Horn, Dianne Rosamond Harned

DIANNE ROSAMOND HARNED HORN

Interviewer: Nanette Grygier Interviewed on: November 12, 2003

Interviewer: Would you please state your full name and spell it.

Dianne Horn: My name is Dianne Rosamond Horn. My maiden name was Harned. H-A-R-N-E-D.

Interviewer: Can you tell me the date of your birth?

Dianne Horn: I was born April 6, 1937.

Interviewer: Where have you lived here in Franklin Township?

Dianne Horn: The farm that I was raised on was located about half way between Crane Road and Old State on Fry Road; we called it Townline Road at that time.

Interviewer: How long have you lived in Franklin Township?

Dianne Horn: Well, all my life, except for just a short time when my husband and I rented an apartment at Edinboro.

Interviewer: What was your home like in your early years? How did you heat your home? When did you get the indoor plumbing, water inside? Electricity, all of those different utilities? Your phone, television, refrigerator? First of all, how you heated your home, and what type of home did you live in?

Dianne Horn: Well, we had a typical old farm house that didn’t have any insulation in it or anything, but we had a coal furnace in the cellar that we used for heat. We did not have hot water except in the winter time when the furnace was running, it would heat the water, too. The rest of the time, my mother had a gasoline stove that she cooked on in the kitchen and she had a big boiler that she would fill with water and heat the water for washing and baths and so on. We did not have an indoor bathroom until I was seven or eight years old. We did have running water in the house and we did have electricity.

Interviewer: When did your electricity come into your home? Do you remember a year?

Dianne Horn: It was before my time.

Interviewer: How about a telephone?

Dianne Horn: We didn’t have a telephone in our house until I was in my early teens. I guess they had one before. I don’t know if they took it out because of the Depression or what.

Interviewer: So, after the Depression, then your family had one?

Dianne Horn: Yes, I was in my teens before we got a telephone.

Interviewer: How about a television?

Dianne Horn: Never had a television at home while I was home.

Interviewer: A radio then?

Dianne Horn: Yes, we had a big floor model Philco radio. I can remember Mother turning it on during the war. In the evenings, she always wanted to listen to Gabriel Heater or Edward R. Murrow to get the latest news on the war.

Interviewer: Probably gathered around the radio, didn’t you?

Dianne Horn: Right!

Interviewer: That was your only contact to the outside world. How about your mother’s washing machine? What did your mother have for refrigeration? And did anyone else in the neighborhood have those appliances?

Dianne Horn: Well, we had the old ringer washing machine down in the basement, but having electricity, it was powered by electricity. We did not have an electric stove or a refrigerator until after the war. My sister was married shortly after the war and she and her husband [Marian and Wilson Collins] lived with us, and they bought a refrigerator and an electric stove.

Interviewer: How about the first automobile or truck? In your family, do you remember what the model was or your neighbors’?

Dianne Horn: The first car I remember my Dad having was a Whippet and it was a car that was not very reliable and he didn’t have it for very long. He bought a 1937 Buick and he must have gotten that probably in the early 1940s. It was a big, heavy car. He used it an awful lot. They had a stand on the Twelfth Street Market and they took a lot of their produce to Erie. And he used it like a truck. He put big truck tires on it that he managed to get through the war and that was the car he used up until the late forties, I guess.

Interviewer: He had no trouble having an automobile, being able to use it? Because I understand some people couldn’t even run a car because of gas.

Dianne Horn: He was very careful using the car. He planned that he would use only one tank of gas a week. He had quite a bit of traveling to do because he traveled around to the different farms buying up eggs, chickens and that. And of course, he had the trip to Erie once a week and we did drive it to church on Sunday. But he planned only one tank of gas a week.

Interviewer: Very good. Who were your family members and were they related possibly to anyone in the township?

Dianne Horn: Well, my mother was Fannie Fellows before she was married. My Grandpa and Grandma Fellows were Leeson and Blanche Fellows and they lived right next door to us, the farm just north of us. Two farms south of us was my Dad’s [Glen Harned] sister and her husband, and that would be Cecile and Ernie Meacham.

Interviewer: In your earliest memories, who were your friends, your family’s friends, your parents’ friends? And childhood memories of your special seasons as well?

Dianne Horn: Most of the family friends would be just neighbors, because you didn’t travel that far. I guess, probably one of the best friends that Mom and Dad had were Paul and Mary Woods who lived on the farm just (next) south of us. They were close friends. They’d get together and play cards once in a while. And there was a lot of…in the neighborhood at the time, they were small farms. And farmers helped each other out. And when you did threshing or had silo filling, all the neighbors would get together and help each other. They would come in with their horses and their wagons, and there was always a big meal to be prepared and it was a social time as well as a time of hard work. I remember Mom coming home one time from Market after she’d spent all day on Market and at 5 o’clock she pulled in the yard. And she knew she would be expected to have supper on the table for that many men and she didn’t know what she was going to do. And I can still see the expression on her face! And about two minutes later, a neighbor, who thought the men would be eating at her house, came pulling in and she had all of her dishes, and everything was prepared! So, they got right together and set supper on the table and people were fed.

Interviewer: Very well timed, I’m sure!

Dianne Horn: It sure was!

Interviewer: Do you remember Christmastime or some special holiday that your family celebrated or traditions? And gifts, were they homemade gifts or ornaments or were they store-bought? Those types of things. Did you do things together for traditional purposes?

