HAROLD, HOWARD AND HALBERT "Bud" REMEMBER:

MOM AND DAD, HERMAN JR. & ELSA HARDRATH.

Let us assume that Emma and August Lange sent out birth announcements for daughter Elsa. The announcement probably would have been written: "Die Eheleute Emma and August Lange geben die Geburt iher Tochter ELSA MARIA bekannt Green Grove, Clark County, Wisconsin 9.Juni 1892." Our Grandparents were born into German speaking homes and in turn our parents were born into German speaking homes and it is likely the birth announcement would have been in German. It is also likely that Mom and Dad learned to speak German before English.

Our Mom, Elsa Marie Lange, was born Thursday, 9 June 1892 in a log house on her parent’s farm. Benjamin Harrison was President of The United States of America. When Elsa was born, the log house had been for only a short time the home of her father August Lange, and mother Emma Kutz Lange, and brothers, William and Paul. In the coming years the log house would be the home of Robert, Louise, Ida, Emma, Arthur and Frieda. Children Karl and Auguste died as infants.

Our Dad, Herman Henry Hardrath Jr., was born Thursday, 20 May 1886 on his parent’s farm in Lowell Township, Polk County, Minnesota in a house we believe was made of sod. Grover Cleveland was President of The United States of America. For about a year this was the home of Herman Jr. and his father Herman Hardrath Sr., his mother Emma Molle Hardrath and his two brothers, Arthur and Henry. About mid 1887 Herman Sr. moved his wife and children to Green Grove Township, Clark County, Wisconsin, where they lived for a few months with Emma’s parents, Heinrich and Johanna Molle. It was while living with Emma’s mother and father that Clara was born. Herman Sr. bought the farm next to and east of his father-in-law Heinrich and after repairs were made on the house he moved the family to their new home next door. It was here that Albert, Louis, Martha, and Esther were born.

Grandmother and Grandfather Lange attended St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, located from the farm 2 ¾ miles east to Bahn’s corner and 1 mile north. Mom was confirmed in this church. Grandfather and Grandmother Hardrath attended the same church as the Lange family. Because the distance to St. Paul’s Church, in 1892 Grandpa Hardrath and two neighbors, Louis Boettcher and Gust Klessig organized the Friedens Gemeinde Church in an empty store building they purchased from lumberman Peter Fritz. The new church was located just west of the Popple River on what is now County Trunk K. Our father was confirmed in this church. In 1907 the congregation moved to a new church a couple miles to the east. In 1923 the congregation moved the church building to Riplinger and the church is now known as St. John’s Lutheran Church. Mom attended the Atwood (sometimes called Miller) school 2+ miles east of the farm. Dad attended the Oak Grove School, a log building, 1 mile south of the farm. Throughout his life a constant reminder of Oak Grove School was the result of an incident that happened at school during recess. He was accidentally poked in the right eye with a stick, the injury resulting in permanent blindness in the eye.

As a young girl, Elsa worked for Anna and H. A. Bright who lived in the village of Bright 2 ¾ miles west of the Lange farm. Part of her duties were in the kitchen and dinning room where some of the workers at the saw mill were served dinner at noon. While working at Bright she lived at home and walked to and from work each day. - -- - Mr. & Mrs. Caves managed the Bright East Farm which was ½ mile west of the Lange farm. Elsa worked for Mrs. Caves. ---- We have a post card dated 5 Feb. 1912 that Elsa received when she was working in Stratford, Wis. The card was sent to her by brother Paul who was in Black River Falls, Wis.

In a letter to Bud from his mother’s sister Ida, she wrote, "When Elsa worked in Austin (MN); she worked for a former neighbor Amelia Kaiser who was married to Albert Sprague. They were expecting a baby so that is how come your mother went to Austin. She was 16 years old and the first time to go away so far from home. She cried and Ma said, you don’t have to go but she did." (We have a post card dated 13 March 1909 that Elsa received when she was working in Austin.) Elsa was not home from Austin to long when she went to Milwaukee and worked. Next she worked for Mrs. Bishton who had a resort in Minocqua, Wis. and then the blossoming romance began with Herman Hardrath and soon the wedding followed." We have post cards from September and October in 1912 that Elsa wrote to Herman when she was working for Mary Jane Bishton at Mercer lake Resort at Minocqua. Mary Jane Bishton was a long time friend of Grandma and Grandpa Lange. She and her first husband, Mr. Johnson, had a farm next to and east of the Lange farm.

