Going back to the time when my father, Clement Everman Buckman, was a boy, we find him living with his parents near the Ohio River in Kentucky. I believe his father was a farmer. I know he cut cord wood and sold it to the steam boats that went up and down the river. I do not remember my grandparents.
When my father became of age he had the pioneering spirit that calls man to the big outdoors. He took up farming for his livelihood. Feeling it necessary to have a helpmate to successfully go forward on Life's broad way, he married Sevilla Ann Shanks. While still on the farm in Kentucky, they were the proud parents of six children, two of them, however died in infancy) leaving the four of us; Susan Elizabeth, Andrew Jasper, Sarah Earsley and myself, Mary Josephine.
When I was two and a half years old, my father's feet began to itch and lie felt the urge to make a Westward move. He sold his farm in Kentucky and moved with his family to Bourbon County, Kansas, where he bought land, and again established a home. Here the house was made of logs cut from a forest nearby of Hickory and Walnut. It was built near the bank of the Marmaton River.
While this river did not run all the time, there was one deep place where there was always plenty of water. Here we could always find fish to try our luck in fishing. Those were the “good old days” when there was plenty of game; deer, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, quail, and gray squirrels. My Father and brother Andrew were very fond of hunting, so we were always; well supplied.
We also had domestic animals, including a few sheep to furnish the wool my mother used to make our winter clothes; jeans for the men and linsey for the girls. I often wonder how one little woman like my mother could accomplish all the work she did in those days. The cooking for the large family had to be done by the fireplace as we had no stove until I was eight years old. We had no sewing machine so all the sewing for the family was done by hand. Another handicap was the lighting system. At this time we knew nothing of electric lights or lamps. We made our own candles by dipping strings in tallow and letting it dry. (Cont. below)