Dianne Horn: Our families always got together for Christmas. My Gramp and Gramma lived just up the road. We quite often went to Gramp and Gramma’s for Christmas Day. Or else we went to my other Grandparents who lived in Edinboro. A special Christmas I remember, I was about five years old, my sisters were all quite a bit older than I, and she bought me a baby doll, a big baby doll. She made clothes for it. One of the things she did, they had gotten one of my baby dresses. It was a soft white embroidered baby dress and put it on the doll. She bought a sweater and embroidered little rosettes on it, and that’s the way she was dressed when I got her. But she had a snowsuit and she had a pair of pajamas and she had another blue dress. She was pretty well outfitted. And I got a doll bed and a baby buggy. So, I thought I had a pretty good Christmas!

Interviewer: That’s truly a gift of love.

Dianne Horn: Yes, it was.

Interviewer: All that work creating those garments.

Dianne Horn: She loved to do those things.

Interviewer: That’s a wonderful memory. Do you have other memories of your parents or a special friend at school, a little girlfriend at school or a neighbor girl during those times?

Interviewer: Well, I think it was also the spring when I was five years old; I didn’t have any children in the neighborhood to play with. Joanne Sturm moved in, just up the road. And my mom used to say, from that time on, she either had two girls or none at all, because we were always together. I remember one Christmas; the snow was really, really deep. And there was a big hollow between our house and the woods. And Dad said, “There was no way I can get a Christmas tree. Because the horses couldn’t make it back across there, the snow was just too deep.” I just couldn’t stand it not to have a Christmas tree. So I said I would go to the woods and I’d get it. So, I started out and I got to the woods. Well, in the meantime, it started to snow and blow. And by the time I came out of the woods, course, you just cut a hemlock; you didn’t have nice trees like you do now. I came out of the woods and the wind was blowing so strong, that I could hardly hang on to the tree. It would just whip it. So, I got over next to the line fence to keep the tree from blowing away from me. I finally managed to get home. Mom and Dad were pretty glad to see me. They were getting kind of worried. But, we had our Christmas tree!

Interviewer: You were how old when you did this?

Dianne Horn: Oh, I was probably around twelve or thirteen.

Interviewer: How did you cut this tree?

Dianne Horn: I took a saw with me.

Interviewer: So, you took a saw out into the woods, with the snow coming down and it’s deep already. And you’re going to cut.

Dianne Horn: (nodding) Yes. It was hard getting back because when you walked in that snow, you sunk in clear to your hips and you’d pull one leg out, and swing it over the snow and down in. I was pretty tired by the time I got home! (laughing)

Interviewer: Did you have a cup of hot chocolate waiting for you when you got in the door?

Dianne Horn: I don’t remember that.

Interviewer: But you provided your family’s tree. What a wonderful memory.

Dianne Horn: We did have the tree, yes.

Interviewer: A very wonderful memory! Who did you marry and tell us how you met your spouse? And tell us about your wedding, from your perspective.

Dianne Horn: I think our families had always known each other: Great grandparents, Grandparents, Parents. I believe Royce mentioned about the country school at Eureka. I remember meeting his sister that day. I don’t remember especially meeting him that day. I had not started to school yet. But my sister was the teacher. Of course, I had a few special privileges and I was allowed to attend once in a great while! I can remember his sister sharing a page out of a coloring book with me that day. Then, when I was probably about twelve or thirteen, we started going to school in Edinboro. We kind of got acquainted and we attended what they called United Young Peoples which was a group of kids that got together. And through that we just started going together. And I never dated anybody else but Royce. We were married and I was a lack of six days from being nineteen years old when we got married.

Interviewer: And that was when?

Dianne Horn: 1956.

Interviewer: Can you tell me where you lived when you were first married? And is there anything you would like to add?

Dianne Horn: Royce was in the service when we were married. We were married at Easter time. Of course, he had to go back to service right away. I stayed at home with Mom and Dad. He got out about the first of December that year. Right after the first of the year, we rented an apartment in Edinboro. And we were there for a few months. Then we moved out to Fry Road where my Aunt Cecile and Uncle Ernie had lived. We lived there for awhile. Then Dad said, “Well you’re building a house, there’s no sense in you paying rent. You better come back home to stay. You’re not home much anyway, you’re both working.” So, we did, til we got the house framed up. And we moved into the house, we had a bedroom, and a bathroom and a kitchen. And it was just before Christmas time when we moved in. And that was the only rooms we had heat in, so we would just make a mad dash from one room to the other!

Interviewer: Would you tell me about the children you raised?

Dianne Horn: We have two boys. Steve was born December 18, 1970. And we adopted him the following February. Tom was born November 10, 1973. And we adopted him the following September. Steve is now married and lives in Syracuse, and we have one little granddaughter. And Tom lives next door to us.

Interviewer: From your early memories, what schools existed in the township, their names, where they were located. Do you remember any teachers’ names and the highest grade you completed?

Dianne Horn: Well, I started school at Townline School. Townline School was located on my Grandfather Fellows’ property, just up the road a little bit from where I live. My first teacher was my Aunt, Cecile Meacham. My second teacher was my sister, Marian Collins. I think it was about fourth grade they closed Townline School and I went over to Silverthorn which was located on the corner of Silverthorn and Old State. And Bernice Allen was my teacher there. I finished seventh grade there, then went to Edinboro. I graduated from Edinboro in 1954.

Interviewer: Do remember anything about any of your classmates, best friends? Do you still see them or keep in touch with them at all, wherever they live now, from high school or elementary school?

Dianne Horn: Well, I don’t see any of them very often, once in a great while. There is one boy, Bill Kelly. He goes to church where we do and his son is the pastor of our church. I see Shirley Osterberg Campbell once in a while. There’s a few, but our class kind of scattered.

