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for her girls. Margaret made an annual trip to Baltimore, Maryland to visit a dear friend
and to shop for the girls. Mr. Harris had surrounded Margaret with servants and luxuries
that were available for the home at that time.
It has been said that all Mama had to do was give directions. It was in 1919 when
William Henry Harris , known to his children as Papa , had a light stroke. They decided to
leave their farm home and live in town from then on. After they moved to the in town
house, Margaret became more directly involved in running Mr. Harris' business. After a
serious mistake in judgment and the loss of a sizable amount of money or real estate, Mr..
Harris turned all his business interests over to "Maggie". I do not know at what time
mama's name changed from Margaret to Maggie, but my daddy always called her Maggie.
William Henry Harris, my father, died July 1925.
Margaret was left with a farm and other business to operate and two girls age
eight and fourteen to raise. From that day on, her life was centered around making a
living, looking after her 2 girls and working in her church. Her former life of ease and
comfort had gone. She took stock of her assets and decided that with a large seven room
house on main street that operating a boarding house might be a profitable enterprise for
her. She still maintained the farm with the same overseer. She managed well always
keeping her girls well dressed. She also saw that they had every opportunity for
education. They had speech lessons as well as music. Advanced plans were made at an
early age for them to attend collage. She also managed to keep new cars so that the girls
and she might travel as they saw fit. Margaret had promised her husband that she would
keep current with the changing times. She was true to the promises made to her husband.
During the 1929 crash and the closing of many banks , Margaret too lost all her
cash and gold that was deposited in a safe deposit box in the bank. After the crash in the
fall of 1929, there was a devastating flood. The flood had ruined all of our fine furniture
and most of our family items. Margaret bought only what she had to have. She had not
trusted every thing to the bank, as it turned out. Mr. Harris had a large safe that he had
stored things of value in for an emergency, and had stuck small amounts of money in from
time to time. While this was not a large amount of money, it did buy enough iron beds,
mattresses, wardrobes, wash stands and linens to run the boarding house. Margaret did
not grieve over losing the money in the bank and on the stock market, but she always
regretted losing the gold that she had planned to give to the last two girls and
grandchildren. Margaret made the best of her life as fell her lot. Her only vice, if it could
be called that, she liked to dip snuff. It was her secret. She used it in private, keeping her
box well hidden behind the big clock on the mantel in her room. If company came to visit
she would hurry to the kitchen, rise her mouth out with water and meet the company in
the parlor all prim and proper. Margaret was a hard worker, although she always had two
or three servants. She was a good business woman, loved her church and her God. She
was a wonderful mother and liberated long before her time. She was known in the
community as "Sister" Harris. Margaret died in 1954 at the age of 80, having lived to see
all of her grand children.