The Evolution of the Texas Hearth
© 2006
As a result the American Hearth stands today at a crossroads. But it is not an unprecedented event. The world has approached this intersection of evolution in times past. One path follows unity and growth - the other separation. Self-imposed censorship prevents me from providing examples. Yet the individual may look to their religious icons of times past. There they will find examples of prophets, saints or sages who have faced the choice we face today. There they will also find the consequences that followed.
The hearth is considered the center point of influence on the American family. Over time the American Hearth evolved from a place used to prepare the daily meal to a place used to nourish, teach, entertain and bond family members into a central unit. It even reaches those missed by religion.
Today, the patchwork quilt symbolizes the traditional hearth. It was a simple time. The process of making such quilts requires participating in hard work, and family interactions. Around the quilting frame religious virtue was taught. Ideals converged over time to create a center of family life and tradition. Within it one may see how skill, care and different people’s experiences merge consistency with change to meet the recipient’s expectations. That is why I believe the theme of home, hearth and heart is so appropriate for this work. The title, as well as the articles, serves to remind an on the go, technologically advanced society, that the hearth is not simply a place to grab a slice of pizza on one’s way to hide in his or her personal space.
After all, every since the world has entered the technological frontier - that is the evolutionary direction the hearth is taking. That is why we would be wise to consider Fredrick Jackson Turner’s statement; “American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American Life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character,” and ask ourselves what forces we want to dominate the future character of society. Do we want the forces of technology teaching future generations how to dispassionately journey through life, never realizing the power of enjoyable human interaction? Or do we want to provide future generations the opportunity to seize upon that power - a power which can only be taught on a personal level in and around the home?
I say give future generations the power of enjoyable human interaction. Emphasis on competitive sports to foster teamwork has created a mindset of domination. Cell phones, e-mail, and chat rooms enable what I term interpersonal prayer. And, computers have replaced human companionship. To presume simplicity outdated is reckless, to believe it is foolish. Do not allow future generations to learn that; human interaction should be limited to dominating others through intense competition, it is acceptable to pray to one another over some technological device, or that a blip on a computer screen is their friend.
The Rice Family Log Home serves as a symbol to represent how hard work, family interactions, skill, care, consistency, change – different people’s experiences and expectations – converge over time to create a center of family life and tradition.
Oral tradition places Jacob Masters brining his family, including his daughter Willie Masters Rice, to Texas in 1818. This was a peculiar point in Texas History. If correct, tradition places Willie arriving in Texas just after the Magee-Gutierrez expedition and a year before the “Mother of Texas” arrived with Dr. James Long’s Expedition. Texas was still a Spanish Colony. In addition, being located in what was then Nacogdoches, Willie becomes a rare witness to five of Texas’ six-flags, and seven of the nine flags that flew over Nacogdoches. At that same time, relics of the East Texas Spanish Missions Era were still standing near Willie’s home, including Mission Nacogdoche, and perhaps its contemporaries Missions Concepcion and Tejas. The strict tie then existing between church and state forced Texans to choose between primitive religious conditions and accepting a religious practice in which they did not believe.
Although a wedding ceremony may not have occurred until 1834, oral tradition claims Willie Masters and Joe Rice Sr. declared wedlock in 1822. Assuming the 1822 declaration in the oral tradition is true, Willie and Joseph would have lived under the mentorship of her parents for twelve years after they declared wedlock. In the remoteness of the frontier each person was important and had a definite purpose in life. The family unit became a kingdom within itself. A common religious text served as the only means of standardizing the family hearth. In addition, possibly as a result, the family unit remained together longer than occurs today.
It is commonly accepted among scholars that the heart of the hearth, known as the kitchen, has evolved from an outdoor fire into what we know today. During the period the first pen was being constructed, Willie’s contemporaries probably managed the hearth under less acceptable conditions than presently exist during primitive camping trips. Willie's contemporaries describe conditions ranging from developing the new home site while on short visits during summer months to living under a lean-to for five or more years while families constructed their home. Willie probably would have experienced the former, leaving her toddlers under the care of her nearby parents while building her hearth. If family oral tradition is true, Willie helped in skidding the logs to the site beginning in 1828, continuing perhaps until a meeting described by traveler Amos Parker in 1834.
