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We moved from the Woodbury farm to the railroad section house in Montpelier. There were four big rooms and an addition that served us as a kitchen dining area. The house was very cold and drafty in winter we attempted to heat one room. The house retained heat very well during the summer of 1936. Except for the discomfort of the house, it was an easy life in town. We were close to school and other attractive places. Our chores were taking care of the two horses and the cow that were housed in a shed near the north end of town. We also had to carry water from some distance. There just was not a great deal of work for kids in town. There were only a few opportunities for odd jobs. During the spring of 1936 we plowed gardens for a few people.
The most consistent part time work began in 1936 when I worked occasionally helping in the Farmers Produce Cream station in Montpelier. The manager taught me how to test cream and milk and on occasion left me in charge of the station. Farmers who had a good supply of hay and other feed were still milking cows.
One very windy Sunday Grandpa and Grandma came up for a visit. I have several pictures taken that day and each one reveals evidence of a rather brisk wind blowing against our clothing. Our grandparents came up to seek some help. As a result Lois spent a good deal of the summer of 1936 in Edgeley helping take care of Grandma who was blind by this time. Grandma had an operation for cataracts that was not successful. She also had increasing problems in the control of diabetes.
Another result of the year spent in town was the intensification of activity that involved the church. We became active members during this summer.
In the fall of 1936 we moved from the section house in Montpelier to the Millspaugh place. "Floyd Coffell has rented the Frank Millspaugh place, south of town, and will move as soon as Mr. Millspaugh leaves for Portland, Oregon." (SCR., Vol. 33, No.3, August 27, 1936.) We still had the two horses and a sulky plow and piece of a harrow and a wagon and some tools. The place was located on the James river one and a half miles south of Montpelier. The house was perhaps 150 to 200 feet away from the river. There were trees on the property mostly boxelder and elm. We worked at cutting the dead trees and that became our fuel although we still burned some lignite coal.
How we lived and survived in those days startles me now. We did have a dream of buying that place. The water from the well which was perhaps twenty to twenty five feet deep didn't smell very good. One day dad put a ladder down to clean out the well---and there were dead rats in the water. He cleaned out the well and put new planks across and we pumped it to clean it out. No such thing as poor people testing water in those days. We would probably have been as safe taking water from the James river which at that time was not particularly known for either clarity or cleanliness.
The second payment of the soldiers bonus gave our family a boost. Dad bought a second hand De Soto car, it was a late 1920's model. He bought another cow and we were at the lowest range of starting to farm again. The spring of 1937, Dad used the De Soto to car to plow 'the land the so we could plant corn and a garden. He pulled our sulky plow behind the car. I can still hear and see that car and plow moving up and down the field in the evening. He ran the car in low gear and it did the job. We managed to raise a garden. We had potatoes. We grew a couple of hundred pounds of beans. We had an abundance of popcorn. There were tomatoes and Mother canned them and some other things as well. We had corn grain and fodder as well as hay from three acre patch of alfalfa and that provided enough feed for our animals.
Sometime after we moved to the Millspaugh farm, Uncle Oliver gave us a Shetland pony and a goat both became pets of the family. The goat died within a year or so but the Shetland lived on I think it must have died on the Ytreeide farm. I remember it as a pretty stubborn creature when operating on its own circuits. It didn't buck or anything but when someone had something important to do such as bringing in a small herd of cattle or running an errand it had a way of planting all four feet and remaining immobile for a period of time. This much distressed the younger brothers and sisters. I think it had been trained to ride children around in a circle not anywhere else.
We were again walking to school the distance now was about a mile or a mile and a half it was good exercise for youngsters and teenagers in those days and any day for that matter. It was my junior year in high school. In 1936 I wrote an essay for the Farmers Union Junior contest entitled "War and Peace" The possibility of war was a concern at that time. During 1937-38, we listened to the speeches of Adolph Hitler on the radio. There was someone who gave a running translation as Hitler spoke. We did not understand the German but felt the emotional intensity of Hitler. We were also aware of the intrusion of the Japanese into China and of the "Panay" incident. There was a lot of talk of the possibility of war and I believe the sentiment in our area was strongly against any U. S. involvement. We were not very sympathetic to war mongers. I sensed that among some (of) our elders there was a spirit of disenchantment as a result of World War I. The veterans were resentful of the reluctance to pay the soldier's bonus. Many of the veterans were still upset over the treatment of the bonus marchers by a General MacArthur and President Hoover. The Nye investigating Committee was making disclosures about the munitions industry which did not set well with people.
