Lucy Mary Jane Waters with Husband, Richard Waters

Before grocery stores were convenient ….
One of the oldest English families in the county is the Henshaw/Waters family that held the original land deed on Hermitage Farm on Hwy. 42 outside of Goshen. The family settled there in 1828 and sold the farm in 1936 to thoroughbred horse owner and breeder, Warner Jones. Some of the same family members also purchased Locust Grove in Louisville in the late 1800s and lived there for many years. The following is taken from a letter written by Elizabeth “Aunt Betty” Henshaw on Feb. 18, 1884 at Hermitage Farm, of items that she is sending to her sister, Lucy Mary Jane Henshaw Waters, who has just moved with her husband, Richard Waters, to Locust Grove in Louisville. George, that Elizabeth is referring to, is George Page, a slave that worked on the farm.. John (who is mentioned to be sick in this letter) is Lucy and Richard’s son. This letter is courtesy of a Water/Henshaw descendant, Lucy Waters Clausen.

Feb. 18, 1884
Sister Jane,
At last George has been after the fruit trees and has deposited them in the cellar for safe keeping and will be obliged to start from here when he goes tomorrow – so I will be sure to catch him- and I have gotten as many things ready to send by him, as I expect he can carry. All the eggs I sent are fresh laid – those in the old water bucket are the newest – have been laid since last Thursday. They are all packed in meal which will be good for use. I sent a box containing some of the large meat dishes that are “doing nothing” here and which I know you need. For you surely did not take anything with you and I know you have needed things to use for setting meat away in. I have at last “fished out” some of the crockery that I brought up here, among other things the plates . .so I sent you eight of those that have been used regularly on the table; those that are left, together with what I brought up here, give me an ample supply’ until I know John will be glad to have one of these to eat out of for he says your new plates “won’t hold as well as a saucer”. I also sent six of those great big plates because they are so handy to use for so many purposes. You will see that I have reserved the whitest and best of them and sent you the refuse of the lot and also white I only sent you six. I kept a whole dozen. In the box that has the bagging around it I sent your cucumber catsup, at least, as much of it as was not utterly spoilt – and I filled up the empty space around the jar with some jars of preserves for you left nearly the whole stock of preserves here and you know we do not need them. In this box I put an egg (tied up in paper) which was quite a curiosity to me. I boiled it so that it might not daub up the jars if it was broken. Lest you should be bothering about the kegs boxes and so on that I send the things in. I will just say that I have no use for them –there is plenty of some sort left so don’t send them back.
I hope to hear that John has gotten well: I have been very anxious to hear how he got along with his small pox or whatever he had. I forgot to say, I put three beef tongue in the box with the dishes right on top along side of your black pitcher and your little bowls and tin pan. The barrel of hams I sent will do to use, Edmund says, as he probed them all but be sure to get rid of them before the skippers hatch out in them or they will get into your new meat. I started to smoke this meat today. I am having what meat bags have found, washed and will send them to you another time. Good night, and God be with you.

Your affectionate sister
Elizabeth

The following is taken from tapes of Veterans Oral History Project in conjunction with the Library of Congress at the Oldham County History Center.  The interview was conducted on Ruth Lowry Lewis Murray, a Red Cross employee during WWII by Earl Orr on April 20, 2002 and transcribed by Jan Jasper.

Ruth was born on June 12, 1920 in Crestwood, KY , graduated from Crestwood High School and Transylvania University.  After graduation from Transylvania she did graduate study at Syracuse University in New York.  She joined the Red Cross overseas service in 1944 through January of 1946.  Ruth was sent to Calcutta at the Red Cross headquarters and then given her longterm assignment.

 “I was assigned to an Air Force Base known as the 305^th Air Service Command at a place called Ondal, India, where there were nearby bomber bases and First Air Commando Base which both of them had active duty in Burma and China and Southeast Asia. There were two American Red Cross Clubs already established on this Air Force Base.  I served in one of them along with four other women, Club Director and three staff assistants.  There were times when the Clubs had five women working in them.  We had in the Club - it was a large kind of stucco, thatched roof building, low flat one story building - known as Club 690, which was our APO number. That was the Post Office for over seas people, military as well, for our base. We had music, we had record players, and we had a game room, and we had a great big center lounge.  We scheduled ping pong tournaments.  There would be people who came through who were national ping pong champions and we’d schedule those.  We had contests between officers and enlisted men.  We had a canteen where we served hamburgers and doughnuts – famous dough nuts that the Red Cross is known for - probably some other food. …… Those kinds of activities, you know, as best we could.  We were often short. That whole Theater, China-Burma-India was the last on what we called ‘the pipeline’….  Most of the war material and supplies from this country to the service people went to the South Pacific and Europe, because those were the big military pushes.  So we were the last to get supplies, although we did get some, not just Red Cross, but military, too.”

