Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

The Winds of Change Continued
 
Louise Rigsby Rapp, Kathleen’s oldest daughter said that her Dad, Lon Rigsby, proposed to Kathleen two weeks after they started dating. Kathleen told him “they didn’t know each other well enough, so they waited until the following year”. However, I think it was a forgone conclusion and they married on September 19, 1947.
 
Though Williamsport was a small town, my sister Kathleen was essentially a “city or uptown girl” and she was forward thinking. When she married Lon and moved to the country, she took a step back into my Mother’s generation. She was more than happy to do that but I think the adjustment must have been hard. Kathleen embraced her new lifestyle. My sister Betty and I missed her.
 
The Mintie Rigsby family lived in a big farmhouse on Dry Run. They moved into Williamsport and left the house for Kathleen and Lon to live in. It had a big iron cookstove that was fired with wood and no refrigeration. I don’t remember if they had electricity or not.
 
Lon and Kathleen came into Williamsport to do their weekly grocery shopping on Friday evenings. Because they had no refrigeration, Kat had to go home after shopping and fry the meat they had purchased to preserve it for the coming week.
 
We visited on Sundays as did Lon’s family. My Dad enjoyed all of the male companionship with Lon and his brothers. They played cards, hunted, fished and did trap shooting….all on the country property.

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck