A Nace Family Recipe: Light Bread

 This post originally appeared on my "Peevish Pen" blog back in June of 2007 as "Another Family Recipe: Light Bread." Since it's a recipe my grandmother probably got from her grandmother, it's worth posting here:

Grandma's Light Bread

One of the delights of my childhood was going to Grandma’s house on Sunday and smelling her light bread baking. Eating it hot from the oven was even more delightful. She had both a wood stove and a gas stove in her kitchen. She used the wood stove for baking the bread and for most of her cooking. I rarely saw her use the gas stove.

Mattie Blanche Nace Ruble—who lived to be nearly 97—grew up in Lithia, Virginia, but moved to Roanoke when she married a railroad man. Here is a picture of her as a young mother with her three children (Lawrence, the oldest; Raymond, the baby; and Alene, my mother).


Grandma probably got the recipe from her mother, Sulmena Frances Spence Nace, pictured here with her husband, William Robert Nace.

Grandma Ruble’s Light Bread

1 cake or package of yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon shortening (She used lard but Crisco works)
6 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1 pint lukewarm water

Dissolve 1 cake yeast and 1 Tbs. sugar in one pint lukewarm water. Add 1 Tbs. shortening (Crisco) and 3 cups plain flour. Beat until smooth. Then add 1 tsp. salt and 3 more cups of flour—or enough to make a dough that is easily handled.

Knead the dough until smooth and elastic–about 10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and set in a moderately warm place, free from drafts, until light (about 50 minutes).

Punch down dough and form into rolls. Place rolls in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise one hour. Bake 30 minutes in preheated 350 degree oven. [Note: I added the time and temperature that worked for me.]

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I liked the rolls from the corner of the pan—crust on two sides so it held up well for buttering.

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Uncle T.O. Mystery

Some of my Nace family has been making the news lately, at least in the "What's on Your Mind" column by Ray Cox that appears in every Monday's Roanoke Times. 

Because one of Cox's April columns, "WOYM: More Nace memories surface, from attempts to revive manganese mining to snakes not alive" referenced a "Tazewell Orren Hunt," I thought Tazewell might be connected to my great-aunt Cora Nace's husband, Thomas Orren Hunt. (I'd blogged about Cora and her husband in this December 10 post: "Cora Virginia Nace Hunt") Orren is not a common name.

I did some research and could find nothing about a "Tazewell Orren Hunt." I concluded that "Tazewell" had to have been "Thomas." I emailed Ray Co about what I'd learned. As a good reporter would do, Cox did some more researching himself. Hence the story in the July 27 newspaper: "WOYM: Family historians help piece together the backstory on 'Uncle T.O.' of Botetourt."

Mystery solved.

Sources:

Because some readers of this blog are interested in Botetourt County hisotry, here are the URLs to related "WOYM" stories about the town of Nace and about Uncle T.O. in order they appeared in the Roanoke Times: 

**April 5 "WOYM: Botetourt County's Nace had ties to region's iron mining history"

https://roanoke.com/news/local/woym-botetourt-countys-nace-had-ties-to-regions-iron-mining-history/article_048ab6a0-c2da-565d-8b75-55deb2a3b641.html

**April 19, 2020: "WOYM: More Nace memories surface, from attempts to revive manganese mining to snakes not alive" https://roanoke.com/news/local/woym-more-nace-memories-surface-from-attempts-to-revive-manganese-mining-to-snakes-not-alive/article_b91503d5-4e17-502d-aafd-4d842dd5b1a6.html

**June 21, 2020: "WOYM: Reader seeks help finding out more about a long-ago storekeeper in Nace" 
https://roanoke.com/news/local/woym-reader-seeks-help-finding-out-more-about-a-long-ago-storekeeper-in-nace/article_0e1e2ae3-4588-5b94-a980-9873d3f135f7.html

**June 28, 2020: WOYM: "Nace storekeeper ID'd thanks to Botetourt County family connections" 
https://roanoke.com/news/local/woym-nace-storekeeper-idd-thanks-to-botetourt-county-family-connections/article_93d29e59-53b2-5bba-93b3-5c77ff651cdb.html

**July 27, 2020: "WOYM: Family historians help piece together the backstory on 'Uncle T.O. of Botetourt" https://roanoke.com/news/local/woym-family-historians-help-piece-together-the-backstory-on-uncle-t-o-of-botetourt/article_9339b544-aa20-586d-be24-2ce89e2e5094.html

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The Smith Connection

What does this sign have to do with my Nace heritage?

