About 1905 Hubert became an entrepreneur. He acquired a grist mill and some land that had previously been owned by "Mat" Clark and his son "Rafe" Clark. They lived in a little log house about a mile or so down the road toward Big Creek. This house may or may not have been an improvement over the house at Wolf Bayou as far as the quality of the housing was concerned, but Hubert now had the opportunity to make something of his business, and that’s where he concentrated his efforts.
Maud’s role was to take care of the growing family – a new member arriving regularly about every two years. There were probably very few months when she was not pregnant or nursing a new baby. She made most of their clothes, cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, planted, hoed, harvested the garden, canned or otherwise preserved the food, made the quilts, kept the fire going, to say nothing of disciplining and teaching the children.
Her children say that she was strict, but even-tempered and "kept her cool" as compared to Hubert but she would "switch their legs" as needed to teach them to behave and obey her.
Cloyse was born June 7, 1905 and Myrtle made her appearance on February 19, 1907.
Maud’s health started to deteriorate to the degree that they were afraid for her life. In 1909 they were worried about her enough to send her to Pearson to live with her older sister, Molly Beasley, and Molly’s husband who was a doctor. She stayed there several months while her sister nursed and cared for her. The two younger children, Cloyse and Myrtle, were sent to stay with Maud’s parents for the better part of a year – even for some time after Maud returned home. It must have been very difficult for her to be separated from her family like that. She must have worried about all of them, but they didn’t have much of a choice.
While she was gone, nine year old Elva did basic housekeeping for her father, two younger brothers, and even cooked for the mill hands who had their noon meal at the house. She said "Aunt Mary" (wife of Gatis Martin, Hubert’s brother) who lived on the adjoining farm, helped her as she could, but she had her own family to care for. Seven year old Clee probably began then to help at the mill. Somehow they made it through this difficult time and Maud’s health was finally restored. As far as I know there was no real diagnosis of what was wrong with her, so I assume it was just that she got completely "worn out" from the constant child-bearing and the work load.
With five children, the little old makeshift house was becoming seriously overcrowded. Hubert didn’t want to take the time from his business to build another house, so he got his brother and neighbor, Gatis, to build one for them on the Banner – Wolf Bayou road before Lorene was born in 1911. When it was first built it had a large fireplace room big enough for a bed or two, a large kitchen with room for a big table for eating (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 large finished room upstairs.
By the time I came along there was a drilled well by the back door, but I’m not sure when that was put there. However, even with the well there, they carried water from the spring which was maybe 50 yards down a slope on the east side of the house. I don’t know if the problem with the well was the quality or quantity of the water. The washing was done down by the spring too, so the clothes had to be carried down there and back. A fire had to be built under the big iron wash pot so the clothes could be boiled as somebody punched them with a wooden stick. They were, of course, cleaned with "lie soap" which Maud had made herself, and rubbed by hand on a rub board before they were rinsed and hung on the line to dry. These were of course not "wash and wear" synthetics, but rough heavy fabrics like denim that had to be ironed with an iron that was heated on a wood-burning cookstove (even in summer.)
The clothes were dirty to a degree that we seldom see these days, from working hard at back-breaking labor with lumber and machinery. Clyde says she washed just once a week, on Thursdays. Lorene pointed out that it wasn’t necessary to wash more often, as they typically had only one change of clothes and they were expected to wear it a week between changes!
Baths were often weekly affairs, and this probably made them susceptible to getting "the itch" from other kids at school. Once five of the little boys had this very uncomfortable disease, so Maud gave them a "poke root" bath. She dug up some poke salet plants, boiled the roots and bathed the little boys in it. They never had "the itch" again. I’m not sure whether that special bath cured it for all time or if it stung so bad they started keeping themselves cleaner so they wouldn’t have to take that "cure" again!
The spring served a purpose other than providing water – that of a cooler. Hubert poured concrete around the spring to help keep it clean so debris wouldn’t accumulate in it. A separate milk cooling area was constructed to provide a nice level place to set milk containers where the overflow from the spring would constantly surround them with cool water. In those days of no refrigeration, that was very nice to have, but it did mean that you had to carry the milk down to the spring after you did the milking and strained it, then go get it and carry it back up to the house every time you needed milk.