I. Earliest Childhood Memories

My parents were Samuel Edmund Wood and Helen Dunlop Wood. I was born on a Tuesday morning in Houston Township, Section 10, Adams County on August 19, 1902, and was named Lucy - no middle name. Why? I never knew. My three sisters and two brothers born later were each given a middle name.

I can faintly remember a horse and buggy ride from Houston Township to Section 4 in Ellington Township when I was approximately two years of age. This was to the Malinda Frazer farm that my father had purchased, and was my home until I finished grade school and we moved to Augusta in March, 1916. My father wanted to have a larger farm and to reside near a good high school.

As a member of the Bear Creek Legion Auxiliary Unit 823, I helped in the food stand at the Adams County Fair, Mendon, Illinois on Sunday, August 7, 1983. During my break I viewed some of the fair exhibits. One that attracted my attention was that of the Curry Funeral Home. It brought back memories! There was a brown wicker basket! In a flash I remembered having seen a similar one in my Uncle I. N. Wood's home when I was quite young. In the basket was the dead body of my Aunt Sarah Daugherty Wood.

Upon checking Vital Statistics at Adams County Court House I learned that my aunt at 27 years of age had passed away on March 15, 1905, having had pneumonia.

Mr. Curry informed me that these funeral baskets were used during the late 1800's and the early 1900's to transport a corpse from the home to the church or cemetery. The body had been embalmed in the home.

My aunt was buried in the St. Joseph Cemetery in Mendon Township near Bloomfield, Illinois.

At this time I was two years and seven months of age!