Autobiography of A Pioneer

Little Tiny Grandma: 

My mother still tells stories of her great grandmother, Antonia Fisher Belina. My mother knew and loved someone who was born in 1851 in a very small farming town in what's now Czechia. 175 years ago. Mom calls her "Little Tiny Grandma." Mom is tall. From photographs Antonia may have been barely 5 feet. We have an adorable photo of mom as a little girl and Antonia, who looks her age at about 90, stating in the strawberry patch at the Belina farm.

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Stories: 

Mom says that she asked her once, "Why do you have spots on the back of your hands?" The reply, "The chickens pecked at them." 

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"Did you really see Indians?" The reply, "Yes, we hid in the cellar sometimes."

 

This response bothered my  mother and her brother. They simply didn't believe her story. They spent many summers on the farm and both knew that the house there had no cellar. The story didn't add up, so they dismissed it as embellishments. The second part to the story? Her brother John and their Uncle Galen were running the plow in the fields when the plow sunk deeply into a hole. They needed another vehicle to help tow it out. The hole was far from the house in the middle of a field. But when it was dug out, a cellar was found with bedding, water jugs, and canned food. Mom and her brother remembered what Antonia had said about hiding in the cellar and realized that they cellar was located in the field, probably to make it harder to locate for anyone unfamiliar with the farm. 

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Antonia's Father, Benjamin Fisher: 

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