Freeman Upson and Sally Culver

by Lydia Standley Burnham

daughter of Alexander Scoby Standley and Philinda Upson

written in December 1931

My great grandfather Freeman Upson, son of Joseph Upson, when a young man went to Ohio where it was yet unsettled to establish a home. The land was covered with heavy timber and it became necessary to clear the land of the timber before he could plant his gardens, orchards and fields. He cleared enough first to made and plant a nice orchard of apples as well as other fruit trees. Later he used the apples to make barrels of cider. They would extract the juice from the sweet apples and make a sweet syrup, using the pulp to make apple butter, for the family use.

He married Sally Culver. They had 9 children three boys and six girls. He built a two room log house with an attic which was used for bedrooms for the boys, a ladder being used in place of a stair­way. They had a large fireplace and a crane with hooks on to hang the kettles of food to cook. They did their baking in a large flat iron kettle, with a lid on it. This filled with dough was placed on the rock hearth and live coals, placed around the kettle and on the lid. They had to learn from experience how many coals to use and how long it took to bake different kinds of bread. My grandfather had a set of shoe maker tools so he could made and mend the shoes for the family.

They raised flax and being new country it was necessary to manufacture their own clothing. They used a small spinning wheel to spin the flax after it was combed and with this they wove beautiful fine twined linen which could be bleached and used to make fine white dresses, men's white shirts and finer articles of clothing. From the combings which they called Tow they made coarse cloth used for men's pants, bed ticks and work clothes for summer. From the sheep's wool they spun and wove warm clothing for winter.

They poured water over ashes of hardwood, this made a lye solution they used in making soap, it was combined with grease. For washing they had what they called a tromping barrel. It was shallow, filled with suds and water, if there was no children to tramp them with their feet, a large wooden punch would be used to agitate the clothes up and down in the water. Others would cut down a large

tree near a spring preferably, leaving a stump flat on top. The soiled clothing would be wet and soaped and with a wooden paddle, beat until they were clean enough to pm into the boil. The boiler was a large brass kettle that would hold about as much as two ordinary wash tubs. This was hung over a fire outside and the clothes boiled in it. They were then ready to rinse.

They died their clothes different colors. They raised madden root to make red, grew their own indigo to obtain blue, black walnut to make brown, peach leaves set with alum for a yellow, this mixed with blue made green.

The oldest daughter Laura, married Aretus Geer, Philinda the second daughter married Alexander Scoby Standley. These two oldest daughters and their families, were the only ones of my grandfathers family to join the church.

My father and mother were baptized In March 1837, and my mothers sister Laura and her husband, Aretus Geer, soon followed. Their was a branch of the church organized and according to agreement they combined their efforts to join the main body of the church in Missouri. The company consisted of 31 members. At night they all managed to sleep in, under or around the wagons, the cover coming far enough over the wheel to protect those sleeping around the wagon. Everyone walked except the babies and the weaker ones.

Laurs and Aretus Geer had four children, three boys and one girl. They left Portage County Ohlo, September 1838 and arrived in Far West Missouri October 23, where they found the saints being driven by the mobs. They lived where ever they could until 1840, when they went to Nauvoo.. There in 1845 Laura died leaving her husband and four cbldren. He left the church soon after and with his children went to Rock Island, Illinois.