Yeasting.com | Memoirs of G. Emerson Yeasting

FOREWORD & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

About ten years before his death, my father, at the suggestion of my brother Steven, recorded two hours of reminiscences about growing up on a farm in the Rollersville area of Ohio in the 1920s-’30s. Rollersville is located about twenty-four miles southeast of Toledo, Ohio. The population of Rollersville peaked in 1920 at about one hundred twenty people. Before his death, Dad had talked about turning the tapes into a book. At the suggestion of my wife Jean, I decided, after his death, to undertake the task of converting the tapes into a book. This book is intended to be a remembrance gift for my sister Jeanne and my brother Steven as well as other relatives and friends of my Dad.

Secondarily, the book is intended to serve as a historical record about a time when most people lived on farms without electricity or tractors. To maintain the integrity of Dad’s recollections, very few changes have been made to language or grammar. To enhance the value and understandability of the book, I have added, in parentheticals, the full name of the person, when known, the first time they are mentioned, defined some words or terms and included other background information. Uncle R.J. Abbott, husband of Dad’s sister Roma Abbott, helped with some of the farming terms. As the editor, I also have taken the liberty of adding some reminiscences of my own or other anecdotal stories.

A map of the Rollersville area has been included. Aunt Roma Abbott and Uncle R.J. Abbott assisted in locating the farms on the map. The map is in the middle of the book. Also in the middle of the book are several pictures to enhance the historical value of the book and as a way of preserving some family pictures that tend to get dispersed or lost over time. I would like to thank my stepmother, Betty, for finding and sending to me some of the family pictures included in the book. I also would like to thank the Gibsonburg, Ohio, Area Historical Group for allowing the use of some pictures from the “Gibsonburg, Ohio, Area History 1996.” Following the pictures are several genealogy charts to help the reader understand family relationships. Relatives mentioned by Dad are the bold italicized names in the bolded boxes. The primary source for this information was: the Yeasting Families Descendents In The Americas, Third Reversion, a 300-page book compiled by Dad of descendents of John Fredrick Yeasting, Dad’s great great-grandfather and J. Fredrick Yeasting. A second source was the “Gibsonburg, Ohio, Area History 1996.” A third source was Aunt Roma Abbott who visited some cousins and cemeteries to gather data on the Schleas and Beekers.

My son, Jonathan, and Elizabeth “Betty” A. Granica assisted me in editing and publishing the book. Special thanks is given to Sharon Falzon, the mother of friends of my daughter Robin, without whose quick and accurate transcription of Dad’s tapes, this book may have never gotten published.

Jeanne and Steve, I hope you enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed creating it.

Kenneth L. Yeasting
November 2000