The fifth child, first daughter, born to John Wesley and Sarah Vincent Hughes was MARTHA ALMIRA HUGHES. She was born in New Sharon, Iowa, Aunt Mattie wrote a little story about her life; an autobiography that gives us an insight into the lives of the Hugheses that lived in Iowa and Kansas; then moved to Montana, Washington State and Oregon. This is her story:
MEMORIES OF A PLAIN LITTLE GIRL
(Handwritten by:)
Mattie Hughes Rich
My first memories are of much pain, burning fever, and very nasty medicine. I was three years old, in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and I was having an attack of inflammatory rheumatism, as it was called then. This was the first of eleven severe attacks during the 61 years that I have lived (in 1942). These severe illnesses, sometimes as long as three months, no doubt affected my career and prevented the realization of some of my very high and noble ambitions - especially when added to my other handicap, that of very weak and near-sighted eyes. At the end of high school in 1899, my Science teacher, Miss Marian Ross (a most wonderful woman and my ideal for many years) offered to send me through the State Normal School at Cedar Falls, but I could not accept. My folks were too poor, they needed my help, my eyes were too weak, and I knew I would "let her down", as she expected some fine scholarship in exchange for such a great gift.
So instead, I went to summer school, got a 3rd grade certificate, and began teaching in a country school for $20.00 per month.
My two grandmothers are most beloved in all of my childhood memories, so different were they in looks, dispositions, and ancestry - so alike in the immense amount of hard work they did, and in their immaculate and systematic housekeeping, and their superb cooking. My happiest hours were those I spent in their clean, orderly, peaceful homes- our house was as clean as my dear, hardworking mother could make it with five big, restless, quarrel-some boys under foot, but it was far from being restful and quiet.
My mother's mother was of German descent, or "Pennsylvania Dutch". She used to talk a bit of German once in a while to please us, as we thought it was wonderful. She was short and stout and so clean. She made the best cookies in the world and her cookie jar was never empty. She also made many dishes that are loved by Pennsylvania Dutch to this day, but I can't spell or pronounce them any more. Her name was Sarah Erhardt Vincent, and she raised a family of six girls and four boys, with all the hard work and disadvantages of pioneer farm life in Iowa, before the Civil War.
My father's mother, Mary Sadler Hughes, was born in England, near London[1], of the "lower working class, don't you know"? She was tall and slender, with snapping brown eyes, and unlimited energy and executive ability. She also was so very clean and such a good cook. Her roast beef, with Yorkshire pudding, was something never to be forgotten. She had a very British accent, dropped some "h's" and put on some where they didn't belong. Her family came to Canada when she was a young girl, she married there, and later came to Iowa, where she raised a family of five boys and two girls.
My father was named for the great Methodist preacher, John Wesley, but it "didn't take" as he never went to church in his life if he could avoid it, and he thought all preachers were "humbugs".
When folks asked me what kind of work my father did, I always replied, "He is a bridge builder". A big pile driver was always drawn up in our back yard, and we children played on it and over it a great deal. There were no trucks or tractors then so it was drawn by two or four horses, and they often got stuck in that good old Iowa mud.
But we did not always live in Iowa, as my father liked to move around and, in all, we lived in six different states - Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Montana, and California. We always went on the train and to this day I can't figure out where we got enough money to pay all our fares.
And finally we came to Washington! To the Pacific Coast with its mild climate and its flowers, and green grass, its fruit trees and gardens. After the bare dry plains, the heat and the drought of Kansas and Montana, I thought we had reached Heaven on earth. My father's roving spirit quieted down, and he never wanted to move any more. The sad thing for us children was that he did not come to Washington thirty years sooner, as our lives would have been much happier and better, with greater opportunities.
My days of school teaching extended over a period of 6 years, interrupted several times by long attacks of rheumatic fever, as it is now called. I had no chance for additional training, as my folks were having a hard struggle on the little "stump" farm they were buying and needed my bit of cash to help out. So I never advanced beyond the village school, and teacher's examinations at regular intervals.
One of the first people I laid eyes on, in Sumas, was a dapper young man, wearing derby hat and a reddish colored handle bar mustache - both in the height of fashion at that time. My father said, "That's Bert Rich, he's a pretty fine fellow, you'd better set your cap for him." So I did, and the next day he brought me a big pail of Royal Ann cherries, the most delicious cherries I had ever eaten. And on June 15th, 1905, there was a pretty little wedding in my parent's nice new house 2. And we lived happily ever after!
(Signed) : Martha Almira Hughes (Rich).
Although her personally written story does not mention it, Mattie taught school for two terms in the District l3 school in Meadow Creek, Montana, and lived with Uncle Tom and Aunt Lora Vincent. I don't know if she was in Montana only for the school terms or stopped off when the family went west in 1900. Mattie apparently decided that two Montana winters were quite enough as she chose Bert Rich in Sumas over another ardent suitor, Guy Gibson, (Emily Hughes’ brother-in-law) of McAllister, Montana.
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[1] Note: Kathy Sadler Miklovitch ( Sadler family genealogist) advises that the statement "Mary Sadler Hughes, was born “.near London" is not correct. Kathy writes: "She was baptized in Goathland, Yorkshire, in 1829. In the same area where all her English born siblings were born."
[2] Her "parent's nice new house", that she mentions above, built by her father, is still standing in Sumas. (1999). The picture was taken about 1910.
By: R. R. (Bob) Hughes, May, 1999