Cousin Ethel

This is Ethel Smerdon Powell, one of three daughters of my grandmother Della's little sister Emily Fisher Smerdon. Ethel's sisters are Margaret Ruth and Helen. They are all cousins of Wilma, Jerry, Jim and Don. Helen still lives in the old home place of their parents.

Ethel was very kind to help lead a tour of the Golden Gate area and the Fisher family homestead.

Ethel even talked a neighbor in the area into opening a gate to let me turn around after I ended up on a dead end road around the corner from the Fisher homestead and next to the Little Wabash River. Ethel swapped stories with the man, who recalled the old days when Aunt Maude yelled at the kids in the area for poaching blackberries on the fenceline near the road...even though it wasn't on Fisher property! And he recalled never, ever being able to walk into the Fisher home with shoes on. Aunt Maude kept a very clean house.

Ethel shared stories about Aunt Maude and the parlor in the Fisher home, which was always and forever off-limits to all children. Period.

Lois Goodson, my hostess for the trip to Albion and area historical expert, was a childhood friend of Aunt Emily's girls and met my grandmother when she visited her sister Emily's home.