Swift, Edith Roan

EDITH ROAN SWIFT

Interviewer: Nanette Grygier Interviewed on: January 2, 2004

Interviewer: Please state your name, your full name and spell it and how old you are and what is your birthday, please.

Edith Swift: Ok, my name is Edith Swift. I am 71 years old, and I’ve lived in this township probably all my life except maybe two or three years.

Interviewer: When were you born?

Edith Swift: I was born May 28, 1931.

Interviewer: Where have you live in Franklin Township?

Edith Swift: My parents had a store where the, behind where the old school was in Franklin Center and I went to school eight years at that school, and they also had a feed mill there and I can remember my dad bringing ice boxes from Edinboro Lake and storing them in saw dust in another building he had and he also did auto mechanics on the side.

Interviewer: So how long have you actually lived in Franklin Township then, all your life?

Edith Swift: All my life but about two or three years.

Interviewer: What was your home like in the early years, such as how was it heated? And when did you get indoor plumbing and water and when did they get electricity? What was the type of home you had?

Edith Swift: We lived upstairs over that store, then we moved up where a Sheffer’s used to live, which is up on 98 just north of New Road, we call it the Sheffer Farm and we lived there a couple years and then my dad built a new house down in Franklin Town Center and we lived there till 1940 and then we moved out of there to Lavery’s Corners. While we lived at Lavery’s Corners is when I got married and the only school I went to was Franklin Center, I went eight grades there. And I went to Albion one year and then it was time to go to work, I was next to the oldest of eight children so, it was time for me to go to work. I went to work at the Model Works in Girard and then I went from there to what they called Lang Electric in Edinboro. I worked at the Dairy Barn in Edinboro, needless to say I didn’t go to anymore school which I wish I could of or would of.

Interviewer: Did you have radio or television in your home, anything telephone and washing machine or refrigerators? And if you did what years would that have been?

Edith Swift: We had a washing machine it was a gas engine washing machine that was the first one mom had and even the second one she got was a Maytag gas engine. The more kids we had, their was eight of us, the more kids there was the more we needed new machines. I remember in the forties we got our first refrigerator that was a real treat; we didn’t have to run to the basement anymore.

Interviewer: To get your ice is that where the ice was?

Edith Swift: No, just to keep things cool, the basement floor would stay cool.

Interviewer: Ok

Edith Swift: Dad built this new house in 1940 down there in Franklin Center, which is right beside where they call Whiskey River, its still there, its got asbestos shingles on the outside of it, its still there and then they moved from there to Lavery’s Corners and I moved up there with them. When I went to work, I left there and got myself a room, paid five dollars a week for it and kind of took care of myself.

Interviewer: Did you know in this area, Franklin Township, who might have had the first electricity or the first telephone, or the very first of any of the utilities?

Edith Swift: I don’t know who was the first but I know dad was pretty much up on stuff like that and having the store and the feed mill and stuff he was pretty quick about getting things like that.

Interviewer: The idea of a vehicle, who had the first car or truck and what was the name of that? If you could remember in the family of your grandparents or your parents talk about that, as a child could you remember who might have had a…

Edith Swift: I know my dad had a Model T but I don’t know if that was the first one.

Interviewer: You remember that.

Edith Swift: Yeah

Interviewer: Who were your, now all your family members and who were you possibly related to here in Franklin Township?

Edith Swift: All the Vogt’s and of course the Krautter’s married into the Vogt’s, so I was some them and my grandfather lived in right up there across the new road [now named, New Road] from the township building and that’s where my dad was born.

Interviewer: So the Vogt’s how did you spell that name?

Edith Swift: Vogt

Interviewer: Ok, in your earliest memories who were your friends who were your parent’s friends? The names of a few, families here or people you knew outside the area, what is your fondest childhood memory of any season, including Christmas time if you want or if there is something else?

Edith Swift: Probably winter time when we used to go up on Clay Hough’s hill and slide down, go into the creek, sometimes the ice would break and you would get a little damp, but we would have a lot a fun doing it. The teacher from the school there used to go up with us and slide down the hill with us and that was great. The First teacher I had was Mrs. Callaway, she was from Girard and that was the first three years and then in fifth and sixth grade I had Mrs. Capshaw [Cutshall], from Girard and she taught for two years and then Mrs. Ford- Smith taught the last three years I went to school there. The teachers used to go with us and it was really a lot of fun because you know our parents never went with us. They were to busy but the teacher had to go with us to have an adult with us.

