[Written by my grandmother, Nannie Ann (Smith) Duck. I have retained the spelling and construction of the original. The footnotes are mine according to the best information that I have as of this date — 26 February 2000. — John Joseph Duck]

This is going to be an "I remember" story or, at least, most of it is. There will be many mistakes in both spelling and English, but you will get my intentions.

The farthest back I have been able to learn is on my mother's side. My great—grandfather, [1]John Goodin, ran away from home in England at the age of 12 and stowed away on a ship for America. He was working in a field of flax and worked slower and slower until all of the other workers were at the other end of the field, then grabbed his clothes, which he had hidden in the weeds, and made a run for the ship. I am not sure where he landed, but he spent his next years in Virginia. He married a girl whose first name was [2]Annie. I never heard her last name. My grandfather, [3]William Goodin, was born there. He had several brothers. He married [4]Amy Hudson in Virginia and they moved to Green County, Kentucky, where my mother, [5]Wilda Jane Goodin, was born.

My grandmother [6]Goodin was supposed to be related to Henry Hudson who discovered the Hudson River. I am not sure of this. She had a brother Henry. My grandfather [7]Goodin spent 4 years in the Civil War. He was a prisoner in the southern prison for some time. He was sick a great deal of that time as the rebels gave him such rotten food to eat. The meat had worms in it. He visited his family only twice in the four years of the war. He had been [8]married before he married my grandmother and had 3 or 4 children when he married her. They were my Uncle John[9], Uncle Henry[10], and Aunt Sally[11].  My mother's brothers were [12]James, [13]Charles, [14]Daniel, [15]Frank, and one sister, [16]Mary Ellen. They all grew up near Elkhorn, Kentucky, a small town. They moved there when Mother was a very small child. They lived in a two—room log house all of their lives. I visited it several years ago and the old iron tea kettle was still hanging on the rod across the front of the fireplace. Also the Rose of Sharon bush was still beside the door, but they called it the Lily Tree. They had a spring house where they kept the milk and butter. It had a natural stone floor and water flowed through it. The log house was still standing at that time, about 1954.

My father and mother were married [17]December 27, 1883. They moved into a log house which my father had been building during the summer. It was said to be the best built log house in that part of the country. My oldest sister, [18]Mary, was born there January 15, 1885. My next sister, [19]Delia Catherine, was born in the same house in 1886.

I have heard Mother tell about the time when she had just the one child, Mary, and how she had to go to the spring for water, which was some little distance from the house. She was going to leave the baby on the porch, but she cried, so she took her with her. When she returned to the house a mad dog had passed by the house and killed their little dog and shook it to pieces. She was so thankful she had taken her baby with her. It seems there were a great many mad dogs in that part of the country at that time, especially in August. I suppose that is the reason August is called Dog Days. Some time after Delia was born. Dad decided he wanted to go west, so they started out from Kentucky in a covered wagon and went as far as Kansas. I am not sure how long they lived there, but my oldest brother. [20]Bill, was born there. He was only a few months old when they decided to go on down into the Indian Territory, or it may have been called the Oklahoma Territory by that time, 1889. They stopped near Guthrie, which was the capitol. [21]Grandpa Goodin had sent Mom two hundred dollars and Dad went into Guthrie to file on a homestead. He had his wallet in his hip pocket and someone stole it. This left him without money to file with. This was a big disappointment to them.

