Tales from the Beech Hills: Down in the Beech Hills at Uncle Bill and Aunt Becky's

April 7, 2013

One of the perks to being employed by a school is having spring break off and this year I decided to “organize” which really ended up meaning organizing the massive amounts of paper in my attic that are left over from genealogy work that I did in the 90’s. So of course part of that meant sorting and scanning in important papers that are now easier to share with other family members. When I started researching Grandma Wyant’s family, it all started with “paper” that was stored away in Uncle Johnny’s house. He had two family Bibles – one from the Culver family and one from the Miller family – and he photocopied the “Births, Deaths, and Marriages” pages for me. Those pages along with talking to him and others in our family led to lots of discoveries that I had no knowledge of as a Wyant grandchild. So the lesson in this is talk to the people in your family and ask them about paper and pictures that are stored away. It’s there, I assure you. And it’s important for us all to understand. You can’t know where you’re going, unless you know where you’ve came from.

I know that most of the Wyant cousins know the story of “Grandpa Hole in the Head” as my dear son Tyson used to call the patriarch of the Wyant family……Wilhelm Weyand/William Wyant. I found some papers in the attic that I thought you all might like to read and maybe share with your kids. I remember Brent Wyant telling me one time how amazed he was that if those “toes hadn’t twitched,” none of us would be here. Before I share the story of Great Grandpa Wyant, I thought I’d share a letter from Celia Summerland and her memories of “Aunt Becky,” Grandpa’s wife. Grandpa’s story is so unique and amazing, I think we sometimes forget to wonder what she was like. All I know about Celia is that Rebecca Wyant was her great aunt and her maiden name was Brock. I did find a Cecilia Stokeley Summerland (1904-1989) buried in Hamline Chapel cemetery but I'm not sure if I can make the leap to her. I have no idea who she was writing this to or when but she was 80 when she wrote it and she lived in Mukwonageo, WI – not far from Milwaukee. If the woman at Hamline Chaper is her, she would have written this just a few years before she died. Anyone who can shed light, feel free to comment.

Here’s the letter/essay:

Sarah Rebecca Wyant

MEMORIES OF AUNT BECKY WYANT, MY GREAT AUNT (by Celia Summerland, W311 S9098 Cherokee Pass, Mukwonago, WI 53149)

Mother used to take us to visit Aunt Becky and Uncle Bill Wyant. It was such a pleasure to visit there. The house, an old-possibly pre-civil war building, so it was old, as I recall. It set back off the road, an iron fence around the yard, then just a few steps to the porch. Inside the front door was a hall, a door opened on each side. The door on the right side led to what then was called a parlor. The door on the left side, I can’t see it clearly, but it must have been a front bed room. The stairway came down the right side of the hall – all the way to the parlor door. The hall went back into a large room which to me, was a wonder. It was the dining room.

On the porch to the house: John Wesley Wyant, baby Edgar,

William Lewis Wyant and William Wyant

In the dining room there was a skylight. It was a big light room – to me it seemed like a big window in the roof. Below the skylight set the table. It was a long table, covered with a white cloth, which had wire frames that hooked under the table top. This wire frame was to hold the cloth up from the dishes on the table. The table was always set often as the dishes were washed. The plate and silver were laid and the plates turned over. (upside down-over the knife and fork.) The teaspoons were in a spoon holder on the table, so if a spoon was needed it could be had.

There were no refrigerators then, so honey, jelly, jams, preserves and syrup were always left on the table. Butter was kept in the cellar to stay cool. Then the long white table cloth covered the whole things until meal time again. In the end of the dining hall was a huge water tank. Round and covered, with a glass dipper laying on the lid. (to me this was a marvel.) It was crystal clear with a wood handle. One could dip a drink. The glass was so heavy, I loved it.

They had a gasoline engine in a building next to it which made quite a noise, while pumping the water into the tank in the dining hall. She also had clear thick goblets for water, set at each plate. So it was quite a treat to go to Aunt Beckys.

I have helped her churn sometimes. She had told mother what days in the week that she churned and had Mom send me and Ewell, my brother, there to get butter-milk. Most always she put a pound of butter in our bucket. We always took a gallon syrup bucket. (we called it a bucket instead of a pail.)

Aunt Becky's hair, at this time, was very thin. She parted it in the middle and pulled it back tightly and coiled it in a knot at the back of her head. She had black hair with scarcely no gray. Uncle Bill's hair was unruley. It always stuck up and never seemed to hold a part. It was snow white, as far back as I can remember.

