Deborah (Rosenberger) Barker Smith Gossett (1844-1925)

~ Written by: Clara Bassett Camp, Frankfort, Indiana

"Now a little about my mother. I don't remember very much that she said about her childhood, it seems to me that she knew how to work better than she knew how to play. she was the oldest daughter in a family of eight children. The family learned early to work. The farm produced about all they ate and the clothing they wore. During a few years of her childhood and young womanhood they were in the midst of the Civil War. Money was scarce and prices very high. They could buy very little. Their farm yielded most of their living. Cattle were raised, not only for food, but for clothing The hides of the cattle were tanned for shoes. Grandfather made one pair a year for each of the family. They were supposed to make them last a year. They would wear the shoes, or rather carry them, when they went to church and put them on before they went in to the churches and take them off when they started home. They raised flax and made it into cotton material. The material was called Linsey - they made their cotton garments out of it. They raised sheep for wool to make the men's suits, comforters, etc., the women making all the clothing with needle, thread, thimble and scissors. My mother was a beautiful seamstress; her stitches were usually as nice as if they were made on a sewing machine. She never cared for sewing machines. Most of the Rosenberger children lived in other homes and got at least some education. Soon she went to school at Walnut Grove till her fourteenth year, then she stayed home and helped care for the younger children and the work grandmother wasn't able to do. The only thing I remember of her going to school was that she had won a contest on spelling. They had to spell long words with a number of syllables, pronouncing every syllable as they went along, and at the end pronouncing the whole word. Then a little incident in the home. Joseph, her older brother, kept teasing her. she picked up her shoe, threw it; it landed smack in his face. Joseph thought Deborah should be punished, but Grandmother said, "Thee had it coming to Thee, Joseph." And now a little about courtship and marriage. She was eighteen when she was married the first time to Lindley M. Barker. Once when he came courting, mother, who was seemingly a real housekeeper, had baked several loaves of light bread and had churned some beautiful yellow butter. She had brought a bunch of green onions from the garden. They sat out in the shade spooning, I suppose. She served for refreshments great slices of warm, light bread and golden butter onions while they plighted their troth. It seems even now that I can taste the light bread and butter. Then in August, 1862, they were to be married. Either the quarterly or yearly meeting at the Sugar Plain Church was to be held soon. When the minister announced the meetings he announced their wedding. 'A certain popular young couple would pass through the meeting' -- that was their wedding announcement. For her wedding dress Deborah felt it very important that she have something different than Linsey. She had never had anything else. They didn't believe in war and didn't go, but they had to contribute to it and it took about everything [they had] to aid the soldiers. The cheapest material in the stores was calico and it was fifty cents a yard but that would be better than Linsey. She worked long enough to buy ten yards of calico and some trimmings, and made every stitch herself, with lace, tucks ruffles and flounces. They were married and Lindley, her young husband, built a log cabin about half a mile east of Sugar Plain, I think. There, their four children were born. Deborah had two other wedding days but I am sure this was the most exciting. I myself am from the third marriage but mother's mind dwelt many times on her first sweetheart and home. They were married in 1862. Lindley died in 1868."

Submitted by: Doug Russell
Source: Some excerpts from Absalom Rosenberger's recollections of his early life in Thorntown, Indiana, courtesy of Mrs. Homer G. Rosenberger, Jr. [Alice Evelyn Martin], 1958 and R. Douglas Russell, Tacoma, WA, 2003