My Mother's Family by Deloris Pickens

My Mother’s Family
    I am going to try and tell you what I know and can remember about my Mother’s family and there may be some errors.  I heard from Larry Secrest who is the son of my cousin Verna Madison Secrest that my Mother’s father’s name was John Madison and in checking my other records that is right.  My Mother told me that her Father was born in Schlewig Holestin and in looking at the map it appears that it is in Germany now.  I am wondering if at one time it was in Denmark.  My Mother told me that her Fathers name in the Old country was Mads Goldfelt and she thought that he might have been of the Jewish faith and that he changed his name to John Madison when he came to America in about 1865 and settled in the Linn county area and the town was Marion Iowa.  She also said he had a brother that went to Australia at about the same time.  My Grandmother was named Anna Thompson and she came from Copenhagen.  I think they were married when they came to America.

    My Grandmother Madison also had a sister that came to America and her married name was Englebert and she lived in Hot Springs South Dakota.   I have a picture of my grand mother and her sister taken in 1896 in the post office of the wind cave 1 mile from the entrance  and 100 feet from the surface.. My Mother and Grandmother went to Hot Springs sometime between 1905 and 1910.  I will list the cousins that I have pictures of and they are  Dorothy Maude Englebert  May 8 1913 a name on another photo Mary Englebert and another cousin named Emma  Englebert.  I also know she had a cousin Carl Englebert.  I was in Hot Springs in about 1967 and I looked up Carl’s address in the phone book and sent it to my Mother.  I do not know if she heard from him.  My Mother said her Aunt could speak 7 languages and that her Mother could speak 5 languages.

    I have a picture of three small children and it does not list the town in which they were born.  The picture says they are my Mother’s second cousins and their names are Bertha Marie Smith, Theodore Alston Smith and Emma Louise Smith.  She never talked about them and I have no idea where they were born and the picture is over 100 years old.

    My Grand father John Madison had a wooden leg and the story we were told was that he was cutting wood and the axe slipped and he was cut very much.  I was told that he started a fire and cut off his own leg.  My cousins son says that that story was wrong and that as a young man he fought in Russia and was hurt in that war.  He came back home and was trained as a barrel maker in Germany.  I believe that he lived in the part of Germany that belonged to Denmark at one time.  I remember my Mother saying that her Father hated the German’s.  Who Knows?

    I have the obituary of my grandmother Anna Thompson Madison.  I received it from Warren Stephenson in a bunch of clippings that came from the James Hagerman estate.  My Mother stayed with my Father’s Uncle Jim when she taught school at Dist no 9 near Toddville Iowa.  Here goes.. Mrs Anna Madison.”wife of John Madison of Kenwood Park, died in local hospital at 7:45 o’clock this morning.  She had undergone an operation for gall stones.  Mrs Madison had been a resident of this community for forty years and was 59 years of age.  Besides her husband she is survived by five children: George Madison of Spokane Wash, Carl Madison of Reardon Wash; Ernest Madison of Fox Lake Minn ;Mrs P M Peterson of Bever Minn;Mrs L G Cress of Toddville.  The funeral will probably be held Sunday in the Turner chapel.  No date on clipping but would have been after 1912 as that was when my parents were married.

    Now I will talk about my Mother’s brothers.  My Mother’s oldest brother was named George Madison and he married and had one son George and he was born in about 1900 and lived in Cedar Rapids.  My Mother went to see him after they had moved to Willow River Minnesota in the 1950’s.  I called George’s widow in Cedar Rapids sometime in the 1980’s and talked to her.  George had already died and I sent her some pictures that I had as she didn’t know anything about the family.  She said she was a Price from around Lafayette Iowa and she was probably related to my Father’s cousins Maude and Daisy Price.  They were the daughters of Mary Mounce who was my Father’s aunt.  Mary was the daughter of Lydia Neighbor and John Cress.

    George Madison my Mother’s brother divorced his first wife and moved to Spokane Washington.  He had I think 3 children from his second marriage  a daughter Victoria and a son Thomas and another son.  I knew my cousin Tommy as he came to Minnesota and stayed with my folks when we lived 5 miles from Owatonna.  He stayed on the farm a while and then he went to work as a bell hop for the Hotel Owatonna.  This was about 1942 and when I was in High School I would go by the Hotel and say Hello to Tommy.  He enlisted in the Army or Marines and he fought in the Battle of Guadacanal.  I wrote to him
during the War and he did keep in contact with my Mother.  He was married twice and had one child with his first wife.  His second wife was Hispanic and she wrote to my Mother faithfully for many years.  We completely lost contact with Tommy  I have a picture of Tommy in uniform.  He had red hair..

    Now we will go to my Uncle Carl.  I have a picture of Carl by himself  and it was taken in 1900.  He was grown up at that time.  Carl married  Martha Grauerholtz and they had two children.  I have a picture of Velma Madison  when she was about 4 years old and I also have a picture of Carlton Madison  taken Dec 1909 before he could walk.  They were divorced and I think  Martha married  someone by the name of Hayes.  She died  with typhoid fever Oct 28 1910 just short of her 25th birthday.  The children  were either adopted or sent to different homes and were reunited  55 years later.  I have the clippings where they met again at the Cedar Rapids airport..Velma was married to J L Proctor of Compton Calif and never had children.  Carlton ended up living in Goodell Iowa   The date I have on the picture and the writing in the Marion Sentinel do not agree.  It says Carl was 5 and  Velma was 7 when their Mother died.  Carl  had some children but I do not know anything about them.  This get together was in 1965..Carl left Iowa and went to Washington and remarried.  I have a wedding picture taken in Spokane Washington but no date on it.  Carl and his wife and daughter by his second marriage came to Duluth Minn sometime in the mid 1950’s.  I was not able to attend this reunion but I remember my Dad saying that Carl asked my folks not to say anything about his first marriage.. Apparently my Mother kept in contact with them over the years.

