The Straders of Road Run

Mae and Mary Ann Posey were the daughters of Daniel "Flukey" and Mina (Conrad) Posey. In 1907 Mary married Okey Strader from Upshur County. Ten years later her younger sister Mae married Okey's brother Linzy Strader. Both families lived on Road Run, near Mae's and Mary's parents.

Linzy and Mae (Posey) Strader lived in a log cabin on Road Run until Linzy built the new house near the first in the 1940s. They spent the rest of their lives together in that house tucked away in the holler up Road Run.
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The photo at the right is Linzy and Mae with their granddaughter Tricia, maybe 30 years ago. They are sitting in the porch swing.

Their son Frank remembers "working hard, making do with homemade toys and wildlie for amusement, as many folks did then." Also like many folks then, after he finished high school in Burnsville he moved out of the hills to find work. In Akron, Ohio he worked for the Goodyear Aircraft Corp.

Kathy Jo Strader, the daughter-in-law of Linzy and Mae's son James and his wife Shirley, says "I married into the family in 1976. I had a good life before joining the Strader family. But I learned a lot from being able to go and visit in Orlando. My first trip up the run to visit my husband's grandma was a treat and then some and that was in 1976. I have made many trips into that hollar since then and love every time I get to go visit. There are so many memories that I could never mention all of them.

"Going and visiting "Grandma and Grandpa" and smelling the old wood stove cooking the food, pumping the water at the kitchen sink to get a drink of water, the wash pan that sat in the sink that everyone used the same water to wash up in, the toilet being out at the run's edge and going out in the middle of the night to use the restroom, the old coal stove burning in the living room to heat the 2 bedroom house that over 10 people would sleep in, and the wonderful front porch everyone gathered on to sit and chat when the meal was done.

"I remember pinto beans and cornbread for every meal and biscuits as well. I remember Grandpa asking the blessing before anyone even considered eating a bite of food and breakfast was a 7am, lunch at 12 noon, and dinner at 5pm no matter what and they did not wait on you to eat. Everyone knew the time meals were ready.

"I can remember going to bed and sleeping under 3 or 4 quilts and maybe a blanket with so much weight that you could not move once under the covers. The feather pillows and the feather tick mattresses. The good night's rest that came very easy.

Left: One of Mae's many quilts.

"I enjoyed every minute I could stay in West Virginia and see a whole different world and way of living. Where I was from there were not cook stoves that ran on wood, no coal shoveled into the stove to heat the house, no pump to get the water from for everything that needed water and then heating it on the wood stove if it needed to be hot, no sitting on the porch and rocking or swinging and enjoying everyones company, no footlong to cross to get to the house because the run was between where you parked and the house itself. Those are some of the best memories there are in life.

"We now own property in the hollar and plan to build some day but today it is just a dream for retirement."

. . . . .

Right: Linzy Strader during WWI. Linzy remained state-side during the conflict, at a base in South Carolina. Linsey was detailed to work with cavalry and draft horses and preparing them for shipment to the battlegrounds of Europe.

See also
entry for June 13, '06 Our Grandmothers' Quilts

Tricia Lynn Strader's (see her photo above with her grandparents) article You Can Go Home Again

from Heritage of Braxton County West Virginia 1995, (published by S.E. Grosse and the Braxton County Heritage Book Committee)
Mae Elizabeth Posey pg 217
Franklin Delano Strader pg 248