“Lottie” Grace Cooley Gilbert 1881-1982

8 children in the family. We walked to school but sometimes we were lucky enough to be picked up by the mail truck at DeBall’s store and we got a ride home.

Father hired ten migrant families to work on the farm during harvest and canning season. They came on the boat from Baltimore. Father picked them up in one wagon with two horses and brought them here. Father bought flour and sugar by the barrel and sold it to them. Mother made yeast and they would buy a penny’s worth in the morning for their baking.
They stayed 6 to 9 weeks and did the canning as well as the harvesting of corn and tomatoes. The families were allowed to eat as much as they wanted. When father returned them to the boat to go back to Baltimore, he needed two 4 horse wagons to get them to the wharf.