"Life with Mother" by Mae Richins Bowers

Introduction

I am going to start my story back as far as I can remember in order to bring in the things my mother did and some of the outstanding incidents in the life of my mother.

The first thing I can remember my mother doing is holding me so I could see my Grandpa Richins. He was very sick and passed away in a few hours. I never forgot his face. I knew everyone was crying and I could not understand why. Mother took me in her arms and told me the reason. She had such a sweet way about it that it impressed on my mind so much that I never forgot it. I was about three years old at the time. When I was about five years old, Mother told me I was going to have a little brother or sister. I remember it was very cold; snow was on the ground and daddy was not at home. My uncle, Jessie Richins, and John Maybin, a very good friend of Mother’s, came and got Mother and took her to town. The men had toe sacks wrapped around their legs and feet. I wanted to go with Mother, but she told me to be good and I could come and see her and the baby. On the third day of January, 1906, my baby sister was born. We named her Ena. I know Mother had very few things for the baby, as I remember her washing something every day and I wanted to take the washing out to the line and help so that I could hold my little sister. Mother, even though she was busy, always had time to put the baby in my lap and help me with her. We had a big rocking chair that she used for the baby’s bed and cradle. I can remember that Mother fixed it so the baby would not fall out when I rocked her.

When I was about eight years old, Mother let me go to visit my sister, Mary, who was working in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico for a family by the name of Pierce. I was so happy when Mother got me ready to go. I stayed two weeks with Mary and while there she bought me a lot of new clothes [including a] very pretty red coat which I kept until I was forty-five years old. I loved it so and Mother said she loved to see me in it. I remember when I came home Mother took me in her arms and she cried over me. I didn’t know why, if it was me or my little red coat.

Another remembrance I had of Mother was when we made a trip to El Paso, Texas. She made these trips about once or twice a year. The women from Mexico would go to El Paso to buy clothes for the children, as clothing was so hard to get in Old Mexico. Each time Mother would make these trips she would take one of her children. I know I was very small when the time came for me to go, but I was so thrilled. Mother would put the new clothes she had bought on me so I could wear them around the room while we were in El Paso. Some of them did not fit very well because they belonged to my larger brothers and sisters. Mother would laugh at me all dressed up in them. Mother would also wear some of the clothes and rub the new shoes on the floor so they would look like they had been worn. The reason for making the clothing look like they had been worn was so they wouldn’t have to pay so much duty on them when they crossed into Old Mexico. It was a very long trip to take, as our only means of transportation was by wagon. Mother was very brave as she drove the team and wagon loaded with supplies and children through the flowing river. A number of women did this because the men didn’t go with them on these shopping trips. Here Mother showed her courage and that she was truly a western woman. On these trips the women would buy supplies to last from six months to one year.

Home Life

Every Monday morning Mother would take her cheese, butter, and eggs to market. She would hitch up her own team of horses. With the help of her children Mother loaded her wagon with the cheese and merchandise she was taking to the market. She would drive by and pick up Aunt Sade and she and Mother would go to town, driving the horses named Bess and Queen. We lived about two and a half miles from town.

Mother made our little home very happy and all was very clean. We had a big yard and I remember she would not let us use the broom to sweep it for brooms were very hard to get. But she made us a broom out of sagebrush, which was good for the yard and it had to be swept every day in the summer. First we sprinkled it with water. We had to pump and carry the water to the yard in buckets. We then sprinkled the water on with our hands, as we did not have a water hose.

Mother had so much to do. We milked a lot of cows, then the milk had to be cared for, made into butter and cheese; chickens to take care of and a big family to sew and cook for. Once a year she would take me and the rest of them small children and go shucking corn. This was a great time for us. I can see Mother sitting with a big tick putting in new corn shucks. She was always pleased when she had all our beds fixed with new mattresses. Mother would have us sew carpet rags in the evening and she would see which one could make the largest ball. She always made our work seem like play when everything looked hard. Mother would always show us how to do a thing and say, "There is always the right way to do everything and the easy way." She always had little sayings for everything, which made you remember how it was to be done and you never forgot it. I can see her putting new fresh wild grass hay under our carpets every year, which was done in the spring. I can still smell it, it was so clean and soft and nice and we always had clean curtains to put up when the spring house-cleaning was done.

Mother always had so many chores to do. There were so many cows to be milked that all the children had to learn to milk as soon as we were old enough. I loved to watch Mother make cheese. I can see her now chopping up the curd in a big tub and putting the curds in a press with large weights on top of it. Every thing was so heavy, and every night the cheese had to be turned and trimmed. Mother would cut the big pieces off and give them to us as we would crowd around her when she trimmed the cheese. We looked forward to the evenings and the cheese trimming as much as children nowadays look forward to bringing home of candy. This cheese was as good as candy to us, for very little candy came into our home. Some of the small children helped Mother with the churning which she would prepare at night or early in the morning. She had a big round churn and in the summer would wrap it with wet sacks and put us on the north side of the house in the shade where the churn could be kept cool, while we were doing the churning. Each child had his or her duties to attend to.

