On this rainy July afternoon I am starting a sort of autobiography telling my children and grandchildren some of the "Things I Remember".

My parents lived on the Marion-Hamilton County line in northeast Marion County in a house built when they were married in 1890. My grandparents Thomas and Elizabeth Hague gave each of their children ten acres of ground. The ten acres given to my father was about a quarter of a mile east from my grandfather's home and the ten acres given to my Aunt Mary Sutton was about a quarter mile east of my father's place.

The house my father and mother built after they were married September 10, 1890 consisted of four rooms, two down and two upstairs. As the family increased the house was made larger by adding another room at different times. I remember quite well when the old summer kitchen used during the summer, stood behind the house and was moved to the barn lot where the shop now stand. It had a loft and an old black hen which Girstle claimed as his stole her nest out there for several years. We always wondered how she managed to get the baby chicks down but she had a way. A kitchen and "wash room" was built across the back of the house where the summer kitchen had stood. Later other changes were made and at sometime a porch was added across the front and on each side.

The first baby arrived in this home July 19, 1891 and was named Nitha Muriel. She was always her grandfather Hague's pet as she shared his birthday date of July 19th. In February on the 23rd, 1893 a baby brother Glen came to keep Nitha Muriel company. Then in October on the 11th 1896 another boy named Girstle followed the second baby an in 1899 on May 15th to every one's surprise and my father's consternation not one baby but two made an appearance. Edith and Edna proved to be identical twins and the family had trouble in knowing which was Edith and which was Edna. One wore a bead bracelet for identification. The story goes that Edna helped herself to her bottle, then stole Edith's. Some proof is in the fact that for a long time Edna has been the larger of the two. Aunt Nola had made a very lovely drawn work dress for the new baby and had to make another for the second one, regretting putting so much time on the first one. The twins were called "The Babies" by the older children and they took the blame for many incidents of which they were innocent. They were dressed exactly alike, both had long curls, crooked teeth, were the same height and weight and were very hard to tell apart. Whatever one did the other copied and they were inseparable. Dr. Heath who lived in Fishers officiated at the birth of all five children. I can still see him with little squares of paper shaking out doses of medicine and folding them so precisely of filling capsules from a large bottle in his doctors satchel. He was a dear friend as well as a doctor.

          end of part one

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