| "I remember Momma taking old coats and sewing them together for covers for us kids because we couldn't afford to buy blankets." |
Christina Sara McAdams Lyming Recalls her life in a log cabin
While the few photos that remain may be old and faded, the memories Christina “Tina”
McAdams Lyming has growing up in the old McAdams log cabin are still bright and clear in
her mind. Christina was born in the log cabin which was located near Pere Marquette State
Park in Jersey County. The cabin was disassembled and then reassembled on the grounds
of the Jersey County Historical Society.
The fact that this cabin has someone still alive to share memories of life in a log cabin is
very rare. “I have so many fond memories of my childhood in that cabin,” Christina said.
PI was not only raised in that log cabin, but I was born there as well as two of my other
siblings. I spent my first 13 years in that little cabin, so I have a lot of memories stored in
my mind of our life there.”
Christina was born in the one room log cabin in 1935 to Clay Roosevelt and Ruth Christina
Renken McAdams. Her father and grandfather, Leonard Henry McAdams, built the cabin
that the McAdams children would call home for over a decade.
“Originally, there was just one room with a loft up abve, but later my dad built a frame room
onto it as our family got bigger and it also had a loft area,” Christina said. “My parents
occupied one loft bedroom and the kids the other. The boys had a bed and us girls had a
bed.”
The 1930’s was the period right after the Great Depression when things were tough all
over, jobs were scarce, men were out of work and families got by the best they could.
“I was still young, but I can remember it being a very hard time for us,” Lyming said. “I
remember Momma taking old coats and sewing them together to make covers for us kids
because wer couldn’t afford to buy blankets. They were so heavy that you felt like you had
been working all night holding the covers up. But they kept us warm.”
Christina and her three siblings, Henry, Betty and Donald grew up in the rural log cabin
without the benefit of running water or electricity.
“If you were to watch ‘Little House on the Prairie’ that would have been glamorous
compared to how we lived. We had nothing like they had. We were very poor. We didn’t
have many of the tools that you see in the old time movies and things. We really didn’t
have anything to work with and just kind of did everything from scratch. My father would
pick up whatever work he could find in the rural area to try to feed his family. I can
remember the farmers giving my dad work when they really didn’t need him, but they knew
he had four kids at home to feed. They had a little extra money so they would give him
work. I can also remember going to my aunt’s house and bringing back gunny sacks full of
food to see us through the rough times,” states Crhistina.
Living in a log cabin was especially hard in the rough winters of the 1930’s.
“The cabin was not insulated and I remember waking up in the morning with snow on my
bed where it had blown through the cracks in the logs,” Christina said. “Many a time my
fingers froze to the clothesline when I hung out my little brother’s diapers. People can’t
believe that we lived like that, but we did.”
While her father never learned to read or write, her mother’s family was quite well off prior
to the stock market crash in 1929.
“My mother had been raised pretty well until the family lost all their money in the Crash of
‘29’. When they lost everything and came to the country, she met my dad. Prior to that,
she was schooled in the finer things in life such as singing, reading and writing. We were all
very fortunate that she passed her love of singing and reading on to us,” Christina says.
“I can remember Momma always singing while she was working around the cabin. She had
an old player piano and she taught us all to sing while she played the piano.”
With no electricity, reading was done the old-fashioned way – by either candlelight or
kerosene lamp. “We didn’t have a lot of money to buy the kerosene, so we always went to
bed soon after dark. Before we would go to bed, Momma would always read to us. She
would draw us close to the kerosene lamp and read to us from an old book and an old
western magazine because Dad liked western stories.”
Despite the hardships, Christina remembers her childhood in the log cabin as a happy time.
“As I look back on it, it was very hard, but we were always laughing and teasing and my
mother was always singing. You just did what you had to do to survive and loved each
other.”
“One of my earliest memories was my dad taking splinters out of my finger, knees, foot
etc. He would take out this huge knife (a small pocket knife) and grab a hand etc and dig
right in. No alcohol, no washing of knife, hands etc and no bandaids. Just go on and play
you’re fine.”
