Fred and Dorothy were married March 15, 1937 and left on their honeymoon in his new father-in-law's '35 Ford.  They drove the 130 miles south to Mole Hill to Fred's parents' farm and went horseback riding  and hiking.

Then it was east a little bit to Parkersburg, WVa where Fred's brother Floyd lived, and had this picture taken.  (Can you believe that here it is 65 years later and I still have this same dress she wore on her honeymoon??)  Fred's mother must have ridden with them to Parkersburg because here she is in the picture with Floyd, Grace and their two children Junior and Maxine, Fred & Dorothy.  I don't know where this was taken, probably along the Ohio river somewhere, but I believe they went on south to Huntington, WVa to see Dorothy's relatives.

Evidently Fred still worked at Hillcrest Farms in the apple orchards because this is the first home they lived in.  Hillcrest was also a little community of homes provided for the workers to live in and probably rent very cheaply while they worked there.  It was only about 2 miles from Dorothy's parents' farm.  You can see a little of the orchards in the background.  In these days the orchards were over 1,000 acres!  One of their visitors that first summer of marriage was Garnet & Rosella Ash, with Leslie and Patty.

Fred didn't work at Hillcrest Farms long before he quit and went to work at the Homer Laughlin China Co. pottery in Newell, WVa.  That's Fred in the back row, left center.  When he left the orchards, they lost the use of the house they lived in so they found a tiny apartment in Chester, not far away and just across the river from East Liverpool, Ohio.

Two years after they were married, on May 5, 1939, Theodore Arnold Griffin was born.  Here is Dorothy's diary of that event.  The first visitors included Theodore Ray, who the baby was named after.

Times were hard and Fred wasn't making much working in the Pottery.  They had bought a baby carriage on credit and finally realized that they couldn't afford the 50 cents per month payments so they returned it.  The apartment too was a burden on their finances so it was soon decided they should move in with Dorothy's parents on the farm, which was only a few miles back of Chester in the country.

On February 7, 1940 they had Teddy's first professional picture taken at age 9 mos., 2 days.

On Teddy's first birthday these pictures were taken.  (picture 1)   (picture2)   (picture3) (picture4)

Fred & Dorothy must have lived with her parents for the best part of a year and even though the old farmhouse was big, I'm sure that Fred was anxious to "have a little privacy".  Remember the little toolshed?  Fred figured he could make something out of it so Ross agreed to let him have a go of it.  There was another little building about the same size that was used to keep grain in and Ross said he could have that too.  So by putting logs under each shed as rollers, with the team of horses they  got both pulled up a pretty good size hill to the edge of the woods where there was a beautiful view of the whole Prince farm and then some.  Finally, a home of their very own.  Fred built a wonderful 2-hole outhouse and there was a spring of good water coming out of the hill.  Water had to be carried in buckets though but Fred dug a hole big enough for a good-sized crock and he rigged up a pipe with a funnel to catch the water as it poured out of the spring, then it went down the far hill, across a little ravine and up behind the house as close as he could get without losing the flow and set the crock in the ground.  There was a little wooden box with a lid over it to keep out animals and trash.  There was a constant flow of good clear water in the crock and it was only about 50 feet down the hill from the house.

Fred bought a used car, a 1934 Ford Victoria.  It had a small trunk, about enough room for a fair-sized suitcase and it hinged from the bottom.  You had to swing the spare tire down out of the way, then open the trunk from the top which made it quite difficult to lift anything into it.  This is an extremely rare car today because of it's limited production but Fred probably bought it for far less than $200.  He soon removed the trunk lid and spare tire, built a wooden box insert and since his father-in-law Ross was starting up in the dairy business, used it to haul milk cans to the dairy.

The little house soon got a coat of paint and a fence around the yard, either to keep animals out or Teddy in.  Heat was provided by small kerosene burners and I'm sure on the coldest of nights they stayed down the hill with Dorothy's parents.  Fred decided they needed a more efficient heating system, a coal furnace, but for that he had to have a basement.  So he went to work, by hand, digging a basement under the little house.

Life was good in June of 1942. They were in love but the the war clouds were darkening day by day.  Fred's nephew (Floyd's son Junior) was called to service as was Dorothy's brother Tommy,  and Fred's brother Carl.
 
 

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