Note from Coni: Samuel “Sam” Amo is my 2nd Great Grandfather
From: A History of Arenac County, Michigan by Calvin Ennes – Edited by Paul Michalke (signed my book)Chapter 12 Pgs 113-124 History of Landrie Settlement by Hattie Landrie daughter to Alex Landrie
pg 118: Our Livelihood
We always had a bountiful supply of wild strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, blackberries, and wild currents, which we picked and canned. We bought and dried apples, pears, and prunes. We also had beef and a couple of pigs salted down for the winter. we also had chicken for fresh meant and eggs; and along with this we had fresh milk, homemade butter, and cheese. There was always a lot of work to be done. We were poor, but many of our neighbors had less. Father had to make three coffins, two for one family. The roads were so bad that not even oxen could go through; so they had to carry the coffins two miles by hand to another neighbor’s place, where Mrs Sam Amo and Mrs. Will Longness lined them they best the could. One thing about “Moss Backs” was the every one was good to each other; if the birds, chipmunks, or bad luck ruined one’s garden, neighbors that had more divided with them. No one went to bed hungry. For nearly a year we were all alone. Then came the Peter Manvilles, the Dices, the Edingers, the Amos, the Boudreys, and Fabius Jacques. They were all good neighbors. Indians camped nearby from late spring to early fall.
Pg 119: I do not call them good old days. I would hate to see the children of today trying to hang on to the plow handles and at the same time try to brush off the thousand of mosquitoes that swarmed up in their faces. It was the same when they were mowing with tha scythe, dragging the ground, or “rub-a-dub-dub” on the washboard in the old washtub. In spite of the hardships we were healthy, I can remember Doctor Smith, Doctor Wakeman, and doctor Bill. No doctor stayed long in Au Gres because the people were so healthy that they had few patients. Each year along the latter part of February, my father used to get in a good supple of food – enough to last through the spring flood and until the roads dried up enough so that we could get to town again. Each fall father made a barrel of salt pork, a barrel of sauerkraut for our family, plus a barrel for any other family that liked it. By spring there was very little left, if any. We girls and mother made kraut by breaking off outside leaves, The boys brought the cabbage in and carried leaves out. Each fall we traded keg of kraut for a keg of white fish. Sam Amo was an expert fisherman. Each spring he would spear fish and share them free of charge to the rest of us.
"Ever Widening Circle" 