That year Willie began her tenure of matriarch in the little house on Mustang Prairie. Chores were done as a team, each person contributing in a specific way. Creolized architectural features within the structure indicate a degree of diversity and cultural convergence occurred in the primitive conditions. Family growth occurred in the face of social instability. The religious text may have been the only book in the home.
From 1834 to 1838 the dimly lit, windowless, single pen cabin, with the tomb-sized mud-cat fireplace provided smothering protection through the long nights. In the hearth, Dutch oven cooking readied nourishment for the body. Around the hearth, reading the family’s religious text by firelight and making smoke flavored hot air popcorn entertained the family and encouraged reading skills. The tie of chores and family made work enjoyable and educational. A construction plank less than 1/3 the size of a sheet of plywood probably served as the indoor meal preparation area, providing Willie an opportunity to teach basic math to her young children. The small covered porch, may have served as a place for Joe to teach crafts like making woodcarving, leatherworking, and weaving hats or baskets. Three additional levels of dowel holes in the exterior portion of the west wall demonstrate the miniature scale of the largest and most accessible portions of hearth’s storage and sanitation area. The outdoor hearth provided a location for warm weather cooking. There, Willie may have also taught physics and chemistry, through activities like hog scrapings, making soap, washing laundry, and cooking bulk items like greens or hominy.
In 1838, Willie had four children in her home, including newborn John, and in the next eight years the number would grow to half a dozen. That year the Rice Family Home tripled in size just before frontier threats returned. The enlarged home possessed three pens with two levels each. In the center room a shuttered parlor window shed light on the dilute gentility that soon would come. Yet, because of the Edens-Madden Massacre, reading the religious text would likely continue by lamplight a little while longer. A dedicated kitchen allowed cooking meals indoors during rainy warm weather, without heating the parlor and bedrooms. Porches provided shelter from rain to occur in open spaces. Through it all, the outdoor hearth remained important to the household.
Then in 1846 Texas was admitted to the Union. As the states’ rights issues began building fears - beliefs in gentility would transform the Texas Hearth. The nation found itself at a crossroads. Teachings within the religious text of the day would be twisted to serve the purpose of the audience. A dilute gentility became evident throughout the Rice Family Home. In time the ambiance driven individuals evolved into a materialistic culture. Over the next fifteen years the household would grow to nearly a dozen. Slaves numbered to more than 14. A formal garden may have encircled the family graveyard, where the stillborn twins are buried. To transform the first pen into a formal bedroom, the cooking fireplace was likely removed and replaced with a wood stove. At the northwest corner of the home a formal dining room with fireplace was added. A formal kitchen with wood stove may have adjoined it. The lower floor of pen two would become a formal living room. The lower floor of pen three a formal parlor. Clapboarding and whitewash was added all around. A wagon shed was added. Meanwhile music from the sacred harp was the growing thing, and musical instruments ranged from cow horns & six-strings to a Piano.
Between the years of 1861 and 1865, the family gathered in the formal garden on three occasions. It was there Willie began those years of civil unrest reading, the once twisted teachings, of the religious text over her twenty-year old son, in 61. Then in 62 she repeated the process again with her twenty-four year old John. When the war was over in ’65 Willie found herself reading the text for thirty-seven year old William Jacob, whose body was never returned. In the next year only half the family remained alive.
Yet in the land of cotton, there were other contributors to the American experience. The period following June 19, 1865 is perhaps the most notable era in terms of illustrating the importance of the hearth in Texas. On that day General Granger’s troops landed on Galveston Island, in a moment slaves were free, Joe Jr. returned home and the economy entered a period of turmoil.
On August 11, 1866, Willie read the text again. Joseph Rice Sr. left nothing other than the strength of a battered hearth to preserve the Rice Family Home, and the decedents of the more than 14 freedmen who once worked the Rice Plantation. From 1870 to 1900, not one member of the Rice Family is listed on the Houston County Census. Willie Rice is listed on the Waco Census with her father and sister, and the Houston County Census lists numerous African American sharecroppers residing on parts of the former plantation. At the same time the freedmen community called Germany, Texas is established.