Interviewer: So, you all took up your own lives, more or less.

Dianne Horn: Yes!

Interviewer: Now that the farming obviously was the predominant occupation, in these early years, tell me about farming, your perspective, your family’s situation. Whether your farmed or not, and what did they do, and if you did, what was involved with your farming? Dairying, just growing crops?

Dianne Horn: We were farmers. My dad raised oats and corn and wheat and hay. He had some dairy cattle. Dad didn’t care much about the shipping of milk, so they went to Market. And he had a cream separator in the Creamery and he would separate the cream out. As Royce mentioned, he’d go to Edinboro to get the ice block to keep the cream cold and then every Friday, they would make butter. So, on Market, they sold the butter and the eggs and the chickens. In the spring, they always made maple syrup, so he would have that to sell. He always figured that the money he needed for fertilizer would come from the sale of maple sugar for maple syrup that he sold. And of course, in the late summer, he had sweet corn that they sold, too.

Interviewer: Did you have anything to do with the maple sugar/ maple syrup production? Did you help with that?

Dianne Horn: Oh, some. I was pretty young yet when they were doing that. I went back and helped a little bit, by emptying the pails and carrying them to the wagon to be transported to the sugar house.

Interviewer: Ok. You tapped a lot of trees in that area?

Dianne Horn: Dad had a pretty good size sugar bush. I remember getting in trouble one time. I was young and been up to visit my Grandmother. And Mom had to go back to help in the sugar bush. She had asked the next door neighbor to stop me on the way home and that she had gone back in the woods and that I was to stay with Mrs. France. Well, I had other ideas. I was going to go to the sugar bush. And I headed for the sugar bush and of course I had a creek to cross. It was spring and the water was deep and it was rushing, and that was why my mother didn’t want me to go. Well, I crossed the fence line and got over to my Grandfather’s where the water wasn’t so deep. I managed to get across and I lost my hat. I got back to the sugar bush and I can still see the look on Mom’s face, “What are you doing here?” Needless to say, I got a spanking out of that one!

Interviewer: A memory you wouldn’t soon forget!

Dianne Horn: Right!

Interviewer: Thank you for that. Do you have any memory of other animals on the farm or other crops you grew, equipment that was used? If they purchased tractors, threshers, harvesters or anything along that line? Did you do your own butchering?

Dianne Horn: Dad had a, I think he called it a Fordson tractor which had big iron wheels on it. It wasn’t too long afterwards I guess that he got the Farmall tractor that had spade wheels. And finally, he got the one that was rubber tired. But, he used the horses a lot when I was still a child. He did a lot of plowing with the horses. He had a weeder; he called it that used the horses. He had a horse-drawn mower that he mowed the hay with. And horse-drawn cultivators that he cultivated with. He had a binder that he would put a team of three horses on that would cut and tie up the bundles of corn in big bundles and spit them out the sides so that later he would come along and pick up the bundles and shock them.

Interviewer: That’s very good. Never heard that before. How did your family preserve their meat? Did they do a lot of canning? An obvious question, but what was that like for your family? What your part might have been in preparation for some of those jobs?

Dianne Horn: Well, being a girl, of course, I was in on that quite a little bit!

Interviewer: That’s why I asked!

Dianne Horn: Mom always had a big garden. And we had a big front porch on our house and it had a porch swing. That was where we would spend our time shelling peas or snipping the beans, or peeling peaches or tomatoes, whatever we were working at. Yes, we did do butchering. Dad mostly butchered hogs. Mom would make sausage. She had white metal basins about so big around that she would pack the sausage in. Then she would pour the lard over top to seal it. We had a back room on the house that didn’t have any heat in, and she would store them up in the cupboard back there to keep them cold.

Interviewer: Were those pans the size of a bread pan, possibly? Or a little smaller than a bread pan?

Dianne Horn: I don’t know, they were round-they were about so big around and maybe that deep (4-6 inches). Then she also had a crock that they put the hams in. They put them down in a brown sugar brine to preserve them. I remember they decided to make head cheese one year. We had a hired man and he liked head cheese. So they were going to make head cheese. He also liked a lot of pepper, which my folks were not that fond of. When they were cooking this on the stove, Mom would catch him over there dumping pepper into it. And when she thought he wasn’t looking, she tried to skim some of it off. He’d catch her at it and when he thought she wasn’t looking, he dumped some more in. (laughing)

Interviewer: I never heard anyone describe making head cheese. Did you do any other kind of preserving? How about drying, any fruits, mushrooms?

Dianne Horn: I don’t remember my mother doing that. My Grandmother [Blanche Fellows] used to have a corn drier on the back of the old cook stove. She would dry corn. Oh, I loved the dried corn. It was so good!

Interviewer: What did she do with it?

Dianne Horn: She would cream it. They had a smoke house. Gramp and Grandma had a smoke house that they smoked their hams in. My favorite meal was to go to Grandma’s and have some of the smoked ham and scalloped potatoes and creamed corn. And Grandma always made a cream pie with real cream with a sour cream crust. She would shave maple sugar in the bottom and then put the cream filling on top. Oh, it was delicious! I have the recipe but never tried it.

Interviewer: You didn’t make it?

Dianne Horn: I never have tried it.

Interviewer: Do you have special recipes or good meals passed down from your mother or Grandmother that you still utilize today with your own family, or in the last few years?

Dianne Horn: I have an applesauce cake; I guess my Grandmother [Inez Hayes Harned] called it a coffee cake-that would be my Grandmother Harned that she made. I have that recipe and I have another recipe that you make in a cake pan and you put cherries in it that’s good. That came from my Grandmother Fellows.