Interviewer: That’s excellent, were they like your friends too then?

Edith Swift: Yeah.

Interviewer: Did your parents have friends that came to the farm, like for weekends or visits or special occasions, any friends’ names that stick out?

Edith Swift: They didn’t come for weekends. They came to visit, but we kind of had a house full, there was eight of us kids so there was quite a house full of us.

Interviewer: Do you have fondest Christmas gift or fond memory or a special occasion other than Christmas that stands out as a child in your mind?

Edith Swift: My first doll.

Interviewer: Ok, and would you please tell us about that.

Edith Swift: I thought that was the greatest thing that ever happened.

Interviewer: How old were you?

Edith Swift: I was probably about five, and it wasn’t a big doll but it was a nice doll, it had a pretty dress on it and everything, a lot of the people made their clothes for their dolls back then so, they might buy a doll and just then make clothes to work on it.

Interviewer: So was that how your doll was dressed with homemade dresses or did they buy them in stores?

Edith Swift: No, not the first one I had wasn’t no, but I have had some that were.

Interviewer: So, could you tell me who did you marry and how did you meet your spouse and tell us about your wedding and if you had a honeymoon and where did you live when you first were married when you met your husband?

Edith Swift: You want to know who I met?

Interviewer: Yes, who you married.

Edith Swift: I married Raymond Swift; I met him at the Dairy Barn in Edinboro. First I seen him, I was going to work at a car and he used to go down the road with horse and team of horses with a plow or something on it to plow gardens for people and stuff and I always had my eye on him when I was doing that and then I met him when I went to work at the Dairy Barn and we’ve been together ever since and that was in, God in the forties.

Interviewer: You married, and when was your wedding date?

Edith Swift: October 22, of 1949.

Interviewer: Did you go away on a honeymoon or anywhere?

Edith Swift: Did we?

Interviewer: A weekend trip?

Edith Swift: We went to his mothers’, she lived in Ohio and we went to his mothers’ for the weekend.

Interviewer: Well, where did you and your husband, Raymond, live when you were first married?

Edith Swift: On Meadville Street in Edinboro.

Interviewer: Could you list any children that you had their names and maybe their birthdays?

Edith Swift: I have four children, Dennis, born December 14, 1951, Danny, born March 16, 1954, and Robert, December 28, 1955 and Debbie, 1961 of November 21, 1961, yeah.

Interviewer: Thank you, from your early memories what schools do you remember existed in Franklin Township and where were you going to school, if you can remember the name and maybe, who were some of the teachers, I know you already told us but if you could repeat that, the names of the schools?

Edith Swift: I went to Franklin Center School for eight years and the teachers were Mrs. Calloway, Mrs. Capshaw [Cutshall?] and Mrs. Smith and then we moved to Lavery’s Corners so then I went to school, one year, to high school, in the ninth grade that was the end of my school.

Interviewer: And that was because why, you were not able to continue school, you had to go to work or, what was the reason?

Edith Swift: I felt I needed to go to work because I didn’t have the clothes I needed to wear to school because there was, you know, there was eight of us so, we didn’t have a lot of clothes. So I went one year and then I quit.

Interviewer: Did you have a best friend or several good friends, in that time you were in school?

Edith Swift: Yeah.

Interviewer: Do you remember their names?

Edith Swift: Jean Walsh was one of them and Phyllis Neal.

Interviewer: Do any of them live in this area or do you keep in contact with them now?

Edith Swift: I see them occasionally at the Albion Fair.

Interviewer: Ok

Edith Swift: But that’s about it.

Interviewer: So they may still live in this area?

Edith Swift: One lives in Lake City and one lives in Pont.

Interviewer: Oh alright, we know that farming was the predominant occupation in the early years, could you tell, what do you remember about either the crops that were raised, the equipment used, the farming related businesses, who in this area might have had the first tractor or planter thresher, or did your family, parents, grandparents share the equipment with neighbors?