When I was 2 ½ my mother said we were going to get a baby. She said it would be my baby
too. I was very excited. I guess I must have been a pest. I wanted the baby now and if it
was a girl, her name would be Betty Jean after my doll.
We stayed with my grandfather who lived about a quarter of a line away to be with my
young aunts when the men were at work when Momma got close to her time. On the night
my mother went into labor it was very cold (Jan 5th). They woke my 5 year old brother and
me from a warm bed and made us walk to our house to a cold dark house. Mother refused
to stay in any bed but her own for 10 days. My Granddad and Aunt Maudie went with us
while my dad rode a horse to get the Doctor. Granddad could not get the fire started. I
remember being very, very cold. The next thing I remember is standing on the stair and
looking down at the bed with Mommy and my new baby, Betty Jean. It must have been the
next day. I found out later that the Doctor was too late and my seventeen year old Aunt
delivered the baby.
I remember singing as far back as my memory goes. Mom always sang as she worked.
She never had time to play with us but she could sing while she worked so she taught us to
sing along with her. My dad liked to tease and laugh. We were often uncomfortable with
heat or cold and sometimes illnesses but we always felt secure because we knew we were
loved.
The moving of the cabin was something Lyming has looked forward to very much. It has
finally become a reality. It really doesn’t look like you would expect a log cabin to look, but
I guess that is part of the love that surround it, because it is different. I have looked
forward to seeing it placed on the grounds of the Historical Society with the Lone Star
School.
Things my father used to say…
High water pants – too short.
Hog Heaven – as good as it gets
Tongue hung in the middle and wags on both end – someone who talks too much
Wasn’t born yesterday
Glutton for punishment – refused to quit
Cut the darn thing off twice, and still it’s too short
Feel right good when it quits hurtin’
Ain’t got the sense God gave a mule
So slow he can’t catch cold
More grown in a crooked row than in a straight one
When God takes away in one place, he gives back in another – meaning if it rained on the
hay it also watered the corn
While the few photos that remain may be old and faded, the memories Christina “Tina”
McAdams Lyming has growing up in the old McAdams log cabin are still bright and clear in
her mind. Christina was born in the log cabin which was located near Pere Marquette State
Park in Jersey County. The cabin was disassembled and then reassembled on the grounds
of the Jersey County Historical Society.
The fact that this cabin has someone still alive to share memories of life in a log cabin is
very rare. “I have so many fond memories of my childhood in that cabin,” Christina said.
PI was not only raised in that log cabin, but I was born there as well as two of my other
siblings. I spent my first 13 years in that little cabin, so I have a lot of memories stored in
my mind of our life there.”
Christina was born in the one room log cabin in 1935 to Clay Roosevelt and Ruth Christina
Renken McAdams. Her father and grandfather, Leonard Henry McAdams, built the cabin
that the McAdams children would call home for over a decade.
“Originally, there was just one room with a loft up abve, but later my dad built a frame room
onto it as our family got bigger and it also had a loft area,” Christina said. “My parents
occupied one loft bedroom and the kids the other. The boys had a bed and us girls had a
bed.”
The 1930’s was the period right after the Great Depression when things were tough all
over, jobs were scarce, men were out of work and families got by the best they could.
“I was still young, but I can remember it being a very hard time for us,” Lyming said. “I
remember Momma taking old coats and sewing them together to make covers for us kids
because wer couldn’t afford to buy blankets. They were so heavy that you felt like you had
been working all night holding the covers up. But they kept us warm.”
Christina and her three siblings, Henry, Betty and Donald grew up in the rural log cabin
without the benefit of running water or electricity.
