Country Living by P. Grounds

Some would say I was born in an amazing time, August 8, 1936. The only amazing facts that I know are of my birth and that, that summer was the hottest on record and August was even hotter. Farm families did not have air conditioning or electric fans.  Braving the bugs outside was about the only relief.

What I am relating is based upon conditions in the southwest corner of Denison Township of Liberty and Harmony communities.

Roads

The term road commissioner was an honor, but also work and expense. My great-grandfather, George Barney, my Grandmother Leo’s Dad, was a road commissioner when the roads were nothing but wagon trails and had to be determined and laid out. After he married Myrtle Price, they built a log cabin on their farm in Liberty. He had to clear, plant, and raise crops on his land, as well as help with road maintenance. The first roads were crude with as little grading as possible. Most of the work was done with horses pulling ploughs, drags, and slip scrapers while men worked with shovels. Gravel had to be hauled in a wagon, then spread and smoothed. Raccoon Creek required bridges; the originals were wood that when flooded were usually damaged and required constant repair.

Route One was a State road so Denison Township did not worry about maintaining it. Anyone in the Township going to Lawrenceville or Mt. Carmel used that road or else they had to go by the dirt backroads.

Fairview Road (now Sand Barrens Lane) was the first to be graveled. If the side roads and lanes were graveled, the work, equipment, and materials were provided by the local farmers.

Fairview Road was improved, graded, and blacktopped about 1944, by Gregory Construction Company.

Hattie Corrie, the Liberty School Teacher, drove from and to Sumner everyday but with the road construction, it became impassable and she stayed with my Grandmother Ramsey during this time. My grandmother had another guest at the time we all called the Trailer Lady. I don’t remember her name. Her husband was doing work at the air field construction site. She and Hattie Corrie were taken by a new electric refrigerator my grandmother bought. It had an ice maker with special ice cube trays and a freezer compartment for meat.

The steel overhead bridge was installed over Raccoon Creek at Harmony Road sometime earlier than the blacktopping of Fairview Road (Douglas Road). It was there when I was very small because my folks went to Mt. Carmel over it. My mother made a big deal about being scared going over the bridge and I would laugh. It was fun. It had a permanent condemned sign on it as long as I can remember.

Another bridge on west remained wooden and it always washed out when the water came up. The overhead bridge was finally replaced with a modern concrete one with a concrete deck sometime around 1960. I don’t know if the other one was ever replaced.

Old Bridge over Indian Creek from West looking East