    Now I will go to my Uncle Ernest and I knew him.   I have a picture of him and George and Carl when they were young boys.  I also have a picture of him when he was probably about 20 years old with two other young men.  I have a beautiful picture of Aunt Laurine in a white dress when she was mabey 18 or 19 years old.  She was an exceptionally beautiful young woman.  Aunt Laurine played the piano well and did some music composing. I am going to write down some post cards that I found that were written to my Mother.  Uncle Ernest was depot agent at Dike Iowa and here is the card to Miss Irene Madison c/o J Hagerman Toddville Iowa.Dear Sis,  we all intend to come down Wed and stay until Sun. so come home if you can if not you might let us know when you can come. Ma and Dad are feeling O K even Mrs Pouster. Your sis Laurine.. Sept 2 1911...  On Jul 21 1911 from Dike Iowa..Dear sis,  sorry Ma is no better, think I will come Monday if nothing happens to prevent me. Yours Laurine.  Post card no town no date.  Miss Irene Madison. Dear Sister .  Many thanks for the pretty table linens you sent me. Yes you made a very good  guess as I like a dainty pattern and this certainly is so.  I have two others but yours is the finest piece. I can’t get anything so fine a weave at Dike. I haven’t time to write you this time but will do so later.  Best regards from your sis and brother.   Now two cards from Ernest to John Madison Kenwood Park Linn Co Iowa.  To Pa Old man Nelson died yesterday. Funeral Saturday. That is the old man where you and  G Hinningsen were visiting one afternoon. Ernest That was from Dike Mar 2 1911..Here’s another from Spooner Wis  Sept 11 1913.  To Mrs Irene Cress.  Sister Irene Am on my way for the north. Reached here this evening will stay overnight.  It’s so cold here a person ought to wear winter clothes. E J M 9/11/13..Uncle Ernest had the most beautiful hand writing and I wonder if he could draw and paint.

    Now for some more information about Uncle Ernest.  He later was the depot agent at Fox Lake Minn for many years.  He had 3 children George, Ernest and Verna.  George went to Dental college and became a dentist.  He married a girl from around Fairmont and they moved to Spokane Washing and he set up a practice.   Ernest was going to Medical School and he married Betty and Uncle Ernest didn’t help him any more.  He had taught both boys to telegraph and so Ernest went to work for the Milwaukee Railroad and he was agent over at Boxby Minn when I was about10 years old.  He later went to Dubuque Iowa and was a train dispatcher .  I wrote to Ernie and Betty a couple of times after I was about 25 years old and Betty wrote back and Ernie did also.  Verna was the same age as Lawrence and she married an airplane pilot and the only contact I had was when my Mother died and I called her and told her about that.

    Somewhere else in my stories I told about Uncle Ernest sending boxes of clothing to us during the depression and Mother would make them over.  He and my Mother were quite close and I remember going to Fox Lake and getting sick from eating grapes  and I could mess around in the depot without getting into trouble.  Aunt Laurine died when the children were young and Uncle Ernest did not remarry.  I have some more stories about Uncle Ernest and you can contact me and I will tell them to you.

    Now I will tell you about my Mothers sister Tillie.  Tillie married Pete Peterson and they lived in the Iron range around Duluth Minn.  Tillie was 7 years older than my Mother  Pete worked for the railroad as an Engineer and they lived on an acreage for a while.  One day Tillie was there by herself and a bear showed up and Tillie got the shot gun and killed the bear.  Tillie and Pete had 5 children.    I have a baby picture of Helen the oldest and it says born Dec 1905.  Helen married Johhny Dunaway and they lived in Miami Florida and never had children.  They owned an apartment house and did quite well.  Carl lived in Duluth and I saw him just one time at Willow River in the 1960’s..Marie married Ed Engbloom and they had 4 children.  Leetta, Gerald, Dale and Duane..Leetta was about my age and Gerald was probably a year younger than my brother Richard.  They used to come down to Willow River and visit my folks quite often..Florence was married and divorced and think married again.  She never had any children.  Bill was the same age as my sister Dorothy and he came to Ellendale when I was about 5 years old and I don’t remember seeing him again.  I think he married and had a family.  Aunt Tillie died from cancer in 1926 and Marie also died with cancer as did Florence..I have a post card dated Sept 1914 addressed to my Mother Mrs L G Cress Albert Lea Minn RFD #2.  Hello sis. Just a line to let you now we are all well except baby. I may take him to the Dr. He has summer complaint.  I have been busy canning and sewing for Helen I got her off to school. We got our pictures.  I will write soon Tony went to war. We are having hard frosts. Pete is working on the road.  Hope this finds you all well.  Did you get views Tillie.  Then I have another post card from Duluth Minn Jan 14 1926 to Mrs L G Cress Ellendale Minn R#2  Dear Aunt Irene.  Mother’s improving rapidly and can eat most everything. Dr Peterson is doing her a great deal of good.  Love to all Helen  We have lost contact with this family also.

    I have two postcards from Spokane Wash  they are dated Feb 7 1910 and read  Dear sister,  I have been waiting to hear from you as in your last letter you did not give your address and if this is reo answer right away.  Myrtle Madison also from Spokane Apr 14 1911 to Miss Irene Madison Kenwood Park Iowa Box 224.  I am batching now Dick is seeding I am making ready for garden. Easter is coming don’t forget. Mrs M Madison.  I can’t figure out who Dick Madison is.

    Now a little about our family.  Here is the marriage announcement of my Mother and Father.  Madison-Cress.  Miss Irene Madison of Kenwood Park and Mr Lafayette Cress of Toddville were married yesterday September 25 at the home of the bride’s parents Mr and Mrs John Madison in Kenwood.  The Rev G R Lair said the service at eleven o’clock and the wedding march was played by Miss Myrtle Olson of Cedar Rapids. The room in which the ceremony was performed was decorated with asparagus ferns, white chrysanthemuns and goldenrod. the dining room was in yellow and white. The bride is an accomplished young lady, a graduate of the Marion high school of 1907. For four years she has been teaching school in rural districts. Her wedding gown was a handsome robe of white embroidered chiffon and her bouquet was bride roses. The groom is a prominent farmer whose home is near Toddville. A wedding dinner was served at noon and later in the day Mr and Mrs Cress left for their home.

    My folks farmed in the Toddville area for about 4 years and then moved to a farm about 5 miles north of Albert Lea Minnesota.  They stayed there for a few years and then moved to a farm about 3 miles west of Geneva Minn.  Dorothy my oldest sister was born in Iowa and the rest ofus were born in Minnesota.  I think Daisy was born in Albert Lea and then Lawrence, Donald myself and Richard were born west of Geneva.  My folks lost the farm west of  Geneva in 1936 and we then moved to the Johnson place 2 miles
south of Hope Minn.  It was  later called the Dr McIntyre farm.  We stayed there about4years and then in 1940 moved to a 360 acre farm 5 miles south of Owatonna Minn.  The folks stayed there until I was a senior in High School which would have been 1944.  They then moved to a farm close to Meridan and were there 2 or 3 years.  Later they moved to a farm about 1 mile north of Hope  They sold out in about 1949 and moved to a farm near Willow River Minn.  After Richard was killed in an auto accident in 1957 they moved to a house in Sandstone Minn and stayed there until 1973 when my Mother died.

    Dorothy was born in 1913 and died in 2011.  She married Iver Larson in 1935 and had 3 children Warren Mary and Rodger.  Iver died in about 1952 and she married Henry Nelson in 1959.  Henry died in the mid 90’s.  Daisy was born in 1918 and died in about 2003.  She married Donald Wilker in 1942 and they had 3 children Dale, Dean and Dennis.  Lawrence was born in 1921 and never married.  Donald was born 20 months later and was killed in world War 2.  Deloris was born in 1927 and has two children Hugh born in 1949 and Gail born in 1959.  Richard was born in 1935 and died in 1957 in an auto accident.  I have the record of my nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews and their address if any one is interested.  In other parts of the blog there is a lot more history of my family. Contact me at deepickens@gmail.com

Scamming Grandma

Scamming Grandma

    I think most of us have a little experience with scammers.  I have about 3 interesting ones in the last two years.  The first one I had called and said he was from the National Verification Office and that he wanted to know my check routing number.  I said “Just a minute let   me go look it up”  I knew it was a scammer so I came back to the telephone and said “You know I don’t have any checking account”  He said “Oh yes you do Deloris” I fiddled around talking a little bit more and then said “ Why don’t you just go play with yourself but I used the f word”  He got mad as anything and said “ You B you”  That made a good story to tell out at bowling and the guys at coffee thought it was hilarious.

    The next one I got was from some guy calling and said he was my grandson and that he was stranded in Mexico City and needed for me to send him money.  I strung him along for a little while and then told him that I didn’t think so.  He hung up.  This same scam happened to my cousin in Iowa and she believed the story and went down to the bank and was ready to send $5000.00 to him.  The bank clerk stopped her and she put the money in a CD instead.

    I had the lovely one from Wall Mart the other day and I was going to get a $50.00 gift card and all I needed to do was give them a debit card number.  Old fashioned as I am well I don’t use a debit card.  So I told him that I didn’t use a debit card and wasn’t there some other way I could get the gift.  They wanted to debit my card for $2.50.  I said “You know why can’t I send you a money order or cash for this wonderful gift and that would be a big benefit to me.”  Needless to say that didn’t work and they hung up.  That scam is still going around and we were warned just the other day to watch out for it.

    I suppose they will think up a new one next week but this grandma is ready for them.  My telephone is fixed so that it doesn’t ring in the house until it has  already rang 4 times to the caller.  That eliminates a lot of telemarketing calls.

    Well I had another interesting one a few days ago and it wasn’t exactly a scam.  I answered the phone and it was a well known insurance company and they wanted to give me a good quote for insurance on my house and cars.  We talked for a while and I told them I was satisfied with the insurance that I had.  They insisted on giving me a quote and the question was “You are under 70 years of age aren’t you?”  I said “ H no I am going to be 85 this week.”  They hung up the phone right quick and I had my laugh for the day.

    I was talking to some other friends at dinner one day and they had a couple of interesting stories to tell. One of them had been offered a set of tools for next to nothing and the tools were supposed to be
worth $1700.00.  He asked when and where the tools were to be delivered and he would be happy to get them .  Well they wanted to know what his credit card number was.  He said[ Let me look  and see
if I have one of those cards.]  Well he was stringing them along and said [All I have is a card from the Osage Casino.  Would that do?] They hung up the phone.

    The other friend was offered a new Lexus car and he told them No I am not interested in one as I already have 2 of those cars… They also hung up.  A new one every day…

Gardening from childhood to now.

    I can remember the first gardens that we had on the farm close to Geneva Minn but do not remember working in that one.  We did have berry bushes in that garden and then we had some fruit trees on that farm.  My dad had planted 6 black walnut trees but they had not produced when we left that farm in 1936.

    We moved to 2 miles south of Hope Minnesota when I was 8 years old and I remember working in the garden at that time.  I used to pick the peas and bring them to the house and shell them for dinner.  Peas grew  very well in Minnesota.  I also remember hoeing in the garden and also picking the radishes and lettuce and bringing it to the house.  My Mother used to whip cream and then we put that on fresh lettuce.  That was really good.  The ground on the farm near Hope was sandy soil and my Dad planted watermelons in the corn field one year and we had a bumper crop.  My friend Margaret and I went down one day and broke a ripe watermelon and then had to hide the evidence.

    One of my jobs was to wash the fruit jars when we were getting ready to can fruit and vegetables.  We didn’t have a strawberry patch but you could go and pick strawberries on the shares and then bring them home to can.  This was before we had a locker and Mother canned strawberries and made jam  also.  Larry my Mother and I picked strawberries one time on the shares and Mother really worked hard.  I probably ate more than I picked.  We had two or three black walnut trees on this farm and my job in the fall was to pick up the walnuts and then take the pealing off.  The pealing would stain your hand a dark color and that was a messy job.  You would then let the walnut dry for a while and then you would have to crack them.  One of my jobs was to crack the walnuts and pick out the nut meat.  I had a piece of railroad iron and a good hammer.  I was about 9 or 10 when that job was assigned to me.