Many veterans considered MacArthur's participation against the bonus marchers as betrayal especially if they had been in France. Dad still worked on WPA and we tried subsistence farming as indicated above. This part of the family enterprise kept us children busy weeding, hoeing, picking corn and potatoes, shelling beans and taking care of some livestock. For a while in late 1936 and early 1937 our lives became more hopeful and hope filled.
By 1937 and 1938 almost all homes had radios, battery powered in rural areas. In towns radios operated on house current. We had a radio that required a 2 volt wet cell battery. I was rather stunned when one of my children asked me: "Daddy, what kind of programs did you watch on TV when you were little." It causes me to reflect on what it was like before the radio became a necessary household item. It helped me realize how much change had gone on in my life time.
I found it a pleasure on a Saturday afternoon when we had begun to relax for Sunday to listen to the New York Philharmonic Symphony orchestra or the NBC Symphony, whatever it was. We listened as Arturo Toscanini or Stokowski or some other famous leader conducted those orchestras. These programs honed my taste for classical music. I do not ever remember listening to the current music of the time. For some reason or another I never was caught up in the popular music of that period.
Whenever we had time or opportunity we listened to the broadcasts of the Minneapolis Millers' baseball games with Halsey Hall at the announcer's microphone. We also followed the Minnesota Golden Gophers of that period also announced by Halsey hall. On occasion we listened to the broadcasts of the teams of the North Dakota College of Agriculture, now North Dakota State University in Fargo.
Younger children in the family were faithful listeners of the Adventure of the All American Boy, Jack Armstrong. We seldom if ever ate Wheaties in our family so we did not help pay for the program. Our breakfast usually consisted of oatmeal or wheat grits.
Other programs heard regularly in our family were Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, George Burns and Gracie Allen. There were times when we listened to some of the theater programs. Don Ameche's theater program was one of these. We were also one of the families who were listening the evening that Orson Welles broadcast the disturbing "War of the Worlds" program. For a while I thought we were doomed and went outside to look for the tell tale streaks in the sky.
We were very close to the James River. Someone had placed some large rocks across the river, forming a walking surface and a kind of dam across the river. It was probably a way of disposing of rocks picked from the fields. In the winter time this enabled us to form a rather large skating rink on the ice. If it snowed or the ice became rough we would make a hole above this makeshift dam. Since ice was also freezing down below the dam there was pressure enough above to quickly flood the ice with water which would quickly freeze forming a new rink surface. We had a lot of fun skating on the river and many people from town would also come out and there would be skating parties. Someone would bring a bundle of wood or an old tire and build a bonfire and provide an area of warmth. There were many things to do. We did not need adults directing and supervising our recreation.
In the fall of 1937, I worked for Henry Van Bruggen shocking grain and helping him with the hay crop. I rode the grain binder and Henry drove the tractor. My job was to see that the binder ran properly and to trip the bundle carrier at the right time. We had an old disc rigged up with a spring and a striker and if something went wrong I would pull a rope to alert him that something wasn't working properly. This was also used to see that he stayed awake while driving the tractor. After we had harvested a grain field then I would start shocking. Shocking grain is very hard on the hands and I almost always had blisters even when wearing gloves. I think he paid me $20.00 for the two or three weeks work. This also included the additional job of helping milk cows and separating milk. Holstein cows give a lot of milk. After this early breaking in period I worked with the Van Bruggen threshing outfit.
Working with the Van Bruggen crew in 1937 was much different than earlier experience. During an afternoon in 1933, I had helped with threshing of clover when we were on the Woodbury farm. I think Prosper or Norman Gatz paid me a dollar for the afternoon's work. It was only an afternoon.