During this sharecropping era African Americans got a chance to shine. They gravitated to their religious text as a source of strength and direction. Their contributions include adapting the protestant religion, shaping American music and preserving & conserving the simple side of life. Thad Sitton (p.44), credits the preservation of hearth cooking techniques, blacksmithing, log home construction, old time crafts, nineteenth century technologies and quilting, all to sharecroppers. In effect the African-American culture may not only be credited with preserving American Heritage – they also gave rise to modern day recycling. More importantly these things arose not because of a competitive, arrogant, or pretentious spirit – they arose from a spirit of caring for and helping one another survive through life’s difficult moments.
One-hundred years after emancipation, the United States boldly crossed into the technological frontier and was sending the first men to space.
Today we find the nation’s hearth again at a crossroads. It is a choice faced in times past. The contrast between the two paths is easy to discern. A few miles to the east of the Rice Home - Germany, Texas remains a vital community where descendents of freedmen live next to one another as they have for more than 135 years. In the other direction, it now takes less than an hour to reach that Texas University named after the state’s forefather. It is now home to a digitized hearth that Amos Parker, one-hundred and seventy-two years ago, described as an ancient hovel. There you will have a chance to observe the direction of our future – in a mass of purple clad people who value intense competition to helping thy neighbor, a group of technological geniuses praying to one another over electronic devices – while standing less than a two minute walk from one another, and socially lost “wild children” who– instead of wolves - have been raised by computers.
But do not look at their superficial facades. Look deeper into their way of life. Determine for yourself which path unites the soul with oneself, family, community, nature and a higher power. Then look down that other path that poisons our society with disconnection and separation. The antidote is in the spirit that lies among illustrative living exhibits of historic activities associated with the hearth, within national and international landmarks. The choice is simple, read the messages of peace in your religious text with your family - or read your religious text over them.
Remember, the spirit need not be resurrected in the same body of times past.
It just needs to be resurrected.
As a result the American Hearth stands today at a crossroads. But it is not an unprecedented event. The world has approached this intersection of evolution in times past. One path follows unity and growth - the other separation. Self-imposed censorship prevents me from providing examples. Yet the individual may look to their religious icons of times past. There they will find examples of prophets, saints or sages who have faced the choice we face today. There they will also find the consequences that followed.
The hearth is considered the center point of influence on the American family. Over time the American Hearth evolved from a place used to prepare the daily meal to a place used to nourish, teach, entertain and bond family members into a central unit. It even reaches those missed by religion.
Today, the patchwork quilt symbolizes the traditional hearth. It was a simple time. The process of making such quilts requires participating in hard work, and family interactions. Around the quilting frame religious virtue was taught. Ideals converged over time to create a center of family life and tradition. Within it one may see how skill, care and different people’s experiences merge consistency with change to meet the recipient’s expectations. That is why I believe the theme of home, hearth and heart is so appropriate for this work. The title, as well as the articles, serves to remind an on the go, technologically advanced society, that the hearth is not simply a place to grab a slice of pizza on one’s way to hide in his or her personal space.
After all, every since the world has entered the technological frontier - that is the evolutionary direction the hearth is taking. That is why we would be wise to consider Fredrick Jackson Turner’s statement; “American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American Life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character,” and ask ourselves what forces we want to dominate the future character of society. Do we want the forces of technology teaching future generations how to dispassionately journey through life, never realizing the power of enjoyable human interaction? Or do we want to provide future generations the opportunity to seize upon that power - a power which can only be taught on a personal level in and around the home?
I say give future generations the power of enjoyable human interaction. Emphasis on competitive sports to foster teamwork has created a mindset of domination. Cell phones, e-mail, and chat rooms enable what I term interpersonal prayer. And, computers have replaced human companionship. To presume simplicity outdated is reckless, to believe it is foolish. Do not allow future generations to learn that; human interaction should be limited to dominating others through intense competition, it is acceptable to pray to one another over some technological device, or that a blip on a computer screen is their friend.