    Almost every farm we lived on had a rhubarb patch and that was the first thing to come up in the spring.  We picked it and usually boiled it with a little sugar and Mother made rhubarb pies.  They were really good.  It is almost impossible to grow rhubarb in Okla and I tried it for a couple of years but the plants died. We always had an aspargrass patch and that was another thing that we ate early in the spring.

    We had been without anything green to eat all winter so in the spring we would go out and pick a wash tub full of dandelions and cook them. They were good to eat and some of the Bohemian families would make dandelion wine.  I tasted it once and it was good.  We were always anxious to eat the fresh radishes and we would take my Mother’s home made bread, put a little butter on it and slice radishes and eat a radish sandwich.  Really good.

    My sister Daisy liked Hubbard squash and one year my father planted Hubbard squash in with the corn.  He went out that fall and picked the squash and he had a wagon load.  We ate a lot of squash that winter. One year I planted some Hubbard squash and I had 4 large squash.  I cut them up and cooked them in the pressure canner and then I mashed them and froze in packages and put in the deep freeze.  The Hubbard squash makes the best pumpkin pies and taste far better than pumpkins. I made several pies that winter.  They are huge squash and you just need one or two vines but it takes a large space to raise them.

    We moved to another rent farm 5 miles south of Owatonna in 1940 and I was 13 years old at that time.  We had a huge garden on that farm.  By this time I was doing a lot of hand weeding and hoeing and picking the peas and beans and bringing them to the house and helping my Mother cook.  We usually made creamed peas and we also made creamed green beans.  We had our own cream and butter and that was just the way we cooked.  By this time I was helping my Mother can tomatoes, pears, peaches, green beans, corn and everything else.  When I was 15 years old my Mother went down to my sister Dorothy’s to help her with my new niece Mary for about a week.  Well the tomatoes were ready to be canned and I went out and picked them and canned a batch of tomatoes. My Mother was so surprised that I was able to do that on my own.  I was also cooking all the meals and doing the housework and milking cows.  There was never ending work on the farm.

    After leaving the farm and coming to Oklahoma to work for the railroad I did not do any gardening until Hugh was about a year old. We had a vegetable garden at 437 Fairview and I would arrange to have some one plow the garden in the spring and I did all the gardening.  I usually raised radishes and cabbage and onions and green beans and melons and sweet corn.  I had good results with my gardening and I did add peat moss and sand to the soil.  I also had good luck with cucumbers and tomatoes.  One terribly hot summer in the mid 50’s I planted beefsteak tomatoes between my neighbors rose hedge and the work shop.  I kept them watered and had a good crop that year.  The rose hedge protected the tomatoes from the hot sun and that was in the year when the temperature hit 105 to 110 most of the summer.

    I also tried my hand at a little fruit growing.  I planted Alberta peach seeds and then transplanted the small trees in the back yard close to the house.  One of the peach trees had peaches as large as grapefruit.  You can grow peaches from seed and they usually turn out all right.  That was about in 1969 as I had gone back to work on the Rock Island railroad as a billing clerk and would come home from work and make peach cobblers.

    The next garden I had was at 442 Fairview and this was a nice sized garden right out the back door.  I had tomatoes and okra and radishes lettuce and green beans, cucumbers and melons and a nice strawberry patch.  I planted 25 strawberry plants and about 3 lived the first year, the next year I had a patch about 3 feet square and the next year I had a patch about 16 feet square.  Did they ever produce.  I did get  tired picking strawberries, but they were good eating.  I had a nice large garden every year for the ten years that we lived at 442 Fairview and I bought a pressure canner and canned a lot of vegetables when I lived there.  Made a lot of tomato juice and canned tomatoes. My neighbor Mrs  Day taught me some short cuts in using the pressure canner.

    One time when Gail was about 15 we went to Arkansas city and picked Belle of Georgia peaches.  They were in an orchard west of the Arkansas river close to the river.  We picked 2 and ½ bushels in about half an hour.  I never saw so many peaches in my life.  The peaches were very good fresh and I canned some of them.  They looked  terrible in the jars and I waited a long time before I opened a jar of them. They were very good canned but didn’t look to hot.  About a week before that we had gone out one Sunday and picked sand plums and brought them home.  I asked Gail to pick over the sand plums and throw out the bad ones.  When we were ready to go to Arkansas City Gail said ”Well if those peaches are the size of sand plums I am not going.”

    We moved to 538 Virginia in 1980 and we had 7/10th of a acre of land. We had to clear it of trees and various things.  Think we hauled off 24 loads of trees and stuff.  We planted about 20 fruit trees in the back yard and we had 2 or 3 good blue plum trees already.  Dale bought a little John Deere tractor with a mower, tiller and front end loader. He prepared the garden in the back yard and we planted a lot of things.  The first year in 1980 was a terribly hot summer and the garden did not do well.  In the years following he installed an irrigation system and we had a really good garden.  We had potatoes and beets and okra coming out our ears.  I remember canning 18 pints of corn in one setting one time.  When Danny and Carol came from Peru they would eat a whole pint of corn at one meal.  I canned tomatoes and tomato juice and had so many green peppers that I didn’t know what to do with them.

    After Dale retired he went out to Orchard Lane and asked someone if he could garden an empty lot.  The man told him yes as long as he wasn’t going to sell the stuff.  Dale planted corn, okra, cucumbers, melons and watermelons.  He planted the black diamond watermelons and he has about 600 watermelons.  It came time to pick them and he and his friend Joe put them on a small trailer that we had and dropped off 3 watermelons at  all the neighbors and friends houses that we could think of.  We also took a lot of produce down to the Mission so they could feed it to hungry people.

    After Dale’s health declined he decided to take a master garden course and he built 6 raised bed gardens in our back yard.  I still continue to plant things in the raised beds and have successfully had strawberries and aspargrass in them.  I can raise enough tomatoes and green peppers and cucumbers to keep me in veggies all summer.  Last year I bought potting soil and planted cucumbers in it.  I cut the top out of the package and slit some openings in the bottom of the sack. I then planted the cucumbers and put a tomato cage over the soil.  I had lots of cucumbers and even canned some pickles.

