Lula Ann Hitch

The compiler remembers visiting this lady who we referred to as "ol' Miss Johnson" in the early 1970's without ever knowing at the time that she was born a Hitch. She was the grandmother of my friend Tommy Johnson. She lived in an old Victorian farmhouse on Milton Mill Road in Wicomico Co., Maryland. The floors in the house were slanted at steep angles due to age and it was gently warmed by an old wood stove. Outside was a tall windmill for pumping water from a well that was still operational and there was an old cemetery in the farm field not far from the house. "Miss Johnson" was a petite woman who walked around with a bonnet on in a slow but deliberate manner due to her advanced age. She had a pronounced hoarseness that you could hear as a steady, low rhythm as she breathed maybe due to emphysema or something of that nature. However, she lived alone and still carried her own firewood into the house even as she reached age 85 and above.

The compiler remembers that she always seemed to have a freshly baked pie at hand for visitors and these quickly calmed any fears that a young teenager may have had with regard to this seemingly strange old woman (actually she was not strange at all - it just seemed so to us youngins at the time). She made the best tasting pumpkin pies and blueberry pies that, when still warm from the oven, took the bite off a cold, late autumn day. She lived to the ripe old age of 90 and I'll always remember that brisk Fall day back in the early '70s.

Lula married Archibald Lee Johnson, son of John Henry Johnson and Mary Ellen Ruark, about 1905. (Archibald Lee Johnson was born on 21 Apr 1880 in MD,^{5 7 8 9 10 11} died on 03 Jan 1950 in Salisbury, Wicomico Co., MD ^{5 7} and was buried on 06 Jan 1950 in Olivet Christian Cemetery, Worcester Co., MD.)