As a boy Papa did chores on the farm that all farm boys were expected to do. One of the jobs was to get the cows in the barn for the evening milking. The problem was that the cows were not fenced in and could wander off into the woods. Even thought they had bells on the cows it was not always easy to find them. Frequently the cows would move off toward the northwest along a logging road to graze in a clearing that was about 2 miles from the barn. For a boy it was scary to be in the deep woods. It seems that they were most concerned about lynx and the crying call they made. --- Grandpa Hardrath dug a hole for a pond behind the barn that filled with rain water. As youngsters Papa and his brothers played in the pond. Grandpa made a pig trough from a hollow log. The boys would push the pig trough into the pond, get in and with a board, and paddle around on the pond. While Papa was recovering from a bout with the mumps he went for a ride on the pond in the pig trough. The pig trough tipped over, he got wet and cold and complications developed resulting in an after effect that he had to deal with for the rest of his life. ---- One event of his childhood that Dad often told about was the beaver dams on the river that flowed across the rear of their farm. Grandpa Hardrath and his brothers-in-law, Fred and Henry Molle, wanted to drain the ponds that the beaver created with their dams. They would go in the day time and open the dams. At night the beaver repaired the dams. They continued to open the dams and the beaver continued to repair them at night. They decided to open the dams and hang lanterns up at night to discourage the beaver from working. This did the trick. - - -- Some of the neighbors who grew corn, cut it and stood the stalks of corn in a shock. They used a pumpkin vine to tie around the shock. - - -When Dad was old enough probably age 14, in the winter he and his brother Henry worked in the woods for their father cutting trees into logs and hauling the logs where they were sold. Grandpa Hardrath bought land in the area and Papa and Henry spent their winters logging the land. They built a small cabin on the property in which they lived and had a shelter for the horses. They hauled some of the logs to the Foster Landing in Bright.

Papa and Henry were living at home and working on the farm. A half mile east of the farm and a couple miles south was an open air (no roof) dance floor. Papa and Henry wanted to go to a dance being held there but their father told them that they could not go, that next day they were going to have to put in a long hard day of work. The family went to bed and their father, to keep Papa and Henry from sneaking out put some items on the steps going upstairs. The idea being that if they tried to sneak out in the dark of night they would knock the items over and he would wake up. Papa and Henry waited in their bedroom until everyone was asleep, crawled out of their second story bedroom window onto the porch roof, slid down the porch post and were off to the dance. After the dance they climbed the porch post to the roof, crawled in through the window and went to bed.

In the days when our Dad was young, Horse Power, HP, meant just that. Horses pulled the farm machines, powered the equipment on the farm and were used for transportation. In Dad’s own words: "Old man Price (Fredrick Preuss, Sr.) had a hexal machine powered by a four horse sweep. Pa (Herman, Sr.) bought a horse powered sweep that was built for either 4 or 6 teams of horses depending on the machine it was being used on. That sweep could drive machinery as large as a threshing machine. The Molle brothers had drag saw and later on a circle saw for cutting fire wood. Using Pa’s (Herman, Sr.) sweep and the Molle brothers saw, they worked together to cut trees into firewood used for cooking and heating. The drag saw used a back and forth motion and there was a wooden peg on the saw where you could bear down to make it cut faster."

In 1900 Herman and his cousin Fred Price went to North Dakota to work the grain harvest. They took the train to Cooperstown, ND. There they met a Mr. Dorthy who was hiring workers to harvest his grain. They hired out to Mr. Dorthy and in the afternoon they were taken by him with horse and wagon to Colgate where he farmed 17 quarter sections. Their work day was 6:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. and earned $2.50/day for shocking grain and $3.00/day for threshing. The following year Herman and Fred worked for the Delrimple Brothers who had a 35,000 acre farm at Casselton, North Dakota. All the work was done with horses.

Dad spent one winter working with Johnny Johnson by the Popple River south of Riplinger sawing down Hemlock Trees and cutting them into logs. Dad was a master with the cross cut saw and the double bit axe. With the axe he could cut a deep large chip or a thin slice (leicht schnitte). He said you have to hit where you look. About the only thing he did not do with the axe was shave; although his axes were always sharp enough so that he could have but why would he when he had his trusty straight razor. The use of a straight razor requires having a razor strop and because he had good sons, Dad only used it to strop his razor. As a youngesr he learned to use the scythe and mastered that skill too. We much not forget the pocket knife, to Dad the most important cutting tool. He preferred two blades and a leather punch. Dad’s first task each morning was with his pocket knife to whittle some wood shavings and start a fire in the kitchen stove. Typical was a Sunday when Dad’s brother Louie and family visited and Louie and Dad sitting in the sun whittling and talking and spitting tobacco juice. Dad chewed Plow Boy (25 cents/half lb. pkg.) and Louie used Copenhagen Snuff (10 cents/box). When in the house Dad smoked Plow Boy tobacco in his corn cob pipe. Dad carried his pocket knife every where he went except to his grave. When Dad’s brother Albert died his widow Mary gave Dad Albert’s pocket knife. When Dad died the knife was passed to Albert’s son, Albert Jr. (Sonny).

When young men, Dad and his brother Henry each owned a bicycle. In those days bicycles did not have coaster brakes. This is a tale Dad told often. It was a deep dark night and he and his brother Henry were riding their bicycles home from a dance. A neighbor did not fence his pigs and they were in the road. In the dark of night Dad and Henry ran into the pigs which resulted in their flying over the handle bars and into the dirt. In those days the young men rode horses, no saddle, for transportation. Papa also drove a horse and cutter or top buggy with which he traveled about for recreation, dances and courting. The horse Dad drove was named Queen. He referred to Queen as his sparkling (courting) horse. Driving Queen, he courted our Mom for about a year and after they married, they continued to drive that horse for many years. Papa said that a good horse could cover 10 miles in an hour. With an ordinary horse the trip to Loyal took 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes.

A new Church was built to serve the community along the township line between Grove Grove and Beaver Township on a plot of land on the south west corner of the Fred Molle farm. The new church, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, was dedicated in 1912. On the 26th of March, 1913, Herman Hardrath Jr. and Elsa Lange were the first to be married in the church. The reception for the wedding was held in the log house on the Lange farm and the wedding dance was held in the Lange’s granary. Dad went to Atwood to Joe Kraut’s Saloon and bought the beer and pop for the reception and dance. In 1963, Mom and Dad were the first couple to celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. After the reception and dinner at the church, Mom and Dad held an open house at their home. Dad bought the beer and pop for the open house at the tavern in Atwood, the same saloon where he bought the beverages for his wedding.

The new bride set up house keeping 2 miles south of her parents on the farm of the new groom. The 120 acre farm that Mom and Dad called home for 40 years was platted 1st of August 1867 when the U. S. General Land Office granted Bounty Land in the amount of 120 acres to Elijah Grove, a Private in Captain Wilson’s Company, Massachusetts Militia, War of 1812. The document is signed by Andrew Johnson, President of The United States of America. Subsequent owner Louis and Anna Brecker Molle in June of 1892 purchased the 120 acres and in 1903 bought an additional 40 acres. In 1909 Louis and Anna Molle moved to Saskatchewan, Canada. Anna’s sister Mary and her husband Adolph Molle rented the farm for 1 year. On March 22, 1910 Louis and Anna sold the farm to their nephews Herman Jr. and Henry Hardrath. A short time later the Hardrath Brothers sold to Dave Mandel the 40 acres that Louis had added to the original 120. When Herman Jr. married in 1913 he purchased Henry’s interest in the farm. In 1913 the road coming from the east ended at the driveway to the farm yard and to the west of the farm was thousands of acres with only logging roads and few in any settlers. In 1941 Herman Jr. and Elsa purchased a second farm, the 160 acre Jim Vandehey farm located 1 mile north of their home farm. In 1949 son Harold and his new bride Dorthaleen Edwards purchased the 120 acre "Home Place" from Mom and Dad. Harold’s son Glen became the next owner and is the current owner. Thus is was a "Century Farm" in 1992. When Harold and Dorthaleen took possession of the farm in 1949 Herman and Elsa moved 1 miles north to their other farm. The changes to the farmstead of the 120 acre "Home Place" during the time Mom and Dad lived there was building a hay barn and in 1928 a new house. Events that decidedly affected their way of life was the advent of the automobile, REA and the tractor. The automobile not only gave Mom and Dad mobility but it changed their farming practices from growing and selling grain and hay and breeding and selling horses to developing a herd of milk cows and selling milk to the cheese factory. The REA in the late 30’s brought electricity and the telephone to the farm and enabled them to modernize their farming practices. The convenience of electricity made farm life better and more productive. HP, horse power, was just that on the farm until 1938 when Dad bought a John Deere "H" tractor. Dad usually had 5 or 6 horses which included Betty and Bell. Bell was a branded western buckskin bronco that not only worked as a draft horse but was a good saddle horse. Betty was a pony that we drove and rode. When Dad got the tractor he cut back to 3 horses and added three more cows to the herd. At the end of the end of WWII Dad bought a John Deere "A" and now with two tractors it was not long before he had no horses. The remaining horse stalls were replaced with cow stalls. Papa liked horses, he enjoyed working and being around horses and in deep down inside he was a horse man to his dying day. This same time frame saw the advent of the small combine for harvesting grain and the end of the threshing crew. The chopper ended the need for the silo filling crew. The depletion of the farm wood lot and the introduction to bottle gas for cooking and heating oil for heating the home ended the wood sawing crew. Farmers had exchanged work, you help me, and I’ll help you. The long standing tradition that brought neighbors together was now ending.

A 1913 Scenario; The new bride decided in the late afternoon to prepare Jello-O for supper. Directions: Stir into one cup of boiling water. She went to the wood box, took out sticks of wood and added them to the fire in the cook stove to boil water. Checking the tea kettle, it was nearly empty and in going to the water pail, it was empty. The new bride put on her coat, went to the well, pumped a pail of water and carried it into the house. With the dipper she filled the tea kettle and put it on the stove to boil. After stirring the Jell-O into a cup of boiling water, in order to get the mixture to congeal for supper, the new bride placed the dish of gelatin in a pan of snow. Water for cooking and drinking was carried into the house in a pail filled at the well. Water for washing, bathing and cleaning came from the pump at the kitchen sink, the pump drawing the water from the cistern in the basement. Providing a good household for the farm wife was an arduous task. Today in 2006, when anyone turns on a water faucet and allows the water to run needlessly, you can conclude that they never had to carry water from the well. And do you suppose they have any idea what it means to "Hang clothes on a cloths line in the winter and have the cloths freeze stiff."?

During the first summer Mom and Dad were married, they received a circular in the mail advertising a circus that was coming to Owen. Admission for the husband was 50 cents and wife got in free. A quick check of their ready cash amounted to exactly 50 cents. When circus day came, they went. One of the first people they met at the circus was a neighbor who owned them $20. The neighbor told Mom and Dad that he had raised some money and handed them a $20 bill. With their new found prosperity they had a great day at the circus.

Born to Elsa and Herman Hardrath Jr. on 17 April 1914 was Edythe; 9 November 1915 - Harold; 3 September 1917 - Howard; 24 September 1919 - Harvey and 7 June 1924 - Halbert. All were born in the old house on the farm. On the 16th of June, 1933, Edythe gave birth to son Gilbert Jr. (Gibbie), Mom and Dad’s first grandchild. For about 15 years Gibbie was their only grandchild and was our pride and joy. The other 7 grandchildren that followed are Anita, Luann, Sue, Sarah, Lori, Glen and Kim.

An often told story - During the first winter of their marriage Mom and Dad went to a dance in Riplinger with the horse and cutter. They took the logging road along the river because it was shorter and also warmer as there was a thick balsam woods along the river to shield against the wind. The horse got in the wrong track and the cutter hit a stump and tipped over spilling Mom and Dad into the snow. They up righted the cutter, bushed off the snow and continued on to the dance. The next morning at the breakfast table Henry, Dad’s brother who was living with them; was laughing to himself. Mom asked Henry what he was laughing about. Henry told them last night when he and Mabel (Henry was courting Mabel Raeck) were on their way to the dance in Riplinger, they took the logging road. The horse got in the wrong track and the cutter hit a stump and dumped them in the snow. Mom and Dad chuckled and told Henry that they had tipped over on the same stump. For Mom and Dad, an important accessory in the cutter was the sorrel horse hide robe with the hair and a short section of the mane. It was lined with a dark green fabric and bound with a fringe. The robe, about 6 feet square, was used to cover the legs and feet. Winter gear for Dad when he was working with the horses and sleigh was a dog skin fur coat with a high fur collar and fur mittens. Instead of buttons the coat had round wooden rods about ¾ of an inch thick and 2 inches that fastened into a cord loop.

