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The John Derrickson Family. Written by Bonnie Hamilton Morris in 1959 |
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The John Derrickson Family
Written by Bonnie Hamilton Morris 1959
John Derrickson was of Swedish descent. He married Mary Packer, who was of Dutch descent.
They lived in Greenwich township, Gloucester County, NJ. He fought in the War of 1812
and after the war they moved to near Dayton, OH, where Thomas Packer Derrickson was born,
on October 15, 1821. Later the family moved to Shelby Co., IN.
My grandfather Derrickson came to WI, town of Ithaca, Richland Co., with his wife Rachel
Leah Chew, from Shelbyville, IN in October, 1848. Grandfather had fought in the Mexican
War and I suppose all veterans of that war had a chance to take up land in new and unsettled
states. They had three children with them, a son named Christopher Columbus, and a
daughter, Hester, and a son James, who died in infancy. The daughter, Hester died soon
after their arrival in WI and was buried on a plot of ground on grandfather's land.
Grandfather later donated a tract of land for a cemetery and for seventy years it was
known as the Derrickson Cemetery.
My grandmother made the long trip from Shelbyville, IN on horseback, while grandfather
drove the team with a wagon which held their household necessities. The location of the
new home was carefully chosen - it is on top of a hill that slopes gently to the highway
on the west and a beautiful grove on the north.
The first house was two stories, one of the two rooms, one above and one below. The lower
room had a huge fireplace at the south end, with a window on each side of it and on the west
were two windows and two doors, opening on a porch. Also there were the same number of
windows upstairs and a door that opened onto a porch with railing around it. A few years
later, a big house was built on to this part, joining it on the north. In the end of
the room opposite the fireplace in the old part of the house, was a bedroom, "straight
ahead of the door was the stairway, as solid today as it was when it was built 85 years ago.
At the left of the hall the door opened into the bright sunny parlor, with a front
door on the west and two windows on the south, two on the west and two on the north.
A few years later a kitchen was added to the first part of the house on the east. There
were four large bedrooms upstairs. When we were children we were thrilled to be allowed
to go up the "old stairs: the "new stairs", and the "garret stairs".
At the foot of the hill on the south the hop house and barn were built; the barn was
blown down about 25 years ago, but the hop house still stands.
My parents lived with my grandparents when I was born in the big house on Sunday, March
26, 1882. A year later my parents bought a farm west of there and our family lived there
until I was 16 years old when my grandfather decided the home place was to be deeded to
my mother and we moved back to grandfather's house and he lived with us. I was married
there in June, 1903.
My brother Eugene owns the farm now and lives there. A few years ago he tore away the first
part of the house and moved or turned the big part round so it is in place of the old
part; it has never seemed the same place to me since. A new barn stands east of the house.
Another landmark is the old chicken house. Before my grandfather bought it for a chicken
house it was a "little red schoolhouse" in "Hell Hallow", the neighborhood directly east
of our home.
My uncle Milton was its first school teacher; later the district was added to ours, and
the schoolhouse was out chicken house until several years before I left home.
My grandfather cut all the timber for the new part of the house and nails being scarce
it was fastened together with 1-1/4 inch wooden pins. The hardwood floors have never
had to be replaced and is in good condition yet.
This home place consisted of about 60 acres east of the road, but grandfather owned all
the land west of the road to Willow Creek and to the next corner beyond, on the west
Amd south beyond the cemetery.
Grandfather raised beautiful horses which always brought top prices. People came 30 miles
to buy corn. he was considered a wealthy man in his time. In the early days, hops were the
big crop raised, and in September crowds would come to pick hops. The pay was 25 cents
per box; a good fast picker could pick two boxes per day. A box held seven bushels and
they settle fast. There were four boxes in a group and "pole pullers" kept the women
and girls supplied with hops. One family still raised hops when I was a child and I went
hop picking. I don't suppose the poles were over ten feet high, but the field looked
like a giant forest to me, I was so small. the vines were cut, the poles pulled and leaned
across the four boxes, where four women and girls worked. When my mother was a girl, they
always had a dance when the hop picking was finished. My uncle "Lum" had an orchestra,
which played for most of the dances for 40 years or more. I don't know who played with him
in the early days, I imagine his sister played the organ and that was all the music they
needed, but later his son, Fount, and daughter, Dora, played. Fount played a trombone
and Dora the organ. When my mother was about 15 years old grandfather drove to Madison
and brought home an organ for which he paid $250.00, which was a lot of money in those
days.