Interviewer: Did you have anything to do with harvesting the crops or were you given a chore besides shucking peas or something on the porch. Were you also needed in the field, do you remember how these things were done? And the tractor-who owned it? Did your father have one? Did he rent it out to others?

Dianne Horn: Well, dad had his own tractor. I don’t remember that he rented it out at all. I helped outside some. My first job helping outside was during haying season. They had a big fork that they would put into the hay and the tractor carried it back to the barn. And the way that was lifted up to the track was by the horses pulling it. Then I would have to pull the rope back to the pulley. And then later on I graduated to driving the horses and later on, the tractor. And then I would drive the tractor to load hay. I never drove the horses much to load hay. I tried it a time or two, but the horses were too big and strong for me. They practically pulled my arms out of the sockets! They had more strength than I had!

Interviewer: You were happier on the tractor!

Dianne Horn: Right!

Interviewer: Do you remember the size of your family’s garden, your personal use garden, how large it might have been?

Dianne Horn: I’m not very good at dimensions. It was a pretty good sized garden.

Interviewer: It was big enough for you.

Dianne Horn: Right! Especially when I had to go out and help weed it and I didn’t care much about that job!

Interviewer: You did the weeding. Anything else you did? Did you bring in carrots, or were you left to do certain things on your own in the garden?

Dianne Horn: Of course the weeding. I always had to help Mom plant it, take care of it…and help pick the peas and the beans, etc.

Interviewer: In this township area, were there any businesses that existed here? Types of businesses, small or large: professions possibly, were there doctors established? Dentists? Or types of mills: blacksmiths, saw mill, grist mill as you were growing up?

Dianne Horn: I don’t remember anything located specifically within the township. We used to have a blacksmith come out from Edinboro. He drove a coupe with a rumble seat. He had his anvil and so forth where the rumble seat was and he would come to the barn and shoe the horses.

Interviewer: He would go to each individual farm to do this?

Dianne Horn: Yes, he would just come as you called him. The grist mill that my Dad used was in Edinboro down by the dam there in Edinboro. I can remember going there with Dad when I was a kid.

Interviewer: What about a shoemaker, leather goods shop, wagon repair?

Dianne Horn: I don’t remember any of that kind of stuff.

Interviewer: Oil and Gas companies here in this area?

Dianne Horn: No, none.

Interviewer: Cheese factories, Creamery?

Dianne Horn: Well, Royce mentioned the one over at Ivoray. I remember visiting there once. My girlfriend was Shirley Osterberg and she had an uncle that drove a milk truck. And so we got to ride on the milk truck one day and went to the cheese factory with him!

Interviewer: Did you remember what that place was like? Can you describe a cheese factory?

Dianne Horn: I don’t know as I got inside the factory. It was just a big wooden frame building and it had a sort of a porch or deck along that he pulled up alongside of and just unloaded the cans on to that deck. But as far as inside and the cheese processing, I don’t know anything about.

Interviewer: Can you tell us about the items that your family may have had to purchase or trade that they didn’t produce for themselves on their farm? What those things may have been, if any at all, and prices of certain commodities: milk, bread, eggs, cheese, butter, clothing, the price of a candy bar, or seed for the farm to plant?

Dianne Horn: No, I really don’t much. We had our own chickens and meat. Of course they made their own butter and Mom did a lot of baking and cooking. Royce talked about the rationing. I can remember my father bought a hundred pound bag of sugar on the black market. They kept it upstairs where it was cold to keep it. And it was always my job to go up and fill the sugar canister with sugar. And the sugar got hard. I had to chip all that sugar. I hated that job. I had to go up there in the cold trying to break up that sugar.

Interviewer: What did you use to break it up? It gets like a rock. I know it does.

Dianne Horn: I don’t know. I had a knife or something sharp, I don’t remember now exactly how I did do it. But I can remember I didn’t enjoy it!

Interviewer: That’s cold. And you were how young when you were doing this? Grade school age?

Dianne Horn: Well, rationing would have been on through the war, so yeah, I would have been early.

Interviewer: Do you remember ever getting to buy a candy bar, ever bought store-bought clothes, any store-bought item at all through growing up?

Dianne Horn: Not too much. Mom made my dresses. I had some girl cousins that were just a little older than me and I inherited a lot of clothes that way too.

Interviewer: Do you remember the value of property out here, what it cost an acre? Or a house already situated on land, what that dwelling would cost or what its appraised value would be?

Dianne Horn: No, not really. My parents, when they first started keeping house, bought a farm on Silverthorn Road where Lechefsky’s live now, which would kind of backed up to the farm that dad was raised on. They lived there for a few years and then they came over onto Townline where his father was farming. And they farmed together with his father for awhile. Then Grandpa retired and went to Edinboro and Dad continued to farm there the rest of his life.

Interviewer: How much acreage did your parents have?

Dianne Horn: I think it was about a hundred acres. They owned property on both sides of the road. They were partially in Franklin Township and partially in Washington Township. The farm buildings were all in Franklin Township.

Interviewer: What possible jobs would you have held during those years, if any at all? And did you have to leave the township for work?

Dianne Horn: My first job off the farm was with Paul Woods, pulling cabbage plants. He would plant plants and you would have to pull them and separate them. Then he replanted the stronger, healthier plants. I think I got sixty cents an hour for doing that. And then in the fall you picked up potatoes. I got ten cents a bushel for doing that That was my first jobs.

Interviewer: You picked potatoes up? So the harvester went through and they were near the top of the ground so you just had to pick them up?