Dancing for Mom and Dad was a fun time for them. In those days "baby sitters" were unheard of so going to a dance was a family affair. The common period dances were the Schotish, Polka, Waltz, Circle Two Step, Quadrille, and Square Dance. Mom and Dad could dance all of them. They were good dancers, so smooth and they enjoyed each other. A couple of the bands they enjoyed that were not local but came to the area dance halls were "Whoopee John Wilfahrt" and "Lawrence Duchow and his Red Raven Orchestra". As written above, going to dances was a family affair so it was only natural that we learned to dance the old period dances. Another joy for Mom and Dad was to play Pinochle and Sheep Head (Schafe Koph) and other cards games. When ever neighbors came to visit the table was cleared, cards were brought out and the game began. During the evening of chatter and cards they sipped a beer or a glass of home made wine. When the games were over for the night, a lunch was served.

We would like to remind you that the status of women today is quit different from what it was for our mother. It is important to remember that Elsa Hardrath was 28 years old and had been married seven years before she was given the right to vote. Woodrow Wilson was President. It is safe to say that she and Dad voted for and helped to elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be the 32nd President of the United States and then went on to vote for his re-election 3 more times. Mom and Dad followed local, state and national politics and probably never missed a presidential election.

Christmas was a big deal in our household. Butchering a cow and 2 or 3 hogs in early December provided the holiday with smoked sausage, blut wurst, bacon, ham, fresh lard and fresh beef and pork. About mid December Mom’s sister Emma and her husband Elmer "Yank" Witt came over to our house for several days of cooking candy and baking cookies and fruit cake. Emma and Mom were outstanding cooks. They had the skill and patients to make fancy pastries and candies. Dad and Yank helped in handling the hot heavy kettles and pans and wrapping the caramel candies and sampling the good stuff. Dad went down to the river to cut our Christmas tree. The tree was kept outside and when we children went to bed on Christmas Eve it was still outside. On Christmas morning when we got up the tree was in the living room, decorated and with presents underneath. Santa decorated our tree. Along with the favorite glass ornaments and balls were real wax candles that under the supervision of Mom or Dad we were allowed to light. Decoration Day, the last Monday in May, was a big deal. Hopefully the lilacs were blooming so that bouquets could be cut and taken to the cemetery and placed on the graves of the deceased loved ones. July 4th was a big deal. Either the family got together or there was a neighborhood gathering; food, fireworks, pop and beer. Birthdays were acknowledged but there was no special dinner or cake and no receiving of presents.

Edison invented the phonograph and in 1918 Mom and Dad bought a disc phonograph made by the Edison Company, the records being about ¼ inch thick. Songs of the era were, "I’ll Be With You In Apple Blossom Time", "Yes, We Have No Bananas" and several written about women such as "Sweet Lorraine", "Sweet Sue", "Honey", "Maggie" and "Louise". The novelty song was also a part of the record library. One in our library was "Items From The Paper of Your Old Home Town". One of verses went like this:

Oh they talked about the weather and they talk about the crops; All the gossip at the barber shops. They got a brand new baby at the home of Hiram Brown; Items from the paper of your old home town.

Going to Owen to Moving Picture Show was a bid deal for Mom and Dad and the family. It was there we saw the early silent films. The piano, up front and to the left of the screen, was played during the movie by a woman. Most of the floors in the theaters were flat and so that children could see, they sat in the front rows. "Tarzan of the Apes", filmed in 1918 was one of the early silent moving picture shows the family went to. In Owen the family saw and listened to their first movie with sound, the Vita Phone Impression of the "Jazz Singer" staring Al Jolson. Howard remembers the family going to the Adler Theater in Marshfield to see a sound movie, one of the first true talking pictures. Howard remembers "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" was played and sung in the movie but does not remember the name of the movie. In the early 1930’s "Trader Horn" was an exciting movie because most of the footage was filmed in Africa. October 5, 1932 our sister Edythe married Gilbert Wiedenhoeft and she andGib made their home in Colby. The New Colby Theater with show times at 7:00 and 9:00 was now the theater we went to. We visited Gib and Edythe and went to the 9 o’clock movie or we went to the 7 o’clock movie and then went to visit Edythe and Gib. If their favorite stars were headlined in a movie Mom and Dad went to see it. Shirley Temple, Myrna Loy and William Powell as Nick and Nora Charles in the Thin Man series, Wallace Berry when he was teamed with Marie Dressler or Marjorie Main and Joey Brown for starters. They liked Fred Astair. Papa said he could really dance. They were fascinated by the Walt Disney production of the animated featured cartoon movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". They liked "The Grapes of Wrath" and Charlie Chaplin in "Modern Times" because the movies dealt with political issues. We went to the New Adler in Marshfield to see "The Grapes of Wrath". Westerns were not their first choice.

