We’ll complete our look at growing up in Luraville in the late 1800s and early 1900s today. Please remember that the writings are a product of their times…

“Uncle Wylie ran the ferry across the river to a larger town. Often we would get on the Ferry just to ride across. There would be buggies and horses on the ferry too.

“Sometimes we went to White Springs, Florida. There was a bath house there. We covered ourselves completely (immodest to show your flesh in my day!) and then walked down dark steps to the river to swim. The bath house, built over the water, had no windows. I was scared to death!

“Another thing that scared me to death was the wild tales told about mulattos. So many tales were told to us by the older children. One day a man was on top of our house fixing the chimney. We decided he must be a mulatto (we really didn’t know what a mulatto was) so we ran as fast as we could down the sandy road to tell Papa about him. Another time a man came down the road selling pots and pans. We decided he must be a mulatto and got real scared again!

“Our house was built up off the sand, quite high. We used to crawl under the house and poke the doodle bug hills with a stuck and then run out singing: ‘Doodle Bug, Doodle Bug, fly away home / Your house is on fire and your children are burning up!’ We had a Japanese persimmon tree in our back yard. If we ate them before they were ripe, they would draw up our mouths. We had a century plant. When it rained, teeny frogs under the plant came out to get water. There was a lot of excitement one night when everyone said it would be snowing in the morning. I woke up ready to see snow for the first time. All I found was one flake under the bridle wreath bush!

“Uncle George drank, so we didn’t go there too often; mostly Aunt Fannie came to our house. Aunt Fannie made us rag dolls. We loved the two rag dolls she made us more than anything. We named one Richard and the other one Annie. She made us clothes for the boy as well as for the girl doll. We kept these with us until we were big girls.

“After Church each Sunday, all of us plus Aunt Mattie’s children played Church in the living room. I preached a good sermon about not fighting with each other and how God made snakes and we must not be afraid of them. Actually, I was scared to death of snakes.

“Someone ‘up north’ gave us a beautiful set of doll dishes made out of China with tiny violets printed on them. They were in a wooden box with a special place for each dish. We played house by the hours with this set. This too was kept in our trunk.

“There were no schools in Luraville. We were sent to a one-room school in Sandford, Florida. Of course, we learned to read from the McGuffy’s readers. Miss Jenny Glass was my teacher. My first beau was Leslie Bryant. He took a shine to me. He sat across from me and brought me an apple. He even invited me home, with a note from his mother, to eat lunch with them. He would make eyes at me and I thought it was wonderful. The teacher would get after us when he tried to sit by me. I always sat on the front row and we wrote notes to each other.

“My Father died when I was nine years old. My sister Maude, fourteen years old, and Grace, twelve years old, went to live in a school with Papa’s half-brother Robert and his wife (Aunt Boone) in Lewisburg, W. Va. Uncle Robert was President of the Lewisburg Female Institute there.”

With the death of her father, Caroline’s years living in Luraville ended as she was passed to relatives in various locations.

Different history next week!

Eric Musgrove can be reached at ericm@suwgov.org or 386-362-0564.