Mother Newcomer certainly enjoyed Kansas, and she soon became as well
known as an old-timer. At home she was the cook and the baker and the
dressmaker and the tailor, besides doing a part of all other work
about the place. She knew where the best greens could be picked in
early spring, and the best berries in the summer, and she either made
the boys pick them or she took her snake-killing dog with her and
picked them herself; and all through the year she was a part of all
the activities of the home; and she enjoyed it all.
When a babe was to be born anywhere for miles around, she was there.
Sometimes she was the lone attendant, and again she helped Dr.
Taylor, who had been in the valley from the beginning; and more than
once she worked with some young doctor who was so panicky because the
baby didn't hurry that she would have to tell him to keep his feet on
the ground, and that millions of babies had been born before a doctor
or a medical college had ever been discovered. One night at midnight
she waked up one of the boys, and told him that his father was out
saddling the pony, and that he must go for Dr. Woods, who lived about
five miles to the west. The boy finally wakened up and got his
clothes on, and found that she was just ready to leave with a
neighbor for his home, and that someone must go for the doctor. The
pony had been saddled by that time, and was tied with a heavy rope to
a tree near the door. The boy put on plenty of clothes and then
mounted the pony, while his father held the little beast to keep him
from standing on his head. The father pointed to the seven stars then
showing up in the southern sky and told the boy to keep them to his
left and to ride until he had crossed the railroad, and then go up to
the first house and yell until someone came out so that he could
inquire for the home of Dr. Woods. The directions being given, the
pony was untied and turned loose, with the end of the rope fastened
to the horn of the saddle. Of course the pony ran off for about a
mile, but the boy kept him headed in the right direction, and after a
while he slowed down and made the journey in good shape. When Dr.
Woods was roused he made the boy come in and get warm while he got
his horse, and together they rode back, and long before day the
doctor had joined Mother Newcomer at the neighbor's house.
Dr. Taylor still lives at his old home about three miles north of the
stone bridge. He is a fine type of the pioneer doctor, and he not
only knows the books, but he knows men and women, and especially
Kansas men and women; and more than that, he knows Kansas and its
climate, its tricks, and its good moods and its bad ones. For nearly
fifty years he has ministered to the sick and the afflicted, and
those who thought they were sick or afflicted, along the roads and
trails of Wakarusa; and none could do it better or more faithfully.
Doctor Woods was of the same type. He always traveled horseback,
usually riding a large, strong, rough horse; and he knew the
bridle-paths, and where to ford the streams.
She was always interested in the school, and one of the first things
that attracted her special attention was the fact that only four
months of school was provided for in the year. She started an
agitation for a longer term, and in the midst of it the word came
through the country that either by a statute or a decision of the
Supreme Court women were allowed to vote at school elections; and
therefore upon school-meeting day she had one of the boys hitch a
team to the farm wagon and they drove round and gathered up and took
six women to the school meeting. They proved to be the balance of
power, and a new director was elected, and a vote was carried for
nine months school and for a levy large enough to pay a good teacher.
The records show that from that day to this the old district has
never been disgraced with a short term, nor meager provisions for
school support.
With all her activities, her best and greatest service was in her
tender, sympathetic helpfulness and cooperation with her husband and
children. There never was a day so dark but that she was full of good
cheer and comfort. One terrible August day a hot wind blew across the
State like a blast from Hell; leaves that were green in the morning
could be burned with a match at noon; and the crops in every field
seemed doomed for destruction. When the men came in at midday they
were sorely discouraged, but they found a splendid dinner on the
table, the floor scrubbed to make the room cool, and the blinds down
toward the south; and Mother Newcomer, with a clean apron and
cheerful face, sitting at the end of the table, almost made them
forget the terrible hurricane of heat that was being driven across
the country. During the meal some of them spoke of their
discouragement, but she was full of plans as to how they might pull
through; and when some said there would be no corn and no feed, she
insisted that there would be a harvest of some kind. In keeping with
a custom of hers, she enforced her views by a quotation: "Summer and
winter, seed time and harvest, shall not fail so long as time shall
last." From this she argued that there was sure to be a harvest, and
they all went out with better cheer. And indeed there was some
harvest, and they were able to hold on for another year.
Years afterwards, she wrote all the boys who were away from home and
asked them to be there Thanksgiving Day; and they were there. No one
believed that it would be the last time they were all to be together;
but all during the day there was a feeling of tenderness about the
occasion; and it was the last time.
That day as they all sat about the great table and talked of their
experiences in the new country, and one told of this adventure or
this experience or another, finally one of the boys voiced the
sentiment of all the others when he said: "In making this home here,
Mother has done more than all the rest." On that same day she
repeated another familiar quotation of hers, which the boys have
always remembered: "I have been young and now I am old, and I have
not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread;" and she
said: "Do right as you understand and believe the right to be and you
will be righteous, and have peace, and the promise will be yours."