Edith Swift: I don’t remember who had the first tractor, but I remember having a old model T car that my brother and I, I was five and he was six, we used to drive from Franklin Center up to the farm where my dad had rented, the Sheffer farm and a we used to do chores up there and then drive it back and we were just kids ourselves. It was kind of fun and we had a good time doing it and we knew we couldn’t, you know we didn’t dare mess around because they would know, because all the people would tell them, they had them watching us. I’m going to say that my dad was probably one of the first ones to have a tractor and stuff.

Interviewer: And he used to fill silos?

Edith Swift: He used to do custom work with them.

Interviewer: Did your family, would you say they were successful at farming or do you know others that were very successful at farming or maybe not so successful?

Edith Swift: I thought they were successful at farming; my dad was a real hard worker and my mother too.

Interviewer: Oh I’m sorry and of course she would have worked right along side.

Edith Swift: Yeah, she worked as well outside just as well as she worked inside with all of us kids so. Everybody had a job.

Interviewer: Ok, how many animals did they keep on the farm, if any?

Edith Swift: They probably had thirty or forty. I think when we used to go up to Sheffer’s we probably had about fourteen or fifteen then to start with.

Interviewer: Did your parents or grandparents do their own butchering or preserve meat or can or a have a garden?

Edith Swift: Yeah, yeah

Interviewer: Did your, was it your parents or grandparents that did the butchering or did others come in?

Edith Swift: My dad did his own.

Interviewer: Your dad did his own?

Edith Swift: Well, you know the neighbors all used to all pitch in and help do things like that.

Interviewer: Ok, did the children help with any of that?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah.

Interviewer: What was something you remember as a child about butchering?

Edith Swift: I remember helping to cut that stuff up and put it in jars and can it and stuff.

Interviewer: So your mother would can, your mother did the canning?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah, canned beef is good.

Interviewer: Any other animal that was canned or preserved besides the beef?

Edith Swift: I don’t recall her doing any chickens so.

Interviewer: Mostly beef?

Edith Swift: Yeah, yeah we did pigs, yeah she used to can them and make sausage and stuff.

Interviewer: Did you help with sausage making?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah.

Interviewer: What was your job in that?

Edith Swift: What ever came up, whatever came up. I was the oldest; one of the older ones so I got to do a lot more things than some of the younger ones got to do.

Interviewer: Sure, if you could remember what businesses or professions that were existing in the township from your very earliest memory or that someone would have told you about in your family, who these owners might have been such as a like a saw mill, blacksmith, cheese factory, you know quarry, oil and gas, wagon makers, or grist mill, feed mill a doctor maybe?

Edith Swift: My dad had a grist mill.

Interviewer: Yeah, your dad had a grist mill ok.

Edith Swift: And a he had a store.

Interviewer: Of course.

Edith Swift: And he also sold gas at the pump, one of those hand pump jobs and Clay Hough had a saw mill and a cider mill and he lived up on top of the hill going out of Franklin Center, on the left, I don’t know who lives there now.

Interviewer: So there was a cider mill?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah

Interviewer: Any cattle dealers, horse dealers?

Edith Swift: There was a cattle dealer; I don’t think he was, I guess he was from Franklin Township wasn’t he. You knew him.

Interviewer: Was there someone who worked with leathers or a tinker, a shoe maker in this area?

Edith Swift: Not that I can recall.

Interviewer: As a child you don’t remember if your parents took and had shoes made for the children or had leatherwork done nothing like that?

Edith Swift: I can’t recall any.

Interviewer: But there was a cheese factory, possibly?

Edith Swift: There was a cheese factory at Ivoray Road.

Interviewer: Yeah, good.

Edith Swift: Somebody told me and I don’t know if its true or not and I don’t know if anybody else in the township knows but down below Franklin Corners on the left there used to be a couple of trees there I’m not sure there are any trees there anymore, there used to be a cheese factory and a cider mill down there, but I don’t recall it anymore.

Interviewer: And you knew about the stone quarry when you were growing up possibly or that the Howard’s operated it? Did you have anything to do with that or did your family have anything, other than you just knew it existed?

Edith Swift: I knew it existed that’s about it.

Interviewer: Did you ever get to see it, go over that way?

Edith Swift: Actually, no I don’t think so.

