Ok, so we’re just three days after Christmas, and with three days remaining before we embark upon a new year, I am reminded of the time not that long ago when the first-born child of the New Year at what was then Logan General Hospital received a multitude of gifts from local businesses, as well as a photo and front page write-up in The Logan Banner. In fact, there was an entire page featuring the gifts and the businesses that donated them.
I’m not sure when that tradition started in this newspaper, or when it ended, but I have found stories all the way back into the 1930s in which the first born child in Logan was honored with gifts for both the mother and child. The gifts were quite nice — from baby beds to strollers to cases of evaporated milk.
My grandmother raised nine children, and my mother managed to take care of seven of us “kids” until we all finally “flew the coop,” so to speak. Looking back on things, nearly everybody had a rather large family when I was growing up, and today I am amazed at just how a mother could handle a “bunch” of kids, especially in a coal camp house.
Feeding and clothing children was a full-time job for a mother who likely didn’t have disposable diapers, at least not before about 1950. Even then, most mothers in southern West Virginia continued to use cloth diapers throughout the 1960s, likely because — what were they supposed to do with the used plastic ones, since there was no garbage service in the area — start their own landfill? At least the cloth diapers could be washed using bleach and reused.
Most people I knew when I was growing up had clothes lines in their yards. Washed clothes were hung on the line with wooden clothes pins holding the clothing to the plastic line in order to air-dry the clothing. I remember seeing many cloth diapers hanging from clothes lines throughout the coal camp in which I was raised. A wooden pole or board was used to prop the line up and keep it from falling onto the ground.
What some people may not know is that mothers with multiple children would use a large pan to boil the soiled diapers in before hanging them out to dry. Some built a fire underneath wash tubs outside for the boiling process, while others used large kettles on stoves inside the homes.
In ancient European days, children did not receive a fresh diaper for around four days, with squares of cloth used as diapers tied around a baby’s stomach. It seems that every group of people had their own types of diapers.
American Indians used the soft insides of milkweed pods — milkweed being a wild edible plant that grows here in Appalachia — to pack around their babies before strapping them onto a “papoose board.” Eskimo mothers of Alaska gathered moss during the short summer months and packed it inside of animal skins in which they carried their babies.
During World War II, when many mothers were busy working at defense plants manufacturing airplanes, tanks, and submarines, instead of being home washing dirty diapers, actual diaper services became popular. Cotton diapers would be delivered to homes and it is said that families would gather around the radio in the evenings to listen to such things as the Grand ‘Ole Opry and to fold diapers.
Families that were not able to afford an adequate supply of clean diapers often were forced to leave their babies in a single diaper all day, the result often being diaper rash, stress on the parents and excessive crying, which statistically led to be the number one cause of child abuse.
As for myself, I have never claimed to be a wonderful parent, but I can certainly appreciate those mothers and fathers who managed to properly take care of their children, which is why I offer the following story about a Logan County woman who, quite frankly, must have been an amazing woman for not only did she produce the first baby of the New Year in 1944 in the midst of World War II, but at the still tender age of 38, her eight-pound baby girl named Ruth, was the 16th child of Mrs. Nathan Curry of Barnabus, which is near Omar.
Undoubtedly, with 16 offspring born to the Curry family, it is likely that many of the Curry descendants can still be found in Logan County and probably Mingo County. Perhaps, we might later hear from some of them. For now, though, here’s the story as reported some 78 years ago:
Not only was Mrs. Curry honored for giving birth to the county’s first child born in the new year of 1944, but the infant’s birth was given even more significance because she became the 16th child in the family, all of whom were living.
Married twice, her first husband being deceased, The Banner reported that Mrs. Curry had three sons serving in the U.S. Army and that she was a grandmother four times over. Five of the children, including the three soldiers, were born during her first marriage, and the other 11 since she married Mr. Curry, a 51-year-old employee of West Virginia Coal and Coke Corporation.
The Banner reported that all of her last children had been delivered at home under the supervision of Mrs. Dora Harmon of Barnabus without the aid of a doctor.
Described as a child bride, Mrs. Curry’s first baby was born July 10, 1919 when she was 14 years of age. The child, Mrs. Frances Neece of Braeholm, was the mother of two children in 1944, according to the newspaper account. Orville Perry, at the time serving in the army, was the second eldest of her children, born May 5, 1921, and is the father of one of Mrs. Curry’s grandchildren, Mrs. Gladys Chafin of Pigeon Creek in Mingo County, born Oct. 10, 1922. Mrs. Chafin had a child in 1944.
The fourth child of her first marriage, Ernest Perry, was born March 8, 1924, and the fifth, Ira Lee Perry, on March 22, 1925. Orville, Ernest, and Ira Lee Perry are the three sons listed as being in the military during the war.
The first child born during her second marriage was Harley Curry, whose birth date is June 29, 1926. Other children by the same marriage were listed as Pressie Lavada, Feb. 1, 1928; Susan Maxine, Sept, 20, 1929; Nancy Elma, Jan. 28, 1931; Freeland Elmer, May 7, 1932; Raymond Willard, Feb. 18, 1934; Dennie Bradford, June 1, 1935; Marie, Dec. 11, 1937; Edith, Aug. 19, 1939; Betty Gale, April 19, 1941; and Ruth, who was the newborn child on Jan. 1st.
It is possible Mrs. Curry could even later have had more children, but the answer to that may have to come perhaps from one of the many descendants, some of whom we hope will take notice of this writing.
In the meantime, to all of you single-digit mothers out there, may I suggest that you thank the Lord for your babies and, of course, for Pampers, which — by the way — is now causing major landfill problems since the diapers do not disappear for at least 500 years.
Maybe it’s time to invest in a clothes line.
Now, let’s move on to another subject:
I can’t speak for anyone else in my family, but I happen to like black-eyed peas. Allow me to clarify this just a bit. I’m not much of a hip-hop music fan, but the Black Eyed Peas, for the most part, are acceptable in my music world. However, I’m not talking about the musical group. I’m speaking of the food that most southerners in our country like to eat on New Year’s Day.
Realizing that West Virginia is located too north for us to be southerners and too south for us to be considered as northerners, I know of no one locally who prepares black-eyed peas, which are actually beans, not peas, on New Year’s Day. Although it has been a while, I have prepared black-eyed peas, along with ham hocks that give them their best taste. However, when it comes to New Year’s Day, it’s cabbage rolls for me and most people I know.
I remember eating cabbage rolls at my grandmother’s house and everyone trying to find the nickel she always placed into a cabbage roll. It was supposed to bring you good luck in the upcoming year if you were the one who found the nickel. Personally, I always worried about losing a tooth and never did locate a nickel in the food.
Down south, though, eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day also is supposed to bring you good luck for the upcoming year.
One legend has it that when General Sherman and his union soldiers raided the South during the Civil War, pilfering and destroying everything in their path, the only food staple that was left unharmed was the fields of black-eyed peas because they were thought to be fit only for animals to eat. It is said that the Confederates were “lucky” to have the peas to get them through the winter. Thus, the Southern tradition.
Now, whether you enjoy black-eyed peas or cabbage rolls on New Year’s Day, it is sufficient to know that no matter which food staple you prefer there is one key word that applies to each — flatulence.
Happy New Year!!
Dwight Williamson serves as magistrate in Logan County. He writes a weekly column for HD Media.