Mother had so little to do with, but she always made the best of things, using make-shift for everything she could. In spite of the big family Mother had to care for, she always had all of our clothes clean and on Saturday night after we were in bed she would shine our only pair of shoes. She did not have shoe polish to shine our shoes with so she would turn the stove lid over and use a rag and get the black stove soot from the lid and rub on the shoes. After she had polished the shoes they would all be in a row for us to put on Sunday morning. All our work, mending and sewing was done on the weekdays and Mother would never allow any of us to sew on Sunday. On school days our lunch had to be put up, beds made, and dishes washed before we went to school. We had to walk two and a half miles to school. We always had plenty of time to get to school in the mornings as we had to get up early to get our work completed before we left for school.

I was always glad when the 24th of July came, for that was the only time I can remember Mother taking time away from her many duties to play and enjoy us. Mother would take us to a big grove of trees where they were having a celebration. She would put up a real nice lunch and we would spread it on the ground and eat with our close friends. Mother would play with us, swing, run and jump. She also took part in the races and games with the other women. Mother was fast and active and I remember that she won first place in some of the games and races. Mother always liked to see her children have a good time. My older sisters and brothers were always having parties and Mother would work so hard to have things nice for them. All the young people loved to come to our ranch, with it’s many big trees and large swing. The young folks loved to come and have a good time.

Exodus from Mexico

We were very happy in Colonia Diaz, Mexico. We worked hard, but we had lots of nice things and we all loved our home. We left home, in 1912-the Mexicans were at war and many Mexican bands were on the plunder, killing people and fighting among themselves. This made things very unsafe for the American people living in Mexico. The Church and The United States Government advised us to go to the United States for safety and to take enough supplies to last about three days. They thought things would soon blow over and we could return to our homes. We left for the United States in wagons.

It was very hard on Mother to leave all she had behind. We learned later that the Mexicans burned our home down twenty-four hours after we left. Leaving Mexico meant more hardships for Mother. Father and Mother had to make a new home. We lived in a wagon and tent for three or four months. Mother had to cook in a wagon and tent for three or four months. Mother had to cook over a campfire, but she was always happy, still in hopes that we would go back to our home in Mexico.

On our way out to the United States we stopped at the Corner Ranch for about two weeks and then the United States had us all go to the border town of Hachita, New Mexico. There Mother set up house keeping in two tents and I remember we had a box which Mother used for our clothing. This box was also used for a table. My older brother, Orson, has this old box now. Mother loved this box very much, as it meant so much to her and she held many cherished memories of it. Father made a checkerboard on the lid and he and the boys would play checkers, passing away many hours. Mother kept this box in her home until she rented it; later she sold this home.

Mother made our tent home as homelike as possible. She made beds from orange crates-also chairs and cupboards. After living in the tents for three or four months, Father then moved us to a place called Old Hachita, about six miles from Hachita in the mountains. There was a small house there; our family and my older sister’s family lived in this house. We were still hoping we would soon go back to Mexico. Mother took in washings while there and she also cooked for a woman, Mrs. Dearing, who ran a boarding house. We lived here almost a year and then Daddy took up a homestead about twenty miles from Hachita near the Mexican border.

Hachita, New Mexico Homestead

Father built a long one-room house and Mother made us such a nice, happy home. She put up wagon covers and part of an old tent to make the girls and boys rooms of our own. She fixed box stands in our rooms and put up pretty little curtains. She made rugs from rags to go beside our beds. It was no time at all until Mother had things looking home like again. It did not make any difference how little we had to eat, Mother would always put on a nice white table cloth which had been made out of flour sacks. These were bleached very white and starched and ironed nicely. She would say if you serve what you have in a nice way it always tasted better and everyone would enjoy it so much more. Our ranch was about half-way from Hachita and Corner Ranch and the ranchers and cowboys always stopped at our place to rest, eat, or spend the night. Mother always made everyone welcome, fixing them a meal any time of the day that they came by.

We children were sent to Hachita to school and Mother and Father would come every week in a wagon to see us and attend their Church on Sunday.

Red Rock, New Mexico

Mother’s health broke while on this ranch. There was so much trouble on the Border with the Mexicans and Mother worried so much she had a nervous breakdown which caused her to have stomach trouble. The Doctor advised her to stay away from the ranch, so Mother started a boarding house in Hachita. She worked very hard and worried over Father on the ranch and the trouble on the Mexican Border. She finally got Father to sell the ranch and they moved to Red Rock. There she lived in a two room adobe house and again she made a very pretty home out of the old things that she had.

Father took very sick and had a stroke so they sold the farm at Red Rock and they moved to Virden, New Mexico. They bought a lot there and Father started to build a house but he never was able to complete it for Mother before he died. Mother finished the little home. It was nice and comfortable. It had three rooms and a porch; it was the nicest home that she had ever had in her life. Here she and grandson, Sidney, lived until Sidney married and then Mother went to Lordsburg to live with Ena. She helped Ena raise her three children which made her very happy. She lived to be eighty-four years old. Mother spent a very useful and happy life with her children.