My Grandmother Told Me the Story of her Childhood

It is written down now, but this is oral history my grandmother, Pansy Louise Lancaster Johnston, told me while we discussed family history.[1] She was in her nineties when she told me these snippets of her life. I’m working on the story of her life and these are excerpts from the manuscript.

Pansy thought life was fun. She played in the fields, picked violets, climbed trees, played with dolls, and played in the creek catching crawdads or minnows. 

“I once put a live crawdad in a little match box and put it the barn. Well, I forgot all about it and when I found it later, it was all orange and dead. It was the first time I realized things can die.”

She remembered living in a two-story house when about three or four. Her father was very ill with typhoid fever and she wasn’t allowed to see him. He nearly died. This was around 1917 and he did not serve in World War I like others in the area because of this.[2]

School was three miles away and she had to walk through fields, orchards, and over little hills. She remembered her mother

“making big biscuits with ham. I carried my lunch to school in a small bucket and we would sit under trees outside of school at noon time to eat our lunch. I liked to trade my biscuits for sandwiches made with white bread other students had.”

She knew they were very poor when she was young. 

“I remember there being cracks in the floor of our house. Mother was very clever and very crafty.  She took straw and put that on the floor to level it out. She bought a navy blue cloth whose background had red squares and put it down on the floor, tacking it down to keep the cold air from coming up the floor.”

But she had things she loved: her doll and her little bed that had a canopy. Her mother was a good seamstress and made her clothes.

She was six when her brother, Rayburn Dinion Lancaster, was born on July 3, 1920.[3] They were living on the Dublin highway, a road between Stephenville and Dublin.[4] This area was all farmland. Her brother was called R.D. and she had fond memories of that time on the farm before the family moved to Stephenville sometime before 1930.

“I remember riding in a wagon with a load of cotton with Daddy and Granddaddy. I also liked following my Daddy around while he was plowing. There was a springhouse below the dam and a smokehouse. Daddy cured the best ham.  He also made good sausage.”

Pansy’s memories of the cotton were:

“The cotton was so high, and we had to walk through it to thin the cotton. I probably thinned it more than I should have.”

Pansy’s memories of her mother’s garden:

“My mother had a great garden with pumpkins, potatoes, beets, carrots, beans, and corn.  Mother would can everything and made the best pumpkin pies. She would send me out to get potatoes. I would dig down into the soft dirt feeling around for the biggest of the potatoes and then I would very carefully cover up the small ones to they continued to grow.”

Created with ChatGPT. We have no photos of Pansy as a child.

In the 1920’s they lived near Greens Creek, which was still out in the country.  Her father loved tinkering with Model T Fords and he taught himself how to be a mechanic.  People would come out the farm on Sundays so he could work on their cars.  These big crowds would bring all kinds of food, too.

Pansy’s memories of playing in the backyard:

“I would climb up the big mulberry tree and sit up there eating these big mulberries.  They were sweet but had a hard stem.  My mouth would get all stained with purple.  Another time I climbed up on top of a shed roof and jumped down using an open umbrella.  It didn’t break my fall well.”

She remembered living near the church and where her grandfather, Carl Lancaster had a farm.  Her mother, Lela Ann, played the organ and she would catch fireflies and take them into the church. 

There was also sadness in 1924. Her mother gave birth to a premature boy on 16 February 1924[5] and they named him Carl Lancaster, Jr., probably after his grandfather, William Carl Lancaster. However, Carl lived only six days, dying on 22 February 1924.[6]  He was buried in the Upper Greens Creek Cemetery.[7]

By 1927, the family had moved to the county seat, Stephenville. Warren was hired by the Ford Motor Co. and started out as a mechanic, and then worked as a foreman. Pansy remembered that he was a good instructor and that it was probably because of his patience that he had been made foreman. Lela Ann also became ill.  Because of the expensive medicines, Warren worked hard at the Ford Motor Co. Pansy recalled that Warren received $75 a month as a mechanic and got $125 a month as a foreman.

Their last son, Elda Wayne, was born in Stephenville on May 6, 1927.[8] He got whooping cough when he was just six months old.  In 1930, the family was living on West Green Street in Stephenville.[9]

Pansy attended Stephenville High School. She remembered her typical day:

“I would fix breakfast for the boys, make the beds, do the dishes, then walk to the high school, was in sports, and then I would dash home to put out a wash, and hang it outside. When 14-16, I was sewing my own dresses. Must’ve ironed, too. I loved to iron. My brother, Wayne, told me one time I didn’t do anything.”

She was active in sports and played softball. She continued playing even after marrying and having a child. 

#52Ancestors: Week 39 – “What Wasn’t Written Down”

This is my ninth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

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[1] I do not have the exact dates when we had these discussions, only notes about what she said.

[2] There is no record of this and the draft board records are silent on it.

[3] Erath Co, Texas, birth record, v. 4a, p. 156, #548, RD Lancaster, 1920; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS59-V187 : accessed 24 Sep 2026), IGN 008257874, image 349 of 794.

[4] 1920 U.S. census, Erath Co, Texas, ED 7, sht 3A, Dublin Public Highway, dwelling 44, family 45, Warren Lancaster.

[5] Erath Co, Texas, birth record, v. 4b, p. 308, #430, Carl Lancaster, Jr., 1924; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS59-VBGJ : accessed 24 Sep 2026), IGN 008257874, image 635 of 794.

[6] Erath Co, Texas, death record, v. 2, p. 152, no. 113, Carl Lancaster, Jr, 1924; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9VH-G78W : accessed 24 Sep 2026), IGN 007611114, item 4, image 107 of 207.

[7] Findagrave (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17927060/carl-lancaster : accessed 24 Sep 2026), memorial# 17927060, Upper Greens Creek Cemetery, Erath Co, Texas, Carl Lancaster Jr, photo by Ken Jones.

[8] Erath Co, Texas, birth record, v. 5, p. 304, no. 31782, Elda Wayne Lancaster, 1927; imaged FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3M9-FWX4-K : accessed 24 Sep 2026), IGN 008437221, item 1, image 121 of 231.

[9] 1930 U.S. census, Erath Co, Texas, Stephenville, ED 3, sheet 7b, dwelling 172, family 172, G. Warren Lancaster. There was no occupation listed for Warren.

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