“If you were to watch ‘Little House on the Prairie’ that would have been glamorous
compared to how we lived. We had nothing like they had. We were very poor. We didn’t
have many of the tools that you see in the old time movies and things. We really didn’t
have anything to work with and just kind of did everything from scratch. My father would
pick up whatever work he could find in the rural area to try to feed his family. I can
remember the farmers giving my dad work when they really didn’t need him, but they knew
he had four kids at home to feed. They had a little extra money so they would give him
work. I can also remember going to my aunt’s house and bringing back gunny sacks full of
food to see us through the rough times,” states Crhistina.
Living in a log cabin was especially hard in the rough winters of the 1930’s.
“The cabin was not insulated and I remember waking up in the morning with snow on my
bed where it had blown through the cracks in the logs,” Christina said. “Many a time my
fingers froze to the clothesline when I hung out my little brother’s diapers. People can’t
believe that we lived like that, but we did.”
While her father never learned to read or write, her mother’s family was quite well off prior
to the stock market crash in 1929.
“My mother had been raised pretty well until the family lost all their money in the Crash of
‘29’. When they lost everything and came to the country, she met my dad. Prior to that,
she was schooled in the finer things in life such as singing, reading and writing. We were all
very fortunate that she passed her love of singing and reading on to us,” Christina says.
“I can remember Momma always singing while she was working around the cabin. She had
an old player piano and she taught us all to sing while she played the piano.”
With no electricity, reading was done the old-fashioned way – by either candlelight or
kerosene lamp. “We didn’t have a lot of money to buy the kerosene, so we always went to
bed soon after dark. Before we would go to bed, Momma would always read to us. She
would draw us close to the kerosene lamp and read to us from an old book and an old
western magazine because Dad liked western stories.”
Despite the hardships, Christina remembers her childhood in the log cabin as a happy time.
“As I look back on it, it was very hard, but we were always laughing and teasing and my
mother was always singing. You just did what you had to do to survive and loved each
other.”
“One of my earliest memories was my dad taking splinters out of my finger, knees, foot
etc. He would take out this huge knife (a small pocket knife) and grab a hand etc and dig
right in. No alcohol, no washing of knife, hands etc and no bandaids. Just go on and play
you’re fine.”
When I was 2 ½ my mother said we were going to get a baby. She said it would be my baby
too. I was very excited. I guess I must have been a pest. I wanted the baby now and if it
was a girl, her name would be Betty Jean after my doll.
We stayed with my grandfather who lived about a quarter of a line away to be with my
young aunts when the men were at work when Momma got close to her time. On the night
my mother went into labor it was very cold (Jan 5th). They woke my 5 year old brother and
me from a warm bed and made us walk to our house to a cold dark house. Mother refused
to stay in any bed but her own for 10 days. My Granddad and Aunt Maudie went with us
while my dad rode a horse to get the Doctor. Granddad could not get the fire started. I
remember being very, very cold. The next thing I remember is standing on the stair and
looking down at the bed with Mommy and my new baby, Betty Jean. It must have been the
next day. I found out later that the Doctor was too late and my seventeen year old Aunt
delivered the baby.
I remember singing as far back as my memory goes. Mom always sang as she worked.
She never had time to play with us but she could sing while she worked so she taught us to
sing along with her. My dad liked to tease and laugh. We were often uncomfortable with
heat or cold and sometimes illnesses but we always felt secure because we knew we were
loved.
The moving of the cabin was something Lyming has looked forward to very much. It has
finally become a reality. It really doesn’t look like you would expect a log cabin to look, but
I guess that is part of the love that surround it, because it is different. I have looked
forward to seeing it placed on the grounds of the Historical Society with the Lone Star
School.
Things my father used to say…
High water pants – too short.
Hog Heaven – as good as it gets
Tongue hung in the middle and wags on both end – someone who talks too much
Wasn’t born yesterday
Glutton for punishment – refused to quit
Cut the darn thing off twice, and still it’s too short
Feel right good when it quits hurtin’
Ain’t got the sense God gave a mule
So slow he can’t catch cold
More grown in a crooked row than in a straight one
When God takes away in one place, he gives back in another – meaning if it rained on the
hay it also watered the corn
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