Wanna Be a Steader!

Pioneer Story...

I had shared in an earlier post that we have been studying Prioneer/Homesteading life.  (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Buckeyeblog/273657)  I got a really great book from the library - "Pioneer Women" by Linda Peavy & Ursula Smith (consultants for PBS's Frontier House series).  I came across a story that just touched my heart.

Now, I hope you don't find this morbid, as it is about the loss of a child, but having faced the death of our first daughter, Jessica, stories like this catch my attention.  (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Buckeyeblog/34315)  In an odd way, there is comfort in numbers. 

Unfortunately, a sad but common occurrence on the frontier was the untimely deaths of children and mothers - usually, mothers were lost in childbirth.  In the chapter entitled "Behind Closed Doors" Peavy & Smith deal with this very issue.  Here is a story that I thought, while so sad, is so precious...

"When Oregon pioneer Martha Gay Masterson's little son Freddie died after a suddent and brief illness, the family buried the boy in a place where he loved to play, so that 'the little birds he loved in life sang their evening songs over his grave.'  His little playmates 'came loaded with lovely white flowers' which were strewn over his grave.  Only a day or so before he grew ill, Masterson had cut his curls for the first time, and asked what should be done with the ringlets, Freddie had answered, 'You take one curl, Mama, then I will put the others out by the big tree and the birds can have them to build their nests.'  Busy with her work, Masterson did not follow him outside and  had all but forgotten the incident until late in the fall when one of her daughters called her outside to see a bird's nest she'd found.  There in the tangled mass of sticks were little Freddie's golden curls.  Twenty-one years later, Masterson still had that little nest."

Isn't the Lord good?!  How meaningful that little nest was to that family and to actually KNOW that the Lord loved them enough to let them know that He had honored little Freddie's love of his little bird-friends; that they had done exactly what he had wanted them to do and used his curls to build their nests for their own little "families."  That would have meant more to me than words could have ever expressed.  I hope that someone in their family tree still has that nest.

Blessings, Kim Wolf<>< 

Beautiful story

04:27, 2007-Feb-23 .. Posted by Patti

That is a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing it.

I am reminded of the harsh realities of pioneer living. I often think I am in the wrong century because I so love the thought of pioneer living. (I've watched a little too much of Little House on the Prairie, I think). I guess it was the simpleness of those times that appeals so much to me and others like me. Not simple, as in easy, but simple, as in uncluttered...not filled up with all the things that take up so much of our time today. Life was about God, family, and work. They didn't run all over creation doing activities, they didn't own tons (!) of junk. They enjoyed home life....even with all of its harshness. I think that is what we all crave so much.

Untitled Comment

09:14, 2007-Feb-26 .. Posted by maa

How precious this story is. Sad but precious.

I am very interested in the pioneer life. I think many families could be closer and have less stress if they lived more like the pioneers did.
maa's mom