812-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 14, 2002 Memories Of Christmas Past GAY BROWNLEE Virginia Correspondent HARRISONBURG. Va. One of the most inspiring and significant Christmas events for Julia Kauffman and her hus band, Tom, occurred late in the 1950 s when they were engaged in missionary work amid Kentuck y's delightful and rugged moun tains. It was a performance of ‘Mes siah” composed by George Fred eric Handel and rendered for the public by a group from the Cum berland College. Then Julia was a young moth er. She had never seen the orato rio done, although once in Cana da her husband did, so they awaited the day with eager antic ipation. The couple loved good music. It was in their hearts and souls. To be granted the glorious oppor tunity of witnessing a live per formance was considered a gift from God. “Anytime there was good music around we took advantage of it,” the couple said. Oft the family went, in the -PC' \ W I II ( A } f V .N. Iff I Ur ( The Frontier Nursing Service started in 1925, published quarterly bulletins that were widely read. The bulletins were a valuable connection to families in the mountains of Kentucky. The nurse-midwives of the Frontier Nursing Service were a blessing to missionary Julia Kauffman, when four of her five children were delivered at home. Pictured at her sewing machine Julia Kauffman is constructing a Christmas gift that is bound to provide snuggly warmth for the re cipient. She also sews pro fessionally for a local bridal shop when gowns and dresses need to be altered for clients. {4i -f > $ rusty Plymouth that had seen better days and that bounced them, merrily, over an obstacle course of gravel roads and pot holes. Eventually, they had cov ered the 11-12 miles to reach the Oneida Baptist Church, which was hosting the performance. “The thing we went for,” Julia said, “was to hear the music and the singers. That’s what really thrilled us.” “There was a lot of action. A lot of response from the audi ence,” her husband said. 'We felt like we were in heaven.” They were accustomed to the a cappella style of singing that stemmed from having Mennonite roots and growing up in separate communities of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. dren. She not only did household chores to assist the mother, Es ther Good, but Julia also accom panied her to the local public schools where the students re ceived instruction from The Christian Education Plan For the Public Schools. The hour-long lesson included a Bible story with flannelgraph il lustrations and scripture verses. Recitation of these was important and the children could merit awards if they memorized verses. “We visited by jeep the coun try schools.” Julia said. “Some times we had to ford the streams in the jeep.” The rotation of their weekly visits was five schools one week and five the next week. Meanwhile, subsequent to Juli a's and Tom’s introduction at a Bible School each had attended in Mifflin County before she left, a full-fledged romance had devel oped for which marriage was the only acceptable antidote. Julia neither recalls the rosy blush in her cheeks that her sweetheart does when their eyes first met, nor the smile that passed between them, that still exists in his mind’s eye with ro mantic clarity. Tom had also moved to the Bluegrass State and was living with another family until their 1955 wedding in the Mattawana (Pa.) Mennonite Church. The newlyweds settled into a house by the Bullskin Creek in Brutus, Ky. They were consid ered fully supported missionaries who received a stipend of $l5O a month from the church body that was behind the work. Prior to the birth of Judy, their eldest child, Julia received mater nity care from the Frontier Nurs ing Service which was chartered in 1925. She expected to deliver her baby at home like other women in the hills did. According to a bulletin from its 30th anniversary in 1955, the FNS by then was using a jeep, but nurses and nurse-midwives often had ridden into the moun- Best of all the Yoder and tains on horseback, the medical Kauffman relatives sent surprise supplies stowed in saddlebags packages from Pennsylvania and and fording rivers and creeks as the children discovered new necessary. clothes for their doll babies. The FNS was committed to yummy homemade edibles and reach rural families with health candy, under the wrapping care, inoculate the children paper. against diseases, and teach in “My oldest sister, Kathryn formation about keeping sewage (Yoder), was very important to away from the source of the fam our children.” Julia said, adding ilys water, that their aunt knitted sweaters One nurse recalled in the same and other warm garments for issue of the bulletin having spent them. a “summer in the saddle...” Julia says