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Notes for LEONARD FRANKLIN SKAGGS:
WHEN LEONARD WAS A YOUNG MAN HE WAS KIND OF A PRANKSTER. I WAS TOLD A STORY ONCE ABOUT THIS PREACHER MAN THAT LIVED BY WHERE GLADY'S WAS WORKING THAT HAD A WATERMELON PATCH.
Leonard and Gladys Skaggs
As a small boy Leonard was never allowed to go anywhere alone. Wherever his parents went he went wiether he liked it or not. Not until he was 12 or so did his parents ease up and give him a bit more freedom. He also wore mostly home made cloths as a boy. His shoes were almost always hand me downs from his older brothers. Sometimes he even had to were shoes that didn't even match in color size or style Leonard walked 2 1/2 miles to Elk Creek school most days. He wore Brogan's that wore blisters on his feet. They were very heavy. He said they were like carrying a ton of bricks, and they clomped loudly as he
walked. Maybe that is why he could Walk so far so easily. After carry around those shoes walking with out them was easy .
Leonard went to school in a one room school house. It had one teacher for eight grades. Some of the students were even older than 21 years of age. there was a pump outside the school door for drinking water. Beans, onions and sour kraut was his lunch most days. He carried it to school in a 1/2 gallon or gallon bucket The three R's and how to run was the most important and biggest lessons he learned in school. Games that he and the kids played in school were Blockman, Shinny and the Fox and the Hounds. To play Blockman there was a base on both side of a field, and there were to teams. The object of the games was to get to the others teams base without getting tagged. To play Shinny you drew a line on both sides of the play ground and picked two teams. A tin can was used as a hockey puck and sticks were the hockey sticks. You tried to get the can to cross the other teams goal. Guess where the Shinny name comes from. Leonard said that many times his shines were sore and bruised for a week or more after playing a game and getting wacked by the other boys trying to hit the can The Fox and the Hound was played with two kids being named as the foxes and the others boys would try and find them. Punishment for misconduct was a Hickory stick or limb of which you had to go cut yourself. The teacher would give you a slap with it across any area that was readily available. Leonard said that a few times he was made to stand with his nose in a circle on his tiptoes in the corner against the blackboard for however long the teacher deemed fit. And if you failed to stay there as told out came the hickory stick again. Sometime you got a whack across the knuckles. Or the teacher would hold your hand palm side up, and then slap your palm with the hard side of the blackboard eraser or a ruler. Leonard said that he only got one whipping at school. He tried to be good because his dad has told him if he got a whipping at school expect another one when he got home. The whipping he got at school was because of his brother Homer. Homer had gotten into a fight with another boy and was getting beatup. The other boys brother started to get into the beating and that made Leonard mad so he threw a rock and hit the other boy. Well as fate would have it the teacher saw Leonard throw the rock and hit the other boy. So he was sent to get the Hickory limb. Leonard had a great deal of respect for his father. He said that if Michael Eli spanked you, that you knew you were licked. So Leonard also learned to run. He would run home ahead of the other boys so he could avoid getting into fights. Cause getting into a fight was a sure whipping. Later after him moved out from under his dad's roof he whipped the toughest guy around and from that day on he could do pretty much as he pleased.
Chores that Leonard and his brothers had to do after school was carrying water for his mother. It was two miles back and forth with buckets. Then chopping cook stove wood, feeding the chickens and milking the cows. Even if Leonard or one of the boys were away from home staying a friends house they came home and made sure the chores were done. If they still wanted to they walked back after the were done.
Leonard slept upstairs at home. Often in the winter he would wake up with snow or ice on top of him. The rooms of the houses back then weren't finished like the houses of today. They were just shingled roofs of tin roofs and holes were left under the eves for ventilation.
Leonard only went to the sixth grade in school. He was forced to quit and work in fields plowing corn for the other farms around to make money for the family. Times were rough and he earned 50 cents a day working dawn to dusk. That was all they wages many were paid till after the great depression .
Leonard started clog dancing when he was about 14 years old. He was pretty good and hardly ever missed a dance until he was almost 26 years old. He would walk miles and miles just to get the chance to dance and flirt with the pretty girls. He would dance all night and then get back home in time to do his chores the next day. Sometimes he would get to ride the old farm horse, but mostly he had to walk. He became an extremely popular clog caller. He often danced one set while calling two others .
Leonard's favorite sport was killing rabbits. Not with a gun mind you, but with rocks. He had a sure aim and a real good eye. Sometimes he could even hit them on the run. The rabbits weren’t wasted though. He sold them for 10 cents a rabbit to others around town.
