Granddad JC and his parents

So what kinds of things did you do with your parents?


I took care of the cows; [Mom] did the milking. I helped her make the beds sometimes. That’s about what she did in the mornings. I really wasn’t home that much. I was out in the fields--we were--after we ate breakfast in the mornings, if we weren’t going to school, we were out in the fields somewhere, chopping cotton or that kind of stuff.


What made you love your mom?


Well, she was my mother. She used to always read the scriptures, every evening. She could prepare any kind of food and make it taste good. She was nice to everybody, and she was just a nice person. She didn’t have--I think she had a 3rd grade education. She went to the 3rd reader; I guess they called it that. My dad went to the 2nd reader. But he was working on the farm all the time.

What kinds of things did your mom do for other people?



She helped Aunt Julia--that was her aunt, my great-aunt. We’d always have dinners and all like that and she would go over there and work with them. That’s all we did, was just family. Course, after I went in the military, she was always sick when I came home. She used to have mini strokes all the time. She’d be sitting at the table, and she’d start moving her hand or something like that. Then she was having a mini stroke; then it would go away. She wouldn’t say anything during that time.


She was strong-willed. Yeah, she was tough. She liked to have things looking nice. I remember we had yellow roses and rows of flowers around the yard. Course you know back then we didn’t have any grass in the yard, you never had a lawn. Your yard was completely sand. Our yard was. A blade of grass grew, you’d chop that up quick!

These roses grow close to where Granddad JC grew up. They could have been planted by Grandma Laura. 

Grandma Laura had roses like this in her yard 

Me: You didn’t want critters!


[laughs] I remember one time I was out there doing something there was a stick laying there and I went up to that stick, and it wasn’t a stick--it was a snake!


But Mom, she really worked hard.


Grandma: Women worked hard. They had to take care of the cow, I remember I would help my mom with the cow, you’d have to take her out to where the grass was good and stake her out.


Granddad: Our cows were really gentle. I just took them out in the morning, out of the cow pen, we’d head out across the field to the pasture. I took them up to the pasture every day and take them back in the evening. I’d go and call, “Hey-oh, hey-oh!” you know, and the cows would come to the gate you know and I’d let them out.
How did your parents discipline you?

They used little switches. I remember one time, it was really--Dad didn’t understand it. I was riding a bicycle, and the road coming up to our house was two ruts. I was coming down in a rut, and Doug was walking in the rut, and Dad was on the other side coming up. Doug did like this, and I pulled to the right, between the two ruts, and he jumped to his left and I ran right over him. And my dad tore me up! *whew!* He reached around and he pulled up a big weed--I mean it was a long one, with leaves on it, and where the leaves were were little knots. He wore me out with that. Man. I broke loose running, and I didn’t think he could run so fast. I started running and slowed down but heard him behind me and said, “whoa! I gotta start running down faster now!” I ran down here to where the Cleve’s house is here. It was dug out. It was a big open pit. The county came and got some clay that they used on the road somewhere and I just jumped off of that, down there and up the other side. I turned around and he didn’t go down there. I mean, that was uncalled for, but it wasn’t my fault, because he jumped right in front of the bicycle, I was moving to bypass him and I ran right into him. I didn’t want to do that. It’s tough.

Grandma Laura's Chicken and Dumplings

I'm all about easy, and I'm all about chicken and dumplings. The hardest thing about this dish is waiting long enough for the dumplings to cook before eating it! (and then probably wiping all the flour off the counter after you're done making the dumplings).

Granddad JC and Grandma Izzy have both said that not only did they eat chicken and dumplings often as they were growing up, but it was a staple at their family 4th of July celebrations when they were kids.

I learned to make chicken and dumplings from Mom (and she learned it from Grandma, and Grandma got it from Uncle Doug Connell, who got the recipe from his mother, Great-Grandma Laura! *source: Mom). I have modified the recipe to fit my own cooking techniques. If you want to see how I make it, go here. Below is the historical recipe as I know it:


Cook one whole chicken in enough water to cover the chicken. Add salt, pepper, garlic, and vegetables to taste (I don't know how Grandma Laura made it. I don't ever remember there being vegetables such as celery or carrots in the dumplings that Mom made).

Meanwhile, combine the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl*:

4 C all-purpose flour
1 T sugar
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
2/3 C salad oil
1 C water

At the end, I generally have to finish blending the ingredients with my hands.

Flour a clean counter top, and roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut dough into 3/4 inch wide strips at whatever length you like your dumplings to be. I like mine about 4 - 5 inches long. I've found that pizza cutters are the quickest and easiest way to cut my dough.

When the chicken has finished cooking, take it out of the pot to cool. Bring the broth to a rolling boil. Add strips of dough to boiling water, stirring periodically. At this point, the food is prone to boiling over, so keep a close eye on the pot. I usually turn the heat down gradually as I add the dumplings to avoid that problem.

Keep the dumplings at a simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so the dumplings don't stick to the bottom of the pot.

