved a little nip, and it is said he also was the local moonshine distributor!)
The Greens had a good, stable home life. Maria brought her children up with love and Christian teaching. Ervin and his son hunted and fished together. The family all went to the river to swim.
In the early 1930s the Greens moved to town where they hoped life would be a little easier for them. Ervin established his own business repairing farm machinery, but business was not very good during depression years. After hearing from relatives that California offered good opportunities, they sold everything, packed the car and left for California in 1934. Their youngest daughter, Blenda, had married in April 1934 in Lebanon, Missouri, and remained there, dying later that year after giving birth. Sylvia had married in September 1934 in Rolla, Missouri. The rest of the family settled in Long Beach where Ervin found work. Leslie enrolled in school, and they lived out their lives there. (Joan Bradley)
Rhoda Maria Brown was born August 17, 1883 in Camden County, Missouri, the oldest daughter of David Harrison Brown and Paulina Louisa Sweatt. She married George Ervin Green on November 28, 1909 in Missouri, lived in California for a few years and had her first two daughters there in Whittier. After returning to Missouri two more daughters and a son were born before the family moved back to California for good in 1934. She died in Long Beach, California on January 2, 1974 and is buried at Rose Hills Cemetery in Whittier.
Rhoda Maria Brown was named after her paternal grandmother, Rhoda Malissa Neely, and maternal grandmother Louisa Maria Sweatt, and she went by her middle name, Maria, which her nieces and nephews pronounce "Meer-Ar". She was born in the farmhouse built by her father, David Harrison Brown, using logs removed from an existing log house on the 160-acre property which they homesteaded in Camden County.
Three years after their marriage, Ervin and Maria Green purchased a 40-acre tract of land with a house for $645 and established themselves as farmers. The house had no electricity or indoor plumbing, so Maria had to fetch water from their artesian spring some distance from the house. Lighting was provided by kerosene lamps. The last three of her five children were born in this house about five miles outside Lebanon, Missouri.
The Greens produced almost everything the family and livestock needed right there on the farm -- fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, eggs, and butter as well as feed crops for the horses, cows, and pigs. Once a week Maria's husband took her to town to purchase the grocery staples which they could not produce on the farm; for many years they went in a horse-drawn wagon, but eventually the family purchased a Model T Ford.
Maria worked very hard -- long hours in her vegetable garden, cooking on the wood burning stove, doing laundry in a large wash tub over an open fire in the back yard, then bathing the children in the wash water. She is remembered as a loving and dedicated mother.
Ervin was an excellent fiddler, who was in demand to play for barn dances. He also entertained the family at home during long evenings, and two of his daughters joined, one playing guitar and the other the organ. Music was important to the Greens. They had no radio but occasionally traveled to relatives' houses on Saturday nights to listen to their battery-operated radio where they heard the Grand Ole Opry with country singers such as the Carter family, Jimmy Rogers, and Roy Acuff. Ervin and the girls would then mimic their songs and music styles for their home entertainment. Maria was a spirited and fun-loving woman, and her nephews and nieces loved to goad her into jig-dancing to entertain them at family music jams.
To supplement the farm income, Ervin worked as a rural mail carrier between Lebanon and Linn Creek; he also bought and resold to Lebanon warehouses animal pelts and the excess produce and eggs which farmers along his route had to sell. (Ervin loved a little nip, and it is said he also was the local moonshine distributor!)
The Greens had a good, stable home life. Maria brought her children up with love and Christian teaching. Ervin and his son hunted and fished together. The family all went to the river to swim.
In the early 1930s the Greens moved to town where they hoped life would be a little easier for them. Ervin established his own business repairing farm machinery, but business was not very good during depression years. After hearing from relatives that California offered good opportunities, they sold everything, packed the car and left for California in 1934. Their youngest daughter, Blenda, had married in April 1934 in Lebanon, Missouri, and remained there, dying later that year after giving birth. Sylvia had married in September 1934 in Rolla, Missouri. The rest of the family settled in Long Beach where Ervin found work. Leslie enrolled in school, and they lived out their lives there. (Joan Bradley)
Rhoda Maria Brown was named after her paternal grandmother, Rhoda Malissa Neely, and maternal grandmother Louisa Maria Sweatt, and she went by her middle name, Maria, which her nieces and nephews pronounce "Meer-Ar". She was born in the farmhouse built by her father, David Harrison Brown, using logs removed from an existing log house on the 160-acre property which they homesteaded in Camden County.
Three years after their marriage, Ervin and Maria Green purchased a 40-acre tract of land with a house for $645 and established themselves as farmers. The house had no electricity or indoor plumbing, so Maria had to fetch water from their artesian spring some distance from the house. Lighting was provided by kerosene lamps. The last three of her five children were born in this house about five miles outside Lebanon, Missouri.
The Greens produced almost everything the family and livestock needed right there on the farm -- fruit, vegetables, meat, milk, eggs, and butter as well as feed crops for the horses, cows, and pigs. Once a week Maria's husband took her to town to purchase the grocery staples which they could not produce on the farm; for many years they went in a horse-drawn wagon, but eventually the family purchased a Model T Ford.
Maria worked very hard -- long hours in her vegetable garden, cooking on the wood burning stove, doing laundry in a large wash tub over an open fire in the back yard, then bathing the children in the wash water. She is remembered as a loving and dedicated mother.
Ervin was an excellent fiddler, who was in demand to play for barn dances. He also entertained the family at home during long evenings, and two of his daughters joined, one playing guitar and the other the organ. Music was important to the Greens. They had no radio but occasionally traveled to relatives' houses on Saturday nights to listen to their battery-operated radio where they heard the Grand Ole Opry with country singers such as the Carter family, Jimmy Rogers, and Roy Acuff. Ervin and the girls would then mimic their songs and music styles for their home entertainment. Maria was a spirited and fun-loving woman, and her nephews and nieces loved to goad her into jig-dancing to entertain them at family music jams.
To supplement the farm income, Ervin worked as a rural mail carrier between Lebanon and Linn Creek; he also bought and resold to Lebanon warehouses animal pelts and the excess produce and eggs which farmers along his route had to sell. (Ervin loved a little nip, and it is said he also was the local moonshine distributor!)
The Greens had a good, stable home life. Maria brought her children up with love and Christian teaching. Ervin and his son hunted and fished together. The family all went to the river to swim.
In the early 1930s the Greens moved to town where they hoped life would be a little easier for them. Ervin established his own business repairing farm machinery, but business was not very good during depression years. After hearing from relatives that California offered good opportunities, they sold everything, packed the car and left for California in 1934. Their youngest daughter, Blenda, had married in April 1934 in Lebanon, Missouri, and remained there, dying later that year after giving birth. Sylvia had married in September 1934 in Rolla, Missouri. The rest of the family settled in Long Beach where Ervin found work. Leslie enrolled in school, and they lived out their lives there. (Joan Bradley)
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