It was wild country around Guthrie at that time. There seemed to be plenty of game. Mom used to tell about her and the kids setting traps to catch quail and rabbits. Dad told about going down near a stream one morning and a large animal was hidden in the grass. He thought it was a panther. It saw him before he saw it, for it was just ready to spring at him. He said he was so scared, but he just backed away very slowly until he was far enough to run. After losing their money, they were so discouraged they decided to head back east. They traveled through Arkansas. It must have been early winter, for Mom told about Bill, who was a few months old, sitting on a quilt and laughing and trying to catch the snowflakes. They camped at the foot of the mountains and next day at noon, they could look down and see their campfire from their morning breakfast. They headed north up into Missouri where my [22]great Aunt Ann and [23]Uncle Jake Morgan lived. She was a sister of my [24]Grandmother Smith. They rented a farm in Cass County, Missouri. They had some difficult times there. My father was sick and their horses all took the glanders and had to be put to death. Now this is where I come in, [25]I was born there. Uncle Jake and Aunt Ann Morgan decided to go up into Illinois where they could get good land for $1.50 an acre. Dad and Mom then went back to Kentucky. They had left with 2 children and returned with 4. By the way, I was born June 10, 1892. I must have been a few months old because they said I cried a lot. My folks were living in Elkhorn. One man said I surely had never been in town, as I cried so much. Another man told him I had been in larger towns than he (the first man) ever dreamed existed. I had been through Kansas City in a covered wagon, ha. My dad had a small grocery store and now my memory begins to creep in. When I told Mother some of the things that I could remember, she said I was only two years old. This scene is very clear to me. Mom came in the door with a glass pitcher that had a tree with squirrels on each side of it. She had on a gray bonnet with a ruffle around the front and I thought how pretty my mammy is. We called our parents Mammy and Pappy. Another time, I think I was a little older, maybe about 5, Dad brought the old clock home. It is the one Lester has and they used it as long as they kept house.

We moved out to the old Sprat house and Dad had a little store out there. It seemed there were a lot of small groceries along the road. One time, Delia and me and another girl took three eggs over to another store to trade for candy. The owner gave us our candy and told us to go back home as it wasn't a place for little girls. Several men were standing around. I think they were drinking. Anyway, we got out in a hurry. Mom was alone with us children one night when we heard a terrible noise just down the road a short distance. A drunk Negro had rolled in a ditch of about 2 feet of water and the people with him were too drunk to get him out. He rolled around until he drowned in the mud and water. I'll never forget the screams and praying. The next morning his mother was there and they got the body out. Bill went down the road to see the excitement and a very clean colored boy came back to the house with Bill. He called the dead man by name and said he bet he was sorry he got drunk. Mom was so scared the night before. I remember while we lived on the Sprat place an old man came over from the store with Dad for dinner.It went on until Mom was tired of it.

[26]Uncle Charlie was there one day when the old man came over. He had made a sign and put it in the window — Meals 25 cents. We were not bothered with the old man anymore, but Dad was displeased for he believed in feeding everyone and everything. Uncle Charlie and the older kids had a big laugh over it.

My memory seems to be sketches of things. There was the time the colored people were working in a field near us and Bill, Delia, and I went out and peeked through the rail fence to see the colored baby and it was getting its dinner. We thought that was real funny.

[27]Uncle Jim Goodin and family came to visit us one time. They had three children. Alice, who married my cousin Joe Henry Smith[28] - they are very old now and live in Bloomington, Illinois. There was Elmer, who died as a young man. Alba, the baby at that time, is retired and lives in Campbellsville, Kentucky. It was raining and us children had to play inside. We were playing hide and seek. Mary was hiding behind the door. I walked in and saw her. She had lovely long hair in two braids that reached to her waist. I stood there looking at those braids and I don't know why, but it was such a temptation. I grabbed those braids and gave them a big jerk. She let out a yell that scared me half to death. Mom came in and instead of spanking me she told me not to cry. I think I would have felt better if she had spanked me.

I think the first Christmas I remember was in the Sprat house. There was whispering around and Bill was gone for awhile. Then some candy appeared from someplace. This is the first I remember of [29]Cap. He and I got the candy. It was supposed to be from Santy. One piece was a green fish and I got it.

I don't remember much more about Kentucky. Dad decided to go to Illinois and try to find a better job, so he went on ahead. He went to my Aunt Ann and Uncle Jake Morgon's home. They had bought their land in Logan County, Illinois. It was mostly timber land, but he had cleared some of it and they had a nice orchard of most kinds of fruit and all kinds of berries. The soil was very good.

