82-Ljncaster Firming, Saturday, February 3,1990
Sadie Stoltzfus Would Rather Braid Ru
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
MORGANTOWN (Berks Co.)
While 78-year-old Sadie Stolt
zfus laced together an
814 xlol4 -foot rug, she talked
about rug making.
“Braided wool rugs are really
like having two carpets,” she said,
“because they can be flipped on
either side.”
With quick and nimble fingers,
Sadie demonstrated the steps to
braided rugs.
“If you don’t make a nice braid,
you don’t have a nice rug,” she
explained. “You must keep the
ends turned in and braid it tightly.”
Her rugs never come apart she
said because she doesn’t stitch
them together; she laces the braids
together with nylon cord that can
not be seen after its put together.
“Some people have trouble with
the rugs not laying flat, but I
don’t.” Sadie said. “It’s all in the
lacing.”
Last year she made 67 rugs. “I
don’t count all the chair pads that I
made,” she said. She works from 8
a.m. to 8 p.m., every day but Sun
day.
“The best part of making a rug is
getting it done,” she said. “I always
have a list of rugs to make for other
people so I’m always trying to fin
ish it.
She estimates that it takes her
two weeks to make a 9x 12-foot
rug.
LOU ANN GOOD
Lancaster Farming Staff
LITITZ (Lancaster Co.) “I
can’t talk long,” Barbara Moore
apologized. “I’ve got to go to work
in a few minutes.”
To work? When you’re 105
years old?
Barbara nods. “I’ve been work
ing for the doctor ever since he first
set up practice in Lititz. Now he
moved to the medical center. I
started out as a stenographer work
ing fulltime, but now I only work a
few hours every other week.”
The Lititz centenarian doesn’t
After 105 years, Barbara
exciting place in which to
Sadie always uses new wool that
she buys in 1,000 to 1,200 pounds
remnant lots from a factory. It
takes about 100 pounds of wool to
make a 9x12-foot rug.
She does all the work on her
kitchen table, which she calls a
“farmer’s table.” The table stretch
es to hold the 12-foot length rugs.
Although braided rugs are in
demand, few people can make
them.
“It’s hard work,” Sadie said. “I
have ‘sisters day’ to make it
easier.”
According to Sadie, “sisters’
day” means that she has her three
sisters, two daughters and one
niece get together for a day. They
help her tear the wool in strips,
stitch the strips together and roll it.
They do 300 rolls in one day.
In exchange, Sadie goes to their
homes to help quilt when they have
“sister’s day.”
“We’ve been doing it for 14
years—in winter, not in summer.”
During the month of January, the
women enjoyed three “sisters’
days.”
“It’s a time for us to visit while
getting something done,” Sadie
said.
All her rugs are sold by word-of
mouth or by passerbys who see her
sign along Route 23 in
Moigantown.
Sadie learned rug braiding from
her aunt After two heart attacks in
1965, Sadie didn’t expect she
105-Year-Old Still Goes To Work
remember how many years she has
% been working. “I’m getting old,
you know,” she said, “and I can’t
remember things like I used to. But
it was a long, long time ago.”
Born in 1884, Barbara says she
was the oldest of 12 children.
“None of the others even reached
their 80s,” she says. “I can’t tell
you why I lived so long except that
God Almighty has his hand on me
and I just lived.”
Barbara still lives on the Lititz
farm in which she was bom. Sever
al years ago, her homestead
received the Century Farm Award.
Moore still finds the world an
live.
Sadie Stoltzfus braided 67 rugs last year. She always uses new 100 percent wool
that she buys in 1,000 pound lots from a factory.
would ever be able to braid rugs Sadie braids rugs in whatever
again, but today she believes it’s colors that customers order. Her
the ideal hobby for her. She said, most unusual was a completely
“When I quilt, I mind it in my white wool 8-foot round rug.
shoulder, but I can braid rugs all
day and it doesn't hurt me.”
Two of her daughters, Reba
Yoder and Anna Mae Eby, also
braid rugs to sell.
