----- Original Message ----- From: DeVere Whitaker <devere@onemain.com> To: Miller County <MOMILLER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, January 12, 2001 9:55 AM Subject: Pink Barnhart No. 2 > LIST: > > Here is another of the letters written to & from Colorado by Miller > County and Maries County people associated with the Woody > family. These letters are in a biography > written about her father Jennings Woody by Helen > Schantzmeyer. Jennings just > had his 96th birthday and is probably the oldest Woody living. > Drives where > ever he wants to go and knows all the short-cuts. > > This is probably the first letter I should have written it kinda lays out > the background to the others. I am doing this to show how things > were back then, in their own words. > > Colorado experience. > > My Sister Oma had TB. She was in Mt. Vernon, Mo. at the TB > sanatarium for a while. They didn't seem to help her there. So > about 1926. Mom, Me and my brother George, took Oma to > Pueblo, Colorado. The altitude there was suppose > to be good for people with TB. We went on a train. > We got on the Rock Island Train in Meta, for the long trip > to Colorado. We didn't have to transfer to another train, but I > believe our car was switched to another train somewhere along > the way. I can't remember any of the details of the train ride. > I can imagine what it was like for a mother with three children > and one of them sick with tuberculosis, to get on a train with > probably all the clothes you owned and I'm sure a few things > to start up housekeeping with and not knowing how long you > would be gone and what you would find when you got > there. I would think this would be a nightmare. > Grandma had help though, with George & Oma. Dad was a > young man by then and was grandma's shoulder to lean on. > We were there about a year. I did odd jobs there to help out. > We were back in Missouri when Oma died, March 23, 1927. > My brother George had epilipsy. > He was sick from when he was little on and gradually got worse. > Helen > > DeVere,--- P.S. Little Oma is buried at Pendleton Cemetery > not far from the old Woody homeplace. Most of the people I will > be writing about are there too. The Woody's take care of their own. > You will almost always find flowers on these graves. > The Woody's have always lived around where this cemetery > is and still do. If you said something bad about a Woody you > would have to whip my dad. Many a meal was put on our table > because John Woody would hire my dad to work for him on an old > threshing machine during harvest time. > >