Q ..
Oh, very much so, yes.
A
I don't have a lot of memories. We just lived a few blocks from the school that I
went to. It was just a normal childhood. I trapped muskrats several winters and
things like that. We had a pond where we could swim and ice skate. I remember
one time we had a snowstorm that was drifting so much that you had to duck your
head to get under the telephone wires. It was pretty deep. I always remember that.
One time I collected horseradish for the roots; I think we were in the kitchen. My
mother was helping process it when the house caught on fire and burned down. We
moved next door until the house was rebuilt. We were Protestants, but there was
a Catholic Church next door. It burnt down one time, and they brought all of their
sacred things over and stored them in our house for awhile. Those-are-just sort of
things that I remember.
My mother's name was Farison, and my father's, Snyder, and there was a section
of Henry County, which was the county that Hogate was in, and there was an area
where practically every other farm was either a Farison or Snyder. They must have
gone courting together because three Farison's married three Snyders, so I have a
lot of double cousins.
Q ..
Now, had both of your parents' families been there for a long time?
Both families came to Ohio around 1850 when the canal lands became available.
A
There was a canal built from Toledo, it was along the Maumee River and then it
went through Indiana to the Wabash River, which then connected with the Ohio
River. During that process, the states got lands on each side of the canal, just like
they did when they built the railroads out West. Then Ohio sold these lands. That
section of Ohio, northwest Ohio, was heavily forested, but, of course, they gradually
cleared it off. The soil was and still is a very good, but it took a lot of drainage so
they built a lot of tile drains and ditches.
Q ..
What were the courses in high school like?
A
I took the academic course, preparation for college. I was the valedictorian of my
class and graduated in, I guess it must have been 19 18.
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