Lenoir Hood Miller (1888-1976) oral history

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CD 1 Track 9, Transcript p.16-18: CD 1 Track 9, Transcript p.16-18
Transcription: CD 1 Track 9 ERE: Was your home the kind of home where the other neighborhood children if they were close enough - children would come to spend time at your home, that people loved to be there where there were thirteen children? LHM: Well, now there - it was Grandma and Grandpa that had thirteen children, dear. ERE: Well, your family had.... LHM: Nine. ERE: Nine? LHM: Nine. Um hum and I was the baby. So there was quite a little difference between me and - eight years between me p.17 and my brother Guy. Oh, yes, there was always - seemed to be things going on. The people in little towns like that - 800 people - they made their own fun, you know. We didn't have television. We didn't have radio. We didn't have telephones. We didn't have cars. We went sleigh riding in the winter time and ice skating - we used to go skating on the river. ERE: What was an average day like once you started school? LHM: Well, it would be getting up in the morning and running out into the living room where the big base burner was to dress by the fire because the house was cold - no furnace heat in those days at all and then it was getting on our long underwear. I remember I used to labor to make my long underpants smooth so when I pulled my stockings on over them they would be smooth. [Laughter] I have a vivid memory of hours spent that way. [Laughter] And then the schools were - we had lots of fun at school. ERE: Were you expected to do chores on the farm before school or after school? LHM; Well, the years I spent on the farm were really quite few. I was - Mother and Daddy - Mother was not so very well and they decided to build a house in Glidden - just a block from Grandpa and so I was born in the town of Glidden.... ERE: I see. LHM: ....and spent very little time on the farm. Daddy was a p.18 farmer. That's the way he made the living. It was seven miles from Glidden to the farm.... ERE: I see. LHM: ....but most of my life was spent in the town of Glidden. Though we didn't go out and live in the house on "the farm, we'd go out a lot and uh - oh, part of the time during the school year I rode horseback into high school - the seven miles - and left the pony at my grandpa's barn. Rode back then at night, but most of my life was spent in my child- hood in the town of Glidden itself. ERE; What did the town look like? Was there one main street? LHM: Um hum. No paved streets at all - just dirt roads. One store that sold everything and the Lee Hotel - the tradesmen used to go around and always try to make the Lee Hotel because Mrs. Lee was such a good cook. What do you call those salesmen who go around and sell their wares - you know. ERE: Traveling salesmen. LHM: Traveling salesmen would always try to make Glidden and the Lee Hotel their ending part of the day. ERE; Was there a doctor in the town? LHM: Um hum. Dr. Dexler. He was the....; Miller, Lenoir Hood, 1888-1976
, Interviewee; Epstein, Ellen Robinson
, Interviewer
Media Type: Audio; Text
Item Type: Audiocassettes
Description: Interview of Lenoir Hood Miller by Ellen Robinson Epstein of the Center for Oral History in Washington, D. C. The interview was done in Mrs. Miller's daughter's home on Friday, November 8, 1974.

ABSTRACT:
Early history - Lenoir - parents – grandparents -- North Carolina plantation - cotton - tobacco – large families - Hood's move to Indiana to educate children.

Civil War - father Hood enlisted in 51st Indiana Volunteers - served 4 yrs. Prisoners exchanged.

Her father returned to Greencastle, Indiana and married her mother there. Traded horse and buggy for 80 acres of Iowa farm land near what later became Glidden, Iowa.
Lenoir Hood youngest of nine children and no doctor in attendance. First five died in epidemic.

Lived on an Iowa farm with parents near home of grandparents
Mother wanted an education for nine children - unusual for those days - she was creative, but never robust. One brother a dentist, another went to University of Nebraska. Lenoir eight years younger than her brother Guy - eight years older - she was youngest of all.

She grew up in the town of Glidden, Iowa. Church social center of the town - everyone participated in activities. Cards and dancing forbidden even in 1905 at Grinnell College. No dating in high school, lawn tennis was played mixed doubles. Christmas a church
celebration.

Picnics, dancing, dating during college years at Grinnell.

Celebrations of Memorial Day in Glidden, Wilmette, Evanston, Chicago. "Daddy Hood" participated in all as a Civil War veteran for his lifetime.

Life at Grinnell for four years, majored in philosophy and history.

December 1904 filed on a claim at Rapid City, S. Dakota - 70 mi. west of the Black Hills. Was graduated at Grinnell in June 1905, returned to "Water Lily Lodge" with her dog "Boots" and for 14 mo. lived in a little shack built by her two cousins from Indiana (who were staking claims also in the same area), on 160 acres. Took train to end of the line in Sturgis, S.D., next two days took a stage coach 60 miles west to her claim.

Taken wallpaper from home for inside and tar-papered exterior by herself. Rode 20 mi. to square dances - stage coach driver was the caller.

Permission to teach children of area. School housed in an unused sod house on an already proven claim.
Had 10 children ranging from a kindergartener to a freshman in H.S. taking Latin and algebra. Lost in a snow storm in winter, taken in by a neighbor. Paid $45 per month - considered good pay - built fence which was promised "improvement" to property.

Met husband on adjoining claim from Rockwell City, Iowa. Became engaged June 1911 and were not married until 1913 due to family deaths and illness in both families.
Parents and nieces moved into an apartment across the hall in Chicago when the Millers married.

Description of their wedding in Glidden, Ia. Came to Chicago where Abe Miller was employed. Six years later the two families moved to Wilmette.

"Bob Cratchett Tale" a Christmas tradition. Life in Wilmette when children were growing-up. Husband's illness, 1929 trip to Mayo Clinic, diagnosis of cancer and need for surgery. Death from "1918 type flu", before operation took place, in Rochester Inn.

Return home and began "Sunshine Corner", after teaching in Wilmette school as a substitute teacher for a year and six weeks summer school at National College of
Education.

Philosophy of the little school and practices through the years. Mrs. Miller's community activities. Her philosophy of life; trip to Alaska.

P.E.O. and its support of Cottey College and other college scholarships. Founded in 1869. Admiration for Norman Thomas and Walter Lippman.

N.B. This was taped in Mrs. Miller's daughter's home in November 1974 by Ellen R. Epstein for the Center for Oral History of Washington, D.C. and given to the Wilmette Public Library by the John Miller family since Mrs. Miller's death. This transcription
abstracted by: Rhea S. Adler, August 1984

Father was John Andrew Hood (1842-1939)
Notes: CD 3 Tracks 3-12 are from a second interview one week later and were transcribed by Amanda Bartlett.
Date of Original: 8 November 1974
Subject(s): Oral histories
Slavery--United States
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Veterans
Wilmette (Ill.) -- Residents
Personal Name(s): Hood, John Andrew ; Miller, Lenoir Hood
Local identifier: R977.31 MI
Language of Item: English
Copyright Statement: Protected by copyright: Uses other than research or private study require the permission of the rightsholder(s). Responsibility for obtaining permissions and for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Copyright Date: 1977
Copyright Holder: Wilmette Public Library
Copyright Holder Contact Information: 1242 Wilmette Ave.
Wilmette, IL 60091
U.S.A.
Recommended Citation: Miller, Lenoir Hood, and Ellen Robinson Epstein. Lenoir Hood Miller. Wilmette, Ill: Wilmette Public Library District, 1974.
Contact: Wilmette Public Library
Email:refdesk@wilmettelibrary.info
Website:
https://www.wilmettelibrary.info/

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