written by America's granddaughter, Peggy (Stringer) Lester, 1995
My memories of Grandma Booth are very few as she died when I was ten years old, but I do have some very vivid memories.
My clearest memory, strangely enough, is of her death. She died December 2, 1939. It was very cold and snowing. I was to get a new snow suit for Christmas but they let me have it early to wear to the funeral which was to be held at the Mountain View Baptist Church Cemetery near Meadowview.
I was a flower girl. Her Granddaughters were flower girls and I was the youngest Granddaughter. A cousin, Joanna Maiden, who was also ten years old, played the piano. I believe this was the first funeral I ever attended.
She died at the home of her oldest daughter, Mary Booth Smyth, where she had made her home for several years. I remember the singing of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" at the house before she was taken from the home.
Grandma's husband, Joel Booth, had died at the age of forty years on July 5, 1889 (my Mother, his youngest daughter died July 5, 1967). At the time of her husband's death, Grandma was pregnant. On August 25, 1889. just one month and twenty days after Granddaddy's death, Grandma gave birth to twins - Joel and my Mother America. It was quite a shock to find that there were two babies as Grandma only had clothing for one. The neighbors came up with clothes for Mama. Mama used to laugh and say she started out life in borrowed clothes and she had been behind ever since. In addition to the twins there were six older children - Harvey, Jimmy, Mary, Lysander, Sarah, and Nancy (Nannie). There was a baby, Margaret, between Harvey and Jimmy who died in infancy. Times were hard for the young widow and her eight children but she prevailed.
Grandma lived on in her family home which her husband built around 1875. She raised all of her children to be fine and upstanding adults and they were all good, solid, citizens. After the marriage of her youngest son, Joel, in 1910, she left her home and for a while she made her home with her daughter, Sarah Booth Smyth. Later she moved to her daughter, Mary Booth Smyth's home where she lived until her death at the age of ninety-one.
I often think of Grandma, left a widow, with six children and pregnant, losing her husband to what was referred to as "galloping consumption". Ironically, Joel's younger brother, Worley, died in his forties a few years later of what was called "galloping pneumonia". Both became sick suddenly and died within a few hours.
I remember Grandma wearing long, floor length dresses and high button black shoes. Her dresses were mostly black or gray and had big pockets. Her petticoat also had big pockets and it was from one of these pockets that Mary Virginia Smith, her Granddaughter, said she took the gold coin which she gave to Mary Virginia and told her it was the last of the Buchanan gold (Grandma's Mother was Margaret Wilson Buchanan daughter of John Buchanan and Mary Ryburn). Mary Virginia recently put this coin up for bids in the family and a cousin, Larry Thorne (Grandson of Harvey Booth) bought the coin for one thousand dollars. Mary Virginia gave the money to charity to help orphan children as Grandma had a love of children.
Another thing I remember is that Grandma ate sugar on her tomatoes instead of salt. I had never seen anyone put sugar on their tomatoes and it amazed me very much.
She always sat in a rocking chair in front of a window in Aunt Mary's kitchen. She had a cane resting on her knee and would try to hook our legs with the cane as we passed by.. We soon learned to make a large path around her chair. Since I have gotten older though, I have wondered if she was lonesome and just wanted us to stop and talk to her. It makes me sad to think that now, but as a child I was frightened of that cane reaching around my ankles.
Grandma was a very stubborn person. You can look at her chin and see that she meant business. I have heard it related that Grandma and other neighbors were picking berries on a Mr. Snapp's land. He arrived and bypassing the others he approached Grandma and said "Mrs. Booth, when you get your bucket full don't pick any more as I want them for myself". Although her bucket was nearly full she drew herself up and answered "if you begrudge a poor widow woman a few berries you need them worse than I do". With that she dumped the berries she had already picked at his feet. Then with her back as straight as a ramrod she walked off. (I have been accused of cutting off my nose to spite my face so I guess I get it honest!!!). Some time after Granddaddy's death a neighbor appropriated some of Grandma's sheep. By some means she managed to get to Abingdon and she took him to court and got her sheep back. This neighbor was known as a pillar of the church that Grandma attended. When she was relating the story about the sheep in later years she was asked "Maw, did you leave that church? She replied "no, but when he prayed I didn't bow my head". As my cousin Mary Virginia says "the Scotch isn't too watered down yet". Both the Crenshaws and Buchanans were very good Scottish names.
My sister, Frances told me that when she was in school Grandma was staying at our house for awhile. A girl friend wanted to come home with her to spend the night, My Mother thought it might be better if she waited until "Maw" wasn't there as we lived in a four room house with ten people all of the time and Grandma made eleven. The girl didn't want to wait so Mama made a pallet on the floor (this is where we slept when we had company) and told her to come on. That night the girl got the hiccups really bad and nothing seemed to stop them. Grandma came into the room and looked sternly at the girl and said "I heard what you said about me". This really upset the girl and she said "oh Mrs. Booth I never said anything about you". Grandma laughed and said "well, lets hear you hiccup". Sure enough she had scared them away.
Grandma was born in Quarry, Virginia, near Saltville. She lived in a house known as the Andy Fullen house which her Grandfather, John Buchanan, had built for his sister, Mary Buchanan who married Andrew Fullen. This house was built in the early eighteen hundreds and stood until the nineteen-fifties. Grandma lived there with her parents Margaret Wilson Buchanan and George Sanders Crenshaw who had moved there when they married. According to Grandma all of her six siblings were born there and all married from there except for her brother, James Campbell Crenshaw. George Sanders and Margaret Crenshaw moved to Washington County in the late eighteen hundreds.
Grandma and Granddaddy came to Washington Co., VA in 1875. Granddaddy bought 50 ac. of land which had to be cleared before building their house. He moved his family into a house just below the Yellow Springs Church while he worked on their house. The rooms he built were in the back of the house that my Uncle Joe Booth later lived in. Grandma lived here until after her youngest son, Joel, married. This house was recently destroyed by fire.
Mama said she was ten years old when Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Nora Hockett were married (Aunt Nora was sixteen years old). They came back to Grandma's to spend the night and the next morning Mama asked Grandma "Maw, did Jimmy Gee sleep with that woman last night" Jimmy Gee became well known as a mail carrier in Washington County, Virginia.
Grandma had very piercing blue eyes and her hair was snow white as long as I can remember. She was a very strict disciplinarian and expected and got respect from all around her. She had to be a strong woman to have endured all that she did.
Grandma was at Mama's in West Virginia when Mama's husband, John Stringer, died at the age of thirty-five leaving her with five children - the youngest only three months old. I am sure Grandma's heart ached for her as she remembered how she also was left in a similar circumstance.
I remember that Grandma was in a downstairs bedroom when she died. Just before she passed away she raised up and called out "Joel". They told Uncle Joe that "Maw" was calling him but he shook his head and said "I'm not the one she is calling". Sure enough she was soon reunited with her Joel she had lost so many years ago.
Granddaddy Booth was buried in the Quarry Cemetery near Saltville and Grandma is buried in the Mountain View Baptist Cemetery near Meadowview.
I wish I had known her better, but I cherish each memory I have. They don't make them like her anymore.
Peggy Stringer Lester 1995