March of 1925 our brother Harvey was ill with pain in the abdominal area. It was decided that Harvey needed to see a doctor so Dad hitched a horse to the cutter and took Harvey to Colby to the doctor. The doctor said it was appendicitis and that Harvey needed to go to a hospital. Dad brought Harvey home and the next morning took him with by horse and cutter to Atwood where he and Harvey caught the Soo Line train to Chippewa Falls. The doctor at St. Joseph’s Hospital determined that Harvey had a ruptured appendix. The next day, 4 March 1925 at 11:00 a.m., he died of general peritonitis. Accompanied by Dad, Harvey’s body was returned to Owen by the Soo Line RR. The funeral was held in the house on the farm. The undertaker from Loyal carried the casket bearing Harvey’s body from the house to the Beaver Cemetery in a horse drawn hearse. Through all of this misfortune, sitting in Dad’s garage was a 1924 Chevrolet that Mom and Dad purchased new. There was no snow removal program and the roads were drifted deep with snow. The new car was useless. Harold, Howard and Bud remember all to well the winter months with deep snow in the road. We were isolated. Traveling by horse and sleigh or cutter across clean white snow might seem to be joyous and romantic but give us the snowplow and a heated automobile with a set of tire chains and a shovel in the trunk. Come spring, the snow melted and frosted started going out of the ground but our problems were not over. The roads became a sea of mud. They dried to a crust on top but underneath the road bed was soft and spongy. In some places the road bed under the crust was fluid and became what was called sinkholes. In those areas the car might break through the crust and sink in to the axles and you were stuck. There was a bad sink hole in the County Road where it passed our Grandfather Lange’s farm. Sometimes the county bridged the sink hole with two wooden plank troughs for the car wheels to run in. Some years it was June before the roads became firm and hard.

Another heart ache for the family was the death of sister Edythe. She died 10 February 1958 at the age of 43 from a heart ailment for which she underwent surgery in Minneapolis a year earlier. For both Harvey and Edythe, if their illness had occurred twenty five years later in their lives, treatment would have been routine with near certain recovery.

The plot of land that is now the Beaver Cemetery and maintained by the Beaver Cemetery Association was originally the site of a Methodist Church and its Cemetery. The Church was on the south side of the plot. The Cemetery Association is made up of people who have family members buried there. Harold remembers that when he was about 13 (1928) members of the Association donated time and labor to improve the cemetery. The grounds were leveled and seeded, the road was added and the perimeter fence was built. Harold helped build the fence. While working on the cemetery Papa went to the woods and dug up a pine tree that was a couple feet high and planted it on the south side of the plot he and Mom owned. He said that he wanted shade over his final resting place. The plot had 4 burial spaces, one of them at that time occupied by Harvey. December 2, 1934 Mom’s sister, Emma died and was buried in the plot to the right of Harvey.

Typically the family gathered in the living room at night with Mom near the light seated in her rocker. The best light was from the Aladdin Lamp that used kerosene. Their sales slogan was, "Save your dear old mother’s eyes, buy her an Aladdin Lamp." Mom used this time to patch, darn and sew, knit woolen stockings and mittens, crochet, embroidery and other needle work. This was particularly true after they got a radio. About 1933 they bought a console model Magnovox radio that was powered by a 6 volt wet cell battery (car battery) plus "B" dry cell batteries and a "C" dry cell battery. When FDR broadcast his Fireside Chats, you can be sure that family was gathered around the radio listening to his every word. During the early years of Hitler when he was rising to power Mom and Dad were listening to the radio to a speech he had made. They were very disturbed by his message. Hitler was trying to arouse and rally the people to whom he was speaking and Dad translated a part of his speech. Hilter asked the crowd, do you want cannons or butter and they replied cannons. Being of German descent, Mom and Dad could not understand why German people would have an attitude like that. Little did they know at that time that Harold would spend 5 years and Howard 4 years in the Army that defeated Germany in WWII.

