Ruth Lowry Bixby Biography Part 1

Ruth Lowry Bixby was my mother. She was born in 1912 and died in 1988. I’ve been thinking about her a lot, especially because her birthday is next week. I’ve been re-reading her “autobiography” that she wrote when she was in the 10th grade…1927. Her handwritten essay had been in a file drawer that I cleaned out shortly after she passed away. I had never seen it before and was thrilled that I had found the document. I’d like to share the document for several reasons.

First, it’s a good reminder that learning to read (and write) cursive writing is a valuable skill. I may not hand write much these days, but I can certainly read my mother’s original essay! Luckily, I was able to transcribe the text so my kids and grandkids can learn about their Grandma Ruth!

Second, reading this essay again has reminded me that my mother was not just the person I knew at the end of her life, but she had a whole life with many details that we had never talked about. I’ll share the whole document over the next few posts…I hope you enjoy it! Consider encouraging everyone you know…young or old…to begin writing down their memories so they can be enjoyed by the next generation!

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Ruth Jane Lowry Bixby, 1912-1988. A Biography, Part 1

“A Child’s Life in Prose”

There is a tradition that the Lowry family in America descended from a widow with eight sons. She is said to have crossed the Atlantic from Ireland in a boat owned and sailed by her and her sons. My mother’s people, the Sweet’s, were from New York State. They landed in America before the Revolution and lived at first in Pennsylvania and then New York having come originally from Holland. Grandfather [Sweet] has always said that he was full-blooded Yankee.

My Grandmother Sweet was Swedish. She came to America when she was a young woman. She was gifted in the art of making wooden dolls, homely but very substantial. She carved not only dolls but domestic animals such as horses, cows with crooked horns, pigs and sheep. The animals’ bodies were made of solid wood but the legs were usually nails. She covered the animals with fur and fuzzy cloth. All her grandchildren delighted in playing with her many wood toys.

(Photo of Merit Swanson Sweet holding the armload of handmade dolls and animals. Ruth was five years old when Grandma Sweet died. This picture was added by Mary Kisner.)

I have always lived in Fergus Falls. I was born in a pink house on Mount Faith Avenue about two blocks on this side of the Jefferson school house.

I have a sister, Winifred, who is seven years older than I and a brother, Richard, five years older than I am. I was two years old when we moved to a house on Cleveland Avenue. We moved a few days before Christmas. Mother put our big cat in a pillow case with its head exposed. The cat, the pillow case, and I were wheeled in my baby buggy to our new home. The cat did not enjoy the ride and after frantic struggles it escaped from its covering and ran away. We never have seen it since.

It was at this new home I became acquainted with Gracie who was my daily companion for several years. She lived next door. During the winter time she came to our house just after she had eaten her breakfast and stayed until noon. She would come back in the afternoon. We played “Old Maid” and copied “Peter Rabbit” the way the monks of old copied the Bible, letter by letter.

Both the deck of “Old Maid” and the book of “Peter Rabbit” belonged to Richard but mother coaxed him to let us play with them because then we didn’t bother her while she was working. Gracie had a very sweet disposition and it was very seldom that we quarreled.

Before I went to school I had most all the common diseases including pink-eye, measles, whooping cough, scarlatina, mumps, and the “flu”. Only one of these illnesses was very serious, the “flu”. My mother has told me how she watched beside me one night not knowing if I would live until morning.

Later on I was proud and happy to have my tonsils out because all my friends had told me how they had gone to the hospital and what the doctor said and did. After I had come out of ether I changed my opinion of hospitals, nurses, and
operations.

Margaretta Wright was my Sunday School teacher for several years. Under her guidance I was in several plays and on all the Christmas and Easter programs.

I was the leading character in one little play entitled, “Little Jane Patchwork.”
One distressing thing happened. The weather was cold and mother had put on me heavy home-knit black woolen stockings over my white ones I was to wear in the play. In the excitement of getting on the stage I forgot to take off these
stockings and I went through the whole play with them on. Mother was horrified, as most mothers usually are when anything like that happens, but I don’t think anyone else noticed them.

Of all my years in school the fifth grade was one of the most enjoyable. We all had lots of fun in the sixth grade but we did not realize it until we came to the seventh grade where everything was new. After entering high school my most enjoyable studies have been algebra and English.

(To Be Continued…)