    We had lots of good fruit trees on this lot but last year I lost my golden delicious apple tree.  We had a low temperature of minus 25 degrees and it got my blue plum tree and my apple tree.  Two years ago this small apple tree produced 6 bushels of apples.  I have a Alberta peach and an asian pear that are loaded with fruit this year.  I planted another blue plum and another apple and pear tree so should have more fruit in a couple of years.  When we first had fruit trees we had a bird dog that ran loose in the back yard.  I didn’t realize what a good job she did keeping the birds out of the fruit until I no longer had her.

    The garden looks good so far this year and the flowers are really nice.  Last year was terribly dry and so everything king of went to pot.  I couldn’t even grow okra last year and had about 6 tomatoes. This is a little bit about my gardening over the years.

Dorothy Nelson, oldest sister of my mother, Deloris Pickens, passes away at age 98.

Here is an article done on Dorothy Nelson, soon after her 98th birthday.  She passed away this week.  Lovely woman. Dorothy Nelson doing great at 98, article by the New Richland Star Wednesday, 27 July 2011 11:41 98 AND COUNTING — Dorothy Nelson of Ellendale celebrated her 98th birthday July 1st. She still lives alone in her house, with very little help, and can recollect many moments in Ellendale history. (Star Eagle photo by Kathy Paulsen) By KATHY PAULSEN Staff Writer "Dear Lord, So far today, I am doing all right. I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or self indulgent. I have not whined, complained, cried or eaten any chocolate. I have charged no money on my credit card, but I am getting out of bed in a minute. I think that I will really need your help then." So sayeth the label on Dorothy Nelson’s refrigerator. Nelson turned 98 years old on July 1st, another year for others to be blessed by this sharp, witty little woman. She is a great woman, and deeply loved by many. The oldest child of seven children in the family of Lafayette and Irene Cress, Dorothy was born in 1913. Her sister, Daisy, was born in 1918. Lawrence, a brother, was born in 1921. Another brother, Donald, was born in 1922, and later died in World War II. The family tree also includes an infant brother, who is buried in Geneva; and a sister, Deloris, born in 1927, and living in Oklahoma. Another brother, Richard, was born in 1935 and killed in a car accident in 1957. Dorothy and Deloris are the only two living. Dorothy was just a baby when she and her family moved to Minnesota. Her father was a farmer. The day he sold $600 worth of hogs, she entered the world. Ninety-eight years ago, $600 worth of hogs was a lot and a great deal of money. The Cress family, of Danish decent, moved to the Lerdahl area in Southern Minnesota, when she was less than 2 years old. It was a big change for Dorothy and her family. The family moved two miles west of Geneva in 1918. Back in that day, high school girls usually boarded with townspeople because of transportation issues. So, Dorothy lived with Andrew Muri. Dorothy later left high school when she was only a junior, as she had an ill mother who needed care. She also needed to care for her brothers and sisters. It was hard for her to leave school, but that was expected back then; people had to accept the responsibility. Dorothy later met and married Iver Larson. They were the parents of three children, Warren Larson, who lived in Michigan and is no longer with us; Mary Sullivan of Emmons, MN and Roger Larson of rural Ellendale. She is also a grandmother of 11 and great grandmother of 23. Dorothy later married Henry Nelson after Iver passed away. In 1973, she moved into town from the farm and has lived in the little house on the corner north of Lerberg’s in Ellendale ever since. Her son, Roger, and his wife, Joyce, live on the family farm. When Lerberg’s Foods delivered her groceries on Friday, July 1st, there was also a big, bright birthday card, signed by many friends, neighbors and relatives, included in the grocery bag. Many more cards were sent her way that week as well, from many corners of the world. She also enjoyed birthday phone calls and messages, including a phone call from her son Warren’s wife, Thelma, who lives in St. Augustine, Florida. Dorothy remarked that Thelma has a sweet little white dog, Snickers. Dorothy also said she received a birthday card and snapshots from her grandson, Matthew. We can't forget a beautiful bouquet of flowers, completed with a nest of robin eggs, from her grandson Brad Larson. Dorothy has always loved flowers and enjoyed working in her gardens. Last fall, she received a helpful hand from the Healthy Seniors group. The group came and cleaned Dorothy’s flower gardens before the snow flew. Interestingly enough, Dorothy often dreams of working in her garden and waking up feeling as tired as if she had worked all night. Dorothy lives alone with very little extra help, and does so very well. She experiences some difficulty with her eyes, which limits her from doing some things she loves to do, like reading books. Her memory is as sharp as a tack. She remembers an incident when her family lived on the Doc Ertel farm, near Ellendale. One of their sheep had fallen in the water tank. With no one home, she had to call her Grandpa Richard (Hanson) to come and get the wet, soaked beast out of the water tank. She felt so sorry to have to ask for help, but getting the sheep out of the water tank was more than she could do alone. Another recollection was of a school picnic when her niece, the teacher, marveled at her home-baked beans, cooked of course in a cast iron Dutch oven. Held in the old Lutheran church in Ellendale, the church ladies often had lutefisk and lefse suppers. The ladies had to get cream cans of hot water from the creamery to wash the dishes, as they didn't have a water heater. Dorothy received cards from all over the country, including one from a Marine grandson who lives near Troy, New York; a niece, who lives near Nederland, Texas; and a grand niece who is in the Peace Corps in Mongolia, to name a few. Her grandson, Brad, the one who sent her the flowers for her birthday, teaches in Chicago. She was proud to say he loaded a school bus with volunteers recently en route to Alabama to help with the crisis there. Neighbors and businesses up and down Main Street in Ellendale brought memories and giggles to Dorothy. She recalls "Speed" Nelson’s grocery store on the southeast corner of Ellendale, which was later moved to the northwest corner of town. Then there was Norris Thompson, who had a shop on Main Street. He once sold Dorothy a tractor. Cecil Campbell ran the Ellendale Eagle; Anderson, Butcher Brothers, had the meat market; Miller brothers ran the hardware store, and also worked on wells, windmills and sold appliances. Little Joe Margaheck, had a beer joint; and Sander Jellum, a barber shop. There was also Nelson Meland’s hardware store; Olson Implement; Sande’s Bank and Aronson’s Garage. George Jorgensen, along with his wife and two girls, had a cafe; Art Thorsen had a barber shop and beauty salon, and Johana Jensen and her husband ran a restaurant. Tillie Lerum sold hamburgers for a nickel and had boarders in the old hotel. Dorothy also mentioned that Ellendale used to have outdoor free shows. "Gus Jacobson Gas Station,” which is on the corner across the street from the old creamery, now Al's Body Shop in Ellendale, was the first gas station in town. She commented that it might not have been built by Jacobson but by Harvey Mohs. A highlight of Dorothy’s life — shortly after Helen and Warren Sawyer built their new home — was when Helen and her daughter, Julie, invited many of the older ladies in town to Helen’s home for lunch. The guest list was as follows: Nina Olson, Helen "Speed" Nelson, Edythe Ellingson, Mrs. Joyce Aronson, and Louella Thompson. Dorothy then commented that she enjoys reading the Whatever Comes To Mind column in the Star Eagle. It gets her mind thinking. When asked how she stayed so smart, she remarked, "I'm always thinking, even when I'm sleeping. You'd be surprised what I know. I play mind games. I'll start with the beginning of the alphabet and name cities or people etc., that go with the letter A and work my way to the end. I think about all the things we did when we were young; my, how the times have changed over the years. Oh, if television had such ‘reality’ shows now."

