Nellie Andrews Smith
Nellie
was born 24 Aug 1891, in Crossville, Tn. to Walter Jenks ANDREWS of
Rhode Island and Alice Elivra Hamby of Crossville,Tn.
She grew up as a true homemaker. She was an avid quilter, canner, cook, seamstress. Her husband was a carpenter.
She married Alonzo Hoover "Lon" Smith 15 Jan
1911. They had nine children: Walter Andrews, Frederick Allison, Mary Catherine, Lola Agnes, Harry Richard, Roberta
Lee, Margaret Elizabeth, Alonzo Hoover, Jr. and Charles Edgar. She
would get up early on Saturday mornings and make fresh raised, glazed
donuts and holes to take to town to sell. She would combine the
ingredients in a small washtub. The first roll of dough would
make 12 dozen donuts and holes. She would not roll the dough but
another time for donuts. The rest she would use for cinnamon
rolls and bread. She also canned vegetables and fruit. She
would simmer some of the fruit and then strain the juice through
cheesecloth which she canned as juice to make jelly another day.
As a very resourceful homemaker, she
would add onions and bell pepper to the cut up tomatoes she canned for
spaghetti and Chili sauce to be used in the winter. She used to
make special apple sauce, adding redhots to the cooking apples.
Those were a treat when she would open up a jar. You always
knew which had the redhots by the color of the apple sauce.
She would take any piece of material
or discarded garment and reuse it. She would cut a new shirt or
little girl's dress if there was enough material. Not a piece of
the fabric was wasted. If she had left overs, they became quilt
pieces. She had many cigar boxes in various stages of quilt
pieces. If she had enough pieces of a certain fabric to make one
section of a quilt, those were cut, and stacked in like sizes, then she
would use a needle and thread to keep them together, going through the
stack twice with the thread. Those were placed in the cigar box
for that particular pattern quilt. When she felt she had enough
to begin, she would piece those pieces together, placing them in
another box until she had enough to begin assembling the quilt itself.
She seemed to have an unlimited number of boxes with pieces in
various stages of completion.
On the front porch of her home,
she had hooks in the ceiling. The quilt frame was then attached
to it when she was ready to make the quilt. She could swing the
frame up against the ceiling when not in use. Another frame was
made from two long poles. These had holes thru them at various places
to allow for the size of the quilt. Two sawhorses were constructed with
a 2x2 board with holes at corresponding places to allow the poles
to be secured with long nails. The sawhorse legs were of
½" dowels. One end had one dowel in the center of
the 2x2, the other end had two dowels for stability. This one was
used on cold winter days. It was easily rolled up and could stand
in a corner until needed again.
Although quilting was her biggest love, she also was adept at tatting,
knitting and crocheting. She also found time to read. She had the
complete set of the Pollyanna books as well as many others. She
made almost weekly trips to the library to check out books.
She was also interested in her family history. She had amassed a
large file of family information on her families of Andrews, Hamby,
Proffitt, and Green.
The family moved to Jacksonville, Fl
around 1920 and then on south to Altoona, Fl around 1923. Their
last move was to Eustis, Fl., where she and her husband lived for
many years. They traveled back and forth to Tennessee and North
Carolina many times to visit family and to spend time picking and
canning fruit and vegetables to bring back to Florida.
She made little girl dresses and
donated them to the Waterman Memorial Hospital Pink Elephant shop to
help raise money for the Pink Ladies projects. This was done
annonomously. She was always giving some of her bounty to others.
It was hard for her to accept gifts from others. She
finally learned to be as good a receiver as a giver.
Her husband died in 1966 and she
followed him in death 3 days shy of 11 yrs later. They left a
large legacy behind. When she died there were 26 grandchildren,
26 ggrands and 6 gggrands to swell their family.
She loved her church. She was a member in Eustis of the First Christian Church.
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