While I’m a Smith through my paternal line, I’m also a Smith through my maternal Nace line via my great-grandmother’s Spence line.

My Nace line, through Frances Spence Nace, goes back to Goffs to Harrisons to Battailes to a Smith line in colonial Virginia. John Battaile (my 8^thgreat-grandfather who settled before 1690 in VA and who served in the House of Burgesses in 1696) was married to Elizabeth Smith, daughter of Major Lawrence Smith who “surveyed and helped lay out the Town of Yorktown.” Here’s the line and how it connects to the Naces (some of the dates might be off by a few years because some sources list slightly different dates; ditto for a few of the spellings of names):

Thomas Smith (1565-):Alice Judd (1565-1615)

Christopher Smith (1592-1638): Elizabeth Townley Halstead (1598-1679)

Major Lawrence Smith(1629-1700): Mary Debnam (1633-1728)

Elizabeth Smith(1668-1708): Captain John Bataille (1658-1708)

Elizabeth Battaile (1695-1770): Andrew Harrison Jr. (abt. 1687-13 July 1753)

Battaile Harrison (1712/ 1720-16 Nov 1776): Frances White (1725- April 7, 1789)

John Harrison (1747-1795): Sally Ellis

Battaile Harrison (1771-): Frances Tinsley

Mary (Polly) Harrison (1794-18??): Archibald Goff (1780-1850)

Andrew Frederick Spence: Mary Lucy Goff (1830-1900)

Sulmana Frances Spence: William Robert Nace

The following info is condensed from various internet sources:

Major Lawrence Smith was born 29 March 1629 (or possibly later), in Lancashire, England, and died after 8 August 1700 in Gloucester County, Virginia. He was an engineer and a surveyor and was a prominent citizen in colonial Virginia. He came to Virginia in the mid-1600's, possibly imported from England to Virginia by his uncle, Augustine Warner, in the year 1652. (Warner was the great-great grandfather of George Washington.) While no pictures exist of Smith, this is a portrait of  Augustine Warner:

Smith patented Severn Hall in Gloucester County in 1662, where he lived and died.  

However, he also had connections to Yorktown. He acquired Temple Farm in Yorktown in 1686. (This farm was the site of Cornwallis’s surrender in 1781.) He surveyed land for the British Crown in both Gloucester and York Counties. In 1691, he received fifty acres of land as payment for surveying and laying out the town of Yorktown. He also received considerable other land for importing people from England to Virginia.

Like several of my colonial ancestors, he was involved in Bacon’s Rebellion. “In 1676, he commanded 111 men out of Gloucester County at a fort near the falls of the Rappahannock River, and the same year he led the trained bands of Gloucester against the rebels under Bacon.” Thus, he was fighting against some of my other ancestors who sided with Nathaniel Bacon.

Page 43 of Families of Virginia shows the connection between Lawrence Smith and John Battaile:

His children with Mary Debnam (name is sometimes different) are Mary (1652), John (abt. 1653), Capt. Charles (1655), Elizabeth (abt. 1665)—my 8th great-grandmother who married John Battaile, Col. Lawrence, Maj. Augustine (1666), Sarah (abt. 1661), and Capt. William (1687). These dates vary slightly in different sources.

In 1699, he was recommended for a King's Councilor post, but did not live long enough to be seated.  (His son John was then given the post.)

The Internet provides plenty of information about Major Lawrence Smith. 

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