Interviewer: To look at the waterfalls did you ever see the waterfalls?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah we used to go down there from school that would be our, that would be our end of the year picnic we would go down there to Howard Falls and have a big picnic dinner and play around down there in the water and stuff, the teachers would take us down there and maybe a mother or two would go to help.

Interviewer: Where did you, your parents or grandparents do purchasing or trading if they needed to buy certain commodities, obviously you made a lot on your own home farm but what if you had to buy seed, had to buy some items of clothing or toys, probably not toys but food like cheese, bread?

Edith Swift: I remember them buying stuff from Flickenger Company in Erie, a long that was a long time ago, they were in business for quite a while.

Interviewer: What kinds of things, other things did they buy?

Edith Swift: Groceries, because they had the store and that’s where they got their groceries for the store, Flickenger Company.

Interviewer: Do you know, clothing was that mostly made at home sewn on your sewing machine or did you purchase certain items of clothing?

Edith Swift: Well, they purchased some but my mom had a good friend who used to make clothing for us.

Interviewer: Oh

Edith Swift: Beautiful clothes she made for us, yeah.

Interviewer: So she paid her and that was her way of…..

Edith Swift: She was just a friend she would come and do it and stay with us and stuff.

Interviewer: How nice. Would you happen to know the value of farm land with the building or without a home on it, even just vacant farm land what was the value, sort of, like maybe during the depression or the forties or earlier than that if you might have remembered in conversation from your parents talking about the price of an acre or the price of farm land?

Edith Swift: I don’t think it was very much, I can remember. In ‘49 they used to, what did you say it was?

Man: What are you talking about?

Edith Swift: What you just said.

Man: Five dollars.

Edith Swift: Oh, five dollars a week we used to live on, he and I when we were first married. We didn’t have very much money so we lived pretty cheap.

Interviewer: Sure, did you know what it costs to build or buy a home in say the early decade.

Edith Swift: Umm

Interviewer: Or the value of household goods or anything along that line?

Edith Swift: I think my dad sold that grocery store and place for $2,500 when he sold it and that was back like 1940.

Interviewer: Good, good.

Edith Swift: And that was a business he had gas, sold gas and groceries and feed and…

Interviewer: Wow, how much acreage was with your family’s farm or grandparent’s farm?

Edith Swift: Umm

Interviewer: Do you remember?

Edith Swift: I don’t really remember for sure, I don’t remember.

Interviewer: Did the jobs, when people lived on the farms there were men that took jobs in Erie or elsewhere, besides working the farms that you know of it in your own family’s experience?

Edith Swift: My dad was a, went to work on the railroad.

Interviewer: Oh, tell us about that.

Edith Swift: And he worked on the New York Central Railroad for probably four or five years just to, to a keep us a float because things started to get a little more money and stuff and we needed a little more income.

Interviewer: Then was anyone else besides your father, did he go in alone or did he have other guys in the area go with him or did he hitchhike or how did he get around?

Edith Swift: As far as know he went by himself.

Interviewer: Do you happen to know the rate of pay, how much it may have cost, he may have been able to earn?

Edith Swift: I wouldn’t have any idea that’s, we never heard that much about wages back then.

Interviewer: Or how long his work day, did he come home every day?

Edith Swift: Umm

Interviewer: Or was he staying in town?

Edith Swift: If he went to New York State he had to stay over night, if he went the other direction, Conneaut or somewhere, he usually got back home.

Interviewer: Oh I see, so if others, do you know of others as you were growing up, who did that, who left the farm for the better part of the day or even part of the week and worked in town somewhere like say Erie or somewhere or Meadville and then came home on the weekends or worked both the farm and the job?

Edith Swift: Yep, Perry Mills used to do that and Adrian Hayes used to do that.

Interviewer: Do you know where they worked?

Edith Swift: Adrian worked on the railroad.

Man: Perry he worked on the highway.

Edith Swift: Yeah, he worked for the state on the highway.

Interviewer: Perry

Edith Swift: Yeah, Perry Mills. Oh, I can remember them guys being out there on the back end of those trucks and they had to shovel the cinders off then, man them guys worked hard, it’s nothing like today.

Interviewer: Yeah

Edith Swift: They used to freeze to death up there. I remember seeing them come into the store once in a while and cuddle up to the stove to get warm.