The Rice Family Log Home serves as a symbol to represent how hard work, family interactions, skill, care, consistency, change – different people’s experiences and expectations – converge over time to create a center of family life and tradition.
Oral tradition places Jacob Masters brining his family, including his daughter Willie Masters Rice, to Texas in 1818. This was a peculiar point in Texas History. If correct, tradition places Willie arriving in Texas just after the Magee-Gutierrez expedition and a year before the “Mother of Texas” arrived with Dr. James Long’s Expedition. Texas was still a Spanish Colony. In addition, being located in what was then Nacogdoches, Willie becomes a rare witness to five of Texas’ six-flags, and seven of the nine flags that flew over Nacogdoches. At that same time, relics of the East Texas Spanish Missions Era were still standing near Willie’s home, including Mission Nacogdoche, and perhaps its contemporaries Missions Concepcion and Tejas. The strict tie then existing between church and state forced Texans to choose between primitive religious conditions and accepting a religious practice in which they did not believe.
Although a wedding ceremony may not have occurred until 1834, oral tradition claims Willie Masters and Joe Rice Sr. declared wedlock in 1822. Assuming the 1822 declaration in the oral tradition is true, Willie and Joseph would have lived under the mentorship of her parents for twelve years after they declared wedlock. In the remoteness of the frontier each person was important and had a definite purpose in life. The family unit became a kingdom within itself. A common religious text served as the only means of standardizing the family hearth. In addition, possibly as a result, the family unit remained together longer than occurs today.
It is commonly accepted among scholars that the heart of the hearth, known as the kitchen, has evolved from an outdoor fire into what we know today. During the period the first pen was being constructed, Willie’s contemporaries probably managed the hearth under less acceptable conditions than presently exist during primitive camping trips. Willie's contemporaries describe conditions ranging from developing the new home site while on short visits during summer months to living under a lean-to for five or more years while families constructed their home. Willie probably would have experienced the former, leaving her toddlers under the care of her nearby parents while building her hearth. If family oral tradition is true, Willie helped in skidding the logs to the site beginning in 1828, continuing perhaps until a meeting described by traveler Amos Parker in 1834.
That year Willie began her tenure of matriarch in the little house on Mustang Prairie. Chores were done as a team, each person contributing in a specific way. Creolized architectural features within the structure indicate a degree of diversity and cultural convergence occurred in the primitive conditions. Family growth occurred in the face of social instability. The religious text may have been the only book in the home.
From 1834 to 1838 the dimly lit, windowless, single pen cabin, with the tomb-sized mud-cat fireplace provided smothering protection through the long nights. In the hearth, Dutch oven cooking readied nourishment for the body. Around the hearth, reading the family’s religious text by firelight and making smoke flavored hot air popcorn entertained the family and encouraged reading skills. The tie of chores and family made work enjoyable and educational. A construction plank less than 1/3 the size of a sheet of plywood probably served as the indoor meal preparation area, providing Willie an opportunity to teach basic math to her young children. The small covered porch, may have served as a place for Joe to teach crafts like making woodcarving, leatherworking, and weaving hats or baskets. Three additional levels of dowel holes in the exterior portion of the west wall demonstrate the miniature scale of the largest and most accessible portions of hearth’s storage and sanitation area. The outdoor hearth provided a location for warm weather cooking. There, Willie may have also taught physics and chemistry, through activities like hog scrapings, making soap, washing laundry, and cooking bulk items like greens or hominy.
In 1838, Willie had four children in her home, including newborn John, and in the next eight years the number would grow to half a dozen. That year the Rice Family Home tripled in size just before frontier threats returned. The enlarged home possessed three pens with two levels each. In the center room a shuttered parlor window shed light on the dilute gentility that soon would come. Yet, because of the Edens-Madden Massacre, reading the religious text would likely continue by lamplight a little while longer. A dedicated kitchen allowed cooking meals indoors during rainy warm weather, without heating the parlor and bedrooms. Porches provided shelter from rain to occur in open spaces. Through it all, the outdoor hearth remained important to the household.
