Mother didn't tell me how they met. They were engaged for two years but according to Mother, they didn't go out much the first year of their engagement. I don't recall either Mother or Dad ever mentioning anyone else that they considered a boy or girl friend respectively.
(Lou) Howard and Ella were married June 25, 1932. In those days weddings were held in homes rather than in churches. The marriage ceremony was held at the home of Ella's parents, Festus and Louise Warrant. Their wedding picture was taken on the side yard outside the home located in Kasota, Minnesota. (Lou)
Dad said that he borrowed on his Life Insurance policy to get married. A policy loan was made on July 10, 1932 and repaid August 22, 1935.
The policy was a $1000, twenty pay life, taken out in 1924 when Dad was 17 year old. The policy was in Dad's estate.
There were only black and white photos taken by family or friends who attended. Mother said the larger portrait was a black and white photo that an artist tinted with water colors. I remember it hanging on their bedroom wall in the old house. One day while Dean and Gerry were supposed to be taking a nap on Mother's bed, they took the framed picture off the wall, laid it on the bed, and stood on the glass pretending it was a scale to weigh them. The glass was shattered and I think they had small cuts. They probably got a spanking! (Lou)
The story came out after Linda and Marvin's wedding that Mother was kidnapped after the wedding but Dad gave chase and got her back when his front bumper did in the wood spokes on a wheel of the other car. When I asked Mother about it she down played the incident as just some of her cousins taking her for a ride across the prairie. They went to Wisconsin Dells on their honeymoon then back to Laporte.
They lived in an apartment in Laporte. Mother taught school one more year and Dad farmed with Grandpa. After the first year Mother and Dad moved to the farm and shared the house on the farm. Mother and Dad lived in two rooms downstairs and one upstairs. I don't know of it was ever said directly but I think that there was something about not allowing teachers to continue more than one year after they married. I assume that without Mother's salary that they could not afford a separate home. The depression was on and it was difficult to make much money farming.
It was during this time that Dad drove a school route with the Page car. He also worked on a WPA project. He ran a team and scraper on a road project. I think but am not sure that he provided the team. I do recall Dad saying that when he got his first paycheck he and mother bought a radio.
The photo shows a chair and a corner knick-knack shelf that are still in the bedroom of the house in Lake Crystal. The photo also shows the upright piano that was Mother's pride. We all (daughters) learned to play on it. (Lou)
Another story about farming in the depression was about feeding hogs. They were feeding out one year's pig crop and Grandpa commented that it would be funny if they could somehow just dump the whole bunch in Edwin Jones' hog lot and let him feed them. The point of the comment was that they weren't worth feeding at the then current price. Several months later when they sent the hogs to market in St Paul Dad went along and bought a one year old Plymouth car with the proceeds. When Dad and Grandpa separated the business a few years later Grandpa kept the car and drove it until about 1951 or 52 when he bought the Studebaker. I remember riding with Grandpa in the 'old Plymouth.'
Looking back at the situation it must have been difficult for Mother to adjust to hard times on what was marginal farming in the depression and living with a strong willed mother-in-law after having grown up in good times in a relatively well off family. From another perspective she was a well educated women functioning in a social situation where domestic skills were considered the most important for a married woman.
Mother had not learned to cook or sew before she married. She did beautiful handwork and embroidered and crocheted many types of linen and crocheted an entire table cloth. (Lou)
Linda Lou was born in Bemidji in March 1935. Howard was still driving the school bus. He had to go home to drive the school route and wasn't actually present during the birth. (Lou) (Linda: Maybe you would like to add something at this point.)
Dad, Mother and Linda (3) moved to Aunt Mary's in 1938. The story I heard is that Aunt Mary wrote to Grandpa and Grandma and asked if Dad would be interested in renting their farm. I also have heard through Dean, that there were some other issues involved at about the same time. I would be surprised if there had not been.
The actual move was by truck. I don't know if he brought one or two teams of horses. I think he brought Flory and Topsie - an old team, and King and Queen - a young team. Dad and Grandpa divided the milking herd but I don't know how many cows Dad took with him. After arriving Dad bought a tractor, the CC Case, under the guidance of Uncle John C. (Aunt Nell's husband). It turned out to be a good tractor and was probably about nine years old at the time. We ran that tractor until the block froze in 1961. They bought a model A Ford and drove it one year, until they bought a 1938 Hudson 112 (one year old with 12,000 miles on it).
I was born the first winter they lived on Aunt Mary's place. My first memories are of that house and farm.
Dad was always proud of the job of farming that he did when he was farming Aunt Mary's place. He believed that he was restoring tilth to the soil and getting better crops. I heard him say on several occasions that he convinced Clayton Jones, his banker, that he could afford to buy a farm based on a $300.00 per month milk check.