Interviewer: While you were a small girl?

Edith Swift: Yeah, yeah I was probably about five years old or something six.

Interviewer: You saw a lot of this happen when men were working outside of Franklin Township?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah

Interviewer: Besides farming?

Edith Swift: Yeah

Interviewer: Any other memories of that of other, since your store must have been a focal point for people?

Edith Swift: There was another store there too, it was Rodak’s store, that started to grow as we were kind of like leaving it and they also had a tavern in one end, on one side of it on the corner there, and they sold quite a few groceries there and after we sold the store and the store closed we used to go there and buy groceries.

Interviewer: Oh, you had to buy your own groceries.

Edith Swift: Yeah, buy your own. We raised pretty much most of the stuff we had, we raised most of it.

Interviewer: Your vegetables and fruit and whatever?

Edith Swift: Yeah, mom did a lot of canning, yep three or four hundred quarts of stuff was nothing.

Interviewer: A season, a season. How much of that were you working with was beside her or your sisters?

Edith Swift: Well, we might have had to pick stuff out of the garden and help get it ready but she always did the canning. Yeah, we picked blackberries down there on Mohawk Road there used to be piles of them.

Interviewer: How many quarts?

Edith Swift: oh we couldn’t quit until we had a hundreds quarts down in the basement.

Interviewer: So you had a lot of blackberry pie?

Edith Swift: But everybody went to pick blackberries, oh yeah we had pie and cobbler, a lot of jelly; I look like I had a lot of jelly, huh?

Interviewer: No, that’s excellent. Any other fruit that was plentiful besides the blackberries in the fields?

Edith Swift: There was always a lot of apples.

Interviewer: Apples ok, what did you do with the apples?

Edith Swift: I guess they made applesauce out of them and a lot of them went to the cider mill. Yeah and apple jell too, apple jelly.

Interviewer: Did you have a part in that too?

Edith Swift: I didn’t help make that no.

Interviewer: You just picked the apples and brought them in bushels or baskets?

Edith Swift: We’ve done that, yes.

Interviewer: To go on to the next one, there were veterans obviously living in among you maybe from World War I, do you remember any stories do members of your family pass down memories of World War I veterans or even those from the Civil War that as a child you picked up growing up?

Edith Swift: I don’t remember any.

Interviewer: Family members, neighbors, people passing through sharing anything from the war?

Edith Swift: Not really.

Interviewer: Not the First World War? Your father, brothers, no one?

Edith Swift: Nobody was in the war from my family.

Interviewer: Ok

Edith Swift: I guess they didn’t take dad because there was so many of us kids it would have cost them too much to keep all of us while he was there, maybe that was a good thing?

Interviewer: Sure, in your early memories do you remember the churches in the area and maybe if you remember any of the pastors or ministers or were they circuit riders and where did your family attend church, if at all?

Edith Swift: Franklin Center.

Interviewer: Ok

Edith Swift: Franklin Center Methodist and my husband and I still belong there.

Interviewer: Do you know of other churches that were established?

Edith Swift: There was a church up there on Eureka and Crane.

Interviewer: What kind of a church was it?

Edith Swift: Similar to Franklin Center Methodist.

Interviewer: Oh, ok.

Edith Swift: Actually they were kind of non-denominational because a lot of people went there you know?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Edith Swift: There has always been a church in Crossingville, the Catholic people used to go up there I remember.

Interviewer: Did you know of other churches in the Crossingville area or this area, other than your own that were different?

Edith Swift: The only other one I know is over on Crane Road and that’s Bethel Presbyterian.

Interviewer: Well, you know how you talked about you had the picnics at the falls and your sled riding with your teachers a earlier, other things you did for recreation and entertainment that you did as a young person growing up and where did you go together were there annual activities or special dances or fairs or something that you went to as a family or just with other friends?

Edith Swift: They used to have Ladies Day where women would go and work on quilts, they would quilt all day and they always took something with them and they had a dinner, I remember doing that and on Voting Day we would have the whole town hall and Franklin Center they used to, everyone would take something in there and they would sit there and eat, the people who worked there and people could come in if they wanted to I guess. I remember they used to have dances there, I remember my dad and mom went to those and us kids always got to go and stomp around the floor.

