Oras & Edith Stutler of Oil Creek
Edith and Oras Stutler raised their five kids, including my mom, in a house on Oil Creek that I never saw. By the time I came along in 1947 Edith and Oras had moved into a veritable gaslit palace (albeit with a handpump and outhouse, and very possibly resident ghosts) that had been the Dolan Hotel in Orlando's heyday. But that wasn�t where they lived out the bulk of their life together. The Oil Creek place wouldn't have been a city house, by any means, but fellow genealogist and a friend of the family Carolyn (Hintzman) Ramsay assures me the house wasn't as primitive as the Donaldsons' home on the New Deal Website. That isn't to say that there were not houses like the Donelsons'. I visited some in the 1950s and early '60s.
Carolyn wrote the following about the my grandparents' Oil Creek home. "The front porch went across the entire front of the house with steps in the middle. I remember the train tracks went right in front of the house next to the river & in the middle of the night the train's headlight would make scary shadows on the ceiling, or so it seemed to a 6 year old!
"I remember the living room had a large buffet/bureau with a mirror on the back of the top. The furniture was HUGE
overstuffed couch & the matching rocker had wide wooden arms. I don't really know what they were made of, but it looked like leather. [I think I know that furniture. The couch and chair were stuffed with horse hair and, believe it or not, the couch opened up into a bed.]
"I THINK the light was from oil lamps & I don't know about heat, because I was only there in summers. I really don't remember the kitchen, but the upstairs bedroom where I slept with Jane [my mother's youngest sister], was in (as I remember it) a rather unfinished attic room."
-Carolyn
I still have lots of questions about the house itself. How
many rooms were there? I would suppose there was a
separate kitchen, with an ice box? wood stove? Also, I
suppose Grandma & Grandpa's bed was in the main room,
because even at the Orlando house (the former Dolan Hotel
with lots of rooms) they had their bed in the living room.
Oil Creek Christmas 1938
I don't know why my mother pulled out her
autograph book on Christmas Day, 1938. All
other entries in her book are from her school
friends, during the school year. Whatever the
reality, these sweet entries make me imagine a
magical day. Sister Jane was 10 years old. I
don't yet know who Rolfe or Viola Weekley
were.
Orlando, W. Va.
Dear Mary,
The snow has been falling for Christmas. The
hills are white. The house top and trees are
white. School is out for one weekand I am glad of it. We had a program at school & Sando
Clase & his wife was at school Fri.
Your sis
Jane Stutler
Orlando W. Va.
Dec. 25 1938
Dear Mary.
Well Christmas always comes and go but
I don't always get to be with you on this day-
and evening. Hope to be with you many more
Christmases, for it doesn't seem right
unless I am around here.
Always your friend,
Rolfe.
The snow is falling sleepily
Upon the sleepy town.
The little flakes, like jeweled stars
Are softly drifting down.
They fall upon the little church,
Theyfall upon the square;
They drift upon the leafless trees
Like blossoms pale and fair.
Viola Weekly.
The photo below is of a Santa in Orlando 12 years later. His face and clothing were of a time long gone. I think it's likely my Aunt Jane was writing about a Santa very much like this one. He was the scariest guy I ever saw.
