Rosa May (Butterfield) Cook

◊ Narrative ◊ Comments ◊ References ◊
◊ Ahnentafel Chart ◊ Family History ◊ bekahcubed home ◊

Memories of Rosa May Butterfield Cook

Rosa May Butterfield was born April 22, 1879 (1,2) to Edwin and Sarah J. Butterfield. She was their first daughter born in Nebraska—her three older siblings, Frank E (~1872), Guy E. (~1874), and Leafy (~1877), were all born in Iowa. In 1880, Edwin farmed in Verdigris precinct, Knox County, NE while Sarah kept house and watched the girls. Frank and Guy attended school (3). Once old enough, Rosa May also attended a rural school near Walnut, NE (2).

Rosa married Willie G. Cook on December 23, 1896 in Niobrara, Knox Co., NE. The two traveled with a horse and buggy to the county seat to marry and returned to Walnut immediately afterward for a reception held in their honor (4).

Orval Anthony (born 17 Nov 1897), Willie George, and Rosa May
Picture courtesy of Debbie Woodworth.

By June 1900, they had a son and a daughter: Orval Anthony (Nov 1897) and Bessie J. (Jan 1900). Anthony R. Cook, Willie’s father, listed in census data as a widower, lived with the young family while Willie farmed rented land in Walnut Grove Township, Knox Co., NE (1). In 1910, Willie farmed his own un-mortgaged land with twelve year old Orval’s help. Anthony Cook still lived with the family, receiving his own income from a Civil War pension. The two oldest children, Orval and Bessie, attended school, while Lela (b. 1903) stayed home (5).

Ten years later, in the first part of 1920, Willie was still farming in Walnut Grove with his oldest son Orval (6). According to the 1920 Atlas of Knox County, Willie owned 120 acres in Walnut Grove (7). Willie and Rosa’s three youngest daughters, Lela (b. 1903) and twins Grace and Gladys (b. 1911) were still in school (6).

Orval Anthony, Lela May, Willie George, Bessie, Gladys, and Rosa May (Butterfield) Cook, Grace Alma

Standing: Orval Anthony, Lela May, Willie George
Sitting: Bessie, Gladys, and Rosa May
Front: Grace Alma
Picture courtesy of Debbie Woodworth.

Tragedy struck the family when, on January 3, 1925, Lela died of blood poisoning at age 22. She had married Elmer Grim some time earlier and died only 6 days after their baby (17). Rosa May was upset because Dr. Fletcher, the doctor from Orchard, would not allow her in the delivery room when the baby came. She never liked Dr. Fletcher and said he had dirty fingernails (8). Who knows if she didn’t credit him with her daughter’s death?

Willie G. died October 8, 1947 at the age of 69 (9). Rosa May survived him and lived on to see 39 great-grandchildren born (2).

The great-grandchildren have many memories of great-grandma at her little house. The house was set on a sandy area by the creek which also boasted a hand operated pump, a garden, a chicken coop, an outhouse, and a barn. An old-fashioned popcorn sheller was also prominently featured. The children shelled walnuts with it as well as corn (10). The large garden was located next to the house on the south side, with a little fence around it and a path alongside it. The chicken coop, which Rosa May built herself, was further behind the house and the garden to the south. Rosa May planted her peas in the garden by the house so they would be close enough to the hand pump that she could water them easily if necessary. Other items were sometimes planted elsewhere. For instance, Mary (Cook) Menter remembers planting potatoes for her great-grandma one year in an area that had been flooded by the dam southeast of the barn. There was snow on the ground, but it was Good Friday and Grandma insisted that the potatoes must be planted THAT DAY! (11,12)

Grandma's (Rosa May's) Hand Operated Pump
Picture courtesy of Martha Cook.

Rosa’s granddaughter-in-law and great-granddaughters also remember some animal stories. Rosa May kept her chickens in a coop she had built herself, and every so often some wild animal would get into her coop and cause problems. One time, a skunk got into the chicken coop; and, as Carol Cook recalls it: “[Grandma May’s] weapon of choice was a kettle of boiling water.” Rosa always kept a kettle of water boiling on the wood stove—and it came in handy that time! (13)

On another occasion, Rosa May had a possum caught in her trap. But when she went to get it out—four baby possums crawled out! Mary (Cook) Menter remembers thinking that the possum couldn’t be having its babies right then and there—she didn’t yet know, she explains, that possums are marsupials with a pouch for their babies. Anyway, the baby possums came out and Grandma May killed them as well. Then Rosa and her great-granddaughter loaded them into a bucket and threw the bodies over a cliff. Finally, Rosa May dug up some dirt and rolled it down off the cliff after them—to bury those baby possums. (13)