I have several memories of life at Aunt Mary's. There was a woodshed just outside the kitchen door. I remember Mother lighting kerosene lamps. Electricity was put in at some point before we moved. I remember getting accidentally bumped out of the granary door, having a broken collarbone and having my arm in a sling. I remember a pen of turkeys and a big puddle outside the milk house. It was probably ten years later that I visited the place and was able to identify all of the individual features. I recalled little of the big picture of the farmstead and everything was so much smaller than I remembered - even the bookshelf across from the stairs.
As Dad put it, he had a squabble with his aunt over the rent and had to find somewhere else or quit farming. Dad's version was that they (Aunt Mary, Jennie and maybe Fred) thought that he was doing too well and that the rent should be raised. Of course Dad didn't appreciate it years later when he told me about it and I thought that he should have expected to share the benefits of his good farming - that is what the landlord gets for renting to a good farmer. Whatever the reason, we were on very friendly terms with Fred and Jenny, and Aunt Mary for years afterward. In fact I remember Jennie helping when we moved.
Dad has told that Aunt Nell wanted to sell their farm to Dad at this time but Dad claimed that he didn't do it for two reasons. First the barn was not adequate and second he didn't want to take a relative with him if he failed. He later said that what he should have done was to ask them to build a barn and raise the price to cover it. It was a bigger and better farm.
Mother probably had a miscarriage during the move. I remember moving day when several women were working in the kitchen and Mother was in bed upstairs. I needed help to climb the stairs until Jennie convinced me to try and she would catch me when I fell. I finally learned to climb the angled steps. I never heard Mother or Dad ever mention it. Vern told Dean that she had a miscarriage during the move.
I think that they got a good crop the first year. But the first winter in the house was most difficult. The house was not insulated and therefore difficult to heat with wood and coal. The kitchen was heated with the cook stove. The living room and bedroom were heated with a heating stove. Dad said that the first winter you could stand in the living room and tell which way the wind was blowing. I can't say for sure that it was the first winter but I remember that on a few cold mornings Mother cooked the oatmeal on the living room stove and closed the door to the kitchen (as far as it would close) until the kitchen warmed up.
Linda and Me by the well first year we lived on Home Place.
The pump jack was powered with the B&S engine from the washing machine until they got an electric powered pump jack.
Louella was born the spring of 1943. My recollection is that she was a healthy kid - but then I was only four - so what did I know. I do remember that she was a baby when she was born.
I think that it was the second year we lived on the home place, 1943, that the corn crop didn't even fill the 500 bushel crib attached to the granary. The first year, 1942 Vern Jones picked corn for Dad. The next two or three years Gordon Williams picked corn. All I remember is that his corn picker seemed to breakdown a lot.
Dad had a hired man the first year or two that we lived on the home place. I think that he did while on Aunt Mary's also but I don't have a personal recollection of it. I think it was the last hired man dad had who turned out to be a parole jumper. He had left without notice. The sheriff had called and asked that they call him if he showed up. It happened by chance that the sheriff called to check if he had come by when the hired man was there to get his last paycheck. Dad stalled as long as he could but had given the man his check. The sheriff got there just as the hired man was leaving the house. My personal recollection is of the removing of tools from the man's car before he was escorted to jail. At the time I didn't know what was going on but in later years my memory matched Dad's story.
Dad used to say that during pheasant and duck hunting seasons the first years he couldn't call the place his own. Hunters converged from all directions. Some asked permission but others just walked on. It was just a wet farm and had standing water the first years.
Dad soon began tiling the place. I remember a drag line being used to dig the deeper part of the first line which ran from the northwest across the farm to near the east line. This line drained three sloughs but did not get to the big slough in the southeast corner.
My recollection of the farm business seems to be independent of family developments. I may not have the farm operation, family events and WWII in exact chronological order. The contract to purchase the home place is dated October 10, 1941. Pearl Harbor was attack December 7th that year. The war effort had a major impact on farming and life in general in the 1940s. Farm commodity prices were good because of the war demand. Labor became scarce and new machinery production was very limited. Prices were controlled by the OPA and food and gasoline were rationed. Used machinery prices were set by the OPA also. At a farm auction the OPA would set the price and the bidders would put their names in a hat and the buyer would be determined by draw. Dad was very pleased when his name was drawn to buy the Oliver manure spreader that we used until the 1960's.
Sugar was one of the scarce items. I recall Mother saying that we got along ok on rationing as long as she baked our bread. I remember home baked bread. Mother was never satisfied that the loaves were of uniform size or that she sliced it uniformly. Then there was the time I poked holes in the top of some loaves with a pencil. Maybe that is why I remember home baked bread.
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