The following newspaper clipping is from
the Belleville, Illinois "Daily News-Democrat, was not dated, but
from the article was concluded as probably written in 1932. It begins with
a 3 x 4 picture of Harriet (Cox) Booker.
One-Hundred One year Old Woman
Smokes Her pipe of Clay Each Day
Mrs. Merla Guettermann of 611 State St, and Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, corner Belle
and Delaware Avenue Belleville, are mighty proud of their one-hundred and one
year old grandmother Mrs. Harriet (Cox) Booker who resides with their father, George
Booker in Brockville, Illinois.
Harriet (Cox) Booker was born in Sullivan County, Indiana, *March 3, 1831 and is the
daughter of Abraham and Harriet (Beebe) Cox, who emigrated to the Hoosier state by
ox-team and covered wagon from Connecticut, a long slow trek.
During her childhood there were a few Indians in Indiana. She remembers
hearing that her father's house was at one time a rendezvous for a small band of
Indians, who caroused about and often came to the Cox home in an intoxicated
condition.
Mr. Cox seemed to have a lot of influence over them. He made the redskins keep
out of deviltry by putting them to sleep around his own fireplace and depriving
them of more "fire-water".
The Mexican War
Grandma Booker in speaking of her school days declared that the old school
house in Indiana in which school was held for only two months of some years, had
very few modern facilities. The desks and benches were hewn slabs mounted on legs
of rough wood. The ventilation problem was easily solved by omitting the glass
which was very expensive in those days and by simply barring the windows with
wooden shutters when it rained or snowed and at night.
During the time that the centenarian lived in Indiana, the Mexican War broke
out, and when the company from Sullivan and surrounding counties arrived, she and
her Mother rode an old mule to the place where the soldiers were to muster out.
The crowd which gathered in wagons and carts was so great, that the sham battle
which had been arranged as part of the homecoming celebration, had to be foregone
because the vehicles and crowd occupied all of the clearing.
The Civil War
In *1859 she was married to Evan Booker, and in 1861 she and her husband came
to Illinois by ox-cart, driving their poultry and livestock with them. They
settled about two miles north of Hunt City. Their cabin was about thirty feet
long and about twelve or fifteen feet across and in Mrs. Booker's words, "as nice
as log cabin as anybody would want". The windows were of glass, the fire-place
of sand stone and the logs as smoothly hewed as if they had been saved.
Mrs. Booker remembers the Civil War and Lincoln's election and assassination.
She has some strong feelings on the subject of war, however, and declares that she
doesn't call it a Civil war, when brother fights brother as they did then. She
also recollects the return of many of the soldiers in coffins.
One of the important differences in that day and this, she explains is that
families were largely self-sufficient and spent little money, chiefly because they
had little cash. Many of the things that we call necessities today, things which
we must buy, were made in the home or secured from the field or forest, matches
for instance, were not in use then. Punk, decayed matter out of knot holes in
hickory trees, a flint rock, and a piece of steel, ignited their fires.
Tabacco Home-Grown
In those days they had no stoves, but used fire-places instead. Their food
consisted of "jerked" venison, cured by smoking as bacon is, cornbread made from
meal which had been ground at a horse grist mill in the neighborhood, light bread
from home produced wheat, ground at a nearby mill; vegetables grown in the garden,
"meal" coffee, made out of rye, because coffee was twice as expensive as it is now
and money was much scarcer (even more scarce than during this depression), and
meat from home-grown animals. Clothes were practically all homemade from wool and
flax, which the people raised themselves and made into cloth by hard work over hand
looms. The flax furnished another necessity - paper. Tobacco was home-grown.
In fact Grandma's son still grows all of their tobacco, for she doesn't like
store tobacco. Her Mother and Grandmother smoked before her and she ridicules the
idea that the use of tobacco is physically harmful or apt to cut one's life short.
Five Generations
She is a widow and the Mother of four children, two of whom are living: George
Booker with whom she makes her home in Brockville, Ill; and Albert Booker who
lives in the state of Oregon. There are five generations of the family living,
viz: Grandma, herself, her son George Booker, his daughter, Mrs. Merla Guettermann
of 611 State Street, Belleville; Nomel Breitwieser, wife of Henry Breitwieser, of
East St. Louis; and her daughter, LaVerne Breitwieser.
Grandma has other Belleville relatives in the persons of: Mrs. Elizabeth
Cooper, ...who is her granddaughter; Leola, George, Margaret and Robert Byrd,
children of John Byrd, who are all great grandchildren as is Melvin Byrd, son Mrs.
Merla Guettermann, little Charles Breitwieser is another great great grandchild
of Mrs. Booker, his sister LaVerne having been mentioned above in the
five-generation group.
Mrs. Booker and her husband came to Brockville, Ill. which is located in Jasper
County, in 1869 and bought five town lots and a pole cabin for $100. Brockville
is located about nine miles in the country from Newton. It was then a thriving
community with about fifteen or twenty houses, a big store, a saloon and a church.
The coming of the railway, ended the growth of Brockville, but not Mrs. Booker's
habitation there, for she thinks Brockville is the finest spot on earth.
Has Active Mind
Mrs. Booker is a small frail woman, but has a very active mind. She is no
longer able to move about freely, but derives a great deal of satisfaction in
sitting in her rocking chair and conversing and reminiscing. At her elbow is her
clay pipe which she has used throughout most of her life, and a box of home-grown
tobacco which she smokes at intervals throughout the day.
End of Newspaper Article.
