Della Davis

Mixed in with Dad's personal and family histories, I found a short history of Harker and Della Davis written by an unknown family member, probably a granddaughter. Enjoy this insight into the life of a homestead wife in the early 1900's.

Della Davis with her daughters, about 1920 -1921
L to R (back): Edna, Mable (Lou's mother), Birdie, Augusta, Florence
(front): Rachel, Della, Marjorie

"Their first summer in Kiowa County, Charles (Harker) and his older sons worked on the Mill’s Sheep Ranch with Della as cook for all hired hands and both families. The older daughters cared for a flock of bucks and dry ewes at their home place. It was a hard summer, but enough money was made to begin progress on their own ranch. A six bedroom adobe house was built, along with an L-shaped sheep shed and a bunk house for sheepherders. A wash house, a garage, and several outbuildings were added. Adobe blocks were a good building material; they held heat in the winter months and helped insulate from the sun in the summer."

Della with the Jersey cow from son Floyd who earned it working for Mr. Mills on the sheep ranch.

"School and church were very important to the Davis family. At Kendrick they built a one-room school and hired a teacher for two years. Della was seldom able to attend church herself, but she had a great desire for her children to have religious training."

Weekly or perhaps twice weekly bread baking.

"Della ordered clothes from the Montgomery Ward catalog, and upon arrival, clothes were carefully marked for each child. She was a good seamstress, quilted, crocheted, and was a good cook and housekeeper. She often baked 15 to 30 loaves of bread at a time, and when hired help was to be fed, she baked twice a week. Water for cooking, drinking and bathing had to be hauled to a cistern near the house. Meals usually consisted of mutton, pinto beans, bread, some dried fruits. She made her own butter, cottage cheese, and hominy. She gardened when water was available; she raised chickens and turkeys."

"Della introduced her children to home remedies: tobacco juice for bruises and ringworm, onion and honey boiled for colds, mustard baths for spasms, mustard and spices for pneumonia. She was mid-wife on occasion, learned how to care for and cure eczema cases, and she set bones."

She gives new meaning to the term 'working mother!'