For those of you who are not acquainted with my family, the Faircloughs were my mother´s, mother´s, husbands´s family. I wrote this mainly for the benefit of my family.
When I was small, I was close to Grandma Sanford, and spend quite a bit of time with her. This morning I remembered some things she said about her father, and I want to pass them on. As a family we talk a lot about our Sanford ancestors, but not much about the Faircloughs. I suspect this because they were not a church family, or at least not an strict church family, while the Sanfords were. I also had a nice talk with Aunt Florence about the Faircloughs during our family reunion, and I want to get this oral history down before I forget it.
First of all, Grammy was a Littlehale, I remember Aunt Florence saying this with some emphasis, so it must be an important fact. As far as I know, we know nothing about the Littlehales, which is kind of strange. And we know nothing about how our great grandparents got connected, I assume this is a subject the family did not want to discuss. Only one thing is certain, our grandmother was the result of this union, whatever it was. Since the British are very class-conscious, perhaps the two families were not socially compatible, and that is why their offspring ended up in the New World. Romantic compatibility and social compatibility are different matters entirely.
Children born (or conceived) out of wedlock were not unknown in our family. One of Grammy’s ancestors was supposed to be the illegitimate offspring of one of Queen Victoria’s sons. (And indeed, Grammy looked very much like the Queen herself.) The Fishers researched this possibility, and concluded that it might be true.
From my talk with Aunt Florence, I learned that the Faircloughs were “landed gentry”, whatever that means, but it is safe to assume they had money. One of the Fairclough daughters fell in love with the gardener. This was a horrible disgrace to the family, and they had to immigrate to Canada (and also get married).
Evidently, our Great Grandfather Fairclough inherited the family fortune, and he wasted it. Evidently, he was fond of drink, for one thing. Grandma once told me that he loved any kind of food that was flavored with rum, as she discovered when she was learning to cook for the family. And she herself remembered fondly the taste of the English beer you bought by the pail.
As I said, the relationship between our great grandparents is not clear. I remember Grammy brought Grandma to Boston when she was a small child, didn’t like it that well, and they went back to England. Then they liked England even worse, so they came back to the US to stay. This is all oral history, and I don’t remember anything being said about Great Grandfather at this time. Evidently, he was not important.
It should also be noted that Grandma was fiercely religious, but Grammy was not. She was a nominal church member, but never went to church. As a matter of fact she hardly ever left her room, even when she was living in the little white house behind the William Marks house, when Grandma was living there. She was the most sedentary person I have ever known, and one of the most jovial. She was fond of Miles Nervine, a patent medicine with a high alcohol content.
Grammy also had a son, who evidently took after his father. He fathered an illegitimate daughter, who Grammy raised, and then went west and was never heard of again. It is safe to assume he was not an good church member.
Now back to the Fairclough daughter who married the gardener and went to Canada. Grandmother learned about her and they corresponded and became friends. This cousin and her husband visited them when they lived in Independence. Later, (much later) she died and her widowed husband became our Grandfather Atkinson.
Grandpa A said he wanted another wife “of the same breed.” As a small child, I thought this was rather blunt language, but Grandpa was prone to be blunt, as you know. I remember a Greek statue of Grandpa’s that was prominently displayed in their parlor in Nauvoo. There wasn’t much clothing on that statue, which surprised me. But they said it was a classical statue, which made it alright, it was culture. I also remember Grandpa was fond of lawn ornaments, little animals on a pole stuck in the ground. The fancier ones had a little windmill that created some action.
When working in the garden on a hot summer day, he would wet a rhubarb leaf, and put it under his hat to keep him cool. I believe we Smith kids tried this too, but it didn’t seem to help. He was also a great believer of goose grease, and would mix it with mentholatum and put it under his nose when he had a cold. You could smell him in church, several pews away.
He was proud of his chicken-killing technique also. He had an old pair of scissors, with one blade broken off. He would take the other point, and shove it up through the roof of the mouth of the chicken. The chicken would flutter during its death agonies, and that loosened the feathers, which were always a big problem when you “cleaned” them.
I see I have wandered astray in my reminiscing, but perhaps some of you would like to add your memories too.
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