Daughter-in-law of Henry & Vina
ELLEN SAYS:
"All the rest of the Boxx family have been showin' you and tellin' you what they could do, and now it comes my turn to show you what I do to help raise our family of four 'kids'. My husband, Jake, works around sawmills where they manufacture lumber, or at anything else he can get to do, while I go around here and there gatherin' up rags of one kind and another, and makin' 'em into hook rugs an' sellen' an' trade 'em for food and clothes for the family.
The sort of material I use is old worn-out overalls, shirts, underwear, stockings, scarfs, and all kinds of waste clothin' that people have throwed away; and I set up late at night and cut 'em into narrow strings and sew 'em together and with this little hook you see in my hand I knit the rug, and here's one I'm just finishin'.
"I go out in the hills and study the birds and animals, and do the best I can in drawin' out their pictures on my rugs, then with differentkinds of beautifully colored threads I work them into the rugs.
"I sit on my doorstep and study the blue jay, the robin, the red bird, the nightingale, and numerous other Ozark birds that come and sit upon my picket fence and sing their songs; and I study the chipmunk as he scampers along my fence and perches himself upon a picket and chirps at me, and also the big bushy tail red squirrel as he hops from branch to branch in the big oak trees that shade our little box house. I study them carefully and work them artistically as I can into my rugs that you will find in many Ozark cabin homes.
"Me and my sister-in-law, Ethel, both do woodcraft work and have go a great collection of all kinds of trinkets on hand that we've made-toys of all kinds.
"I have even made all the furniture I have in my house--bedsteads, chairs, clothes chests, flour chest-and every bit of my furniture is my own handmade stuff."
..............from The "Pioneers of the Ozarks"
by Lennis Leonard Broadfoot