A Home for the Keys

I’ve spoken a few times about my Keys family when they first moved to the United States from England in the spring of 1887.  The main thing that people in the family talk about is how the family of Thomas Lord MacVey let the family stay in their chicken house because the Keys didn’t have a home when they first moved to southern Louisiana.

And since the Keys arrived in the spring, it was a good time for building a house.  The matron of the family – Martha Ann Cook Keys – decided to stay in the China, Louisiana, area, so she purchased forty two acres of land.  Soon after that there was a building bee by the local townsfolk to build the family a house.  And this photo shows that house.

The lumber was hauled to the site by oxen and wagon.  The house had wooden floors with a kitchen, bedroom and living room with bookshelves downstairs.  The half story upstairs was one big room.  The house was heated with a fireplace.  A chimney can be seen on the right side of the house in the photo.

I’m sure they were grateful to have their own home to live in, especially since it had all the conveniences of a modern home.  A man named Monroe brought mail from Jennings to Art Anderson’s store where Martha would go to pick it up.  She would go to Welsh or Jennings by horse or wagon for the few needs required by the family.  Eventually there was a nice trail beaten down by the horse’s hooves.  The prairie grass was as tall as or taller than the wagon.  The different houses in the area had driveways in a sense – they each had their own beaten down path to the main trail that led to Jennings or Elton.  That main trail was on the high ground, of course.

And while we are getting closer to cars that drive themselves, our ancestors had something similar.  Since taking a trip to Jennings or Welsh could take all day, sometimes they would fall asleep on their way home.  It was no problem, though, because the horses knew the way home.  What more could you ask for?

There was one problem they had to look out for while living out on the primitive prairie during the fall, and that was grass fires.  My mom used to talk about this from time to time.  I think she was proud of her great grandmother’s resourcefulness.  Martha learned how to “back fire” a prairie fire.  This is done by starting a controlled burn of the grass near your house in the direction of the wind.  That way the grass will slowly burn toward the prairie fire and there is no fuel for the fire around your house.

When I look at this photo, I imagine that Martha is standing in the doorway looking out at her youngest daughter Mabel sitting on their horse.  It has only been a couple of years since the move, but she is satisfied with the changes that she has made for her family.  They have a home in a quiet, safe place with horses, cows, pigs and chickens aplenty.  She admires the trees that she’s planted, knowing that they will grow and produce food for her family.  She and her children are adjusting well to this new, strange land.  Yet it is already feeling like home.