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Saturday, February 26, 2011

Grandma Touby's Apple Crisp

Going to Grandma and Grandpa Touby's house was always a treat, but especially when we gathered as a whole family...aunts, uncles, cousins...to have a meal.  One well-worn card in my kitchen archives is Grandma Touby's apple crisp recipe. 
If Grandma was in the kitchen, you can be sure she was wearing an apron.
Grandma Touby's apple crisp recipe
From Virginia's recipe box
Grandma's kitchen
Grandma and Grandpa (and Bobby) at the table.
Grandma's praline recipe written in her hand

(If anyone has kitchen or dining room photos at Grandma and Grandpa's I'd love to post more.)

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Virginia and Joan Touby

When my dear Aunt Joan passed away, my mother, Virginia, wrote these memories for Aunt Joan's family.  They capture moments in time as the two of them grew from childhood playmates to college roommates to young marrieds with growing families.

Joan and I were playmates from the earliest years...
 
We were the little girls in the family and spent those wonderful, blissful pre-school days in a pretend world.  The dolls, the cats and dog were our family.  Often I was the father (by virtue of age, I suppose), and Joan was the mother.  She was just right in that role.  Of course, that was only when we two played together.  Otherwise Louise and Dorothy had positions of greater authority!
Virginia - unhappily persuaded to be the father dressed in her father's boyhood clothes

Joan, as the mother, dressed our black cat in one of the dolls' pink striped nightgown and made it lie on its back in the doll buggy as she pushed it around the yard.  When the cat could take it no longer, it would leap out of the carriage and streak across the yard in its nightgown.

Virginia, Joan and cat
Joan, Virginia and more cats
Virginia and a patient cat

Virginia and Joan
Then there was the time mother called us to the window to see Joan and our dog Shep seated in the old Chevy truck which daddy had left in the driveway.  Shep was the driver with his paws placed on the steering wheel and Joan sat beside him!  I'm sure Joan could have been an animal trainer.
Shep
Another little girl memory was of the summer our father cleaned out the grain barn and had it rearranged with additional partitions for the various grains to be stored.  This created a wonderful playhouse with rooms.  Daddy agreed to let us play in it until time for the grain harvest.  Joan and I made trip after trip carrying our play furniture out to set up housekeeping.  It was perfect for tea parties with graham crackers and marshmallows and lemonade.  The fun lasted until the wheat and oats had been threshed and we had to clear out and move back into the house.

Things look so big when we are small
You've probably heard this story, but I have to tell it again.  Our huckster driver was a comical little man whose name was Mr. Beebout.  (It's true.  That was his name!)  The huckster wagon - actually a truck - was a veritable little general store on wheels, with sugar, flour, extracts, eggs -- even a crate for cackling chickens hanging on the back of the truck.  Little drawers held thread, pins, and other small household items.  Country women often depended on the huckster who came our way once a week.  He was a friendly, chatty fellow who also told what the neighbors were doing that day.  Often when he turned the corner on our bumpy country roads, the little drawers in the wagon would slide out and he would have to take time to rearrange things at the next stop.  One summer mother and we girls were sitting in the yard shelling peas.  It was too warm in the kitchen with the cookstove going.

Shelling peas in the yard
Mr. Beebout had stopped at our neighbor's house just down the road and seemed to stay an unusually long time.  Mother wondered why he could be at Mrs. Householder's so long.  Joan, just five or six years old, piped up with, "Maybe Mr. Beebout dropped his drawers again!"


Joan and I enjoyed so many things together in High School.  She was in singing groups and I played piano accompaniments.  She often sang with the Busby twins and with Carolyn Kratzer.  She and Aunt Louise sang duets occasionally.

Virginia and Joan in concert

Joan and I attended Christian Endeavor meetings for the young people at Rich Valley Church.  We were baptized at the same time and became members there.

We were enrolled at Ball State College during the World War II years and were roommates during two of those years.  Some of our friends thought it was amazing that sisters could get along well enough with each other to be roommates...we had always been roommates at home.
Joan
Virginia at Ball State
Joan on the steps of the Fine Arts building, Ball State
Virginia, Joan and Dorothy

We traveled on the train to College Camp, Wisconsin one summer to work as waitresses in the camp diningroom.  We played croquet on our lawn with the Coburn boys.  We double-dated occasionally.
A post card from Virginia to her mother
George Williams College Camp, Lake Geneva, WI
Virginia and Arthur playing croquet
 After the war, when Arthur and I were married in 1946, Joan was my only bridesmaid. 
Joan was Virginia's bridesmaid
Soon, Joan and Edver were dating, and two years later were married.  I played the piano and Marianna Riddick sang.
Joan and Edver were married at the Touby home
Marianna Riddick and Virginia

In the spring of 1950 Ed and Joan dropped in for a visit, and as they started to share a bit of news with us, I somehow knew what they were going to say.  I interrupted with excitement, "Are you planning what we're planning?"  Yes, it was true!  We were expecting a baby in November and Ed and Joan in December.

Jane and Charlotte were born just a month apart.  In 1952 Marcia and Nancy were born just six months apart.  And Phil came along in March of the following year.  As the years passed and our families grew, the celebrations at Grandma and Grandpa Touby's house were always so much fun with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins all in a wonderful mix.

Joan, Edver, Charlotte and Marcia on Arthur and Virginia's porch
Arthur, Jane, David, Virginia and Nancy
Jane and Charlotte
A birthday at Grandma and Grandpa's house: Joan, Phil and Charlotte
Cousins
Grandma and Grandpa
Grandpa with Marcia on his lap, and Charlotte at his side
Charlotte brings Grandma a present
 Occasionally there were overnight visits at each others' houses.  Joan helped Nancy decide on two little flower vases to buy with her spending money when Jane and Nancy had a "vacation" with Charlotte and Marcia one summer.  Phillip  and Les enjoyed a ride on the pony here on our farm when they were just little guys.
David, Charlotte, Jane, Marcia and Nancy: our porch step, c. Summer 1955
Phil and Les on Prancer at Virginia and Arthur's farm
And Elizabeth remembers so well the good times with Les making roads and villages in Grandma Touby's sandbox.  Les also gained a friend forever when he fed Laddie several pieces of ham from the plate prepared for supper.  He looked at me so sweetly and said, "Your doggy sure do like ham!"  By the time Jon was born we weren't able to get together as often.  But when we did, Jon always tried to keep up with the big kids.

Fast forward a few years and Charlotte and Jane are both enrolled at Ball State where their mothers had attended 25 or so years earlier.  Our paths were taking our families in different directions then.  Grandpa and Grandma had hosted the gatherings as long as they were able.  We would soon be saying good bye to them.  But the Touby sisters still felt a strong bond and made a date to have Christmas together each year.  There were other gatherings as we could arrange them.  One memorable time was our "Touby Women" slumber party at Charlotte's house in Athens, Ohio.  Good food, great conversation, but very little slumbering.  On Sunday morning we all attended church together.  We were so proud of Charlotte as she led the children's group in recognizing Christian symbols pointed out throughout the sanctuary.  Sarah sang in the choir.  After lunch back at the house, Joan led us in forming a circle of love and we sang together "May the Lord, Mighty God, bless and keep you forever."  What a very dear memory to carry home with us.

The Touby Women's weekend at Charlotte's
Louise's 80th birthday: Louise, Dorothy, Joan, Virginia
Louise, Joan, Dorothy, Virginia, 1998
Dorothy's wedding, 1942: Virginia, Dorothy, Louise, Joan

This past Christmas, 2001, was the first we Touby sisters had missed getting together.  Joan's and Louise's frail health, plus the distance and uncertain weather, made planning difficult.  But we were in touch with each other by phone.  What a warm memory we have of Christmas morning when Joan called to wish us a Merry Christmas as Elizabeth answered the phone and we heard her say, "Why, Aunt Joan, how nice to hear your voice."  They talked briefly and then Joan and I had a good conversation.  We were so pleased to have her call.

[In closing her letter to Edver and children, my mother writes...]

I just want to add how very proud Joan was of all of you and your accomplishments.  Her love and spirit of encouragement will be with you always.  Blessings to each one of you.
Lovingly,
Aunt Virginia

In loving memory of Joan Touby Coburn (1925-2002)

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Stewards of the story

It's difficult to know when to end a story.  One just leads to another.  Today my friend, Jan Rowe (whose 59th birthday is tomorrow) asked me, "so how do you know when you're done?"  I have to go back to the remark my cousin Caroline Kearney Tudor made when we got together at Mark (her brother) and Pauline Kearney's home.  She talked about a phrase that struck her deeply...that we need to be good "stewards of the story."  So, I just keep telling the story.  Things I have posted are done so without much editing, just to get the story down.  I go back and add, delete, revise...all part of getting the story right.  If you are reading this, I hope these people come alive for you.  I remarked today that I wish I had known Louisa Locke.  I have no idea why.  She is beautiful...looks strong, intelligent.  I would love to ask her a million questions.  Maybe I'll come across something about her that should be told.  When will I know I'm done?  As long as there are stories to be told, I guess I will just keep telling them.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Jane Duncan Colville & John Peter Touby

This is the story of Peter and Jane Touby...
a story that began with two brothers, James and Colin Duncan, who left Scotland to come to America and the John Martin Touby family, who left France for Germany because of religious persecution, then set off for America to avoid military inscription.   

Colin's great granddaughter, Jane Duncan Colville
married Martin's son, John Peter Touby.

James and Colin Duncan were brothers born and reared to manhood in Scotland.  James and his family came to America and settled in Virginia.  After living there several years he acquired title to about 500 acres of land in Scott County, Kentucky, where he and his family then moved.  James wrote to his brother Colin, still in Scotland, offering him title to 150 of those acres. 

In 1792, Colin and Keturah Duncan and their five children Jane (age 8), Margaret, John, James and William set sail for America.  After a month at sea they arrived and eventually migrated to Kentucky.  The two brothers were neighbors on adjoining farms where they remained until their deaths.

Jane Duncan (1784-1869) married John Dinwiddie (1784-1828) on May 9, 1805 in Shelby County, Kentucky.  They had nine children: Keturah Duncan, Elizabeth Jane, Harvey Duncan, Susannah Ann, Mary Elizabeth, Margaret, Martha Asenith, Nancy Ware and Lomira.  Lomira, the youngest, died at just one and a half, and less than a year later, John Dinwiddie died leaving Keturah a widow with seven daughters and one son, ranging in ages from 22 to 5 years.  Keturah, the oldest, had been married four years (Samuel Colville) and had had two of her three children before her father died.  After her husband's untimely death in 1828, Jane Duncan Dinwiddie remained in Kentucky with her aged parents until after their deaths in 1832 and 1833. 


Jane Duncan Dinwiddie, having lost her baby daughter in 1827, her husband in 1828, her father in 1832, and her mother in 1833, took her remaining family of five girls, and along with her one son, Harvey (age 25) and his bride, moved to Rush County, Indiana in 1834.  Jane Dinwiddie settled near the present town of Lewisville, Indiana in Rush County, and lived there for 40 years.
Excerpts: R. DeVerter, Our Pioneer Ancestors, Vol. IV, The Duncan and Dinwiddie Families with Allied Lines, Baytown, TX, 1969
  
John and Jane Duncan Dinwiddie's eldest daughter, Keturah Duncan Dinwiddie (1806-1834) married Samuel Colville.  They had two sons and four daughters.  Their daughter Jane Duncan Colville (1826-1904) married John Peter Touby (son of John Martin Touby (1795-1872) and Anna Marie Slout (1802-1877).

The Touby name has been traced back as far back as 1682 when the Toubys, Remys, and Straters left France because of religious persecution by French Catholics.  They all settled in the Dukedom of Nassau, Germany, in an area just across the Rhine River and about ten miles inland from the border of France and Germany.

John Martin Touby and Anna Marie Slout 

Hearing of opportunities for religious and political freedom in America, John Martin Touby and his wife Anna decided to travel there with their nine children, whose ages ranged from two to early twenties.  They left their home in Germany on April 20, 1844 and began a seventy day journey.  The family spent forty-four days on board a ship and landed in New York City on June 30, 1844.  From there they traveled to Ohio where there was a German settlement in Richland County near Mansfield.  They settled on a forty acre tract of land in Washington Township.  They became active members of Saint Peter's Evangelical Church that had been established by German settlers in 1830.  John Martin and Anna remained in Richland County for the rest of their lives.

John Peter Touby (1824-1888) was born in Nassau, Germany, and emigrated to America with his father (John Martin Touby) in 1844, locating in Richland County, Ohio, where his father subsequently died.  
John Martin Touby and Anna Marie Slout
John Peter Touby and Jane Duncan Colville

John Peter came to Fayette County in 1850 and continued his wagon making trade in Bentonville.  It was there that he married Jane Colville, a tailoress and native of Kentucky.  
 
John Peter Touby and Jane Duncan Colville Touby with daughter Mary
Albert, born in Fayette County, and Leora, born in Howard County, IN
John Peter and Jane Touby's home in Bentonville, Fayette County, IN
In 1853 Jane, Peter and little Albert came to Howard County purchased land, then sold it to purchase another tract upon which was a small log house.  Peter eventually made improvements, built substantial buildings, quit his trade of wagon making and devoted his attention to agriculture.