Filled Ice Box Cookies - recipe for a wood/coal burning stove.

So here is the recipe for the Date Swirl Cookies, as I came to know them as a child growing up.  My mother, Deloris Pickens used this recipe from her sister Mrs. Daisy Wilker, which was passed down to her, from their mother, Irene Cress.

It was known as Filled Ice Box Cookies

Filled Ice Box Cookies

1 C. butter
1 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
3 eggs
4 C. flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. cinamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Roll 1/2 " thick (like jelly rolls) and fill with following mixture.  Chill, slice and bake 12 minutes in hot oven

Filling
1 lb dates or raisins
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. water
1 C. finely chopped nuts
Cool in double boiler until a thick paste.  Cool and spread.


Now to put this into modern terms, probably be best if one chills the dough, like one would for sugar cookies, before putting the date paste and rolling.  Also one could use just a pan, instead of a double boiler, in order to cook down the dates/raisins.  Also, this was originally a recipe for a wood/coal burning stove.  Preheat the modern oven for 375 degrees.  Watch and bake for 12 minutes.  Take a look at 12 minutes to see if golden brown, if not, contnue to bake at 1 1/2 minutes to 2 minute intervals.  Can be variable upon your cookie sheet and oven.

Now this is a tasty old fashioned danish cookie recipe.  Enjoy!   Gail Pickens-Barger

Christmas in my childhood in the 1930's

Christmas in my childhood in the 1930’s

    I will try and remember some of the things that we did at Christmas when I was a child.  The main thing I remember is that my parents told us that if we not good that Santa would not come to visit us.  That kept a lot of commotion from popping up as the Holiday Season drew near.

    The first Christmas gift that I remember was a little Red chair that Santa had left in an upstairs closet for me.  I always wondered how he knew to put it in that closet.  The next gift that I remember was that I received a doll for every Christmas.  Each year the doll that I received was larger.  I had 5 dolls ranging from a very small doll to a large doll and I played with the 5 dolls all at the same time as I got a little older.

    I remember that my brother Don bought me a little tin tea set and I kept that until I was about 25 years old and then I let my son Hugh play with it and it was lost.  I even had the box until I was that old.  Another gift that I really enjoyed was a little cast iron Model T Ford.  I liked that toy car .  We also received marbles and we played marbles on a crocheted rug. 

    Now some of the traditions that we celebrated at our house.  We usually went to the Christmas program at the Methodist church in Geneva and I remember one year that we went to church in the sleigh which was pulled by the horses.  It was 3 miles to Geneva from our house and the roads must have been blocked with snow and we were unable to go by car.  Think we heated rocks to keep us warm and wrapped up in blankets for the ride into town.

    My Mother always made her famous date filled cookies at Christmas time and I have continued to do that every year also.  The receipt was brought from Denmark by her Mother and they are very delicious cookies .  We usually had goose or duck for our Christmas dinner and Mother made oyster stuffing or her stuffing made with bread, raisins, apples, onions and an egg.  I still make the dressing with the apples  and so forth.  We had mashed potatoes and gravy and cranberries and probably  creamed peas and carrots.  Maybe jello with whipped cream .   

    As there were 6 of us children in the family we drew names after we were a little older and usually had only one gift.  We did have a Christmas tree and decorations.

    We always had a Christmas program in the country schools where I grew up.  The children put on plays, we sang Christmas carols and one year I learned how to clog and we danced for the parents. Two children were assigned to draw the curtains and we were out in the hall until our turn came to recite in the plays or sing.  Of course all the parents came and I can’t remember if we had refreshments or not but I think that we did.

    I can remember being in a church program in Ellendale after we had moved to the farm south of Hope.  I would have been about 9 years old at that time.  I can remember my Mother saying that I had the lightest blonde hair of any child in the program. 

    The folks used to send out a lot of Christmas cards and the postage on the cards was one and one half cents.  They heard from all the cousins and brothers and sisters in Iowa and their nieces and nephews.  It was a time when families kept in contact with each other before the day of long distance telephones.

    There was not much money to be spent on gifts but we all had a good time anyway.  Remember that this was in the Great Depression and money was very limited.  This is a little about what I remember in the 1930’s.

Farming in the 30's and 40's

Farming in the 30’s and 40’s

I will try and tell you about what I remember about farming when I was a child. Bear in mind that I am now 84 years old and I hope these memories are correct.

