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Show I Molasses Candy and I Cider Memories I of Old McK'y Farm Ibbmu By HARRY P. B U.LEY. I With tbo construction of the Catholic Cath-olic parochial school at Twenty-eighth '' street and Lincoln 1 1 nue, one of the f,mo,is landmarks 01 th0 city, the for-mer for-mer residence of William McKay, pro-H' pro-H' genltor of many Of the McKays, who i llon. piav an import ant part In I tall public life, will disappear, and all thai :i . mains will be memories "i men and II women, who, when children, enjoyed f the hospltaallty of "Daddy McKay's" I . iier barrel, his sorghum and his other home-grown dainties. The original ibode of the McKay family, a lowly log cabin, burned down several years ago, through flames which originated from Ihe nut oil lamp of a Chinese opi-urn opi-urn srnoker. The obi stone hoii.se. II whicfrfurnlshed shelter for th McKo 1 family, stands as s ruin, partially torn down. The old McKay granarj Is alone intact, hut has descended from Its ersl-v ersl-v hile role of sheltering grain to the lowly state of housing Celestials who would woo the poppy and slip Into a dream-laden oblivion into which the present odors of 1 it year's squashes and decaying onions, do not enter. 1 TWO-ACRE TRACT Between fifty and sixty ..cars ago. the McKay farm, a tract of two acres, v, as farmed by William McKay, a Scotchman. The land, now nearly use-less use-less through Intensive cultivation by Celestial trucksters. was th'-n fruitful fruits and various stuffs wei raised on the farm.. One of the staple art-1 art-1 ks produced was Kiigar cane. This commodity, rarely If ever, seen about Ogden at present, was then a common form of forage plant and in addition to furnishing food for cattle, was the source of a sorghum, especially raised to make molasses candy A large iron kottle, under which fire could be made and in which molasses candy could be I boiled, was always reads el the M Kaj For years, the farm was the gather-ing gather-ing place for the boys and girls of the neighborhood, who, Instead of motor-nig, motor-nig, or attending picture shows, as" Is ' the custom nowadays, would go to J"Daddy" McKay's and have him assist '.hem in making and rating a hatch of ice cream. The small shed which housed the cider mill, attracted the youngsters each fall They would K.ith-er K.ith-er "windfalls' and while "Daddy" op- etated the cider press, they would fill huge tin CUPS with foaming juice from tile in those days, Twenty-eighth street marked the extreme south end of the Iclty. Below Twenty-eighth street were WampX fields. Ideal for the growth of Wild hay Cattle grazed in these fields. The McKay place, the Job Pingree place a the corner of Twenty-eighth street and Wall avenue; the Jenkins 'place at Twenty-seventh street and Wall avenue, were the most pretentious 'places In this section of town. While! th' r houses doited lh landscape-, the more pretentious homes wen those of ' gentlemen farmers,'' who, while they 'had lrger holdings, which were their principal sources of Income, chose to live on comparatively small farms in J order to bo nearer the business portion, of the city. HOI SE FAI LS INTO 1 SE But William McKay died, and the hOUM which had been the gathering 'place of scores of happy children for 'so many years, fell into disuse The tropes Of the swing, which has hung' ir( the branches of a large mulberry tree, rotted from exposure to weather.' The old place wo.s taken over after I I several years, stripped of its orchard, and given to truck gardening. The first Chinaman who rented the place was a ! Celestial known to the neighbors by :the somewhat ambiguous name of Charlie. Charlie occupied the old log cabin. A few years later, a white woman, known by no other name than 'China JNcll," moved Into the stone house, bringing with her a brood of vicious hound dogs. Churlie was one of the j old -fashioned vegetable men who are 1 .seldom seen now, since members of, other races monopolize the truck gardening gar-dening business, lie made Ids rounds of the neighborhood twide B week reg-i lularly, and upon Christinas time al- ways (indented each patron with some I hit of chinaware. n Chinese New year, he made g'v ol Oriental confectionery, confec-tionery, while lus lily bulbs were dls- Uributed amons his customers annual-1 lly, China Nell was a reoulsive-look'lng ' woman, so sallow ami yellow that she .looked more a woman of an Oriental race than a Caucasian. She had married mar-ried a Chinaman, and upon leaving him, had casl her lol with her hiis-' hiis-' band's race. Her dogs, huge hounds,! were the terror 01 (he children of the j neighborhood. x MOM INTO DOG Mt l SI I China Mary and her husband Wong, I 1 then moved into the log house. Charlie w ont to china, with his accumulated I I wealth of nickles and dimes. It was 1 while China Mary ami Wong Ined In the log house, that youths of the neighborhood neigh-borhood first leurned how opium was smoked. Careful thai the grown-UPS did not , witness them, they wore unmindful of the youngsters of the neighborhood, who. w hen sent for a bunch of radishes would often enter the house and see1 either Mary or Wong lying on a filthy bed In the squalid hovel. With a huge, bamboo pipe gurgling at their lips, they would prop themselves on one dbow, dip a knitting needle into a mass of brown, honey-like substance, twirl the mass over a small nut oil-burner oil-burner and apply the cooked "pill" to the bowl of the pipe. Noisy Inhalations Inhala-tions would follow. Mary died and Wong followed, jusl a few years ago. Fire destroyed the log shack. China Nell, the outcast white woman moved from the stone house, and departed de-parted from Ogden. The house was occupied by the poorest of poor white families and the diversion of rowdies liii'g about the place took the form of tormenting the drunken parents when they staggered home to their neglected brood. The old sport of barricading the Chinamen within their own houses and stuffing the chimney with wet sucks was abandoned. As the ground became less fruitful, only one Chinaman, who until a short time ago, occupied the premies, remained. re-mained. He was the object of Inquiry j by tho police occasionally, when his shack. In the granary of the old McKay homestead. was raided by officers searching for opium. Several times ho was caught with opium, but, because be-cause he had been a habitual user of the poppy for nearly 50 years, he was not seriously molested. Bui the old Mi Kay homestead Is due to come Into its own. and with the completion of the schoolhouse. where; once the orchard flourished, the voices: of happy children will again bo heard, w hile the sickly sweet smell of the I burning poppy will vanish from the place forever. 00 |
