Hubert spent all his time at the water wheel powered mill. As soon as the boys were big enough to help at all, they worked there too, as young as seven years old. He converted the mill so that it could be used to saw shingles. He would saw shingles during the week and grind corn on Saturdays. Clee says he used French burrs to grind the corn, and that he often took a toll for pay. With his growing family, I’m sure they made good use of the corn meal tolls.
Clee tells a story that happened in those years. He and some other boys were playing around the mill. In order to operate the mill, Berry branch had been diverted so that it could fall onto the water wheel from above. A board could be inserted or removed to cause the water to either be diverted around the wheel to stop it or to fall on it to start the wheel turning. Of course on Sundays the wheel was not operating, but one of the boys, Fant Dye, decided it would be exciting to place himself inside the wheel and let his "friends" release the water to make the wheel spin – (thereby making his version of a Ferris wheel?) This plan was carried out, but there was a slight problem – they couldn’t stop the water from turning the wheel, and so had to run to the house and get Clee’s father, Hubert. He went as fast as he could and stopped it. Fant was not physically hurt, but I imagine he might have had a few nightmares as a result of this episode! Hubert was a strict parent and could be a harsh disciplinarian, but Clee does not remember any punishment in this case. Probably he knew they were so scared he didn’t have to worry about them repeating this mistake.
Hubert was so busy with the mill that he didn’t have the time or interest in doing many other tasks about the place. Elva and Lorene both told about their mother’s frustration that he would not keep the garden fence in repair so "range" animals would sometimes get into the garden and destroy it. Maud was given the responsibility of the garden. Perhaps he or a son would plow it now and then, but for the most part she raised the gardens to feed all those hungry mouths. Elva told of one time he went to look at the garden with Maud. The rows of plants were growing OK, but were not planted in a very straight row, so he made the "constructive criticism" of saying, "If you would just put a stake at each end of the row and tie a string between them, you could plant them in a straight row." I’m not sure how she replied, but I can well imagine what she felt like saying!
Since they were seriously outgrowing the log house, and Hubert had no time to build a house, he got his brother, Gatis to build a new house for them in 1911.
I’m not sure how long Gatis had stayed with the Wards, probably not as long as Hubert. He learned to be a carpenter and for years built many of the houses in the area. He got some "on-the-job carpenter training" when he went to Galveston, Texas with some other men from the community to make money helping to rebuild the area after a disaster. In looking at an Almanac, my guess is that it might have been after a hurricane that occurred in August of 1900. The storm was followed by tides that inundated Galveston causing an estimated 6,000 deaths.
The original house Gatis built for his brother had a large fireplace room big enough for a bed or two, a large kitchen with room for a big table for dining; a bed could be fitted in there too, a bedroom downstairs big enough for two beds. From this bedroom there was a stairway up to a finished room upstairs.
This upstairs room was the site of another enterprise of Hubert’s, a photography studio! He walled off a corner of the room and used it to develop pictures. He had a camera with accordion folds and a tripod. He had a stamp, "Martin Gallery." I don’t know how many customers he had but we have some pictures he made that I think are quite good. My favorite is a picture of my mother, Elva, when she was 17 years old. She is standing in the garden gate and is holding an opened black parasol held behind her so that it frames her face. This shows that he knew something about "composing" the picture and arranging an appropriate background. Elva’s future husband, Earl Stuart, carried a copy of this picture in his wallet when he was in France in World War I.
When I asked several people how they remembered Hubert Martin, they invariably said "quiet, steady, hard-working, industrious, dependable, honest, good manager." Clelan mentioned "patriotic;" he wanted politicians to do right for the country. He was enthusiastic about 4th of July picnic celebrations at Banner. Lorene surprised me by saying "sociable", "loved public life." Of course all of those words described some aspect of him. Lorene tells of the time he came in, having caught "the biggest fish I ever saw." Clelan says it was a 60 pound catfish, that they had to hang it from a cedar tree to skin it. When he brought it home he invited in all the neighbors to help eat it.