Meanwhile, de-bone the chicken and cut it into bite-size pieces and combine with dumplings in the pot. Add additional salt, pepper, and garlic to taste if desired. I like about 1/2 t of pepper and 1/4 t of garlic powder. Salt is just one of those things you have to taste for.

At this point, you just have to wait for the dumplings to cook. You can add flour to the broth if you want a thicker soup. The dumplings are done when they are soft and bend somewhat easily. I like to let them cook for at least 30 minutes, but I like them better when they've cooked longer than that, probably 45 minutes to an hour. This is a great dish to make ahead of time because it tastes better the longer the flavors have to combine.

Enjoy!

* if you want to make this dish even easier, you can buy frozen dumplings from some grocery stores, especially in the South. Don't use the refrigerated biscuit dough, though. It has sugar in it and tastes weird in this dish.

**if anyone reading this blog remembers better than I do what the dumplings were like or remembers any other details about them, please comment below!

EDIT:

Mom sent me an e-mail to let me know that she actually had changed her recipe and the above recipe is not Grandma Laura's recipe. Here's an excerpt from what she sent me:

If you use vegetables in the broth, take them out when you remove the chicken.

G'ma Izzy always used self-rising flour. She also used shortening and milk... sometimes buttermilk.

I changed the recipe for those who had milk allergies. I also doubled the recipe and used two chickens-- 12 hungry people meant no leftovers even then.

Eventually I started using this recipe:

2 C all purpose flour
1/2 t salt
water (Milk or buttermilk)

sift first two ingredients together. Add about 1/2 C water and stir. Form a ball and roll out on a floured, flat surface. Use a pizza wheel to cut noodles.

I add chicken bouillon to enhance the flavor. Or instead of water, I use chicken stock.

Southern 4th of July traditions

This past weekend, I had the privilege of spending some time celebrating the most recent holiday with family in South Carolina. My maternal grandparents came to the cookout that we had to celebrate the Fourth. While visiting with them, my mom asked what a Fourth of July celebration was like when they were young. My grandfather explained his experience, starting by saying that the time around the Fourth of July was a pretty relaxed time on the farm, since the rush and busyness of Spring planting had been completed but the work of harvest had not yet started.

Next he talked about the food at the family's celebration, starting with the kids' job of churning home made ice cream.

"We'd get a piece of ice from the ice house down town and pack it in around the churn. It was the kids' job to churn it. We put some of the sacks for packing cotton in on top of the ice and churn to keep it insulated. One of my most common jobs was to sit on top of it while another kid turned the crank to churn the ice cream."

He also listed some of the things they'd eat to celebrate the Fouth--none of it involving hot dogs or hamburgers, pasta salad or potato chips.

Chicken and dumplings
Fried chicken
Corn on the cob
Fresh vegetables from the garden such as beans, okra, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes
Watermelon
Pecan pie

Granddad said that there was always a lot of food and he always had a really good time. Grandma added in that her mom always made a coconut cake to go along with the celebrations she experienced growing up. Granddad also got a really big smile on his face when he remembered the pecan pie--it was probably a real treat! Also, I wouldn't be surprised if there was more variety served at their celebration that either I don't remember Granddad mentioning or that he didn't think to list. I'd think corn bread would be a given.

Wouldn't it be fun to try a Fourth of July celebration like this?

Hog killing time

Hog killing time came to Camden when the cold settled in. Granddad J.C. loved it because they'd have fresh pork, ham, side meat, and sausage. They used everything they could; even the fat was 'rendered' to get out bits of lean meat in the middle of the fat for eating and to prepare the fat for other use. Granddad said they'd render the fat by putting it in a big black washpot with a fire underneath it. It would melt and be like grease, and they'd get cracklins out of it, which they mostly put in corn bread. The cracklins were the bits of lean meat they got out of the fat. They also ate fatback from slaughtering the hogs, and Grandma Laura would slice it up in thin pieces, fry it, then they'd eat it with veggies and seasonings. Granddad J.C. loved eating fatback with the skin still attached because it was nice and crunchy. Fatback is different from bacon, which was made out of the lean side of the pork. Granddad said that the pig might have 2-3 inches of fat on the outside of the body, and that it protected them from snakes. I had no idea that pigs were so fatty!

Laura Marcus's death certificate

Unfortunately, there was no image related to the document I found, but I found an indexed version of Laura's death certificate! There really isn't much information in the indexed version, but at least it's there.

The information in the record are Laura's date of death, her husband's and her parents' names -- Broadus Connell, Henry Marcus and Mattie Young.

Laura Elizabeth Marcus

Laura Elizabeth Marcus, Granddad J.C.'s mother.

I found this picture among Aunt Lois's Facebook albums. She got the pictures in the album from Uncle Bob.

Birth: August 3, 1894 in Rock Hill, SC
Marriage: April 11, 1914 to Broadus Robert Connell. They had 9 children, and here they are in age order, oldest to youngest:

Roddy Broadus, Norman Gonzales, Ivey Kibben, June Lucile, Stephen William, Dorthy E (I'm guessing the E is probably Elizabeth for her mother?), Julius Clyburn (J.C.), Douglas Marcus, and Betty Joyce. Granddad J.C. is the only one of his siblings still living.