I pitched bundles all day long and it was harder work than I expected. The pay was twenty five cents an hour and I earned from $2.50 to $3.00 a day depending upon how long we were able to work. The first week of pitching bundles was distressingly hard and exhausting. We started on Monday and worked through Saturday. On Saturday the wind was blowing and we were hauling long slippery rye bundles which are very hard to handle without the wind. My arms and wrists were very sore and painful and I was tired but I kept going. The boss came to me and told me to take it easy to just load the rack but not to stack the bundles. He told me to load up the shocks near the machine. I was grateful. They told me sometime afterward they thought they would have to let me go. I endured until evening and the next day was Sunday and critical. It was one day of rest in my life in which re-creation occurred. I was very grateful to the religious injunction practiced by my boss. Sunday was a commanded day of rest. Monday, morning I started again and continued working the rest of the threshing season without difficulty and I hauled bundles with the best of them. My wrists and hands were sore but that improved. I had trouble sleeping at night because my arms and hands would go to sleep and tingle and keep me awake. At the end of the threshing season even this problem disappeared. I was very much stronger my muscles were tuned up and I had earned a total of$88.00 for the work of summer and fall.
Almost the first thing I did was to buy a suit, it was my first and cost me $18.00. It was a good purchase. I was thinking ahead to the following spring for I would need a suit for graduation. I also needed it that fall for I won the Farmers Union Essay contest and needed a suit for attendance at the conventions.
So I was a bit late starting school the fall of 1937. I had earned some money and the hard work on the threshing crew had really toughened me. It was a great experience to find out that one could stay and do as much work as the biggest, strongest and more experienced men on the crew. I was proud of what I had done, and that it was a man's work. It was one of the important experiences that marked my sense of manhood. I was puzzled when I was in service by the boys (men) who characterized manhood as having had sexual experience yet some were so flabby and soft muscled they were soon exhausted by physical exercise and labor.
In January of 1938 mother caught her hand in the wringer of the washing machine. I think an article of clothing got wrapped about her hand and pulled it in to the wringer. She was alone when it happened. The safety device worked only after it had pulled her hand and wrist into the rollers. It seems that no bones were broken but her bruised arm was badly swollen for some time. (SCR., Vol. 34, No. 23, January 13, 1938.) I came into the house from school sometime after this happened and did not know what to do. Mother put her arm into cold water to reduce the swelling. I remember wanting to do something to help but did not know what to do and mother having nurses train probably knew a good deal more than I did.
I have the impression today that Dad was in the hospital but that slips my memory. He may only have been working on WPA at the time the accident happened. She should have been taken to a doctor but there was no car. She had sore muscles for some time and I have wondered whether her later arthritis might not have been partially a result of that accident. I know she hurt for a long time.
About this time we had a severe blizzard. There were seven of us in school. We started that morning and it was snowing but not very hard. We were about three quarters of a mile from school and suddenly it was much colder, more snow was falling and the wind was blowing very hard. Elizabeth was in the first grade. I carried her piggy back. Lois, Eugene and Gordon all held onto Marvin and Arthur. We arrived safely at school but we were very cold. I think they may have been surprised to see us. It stormed all day and we stayed in town than night farmed out to good families that provided for our needs.
I graduated from Montpelier High school the spring of 1938. I was appointed valedictorian and Joann Cumber was salutatorian. I was valedictorian by default. Marian Lee actually had a higher grade point average but there was some kind of rule that the valedictorian was to be a person who had attended the high school all four years. Mr. Athey told me this when he informed me that I should prepare the valedictory address. Marian Lee had become a member of the class when we were juniors. This arrangement was unfair especially in a state in which the GPA was dependent upon how well one did on State Board Examinations. I also received two scholarship warrants. One from Concordia College in Moorhead for $100 and the other from Jamestown College for $400.
During the summer of 1938, Dad and I went to Jamestown and visited a number of persons and businesses looking for a job so I could attend college. It was a discouraging day since everyone we saw were reluctant to hire anyone. It was especially difficult since so many people were looking for jobs. We were told, "If a job were available I would have to give it to a man with a family."
We spent some time meeting with B.H. Kroeze the president of Jamestown College. Dad and Dr. Kroeze did the talking and Dad explained our situation. Dr. Kroeze complimented my father for the large family and several times during the conversation repeated the words, "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full," (Psalm 127:4-5) in reference to our family of eight children. I don't know whether Dr. Kroeze's quiver was full or not. He also talked about how well his flax crop was doing on a farm near Cleveland or Medina. He did not seem very sympathetic and offered no suggestions or encouragement regarding attendance at Jamestown College. I was disappointed but Dad's hopes were dashed. He was somewhat bitter on the trip home.