Leonard and Gladys dated for over two years. Going to Church or dances sound the Elk Creek and Stultz area. The reason that Gladys and Leonard got married the same day as Gladis's sister Othel was one born out of necessity. They had wanted to get married on July 3rd. But you see back in those days the men worked sometimes far, far away from home, and came home very little. Times were hard and work was scarce. Their father Henry Clay Martin was off logging a long way from home Martha Ann's birthday was on June 28th and Henry Clay Martin would be home on that day for sure. So Othel and Ernest Hale had already planned to wed on Martha Ann's birthday. Since Henry Clay knew he would not be back on the 3rd of July to see his other daughter get married he asked Gladys and Leonard to move up their wedding date and get married the same day. At Gladis's wedding shower she got One pair of pillow cases from Grandma Elizabeth Skaggs and two tea towels that were embroidered from Ethel Adams a friend. That was all the gifts they received.
Leonard and Ernest had been batching up stream on Authur's Creek because they worked for a saw mill. So on the day of the weddings they bathed in Aurthur Creek before the wedding. And Othel and Gladys bathed down stream. They often teased about taking a bath together on their wedding day. Gladys said that Arthur’s Creek was a pretty clear stream, but cold as ice even in the summer. It was a quaint little creek with deep places here and there where you could swim or bathe. There was one really deep hole that Leonard used to bathe the horses in once in awhile. So the couples had a double wedding ceremony on June 28, 1928 in Houston, Missouri. The preachers stood back to back and the two couples were facing each other while their vows were exchanged. Ernest Hales parents gave the couples a big dinner and Leonard’s parents gave them a dance. Gladys and Leonard spent the night at Leonard's parents house and Othel and Ernest stayed at Ernest parents house. The next day the men had to be back at work on their jobs.
Gladys and Leonard stayed at the Martin's house for two days after that, then moved into an old two room cabin at a saw mill on Authors Creek owed by John Unger in Raymondville. The only furniture was one lonely cabinet on the wall and one shelf beneath it where they ate and used it as a table.
Leonard bought an old cook stove with three burners and no grates from an old man that used it to make Whiskey. He had gotten caught and had stored it away so Leonard bought it from him for Gladys. On the front was and oven door. Gladys used on old 1/2 gallon syrup bucket upside down in the oven to make bread in. There was no bed or dishes so the relatives pitched in what they could spare. Odds and ends, sheets, dish pans and the like. There was no couch either so Leonard made a bench to sit upon.
Othel had faired a bit better, she and Ernest moved into the 2 room cabin that Ernest and Leonard had been living in before the marriages. It already had a bed and table and stove. From there Leonard and Gladys moved to Francis Elizabeth’s farm near Elk Creek. Off that farm many many rocks were taken and used to build and side building all over the area around Cabool and even Springfield. Francis used to say that she thought the farm grew them rocks. They would clear then out and then next year more would come up out of the soil.
There first child Paul Vernon Skaggs was born at this time. It was Saturday October 13, 1928. He was born at Henry Clays Martins house. Gladis's father. She stay there while Leonard worked on the Hammond place cutting sprouts to pay the Dr.'s Billand also for some extra money. Gladys said that it was a Pretty day and Paul was born at 12:20 in the afternoon. And no one had lunch that day. There were more important thing going on. From there Leonard and Gladys moved to Syrace Melbourne's place between Elk Creek mad Pleasant Grove. The time was 1929 and Leonard was farming now. On July 31, 1931 at 12:20 at in the morning the second child was born to this couple. His name was Glen Franklin Skaggs. Leonard was off thrashing wheat and it was a pretty day. Gladys had done a big load of wash the day before and at least had all her wash done before Glen came into the world. When Gladys and Leonard was living at Cyrices Melbourne place. Gladys had a big beautiful wicker rocking chair with a basket on the side for books or magazines. Gladys put her sewing in the side basket. Many times she would sit in that chair while raising her younger children. She tells of setting in that chair rocking with Glen nursing on one side. Paul would be sitting beside her on the other side and she would be singing him a song. In the other hand she had a book and would be reading a story in it. On her lap was a fruit jar of cream that was being churned into butter as she rocked away with the boys. Leonard worked on both of Cyrices Melbourne's places and Dick and Austin Grisham's farms. In 1932 they moved back to Francis Skaggs farm and lived and farmed that land as well for a time. Leonard also worked on Road crews in the area for what money there was to be had at that time was scarce. The men work any jobs that they could find to support their families. The going rate was $1.00 a day for 10 or 12 hours of hard work a day or maybe more
Leonard rode to work most days on a big horse named OLE' John. Paul was a small boy at this time and loved his father very much. He used to bug his dad to let him ride the horse to the gate. Paul always insisted on kissing his daddy before he went off to work. He would ride to the gate and say goodbye. If his daddy failed to kiss him bye he would try to follow him to work. In the evening Paul would wait on the gate for his daddy to come home.
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