I had the privilege of interviewing Francis Eleazer in 2017. She was born in 1926, and her parents were William Walter and Eunice Eargle Eleazer. Her memories echo the stories of many others in the Dutch Fork.
She grew up in the Spring Hill area and remembered her and her sisters walking barefoot to church. Her family attended Shady Grove Methodist, which began in the early 1750s under a brush arbor. A log building was first built and was known as Busby’s meeting house. This log structure was on Busby Road, which was later renamed Shady Grove Road. Methodist circuit preachers stopped there to preach, and in 1784, it became Shady Grove Methodist. When her family moved to the Spring Hill area, they attended Mt. Olivet Lutheran church.
The Mt. Olivet Church history states that in 1873, Spring Hill was flourishing with a gristmill, four mill, cotton gin and blacksmith shop. From the church, William Sanford Eleazer owned a two-story general store that also served as the post office.
For Christmas, she remembered getting fruit, nuts, and apples for presents. She once received a baby doll from a salesman who frequented her father’s store. She was so excited to get that baby doll! Her dad’s store sold oil, gas, and all the usual items a general store carries. He also had candy! Her father didn’t let her eat too much; she said her teeth were not good. They also bought blocks of ice to put in the icebox. I mentioned that I had been told by another older and wiser Dutch Fork resident that they would go and chip off ice from their ice block for iced tea in the summer. She said they never drank much tea, but her dad milked the cows every morning, and they drank a lot of fresh milk. Washing clothes was a regular chore for her as a wife. She remembered boiling water in wash pots, washing clothes with homemade lye soap, and ringing out her husband’s thick overalls with her hands. Then there was the outhouse, which she said was maybe moved twice. She laughed at the memory of the Sears and Roebuck catalog toilet paper.
During the depression in the 1930s, she walked to school with a group of boys from the area, until a teacher said it was not good that she was the only girl. The teacher arranged for her to ride the bus. She started out at Spring Hill Academy near Mt. Olivet, then attended the White Rock School, where Bethel Church is currently located. When Dutch Fork School was built, she attended there in her later school years. The old Dutch Fork School was where the district 5 offices are now located. Stay tuned next week to learn about hand-dug wells, cotton poisoning, and more!
Photo from https://www.facebook.com/ChapinHistoricalAssociation/