Interviewer: Was that once a year, like springtime?

Edith Swift: No they used to have them almost every Saturday night or every other Saturday night, guys would come there and play for nothing almost and they had a good time. I can hear that floor bouncing yet.

Interviewer: So everyone and their family went to the dances?

Edith Swift: Yeah everybody went to the dances the kids and everybody, they didn’t hire babysitters then.

Interviewer: Did you have any other activities or church or school events besides the summer picnic at the falls were there any other special events?

Edith Swift: We used to have box socials at school.

Interviewer: Oh, tell us about those.

Edith Swift: They would auction off them, girls would take a box and they would auction them off the guys would buy them and then who ever bought your box you had to sit and eat with them.

Interviewer: Did you know about the game lands over here in the early years. The Erie County Sportsmen’s League evidently had picnics or contests or something and used part of the Mischler Farm and property for parking. Was your family ever involved in it? Evidently, it was a summer picnic, annual summer picnic, do you remember your family going and attending that at the state game lands?

Edith Swift: Where did they call the state game lands?

Interviewer: Before the first, or before second world war began over well that area, they used the Mischler farm for parking so it had to be near by here in the Franklin Center area and borders of the township possibly.

Edith Swift: I don’t remember that.

Interviewer: You didn’t do those…

Edith Swift: If we did I don’t remember it.

Interviewer: Do you remember anything about the politics or government in your early life that your parents might have mentioned things at the store, people coming in talking about something in the early decades that kind of left an impression on your mind?

Edith Swift: I know my mother used to work at the election board, when they had elections, that’s about all I know about it.

Interviewer: Any famous or favorite politician among your family that they would ever bring up, talk about?

Edith Swift: I don’t think so, there probably was but I don’t recall.

Interviewer: You had a full life with what you were doing. Did you know about the road supervisors and what, who they might have been from among the area in Franklin Township and what were your roads like, if you could explain for us the condition of the roads and how did people get around if they had to travel somewhere?

Edith Swift: Well, they used to bring kids up from the Francis territory to our school in Franklin Center there on a sleigh in winter time and there would be horse and sleigh and then when it got nicer out why he had a wagon type thing he had benches along the side and he used to sit on them and bring them up, Frank Rouse was the man’s name that used to drive the team and that’s basically about it, I don’t think anybody had to much for vehicles back then.

Interviewer: Would you happen to remember the names of who the constables, or school directors or justices were or property assessors would you have come across that growing up listening to your parents’ maybe or were you aware of these people or anyone in the area who sought a higher political office?

Edith Swift: The only one I can remember being supervisor was Clay Hough and Rob Sundback, Jenness, and I can’t think of his name.

Interviewer: With the roads out here, there names changed, sometimes the township roads started out with one name and ended up with another and do you remember these changes?

Edith Swift: (tape skip) [Fry] was one of them and it used to be Townline.

Interviewer: Ok and any other roads that you remember that had a different name?

Edith Swift: This one has always been Silverthorn. Koman Road, now I don’t know did anyone tell you about that one?

Interviewer: No.

Edith Swift: That’s up the road here it goes to the left it goes to the throughway now. It used to go clear through to the Fry but now its split because of the throughway but you can come in from either side.

Interviewer: Is it the same name both ends?

Edith Swift: Yeah.

Interviewer: Oh it is.

Edith Swift: Koman Road.

Interviewer: Koman Road how is that spelled?

Edith Swift: Koman.

Interviewer: Do you remember any natural, major national disasters from your childhood especially, and even from your parents time or earlier, something that would be carried on in conversation at home that they would tell, what you experienced as a young person?

Edith Swift: Not really.

Interviewer: Any particular storm in the wintertime, summertime or with the weather or the wind?

Edith Swift: In ’36 I think we had a cyclone, I think it was in ’36, that was in kind this, east of us here.

Interviewer: How did that affect you, how did you know about that you were a young person then?

Edith Swift: We knew it was a bad storm but didn’t know it was really a cyclone, I think there was a barn burned over here at that time, at the Curtze farm, and that was about the worst storm that I can remember.

Interviewer: Anything about winter, having to do with the snow plowing and the storms?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah.