When the country was new grandfather used to drive the team of horses to Milwaukee
and bring back goods for the store at Sextonville. This work was usually done during
the winter and between planting and harvest. Venison and other game was plentiful
in the winter of 1848 and 1849, and there was plenty of wild honey.
Many Indians lived near, but we never heard of them being troublesome. Have heard my
grandmother tell how and Indian used to come into the house and sit and sharpen his
knives. She soon got used to him and didn't let him know that she was scared half
out of her wits.
Besides the children already mentioned, Lum, Milton, and the two infants who died,
There were four daughters, Harriet (Derrickson) who married a Dow, Kate (Derrickson)
who married a Harring, Elizabeth Lorraine (Derrickson) who married Jay Hamilton,
Rachel Emma who married D. Ostrander, and another child who died in infancy - the
youngest child. Milton died as a young man, of tuberculosis and his funeral was held
at the home and pallbearers, family and friends wailed at the cemetery.
Grandfather's family was well cared for and even had a few luxuries. They had music
lessons, nice clothes and trips by train back to Shelbyville, IN and to Dane County,
a farm near Paoli, where grandfather's brother Jim lived. James Derrickson came
to WI in 1848 and settled in Dane County. He married my grandmother's half sister,
Sally. They had raised a family of several boys and a girl, Mary. All died young
and unmarried and the farm and money given to charity.
My grandparents were Baptists, but half the time there was no church of that denomination,
so I suppose they donated when they were asked to - I think that the church at Ithaca
was a Union church, used by Baptists one Sunday and the Congregational Church people
used it the next Sunday.
I remember my grandmother's beautiful flowers and house plants. She even had a Calla Lily
which was rare over 50 years ago. They also had a grand carriage which was the envy of the
neighborhood. I remember once when grandfather gave each of his children $400.00 in
gold. I had a $20.00 gold piece for several years and bought a watch with it after I
was married. Grandfather had no faith in banks, carried thousands of dollars in his
vest pocket. The gold he divided had been hidden under a doorstep.
Grandfather was very generous at times and if you were in his favor; at times he was sharp
tongued and he and my father never agreed. My father could never do anything to suit him.
My Aunt Harriett Dowe had two children, Georgie (Mrs. C.F. Bowen, of Richland Center) and
Leon, who died several years ago. Aunt Kate Herring had two daughters, Ismay, who died
when she was 16, and Nelly, last heard from in OH, and George, who lived in Wood County,
near Wisconsin Rapids. The family moved to Wood County when the children were small
and never came back to visit any of us. Aunt Kate died of tuberculosis.
Aunt Emma Ostrander had a boy name Carl: they moved to Oregon 40 years ago and no one has
heard from them since. All of the family were musical and had beautiful voices.
"Lum" was the black sheep of the family; he loved to stir up trouble. He would hitch a
bob-tailed horse to a two wheeled cart and go from one sister to another and carry tales
and say what one had said about the other which was usually fiction. At any rate he
always kept each one angry at the others by twisting little things around until they
sounded different. When I graduated from High School he tore up the earth, because
I had a nice dress - said it cost $100.00 (which it didn't) in fact, he was so mad
because I graduated that he and orchestra wouldn't play for the graduation exercises.
They had furnished the music there for graduation for years.
Once my brother Gene heard him blowing off about the family and just knocked him for
a loop, and cheerfully paid a ten dollar fine.
"Lum's" wife was Etta Parker, a very vulgar person, who thought she was spiritualist.
She was always rapping on tables and going into trances and seeing ghosts. Their
children were Dora, Fount, Arlie, and Linnie, Tommy, Lona, and Trixy. Fount was a
fine person, my best cousin, though years older than I. Etta always said she wanted
Tom to marry me, he was two years older. Arlie had three husbands; she has been
dead for years. Tom is also dead. I don't know about the others except that Dora
and Fount lived at Avoca, WI. Fount, Dora, Arlie, Lona, and Tom were wonderful musicians
- could play any instrument.
My mother always spoke of Uncle Milton as her "good brother", of course she was comparing
him with "Lum". I used to wonder what he meant when he would come and tell my folks
that Hat or Em were "pulling the wool over grandmother's eyes". Grandmother had cataracts
on her eyes and couldn't see much, had to keep a maid for years - I just couldn't
see why anyone would want to "pull wool over her eyes" when she could see so little.
