Finney, Marah Stevenson (1913-2006) |
Worcester County Library: Local History and Genealogy Collection, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, MD
|
Interviewee: |
Marah Stevenson Finney (1913-2006) |
| Interviewer: |
Lori Walker |
| Date of interview: |
1982 April |
| Length of interview: | 33 minutes |
| Transcribed by: | Morgan Stephens |
| Preferred Citation: |
“Name, Oral History Collection, Date of Interview, Worcester County Library, Snow Hill Branch, Snow Hill, Maryland.” |
Topical Terms:
Domestic Life
Education
Transportation
Pocomoke City (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Education
Worcester County (Md.)—History
Worcester County (Md.)—Social life and customs
Worcester County (Md.)—Women History
Corporate Names:
Pocomoke High School
Location Terms:
Pocomoke City (Md.)
Interview Begin
INTERVIEWER: Okay, may I have your name please.
MARAH: Marah Stevenson Finney
INTERVIEWER: Okay, and your address?
MARAH: 609 Homewood Drive.
INTERVIEWER: And your age?
MARAH: Sixty-nine.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Your parents’ full names.
MARAH: My father’s name was Frank Edison Stevenson. My mother’s name was—her maiden name—Minnie Nelson Pranmer.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm. And your grandparents’ names.
MARAH: All right. My father’s father was James Ralph Stevenson. His mother was Elizabeth Jew Hearne. My mother’s father was Abraham Wesley Pranmer. And my grandmother’s name was Sarah Frances Ardis.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Do you have any brothers and sisters?
MARAH: I have one sister named Frances, six years older than I am.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Where, when you moved here, where did you live?
MARAH: When I first moved here, it was after my father died. We had lived in Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: And we moved here December of 1925. We lived in the house that is now called Callie Plantation, Dunker—the Dunker house? It’s the big white house as you come over the bridge.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. It’s where—where Cory lives, by …
MARAH: Right, right, mhmm.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, okay.
MARAH: And we lived there until we built the little house down Alderner Quarter Drive.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: Where the Allen Murrells live now.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. What was your father’s job?
MARAH: My father was Secretary-Treasurer of Maryland Biscuit Company in Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: And down here …
MARAH: Down here, my father and my mother were both reared in Pocomoke. But he left here as a young man, went to work for the Mulliber Biscuit Company in Boston and then went to Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, okay.
MARAH: My mother did not work. Except in the home.
INTERVIEWER: In the home, okay (both laugh). What were your chores like when you were young?
MARAH: Just, generally, picking up. We picked up every day (both laugh). I did go to the store for my mother on occasion.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you have any jobs when you were a teenager?
MARAH: My first job was at Lloyd and Lane’s Drugstore. And it is where—it was where—about where the Citizens’ Eastern Shore National Bank is now.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
MARAH: And I worked during my Christmas holidays when I was a senior in high school, made enough money to buy my class ring … which was about $25 (both laugh).
INTERVIEWER: A lot different from now.
MARAH: Right (both laugh).
INTERVIEWER: When you were, say, my age, what did you buy with the money you made?
MARAH: Not big things, like young people do now. We went shopping for clothes with our mother. And personal things, we didn’t buy many, really. We’d go to the store and buy candy and ice cream. That type thing.
INTERVIEWER: But you didn’t live on a farm, so your parents mostly had to buy everything.
MARAH: They did.
INTERVIEWER: They bought.
MARAH: Mhmm.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you cook much at home?
MARAH: Not very much. I liked to, my mother probably liked for me not to (both laugh) because I’m sure we made a big mess in the kitchen when we did it, but we did like to cook.
INTERVIEWER: Did you have any pets?
MARAH: Not until I was in high school. And I had one beautiful collie puppy, which turned out to be a beautiful hound.
(Both laugh)
INTERVIEWER: Was it your complete responsibility?
MARAH: Yes, mhmm. We did have another pet too, we had a canary. And that was my responsibility too, as well.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. (Laughs) Now we get to an embarrassing subject. Outhouses.
(Both laugh)
MARAH: I don’t know anything about them personally, but I’ve heard my mother tell many stories.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: For instance, my great-grandmother lived in a home with my grandmother, and she was blind. And she knew her way perfectly out to the outhouse, but there was one time where she got caught in the blackberry bushes (both laugh). Couldn’t find her way. And my mother used to have a little piece of poetry by Jane Whitman Raleigh called “The Outhouse” that she used to read to us that we’d laugh over.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs)
MARAH: Probably not in, in any of the poetry books now, I don’t think.