During the summer of 1938, I helped at home but mostly went about the neighborhood hiring out and helping farmers. I helped Art Dale during the haying season and helped him repair fences. Sometime in here I also worked a few days for Bill Lengkeek.
In the fall of 1938, I did shocking for John Dykstra, whom I liked very much. Dykstra was a man who read a great deal and he had a stack of magazines stored in the room they assigned to me. While working for him I burned a good deal of his kerosene when I read until the early morning hours going through those magazines. I do not know if John Dykstra ever knew that he had contributed to my further education and I thank him for his kerosene.
After finishing the shocking for John Dykstra I went to work for Ben Van Bruggen. The fall of 1938 I was able to work a longer time because I did not have to return to school. The threshing ring was pretty much the same as in 1937 but the crop was a little better.
During late fall there were always farmers who needed help with butchering. Some farmers liked to get their butchering done at one time and I can't say that I blame them. To me butchering was and is an unpleasant chore whether it is bird or animal. It was at that time an almost necessary chore in a rural community. It had to be done after the weather became cold because farmers did not have electricity for refrigeration. Frozen food lockers were in most cases fifteen to twenty miles away.
Anyone who has butchered pigs on a cold windy day understands the discomfort. The water had to be heated for scalding the hogs. The hogs had to be stunned, bled and eviscerated sometimes with snow falling and often there was the danger of slipping and falling in mud or on ice formed from splashing water around. It was a miserable task for all involved. This was followed by the rendering of lard and the preservation tasks that had to be performed.
Most meats were heavily salted, put into a brine, some smoked and a good deal of it canned. Some was hung outside and frozen or was put into a barrel or other rodent proof container and snow shoveled over it.
During 1938, work of any kind was scarce in our area and the pay if any was meagre. Occasionally some would need help for a day or so putting hay into a barn, hauling it from a snow covered haystack. I also took jobs milking cows for farmers who wanted to take their family on a short vacation. This was not always easy for milking ten to fourteen cows by hand is no easy task. In most cases these jobs lasted only two or three days. Anyway work was scarce and I took what became available. I also continued to help occasionally at the Farmers Produce Company.
Between January 30 and February 24, 1939, I attended the "Farmers Union Institute," at Jamestown. I earned my way by being janitor and custodian as a kind of working scholarship. This was a wonderful experience. The institute was an attempt to conduct an educational experience based on the principles of the Scandinavian Folk High Schools. The teaching staff was made up of Farmers Union officials; Farm Security administrators; a minister familiar with te Danish Folk School; A minister familiar with the work being done at St. Xavier University in Nova Scotia, and members of the staff at North Dakota Agricultural college. (SCR, Jan. 26, 1939)
Leroy Digerness of Williston is doing an expert job of directing publicity. See the fine line front-page article he wrote for the CIs. Lloyd Tooley of Valley City is chairman of the Public Relations Committee and the sub-committee on Arrangements, which means finding halls, chairs, benches, stages, etc. for all meetings and occasions when we invite visitors.
Mrs. Lucille Zachmeier, as chairman of the Reception Committee, is the Institutes official hostess. She appoints ushers and supervises whatever ticket sales, etc., there may be. Murry Warner, SSCA bookkeeper, is tapping away on and adjoining table typing certificates for the SSCA shares sold at this institute. Paul Wm. Rettke, Lloyd Tooley, and W.A. Kemmer all tried to nab the first share sold this year. Paul and W.A. achieved that distinction because there were two salesmen on that job.
Feeding and keeping house for 73 students and staff entails much work. Mrs. Clara Mansanger is making an enormous lemon cream pudding for lunch this noon. Ruby Pulley, last year's CI grad, is her helper. Wm. Cofell is official "broom pusher" and carpenter. He gets a lot of help from fellows who get lonesome for pitchforks, shovels and pounding nails. Taking Rev. Dr. Holm-Jensen, who is an authority on folk schools, seriously, we have built benches for extra visitors at classes. "Chairs," said he, "are for individualist. Benches require co-operation." (This item is from a North Dakota Union Farmer of February 1939.)
I met some very fine people. In May 2001, my brother Gordon re-introduced me to one of the persons who attended the institute in 1939. One of the significant persons I met was Margaret Krushensky from South Heart, North Dakota. Her husband hired me in the spring of 1941 to work for the South Heart Farmers Union Oil Company.