Interviewer: Or the lack of snow plowing, I mean tell me about the roads and the stormy weather, I’m sure you….

Edith Swift: Actually they did pretty good with what they had to work with, if you consider what they had to work with and what they have now they did a good job, they might not have had two lanes open but they always had one usually open that people could get through.

Interviewer: Ever feel housebound or stuck because of impassable roads in the springtime or the wintertime?

Edith Swift: Not really it was just something that you expected I think.

Interviewer: Could you tell me what ethnic backgrounds do you remember from your earliest times, where did the people come from when they to Franklin Township and why did they come here and if they did leave where did they go and why, so the ethnic background of people coming from outside the United States?

Edith Swift: Everybody I knew there was there when I was around, so I don’t know actually where they came from.

Interviewer: Not what their ethnicity was?

Edith Swift: The only ones that I knew that came in there and that was the Rodak’s that came from the other store, they came from Pittsburgh and they moved up here on ‘98 some of their family was, and they were the ones who owned the other store.

Interviewer: If people migrated out of Franklin Township, do you know why as you were growing up and on with your own life?

Edith Swift: I think most of them that left there left because of work, transportation wasn’t all that great and they moved to where the work was.

Interviewer: Which was to?

Edith Swift: Erie, Girard.

Interviewer: Alright, this question has to do with childhood diseases and sicknesses prevalent during that time, do you remember as a child growing up listening to adult conversations from your own personal experience any kind of illnesses or diseases prevalent that took the life of a child and also those same kinds of illnesses that affected the adults as well?

Edith Swift: I heard them telling about Scarlet Fever.

Interviewer: Really, tell us about that.

Edith Swift: I don’t really remember who the child was but I remember them talking about that. Whooping Cough used to be bad because nobody had, you know, they didn’t have medicine for it like they do now. Other than that I don’t really know any.

Interviewer: What about for the adults, besides a sudden accident from another reason, an illness or sickness that would take the life of an adult that was prevalent?

Edith Swift: Pneumonia.

Interviewer: Pneumonia alright, anytime of the year did it have a certain season?

Edith Swift: Well, I think it was more or less a season, I’ve heard of it taking little ones, pneumonia, but I don’t know who they were anymore.

Interviewer: Do you know in this area, Franklin Township, where people buried their family members?

Edith Swift: A lot of them at Francis, McLane, Sterrettania, Crossingville, some of them went to Albion the ones that lived on the west side of the township.

Interviewer: If people died at an early age, we’re talking about the adults, was there anything else but pneumonia that would have taken their life, that you believed was just too soon, too early?

Edith Swift: I think Scarlet Fever was one of them and seems like there was another one but I can’t tell you.

Interviewer: Did any of this affect your own personal family as you were growing up; did you ever hear your grandparents talk about that?

Edith Swift: I’ve heard them talking about it but I don’t recall it striking our family.

Interviewer: All right.

Edith Swift: We pretty much stayed home so we didn’t get exposed to that stuff, other than school.

Interviewer: As an end to title together there were, someone mentioned to me that grandma Grace Mischler lived to be ‘98 and told a story about wolves chasing her all the way home as she rode horseback, do you have any similar stories or do you know of other wild animals anything that you were told to be careful of or that your parents were told by their parents to be careful of?

Edith Swift: Not really.

Interviewer: Any concern of any wildlife?

Edith Swift: I’m sure we were probably told about it but we never had any experience with it that I know of.

Interviewer: With anything coming on the farm or that you were told to stay with in a certain area while you were growing up?

Edith Swift: Well if we seen something like that we usually stayed away from it anyhow cause you didn’t know.

Interviewer: Would you be able to tell me anything else of your memory of anything we’ve talked about going back, if there is anything of particular importance to you that you would like to have video taped for the last maybe ten minuets of this to share with us, things that stand out celebrations or activities something fun, something maybe that was a little bit serious anything from your, you here in Franklin Township or some memory from grandparents, something do you remember your grandparents or anything about them?

Edith Swift: Yeah, I remember my grandparents.

Interviewer: How do you remember them?

Edith Swift: As very poor people, they had maybe three or four cows they milked by hand and that’s what they lived on and they grew their own stuff.

Interviewer: How long did they live do you remember?