The barn was site for more memories, animal and otherwise. The great-grandchildren remember bringing wagons of corncobs down to store in the barn. Rosa May would use them later as fuel for her cookstove (14). On another occasion, Ruth Cook remembers making wood with her cousins and storing it in the same barn. She also remembers being in the barn with her dad, Ronald Cook, and hearing his stories about the horses. There were still bridles and halters and the like inside (11). Others remember Ronald shooting a civet cat out of a tree nearby the barn (12). Civet cats were like skunks, with multiple stripes or spots—but they still smelled awful! (7)

Inside the house, there were two floors, but the great-grandchildren don’t remember ever going upstairs. The stairs were very steep and there were wasps in the bedrooms above (11). Mary (Cook) Menter remembers going up the stairs once, but doesn’t remember ever leaving the stairs. The upstairs of Grandma’s house was very scary to her (12). The main floor, on the other hand, was home to a number of friendly, familiar objects. Grandma had a shallow, white enameled washbasin by the door for washing up when you entered the house (15). Nearby, a “hanging thing with pockets” held combs and brushes (11). In the kitchen, a corncob fed cookstove always kept a kettle of water heating. Grandma had candy in a cabinet that looked like a wardrobe cabinet, all wood, painted white, with shelves behind the top doors and drawers on bottom. The dining room and living room were combined, with a side door by the table. Little white wooden chairs sat around the table, and if a child was too short to comfortably sit at the table, an octagonal button box was brought out to serve as a booster seat. The horse-hair couch in the living room felt like the top of a boy’s head after a buzz cut, and just like the boy’s head, demanded to be felt, touched, rubbed against (13).

Kathy (Cook) Specht remembers that one Christmas, the Cook kids—Ronald and Carol Cook’s children—received bicycles for Christmas. But the bicycles were not just a gift—they came with a contract that was duly signed. The contract stipulated that the children were to use their bicycles to take mail to Great-Grandma May. And so they did. (13)

The children rode their bikes or walked to Grandma May’s house and delivered Grandma’s mail. Popcorn was always waiting, slightly stale, in a white bowl. Ruth Cook remembers how Grandma’s face would light up when Ronald (Ruth’s father and Rosa May’s grandson) would come. She thinks that’s probably why the popcorn was always waiting—just in case Ronald showed up (11). The children, and sometimes their father, would sit and chat while eating the popcorn. When the kids made moves toward leaving, Rosa May would pull out a cake—a favorite was a white cake with caramel frosting—and the children would all stay a while longer (13).

The great-grandchildren remember Grandma May as a diminutive woman who wore bag-like flour sack dresses and smelled like Camay soap (11). She was so small she had to stand on a stool to use the phone. Her phone was an old-fashioned phone, with a horn attached to the wall for speaking into and an earpiece that pulled away from the wall. May had a hearing aid and kept its receiver in a little cloth pouch pinned to the inside of her dress’s bosom (12). So when she talked on the phone, she stood on her stool, barely able to lift her face high enough to speak into the horn, with the telephone earpiece firmly placed over her heart (13).

Grandma May had a number of hobbies, her obituary tells us: among them were quilting and crocheting (2). Grandma May’s great-granddaughters add another hobby to the list: soap operas. Ruth Cook remembers sitting on the stool under the phone while Grandma watched her “stories” (11). Mary (Cook) Menter remembers Grandma sewing, showing her how the treadle underneath the sewing machine works to move the needle up and down (12).

Rosa May and Willie George Cook's Gravestone

Rosa May and Willie G. Cook's Gravestone

Rosa May died August 28,1969 at the age of 90 (2) and was buried next to her husband in Hope Enterprise Cemetery in Knox County, NE. The inscription on her gravestone read simply:
“MOTHER
ROSA MAY
1879-1969.” (16).

◊ Narrative ◊ Comments ◊ References ◊
◊ Ahnentafel Chart ◊ Family History ◊ bekahcubed home ◊

Comments

If you have additional information about Rosa Mae Butterfield, or have questions about the information (and sources) referenced within this history, please leave a comment so I can continue to improve this history!

◊ Narrative ◊ Comments ◊ References ◊
◊ Ahnentafel Chart ◊ Family History ◊ bekahcubed home ◊