Charles Biswell's recollections of his family and life on the farm

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cbb family history part 1 (4.9M)
On December 31, 1989, during the Christmas holiday in Orangeburg, SC, Robert Ferrier, the grandson of Charles Biswell, read the beginning of a tribute that Charles had written about his father, Charles Rice Biswell. The unfinished tribute was written in January 1984.

Robert, who was living in Boca Raton, FL, at the time, was visiting his grandfather in his apartment on Stanley Street in Orangeburg and remembers reading and recording the tribute while both of them were sitting on the bed in the master bedroom.

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cbb family history part 2 (13.7M)
In February 1990, Charles continued his recollections about his family: Charles Rice Biswell's participation in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889, the double wedding of his parents and aunt and uncle, a description of his mother, Ellie Rush Cornelius Biswell, and the houses that stood on the Biswell farm.

Ellie and Charles Rice could have visited the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago for their honeymoon.

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cbb family history part 3 (9.0M)
Charles continues the family history, talking about the births of his siblings James, Helen, and Frederic, the description of the "new" house on the Biswell farm, memories of visits to his Cornelius grandparents, and chores on the farm.

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cbb family history part 4 (9.6M)
Charles continues talking about life on the farm:  the fruit eaten, wild greens, chickens, and cleaning house.


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cbb family history part 5 (9.5M)
Charles continues talking about his childhood: sweeping the yard, his mother's anti-smoking and anti-alcohol campaigns, and his studies in grade school. He recounts his education through high school in Fayette, MO, Central College, the University of Missouri, and graduate school at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He remembers the deaths of his mother and his sister Josephine and meeting his future wife, Mary Yancey. He talks about the forms of transportation the family used up to that time.

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cbb family history part 6 (10.8M)
Charles recalls the family automobiles, Charles Rice Biswell's community service and tobacco habit, fishing, friend Henry Gilmore, and the bees kept on the farm.

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cbb family history part 7 (9.1M)
Charles talks about hunting for squirrel and rabbit, his father making oyster soup, raising farm animals, and planting crops on the farm.

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cbb family history part 8 (9.5M)
Charles describes growing corn, harvesting wheat, raising sheep, hogs, and cattle, building the ice house, and receiving punishment for childhood infractions.

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cbb family history part 9 (9.1M)
Charles continues to recall life on the farm:  a visiting tramp, peddlers, the player piano, singing, going barefoot, fences, candy treats, and celebrating Christmas.

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cbb family history part 10 (9.8M)
Charles continues with his Christmas memories and the animals on the farm: dogs, horses, and mules.

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cbb family history part 11 (9.3M)
Charles continues talking about the horses and the labor required to keep the farm operating, including other families that lived on the farm.

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cbb family history part 12 (7.4M)
Charles recounts his courtship and marriage to Mary Biswell, taking sister Edith to Colorado, leaving the farm with his brother Harold to pursue their educations, his father's death, and his surviving siblings.