Addition to Plant Catalogue

Evidently the writing of the Blog needs to be done before the addition of photos.

Okay, so I received my Dutch Garden Catalogue yesterday and got to thinking about why all those old pictures of family homes look so bare...where are the shrubs and flowers? I took these two photos to Mom (Helen Daugherty Hostvet) and asked her about them. These pics are of the Carrington homestead (William Carrington/Mary Bartholomew). The location was 12 miles N. of Wessington in Hand County, SD. The reason for no flowers? Bronze Turkeys and Chickens! Gram Irene Carrington Daugherty loved flowers and had many geraniums and houseplants. There was a huge garden where the flowers were planted. Mom remembers Zinnias and 4 O'clocks. There was no lawn...just rocks and weeds. This house was actually made from two homes...the taller was the original Carrington homestead, located on a hill and later moved to a location lower in the property where another smaller house stood. There were a lot a trees on the property...probaly left from the plantings that had to be done in order to obtain the original homestead. The Fred Daugherty family probably lived there about 4 years during the dust bowl and then moved to Arkansas in search of employment.

Mom said it made a nice house. It was famous for its artesian well. The house is gone...probably burned down. I have part of the door and the door knobs. When my studio is finished this door will find a place of honor. When the family left for Arkansas, the home was sold to Uncle Hughie. Part of Irene's payment for the house was the model A that can be seen in the picture. We're assuming that the rest of the payment must have been divided between Irene's sisters.

Mom thinks she lived there from grade 6 to her Sophomore year in Wessington High School. She had to stay at a boarding house in Wessington, as there were no buses.