INTERVIEWER: How about refrigeration?
MARAH: We had an icebox until I was out of high school. And every day, the man would come and put ice in, or every other day.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
MARAH: And that was a chore. Had an ice brick, you had to empty the pan, saline …
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh. I never quite understood that (laughs).
MARAH: We did have freezers. That day, it was just refrigeration, complete refrigeration. And consequently, we didn’t keep as much in our icebox as you do a refrigerator today.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm. How about social events in your childhood?
MARAH: Most of the social events were events they had at church, particularly before we moved down here. Then, when I was a teenager, we had beach parties in the summertime and bonfires, and we went to dances at Public Landing. We had a big pavilion, and the church EYCU had parties for the young people. Once in a while, there was an event at the armory. After the armory was built, they had beauty contests.
INTERVIEWER: Really?
MARAH: And they had long, elevated platforms out into the armory, so the girls walked down the platform, just like they do at Miss America. And the garden clubs had flower shows. And they had antique shows. But as far as the young people getting together, like you do now, we didn’t. My particular group when I was in high school, there were about two years, when I was a junior and senior. There were about 12 of us, six girls and six boys. And we didn’t go out during the week at night. We stayed home and studied. But Friday nights, we took turns and went to each other’s house. Well, mostly the girl’s house, though sometimes the boy’s. And we danced, and kissed, refreshments, and just generally had a good time.
INTERVIEWER: Those beauty contests, were you in one?
MARAH: No.
INTERVIEWER: No?
MARAH: No.
INTERVIEWER: What were they, like, Miss Pocomoke or …
MARAH: Well, except, as I remember, they didn’t have as much of a talent show as they do in Miss Pocomoke. But they had bathing suit competitions …
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs)
MARAH: And evening gown competitions. And that made more of an impression on me than anything else. (Chuckles.) They might have had questions which they were asked, but I don’t remember too much.
INTERVIEWER: How ‘bout school?
MARAH: From the time I was little?
INTERVIEWER: Yeah, yeah, Pocomoke High School as a student.
MARAH: Okay. When I went to high school, it was in an old building which was where the Mac Center is now.
INTERVIEWER: Where it burnt down …
MARAH: Where it burned, mhmm. And in fact, the oldest building that was built in about 1905.
INTERVIEWER: Right …
MARAH: They had about two stories.
INTERVIEWER: I know what you mean.
MARAH: And I came to the school from a brand new junior high school in Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: Oh.
MARAH: And my impression was that the halls were so dark, and the floors were oil, in order to keep them clean. Now, I don’t know what the procedure was, but it definitely gave the impression of being very dark and dungeon-like.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, right.
MARAH: When I first went, we had Latin classes in the hallway between the main rooms,
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
INTERVIEWER: Oh, right.
MARAH: But it was fun.
INTERVIEWER: What year did that burn down? Do you remember?
MARAH: I don’t know what year. The building I went to high school in burned … I don’t remember. I don’t think … I might’ve been away at school ... I’m not sure.
INTERVIEWER: So that was the …
MARAH: I started teaching in ’30 … ’33.
INTERVIEWER: Here?
MARAH: Mhmm.
INTERVIEWER: At the high school?
MARAH: No, the elementary school, primary school.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: But this building was gone at that point.
INTERVIEWER: But then after that building burnt down, they built the one on Market Street that burnt down.
MARAH: Yes.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, Now I understand. I forgot about that one.
MARAH: Yeah, the building that I went to high school in, the building next to it, where I had home economics in the basement. The building where I had home economics was the one that burned when I was teaching. Probably in the late 30’s or 40’s.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. You graduated from Pocomoke.
MARAH: I graduated from Pocomoke, and the graduation ceremony was in the Mar-Va Theater.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) In the Mar-Va?
MARAH: In the Mar-Va Theater.
INTERVIEWER: Why didn’t they have a …
MARAH: Because they did not have an auditorium.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
MARAH: And, of course, our class was not as large. Maybe 46, 48 in the class.
INTERVIEWER: Bigger than the others, I think.
MARAH: Mhmm.
INTERVIEWER: Let’s see. How about discipline. In school.
MARAH: In school … I don’t remember any problems with discipline, really.
INTERVIEWER: I know you didn’t have any problems, did you?
MARAH: I don’t know. (Both laugh.)
