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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.