Polly Williams Davies, By Esther Parker Robb

Polly Williams Davies, 
By granddaughter Esther Parker Robb

from book "Together Again", edited by Sophia Parker Stapele

Polly WILLIAMS DAVIS

Grandma Davies was born in Springfield, Illinois, May 28th 1838, the daughter of John Williams and Marcy Lucas. She was baptized July 10, 1857 by S. J. Holdaway and confirmed by I. C. Riddle. She and Grandpa had a large family of eleven children, six and five girls, mother being the second. Her first died at two years of age, the same year that mother was born (1859). Grandma was always ambitious, a hard worker all of her life. She ran a dairy business on her ranch on the Kanarra mountain where she made cheese and butter. Then Grandpa hauled the dairy products to Pioche, Nevada where he used to freight. I remember Grandpa and Grandma in the early days. He peddled produce of the ranch and farm to Pioche. This is the means by which they made living. Grandma left the ranch after her garden was planted. She also planted a summer garden of small vegetables as carrots, radishes, onions, peas, and pepper-cress. What vegetables they were, superior to any raised in the country. fall she always returned from the ranch with a rich supply of cheese and butter to be stored away for future use. It was such a pleasure when she opened up a section of the bedroom floor, which they used as the cellar door, and we were invited to go the storage cellar beneath their home. There she kept her cheese and butter which she stored in the big crock jars; also fat pigs which they had raised and killed themselves for their winter meat. It was such fun to see all that good food; also raspberries and gooseberries in the old glass jars, which she had worked so hard at preparing for the winter ahead. While she was living on the mountain she had many visitors dropping in on her to stay overnight. She always welcomed them with good meals and good beds to sleep in. She was always charitable and sociable. One very strong characteristic was her attentiveness toward the sick and her visits among them. It used to cheer me up when I was sick with severe sore throat and Grandma would come to see me. I always looked forward to her visits. Grandma did lots of walking over the mountain, picking berries and visiting her neighboring ranchers or sheep herders, also living on the mountain. Her worst weakness was profanity, as she was often heard swearing at the cattle and used pretty rough language at times. She had no tolerance for laziness nor immorality. She did all the work for the family, and was ambitious to the end. Until the last of her days she did her own laundry, before her last sickness. One of Grandma's big delights was to come over at dark, after her evening chores were done and scare us nearly to death with the most hair-raising stories. Some were true wild Indian stories. Others were made up ghost stories. Sometimes she got us children so upset that we were afraid to make our final trip to the outhouse before going to bed so we just ran out, with our hair standing on end, into the grass or behind the nearest bush we could find to hide behind, so we wouldn?t have to walk that long trip up by the garden in the dark. Many evenings were spent with her, listening to these stories while we sat crunching on big juicy apples while she, having very few teeth, sat scraping hers with a knife in order to eat it. Grandma didn't have the artistic talents that most women do, such as sewing, art, or music. Her talents, besides being an excellent cook, were her great ambition and her attention and generosity toward people. She made many friends during her lifetime and lived a full and happy life, with a successful and happy family.

Ancestry Chain: TR, Lark, Kirt DeMar WOOD, Laura Elizabeth PARKER, Elizabeth Ann DAVIS, James George DAVIS / DAVIES and Polly WILLIAMS.