Dianne Horn: They went through and dug the potatoes up and you put them in a wooden bushel basket and then you dumped them into a burlap bag and then some other folks came along and picked up the bags and loaded them on the wagons.

Interviewer: Do you remember how old were you when you were doing potatoes?

Dianne Horn: Oh, probably very early teens.

Interviewer: How long would your workday be-when would you do this, on the weekends when there wasn’t school or after the school day when it was still long daylight?

Dianne Horn: Well, generally it was right after school was out in the spring. Then in the fall, quite often it was weekends. Another job that you had with the cabbage plants was resetting. After they went through with the planter, sometimes there would be a plant that would die or something so you would take a big basket on your arm filled with these cabbage plants. And you had a D handle off an old fork or something that they had sharpened the end on and you’d go along and wherever there was a spot where there was one was missing you would poke a hole in the ground and stick the plant in and cover it up. You just walked up one row and down the other.

Interviewer: Was there anything outside the township? Your work involved you staying here then. You did not leave or travel out of the area to work at all?

Dianne Horn: My first job after high school, I went to work as a bookkeeper at the Edinboro GLF. It’s now the Agway store. I worked there for about ten years.

Interviewer: How did you travel there?

Dianne Horn: My Mom took me down in the car. And in the wintertime when the roads got bad, sometimes I’d rent a room in Edinboro and walked from there to the store. I worked there until after I was married. Then I was home for two-three years. Then I worked for R.R. Walker and Son, the John Deere dealer. And I worked there I don’t know how long. It’s over twenty years now. Off and on, I worked full time for a while until we adopted the boys. Then I stayed home with the boys except when they needed some part-time help and I would go in because they would furnish me with a babysitter. So I went in and worked for a while for them. In the meantime, when I was still working in the mill, they needed a Township Secretary. So, I went to work for the Township and I got paid $300 a year for a while for doing that. It was just a part-time job, one meeting a month. You took care of the records and I held that job for thirty-two years. And I’m still working for Mr. Walker one day a week.

Interviewer: When you were growing up and listening to your parents telling stories and possibly relatives, were there stories of WWI or possibly Civil War veterans that you might remember: a name or some location or particular event of those war years?

Dianne Horn: As far as Civil War I didn’t know any, but I heard them tell that three of my Great-Grandfathers fought in the war and the fourth one wanted to, but he had had an eye injury and they wouldn’t take him. My Great Grandmother said that he probably fought more battles over the war at home than he would have had he gone to war!

Interviewer: That’s interesting that you had relatives involved in that conflict! Do you have any memories or stories passed down to you from their experiences at all?

Dianne Horn: Well, my Great-grandfather Fellows said he was there when Lee surrendered, and that he walked home from there. My Great-grandfather Hayes evidently ended up in the state of Indiana and I don’t know all the circumstances. But he met a woman there and they were married. She came back here to live and they lived on the farm just south of us where Paul Woods lived. Just as a little side story, Royce’s Grandmother told me that she remembered them. And she said that Great-grandmother Hayes did her washing every Monday morning. Well, of course, she didn’t have electricity and her washing machine was dog-powered-they had a treadmill. The dog was to tread on the mill and that powered her washing machine. Well, the dog got wise to what was going on and he knew when Monday mornings rolled around, and he would disappear! They had to find the dog in order to do the washing!

Interviewer: That’s truly unique! Any WWI veteran’s stories?

Dianne Horn: I don’t remember any WWI veterans. Most of my memories are WWII. We had a hired man that was working for us by the name of Wilson Collins. Before the war started he had signed up to go into the service and the agreement was to be that he would be in for a year and he would be out. Then Pearl Harbor was attacked and they got word that he would be in for the duration. He was in for five years before he could come home. When he come home, then he and my older sister Marian got married. There was a young man up the road and he was Reginald France and he was in WWII. And I remember the banner hanging in the window with a star on it.

Interviewer: You do?

Dianne Horn: (Nodding yes)

Interviewer: Gold Star.

Dianne Horn: (Nodding yes)

Interviewer: What churches existed in this Township? Who were the pastors? Were they circuit riders or were they located here permanently to serve the congregations? Where did you possibly attend church, if at all?

Dianne Horn: I guess I was kind of aware of the Franklin Center and Eureka church but we never attended there. We always went to the Advent Christian Church in Edinboro, located on (Route) 99. It was up towards Edinboro Lake.

Interviewer: So then, what did you do for fun, growing up? For entertainment-yourself, your friends or possibly your parents, if they allowed that, if that was what they had time for? Where did you gather for these activities? Did you have a roller rink or something to go to? Did the churches or schools that you attended have special gatherings as well?

Dianne Horn: As I said before, Joanne Sturm and I became almost inseparable. We stayed over night at each other’s house quite a bit. We had a lot of neighborhood gatherings. We’d get together for strawberry socials and of course there were weddings and funerals. Funerals were held in the homes a lot at that time. Oh, there were just get-togethers, picnics. On our road, they had a picnic they called the “Ram-Lam Picnic.” And that was a group of men that my Grandfather and his boyhood chums and their families got together and they always had roast lamb and a big picnic dinner. It was quite often at my Grandfather Fellows’ place.

Interviewer: Must have been really something to look forward to!

Dianne Horn: Yes, that was something special.

Interviewer: Any other memories of gatherings of any kind? You said there were funerals in the home. Do you remember personally anything that you had to attend to-a funeral in the home?

Dianne Horn: I can remember going to my Grandmother’s funeral. It was at their home in Edinboro. I was only about three or four, I guess. I can remember my Mom picking me up so I could see in the casket and it didn’t mean a whole lot to me, except, you know, she was sleeping. But I do remember that. I remember attending one in the Township. A man by the name of Howell Pulling passed away and we went to his house. And my Grandfather and Grandmother sang. There was a service.

