014 - Edna West Teall

Transcript

Edna West Teall

Preview Segment 

Have you ever written a story about something that happened to you? Or painted a picture of a memory? If you have then you were recording history. That’s what history is, all the stories and memories of people and how they lived their lives.

On this episode we are going to introduce you to Edna West Teall. She was a self-taught journalist and painter. Her later years were spent painting remembered scenes of her Adirondack childhood. She was kind of like the Adirondack version of Laura Ingalls Wilder; the author of the Little House on the Prairie book series. Maybe you’ve read them? Both Edna and Laura recorded their history of what daily life was like on a farm in the 1880s and 1890s.

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast Intro - Ready to earn some extra credit? You are listening to ADKX-tra Credit, a podcast for students about the history of the Adirondack Mountains and the people that have lived, worked, and played here. The Adirondack Experience, the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, is located in the heart of the Adirondack Park of New York State. 

CONTENT

Edna West Teall was born and raised on an Adirondack farm in the late 1800s--about 140 years ago. When she grew up she moved to New Jersey and became a reporter and editor. When she retired, Edna returned to the Adirondacks and taught herself to paint. 

She found comfort in painting her memories living on a rural Adirondack farm. Edna painted what her life looked like back in the day, including small details throughout her art. When I look closely I can find family pets and toys she must have played with. 

According to her stories, a childs’ life on the farm consisted of three main things: chores, nature, and fun. The stories are recorded in the book, Adirondack Tales.  Edna West Teall recounts her childhood through these stories. When daily chores didn’t take up most of her day, Edna enjoyed exploring outside and attending social gatherings with neighbors. The Adirondack Experience owns 31 of her paintings. Those paintings, along with her written stories, tell us a lot about what everyday life looked like for Adirondack farm families long ago. Thanks to Edna, early Adirondack farm life can be remembered forever.

One of my favorite stories is called Spring and Sugar Making. When I listen to that story I can almost taste the maple sugar candy. 

TRANSITION - another voice 

By the time January came along, winter’s welcome was beginning to wear threadbare. In February we heartily wished it would leave and began to hope for signs of spring. The sun was warmer on cloudless days, and on southern slopes the snow would begin to recede a little from around rocks and low bushes, and long icicles would form on the drips from the eaves.

The breaking up of winter depended on its whim; some years it stayed later than others. A slight thaw followed by a freeze made an icy crust all the children liked for sliding. And how the sleds would fly down the hills. Eventually, winter would let go; there’d be frequent thawing-freezing, and someone would come in and say, “Sap’s running.” The maple sugar season had come.

On the farm there was a maple sugar “bush”, quite a stand of (grove) of maple trees that were tapped each year. Enough was made for our own needs, and there was some to sell. 

Father had a big,rough stone arch built way up at the foot of the southern mountain, near the maples, a chimney at one end, open at the other, with a good sized woodpile alongside. There were holes on top for two generously sized iron kettles. As the sap was gathered it went into the bigger kettle, was boiled until it thickened somewhat, then was dipped into the other kettle to boil down some more. For the final sugaring-off, it was carried down to the house and on top of the kitchen stove was reduced to heavy syrup or soft sugar. 

Toward noon, on days the men were boiling, someone from the house, perhaps a visiting playmate and I, would take a noon meal to the workers. The food would be heated by the blazing fire. We might go early and bake some potatoes in the coals or boil eggs in one of the kettles right along with the sap. We also cooked doughnuts in the boiling sap. It gave them - and the eggs - a delicious maple flavor. 

We could empty buckets on the nearby maple trees, keep warm by the fire, have a drink of sap, or spoon up some syrup to eat with our lunch. It was a jolly winter picnic. 

