FREDERICK JENNINGS WEAVER

As told on July 8, 2001

Fred was the fifth child of Howard and Pearl. Fred was born October 6, 1913 in the same farmhouse where he now lives at 1349 South Fuls Road, New Lebanon, Ohio.

When he was very young, Fred had several childhood diseases, one right after the other. They caused a deficiency which caused him to get rickets. He was unable to walk until he was 6 or 7. His teeth were underdeveloped as a result of the rickets also. When he started school, his older brother, Harvey, would haul him there on his back. Sometimes Harvey would push him in the wheelbarrow. The schoolhouse was just south of their lane on the east side of Fuls Road. According to Fred, when they arrived at school some of the older girls would come up and kiss him.

Grace told Fred that when he was a baby in his cradle, he would call out to her “yock, Grace, yock” – meaning he wanted her to rock him.

When he was able to walk he was expected to help with all the chores on the 151 acre farm. His “Pop” was very strict. Fred remembers that if they didn’t get out of bed when Pop yelled, Pop would go upstairs and jerk them out of bed to get them downstairs.

Pop liked to listen to his crystal set. This was a gadget that hooked up to headphones to enable them to get radio stations. Pop would lay on the couch with his headphones on to hear the news while the kids were out doing chores. But he never did much laying around in the daytime. He had 12 kids to feed and had to make ways to provide for them, which kept him busy. He had a lot of “mind work” to do.

Pop didn’t believe in using modern equipment to get the crops in. They had to cut corn off using a corn sled or by hand. First they cut the end rows off. Then one man made bucks every 20 or 30 feet. A buck consisted of four cornstalks tied together at the top on which the cut corn was gathered and piled onto to make the shock. They had six rows on each side. When it was all cut off, that was a shock row. They would ride the mule to pull the sled from shock to shock. They would husk the corn sometime later. It’s told that Fred was always able to keep three ears at a time up in the air (the two ears that are on his head and one ear of corn).

Some people had corn shuckers who went from farm to farm with two or three teams on wagons, but Pop didn’t believe in doing it that way so they didn’t do it very often.

They usually had 4 or 5 men shucking at a time. They’d put the corn on a pile and cover it with fodder until time to pick it up. They’d get about two loads a day (60-70 bushels). They’d go back later with a wagon and a team of mules to pick it up.

They always had good working horses. Pop didn’t believe in riding horses. He felt the horses were for working. If you rode the horses it might wear them out and then they wouldn’t work as well.

Pop would thrash wheat for other farmers. He had a steam engine and a separator. He cut the wheat by hand and put it in shocks. When it was ready to thrash they’d have teams come in. One man was on the wagon while two or three fellows were in the field pitching it up on the wagon. Pop always felt Fred was a weakling so his job was to carry water to them. He had a mule to take water to the backfield.

Fred never had any toys. He didn’t even know what a toy was. He and his brothers amused themselves by running after one another and playing tag and hide-and-seek. They would sometimes swing on a rope in the barn. At Christmas they would all hang their stockings on the fireplace. Sometimes Pop would buy oranges for their stockings. They loved that! And sometimes they just got potatoes or turnips. They would not work on Christmas and the girls would fix a big dinner for them.

Fred had a bicycle when he was older. He and his brothers used to trap at the creek by where Uncle Bud lived. When they caught something, they would skin it or take the carcass down to the end of Fuls Rd. He would ride the bicycle down there, but the bicycle was such a jalopy he usually had to push it back. Sometimes they’d catch a skunk and have to dig it out of the trap. Then they’d smell like skunk. Fred says “I still smell like a pig – a pig smells out of his nose and so do I.”

Fred doesn’t remember much about his mother. She died when he was 12. He does remember that when she died she was laid out in their house. They didn’t use a funeral parlor. His Grandma Crooke came to help take care of the kids. When Grandma Crooke died she was laid out in the house also. Fred looked to his older sister, Lizzie, as his “Mom”. She bossed all the kids except George and Harvey.

The only grandpa Fred remembers was his mother’s dad. He was tall and used to drive an old Buick Coupe. He’d bring the kids a sack of candy about every time he came. This was a real treat for them.

Fred does not remember his family ever having a picnic or going on a vacation while he was a boy. They did not have electricity or running water in their house and he says “the outhouse was real cold”.

Fred always tells the story about the hay fork (it’s told a little different by brother, Pete). They had a horse that was hitched up to a rope and pulled the hay fork. One day they were in the barn when he and Pete got Bud in the notion to get on the hayfork. They pulled on the rope and got him up to the top of the barn. Bud got scared and started yelling. Pop came out and Pete got scared and ran away. That left Fred holding the rope. He couldn’t let go or Bud would fall to the ground. So that’s the story of how “Pete left Fred holding the rope”.

They grew tobacco on the farm and planted watermelons in the tobacco field. After they cut the tobacco they would gather the watermelons and bury them in the oats that were in the bin. They would stay good until November or December.

Another story often told by Fred was about the water for the steam engine. Fred and Pete were hauling water for the engine. They had to pump the water from the creek. Pete was always pretty cocky (according to Fred). They were both standing up there pumping the handle. Fred pulled the handle out of the socket and Pete went to pull back on it and fell in the creek. Fred was so glad he could pull one over on Pete!

There is another story about Adam. They had a John Deere tractor that had a fly wheel that you had to crank. You had to open up the spickets to let the compression out to crank it. It was filled up with oil and gas that had leaked into the cylinder. They opened the spickets to crank it by hand to force the fuel out of the cylinders. They were cranking it and the fuel was running on the ground. They decided they might as well put a can under it to catch it, so they put a five gallon can under it. There was a good bit of gas that had come out. When they turned the fly wheel to start it, a spark from the spark plug ignited the can of gas. It was burning and Adam said he’d put it out by sitting on the can. It formed pressure and blew Adam off the can. He flew halfway back to the woods before he came down. (on a good day this story has had Adam flying even farther).

Fred quit school in his Junior year. He only had one more year to go to graduate. While his other brothers and sisters left the farm, he stayed and helped his Dad. He also got a job driving the school bus. He drove for 29 ½ years.

In April, 1941 Fred was drafted into the Army. He went to Ft. Knox and then to Rockford, IL. He was there until July and then they sent him to San Luis Obisco, California. He tells about the train ride to California. “Every time I heard the chug-a-da, chug-a-da of the train I thought about how I was that much farther from home. If ever I was homesick, it was then.” He was in the medics in the Army. His roommate was Alden Weaver (no relation) from Lewisburg, Ohio. When he was in Rockford there was a Lieutenant who befriended him. Every time he saw Fred he’d say, “There is the man that was born too late”, because if Fred was born earlier he wouldn’t have been in the service. This Lieutenant was sent to California also. One day the Lieutenant said “Weaver, do you want out of the army?” Fred said yes because he felt Pop needed him on the farm. The Lieutenant said to go on sick call and wait until morning. The next morning they examined his feet and because he had flat feet they discharged him. He was discharged November 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor was attacked December 7 of that year. If he had waited another month they wouldn’t have let him out. He gives God the credit for getting him out. He always said he’d never shoot a man even if he was in front of him ready to shoot him.

In May, 1942, Fred met Irene Barnhart. Her father’s cousin lived in Pop’s tenant house. One Sunday Irene’s family was invited to their cousin’s house to make homemade ice cream. They invited Fred also. That’s how they met. When Irene’s parents were ready to leave, Fred asked Irene if she had to go, too. She said “no”. Fred took her home and asked if she would go with him that evening to his sister, Mabel’s Baccalaureate Services. She was graduating from nurse’s training. That was their first date. They dated for eleven months and got married on Easter Sunday, April 25, 1943. Irene has been devoted to him ever since.

They lived in the house on Fuls Road. It did not have electricity or running water. There was well water outside the kitchen door.

Pop moved into a trailer on 3^rd Street right after they got married in April, but moved back to the farm to help get the crops in. Fred was renting the farm from Pop for $2000 a year.

In the early 50’s, Fred bought the farm, house, buildings, equipment and livestock from Pop for $25,000. They had electricity put in the house and had a well drilled to put water under pressure. They bought a used 88 gallon hot water heater which is still being used today. They made some other changes to the house. There used to be a pantry at the end of the kitchen. They removed the pantry to make the kitchen bigger. Where the bathroom and washroom is now there used to be a dining room. In 1957, they put the bathroom in. It didn’t have a bathtub, just a shower. When Fred’s kids were little they could take a bath in the rinse tubs in the washroom. They also dug a basement under the kitchen. Then later they added a porch to the back of the kitchen.

When they first got married they milked cows , had hogs, sheep, and chickens. Pop always gave them the milk check. They lived on that and the bus driving job at first. They raised corn, soybeans, wheat, some oats and tobacco. They also raised cane several times – the kind you make molasses with. They had turkeys several times. They had guineas until something kept getting their eggs and the old ones finally all died. The guineas were good watchdogs.

They had their first baby, Darlene Ellen, on March 28, 1944. Donald Eugene was born August 1, 1945. Pop moved into town before Don was born. John Frederick was born August 16, 1948 and Karen Ann was born May 8, 1952. According to his wife, Fred managed to have four children and yet only changed one diaper the entire time they were babies.

He had fun with his kids, though. John and Don remember how every Sunday after church they’d have to go upstairs and get their “good” clothes off as soon as they got home. When they were still in their underwear, they would start wrestling with their dad on his bed. He would always tell them “I’m going to spit on your butt” and that would really make them wrestle hard. Fred also put raspberries on the kids’ necks.

On New Year’s Eve they would strip tobacco until midnight. Then they went up to the house and each of them were allowed to shoot off the shutgun once. They’d celebrate by their mother fixing them a glass filled with ice cream that had cream soda poured over the top.

He always had a dog on the farm. He can’t remember them all, but had at least two Toby’s and a Laddie. He had three different dogs named Sparky.

Fred bought a combine just before Don was born. Irene was so glad not to have to have thrashing meals. He started doing custom work for other farmers also.

He started hauling coal from southern Ohio – Wellston, Macarthur. He hauled coal for Pop from Hazard, KY. Pop always thought the coal was better there. Sometimes they would stay overnight in a hotel in Hazard. One time when he had John and Don with him to Ohio they took a tour of the mine. Their feet were in muddy water and they had to bend over because four feet above the muddy water was bare electrical lines carrying 440 volts.

He also peddled fish. The sheephead and pickeral were shipped down on a train from Cleveland. The train went through Farmersville so he’d go down and pick them up. He bought them in 100 pound boxes. Some of the sheephead weighed 10 pounds each.

Fred also sheered sheep and bought and sold wool. At Christmas time he and Irene worked in the Dayton Post Office.

He was a seedcorn salesman for 25 years for Ed J. Funks, Greenland and Madison Seed Companies.

He was on the ASCS committee for over 25 years. He was chairman for quite a few years. He was also on the cemetery board and worked at the cemetery pushing graves shut with a backhoe.

He remembers Rev. Middleton coming up to the farm when he was a child and baptizing (sprinkling) a bunch of the kids. Annie Hildebolt was his first Sunday School teacher. He had catechism for a while also. As an adult, he always went to church and Sunday School on Sunday and made sure his kids got there, too. His son, John, baptized him by immersion in the farm pond on July 18, 1976. Fred and Irene are members of St. John’s United Church of Christ in Germantown. He was a deacon for a while and then later an elder.

They took two family vacations. Their first vacation was to the Smoky Mountains when Darlene and Don were 3 1/2 and 2. The other one was just before Darlene graduated from high school. They went to Niagara Falls. They stopped to see Aunt Grace in Cleveland but she was at work. They remember while they were taking a tour of Niagara Falls, they stopped the vehicle so that half of it was in the U.S. and half in Canada. The tourguide told the kids that their parents were in a different country.

Fred’s first car was a 1926 Sedan Model T. Then he had a 1939 Chevy Sedan that was either black or blue. He also had a red Chevy coupe. In 1948 he bought a new Chevy. They would sometimes carry home bags of feed on the fenders of the 48 Chevy and they carried bags of seedcorn back to the field also. The 1941 Chevy was his first pickup truck. He owned a 1956 Chevy. Don and John took the bumper off of it because they thought that was cool. He didn’t like that.

Fred was always pretty healthy but when he was 67 he had to have bypass heart surgery. He knew something was wrong because he couldn’t hardly carry two buckets of oats – he came in sweating. He went to the heart doctor, they did a catherization and determined that he had blockage on three arteries. After his surgery he was told he’d never farm again. Ha! Six weeks after surgery he was disking the fields.

When he was 83 he needed the bypass surgery again. They tried to do an angioplasty, but there was too much blockage. He needed four bypasses – two were the same arteries that were replaced in the first surgery.

He recovered fine, and went back to farming, but when he was 86 he had a stroke. He was in the hospital 6 ½ weeks. They started him on therapy and taught him to walk with a walker and then later he was able to walk with a cane. He was able to get back on the combine in the fall to do a little beans, but it was difficult for him. He can climb on the garden tractor and cut the grass. He is still receiving therapy at the time this was written, and he hopes to be able to walk better and be able to continue farming “one more year”.

Fred will be remembered most for the following characteristics (in no particular order)

Ø Hard worker - if it wasn’t Sunday, Fred was working!

Ø His humor - he always had a trick up his sleeve: “Nebuchanezer, King of the Jews, spell that in four letters and I’ll give you my shoes…..t-h-a-t”

Ø Being a friend to all the farmers and neighbors. He often receives visitors who sit around his kitchen table to talk.

Ø Witnessing – Often the people around the kitchen table were challenged to go to church.

Ø Honesty – Fred had a reputation for being an honest businessman