Interviewer: So these solemn occasions were inside private homes? Neighbors, friends, family gathered there all the time you were growing up?

Dianne Horn: Well, that was through my early years, yes.

Interviewer: Do you remember politics discussed in your home? Some families do a lot of that, some just don’t have the time.

Dianne Horn: There were a lot of family discussions around the dinner table. I think that’s where we learned a lot of our values, things like that. We were taught to be good to people.

Interviewer: Any idea of one political name that comes to mind at all during that time, even up to the time you were married or a certain thing: you lived through the Depression, you lived through the years of the War. A key figure, anyone or were you just busy with other day to day things and this was not a concern to you?

Dianne Horn: I think one of the first things I remember as far as politics were concerned was when Roosevelt died and Truman became President.

Interviewer: Sure. What was that like for your family? Did you pick up any of their attitudes about that?

Dianne Horn: Well, my family were Republican and of course they did not agree with Roosevelt’s ideas at all.

Interviewer: Was there something in particular that was troublesome about FDR? Was there a reason? They were a farming family and they worked hard. Do you remember what was the concern they had with his Presidency or the way he carried out policy?

Dianne Horn: I think probably I heard them talk about it, but it was like them talking about the Depression. It was like some big thing but yet you didn’t fully understand all the implications of it.

Interviewer: But it was strong conversation around the table?

Dianne Horn: Yes. Those were the things discussed around the table.

Interviewer: Did you remember anyone in the area that held a political office, an assessment person, a supervisor, a school director?

Dianne Horn: Well, my Grandfather Harned was a school director. My Grandfather Fellows was a Road Supervisor. My Uncle Ernie Meacham was a Road Supervisor at one time. I remember Thora Harris was the Township Secretary and she had the job for seventeen-eighteen years, and then when she retired, that’s when I took it on.

Interviewer: Do you remember a road that had its name changed? Do you remember the locality? Why it might have been changed?

Dianne Horn: Well, Townline Road had its name changed because anytime two municipalities came together; it was called the Townline Road. You began to get delivery services into the Township and so on, and that was very confusing to them because if you got an address for Townline Road, they didn’t know where to go. This happened while I was a Township Secretary. The Townships were asked to rename those Roads. So people by the name of Fry had lived on Fry Road and the northern part of the road was called Fry Road, so they just named it Fry Road all the way through.

Interviewer: Natural disasters, snowstorms, droughts, all of that, from childhood all the way up-What they might have been? How did your family cope with these situations? Was there something in particular that is honed into your memory?

Dianne Horn: Well, I guess that big snowstorm of ’44 and ’45 was when we were so snowbound. Dad had to get out to market. They would load up the sleigh and keep the car parked down on Crane Road, and they would load up the sleigh and take it down and transfer everything to the car and go to Erie. Lots of times the snow was so deep they didn’t travel on the roads, they would travel back next to the woods where the snow wasn’t so deep.

Interviewer: In the sleigh?

Dianne Horn: In the sleigh, yes.

Interviewer: So, the car never came back into the driveway, the car had to be positioned on a roadside? No one bothered that car?

Dianne Horn: No, nobody bothered the car. We didn’t worry about that. I know going to school, there were kids that came from down north, which was north on Townline Road, who didn’t get to school for three months, they just couldn’t get out. We had a lady that drove a little van with wooden benches in the van. That’s the way she picked the kids up and brought them to school. And she couldn’t get through with that. So, they never got to school. Then when spring came and the kids started coming back to school. We started going longer hours. We would go to five o’clock at night to school in order to make up some of the time we lost.

Interviewer: Describe snowplowing in the area.

Dianne Horn: Royce mentioned about the old cleat track that he had that plowed snow. He couldn’t keep up with the plowing. The snow got so deep that the plow couldn’t get through. As he came to each road, the neighbors of each road, the men would get out with their big snow shovels and would shovel ahead of the snowplow in order to help the snowplow get through. And I remember one day they got down between our place and Paul Wood’s and the snow was deep. So, one of the men decided to walk to Edinboro to get some dynamite. They were going to see if they could dynamite the snow out. He got back. They put in the dynamite and everybody scattered. The dynamite just fizzled and went out. So, they still had to shovel! I don’t know what the problem was, but it didn’t work anyhow! That same winter, they had snow fence that they would put up to help keep the snow out of the roads. And of course, the banks would fill up against the snow fence. So the school kids went out south of the school house and made a tunnel along a snow bank. And when the school bell rang, it was time to come in, and we all hid in the tunnel. My aunt was the teacher then, and was not known for appreciating things like that. And she had to put on her coat and boots and come out and get us. She took that one pretty good-natured! (laughing)

Interviewer: Almost worked! She must have followed your footprints!

Dianne Horn: Yes (laughing).

Interviewer: Was there anything in the summertime, with the hot, humid weather that affected you or your crops? Thunderstorms or anything that frightened you?

Dianne Horn: I don’t remember anything really out of the ordinary. My Grandparents had a hired man. There came up a thunder and lightning storm in the summertime. The family all went to the house to get out of the storm. The hired man didn’t show up. So, after the storm, they saw him coming across the yard and Grandpa said, “Why, Branchard, what happened to you?” He said. “I was in the outhouse. You never heard of lightning striking one of them things, did ya?”

Interviewer: Your crops, as far as you can remember, were never affected by any drought, heavy winds, hail damage?

Dianne Horn: Nothing that was really drastic. I remember hearing them tell in early years about an invasion of army worm that went through that destroyed crops.