INTERVIEWER: Were the teachers, do you think, more strict than they are now?
MARAH: I think they were probably respected more.
INTERVIEWER: Mmm.
MARAH: And of course there were problems, I’m sure, but not, not problems that you have today.
INTERVIEWER: What …
MARAH: No drug problems.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: No smoking. Very few really, like one big happy family.
INTERVIEWER: What subjects did you take in high school?
MARAH: French, algebra, geometry. Latin, English, history ... civics ... And some way or other, I ... escaped high school by not having chemistry or physics. And I had biology.
INTERVIEWER: What about trig?
MARAH: No.
INTERVIEWER: No trig.
MARAH: Nothing beyond geometry.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, you went to college right after high school?
MARAH: I went to Maryland State Normal School, which is now at Towson Teachers College.
INTERVIEWER: Ah.
MARAH: It was just a two-year course.
INTERVIEWER: And you could teach after?
MARAH: I could teach.
INTERVIEWER: After two years?
MARAH: In the primary school. In the elementary school.
INTERVIEWER: Oh. How about sports, did they have any girls’ sports in your high school?
MARAH: Volleyball. We had an event every year called relay. It was competitive in the county. All the high schools met on this one particular day. And we had relay races, volleyball, basketball. I well remember one basketball relay I was in, that I’m sure my teammates could cheerfully drown me.
(Both laugh.)
MARAH: I had some difficulty making a basket.
(Phone rings.)
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) Okay, we’ll pause.
INTERVIEWER: Boys. Dating.
MARAH: In high school.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: In high school, as I said before, we did not go out of the house during the week. We had dates on Friday night. And a movie date. And, except in the summertime, we had beach parties and dances. There really wasn’t … well, we did have bowling. We did go bowling, we enjoyed that. We went bowling in Ocean City.
INTERVIEWER: All the way to Ocean City?
MARAH: All the way to Ocean City.
(Both laugh.)
INTERVIEWER: Did you go to Ocean City very often, I mean, or was that just for, like …
MARAH: No, not very often.
INTERVIEWER: How about swimming, did you go swimming?
MARAH: We didn’t have any place around here we could go swimming, except the ocean. The river was not fit for swimming, and we did not have swimming pools. And consequently, most of the ones my age except the boys who lived around the water like probably Andy, or who, you know, were a little bit braver,
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: The girls didn’t learn to swim very much. I taught myself later, after I was even out of Towson. And I can swim as long as I can hold my breath.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
MARAH: That’s not very far (laughs).
INTERVIEWER: Did you only date boys from Pocomoke, or did you venture out to Snow Hill and …
MARAH: No, in high school, it was just Pocomoke.
INTERVIEWER: Were there any big hangouts downtown or anywhere?
MARAH: Clarke’s Drugstore. Which is where the pharmacy is now.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
MARAH: Was really the only hangout. And when we’d go there, they had a fountain, a soda fountain. And in fact, when I was in high school, every afternoon, the girls dressed up and walked downtown to buy a loaf of bread or quart of milk or some little thing. But we walked downtown and … There really wasn’t much to do, we read a lot, but we did have, at one time, we did have a tennis court on the high school property. It was not a very good one. And we played a little tennis, that was it. We played badminton in each others’ yards, but we didn’t have courses in tennis like they do in school now.
INTERVIEWER: Where did you go to church, if you went?
MARAH: I went to church at First Baptist Church.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, yeah, that’s …
MARAH: In Pocomoke.
INTERVIEWER: Pocomoke, right.
MARAH: I had joined the church in Baltimore, First Baptist Church in Baltimore at the same time my father joined. He had been a Methodist.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: And we joined together one Easter. And then when we came here, we confirmed the membership.
INTERVIEWER: How did you go to Sunday school and then church, then?
MARAH: Well, Sunday school was in the morning, and church, and EYCU in the afternoon. Well, late-afternoon. Like young people’s games, you know.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: And then church at night.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) Oh, so all Sunday was devoted to church.
MARAH: All Sunday was devoted to church.
INTERVIEWER: All right. What about the population in Pocomoke in 1920?
MARAH: I am not very good at remembering figures. But I will say this: We knew everyone we met on the street. There were no strangers. You’d go down the street, and everyone you saw, you knew personally. I’m not sure about population at the time.
INTERVIEWER: How about a class structure? Was there any, like, very rich, poor, was there very much difference between those two?