On the base where Ruth worked they “repaired Air Force planes, the parachutes, and all kinds of equipment.  We had planes of all types: fighter planes, bomber planes, cargo planes that were brought to our base for repair, and we were in a large area that, as I said, had a bomb group, the Seventh Bomb Group.  They essentially had B-24 bombers that flew all over Southeast Asia and China Coast bombing.  Then we had the First Air Commandos that were the glider pilots that went in Burma behind enemy lines.  General Stilwell trained Chinese troops a bit north of our base. There were a lot of Chinese troops trained by the American military to fight in Burma.  You may have heard, or seen on TV, Merrill’s Marauders.  They did very rough fighting in Burma.  It was horrible, you know, their worst enemy was the snakes, bugs, ants, disease - malaria, dysentery, and Dengue fever – all the tropical diseases.  That killed a lot of Merrill’s Marauders that fought in the jungles in Burma.  They had just finished.  They were under a General named Merrill.  That’s why they were called Merrill’s Marauders.  They were asked to do - they were volunteers that were asked to do - some special fighting.  I think when they signed up; they didn’t think it would be that rough.  And they had just finished their campaign, essentially, when I got to India.  The nurses that took care of many of them said they were just almost like animals, our servicemen, because they had had it so rough.”

            Ruth left Calcutta on a troop ship in December, 1945 through the Suez Canal to the Atlantic Ocean to New York City on a ship with 3,300 on a very rough trip through the winter Atlantic Ocean storms.  There were nurses, enlisted men, officers and ex-prisoners of war on the ship.  “I’ll never forget, one woman with a little girl coming into New York harbor, and she was kind of bleary-eyed, but she said, “Isn’t this beautiful?”  She had been interned as a prisoner of war in Java, I believe, for years.  She looked at the Statue of Liberty and she said, “Isn’t it beautiful. I’ve come into this harbor many times too hung over to appreciate it, but I certainly do now. The Japanese were merciless, really, really cruel to their prisoners of war.  You’ve heard of the Bataan Death March, I’m sure?”

The following story is taken from the an obituary notice from a newspaper in the history center archives named The Western Advertiser which was a local newspaper published for the LaGrange community.  This article appeared on Oct. 27, 1863 about Fannie who died 144 years ago on Sept. 19.  The 6^th Ky. Regiment, Co. B, was comprised of boys from LaGrange, Westport and Eminence.  This Regiment was known as the fiercest fighting regiment in the 6^th Kentucky.  Fannie was a little terrier dog that they followed them through their battles.

And pray who was Fannie? Doubtless some one will exclaim, in noticing this little boquet, thrown to her memory. —  Well, we will proceed and tell you. Fannie’s life was an eventful one.  The first we knew of her was at Camp “Sigel (sp).” She came to our regiment (6^th Ky.) alone, yes, Fannie was unattended, and nameless, and penniless, and homeless. Her sprightly appearance, for be it understood that she was both neat and tidy, and playful ways, together with her friendless condition attracted the attention and excited the sympathy of our then Orderly Sergeant, the kind hearted and generous Martin L. Boner, who at once gave her a name, a home and installed her as an honorary member of Co. B.  So sprightly and so well disposed, she become at once a favorite of the whole Regiment.  Though exempt from all duty, the Regiment was never out on a reconnoisance  (sp), nor engaged in a skirmish without the presence of Fannie, and without missing a single picket duty performed by Co. B.  In our march to the mountains in Kentucky, thence to the Ohio River, our passage by water to Paducah, then up the Cumberland, she was with us and it was her honor to be in at the taking of Nashville.  She was with us on that long and fatiguing march through Tennessee, to Savannah, and upon the battlefield of Shiloah (sp).  She was to be seen wherever the bullits (sp) fell “thickest and fastiest (sp).”

            Fannie emerged from that slaughter-field unharmed to follow the regiment through the perils and dangers of the siege of Corinth, and its meanderings in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, thence through Kentucky beyond “Wild Cat,”in its chase after Bragg, and back to Tennessee.  Poor Fannie, she lived through that fierce and hotly contested fight at Stone River, to fall in the battle of “dead Man’s Creek.”  The same cruel shell that stopped the current of life’s blood for the gallant Capt. Peter Marder, Co. G., 6^th Ky., and likewise Sergeant Kremer of same company, and wounded private A. W. Wells, robbed Co. B of their loved little terrier, Fannie.  So closely were we pressed by the enemy, Fannie was left a mangled corpse upon the battlefield.  May we not trust that some kind rebel hand will give her a friendly burial.  Peace to they ashes Fannie—long will thy memory be cherished by

                                                Co. B., 6^th Ky. Reg’t.

The following story is taken from the an obituary notice from a newspaper in the history center archives named The Western Advertiser which was a local newspaper published for the LaGrange community.  This article appeared on Oct. 27, 1863 about Fannie who died 144 years ago on Sept. 19.  The 6^th Ky. Regiment, Co. B, was comprised of boys from LaGrange, Westport and Eminence.  This Regiment was known as the fiercest fighting regiment in the 6^th Kentucky. 