Interviewer: Which crops did it hit?

Dianne Horn: The corn, mostly.

Interviewer: Army worm? What would that look like? Do you remember seeing one?

Dianne Horn: Well, we had an infestation of them here one time not too many years ago, when we were still farming. But they sprayed a lot at that time. I don’t think they had sprays much during that earlier invasion. I remember them telling about our neighbor, Crete (?) Billings. They were getting into the house and that she was sweeping with her broom to keep them out. And her standing there, crying and sweeping at the same time, trying to keep these things out of her house!

Interviewer: I guess that qualified as a natural disaster.

Dianne Horn: Absolutely right! That’s coming too close for comfort!

Interviewer: Do you remember the neighbors in your area, their ethnic backgrounds? What countries did they come from? And if they did leave, where did they move to?

Dianne Horn: Most of the people that lived on our road were people that were descendents of the early settlers. There was one family down the road, their name was Olsavski. I’m not sure which country they were from. But they had come from the Pittsburgh area. They worked in the coal mines. And I think that’s what a lot of the people did that came up into this area. They had worked in the coal mines and managed to get together and buy a small farm and get out of the coal mines and make a better life for themselves. But my mother remembered one of the original settlers. She was just a little girl then, and of coarse that lady was an old lady. And she was a little relation to the family, too. She was a sister to my Great-great Grandmother. She told Mom about coming here from Unadilla, New York, in an oxcart, bringing her baby in her arms. They settled on Townline Road. And she said the nearest neighbor was a family by the name of Munson and it was just a walk through the woods to visit her neighbor.

Interviewer: Now they would have been the earlier settlers. Did they come in the early 1800s or earlier than that?

Dianne Horn: It was very early 1800s or even the late 1790s or somewhere in there.

Interviewer: If people in the vicinity lived here a while and then moved away, do you know why they moved away?

Dianne Horn: I don’t really remember anyone moving away that much.

Interviewer: They stayed here, then.

Dianne Horn: Yeah. We did have a family that lived here just north of Old State. His name was Timothy Crowley. He was from Ireland. I heard my Dad say that Timothy invited him to come to his daughter’s wedding. He told my Dad, “Oh, you want to come. There will be plenty to eat, plenty to drink and plenty good time!”

Interviewer: The diseases in childhood, what did children get sick from? What were some of the prevalent illnesses and what did you put up with yourself? If there were early deaths, what illnesses did children die of?

Dianne Horn: Well, in my time, it was like Royce said, measles, mumps, chicken pox. I heard my family tell about when diphtheria, typhoid fever, things like that were prevalent.

Interviewer: Did you yourself have to deal with these?

Dianne Horn: No, not with the typhoid fever and diphtheria. We were given shots when we were kids for things like that. They would pick us up at school and take us over to the old Town Hall. Dr. [Boyd] Ghering from Edinboro, he was kind of the country doctor who came out to the Township when you needed a doctor. And he gave us shots for things like that. I did have the whooping cough. I had the measles and chicken pox. I guess I never had the mumps.

Interviewer: When adults passed away, what were the reasons for their death?

Dianne Horn: No, mostly it was just people who had come to that time in their life. My Grandmother Harned died early. She had complications of Sugar Diabetes. But I don’t remember anything other than that.

Interviewer: Where did people bury their family members? Do you remember a particular cemetery they used?

Dianne Horn: In our area, most of them used either McLane or Edinboro. McLane is kind of a family cemetery for us. My Great-great grandfather lived in McLane and he gave the property for that cemetery and for the church, and so he had reserved a large plot there for family. So, most of my family on that side of the house is buried there anyway.

Interviewer: Anything else that would have been very important? You’re on a farm and all this is going on with school and things are changing. How do you remember things such as when the roads were better than the deep ruts that would freeze during winter? And mud that you couldn’t even pass through on?

Dianne Horn: My parents had the stand at the Twelfth Street Market and they had to go to Erie every week. I know the mud was a big problem for them lots of times. Old State Road was not paved at that time. Neither was Angling Road into Edinboro. I can remember them trying to get home, trying to come up the hill over there on Old State Road coming up out of McLane and not being able to make it. Turning around and going into Edinboro and trying to go out Angling Road and getting stuck on Angling Road and having to leave the car and walk in home. Dad used to say lots of times that it didn’t matter which direction he was coming from, the dog would always meet them half way. (laughing)

Interviewer: Something that might come to your mind, as you were growing up in Franklin Township… circumstances living on the farm: good and happy times and difficult times?

Dianne Horn: I mentioned earlier I am by far the youngest of four girls. My sister Eleanor was married when I was three and my sister Charlotte was married when I was five. Marian was married when I was about eight. My sister Charlotte I don’t even remember her being at home. As soon as she graduated from high school, she moved to Cleveland. And of course, you didn’t travel back and forth much then. And so, I just was never really that close to her. We did have different hired men on the farm, and as a kid, I followed them around everywhere they went. They were good to me. They would entertain me and allowed me to go with them everywhere they went. We had one fella that I followed him everywhere he went. And my sister took my picture sitting on the step to the outhouse, waiting for Frankie! That’s what she always called him. (laughing) But he gave me my first Teddy Bear for Christmas! A black and white panda bear. There was another one that worked on the farm for Dad. I had a little dog that I called Trigger. He insisted on calling my dog Sport. And I didn’t like that name at all, and it kind of provoked me. So, to get even with him, this big baby doll that my sister had given me for Christmas, when you laid her back, she would cry! Well, I found out that annoyed him! So, that was my retaliation to him!

