More on Irene Carrington Daugherty - Beulah Daugherty Goehring

I'm looking slowly, through my looseleaf notebook for my grandmother, Irene Carrington's Autobiography. I'm not getting very far...right away are recollections of Beulah Daugherty Goehring (Mom's sister) of her parents and her childhood. I'd like to share portions of this writing that relate direct to Gram.

"My mother grew up on a farm north of Wessington that was the site of her parents' homestead. My mother told stories of going to Stratton school in the horse and buggy. School was in session only a few months of the year, and the farm children were to work the other months - this was more essential than schooling! She often told of coming home from school and unharnessing the horse when it was so cold their fingers would almost freeze handling the harness.

My mother always loved school and her happiest memories always seemed that which was associated with it. She always encouraged her children to read, and many evenings at home were spent reading aloud. Of any place we lived the first priority was, "How far is it from school?"

My parents had a big family to raise during the depression years which was quite a struggle. In spite of drought, grasshoppers and all of the elements against the SD farmer, we always had the necessities of life. My mother always put her family first. If there was a need for a new dress for the "speaking contest" or "county chorus", somehow we always had one, but Mom always went without so we would look nice. She sewed all our dresses until we were old enough to buy our own. I remember so many that she made when I was little, because I loved them so much. Even after these many years, I could describe the style and color of them.

Mom saw to it that we got our start in Christian Education by attending Tipton Sunday School. She tuaght several years herself and we seldom missed a Sunday. In the summer we would hitch up our Shetland Pony to the buggy and go to Bible school. We always made it without too many incidents, except when it rained, the wheels would enlarge to twice their size with the gumbo of the roads.

Mom taught us to love nature, as her father had taught her. Beware of the person who would destroy a bird's nest or any other of God's creatures! In the summer we would lie out on the grass at night and watch the stars. If we were lucky, we would see a comet zoom across the sky, or maybe catch a firefly. The quiet serenity of a hot summer evening, with no care in the world has a more stabilizing effect than the violence and crime on tv that modern children of today are exposed to.

Though I am the only one of the children left in SD and on the farm, there is a soft spot in the hearts of all the children of "Freddie and Irene" for farming and living close to nature."