And pray who was Fannie? Doubtless some one will exclaim, in noticing this little boquet, thrown to her memory. —  Well, we will proceed and tell you. Fannie’s life was an eventful one.  The first we knew of her was at Camp “Sigel (sp).” She came to our regiment (6^th Ky.) alone, yes, Fannie was unattended, and nameless, and penniless, and homeless. Her sprightly appearance, for be it understood that she was both neat and tidy, and playful ways, together with her friendless condition attracted the attention and excited the sympathy of our then Orderly Sergeant, the kind hearted and generous Martin L. Boner, who at once gave her a name, a home and installed her as an honorary member of Co. B.  So sprightly and so well disposed, she become at once a favorite of the whole Regiment.  Though exempt from all duty, the Regiment was never out on a reconnoisance  (sp), nor engaged in a skirmish without the presence of Fannie, and without missing a single picket duty performed by Co. B.  In our march to the mountains in Kentucky, thence to the Ohio River, our passage by water to Paducah, then up the Cumberland, she was with us and it was her honor to be in at the taking of Nashville.  She was with us on that long and fatiguing march through Tennessee, to Savannah, and upon the battlefield of Shiloah (sp).  She was to be seen wherever the bullits (sp) fell “thickest and fastiest (sp).”

            Fannie emerged from that slaughter-field unharmed to follow the regiment through the perils and dangers of the siege of Corinth, and its meanderings in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, thence through Kentucky beyond “Wild Cat,”in its chase after Bragg, and back to Tennessee.  Poor Fannie, she lived through that fierce and hotly contested fight at Stone River, to fall in the battle of “dead Man’s Creek.”  The same cruel shell that stopped the current of life’s blood for the gallant Capt. Peter Marder, Co. G., 6^th Ky., and likewise Sergeant Kremer of same company, and wounded private A. W. Wells, robbed Co. B of their loved little terrier, Fannie.  So closely were we pressed by the enemy, Fannie was left a mangled corpse upon the battlefield.  May we not trust that some kind rebel hand will give her a friendly burial.  Peace to they ashes Fannie—long will thy memory be cherished by

                                                Co. B., 6^th Ky. Reg’t.

(Click on the insignia below: it was scanned from the Amos Mount Ltr Collection at the history center.  Amos served in Co. B. from which the story above originated.)

The following story is taken from the history center’s cookbook, History by Food: Stories and Recipes about the Food and Families of Oldham County, Kentucky which is on sell at the Oldham County History Center gift shop.

Canning vegetables and meat was a familiar and common activity when Oldham County was primarily an agricultural county. Small farms dotted the landscape and everyone raised gardens and livestock for the family. Long time resident and farmer, Ann Dick, shares this story and pickle recipe she got from one of her neighbors, Bernice Bottorff:

“Liberty Elementary School on Hwy. 42 in Oldham County was nearly as busy in the summer as during the school term in the 1940s. Ladies from all around brought their garden vegetables to the cannery. The vegetables and fruits were picked, washed, snapped and cut-up at home and taken to the cannery for blanching and canning. Huge stainless steel vats were used for blanching the food. After blanching, the food was then transferred into quart or pint-size tins and sealed. The cans were processed by steam. We were charged a minimal fee, maybe 7 to 10 cents.”

Bernice Bottorff’s Dill Pickles

Sterilize pint jars and place in each jar: 1 clove garlic, 1 clove, 1 flower head of dill or 1 teaspoon of dill weed.
Scrub cucumbers and slice and pack into the jars.
Bring to a boil:
2 quarts white vinegar
1 quart water
1 cup coarse salt
½ teaspoon alum
Pour this boiling hot mixture over the cucumbers in each jar. Seal. Allow to ripen before using (several weeks). When opened, keep in refrigeration.

The following story and recipe was submitted by local resident Jan Morgan about canning meat:
Branstetter’s Canned Pork Tenderloin

“I learned how to home-can pork from my mother, Aline Branstetter, on the farm near Horse Cave, Ky. Our entire family treasured this delicious tenderloin and it was usually saved for special occasions, such as Christmas morning. In my opinion, there is nothing as delicious as this tenderloin and the accompanying white gravy made with the natural juices that came from the bottom of the quart jar. To this day, my brother and I reminisce about this yummy meat and gravy and long to have it for family gatherings again. In my mother’s later years, even when there was no hog killing, she would purchase tenderloin from the store and home-can 3 or 4 jars just so we could enjoy it for special occasions.
After the hog was butchered, the leanest part of the tenderloin was removed and cut into slices about 1 to 2 inches thick. Next, one would tightly pack these slices/pieces into quart jars. (I often got this packing job because my young-girl hands were smaller than my mom’s). Then a small amount of water (approximately ½ cup) was added to the jar of meat. The jars were sealed with jar lids and rims and placed into my grandmother’s pressure cooker (and I still use this cooker today for my vegetable canning!). Enough water was put into the pressure cooker so that the jars were sitting about threes inches deep. Then the lid was clamped and screwed down very tightly with the stem shuttle open. When the steam would begin spewing from the shuttle-cock, the escape valve was closed and the pressure cooker continued to build up pressure. When the pressure reached 10 pounds, the burner was adjusted to maintain that pressure for approximately 50 minutes to one hour. Then the burner would be turned off, allowing the pressure cooker to cool and the pressure to go back to zero. Next, the shuttle-cock was opened to let off the small amount of remaining steam. Then, and only then, could we open the lid and remove the jars of beautiful pink tenderloin bubbling in its own juices.”