Askam is from Pennsylvania. There’s a town in Pennsylvania called Askam, but one of my grandmother’s sister found out in England the name is spelled Ascham, years ago. Well, her brother and sister changed their spelling but my grandmother never changed her spelling. It was Askam.

No, from the genealogy there was somebody of the generation that used to be in the King’s Court or something – I’d have to get my genealogy to read it, but it was quite interesting.

Well, mother was just a city girl from Columbus. She used to play the piano; played it at church sometimes. Dad took agriculture in Columbus at Ohio State University. He was in the…what did they call it? I know he used to have to go to the flood. When the 1930 flood he had to go there, and they were very hard workers when I think back about how hard my mother and dad worked.

Mother did a lot of sewing for us girls. She did without things to provide for us children. It was hard through the Depression but we were better off than a lot of people I know. I was born in January so my mother started me to school. Mother was a school teacher before she married dad.

She sent me to school and I was only five and they said, “No, you can’t come until you are six,” so my mother said, “Well, I’ll teach her at home and she’ll be back at six.” So I understand I cried every day (Laughs), but afterwards mom wished she hadn’t of pushed me cause I graduated so early.

My dad went to Vanlue, when he went to high school there was only three years of high school. So they rode a horse and buggy to Carey so he could get his fourth year of high school so he could get into Ohio State University.

My grandfather and my great-grandfather were both quite prominent in Springfield, Ohio there are buildings in Springfield called RQ from Robert Quigley King and so they were quite famous down there in Springfield, Ohio.

So, they had money and that’s how – of course back then an acre was only about three or four dollars an acre; they bought from the government. But, it flooded a lot and I remember going into the fields when it was up to my waist – of course I was just a little kid! We’d get a lot of water.

There was a big flood in 1913. My dad was in Ohio State University and he had to go to down in Cincinnati to help. National Guards or something, he was in that at that time.

Yes, he loved cattle. In fact, he wanted to go in Canada and be a cattleman up there but his dad wanted him to take over the farm. So when Mom and Dad got married they moved back to Springfield.

My grandfather never liked farming. He was not a farmer. He was a businessman and so when my Dad and Mom married well they moved back to Springfield and that’s where my grandfather came from.

We don’t know too much about the background of my grandfather because back then somebody found this little boy in…I forget which state it was. They’d had a fever and were killed and they found this little boy and they took him in and called him King. The people’s name was King, and so we really don’t know any farther back on his side what they were.

But, my grandfather reminded me of an Englishman. He was very tut-tut strict! So, he just kind of reminded me of an Englishman. I don’t really know.

Well, it was probably my great-great-grandfather, or…I don’t know how far back. I’d have to look up my genealogy, but that’s why we ended up we don’t know too much about my grandfather’s side of the family

My mother’s family was poor people in Columbus. They didn’t have too much. It was amazing that my mother even got a college education. She had a sister and I think…I don’t know whether Jessie went to college or not. I don’t remember, mom never talked too much about her background because it was rough.

Her sister was 11 years older than she and it was hard so – my grandmother died when I was about a year old, with cancer, and my grandfather died the next year. My dad said he died of a broken heart. They wanted him to come up here and live with them but no, he wanted to stay down there, and so I was only two when he died so I don’t remember them at all.

Oh…I think girls are closer to mothers. You know, you work with mother and everything.

My dad was always with my brother (Laughs). He was glad when he got a boy because he works on the farm, but my mom worked hard. She would drive the team to pull the hay up in the…mile, and I know I learned to drive Daddy’s truck to get the corn out of the field to bring it into the silos. We had two great big silos. Our barn was big tile with six-hole tile? They built really a big barn and so mom had to really work out there.

Like I said, I think we had more than a lot of people out there. Ah, yes, my grandmother was educated too. I don’t think she went to college but she taught school in a one-room schoolhouse and some of her students were older than she was!

The boys you know, they kept failing, so and of course my grandfather was well-educated. He graduated from Wittenberg College at Springfield. So both sides were quite educated. My older sister graduated from Ohio State.