Post #11 Doris (Goss) Koontz family, continued

Below was written by Helen Richard Howe, the daughter of Etta Goss, she was the 8th child of John Lewis Goss and Julia Ann Taylor. Our Grandmother Doris was the 7th child. This letter gives further insight as to the family that our Grandmother, Doris grew up in and our Great Grandparents John and Julia.  I was fortunate to visit with a family member, Dean McDavitt that I met years ago through the internet and phone calls and he shared letters, pictures, etc with me about this family that we have in common.

"Dear Family,

I am doing my Mother's Day thing, writing down a short story of my mother your Grandmother Richards. She was a lady all the way.

Julia Etta Goss was born on On October 3, 1888 in a small home in the hills of Arkansas. She was the 7th of 10 children (this does not count the 2nd child, Baby that died the same day that she/he was born--I don't know the details) born to John Lewis Goss and Julia Ann Taylor. John had married Julia when she was 14 years old. There is a family story that John and Julia "ran away" across the county line to be married because she was under age. They returned to a cabin on a hillside in the Ozarks of Arkansas. This location was later known as Myrtle, Arkansas when the Post office located in the home.

Apparently that cabin was sparsely equipped. Using the kitchen table for a work table, crude as it may have been, Julia cut the first shirt for her husband. She cut with his pocket knife, her only cutting tool.

This cabin was located on a hillside above the creek, which means that all water for the family was carried up the hillside to the house.

As the family grew a loft was constructed to sleep the boys of the family. The girls shared a room on the mail floor. The ever present baby slept in a trundle bed which could be stored under the parent's bed during the day.

This was a family which did not know poverty as many hill country pioneers did. John Goss was evidently a successful farmer for the family had the usual crops of corn, fruits and vegetables to supply the family's table. There were cows to supply milk and meat, sheep for wool and meat, hogs for pork and lard for making soap. Grains were processed at a nearby mill into flour for baking.

The Goss hillside home was not so very isolated because it was the site of the Myrtle Post Office. And it was a good solid home for the ever expanding family.

John Goss was a stern no nonsense type of person, a "spare the rod and spoil the child" personality.

Here is a story to explain his autocratic rule of the home. Once a year he would hitch up the team to a flat bed wagon to drive to the town of Harrison (8 miles away). he would stock up on the essentials such as salt and the few staples not produced at home. About tea and coffee I do not know because I do remember hearing about parched barley for coffee and about sassafras tea. On this annual trip Father went alone. Julia was left home with the children, even when Father was going to bring home bolts of cloth for Julia to make into clothing for the family.

However austere the life at home, all the family would go whenever there was a "preachin' " close enough to get there and back again in time to do the ever present chores. Religion was the foundation of this family's life. Besides the "preachin' s" there were "singin's" in various homes, often the Goss home. This was the social life of the hill country. The girls learned to sing "parts". Etta sang alto.

School attendance was whenever there was a teacher available and if the weather and crops permitted. The children could not attend school during the cold winters with much snow on the ground. In the summer time, harvest time, the children were busy on the farm. Therefore, school was a one room school to be attended when possible. Some of the students would be much older than the norm. Etta never received a grammar school diploma. Nevertheless the Goss children learned their basics--the three r's.

Mother Julia was a busy woman. She had ten children (actually 12) to care for -- cooking, sewing, ironing, washing, preserving, soap making, carding, spinning and weaving the woolen yarn. I have saved the coverlet and sheets woven by her hands. We actually used these on our beds when I was growing up. As soon as the girls were old enough to assume some chores they helped their mother with all the chores, even hauling that water up the hill. The boys would help with the water when they could get time off from the fields, but they were usually kept busy with the crops, plowing and hoeing in the fields, wood chopping and care of the animals. 

The boys did their work, rode their horses, fought with each other and generally did what all boys did in those hills. My *Uncle Will, the youngest, had a very deep scar on his forehead. I have never known for sure what the scar was because a horse kicked him or because one of his brothers threw a stick at him. I have heard the story both ways.

We must remember there were no labor saving devices in those days, no electricity, no running water. Mother Julia did all these chores and was dead before she was 41. She died on September 1, 1901. Etta was 12 years old. Baby Will must have been about 2 years when his mother died.

The family's life was forever changed.  The two oldest girls Darthula (Forrester) and Charity (Jackson) were already married and in their own homes. The girls remaining at home could and did keep the home going very well.

After some time their father remarried. Without preparing his family he brought home this bride who was almost as young as his daughters. Needless to say, the family was not favorably impressed. Father ordered the girls to wait on their new stepmother. They were to be sure to do the washing of her clothes. The girls carefully separated Minnie's (stepmother) clothes from the family wash. And they would not haul water for her either.

The girls were unhappy at home. They left home one at a time just as soon as each was old enough, usually leaving to live with a sister who was already away. Etta arrived in California to be with her sister Doris (Dorcas). ----------------------------

The rest of the letter is about Etta and her life from there out, no other mention of Doris or their parents.

*In researching this family, I found out that Uncle Will (William Guinn Goss) married Mayme Lee O'Hair who is a relative to my mom! Her children are double relatives to us. This was news to my parents.

                                                    Doris and Lyle Koontz
                                 (I have always thought my dad, Paul, looked like his mom)