they lived a lifestyle Reportedly, the FNS was the in keeping with that of the local first organization in America to people. The dwellings had use nurses qualified as midwives, electricity in them but telephones According to Julia, who came later. Instead of indoor praised the Service for its effi plumbing, more often than not, cient, caring medical staff, fami folks just used outhouses. lies depended on and enjoyed the “We lived as simple as the company of nurses, nurse-mid local people did. We had a refrig- wifes and doctors who traveled erator and deep freezer, and up and down the remote area planted a big garden,” said Julia. and on waterways to administer Thus the homemaker used medical care, canning and freezing to preserve “When the patient would go food and sewed clothes for the into labor," said Julia, “the hus family. Her cozy home was com- band would go looking for the prised of the kitchen, living nurse.” room, and two bedrooms. “The nurses were very skilled Julia was unmarried when she and efficient,” said Julia. ‘We first went to Kentucky, the em- didn’t even think of having ployee of a family with five chil- health insurance,” she said, add- At home, however, the advent of Christmas always generated excitement for the young couple. The four-room houses they lived in while in Kentucy seldom had enough space in those years for the addition of a Christmas tree, nevertheless there were gifts to unwrap. 3* r? _ ""'"'“I 1 ii i l£ v A Christmas wreath that got a new bow for the yule tide season gets a final inspection from Julia Kauffman before she hangs it on the door of her home. ing that the total charge for pre natal and post-natal care was $25 until the fee was increased to $35. In Oct. 1957. Sherrill, the Kauffmans’ second baby arrived during the Asian Flu epidemic. The nurse they were expecting to attend the delivery had herself contracted the disease and thus, a substitute came to daily bathe and care for the infant. “The nurses weren’t available when I went into labor with Joel,” Julia recalled of her third home birth. “Tom was running all up and down the creek look ing for a nurse-midwife.” Finally, at the FNS headquar ters a note on the door provided a telephone number for him to call. At the time a female doctor visit ing from Boston was a guest of the FNS and because the FNS was having great success in its work, she was eager to observe one of its newborn deliveries per formed in the relative isolation of the mountains. At long last, when she and the others finally arrived, newborn Joel was already an hour old and a neighboring lay person was car ing for mother and child. The little fellow had surpassed his due date by 23 days. Thus his parents were anxious for any cat alyst that might initiate labor pains. They admitted to taking a rough jaunt in the jeep over un paved roads with potholes in them. Julia scrubbed the kitchen floor to an inch of its life and on the notable March morning when Joel finally made his move, she had successfully planted the spring garden, as well. Their house was on the “wrong” side of the creek when Christmas baby, Regina, arrived on Dec. 19. To wit, their drinking water had to be boiled and the creek had to be forded before they could go anywhere. Then her father-in-law helped Tom in stall a rock base in the water that was strong enough to accommo date crossing over in the jeep. In Feb. 1965 they were domi ciled again in Pennsylvania and for the fifth child’s birth it was a novel experience for Julia to de liver Ruby in a hospital. It all seemed so different and discon nected from what she knew, and indeed, far more expensive. I v i$ 4 * 'i JJ 4 f '" Julia says she wouldn’t trade the home delivery experiences for anything. They were blessed oc casions that knit the family dost as well as the community. But Ruby was a born vocalist and lover of music who, accord ing to the parents, would listen to Handel’s “Messiah” for hours on end as a teenager. Their children later expressed a desire to attend the Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg. The parents agreed and relocated the family Virginia, where, for the first time in her marriage, Julia took em ployment outside the home cook ing for a nursing home until her feet signaled she should opt for something else. That’s when she turned to professional sewing. Seven of their grandchildren live in Virginia, two in California and two in Kansas. Ever since her teen days in Mifflin County, Julia Kauffman has enjoyed sew ing, but she shows an item here that she neither started, nor ever got around tc completing. It is a postage stamp, baby quilt top composed of wee squares cui from material scraps. 3n Kentucky, 50 years age someone gave it as a gift.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers