(Written by Lanny Collins, Richard Collins' Mother, sometime in 1980, as dictated by Grandma Mick; this being her recollections of her maternal grandmother who she called "Mama")

Her face was small featured, deep blue eyes and very expressive. She talked through her hands - she could play the piano by ear.

Every time she found a new weed, she would send it off to be tested. Always studying - her medical tools went in certain places and I mean nobody would touch them. She gathered sheets from everybody. Goldie and I tore them in strips, rolled them and put thread around them - put them in big hot pans which had been in the oven and set them in the hot pan, then sterilized them in the oven. She had certain knives to cut with. These were wrapped in piece of sheet and heated in the oven. They were kept in her bag ready to go.

Grandma's house was a two story house with four bedrooms. The front had a porch and in back there was a kitchen with a screened porch which held the milk separator, etc. We ate at a round table in the kitchen. Our parlor had a sofa; it was flat and was covered in red velvet. Under the smokehouse we had our cellar; turnips, potatoes and apples were stored in barrels in straw. We picked green tomatoes and had them almost all year. We had a big barn - cows, horses, sheep, chickens, ducks, guineas; the ducks stayed by the spring. The well had rocks around it. The two story house burned; the only thing saved was a marble top dresser. Grandma then built a house with a square roof with lightning rods; wood and native rock. This had apple orchards - she always raised fruit and butchered her own livestock.

If there were more people like Grandma, then the world would be a better place. If folks didn't pay, she would say, "Well, I saved a life or saved somebody some pain." After she came back from delivering a baby, she would say "Bambinos, she had a Johnny Cake or Pumpkin Seed."

She would see them later and she would know them. The kids had lots of boils or risens and she would have to lance them. She had to lance a risen on my leg but I don't remember it hurting. I still have a big scar. She must have used something for deadening. If she had to lance something, she would say, "Oh, I remember the prettiest bird out in the tree", and take our minds off the pain. I was just four years old. We had an ash hopper where we kept our ashes for making soap. Grandma used the ashes for cleaning pots. She said, "Baby, I'm going to have to wash your hair with ashes it's so dirty." I went out back and patted ashes on my head. All my hair came out. Just cooked my scalp. I had to wear vaseline and a cap. She picked me up and said, "OK., you are going to be a sorehead for a long time." I was bald for 6 months.

I didn't know Grandma was dead for 3 months. She was 88. She had graduated to horse and buggy at this time, although Grandpa had a car.

I had a horse and colt when I married. I got $300 for her and the colt when I sold them. I used to could ride a horse real good. I never went on but one or two cases with Grandma. She didn't believe in taking us when there was sickness. We never were sick. I guess it was the way she fed us and the medicine. She was so clean and everything was so-so. Goldie told me about the day she got her Doctor's certificate from St. Louis. Oh, she was so happy. She went to a case in town. A local doctor got the sheriff on her, and did he have a red face when she showed him her certificate.

They didn't have to go to school long to get a doctor's degree in those days. She was a nurse. She went to Aurora and stayed in the hospital 6 weeks, although the next time, she went to St. Louis and stayed there 3 months. Then she went 3 months, one or two more times. She had lots of written work, she had to write up 4 or 5 cases she had treated. She took temperatures, what they ate. I must have been 7 years old; it was right after the house burned. 1911 - 1912 when she got her degree.

I remember Mama rubbing blossoms of dogwood on her face after washing. I thought she used it for bleaching but its an astringent.

Grandma rode side-saddle with me in her arms and Goldie sat in back. Her brown saddlebags hung in back. Some of the herbs we collected around caverns and in the sides of outcroppings of rocks. We gathered them in the Spring. Golden Slipper is for hysteria; she used a medicine dropper to give it. She picked it green and let it dry. She picked them tender; if they got over 4" high, she wouldn't pick it. I don't know what the White Slipper was for but she gave it to mothers before babies were born.

Bella Donna grew around springs but what we ate it for was a stomach ache. We never did eat the leaves but we ate the stalks; it tasted like celery. We gathered Camphor leaves off the trees and used the fresh camphor leaves on fever blisters and cold sores. She wouldn't let us use dry leaves. There were several types of sage. One was brown and the other was a white and grey leaf. Senna leaf is a laxative.

I remember assafetida bags were hung around our necks to keep germs away. Assafetida is a bush; we picked it green and dry. We crumpled it and put it in a bag. In the Fall when there was a lot of disease, Grandma would make us wear these. Poke root, that's good greens when tender; it's good to eat but when older, it's poison. After milk is in it, it's poison. You break each leaf when you wash them. If no milk, we ate it but discarded it if milky. The roots were used for itch. You boiled the roots. Then you take the water and poured it into a tub which had 2 buckets of water. Then you soaked your body to cure a 7 year itch. The treatment sets you on fire when you sat down but it cured your itch.

Fresh sassafras root tea is good. This is a bush growing as high as my head. You take the root and boil it. In the Spring, this is good for thinning the blood. Also good for soothing bowels and other intestinal disorders.

Grandma used Indian tobacco for poultice (like a risen). Pound tobacco between 2 pieces of cheese cloth and put on. The poultice would be damp.

Golden Seal - we gathered more of that than anything. We never did anything with that but send it to St. Louis to a drug company. We dried the whole plant and had to have part of the root. We mailed it fresh; we gathered 3 or 4 pounds. We were small and she would make cloth sacks about 9" long. She put a tag on the end of it and mailed it to a drug company.

I remember one time a man came from the drug company and stayed 2 days. The man looked around. He went to Blacksmith cave; it had a great big rock floor. It had several ledges. Way back in there was a spring. We picked herbs nearby and played in the cave. It was cool so we ate our lunch in there.

Well, Grandma was a little bitty woman. She never weighed a hundred pounds. She wore her hair up and wore a big comb in front of her twist. She always wore long dresses and was always going like a house afire. She could work, cook dinner and put out a washing and probably make a dress and still then go take care of someone who was sick.

I wish I could show how she mounted her horse. She would put on her side saddle, place her right foot in the stirrup and raise herself. Her seat came in perfect contact with the seat.

After her degree, she was the same; she was the first woman doctor in the state of Missouri. You couldn't treat people, operate and prescribe medicines without a license. I worshipped her. When I was born I weighed 3 pounds. She went down to deliver my aunt's baby and my mama was there and she was 7 months. She wrapped me in cotton and put me in a shoe box. She set me on the oven door of a wood stove and fed me with a medicine dropper. She got milk out of my mother's breast and fed me. I wasn't strong enough to nurse. Then my mama and daddy didn't see me until I was four.

My uncle took me to town and entered me into a baby contest and my Daddy claimed me after I won first prize. They would come and get me every now and then, especially when there was work to do. Daddy whipped me once. I had to harness a horse; I was little. I had to stand on the side of the barn to do it. I put the harness on crooked; Daddy whipped me with the lines until blood ran down my legs. I took off running. I walked all night through the woods to Grandma's house.

Another time, my Mama hit me with a piece of firewood when I wouldn't obey her. If I did something wrong, she said "Why did you do it that way?" If I worked for her, she'd say, "I don't care what you think, this is for me and we'll do it my way.

Grandpa was kind; he was quiet and good to us. He only went to church. He didn't have the energy Grandma had. He let Grandma do what she wanted to do. He wasn't the life of the party as she was. Grandma would grab a boy, kiss him, say "Hum, I'll take him away from you." Grandpa would be popping corn in the kitchen. He had a beard.

Copyright 1998-2005  Richard Collins, All Rights Reserved

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