Then in 1846 Texas was admitted to the Union. As the states’ rights issues began building fears - beliefs in gentility would transform the Texas Hearth. The nation found itself at a crossroads. Teachings within the religious text of the day would be twisted to serve the purpose of the audience. A dilute gentility became evident throughout the Rice Family Home. In time the ambiance driven individuals evolved into a materialistic culture. Over the next fifteen years the household would grow to nearly a dozen. Slaves numbered to more than 14. A formal garden may have encircled the family graveyard, where the stillborn twins are buried. To transform the first pen into a formal bedroom, the cooking fireplace was likely removed and replaced with a wood stove. At the northwest corner of the home a formal dining room with fireplace was added. A formal kitchen with wood stove may have adjoined it. The lower floor of pen two would become a formal living room. The lower floor of pen three a formal parlor. Clapboarding and whitewash was added all around. A wagon shed was added. Meanwhile music from the sacred harp was the growing thing, and musical instruments ranged from cow horns & six-strings to a Piano.
Between the years of 1861 and 1865, the family gathered in the formal garden on three occasions. It was there Willie began those years of civil unrest reading, the once twisted teachings, of the religious text over her twenty-year old son, in 61. Then in 62 she repeated the process again with her twenty-four year old John. When the war was over in ’65 Willie found herself reading the text for thirty-seven year old William Jacob, whose body was never returned. In the next year only half the family remained alive.
Yet in the land of cotton, there were other contributors to the American experience. The period following June 19, 1865 is perhaps the most notable era in terms of illustrating the importance of the hearth in Texas. On that day General Granger’s troops landed on Galveston Island, in a moment slaves were free, Joe Jr. returned home and the economy entered a period of turmoil.
On August 11, 1866, Willie read the text again. Joseph Rice Sr. left nothing other than the strength of a battered hearth to preserve the Rice Family Home, and the decedents of the more than 14 freedmen who once worked the Rice Plantation. From 1870 to 1900, not one member of the Rice Family is listed on the Houston County Census. Willie Rice is listed on the Waco Census with her father and sister, and the Houston County Census lists numerous African American sharecroppers residing on parts of the former plantation. At the same time the freedmen community called Germany, Texas is established.
During this sharecropping era African Americans got a chance to shine. They gravitated to their religious text as a source of strength and direction. Their contributions include adapting the protestant religion, shaping American music and preserving & conserving the simple side of life. Thad Sitton (p.44), credits the preservation of hearth cooking techniques, blacksmithing, log home construction, old time crafts, nineteenth century technologies and quilting, all to sharecroppers. In effect the African-American culture may not only be credited with preserving American Heritage – they also gave rise to modern day recycling. More importantly these things arose not because of a competitive, arrogant, or pretentious spirit – they arose from a spirit of caring for and helping one another survive through life’s difficult moments.
One-hundred years after emancipation, the United States boldly crossed into the technological frontier and was sending the first men to space.
Today we find the nation’s hearth again at a crossroads. It is a choice faced in times past. The contrast between the two paths is easy to discern. A few miles to the east of the Rice Home - Germany, Texas remains a vital community where descendents of freedmen live next to one another as they have for more than 135 years. In the other direction, it now takes less than an hour to reach that Texas University named after the state’s forefather. It is now home to a digitized hearth that Amos Parker, one-hundred and seventy-two years ago, described as an ancient hovel. There you will have a chance to observe the direction of our future – in a mass of purple clad people who value intense competition to helping thy neighbor, a group of technological geniuses praying to one another over electronic devices – while standing less than a two minute walk from one another, and socially lost “wild children” who– instead of wolves - have been raised by computers.
But do not look at their superficial facades. Look deeper into their way of life. Determine for yourself which path unites the soul with oneself, family, community, nature and a higher power. Then look down that other path that poisons our society with disconnection and separation. The antidote is in the spirit that lies among illustrative living exhibits of historic activities associated with the hearth, within national and international landmarks. The choice is simple, read the messages of peace in your religious text with your family - or read your religious text over them.
Remember, the spirit need not be resurrected in the same body of times past.
It just needs to be resurrected.
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