| The Moore page |
Uncle Will Hart
William “Uncle Will” Hart grew up in the” Pond Run” area, the part of Washington Township that is near the Trippet Ditch (“ Pond Run “) and the Patoka River. The Trippet Ditch was called “Pond Run” because it drained a very swampy area and prior to the dredging of Trippet Ditch, water was said to have run from one pond to another for several miles.
In the early days most of the family names were; Hart,Rainey,Moore,Phillips,Sloan,Ford,McRoberts and Kolb. Uncle Will Hart was a real uncle to several, but he was called “Uncle Will” by nearly everyone who knew him. I ‘m not sure how much formal education Uncle Will had, but probably not much. He probably went to work on the farms in the area at an early age.
My father Herdis Kolb and my Uncle Chester told stories of Uncle Will hiring out to farmers to drive teams of horses and mules to plant, cultivate and harvest crops. They said Uncle Will grew up working in the fields and in the winter he would stay with a family and earn his keep by getting in the wood for stoves and doing farm chores He seemed to talk a lot about shucking corn and pitching bundles during threshing time.
Uncle Will took the train to “Californy” as he called it, back in the days when the slogan was “ Go West Young Man”. He stayed for a while working at various jobs he became homesick and returned, but we heard California stories for the rest of his life.
Uncle Will lived with and worked for my father and Uncle Chester from the time I was a very small child. He was good with an axe, spade and posthole digger. Since Dad and Uncle Chester were always buying run down ground that needed clearing and fencing he was always needed. Uncle Will would spend evening with us at home.
Some of his chores required that he supervise my brothers, cousins and me in activities such as; cutting weeds from soybeans, putting up hay, shucking the down rows for the corn picker, building fence and cutting timber. Uncle Will always referred to us as the” snipes”. Many times he would affectionately say, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you snipes”. Uncle Will’s responsibility for the “snipes” didn’t end with fieldwork. He was with us when we went swimming in the river or ponds, Uncle Will couldn’t swim, but I guess our parents felt safer with him there. He taught us how set trot lines in the river, he showed us where and how to set traps for muskrats and mink, he showed us how hunt squirrels, Uncle Will was quite skilled in the outdoors.
He showed us how to get honey from wild honeybee hives. Uncle Will would have a smoldering fire and fan or blow the smoke into the hive, the bees were less active because of the effects of the smoke, but the bees still crawled around and were all over Uncle Will’s hands as he removed the honey from the hive. We ask if the bees ever stung him, but he wouldn’t say anything except “the bees can tell if you are afraid and if you are, you get stung “. I don’t believe any of us ever acquired his skill as a bee man.
Uncle Will’s duties also required that he chaperone all the boys when we went to Free Shows in Wheeling, Mt.Olympus and Union, he went with us when we went Trick or Treating at Halloween. Uncle Will did not particularly enjoy sports, he might watch us play ball, but he didn’t instruct or advise us.
As you can see Uncle Will was quite an influence on all of us as we grew up I never saw him lose his temper nor would he tolerate any of us losing our temper or showing disrespect for anyone. Uncle Will could not read, write or drive a car, but he was one of the smartest and most knowledgeable men I have ever known. On one occasion when faced with a vexing problem I heard one of my brothers say,” we will ask Uncle Will he knows everything”.
Maybe the world needs more “Uncle Wills’”.