Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Luranda Smith 1837 - 1904



Luranda Caroline Smith (Schmidt) was born in Kentucky.  Her parent's were Pleasant Miller Smith and Elizabeth Hosey and lived locally to a young Baptist preacher, Reverend James C. Bristow, where a friendship led to their marriage in 1857 in Polk County, Missouri.  Pleasant became a Mormon, which alienated him from the rest of his family.” Bristow Family Information

“On reaching the valley, a picket house was built.  It had a dirt floor and dirt roof, and rock chimney and fireplace.  Itserved as a shelter while my father was earning something to carry us through the winter.  He cut hay from the mesas and marketed it at the post.  The hay was cut with heavy hoes and raked by hand.  My father had traded our home in Missouri for the cattle he brought. These were turned loose on the flats near the river with the other settlers’ stock, and the children of various families herded them during the day, driving them to their homes at night.  My mother sold butter and milk at the post, getting a dollar a pound for the butter.  (How I hated the sight of that old cedar churn.)  We sold eggs for a dollar a dozen also, but the things we bought were priced in proportion.  I remember a plaid flannel dress bought at the post, which cost three dollars a yard.

As soon as the ditches could be taken out, grain and vegetables flourished in the rich soil.  Corn was the principal grain.  As soon as it was hard enough, we grated it for bread, and when it was ripe, we ground it into meal in a big coffee mill.  Wheat bread was a treat.  Sometimes, as a change, we got a few loaves of baker’s bread at the post.

My mother did all the cooking over the fireplace in dutch ovens and iron pots and how I used to love to watch her. Thinking of it now, it seems to me those patient hands were never idle.  We children were always delighted when Rev. Windes came over from Prescott.  He was always jolly and told many jokes.  He and my father would sit far into the night in friendly argument over the scriptures.  Rev. Windes finally changed my father from a “hard-shell” to a missionary Baptist, and this belief he kept to the end.”  Annie Bristow Jordan (daughter)

“Luranda was also called Miranda.  Luranda died on May 25, 1904 and the Reverend died on January 30, 1921.  They are buried along with several of their children and their spouses in Middle Verde Cemetery near Camp Verde, Arizona.”  From www.flickr.com


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