Mary Althea Vernon Bullock
Mary Althea Vernon Bullock was born July 23, 1864, the
sixth child of John Wesley and Elizabeth A. Bullock. After living on
the farm where she was born near Bentonville (northwest Fayette County), the family
moved to the Claypool farm east of Muncie, Delaware County. Later the family
moved to a farm south of Mount Tabor cemetery near White River. While living
there, Althea and her two younger sisters, Lena and Laura
earned money by picking berries for Fullhart's Nursery. When Althea was a
young lady, the family moved to the Huffman place near Bethel Methodist Church,
south of Muncie. She often walked to church with her family and friends. They
sometimes waded snow during the winter and in the rainy season they walked close to
the fence to avoid muddy roads. While living there, her mother died and her
sister, Laura , was married. Later Althea kept house for her
brothers, Arthur and Nebraska on the Black Farm, south of the
railroad and east of Selma. When Nebraska married, Althea returned
to the home of her parents near Bethel and Arthur worked for his brother,
Charles, on the Graham Farm. After her mother's death in 1898, Althea
, Lena, and Oliver lived with their father east of Selma on the
Hanna place. Later when Oliver was married Althea, Lena, and
their father moved to Whitely in Muncie. She had a birthright in the Quaker
Church, but later joined the Whitely Methodist Church. Since Althea
possessed a talent for sewing, she took sewing lessons and worked with a dressmaker
for a time. Part of her learning was to design the patterns she used. While
working in the alteration department at McNaughton's she learned many "short
cuts and tricks" of her trade. She became a skilled seamstress. One of her
abilities was fitting the garment perfectly on the person for whom she was sewing.
While sewing for a family she lived with them, thus she gained many friends while
earning a living. Most of her life was spent sewing for friends, relatives, and
prominent people near Muncie. For many years she boarded at Mrs. Bell's on East
Jackson Street. During her later years, she lived at Mrs. Garret's on North Vine
Street. She enjoyed visiting with her friends at the meetings of the Mary Martha
Club and the Embroidery Club. It was a great satisfaction to her when she could be
with her relatives. She kept informed as to their whereabouts and entertained a
keen interest in their welfare and prosperity. She was always glad to help them
whenever she could.
In August 1937, Althea and Oliver Bullock,
Laura Hamilton and her son Arch E. visited in Maryland in the
vicinity of the former home of John W. Bullock. An account of this trip is
given in the excerpts from Silas Nichols diary.
Althea loved children, although many times firm and
short with them, the nieces and nephews remember that soft kiss on the cheek as she
met them. She had a great sense of hidden humor. Children dared not bother the
sewing machine while she sewed. So for those afraid of feathers, she would go to
the chicken lot, find a feather and put it on the end of the machine and chuckle
quietly as they would shy away from her work. Altogether she was kind and patient,
and often remarked that one should never complain about the cost of clothing for
the children, but that "we had them, now give them the best." She
studied fashions and took great pleasure in seeing the family dressed "just
right." Like Lena, whose life was patience personified, Althea's
was refinement personified.
Althea died on her birthday, July 23, 1941 after
several weeks illness at the home of a niece, Gladys Hamilton Richards, in
Connersville, Fayette County...the same county in which she was born. She was
buried in the family plot in Mount Tabor Cemetery.
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