The William Wyant Family (in order L-R)

William, Cora, Nora, Dan Arminda,

William Henry (our grandfather)John Wesley and Rebecca

When I was eleven years old, I had a very sick spell with Typhoid Fever. At that time, more often than not, one always died. I was in bed seven weeks, which left me with a weak heart. It was a long time before I was able to walk in the yard so I was unable to go to school for two years. One day after I was able to be up, we saw Aunt Becky coming to see us. It was so wonderful to see Aunt Becky coming as she had never come before. She was walking so she was with us for dinner and she told me the wonderful Bible stories about the creation, the art that Noah built, the flood and the animals going into the ark. She told about Abraham, Isaac, Joseph’s coat of many colors that Jacob gave him and of his brothers jealousy and how they sold him then their father that wild animals had killed him. Most of, at least a lot of the major Bible characters she told me about, like Elijah being taken up to heaven in the chariot of fire. Then she told me of the birth of Jesus and the shepherds, angels and the wise men. She is the one who got me interested in reading the Bible to learn all these marvelous things for myself. So you might say, I got most of my early Bible learning from Aunt Becky.

As we went to church at Hamline Chapel, we always went across Uncle Bill’s pasture. There was a wagon road where farmers drove across to get to their bottom land to farm their corn crops. Uncle Bill had a bull which as time went by – got very mean, we had to watch out for the cows as we walked across the pasture. In my early childhood, Uncle Bill and Aunt Becky was always at church on Sunday. SO it is with fond memories I recall Uncle Bill and Aunt Becky Wyant.

William and Sarah seated in front on left with Beech Hills neighbors.

AFTER THOUGHTS – JUST FOR FUN

I mentioned that Uncle Bill had a bull that was dangerous. Aunt Becky told us this: Uncle Bill came in with his milk pail empty one morning and set it down. “What happened to the milk?”Aunt Becky asked him. He said, “Ligie was after me, I threw it in his face, better do that than let him bite ye.” So Ligie grew more mean then this happened. As I mentioned we went across Uncle Bill’s pasture when we went to church and one night I was not along but there was Mother, Lill Harrell, Plean Harrell, and my brother Cecil Brock, Alex Gobble who stayed with Uncle Bill and Aunt Becky, and Ray Nelson – there were at least all these people and maybe some others. They were coming home from church one night (walking, for that’s the way we went in those days) they were talking and laughing and were almost down to the bridge from where they came into the pasture, just near the Campbell home – I’m sure you know the place. Well, they heard Ligie bawl the angry MOO and they knew he was on his way. They quickly crossed the bridge and cut across the pasture to the left of the road to climb over the fence into the other pasture which belonged then to Dick Shake. They came to a tree top and Lill said, “Lets climb into this.” Cecil was urging them to hurry and said, “NO” he would tear that tree to pieces. They had no flash light for Olean said she followed Cecil’s white shoes. They could hear Ligie now running and his MOO getting closer. They at last got through the fence. Cecil urged them on away from the fence. Someone said, “Let’s get our breath” Cecil said “NO” that he would come right through the fence. So quickly they made their way across to a field which the path came out by Grandpa Ray’s house. Then Ray Nelson went on his way home and the others came on around the road, to where Alex, had to enter the pasture again to go to Uncle Bills. They talked to him about the danger, he thought not, so he went on his way. He was inside the yard just on the porch leading to the house and then he heard Ligie angrily pawing at the gate. So it was a miracle that no one was hurt. So they sold Ligie, I’m not sure about the outcome. They took him to the stock yards in Petersburg to be shipped on the train. Somewhere was said there was trouble – he fought them until it seems to me they had to kill him in the stock pen – so there ended the terrible Ligie.

Next day after the rush to get over the fence, one of the fellows went back over there to see where they climbed over the fence and they were just within a few feet from a cliff or ravine where they would have fallen several feet before they were very far from the fence when they had heard Ligie lunging against the fence – so they indeed were very fortunate to get away from him.

We all knew the way well, one didn’t need a light to follow the road or paths to our homes. I am no 80 years old but can see, in my mind’s eye, the whole distance STEP by STEP and I thought this might be interesting for you to read.

Postcard from Cordelia Cockerham Wyant to Sarah and William

after William Henry had passed away and she had moved

her family to Colorado.

Walbert, Betty and Vaughn Edwards (half brother of Walb and Betty)

We really can't talk about Sarah without reviewing the old Civil War story of William Wyant. Here are some documents that you will enjoy.

Page from Ripley's Believe it or Not about Grandpa Wyant.

Sunday, April 25, 1937 article about Grandpa Wyant's experience in the Civil War.

The picture on the right is of the house that Cecilia visited and the picture on the left definitely is a good example of Grandpa Wyant's "unruly" silver white hair! Interesting, the

newspaper is addressed to GRACE MARTIN, RR 1, Monroe City, IN