MARAH: There probably was, but I was not aware of it at the time. Now, I knew the ones in my class who had much more money than I had.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
MARAH: And I knew the ones who didn’t have as much, but I think ... There was no distinction as far as class. Possibly, we chose our friends from the class we were actually in, not realizing it, really.
INTERVIEWER: So it was unspoken.
MARAH: Unspoken really. But, I don’t think, as far as my class in high school, no one was looked down on. Three years ago, we had our 50th reunion. And almost the whole class was there except three who had died and one in California who could not come, and one in Pennsylvania who could not come. And it was really nice because we had not had any reunion.
INTERVIEWER: None?
MARAH: None.
INTERVIEWER: And you managed to go to 50?
MARAH: We managed to go to 50, and had a really good time.
INTERVIEWER: Wow. I’m sure. How ‘bout law and order in Pocomoke? Did you have a police force, or … ?
MARAH: I remember one policeman, Mr. Strallon. An older man, or at that time he seemed older to me. He also directed the band. We had a town band, and he directed the band at that time.
INTERVIEWER: Was it high school students in the band, or the whole community?
MARAH: No, when I was in high school, I don’t think we had a high school band. Like the one that Mr. Fullout was in.
INTERVIEWER: Right, I heard …
MARAH: When my father was a young man, they had quite a town band.
INTERVIEWER: I’ve seen pictures.
MARAH: And I’ve seen pictures. He had a bandwagon and played the trombone.
INTERVIEWER: How about hanging? Did you ever go to a hanging?
MARAH: No, never did.
INTERVIEWER: Wow.
MARAH: There was a tree on Snow Hill, the road between Snow Hill and Berlin. They called it the hanging tree. But no, I never did, no.
INTERVIEWER: I know I wouldn’t’ve gone to a hanging …. Transportation. Did you all have cars? Everybody? Or …
MARAH: Yes, when I was a child, the first car that I remember we had in Baltimore, was an Overland.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
MARAH: Loosely related to the Studebaker family.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
MARAH: When we moved down here. ‘Course, my father had died, he was only 42. When we first moved down here, my Uncle Walbur, he came up in his car, which I think was a Studebaker. But it was an open, what you would call a touring car. And in the wintertime, you put curtains where we now have windows.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
MARAH: You snapped the curtains up. And I remember coming from Baltimore that real cold Christmas, and we had hot water bottles to keep our feet warm. (Both laugh.) And it was cold. No car heaters.
INTERVIEWER: I don’t think my generation can even fathom …
MARAH: No, you can’t. You really can’t visualize that, I’m sure.
INTERVIEWER: How ’bout the train, did you ride the train?
MARAH: Yes, when I was in high school, rode the train. Then after high school from here to Philadelphia. Then changed to go to Pittsburgh where my sister was living. And we rode the train to Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: How ’bout steamboats?
MARAH: In my mother’s day, there were steamboats on the river … And they used to go to Baltimore from Pocomoke. When I graduated from high school and I went to Towson to school, there was a steamer that left from Crisfield, from Crisfield to Baltimore. And we went ... to Towson by that steamer. Someone took us to Crisfield. It was probably Dr. Giddens because I lived with his sister.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: Bob Giddens, his father.
INTERVIEWER: His father, right, he was the dentist.
MARAH: And I know the night that we were on, you had cabins, and you spent the night going from Crisfield to Baltimore.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
MARAH: And that particular night, there was a small fire on the boat. It did soon extinguish.
INTERVIEWER: I can imagine what it was like to be on when the boat was on fire, ugh. How about your first car, did you …
MARAH: It had roll-up windows, it wasn’t a snap-on ride.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) What year was it that you got this?
MARAH: That would be about 1933.
INTERVIEWER: Did many girls get cars, or did they …
MARAH: No, really, that was not my car, that was a family car. No, I didn’t have a car of my own until, well, when I married, we first had a car.
INTERVIEWER: Right. Okay. Public Landing? How often did you go?
MARAH: Not too often, maybe two or three times during the summer for picnics. We had several families that went on picnics together during the summer. Dr. Sartorius, who’s now at Cartnet Hall.
INTERVIEWER: Cartnet Hall.
MARAH: Well, his son Norman.
INTERVIEWER: Mhmm.
MARAH: Was in my class in high school, and Bill the year ahead. And Rick was a year older, and our families were close because our fathers and mothers were close, and we always had picnics either at Public Landing or in Ocean City. And then the Sunday school had their picnics at Public Landing. And there was lots of fried chicken and salad and rolls …
INTERVIEWER: How ‘bout swimming?