Radio was another link reaching outside of Clark County and Wisconsin for information and entertainment. WLS, Chicago’s broadcast of the Saturday Night Barn Dance featured the likes of singing husband and wife duo of Lula Belle and Skyland Scottie and the Hosier Hot Shots, a novelty band. You would hear the words "Are you ready Hezzie" and Hezzie who played the washboard would give the down beat and the Hoosier Hot Shots filled the air waves with their music. In the fall on Sunday afternoon the Flying Red Horse (Mobil Oil) sponsored the play by play broadcast of Green Bay Packers football. Week days there were soap operas like Ma Perkins sponsored by Oxydol soap powder and "As the World Turns" and "The Guiding Light". From 11:00 - 12:00 a.m. daily, WTMJ, Milwaukee broadcast the Grenadiers, an orchestra that played German folk music. Should we skip those hogs? At noon, WCCO, Minneapolis broadcast the news and the market report which included the price of livestock selling at the stock yards in South St. Paul. Friday was a big day because at 4:00 p.m. the price per pound of cheese for the coming week was broadcast on radio. The Shadow Knows, Lux Radio Theater, Major Bowes, Jack Benny and Fibber Magee and Molly is a sample on week night radio. For the younger set like us, in the time slot from 10:00 p.m. to midnight some clear channel stations did remote broadcasts from ballrooms that headlined Big Bands. Noteworthy in the east was Frank Daly’s Meadow Brook in Cedar Grove, New Jersey where east coast bands such as Les Brown and His Band of Renown were head liners. In the mid-west it was WGN doing remote broadcasts from the Aragon Ballroom on Chicago’s north side and the Trianon Ballroom on the south side. Head lining were the bands of Dick Jurgens and Eddie Howard. Needless to say, the Big Band Sound was not toe tapping music for our parents and their set, just as the music that our children enjoyed was not toe tapping music for our set.

The next radio was a table model Zenith powered by a 6 volt wet cell battery that was placed in the basement of the house. The battery was charged by a Wind Charger, a wind driven generator on a tower on the roof of the wood shed. Wires ran from the Wind Charger to the battery in the basement. Free wind provided free electricity to power our radio. The last 15 years of their lives Mom and Dad enjoyed black and white TV and with the new entertainment media in their household came the same old daytime soap operas but now with picture.

It is important to mention the "Great Depression" in so far that with the price of farm products being so low, the farm was producing very little money. In addition to the low prices for farm products, Clark County suffered from a server drought. Mom and Dad were not directly affected by the crash of the stock market, Black Tuesday 24 October 1929, as they did not own stock. They were however deeply affected by the Great Depression of the early 30’s. The price of farm produced dropped to a level whereby there was little cash coming in from the farming operation. Milk was 90cents/100 lbs, hogs 3 cents/pound and eggs 18 cent/dozen. To add to the problem was the drought that gripped Clark County. Unable to grow enough hay, grain and corn to feed the livestock they normally kept, the farmers were either forced to sell some of their cattle, buy feed or rent additional land. Dad chose to rent land and buy hay. Added to the woes of the depression and drought was an infestation of grasshoppers in the late summer. The grain was ripe and not affected but the corn and second crop of hay came under attack. A government agency gave the farmers a poison bait that they broadcast over their fields to control the grasshoppers. Mom and Dad were good managers and lived on a close budget, they made every penny count. Other than the fact that there was little money for entertainment, we had a new warm house, adequate clothing and plenty of good food to eat. Mom and Dad always had a big garden and in spite of the drought it produced a bountiful harvest because Howard made some wood troughs to carry water from the windmill to the garden. With free wind and free water he irrigated the garden. In spring rhubarb from the garden meant pie. We had a strawberry bed, red raspberry patch and a big orchard that had 4 varieties of apples, gooseberry bushes, red current bushes and white current bushes. Mom and Dad picked wild blackberries, blueberries, thorn apples, chock cherries, elderberries and hazel nuts and what ever mother nature provided that was edible. You have not lived until you have tasted Mom’s gooseberry pie or her thorn apple jelly or Dads red current wine or his elderberry wine. Mom took us boys with her to the railroad track where it crossed her dad’s farm. There was a deep cut through a hill where we picked wild strawberries that grew on the banks of the cut. It takes a very disciplined person to be a good wild berry picker. The tendency is one berry in the pail and 5 berries in the mouth. To be a good wild berry picker all the berries went in the pail and none in the mouth. The grocer sold fruits in season such as peaches, pears and cherries. For meat there was the cow, hog and chicken. The flour for bread and other baking come in a 49 pound bag for 90 cents. The bag was made of cotton prints that could be used for dish towels and garments. Dad owned the equipment for collecting and cooking maple sap. Spigots to put in the tree and the pails to hang on the spigot to catch the sap and a pan under which a fire was built to cook the sap into maple syrup. The problem was that he had no maple trees on his farm. Charley and Hilda Witt lived across the road and had a fine grove of maple trees. Dad and Charley got together and the Witts and the Hardraths had maple syrup for their pancakes.