Death: October 24, 1953 in Camden, SC

Here's what I found for her on census records:

1900 Census:

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 So this census record is a little confusing. It shows Henry W and Mattie Marcus as husband and wife, but it shows three Marcus children (Ivy, Lela, and Laura) as children of Harry Mattox. I am guessing that they are really children of Henry and Mattie Marcus and the census taker and those giving him information bungled the record. It will take additional research to find out. Aunt Lois has informed me that Laura's half brother is Ivey, so things fit together. This census shows that both of Mattie's and both of Henry's parents were born in South Carolina. It also shows that Henry worked as a blacksmith at at least one point in his life. They rented their house.

One neat thing about this census that I haven't seen in others is that it lists the birth month and year as well as the age of the person on the census.

1920 Census:

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Here's Laura a few years after her marriage to Broadus Connell. You can see that her name was spelled "Lora" on this census, just as Granddad would spell his first daughter's name when naming her after his mother. Laura was working as a house wife and Broadus worked on his farm. Their three oldest children had been born. At this point, they were renting.

Something really neat from this census, when you see the whole page this was taken from, is that there are four families of Connells on this sheet (Frank, Mary, Robert, Broadus) and a family of Sinclairs (we're related to them on the Connell side). There's a note along the side of the census that says, "These are all houses off from any road except country roads." I'm guessing that everyone in these houses worked on the same general farm. There are also a few African American families on the same census page, probably indicating that they were sharecroppers on the farm. Their last names are Taylor and Joye (or Jaye, I'm not sure). Granddad has told me that he remembers playing with a little boy whose parents were sharecroppers on his familly's farm.

1930 Census:

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Here you can see that the family has grown from 5 to 8. What isn't shown by these censuses is the birth and death of Dorthy, who was born prematurely in November of 1927 and only lived for 21 days.

On a more positive note, we see here that the family is no longer renting, but own their own home and live on a farm. Broadus was working as a laborer on a county bridge, probably to bring in some extra money for his family.

1940 Census:

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This census shows all of the family members, including Bettie Joyce, the baby of the family. We see that although the highest grade of school completed for both Laura and Broadus is only the fourth grade, but their oldest son has already completed two years of college. Granddad J.C. told me that when it was time for him to go to college, his parents had to sell a valuable horse in order to pay for it. Obviously they understood the importance of education, even then.

Another thing we see is that Broadus worked on the farm for his main occupation and Laura still stayed at home. All of their children old enough to go to school were attending a school of some kind.


Laura passed away before my mom was born, so there aren't many people currently living that knew her. I'm guessing that this picture was taken shortly before her passing, since the car in the background looks like the style that was common in the 40's and 50's. I sure am thankful for all the hard work she must have put into her family.

The Old Magnolia Tree

In the woods not far from the home I grew up in stands a tall and majestic magnolia tree. The old tree is so big that it takes two or three children holding hands to go all the way around it. If you look around the tree, you will see an old rotting log to one side, and then realize that it was an enormous branch that broke off the tree years ago. There are grape vines as big around as your arm hanging off of the tree. A few feet away from the base of the tree is a small clearing about 20 feet square. As you look at the clearing, you can see a some bricks and mortar--evidence that a house stood in the clearing years ago.

The house that used to stand in the clearing belonged to my great-grandparents, Broadus Robert Connell and Laura Elizabeth Marcus. Granddad J.C. grew up there. I don't know what happened to the house, but the magnolia tree was a popular destination for my older sisters and me. My sisters would climb up the grape vines to get to the first branch, which was about 10 feet above the ground. I was brave enough to do it once or twice, but I never got past the first branch or two. My sisters were able to climb high enough to see Hermitage Mill Pond quite some distance away. I wonder if Granddad climbed on that tree, too?

From what Mom tells me, the beautiful old fashioned roses that bloomed in front of our house every spring were grown from cuttings that Grandma Laura had in her garden at that house. None grow in the clearing anymore, but I have seen the same variety of rose growing along the roadside in several places in about a 1-mile radius from that house. Granddad J.C.'s family owned a lot of that land, and I wonder if Grandma Laura planted them to beautify the farmland.

Granddad J.C. told me once that there were cornfields that belonged to his family for miles around. Since then, the land has been parceled off to various family members and others through wills and sales. I remember visiting my granddad's cousin James--or "Juicy" as he was nicknamed--at least a mile further down McRae Rd. from Granddad J.C.'s house.





EDIT: Granddad J.C. says the roses at the corner where Canada Drive and Rowe Street meet were actually planted by his grandfather Robert Jackson Connell, so I'm guessing that a lot of the other roses were planted by him as well. I think it's sweet that even in a life filled with so much work and practicality, he found beauty important enough to find time to plant these roses. As soon as I have a place to plant them, I'm going to take a cutting and have some of these roses at my house.