RESOURCEFUL WOMEN

         In "My Fair Lady," Professor Henry Higgins pondered the question:

Why can’t a woman be more like a man?

Why is thinking something women never do?
And why is logic never even tried?
Straightening up their hair is all they ever do.
Why don't they straighten up the mess that's inside?

Why can’t a woman be like me?                

        I can only speculate on the women the professor had encountered in his life, but he apparently hadn’t met any of the women like these ancestors listed here.  They were anything but illogical, and could hardly be described as only concerned about their hair!!

        Take Sarah (WINSTON) WOODSON (?-?) for example; she was the wife of Dr. John WOODSON, Sr. (1586-1644).  Both born in England and married there, they immigrated to the American Colonies in 1619.  In her book, “Churchwell and Allied Families,” Shirley Byler gives an account of the Doctor’s death and Sarah’s bravery during an Indian attack:

There are several interesting stories about the Woodsons that shed light on the customs of Colonial times.  April the 18th, 1644 the Indians killed about three hundred of the Colonists.  Dr. Woodson had been out taking care of a patient and was on the way home, when the Indians killed him in sight of his house.  They tried to get into the house to kill the whole family.  Fortunately, a man named Ligon was working there that day.  It seems that people of the Colonies saved the hides from wild animals they used for food and had them made into clothing to be worn.  That day a shoemaker had come to make shoes for the Woodsons.  And he was pretty expert with a gun.  The first time he fired the gun, he killed three Indians.  The next shot, he killed two.  The third time he killed two more.  In the mean time Sara got those who tried to come down her chimney.  She scalded one of them, and killed the other one with the iron roasting spit from the fire place.  I imagine she had quite a bit of adrenalin by that time.  She had lost her husband, but she still had two little boys and herself to protect.  According to the story, she hid one under a tub, and the other was hiding in a potato hole.  It is said that for many years members of the Woodson family would ask each other, 'Are you a potato hole Woodson or a tub Woodson?' 

I’m so grateful I found my dad’s cousin Helene (VANHOOSER) LAKE (1924-2021) on Facebook before she passed away.  She shared with me some of the stories her dad told her about her grandmother, Orlena.  Orlena STOCKTON (1865-1955) was married four times.  Her first husband, Thomas D. KIMBLER (1861-1883) died not long after their son Perry died.  I can’t imagine Orlena’s heartache to lose both her first child and her husband at such a young age.  In 1888, she married Clayborn Sampson VANHOOSER (1859-1899); Clayborn died at the age of 39, leaving Orlena alone, this time to rear their children six children, between 10 years old (daughter Ethel) and nine months old (son Ralph).  My grandmother Helen Esther VANHOOSER LAREW was just a few months short of her 6^th birthday when her daddy died.  Helene’s father Ralph was the youngest, but shared his memories with his daughter, who in turn shared them with me:

I will tell about what l know of Orlena Stockton. My Dad was a good story teller. I was always a good listener so l know some. I know she was first married to a man they called Doc. I have heard his last name but dont recall it.  She also had a baby by him name of Perry.  I dont know what they died of. My Dad didnt know either.

Then she married Clayborn Sampson VanHooser. and had 6 children, the oldest Ethel, married Dave Hall, they had 8 children. 2nd Harry died at age 17 of typhoid fever. 3rd Helen married Jim Larew. They had 4 children.  4th Hugh married Rose Brown, they had 3 children. 5th Golden Martha, married Hobart Larew, brother to Jim Larew. They had 5 children. 6th Ralph Clayborn, married.  Mary Adah Parks, they had 7 children.  When Ralph was 9 months old his father died with double pneumonia.

That left Orlena with 6 children the oldest one was 10. She traded 40 acres of her farm for 17 acres in Dadeville. It had fruit trees on it she canned fruit. And sold pies, cakes, etc. She was a good cook. Harry and Ethel would deliver and get orders. When Harry became 14 he wanted to move back to the farm. Ethel was going to the academy, which was like high school later, but you had to pay to send your child there. So Orlena did alright.

They moved back to the farm. Harry and Hugh and Orlena worked the farm. The girls was old enough to help keep the house and garden. Grandma worked with the girls and the boys. Everything was going good and when Harry was 17 he got typhoid fever, she had 3 doctors working on him but they couldnt save him.  Orlena was left with one 14 year old and one 10 year old boys to work the farm. They made it they had a start of cattle.  Dad said, one of the old timers told him, "that woman made a better living than half of the men in the county." 

Orlena America STOCKTON VANHOOSER, ca. 1930s

        My grandmother, Helen (VANHOOSER) LAREW, was a woman who wasn’t afraid to share her opinions!  I can recall spending the night at her house and watching television and her voicing her opinion on the program topic – I wish I could think of a specific example, but I’m drawing a blank!  I recall asking my aunt Georgia if she knew if her mother voted after the 19^th Amendment passed, and without missing a beat, Georgia said, “Every time!”  She then chuckled, and said her mom wasn’t afraid to share her political opinions, either!  She was an excellent cook, and seemed the happiest when she had her family over and would make wonderful meals, topped off with a delicious homemade pie or cobbler; undoubtedly she learned while helping her mother make pies to sell when she was growing up.

Helen Esther VANHOOSER LAREW

        There’s a saying “A woman’s work is never done,” and I think my Grandma Iva WALLIS CHURCHWELL’s sister, Jessie Irene WALLIS BRODERS (1911-2006) lived that saying.  She and her husband Virgil lived on a farm in Grinnell, Iowa.  She would write my Grandma and tell her how many quarts of various vegetables she would can.  I have letters from Irene to Grandma that I need to scan.  In her later years, she made lap quilts for “the elderly” in the Nursing Homes.  

Jessie Irene WALLIS with her parents John & Lucretia, 1936

        Years ago, a pastor’s wife at our church once observed that God created Man & Woman, and gave different attributes of Himself to each sex.  When you look at Scripture, you can see the attributes of Himself that God gave to women, consider these Scripture passages:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. -- Genesis 1:27

Did I conceive all this people?  Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?  -- Numbers 11:12

You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. -- Deuteronomy 32:18

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.               -- Isaiah 49:15  

As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. -- Isaiah 66:13

I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; . . . -- Hosea 13:8

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! -- Matthew 23:37                       

Take that, Professor Higgins!