She had been a great reader and she pieced beautiful quilts; she started piecing a
"charm" quilt when I was six years old. She pieced a quilt for each of us older children.
I used to lean over the beds and admire the work, especially the quilting. I think I
inherit my love for quilt making from her. When my older sister was 14 she worked for our
grandparents at $1.50 a week. It was quite hard to get help then because it was lonesome
there. Maude worked off and on there until the year before her death which was spent
at school in Evansville, WI. She also died of tuberculosis.
When one of my brothers was born, father came for us; I was 5, Gene 3, and Maude 9.
Grandfather came for us - it was in the dead of winter - he had a sled with straw
in the box and he covered us with a buffalo robe. I'll never forget the ride. Sleigh
bells on the horses and we were snug and warm and the house was warm when we arrived.
I do not remember how long we stayed and don't remember the trip home and do not remember
of eating, but I do recall the long days spent sitting in front of the fireplace. We were
not allowed to run around or shout or even talk. We did play with some fancy stones that
grandmother had collected.
Gene and I felt that we weren't quite equal to grandfather's prestige because he had a
buffalo robe and we only had a wolf hide, so I consoled him by telling him we would
call ours a "wolfalo" robe and no one would know the difference. Grandmother was very
stern and I never remember a smile, while grandfather was jolly and he would read to us.
My father and mother and mother's sister were married the same day, a double wedding,
on October 21, 1873; Kate married Jake Harring. My parents rented one of grandfather's
farms; just west of the old home there was a small house, called the Doolittle house -
my oldest brother Percy was born there. I don't know how long they lived there,
but another child was born there, a girl, who died of croup and then they moved to
Richland Center where Maude was born, May 6, 1878. I think it was at this time that
my grandfather insisted that the folks go on a farm. He would help with the down
payment, so back they went, and later another child was born and died of croup. The
house was a log one - they must have li9ved there until shortly before I arrived, when
they moved in with my mother's folks. They must have gone back to the farm and log
house soon after I was born because I remember my mother telling how they stayed up
nights to keep a fire as they didn't want me to get croup; they didn't know how to treat
croup in those days and many babies and children died from it. Before my brother
Gene was born they built a frame house at the west end of the farm. I still recall the
old log house. We used to go down in the spring to look into the house and pick the
lilacs that grew outside.
In summer there were apples and plums, as long as we lived there. My father was a printer
by trade and a newspaper man and reporter. He was clerk of the school board for years.
He wrote all marriage notices and obituaries, or anything else that was of interest
in the community, not to mention many political articles. I always thought it a shame
that a man of his abilities was put on a farm. He was a wonderful worker for someone
else, always stacked everyone's grain and built their straw stacks when they threshed,
was a whiz at shucking grain to, but he just couldn't make money on a farm. He was
perpetually giving grain, corn, potatoes, and other vegetables to anyone who came along;
in the newspaper office in Richland Center when I was very small; that would be about
60 years ago. Of course that was in the winter time. Few people had much stock to
care for in the winter time then. He would go on Monday morning and come home Saturday
night. Sometimes he would go on Sunday night - would ride Old Ben part way, turn him
loose and Ben would come home. Snow used to be so deep then that my brother Percy
had to walk on the top rails of the fence to get to school.
When my Father was past 40, he joined the Ithaca band and played the drums as long as
the band lasted. They played for dances and July 4th celebrations.
Band practice was held at Ithaca on Saturday nights and on those nights mother used to
tell us stories - she was the best and most wonderful story teller! She could hold
us spellbound for hours. She never forgot anything and read and had a keen legal mind.
Early one Monday morning Lum arrived at our house, with a wicked gleam in his eyes and
a plug of tobacco in his mouth and asked if we had "heard the news". It seems that
his daughter was to be baptized the day before. The minister had arrived Saturday night
and all was ready except Ett wanted the lead off Lum's fish lines to sew in the hem of
Dora's dress so it wouldn't fly up when she was dunked in Willow Creek. Early Sunday
morning Ett asked for the lead and Lum, being contrary by nature, said she couldn't have
them. This started a heated row. She said she would have the lead and intended to
cut it from the lines, so Lum took her bird cages and put them out on the road, thinking
they would be run over. Finally, the preacher, Reverend Brown, told them that if it
was going to cause so much war about it there would be no baptizing. So Ett gave back
the fish lines and Lum fetched the bird cages into the house.
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