Then Lightening Struck the Huge Tree That we were Playing Under, the Whole Tree Burst into Fire…

My mother had a neighbor, Charles and Minnie Harshbarger. They had the farm next to ours, the houses were close enough that you could hollar and get their attention. Charley was a scraggy little man that said very little, he had three black horses, and down the hill he had a saw mill, in the winter he sawed lumber for the farmers. They would haul the logs to the mill on bobsleds, the saw mill was run by steam, there was a pond between the house and sawmill and water was piped down the hill to the mill.

In the winter when the pond was frozen over we used to skate on the ice. Minnie was different, she was six feet four inches tall and weighted around 400 pounds, she never took a bath and smelled so bad she stunk up the whole church, she never wore any shoes, her hair was long, she pulled it back and rolled it into a bun on top of her head. Charley and Minnie’s house was a 2 story with 6 bedrooms it always smelled just like her they never had any carpet or floor covering of any kind on the floor, they had a small wood stove in the kitchen where Minnie cooked buckwheat cakes 3 times a day I don’t think she could cook anything else, she cooked mush one time, and the lumps were as big as walnuts, she used to cook wild game, head and all, didn’t even take the eyeballs out.

Charley and Minnie had 11 kids, Bill, Walter, Albert, Harry, Elizabeth, Reuben, Pearl, Violet, Grace, Daisy, Goldie. Violet was the same age as me, then grace. I’ll never forget the day daisy was born. When I came down to breakfast that morning, mother said, “Minnie has a new baby girl,” I couldn’t wait to go see Minnie’s new baby, I swallowed my breakfast real fast and washed it down with a glass of milk. We had to eat all our food, we weren’t allowed to leave any on our plate. Mother and Father were talking, I had to wait, to ask to be excused, I wasn’t allowed to interrupt while they were talking, when I finally was given a chance to ask, he took a long time answering. 

I knew, I had to fill the wood box with fire wood and go to the barn and milk, before anything else, so I hurried and filled the wood box, and got my little bucket and was ready to go to the barn. As soon as the milking was finished, I ran up to Minnie’s to see her new baby. The bedroom was dark, and I tiptoed quietly, Elizabeth lifted the baby up so I could see it, I was amazed at how tiny it was, I wanted to touch it; but I didn’t, I asked “whats its name was” and Minnie said “Daisy Bell”, I couldn’t get my breathe for a while, and when I did I ran out of the house crying, slamming the door behind me, I saw mother at the sink doing something and I yelled at her, “I HATE YOU, YOU GAVE MY NAME TO MINNIE’S BABY, NOW I DON´T HAVE ANY MIDDLE NAME.” Before mother could answer I ran out the door to the barn, where I stayed until dark, then I crept into the house and up to bed. The next morning I didn’t waste any time getting down to breakfast, as I had, had nothing to eat the day before; I knew I would get punished for my actions, the day before so I didn’t say anything. Father was at the head of the table, as soon as he had said grace, he said, “Ada Bell,” I want to explain something to you, “your mother did not give your name to Minnie’s baby, a lot of people have the same the name, once you have a name, no one can take it away from you.””you were named after aunt Ada, she still has her name.” Now go to the garden and pull weeds until you learn how to talk to your mother. It was always the same, every time I did something wrong, I had to pull weeds, it wasn’t long until I was back at Minnie’s playing with her kids, but I never did like Daisy Bell.

I had a habit of sneaking off to Minnie’s, as mother always had something for me to do. This one time she was getting ready to churn the butter, I knew what that meant, I would have to turn the crank on the churn so, I slipped away, thinking of going to Minnie’s by the way of the schoolhouse, but as I came around the turn, there was mother, with a stick, she whipped me till there were welts on my legs, I was sent back to the house crying as if she had killed me, after the butter was churned, I was sent back to pulling weeds again, but that didn’t stop me from sneaking off to Minnie’s. One time I was at Minnie’s playing with her kids, she told the kids it was time to go for the cows, which were in the pasture in the vale, we took off running, soon we found the cows and headed them towards home, we saw this pretty white sand under a huge tree, kids can’t resist sand, so like all kids we stopped to play, I don’t know how long we played, when we happen to notice that the sky was real black, we knew what that meant, a storm was coming, we took off running, we were half way up the hill when the first thunder came, then it came closer one right after the other as we reached the hilltop, we stopped to catch our breath, and in doing so, we looked back down the hill, just then lightening struck the huge tree that we were playing under, the whole tree burst into fire, limbs were flying in every direction lightening was running along the ground toward us splitting the earth open like a plow, we didn’t wait to see anymore, we took off screaming and running as fast as our legs could carry us. When we got to Minnie’s house, the rain had soaked us, we were out of breathe and still scared so bad we couldn’t stop shaking. Minnie put a dirty blanket around me, then her son Bill picked me up, put me in his car and took me home. Mother took me out on the back porch, stripped off my wet clothes, the poured a bucket of warm water over me, then wrapped me in a clean blanket and gave me a warm glass of milk, soon the milk made me sleepy, and I curled down behind the stove, someone put me to bed, because when I awoke I was in bed. The sun was shining it was the next day, we went back to the pasture field to see what the lighting had done, all that was left of the big tree was a charred stump about 20 feet high, and the ground had looked like someone had plowed it up with a plow.

Minnie May Thomas Harshbarger 1887-1965, Charles Anderson Harshbarger 1868-1956, Albert Richard Harshbarger 1909-1973, William Ralph Harshbarger 1904-1988, Walter David Harshbarger 1907-1968, Elizabeth Ellen Harshbarger Fresh 1913-1957, Charles Rubin Harshbarger 1917-2005, Pearl Katherine 1919-1984, Violet May 1921-2002, Myrtle Grace 1923-2006, Daisy Bell Harshbarger Rude 1925-2016, Goldie Irene Harshbarger Sager 1927- 2007