The sugaring-off on the kitchen stove had its full share of charm and interest for us, the syrup bubbling away and giving out its delightful aroma which filled the house. We never made any into hard cakes. Instead, it was boiled and stirred and boiled and stirred with constant watching until it became “soft sugar”, full of grainy crystals you could scoop out of the containers when it cooled. This was the stage for “waxing.” Take a cupful of the boiling mass, dash out to a convenient snowdrift and spread it on. In a few minutes it would have a caramel-like consistency that might stick your jaws together, but what a flavor; every chew suggested having still another chew.

At supper time we often had thick, soft sugar served hot to eat with Mother’s rich, sour cream biscuits; she used the sugar, too, to make fluffy icings for cakes, beating the hot syrup into the white of an egg; it was also used in place of granulated sugar for a dark, moist loaf cake. 

A good sugar harvest depends on the weather; freezing nights and sunny days. Like so many farm crops on which Lady Luck must smile; if she turns a dour, cloudy face - well, maybe next year will be better.

To children, sugar making was the first harbinger of spring. Soon there’d be spring thaws with water rushing down the hills; ice breaking up in the river, roads deep in mud, pussywillows coming out along the brook. Driving anywhere was more or less precarious. It was a good time of year to stay home, but winter and all it implied no longer held a firm grip on our days.

TRANSITION - sounds

Mmmm. I bet the air was filled with the scent of maple syrup for weeks. That's such a good description of the process of making syrup and sugar from sap. 

Making your own sugar and syrup was an important job on long ago farms. Edna mentions granulated sugar. That’s the white sugar that we are familiar with today. It is used for nearly everything these days. It comes from sugar cane, which can only be grown in warm climates like Texas and Louisiana. It would have been a little expensive to buy when Edna West Teall was a little girl. It was much more economical to make your own sugar from maple trees that grew right on their farm. Why buy what you could make for yourself. Right? That was true for many products at that time. Like butter and cheese, that was made from the milk they got from their own cows. Lumber and boards would come from trees they cut down on their farm. Her stories and paintings show us all those chores. And the parties and social gatherings they added to the chores to make it all more fun.

TRANSITION - sounds

One of the most fascinating things about Edna West Teall is that she lived through an important time in Women’s history. She witnessed some of the most significant changes in the roles of women in our society. She was born in 1881 and died in 1968. During that time women's rights made some very important advances. The big one you probably already know about is the right to vote. But, did you know that laws were passed that gave women control of their own property and earnings. Yes, before that women couldn’t control or make decisions about the land they owned or the money they earned or how their children were raised.  Another law was passed that said women were equally as qualified as men to serve on juries. That’s just a few of the changes she witnessed. 

In Edna’s stories most of the women are the center of family and farm life. Definitely an important role. The problem was that women of the time were considered to be only good for those roles. They were expected to become a wife and mother. One of the few jobs they could hold was that of a school teacher. If a girl wanted to have another type of job like lumberjack, business-owner, or vice president of the United States it was just a dream. 

The women in Edna’s stories are mostly country women that run their households with intelligence and strength. The school teachers are women that are well paid and well dressed. But, there are also mentions of things that were not allowed for girls, like wearing overalls. It was very important for a girl to dress and speak in a ladylike way and  not be considered “wild”. How surprised Edna must have been by the girls in the 1960s. I wonder if she was jealous? 

What stories would she write about if she lived now?

TRANSITION - sounds

I hope you enjoyed learning about one of my favorite Adirondack characters; Edna West Teall. Her contributions to writing and art depict a part of early Adirondack life that is not well known. People usually don’t think of farms when they think about the Adirondack mountains. You can see photos of her paintings on our website. Just look for the Collections Database. And you can read her stories in the book Adirondack Tales; A Girl Grows Up in the Adirondacks in the 1880’s. 

TRANSITION - ADKX Podcast conclusion - Thank you for joining us for an episode of ADKX-tra Credit. This podcast is brought to you by Adirondack Experience, the museum on Blue Mountain Lake. Our mission is to expand understanding of Adirondack history and the relationship between people and the Adirondack wilderness, fostering informed choices for the future. If you want to learn more fun Adirondack history visit our website theadkx.org