Her daughter, Anna Mae, won
first prize at the Pennsylvania
Farm Show this year,
Barbara has sold the place to a
grandson, but she maintains her
own separate living quarters in a
section of the farm house. She still
climbs the stairs to her bedroom
each night.
“I go to bed at 11 o’clock and get
up at 6 o’clock,” she says. “If I get
tired, I can rest during the day any
time I want.”
Age and declining eyesight
don’t keep Barbara from reading
the many books and magazines
stacked near her chair.
“Recently I started using a mag
nifying glass,” she admits. “And I
can still play Parcheesi® and some
other games.”
She says, “I used to take a walk
on the porch every day, but lately I
don’t.”
She continues to cook her own
meals, but mostly it’s warming up
food previously prepared by her
daughter who lives in West Ches
ter and visits weekly.
“I had Meals on Wheels for one
week,” Barbara says. “It was good,
but it was too much for me to eat.”
Barbara prefers a light diet of
fruits and vegetables with a little
meat. She eats eggs several times a
week.
Her husband, Martin Arthur
Moore, passed away in 1960.
Three of her five children have
also died.
She recalls that her husband was
the first to have electric in the
Landisville area. He owned a feed
mill and used the water wheel to
furnish the East Petersburg and
Landisville areas with electrical
power.
After he sold the mill in 1913,
the Moores traveled to California
where they lived for six months.
On the trip back to Lancaster
County, the Moores purchased a
self-starting car so that Barbara
could drive it.
“I was the first woman that I
know of who got her driver’s
license,” Barbara says. ‘There
might have been one dial got her
“The best way to clean a rug is to
put it outside when its snowing,”
Sadie said. “After it has about an
inch of snow on it, take a stiff
broom and sweep it off.”
The colors will be bright and
clean. According to Sadie, the nit-
Barbara Moore uses a magnifying glass to continue her
favorite pasttime reading.
license before me, but I don’t
know of any.”
That was in 1914. She doesn’t
remember the make and model of
the car, but she does remember that
she needed to stop whenever she
met a team of horses on the road;
otherwise, “the horses would go
wild.”
Barbara drove until she was
102. She recalls, “I never had an
accident, but I figured that if I was
ever involved in one, they’d auto
matically blame it on me because
of my age. So I gave up my
license.”
While she recounts stories from
her past, Barbara often remarks,
'T ve seen a lot of good in my life.”
When asked if she had any dis
appointing events happen to her,
she thinks a few moments, then
remarks, “Oh, I guess I must have
tad some bad things happen to me,
sut I can’t remember any. My life
$ full of good things.”
She likes to talk about her for
mer tatting and rug making talents.
“The prettiest rug I ever braided
was 12-foot oval-shaped, but I
can’t do that any more too hard
on my hands," she explains.
Although her fingers are a bit
s Than Dust
rogen in the snow brightens the
wool.
As proof to the durability of her
wool rugs, Sadie has had one
inside her door for 30 years. It still
looks like a new rug.
How many rugs does she hope
to braid this year? ■
“At my age you don’t make too
many plans,” she said. “But I’d
rather make a rug than dust any
time.’’
gnarled, her fingernails are strong
and beautifully groomed.
She is proud to continue her
membership as a part of Farm
Women Society 1.
“I was a member from the
beginning,” she says. “And I still
attend the meetings if they are in a
home.” She does not accompany
the society on sightseeing tours.
“I don’t have any aches or pains.
I feel fine,” she says. She pauses,
her fingers touch her cane, and her
eyes cloud, “I guess I’ll need to
give up working. I’ll miss the asso
ciation, but I’m getting old, they
tell me.”
She has nine grandchildren, 21
great-grandchildren, and S great
great grandchildren.
“Being a farmer’s wife was the
most important part of my life.”
Barbara says. She sums up more
than a century of living with the
words, “I saw a lot in my life time
some better, some worse.”
Last week she had a health
checkup. “The doctor said that I’m
in pretty good shape,” Barbara
reports. “I’ve never been to a hos
pital in my whole life, and I hope it
stays that way.”