By the mid 30’s farm prices were getting better and in 1938 Mom, Dad, his brother Louis and wife Lula planed the great adventure of visiting Louis Molle. As you may remember in 1909 their Uncle Louis and Aunt Anna Molle moved from Green Grove to Watson, Saskatchewan, Canada. Anna died in 1933. Four people who grew up with the horse and top buggy and at the time had not been outside of the State of Wisconsin in an automobile were planning this 2000+ mile trip to Canada on roads some of which were paved, others gravel and even dirt. What an adventure and what a conversation piece it was for the neighborhood. They would drive the 1936 Chevrolet Deluxe that Mom and Dad owned. While the four parents were away on their trip, the children of Lula and Louis were responsible for the operation of their farm and we were responsible for our farm. A story Louis and Dad enjoyed telling happened when they were going through customs to enter Canada. Louis was driving, Dad was in the front passenger seat and Lula and Mom were in the back seat. Louis rolled down the window and the customs agent told him that he needed to inspect the car for valuables. The customs agent looked in the back seat where Lula and Mom were sitting and said, "Nothing of value back there." They went to Watson, visited Uncle Louis Molle and their cousins. On June 6 they were in Nipawin, Sask. visiting Cousin Clara and her husband Paul Becker who were farming there. Nipawin was as far north as you could go in that area of Canada in 1938.

As dairy farmers know, cows are milked twice daily including Saturday and Sunday and so it was for Mom and Dad until Harold was discharged from the Army in late 1945. They made a deal with Harold whereby he would live at home and take over the operation of the farm. From then on life would be easier and more relaxed for our parents. As written earlier, when Harold married Dorthaleen Edwards, they occupied the "Old Home Place" and Mom and Dad moved to their other farm one mile north where for the next 20+ years they would live in semi retirement in the community where they had spent their entire life. In the 80+ year life span of Mom and Dad invention, discovery, exploration, politics and progress brought new dimensions to their lives and words and phrases such as: Grain Binder, RFD, Montgomery Ward Mail Order Catalogue, Jell-O, Airplane, Model T Ford, WWI, Gasoline Station, 19th Amendment, NBC & CBS, Zipper, Social Security, Star Spangle Banner, Adhesive Tape, Penicillin, Atom Bomb, Rosie and Riveter, Pearl Harbor, Hula Hoop, Korea, Allen Shepard (1st American in Space), and JFK Assassinated.

The first automobile Mom and Dad bought was a 1917 Overland Touring Car with side curtains. The car had a 4 cylinder engine and was made by Willys Overland in Toledo, Ohio. The base price was $795. The last car they bought was a 1966 Chevrolet 4 door Impala. In between they owned a 1924 Chevrolet, 1927 Cherolet, 1936 Chevrolet, 1941 Chevrolet, 1947 Chevrolet, 1949 Chevrolet, and a 1951 Chevrolet. All of the Chevrolets were purchased from Otto Stock, the owner of the Chevrolet Agency in Loyal.

Dad died the 9th of May 1970 in Clark County, Wisconsin eleven days before his 84th birthday. He was buried in the Beaver Cemetery, Beaver Township, Clark County, Wisconsin 13 May 1970 in the family plot shaded by a 40 foot tall pine tree. Richard Nixon was President.

Mom died the 3rd of January 1975 in Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia at age 82 years, 6 months and 7 days. She was buried in the Beaver Cemetery, Beaver Township, Clark County, Wisconsin in the family plot beneath a 40 foot tall pine tree. Gerald Ford was President. Mom was a saver and thanks to her we have letters, pictures, documents and clippings that tell us our family history.

The relationship between Mom and Dad was special. They could discuss matters and make decisions in an orderly manner. Never did they raise their voices toward each other in anger. Throughout this dissertation, memory had been of material things such as food, cars, radio, horses etc. More important was the undying love they gave us. Mom and Dad, thank you for a loving home.