Interviewer: You were a devious little child there! Since you were the youngest, and no brothers, some of the workload of your father and mother would have been quite a bit. So, that was to help your father with the farming? Did he and the hired hands do this day in and day out? Did your father ever go elsewhere to work part time? Did men in the area go out to work sometime?

Dianne Horn: Dad worked full time on the farm. He always had one hired hand at least. At that time, there seemed to be a lot of men around who were just glad to have a room and three meals a day. It was Depression times and they were looking for that kind of thing.

Interviewer: So, a farmer that didn’t necessarily have strong sons, he could rely on hired hands to get the work done and the neighbors worked together?

Dianne Horn: Yes, they did. When it came time to get a crop in like your oats or corn, they were always around to help.

Interviewer: Your Mother’s workload, describe what you remember.

Dianne Horn: Well, she kept house, the canning and besides that, she would go to the barn and help milk the cows. She was the one that tended to the chickens. We generally had 300-400 chickens and we would get them as baby chicks. They would be shipped in and she would look after them, feeding and watering them. Then on Fridays, it was the day to make butter and she always helped with that. Dad had a big churn in the barn that was powered with an engine with a big belt. They probably made about 50 lbs. of butter at least each week. Dad would print it and Mom would wrap it. Then of course, we had all the chickens to dress. We probably dressed 25 chickens every week, which was not my favorite job! I was always glad when school started and I didn’t have to help with that anymore! She had a big boiler on the stove to heat water to scald the chickens and dress them. She had big tubs in the basement. They would fill them with cold water that they put the chickens in after they were cleaned and dressed. We kept them there overnight there. She had big white bags and early in the morning, I would hold the bag and she would put in the chicken and she would have several bags and Dad would load them in the car to take to Erie.

Interviewer: So, Erie was the place where your farm products were sent to?

Dianne Horn: The Twelfth Street Market. They had a stand at the Twelfth Street Market and they sold from that stand.

Interviewer: And they were able to make a profit or make enough of a living and never had to worry about losing the farm and could keep the taxes paid?

Dianne Horn: I’m sure it was a struggle. A lot of farmers came in and had all kinds of stands. They had big meat stands and flower stands, bakery stands and home-made bakery stands. And of course, dish stands and news stands. It was quite a marvel for me to walk up and down the aisles to see all the different things for sale!

Interviewer: You got to go along, then?

Dianne Horn: Oh,sure!

Interviewer: It must have been the best day in the week for you!

Dianne Horn: Oh, I enjoyed it! Sometimes in the afternoon, when business would slow down, Mom and I would go over on State Street to Boston Store, Trask’s, Grant’s, some of those stores, Woolworth’s, Kruse’s.

Interviewer: Seeing the best of downtown Erie! So, they did this every week?

Dianne Horn: Every Friday they got ready for market and every Saturday they went to market.

Interviewer: So, the week’s worth of work culminated into this day and that was the profit that sustained the farm.

Dianne Horn: Right. They had a lot of experiences going to market. Of course, during the Depression, times were hard. Dad told about coming home one night. They were coming up the hill out of Kearsarge towards where Spring Hill is now, a couple men ahead of him in a car stopped in front of him and jumped out of their car to stop Dad and he stepped on the gas and headed right for them and they backed right up against their car! My sister Eleanor was just a girl, and she was riding with him and she said, “Oh Daddy I always wanted to be along when something like this happened!” And Mom had an experience coming home one night, too, that somebody kept trying to stop her. But she said that every time there would be a car coming in the opposite direction, it was dark and it had its lights on and she got into McKean and stopped at a gas station and her cousin [Hank Harrison] happened to be in there. He said, “Don’t worry, Fanny, you go on home and I’ll follow you.” But she said they were waiting down the road. So, she was glad for his help!

Interviewer: Was this something of concern or very rare? If this happened to both your parents, did this happen to other farmers? You had quite a lot of miles to cover.

Dianne Horn: Well, I never heard of any other stories, only what my parents told me. I’m sure there were.

Interviewer: And the result would be they were going to take food from you?

Dianne Horn: I think they wanted their money! Mom told one night she was loading up from the stand and she let my sister in the car to stay with things as she was going back and forth. She came out and she noticed my sister was talking to somebody and she said, “What did that guy want?” “Oh, he wanted to know where we were going, how we were going to go.” Mom’s car was pointed in one direction and his car was on the other side to go in the other direction and so when she left, she kind of zigzagged on some of the streets and lost him!

Interviewer: And an innocent child just didn’t know.

Dianne Horn: Yeah, she gave him everything he wanted to know.

Interviewer: What was a mother to do? But to try to outsmart him!

Dianne Horn: Right! That was all she could do!

Interviewer: You have thought of some fantastic childhood memories! Can you think of anything more? I’m certainly glad you could remember these stories.

Dianne Horn: I could probably tell you alot of stories I heard, but that’s most of my memories. Mom and Dad grew up next door to each other. Their farms joined each other and they tell the story of my Dad and his Mother walking up the road to visit one day. And when they got ready to go home, it was custom to walk apiece. So, my Mom and her Mother were going to walk part way back with them. And on the way back, I think Dad was about three or four and my Mother was five, and they said Mom kissed Dad! And they said, “Fanny, what made you do that?” And she said, “I don’t know. He was so cute, I couldn’t help myself!” (laughing)

Interviewer: That’s wonderful! Memories and stories are something that you want to continue.

Dianne Horn: I grew up on alot of those kinds of stories that they would tell.

Interviewer: I want to bring this interview to a close and I thank you very much.

Dianne Horn: Thank you.