When I was a child in the 30’s we were in the middle of the Great Depression and the first 8 years of my life was spent on a 80 acre farm 3 miles west of the village of Geneva Minnesota. This farm had a house, barn, chicken house, hog house, machinery shed, summer kitchen, brooder house and a small building next to the windmill with a water tank on top of it. The house had a kitchen, dining room, living room and a bedroom down stairs. I think there were 3 bedrooms upstairs and the girls slept in one bedroom and my brothers slept in the other bedroom. We had running cold water in the house but the outhouse was outside. In the winter we used the pot and also at night if we had to go to the bathroom. We did have electricity in the house at one time but we couldn’t pay the bill and the electricity was cut off.

I don’t remember my Mother using the summer kitchen but it was used for storage and I remember that there was a table in it and clothes lines to hang the clothes to dry in the winter. In back of the summer kitchen and outside was a huge bin that we dumped used tin cans and bottles. South of the summer kitchen my Father had planted about 6 black walnut trees. We had a large garden and think we had berry bushes in it. I picked up a white wasp nest one time and never did that again. I thought it was a ball.

Inside the water building we had a large whet stone mounted on a bicycle sort of body. You peddled it and then some one else held the axe and sharpened it and it was also used to sharpen tools. Outside the tool shed was an old buggy that wasn’t used any more and I used to play in it. Inside the tool shed was a gleaner that was used to clean up seeds. That was used to get the chaff out of oats and so forth. Suppose my Dad cleaned some of the oats after harvest and picked out the good seeds to plant next years crop. I remember my Dad going through the best looking corn ears and picking out the best looking seeds. This was before the days of hybrid corn.

My Dad had a small herd of dairy cows and I think it was about 15 or 20 milking cows. He raised mostly Guernseys as they produced a richer milk than the Holsteins. My father had a Model T Ford at that time and I think he used it in good weather to take the cream to Geneva. If you didn’t have gasoline all the time you could use kerosene to run those cars. Her bought it new for $400.00 and that was sometime in the 20’s. The creamery in Geneva sold ice and in the winter they cut the ice out of Geneva Lake and packed it in saw dust in the ice house. Think the ice lasted all summer and my Dad would bring a cake home ever so often. I don’t remember if we had an ice box on that farm or not.

My older brothers and sister used to be dropped off at Geneva Lake when my Dad went to the creamery and grocery store in the summer. They had fishing poles and would fish until my Dad came back to get them.

We had 4 horses on that farm to pull the machinery for plowing and harvesting. I remember the name of the roan horses and they were called King and Pet. We also had 2 dark colored horses but I can’t remember their names. The dark colored horses did most of the farm work. Pet the female roan horse was ornery and a piece of work. She didn’t like to work. One time my Dad had to go to Iowa and Larry and Don were probably 12 and 14 years old. They had to hitch up King and Pet to haul the manure out to the field. King and Pet always stomped their feet and raised cain for my Dad but the boys put the harness on them and they never moved a foot. They hitched them up and never gave the boys any trouble but they loved to devil my Father with their actions.

Now I want to tell you about the farm implements that we used for farming. We had a walking plow that you hitched one horse to and it was used mostly for plowing a garden. You walked behind the plow and guided it in the furrow. They made several different kinds of walking plows depending on the soil that you were working with. Every small village had a blacksmith and he sharpened plows and worked on other implements and made implements. The blacksmith was a very important person in the farming community. Then you had a sulky plow and it was a riding plow. One wheel was larger than the other as the small wheel ran in the furrow. Then you had the two bottom plow, which was also a riding plow and it used 2 teams of horses. You controlled the horses by pulling on the reins either left or right. To start the horses you said getty up and to stop the horses you said whoo.

After you had plowed the field you then had to disc it to break up the soil. I think the disc were all riding implements and were pulled by two teams of horses. That was to further prepare the soil to make it ready for planting. The discs were round metal pieces probably about 20 inches tall. You had levers in front of the hard metal seat to lift and lower the discs. I think my Father also had a cultivator which was also a riding implement with levers to lift and lower the small cultivators. There was probably about 16 small cultivators on this implement. It was used for summer fallowing, weed-eradication and mulching. I think my dad had one called a spring tooth cultivator. This covers the implements that were used to get the ground ready for planting.

Now I will try to tell you about the implements that we used to plant corn and oats. We had a riding corn planter that had two seed boxes on it. The boxes had a plate in the bottom that let the corn come out to be planted. If I remember right they had a wire running through it so that the corn would be planted evenly. There was a tiny plow in front of the seed box to open up the seed bed and then there were a couple of small discs in back to cover the seed up. The wire had a knot in it and worked the plate in the bottom of the seed box so that your corn was planted evenly. You had to move the wire after you planted every row. The corn was planted so that you could cultivate the field both ways after the corn came up.

The implement companies made corn and cotton seed planters depending on how we wanted to use them. We also had what was called a drill. It was a large implement with a big seed box that we used to drill in oats. It could also be used to drill in clover, flax, sedan grass, wheat, rye or even corn, peas etc. without clogging. This probably also used two teams of horses. I think the drill had discs of some kind to cover up the seeds.

There were several different types of corn cultivators. We used one that was powered by a team of horses and you had to ride on the hard metal seat. I don’t remember if ours was a disc cultivator or had something like a small plow to cultivate the corn. You had to plow the corn at least 4 times to get the weeds out and you plowed it both lengthwise and crosswise of the field. The old saying in Minnesota was that your corn needed to be knee high by the 4th of July. So there was a never ending job to be done in the summer time. When the corn was mature we picked it by hand. You put a corn husker on and went out in the field with a wagon and a bunch of kids and picked the corn off the stalks and threw it in the wagon. You husked the corn in the field and then took it to the corn storage building. The corn storage building was not all enclosed, if I remember right it had boards that were a few inches apart and you stored the corn in it. I think we used the corn to feed the pigs and we took some to the mill in Geneva and had it ground up for chicken feed and maybe fed some to the cows. We also had it ground up fine so that we could make corn bread out of it. Every small village had a mill as they didn’t have power grinders on most farms in the 30’s and early 40’s.