Edith Swift: My grandfather lived to be pretty old he was what eighty-nine or ninety-one or two maybe. I guess he was ninety-one or two he lived to be old, my grandmother died pretty young.

Interviewer: Do you know the reason?

Edith Swift: I think she got pneumonia.

Interviewer: Do you have a special childhood memory with them, with either of your grandparents?

Edith Swift: My great grandmother.

Interviewer: Your great grandmother, please tell us that, that’s priceless.

Edith Swift: She was about as big as a ten or twelve year old girl, she wore dresses clear to the floor and she didn’t have any hair, she wore a wig and we never knew it. One time we were over there she had this thing wrapped around her head and we said “Grandma take that off so we can see your hair.” Well, she didn’t have any hair on she had lost her hair with Scarlet Fever and she always wore this wig and we never knew it.

Interviewer: What year would that have been when you remembered her, do you remember?

Edith Swift: That was a long time ago; I’m going to say in the forties, forty-six or seven, forty-five maybe that was a long time ago. It was kind of funny though here she didn’t have a hair on her head and we never knew she wore a wig, her hair always looked good so, we thought she had lots of good hair.

Interviewer: How about holiday time anything special with her or your other grandparents?

Edith Swift: Not really.

Interviewer: Birthdays or celebrations or something?

Edith Swift: No, I don’t think so, I can’t think of anything. I did have an aunt that had hair clear to her ankles.

Interviewer: Oh, what was her name?

Edith Swift: Pearl Salem.

Interviewer: How often did you get to see her?

Edith Swift: Probably two or three times a year, she stayed with us for a little while at one time after her husband died but other than that we didn’t see much of her.

Interviewer: Now she was your aunt, was she from your father’s side or…..

Edith Swift: She was my great aunt.

Interviewer: Your great aunt?

Edith Swift: From my mother’s side.

Interviewer: What were the type of things that were fun to do together off, you know when you were out of school, busy with the farm, what types of activities did you do for fun, besides the sled riding of course in the wintertime but when your on the property and you can’t go too far, your busy?

Edith Swift: We didn’t do too much fun things, we were always busy.

Interviewer: Working, what was the most, the least liked chore you had to do?

Edith Swift: Dishes.

Interviewer: Dishes, oh ok.

Edith Swift: Dishes.

Interviewer: Well there was how many of you?

Edith Swift: There were eight of us.

Interviewer: Eight of you, I imagine dishes were continual?

Edith Swift: Yeah, but they were a lot easier than washing clothes and hanging them out, there were a lot of clothes being washed.

Interviewer: Sure.

Edith Swift: Line after line everyday.

Interviewer: What happened if it rained?

Edith Swift: We dried them inside.

Interviewer: How did you dry them if it was wintertime?

Edith Swift: We had clothes lines strung up in the house.

Interviewer: Just like if it was raining.

Edith Swift: Yeah.

Interviewer: What’s one of the best memories that you have of your parents, or several things that make you smile, can you look back on them?

Edith Swift: I guess the thing we had the most fun with was the old model T.

Interviewer: Oh tell us that’s good.

Edith Swift: I think that was the most, my brother and I had a ball with that; he always wanted to drive because he was the oldest. I finally talked him into letting me drive once and he did, he didn’t like to but he did, he wanted to be the driver.

Interviewer: So did you learn to drive from there?

Edith Swift: Oh yeah, I used to drive the tractor for my dad when he was planting crops and doing hay and stuff like that.

Interviewer: How young were you when you began to drive the tractor?

Edith Swift: Pretty young, like ten or eleven, the tractor was a lot bigger than we were.

Interviewer: Quite a responsibility.

Edith Swift: Yeah one of them had iron wheels I remember so, I know that one was bigger than us. He had an old Hubert Tractor that was really big, he did thrashing with that though he didn’t use that on the farm much, silo filling and thrashing.

Interviewer: Did you have anything else you wanted to say before we close this interview, looking back over the years you lived in Franklin Township you’re looking out over all that time and this experience here?

Edith Swift: I don’t think I would change anything, I think we had a good life. As we were growing up we had rough times, we had hard times, good times, fun times, we had a lot of things but most of all we had each other and I think we need to be thankful for that.

Interviewer: So this will conclude our interview then.