Recollections of Mary Susan DOTY Lingg

Written by: Velma Lorraine Rodeen (Granddaughter)

    My mother was Margaret Nida Lingg (1895-Private) youngest daughter of Mary Susan Doty Lingg (1863-1936) and Henry Tabor Lingg (1852-1927). My mother married Elmer T. Rodeen (1893-Private). I am the oldest of their 3 children. I have two younger brothers.

    When I was young, my family lived on a 10 acre farm between my Grandma and Grandpa Lingg’s farm and the Walter Glaspey dairy farm in the Armstrong District near Pullman, Washington.

    Since our property joined grandma’s I was free to visit grandma often. When I thought they mistreated me at home I went to see grandma whose favorite food for me was bread and butter with ketchup. Her old dog, Judge and I went on many hikes together. He was with me when I was walking on the ice on the river and in the middle it was thin and I had to break ice all the way to the bank. I do not think my mother ever knew. I now realize that I could have drowned and floated down the river and no one would have known what happened to me. I roamed the hills for wildflowers and brought home bouquets and plants to plant.

    Grandma Lingg was a hard working and busy lady who always had time for me. She kept busy with cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, etc. The washing machine was a wooden tub with a handle that had to be moved back and forth to move the clothing. She made quilts from material left from dresses and aprons she had made. The lining was made from old worn out blankets or store bought batting. There was a fabric cover on the back. Grandma had quilting frames and hand sewed all the layers together.

    Grandma always wore short sleeved dresses that she made from black sateen. The bodice was always jointed to a full skirt that was gathered at the waist. She sewed petticoats and bloomers for me from four sacks and salt sacks. She made me dresses from new material.

    She worked outdoors building fences, milking cows, feeding chickens and they must have had swine to feed but I don’t remember any. She planted a big garden and kept the weeds hoed. There was a large raspberry patch that needed picking every other day. I remember helping with the picking and how long it took to pick the whole patch. She must have canned and made jam from the berries but the picking must have been enough work for me and I went home.

    There was no indoor plumbing. Water had to be carried from the spring that came down from the hill and ran continuously. Someone built a little house over the spring where she cooled her butter, milk, etc. Kerosene lamps provided light for the dark hours. Heavy flat irons were heated on the stove and used to iron the clothing. In the summer there was a huge tin tub – probably galvanized – that was filled with water and left to heat in the sun for bathing. The back house had catalogues for paper and to read if you so desired.

    Grandma braided rugs from worn out clothing. Very little went to waste. Old Judge, the dog, got the table scraps. When an animal was butchered, grandma stripped the fat from the entrails to render for soap making.

    She had 2 huge prune trees and a few gooseberry bushes. I loved the berries raw or in pies. She planted watermelons which were always in danger of being stolen or just plugged by the neighborhood kids. There were many rows of beans grown for the dry beans to be cooked in winter. I remember the little yellow ones the best. They had to be picked and shelled which was a tedious job but if done with others was a time to visit.

    When there was a gathering of the clan at grandma’s we always had a freezer of ice cream. The freezer was packed with ice and salt and hand turned until the ice cream was ready. Getting to lick the paddle was a treat looked forward to for those who helped. Those were good times when we could get together with all of the cousins.

    The boys would fish in the Palouse River that ran through the farm and I would take the fish off the hook. Once I got tangled up with a line and got a fishhook in my leg. It was in too deep to be pulled out so there was a trip to the doctor who froze the spot and cut it out. I do not remember if that ended my help with the fishing or not. The fish were called suckers and were not for eating.

    Grandma Lingg always had a tub of portulaca that reseeded every year. She had lilac bushes, paper white narcissus and bouncing betty. She had a wooden 2 story house and I remember standing in an upstairs window eating dried apples that she had made.

    Behind the house and up the hill was a big rock formation with a cave which made a good hideout. This two story house was torn down at some time and another house was built farther from the spring.

    We moved from the 10 acres to the big 160 acre farm in 1926. Dad bought it from his father’s brother, Andy, who had homesteaded it. It was in the Rose Creek District. The moving was done by wagon and horses.

    Grandma and Grandpa Lingg moved with us. Grandpa died in 1927 and grandma lived with us awhile longer. She and I shared a room and a bed. Later she went back to her home and a grandchild went to live with her. She made doll furniture from wooden boxes. She made me a feather bed. She was the best Grandma a child could have.

    I graduated from high school in 1936. That same year my parents moved to the 35 acres on River Road where they lived out the rest of their lives. After graduation in June I was spending the summer at home helping with whatever needed to be done. In August Aunt Irene (Uncle Jim’s wife) came out and told me she had a job for me in the dry cleaning area of the Pullman laundry and dry cleaners. She was the manager and did the spots.

    Grandma Lingg became ill in the fall of 1936. She was moved to our home where my parents set up a bed for her in the living room. I don’t think she lived very long. I remember the night she died. The relatives came and tried to comfort my mom but she was not to be comforted. My mom and grandma were always very close.