We also drilled corn in sometime in June or July and we didn’t let that corn mature. We used that corn to make silage for the cattle. Some farmer in the area had a silage cutter that was used to cut up the corn and put it in the silo to feed the cattle in the winter time. They had a corn binder that cut the immature corn and wrapped some kind of cord around the corn so that you could shock the corn. It was then shocked by hand and then taken into the silo with a team of horses and a wagon. It had to unloaded by hand and pitch fork and put into the ensilage cutter and then was blown up into the round silo.

We also had a hand operated corn sheller that you put the corn in and turned a handle and shelled the mature corn that was then used to feed the animals. That sheller was kind of fun to run and the children could do that. That’s about all I can think of in connection with raising corn. Now we will go to oats.

The ground was prepared for oats the same as for corn and the oats was drilled in with the drilling implement. We didn’t have to do any cultivating of the oats but I remember we used to have to pick the wild mustard out of the oats fields by hand. Now we will go to the harvesting of the oats. We had a team driven oats binder that cut the oats and then wrapped the binder twine around the oats so that it was in bundles. After it was cut you then had to shock the oat bundles by hand. You put about 5 or 6 bundles in a shock which was shaped like a pyramid. This was so when the men came to the fields to put the oats in the wagons you didn’t have to pick up each bundle separately. This was also hand work with a team of horses and a wagon and probably one person drove the wagon and the other pitched the oat bundles in the wagon. This was done by all the neighbors who came in to help harvest the oats and take it to the threshing machine.

One neighbor would have a threshing machine and then 5 or 6 other neighbors would help each other get the threshing done. This usually happened about the first part of August. The neighbors would come in with their wagons and teams of horses and go to the fields and pick up the oats by hand. They would then bring the oats to the threshing machine and it would be run through the machine and the oats would go in a wagon the straw would be thrown out the chutes. My father was the one who would usually make the straw stack and so I don’t think he helped pick up the oats. There was a real art in making a straw stack and he was probably the only one who was good at it in our neighborhood. The oats would then be taken to the building called the grainery and unloaded by a scoop shovel. That covers the oats quite well, now I will try to tell you about the machinery we used for hay and what we did with it.

We had prairie hay and alfalfa hay on our farm. When the hay was the right height and you had some sunny days and it was dry it was cut by a mowing machine. This was also a horse driven machine and it had sharp blades on it and we were warned as children to be very careful around the mower. After the hay was cut we then used a side delivery rake to pile up the hay in rows. That was also horse driven and you ran the rake over the hay and dumped it so that it made a nice even row. We did not have a hay baler on our farm so we handled the hay in a different way. The barns in Minnesota had a hay mow. After the hay was put in rows it was picked up by another machine called a hay loader. We had a hay wagon with board on the sides and you put rope slings on the bed of the wagon. You then ran over the row of hay and pitched the hay to cover the sling evenly. When you had the right amount in the sling you then put down another sling and put hay on top of it. You usually had 3 slings loaded in your wagon.

You took the hay to the hay mow and attached the sling to a carrier that ran on a track into the hay mow. You then attached the horses to the sling with a double tree and the horses pulled the hay up into the hay mow and then you dumped the hay and spread it out. You had one person in the hay mow and the other pulling the hay up into the mow. You had to spread out the hay evenly in the hay mow and then in the winter you pitched the hay down to the cattle and spread it out in the barn so they could eat it.

Now I will tell you about the manure spreader. It was a machine that was pulled by horses and it had some kind of a belt that was attached to something so that it would move. It also had rotating bars on the back to spread the manure evenly on your fields. In the barn you had a container that ran on a track to the manure pile. You had the scoop the manure out every day and put it in the container and then run it outside to the manure pile and dump it. I think they let it sit there for a while and dry out some. Then you had to put it in the manure spreader and take it to the fields and spread it on the ground. This was before the day of lots of commercial fertilizer and so the farmers were doing organic farming at that period of time. I think I have covered the machinery that we used quite well and remember I am going back 75 years and kids didn’t pay that much attention. So there may be some errors in this stuff.

I will now try to tell you about taking care of the animals and girls weren’t supposed to know that stuff. All the boar pigs had to be castrated and the farmers did that themselves. They didn’t call a vet to do that. So if you had 20 or 30 little pigs to castrate they did it when the pigs were small. My father sold the male calves as veal and didn’t keep them and I don’t know if he did anything to them or not. We always kept a registered bull and we kept him locked up in the barn. When a cow would come in heat the bull would do his duty and we usually kept the good heifers and I think we took some to market.

We also raised chickens on the farm and when I was big enough I picked the eggs and got them ready for market. We raised ducks for several years and I helped take care of them. The chickens had to sit on the duck eggs as the ducks are worthless on sitting on their eggs and raising their young.

The farm was a lot of work and you had things to do every day and there was not much to do after the work was done but to play cards in the winter and go to the free shows in the summer time. The county fair was the big thing and my Dad would try to take us every day. The fair was the third week in August after the oats was harvested and before the corn was ready. We used to have a Harvest festival in Ellendale and they would Barbecue a pig in a pit and all the farming families would come to town and visit and some of them would drink a little.

On the farm south of Hope where we moved in 1936 the man who owned the threshing machine would have a settling up party after the oats was harvested. The farmers exchanged work and they kept track of the hours that they worked on each farm. Then Pete Motz charged them for harvesting the oats and I think everyone brought food and Pete always had a keg of beer. He was Bohemian and most of our neighbors were Bohemian and they let the little kids drink a little beer.

We would go to the Bohemian wedding dances when one of the neighbors children were married. My folks didn’t dance but they visited with the neighbors and the little Bohemian girls taught me to do folk dancing when I was about 8 years old. Well I think I have rattled on long enough and this is a little bit more about what I remember in the 30’s and early 40’s… I was lucky to have a Massey Harris catalog dating in the 1930’s that had pictures of all the farm implements so I was able to describe them better…