Life In The Country: The Awesome Days Of Farm Life and Some Family History

By Suzanne Gaub

Over many years Suzanne journaled notes of her memories. A few years ago, she found three different journals with similar stories. Last year Suzanne was encouraged by Karen Harper to write a book. While writing about her life on the farm, she recalled many other family stories, told to her by her dad and other family members. Suzanne's goal was to write down family information and pass it on to her immediate family; second cousins and nieces and nephews. Her book begins with her family life on the farm and continues to include her great grandfather's journey to America during the Blizzard of 1888.

Suzanne Gaub

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887315553

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Life in the Country and the Awesome Days of Farm Life as I Recall

Some Family History

Special Moments with Dad on the Farm

Adventures of Suzanne

Winter on the Farm

Browntown School

Big Change for the Country Area Known as Farmland of Browntown

Grandpop George Gaub's Farm

Gaub Grandparents' Christmas Eve

The Accident on December 4, 1949

Robert's Recovery

Robert's Coming Home

Pre-Robert's Wedding

Old Tennent Church Cemetery, Gaub Family Reunion

Conrad Gaub

The Historic Blizzard of 1888

The Gregory Side of My Family: My Cousin—No, She Is My Sister

The Blessings of Forgiveness

About the Author

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Life In The Country

The Awesome Days Of Farm Life and Some Family History

Suzanne Gaub

Copyright © 2023 Suzanne Gaub

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2023

ISBN 979-8-88731-554-6 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88731-555-3 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

I want to thank Carol Seidel, who sent daily text notes of encouragement to keep going and whose prayers kept me focused to finish this book. Carol Seidel and David Kouri helped with my first editing. Pastor Brian Coffey gave me many encouraging words and prayers. They did not give up hope; therefore, I had to press on. God bless everyone who cared.

Life in the Country and the Awesome Days of Farm Life as I Recall

I do not remember this part. It was a beautiful autumn day on our farm in 1943. President Roosevelt had been on the radio with an update on World War II. Uncles and cousins were so far away serving our country in the marines and the army. Harvest time was in full swing in our small farm area of Browntown in Madison Township, New Jersey. While waiting for me to be born, Dad probably stared out the window of South Amboy Hospital. He could see, across the Raritan Bay to Staten Island, New York. In the middle of his busy harvest time, a little girl was born. My name is Suzanne! I was the youngest of four children.

We must have had a pretty full house: my mother and father, brothers Robert (eleven) and Howard (ten), Carolyn (sixteen months old), and me. We always had animals: dogs and cats, chickens, pigs, and a cow named Bessie. Harvest time is a busy time in any farm. My brothers and Dad were probably busy harvesting the horse corn (field corn) and wheat.

Suzanne at three months old

When I was ten months old, in August 1944, my mother went upstairs and forgot I was in the kitchen in the high chair. As mother was almost at the top of the stairs, she remembered. She ran down the stairs, but as she entered the kitchen she watched in horror as I fell out of the high chair and hit the base of my head on the bottom rung. I was unconscious and taken to St. Peter's Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Probably, Mary Burnett drove while Mother held me in her arms. We may have had one ambulance in Laurence Harbor, New Jersey, but I doubt it; the ambulance would have been too far away to call for help. There were no EMTs as we have today. I was in a coma for three days. I probably had a headache when I woke up. The nurses carried me around on a pillow. I guess ICU wasn't established yet either. My mother told this story to me several years later.

Suzanne, 1 1/2 years old, on a kitchen chair

Palm Sunday, March 25, 1945

Palm Sunday, March 25th, 1945

Aunt May Smith holding Suzanne

Some Family History

My mother's first husband, Bob Higgins, was killed in June 1936. He was twenty-seven. Bob fell off the back of a truck loaded with telephone poles. They were dropping the telephone poles along the side of Route 516. The truck jolted, and Bob fell under the dual wheels. This left my mother a widow with her two boys; Robert, age four, and Howard, age two. Bob was the oldest of ten children. The Higgins family rallied around my mother, but without her husband's income, she was forced to leave their home. It was customary for family and friends to take care of each other. Mother and my brothers moved in with mother's best friend, Mary Burnett. Mary and Earl had three-year-old twin boys, Basil and Warren. So Robert and Howard lived on the Burnett farm; the four boys became like brothers, always together.

My mother was one of six, and dad had one brother. Dad's brother's farm joined our farm through a wooded area. Through the meadow and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we'd go. No, it was Uncle Herby's farm we'd go!

Uncle Herby lived on the Gaub family's homestead in the house where dad and Uncle Herby were born. Uncle Herby's wife, Aunt Anna, and their four children lived there.

My dad was divorced leaving his son and daughter with his ex-wife. When I was much older I realized that Dad's son and daughter were also my half-siblings. Even though they were adopted by their stepfather and given his last names, they were still my dad's biological children. They became a non-topic in our home because of the bitter divorce. "Don't talk about