By Velma M. Rose Smith

I came home from school, October 24, 1911. to find a surprise. Grandma Rose said for me to come with her, that Mama had a surprise for me. Mama was in the bedroom off the living room. She had a baby, weighing 9 pounds.

We had quite a time finding a name for this precious baby. Dr. Hazlett thought we should name him Daniel. Papa wanted Enos after a favorite Uncle who burned in barn fire. Mama held out for Merritt.

There was whooping cough at school, so as a precaution Mama and baby moved into the front rooms. So sure enough, I got the whooping cough. They kept us apart for six weeks.

Aunt Helen Bowen made him a pink dress for his coming out party. It seems as though it was no time before he was creeping and then walking. He was so short and run right beneath the dining room table. People called him Tommy Jones, because he was so small. He wore what they called little suits, – short pants, top was long, down to the knees, and usually made of gingham.

He had lots of toys, but his favorite was a stuffed elephant, which he called his elephamut. He played with his ABC blocks and learned to write his name. When he was three we missed him. The phone rang and someone at Yaudes’ called to let us know he was there. Chloe had a baby, named her Harriet, their 4th one. He went down there, had taken his pennies with him, and wanted to buy the baby. Mama went down, followed him home – Mama had a switch, and if he lagged along the way, she used it on him. Chloe thought it was so cute, but Mama didn’t. She didn’t want him running away.

For Christmas the year he was four, Papa and Mama with Merritt and I went to Mansfield in the Ford. They got Merritt a rocking horse. I was so happy, for I had always wanted one. That horse traveled many miles. Jeannette has it now. It needs a mane and tail and painting. One day when he was four, Merritt and I was home alone, he stepped on a nail in a board down by granary. I had to step on the board to hold it down and pull his foot off the rusty nail. I washed it good and put salt pork on it. I changed it every little while. The rust came out onto the bandage. It healed nicely.

It was early spring, Merritt was four years old, and we had left him in the house while we went out to the garden to put in the peas. The sun was really hot and we were sweating. Merritt came out and went by the end of the garden to go to the toilet. He had his coat, cap and mittens on. We had to laugh, he looked so funny.

I remember once when I was holding on to him, he was standing on a table in the Grange Hall, he had on his brown fur coat. We were waiting for Papa to bring the horse around to go home. When someone said they heard he could name all the Presidents of the U.S. So I told him to name them – and he did. Papa had taught him. Everyone was surprised. He was 5 years old when Mama taught him to play the mouth organ, and he sang songs at the Grange Hall.

When I went to Mansfield Normal I boarded at Tom and Lucy Youmans. John, their son, was reading Zane Grey books. I borrowed one to bring home for Merritt to read. He liked it so well, I brought John’s books home to him so he read nearly all of Zane Greys books when he was seven.

When Merritt was around 3, Papa left the mowing machine in the yard by the road, filled the oil can ready to oil it but had to leave for awhile. When he returned he found the machine well oiled. Merritt had used the whole can, oiled the machine, the tongue and the seat. He was only a little past 2 when Papa left the team, the big horses – Bell and Beauty, standing by the granary, with the lines slack. They were broke to stand still until he picked up the lines. Merritt went down to the road and picked up the lines. The next thing he knew, he heard Papa yelling whoa, they went up past the bridge, heading for Scotts, they went with little Merritt holding onto the lines. I wish I had a picture of that. I do in my mind. Papa caught them ok, but it looked so cute.

I was standing at the screen door staring ahead, Mama spoke to me and when I didn’t answer, she came to see what I was looking at. I couldn’t speak nor move. She went by me and down to the road, slid between the boards in the gate, picked up her little boy dressed in a blue striped suit and came back through the gate. Then I started breathing again. Two year old Merritt had gone into the barn yard and was standing among the colts (1 and 2 year old colts). The one he was facing was tricky – if Merritt had moved, he would have swung around and kicked up both heals.

There were a lot of boys when Merritt was growing up. There were Emmett and Thurston Jones and Earl Bowen, who was a special close friend as he was just a week older, Linden Copp who was the same age. There were also the four Bartoo boys and Rex Beuter. They hunted woodchucks and spent a lot of time together. Rex would come over the hill to join the others to play cowboy and Indians on the hill. Arnold and I stopped over there one evening when we heard a lot of yelling. It was the “Cowboys and Indian” coming in for a drink. Mama had lemonade and cookies ready for them. There must have been 10 or more of them. The Indians had headbands and chicken feathers and the cowboys had red handkerchiefs. They had homemade bow and arrows and guns carved from wood. They really had a lot of fun.

Merritt helped the Bartoo boys dam up the creek in their pasture for a swimming hole. Once Merritt broke his arm from falling off a section of an old roller, riding it down the yard. He also had a lot of fun riding his wagon down the yard.

I don’t know how old he was when he got his first banjo, which he learned to play by himself. One year Merritt and these boys had a tent at the Mansfield Fair and performed and sang for the crowd, sorta a side show thing, and collected money in a dish.