Dad worked until he got money to send for the family. There were five children then. Mother sold the cow and chickens, but packed most of the furniture to ship. I had new shoes and dress and suppose the rest did too. We went to visit my [30]grandparents Smith before we left. [31]My cousin and wife were just married and living in one room of Grandma's house. I didn't like them at all. They asked us to eat breakfast with them, but I wouldn't go in with the rest. I said I wanted to eat with Grandma and Grandpa, so I did. Then I told Grandma to make Will Allen get out of her house. My grandma never forgot that. I think she was pleased, but she didn't let me know it. For after we had been in Illinois for awhile, she sent me a pretty little pin cushion she had made and didn't send a thing to the others. Then before leaving for Illinois, we visited [32]Grandma and Grandpa Goodin. The day I was five years old I stood by the outside chimney and felt bad because we were leaving Grandma. The next thing I remember we were over at Uncle Jim's house and they were putting me to bed with my new shoes on. [33]Uncle Jim and Uncle Daniel were to drive us to Lebanon where we would get on the train.

I don't remember getting into the covered wagon, but someplace along the way. Bill, who was asleep in the back part of the wagon, let out a yelp and a woman giggled. She was with my [34]Uncle Charlie and they were to be married when we got to Lebanon. They were eloping. She had hidden her clothes some distance from the house near the spring were they got their water. When it started to get dark, she pretended she was going for water. Uncle Charlie was there and they sneaked away. Her father wrote her later that she didn't have to run away. He was willing for her to go. Back to Bill's yelp. Aunt Emma had got her feet on him. It was pouring down rain and so dark we couldn't see a thing. We came to a toll gate across the road. A man was going to make my uncles pay to drive through. They shot a couple of times in the air, got out and knocked the gate down and drove through. I think they may have been a little tipsy. I don't remember whether we spent the next night at Lebanon, Kentucky, or Indianapolis, Indiana. Uncle Charlie and Aunt Emma were married at which ever place it was. We changed trains at Indianapolis and as we walked on the board sidewalk, I saw a bright shiny object through the cracks under the boards. I remember thinking some day I would go back there and get it.

Dad was in Lincoln, Illinois, to meet us. He drove Uncle Jake's team of horses hitched to a wagon. We drove out to Uncle Jake and Aunt Ann's house. Uncle Jake had long black whiskers. He lifted me out and hugged and kissed me. I held my head away from his as far as I could as he smelled of tobacco. The house Dad had rented was just across a field from Aunt Ann's and we went over there. The weeds were so high and the house was only three rooms. Uncle Charlie and Aunt Emma took the one bedroom. I guess us kids were scattered all over. It was June and warm.

We lived in this house four years. At first Dad chopped timber for our living, then he farmed the place. So many things happened there. Our Aunt Ann and Uncle Jake had took [35]two of our cousins to raise as their parents were dead. They used to spend nearly every Saturday night and Sunday with us. We liked the girl Annie, but we did not care so much for the boy Owen. Aunt Ann was good to us. She used to give us fruit and buttermilk. Uncle Jake was a little on the stingy side, so she would put a big roll of butter in the bucket of buttermilk and never say a word. Us kids would wait until we were out of sight of the house to peek to see if she had put the butter in. In a way we had a hard time, but Mom raised nearly everything we needed to eat. The soil was so rich we had every kind of vegetable, but people did not can or freeze vegetables then except for tomatoes. Mom used to can 50 gallons of tomatoes and make that much kraut from cabbage. She would dry corn and we kept apples and potatoes in the cellar all winter. Bill and Delia usually helped with the farming and I tagged along. One time Dad sent them to plant beans. They planted until they got tired, then dug a hole and poured the rest of the beans in and stomped the ground down hard. In about a week, it came a big rain and Dad went over to the field to see how the beans were coming up. They were up, even the ones they poured in the hole, but he didn't scold them. He couldn't for laughing.

Soon after we had arrived in Illinois, the rest of the family were out in the fields someplace and left Cap and I asleep. When they came in we were on the floor crying. They ask us why we were crying and I said I wanted to see Grandma Goodin. That was not the reason, but it was the first thing I could think of. Uncle Jake used to call me a little Indian. One day Dad was working tearing down an old log barn and Uncle Jake was sitting there watching him. Then he said Joe do you see a little Indian around here. I piped up and said yes and there he is and pointed at Uncle Jake. I never heard my Dad laugh louder than he did then.