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SuBAMUH Stories
by Mary M. Morgan, age 80
Co-Founder, Susan B. Anthony Memorial UnRest Home Womyn’s Land Trust
It was a perfect summer day for a 1979 High School
Class Reunion at Amesville, Ohio. But Mary,
developing a flower bed in the front yard of SuBAMUH,
didn’t know the reunion had taken place until a very
large, expensive car drove up slowly and then,
surprisingly, turned into the farmhouse driveway.
Expecting to give directions to two lost travelers she
approached the car. *Are you Mary?* asked the
immaculately groomed, dressed to the pearls,
gray-haired driver. She nodded, yes. *We asked at
the reunion who lived here now and people told us that
Mary would probably let us visit. We are the Howard
Sisters.*
Jan and I had heard of the Howard family (our
road is named Howard Rd. for the Howard family) at our
Discovery Day which we held within days of buying this
abandoned farm from the Farmers Home Administration.
We had invited, by a flyer, all the nearby residents
of Howard, Bryson and Hooper Ridge Road to a
soup-kettle-in-the front yard gathering hoping, with
trepidation, to get off to a good start with our new
neighbors. We invited them to share with us all they
knew about the area, the farm*s history and local
lore. We also wanted them to see and talk to us face
to face to scotch rumors and speculations. I believed
strongly that if we could show our genuine respect for
the *native* folks that they would, in return, if not
accept us at least respect us. (Of course we
intended to let them know of the *farm genes* we had
both inherited).
So I was able to welcome them and let them know
we had already heard some of the Howard family history
and would be eager to learn more. They toured the
farmhouse, were saddened to see that the walnut
wainscoting no longer dressed up the parlor, shocked
to see that the kitchen stairway to their cold attic
bedrooms was gone along with the inside steps down to
the hand cut stone cellar where their mother;s
favorite black snake was on mouse patrol. But they
were glad we didn;t have to go outdoors to the privy
nor pull up buckets of water from the stone-lined well
in the back yard, now covered, that we didn;t even
know existed.
They pointed out the trail they took down to the
creek, which they could cross every school day except
one, the younger sister said two, then climb up along
the fence line, over the ridge, through the huge,
quite famous peach orchard and down on the other side
to the McDougall Elementary School. *Exactly two
miles--each way*, they painfully remembered. Every
square inch of a farm was used in those days in order
to make ends meet so fields were neat and clean right
up to the fences. That made walking easier but not
shorter. When they were ready for high school they
hiked down the creek and up to a bus turn-around on
Hooper Ridge Road almost within sight of Rt. 550.
They were older and that trek was quicker and seemed
so much less of an effort then the journey they had had to
make as children. Time and again during our tour they
sighed and shaking their heads would say, "*Life was
very hard for us",* sometimes adding what I knew to be
unnecessary, **especially during the Great
Depression".*
They thanked me for letting them walk down
*memory lane* and expressed gratitude that we were
going to restore the house and *take care of the
land.* With some sense of satisfaction they said"
*This will be our last visit to the home place.* Then
the big car slowly pulled away.
I felt honored to hear, from their own lips, the
hopes, dreams and travail of women who had lived on
this land before Jan and me.
The SuBAMUH residents were excited about the prospect
of including a Womyn’s Herstory column in each issue
of the newsletter and this is the first one. We are
inviting other womyn who have stories of their times
here at SuBAMUH or any Herstory related to SuBAMUH to
share by submitting them to SusanBAnthony@frognet.net.
If you would like to become a supporting member in SuBAMUH, you may e-mail me at: freewimin@aol.com.
Or snail mail: SuBAMUH
P.O. Box 5853
Athens, Ohio 45701
Your donation is tax deductible, make payable to SuBAMUH. (Suggested sliding scale is $1-$3 per thousand dollars disposable income.)
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Newsletter Articles:
SuBAMUH Stories by Mary M. Morgan
Stewardship Plan for SuBAMUH
OU Women's Studies student intern
Workshops and Events
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