MARAH: Swimming, for the ones who could swim …
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh. It wasn’t like it is now.
MARAH: No.
INTERVIEWER: In the pictures, the women were all covered up with umbrellas.
MARAH: Right, right.
INTERVIEWER: Nobody would think of going to the beach with umbrellas now.
MARAH: Right. My first bathing suit when I was about nine years old had sleeves to the elbows.
(Both laugh.)
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Did you ever go to Red Hill?
MARAH: Red Hill was (clears throat) a picnic area before Public Landing. And I went several times, but I was very small, so I don’t remember much about it. But at the time, churches had picnics down there too. But due to the harsh terrain, it’s quite a long trip during the day.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever go to Assateague?
MARAH: No.
INTERVIEWER: Maryland?
MARAH: No. It was not open … to the public.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. How about shipyards in Pocomoke, were they still around then?
MARAH: No, not when I came back to Pocomoke. My mother’s father was part owner, at one time, of Clarke’s Shipyard. I have a deed that shows it. He and three other men, including Mr. Clarke, bought this land on the river for a shipyard.
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
MARAH: And in fact, he was a ship’s carpenter, as well as a wheelwright. And he moved to Pocomoke when he was a young man. And I’ve never known exactly why he came here, because he came from New Jersey. His father died when he was three years old, and at the time, he was apprenticed to a wheelwright, then came to town when he was 18 or 19. So he probably heard that there was need of ships’ carpenters in Pocomoke, and decided to come here.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, were there any kind of medicines?
MARAH: (Coughs) ‘Scuse me. No, I can’t remember any medicines except the ones that you use in Worcester County, Maryland.
INTERVIEWER: Okay. Do you remember any big storms?
MARAH: No, I don’t remember any while I was in high school. About two years, I think, after I graduated from Towson, ’33 or ’34, they had a hurricane that was quite bad. And I remember that where I lived on Winter Course, the water came up to the porch.
INTERVIEWER: You lived by the golf course?
MARAH: No. I lived where … You know where the Chamberlain family lives?
INTERVIEWER: Oh, that, okay, that side of the river, okay.
MARAH: All right, and I lived three houses beyond where the Chamberlain family lives, next to Mrs. Roger Langford.
INTERVIEWER: Okay, I know.
MARAH: And that was where we built our house when my father moved back to Pocomoke. And that was the spot that was so low that the water rose so high.
INTERVIEWER: All the way up there.
MARAH: Music when you were in high school, what kind of music, what was the favorite?
MARAH: We did not have a band, but we had a glee club. And we enjoyed singing. Mrs. Willard Stevenson, who was the organist at the Methodist church, you don’t remember her, I’m sure. But she was teaching high school music and English, and she and Mrs. Warman had the glee club together. She played the piano and Mrs. Warman taught the singing. And I don’t think we sang for any particular functions, except graduation.
INTERVIEWER: How about the popular groups or records you played?
MARAH: Rudy Vallee (laughs).
INTERVIEWER: How about ice skating? Did you go ice skating?
MARAH: I went ice skating. I went ice skating in the marsh.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs.)
MARAH: That was very convenient because if you were not very adept, you had trees to hold on to.
(Both laugh.)
MARAH: And we did have a few ponds out in the country, people we knew, farmers who had ponds, that we visited. Not too often. Now, when my mother was a child, the river froze over.
INTERVIEWER: They didn’t skate on the river, did they?
MARAH: On the river, some of them went skating.
INTERVIEWER: Oh, really (laughs)?
MARAH: And she walked across the river once. But when her mother and father found out, she did not do it again.
INTERVIEWER: (Laughs) I don’t think I could ever attempt that.
MARAH: No, that was very dangerous then.
INTERVIEWER: Did you ever hear of anybody falling in or anything?
MARAH: Seems to me I did hear a story of boys falling in the river because it seemed to freeze much much more than recent years.
INTERVIEWER: I know I haven’t seen it freeze completely.
MARAH: I don’t know the year that this happened, but Mother was born in 188, and it was probably around 1894, ’95. I don’t know. But it was probably when she was a teenager.
INTERVIEWER: Right, can you think of anything else?
MARAH: No. I probably will, after you leave, but …
INTERVIEWER: Okay.
MARAH: Thank you for coming.