The Buck Family (Part 7)

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Continued from Part 6

...but in October there were huge piles of cans stacked up waiting for a turn to be ground. We stopped there for a few minutes and probably had a taste of the molasses. As we started away Mr. Myers called to my father and said "Come help me make molasses tomorrow, I need a man awful bad." My father promised he would and he worked at the factory until the last of October before the last of the cane was ground. It was ideal Indian summer weather until late November, and then it turned cold and snowed for many days until the snow was more than knee deep on the level. It was the kind of winter that the saw mill men wanted to see because it was much easier to haul the logs to the mill on sleds. But it was hard to get men enough to cut logs as fast as the mill wanted them. Storm did not stop the loggers, from sun up to sun down the men and teams were hard at work in the timber. Men wore only cow hide leather boots in those, and they were abut the coldest things in winter that could be found. Many men froze their feet so badly that they could not walk for months. We lived that winter with Uncle Sam. Fourteen persons in a two room house did not leave room enough for a dance but if company came a place for them to sleep was found.

Ben had piloted the family to the end of the journey and was happy. Wherever the team went Ben would go and nothing would stop him. He became known for miles around and every man in Lacon knew him and had a kind word for him. It was a tough place in Lacon in those days, groceries or a sack of flour left in a wagon unguarded for a few minutes disappeared as if by magic but we were let severely alone. Ben would lead the wagon until the team was tied then he would jump into the wagon. People who were inquisitive enough to try to see what they could find in the wagon was met by shining teeth and the growl of a bear. Ben loved to hunt rabbits, he did not care for a gun, all he wanted was for someone to go with him into the woods, and that was not a hard job for the brush came up to within a few rods of the house and extended for miles in every direction. On one occasion Ben coaxed my brother, Willis, who was then 7 years old to follow him into the timber. Ben soon started a rabbit and chased it up hill and down for a couple of hours but was unable to force the rabbit into a hollow log or tree.