It was not long after returning home from the "Institute" that I again went to work for Henry Van Bruggen. This time it was to help him get ready for spring planting season. The wage was $15 a month and bed and board. As soon as it was possible to work the ground he set me to plowing one of his fields with his F-12 Farmall tractor and a two bottom plow. One day I managed to get the tractor and plow stuck in a small pond. I had been able to plow through several times because the ground underneath was frozen. On this day it was thawing and about ten o'clock the tractor broke through the frost and we were stuck. It required the neighbors 15-30 McCormick Deering tractor to pull the F-12 out of the mud. I continued with the plowing but it is suggested that Mr. Van Bruggen began to wonder about the wisdom of his hired man.
Shortly after the tractor event, I had to attend a meeting of the Stutsman County Farmers Union. I went to the meeting with Tom Derby another neighbor. This was the meeting at which I must have been elected to the Stutsman County Farmers Union Board. The meeting took place March 30, 1939. I did not get back from the meeting at the time promised. I got back about four hours later. Mr. Van Bruggen had made out a check and informed me that my services were no longer required. It is not very nice to get fired and it hurt.
While attending the Farmers Union meeting I was informed about a cooperative farming project was to be attempted at the Arrowwood Migratory Waterfowl Wild Life Refuge which is located between Edmunds and Kensal, North Dakota. The project was sponsored by the National Youth Administration. It paid more than I was earning plowing fields. However, most of what we were paid went into a common fund to pay for board and other needs. The Bureau of Biological Survey provided our housing.
The NYA project involved working for the Bureau of Biological Survey. Sometime before our involvement the government had purchased some marginal and sub-marginal land surrounding Arrowwood Lake in northern Stutsman county and southern Foster county. It was turned into a Migratory Wildlife Refuge. The Bureau had several projects to be completed and needed help.
The NYA was interested in establishing a cooperative living and working arrangement. The Bureau assigned us about 200 acres of their land so we could plant a crop and share the proceeds. Also we were to be paid twenty or twenty five dollars a month and we would pool that to take care of our needs for food and other necessities. The operation was to be democratically controlled. We incorporated ourselves under the laws of the State of North Dakota. We were provided with about 20 discarded army mules to be used to farm our share of the land. I drove mules that summer for the first time and as far as I can remember we never experienced any difficulty in working them. My opinion still is that working with well-trained mules is about the same as working with a good team of horses. One of my tasks was mowing hay with a team of mules and they seemed eager to work or perhaps they recognized we were cutting the hay to feed them overwinter.
The permanent personnel of the Bureau was two persons a manager and an assistant. They did not have a secretary typist---that became my job. I also did some work in their laboratory used for bird dissection and identification. I remember labeling specimens that were collected for one purpose or another. Other young men in the project planted acres of com or wheat that would be left standing in the fields to feed wildlife. There were building repairs and some road and small dam building and tree planting. There were many different kinds of odd jobs that needed attention.
Each one of us were required to devote a certain number of hours to work for the Refuge. The remaining hours we used to take care of .our needs or our farming project. I was assigned to keep accounts and take care of the washing.
We were a group of about dozen young men between 18 and 23 years of age. I believe most of us were from indigent or welfare families. When I look back we were a pretty congenial group. All of them were willing to make an effort toward cooperative living. Perhaps with somewhat better guidance, planning and help we might have produced some interesting experimental results. The NYA furnished us with cots, mattresses, and some other furniture and equipment. They provided several automobiles and the gasoline to operate them. The living quarter's was a very large house that became part of the refuge buildings. The accommodations in this regard were very good. However, because of the late start and lack of adequate planning we did not produce a crop.
At harvest time some of the young men took time out to help area farmers harvest and thresh their crops. The one we had planted did not turn out very well largely because it was planted very late. We were not in place until almost the first of May.
It was decided by the men that it would be hard to go through the winter for various reason. We had not had to buy any fuel for one thing. The general feeling was that the project hadn't worked out too well especially as a result of the crop failure. We disbanded. I do not remember what happened to the mules, perhaps the army took them back. We disposed of the property we had acquired and settled equitably among ourselves and divided the assets.
A good deal was learned about the business of biological wildlife conservation. I think that the project could have succeeded or could have been more benefit to us all. We were not given very much instruction or assistance in how to make the project work. I believe now some kind of formal educational instructional program would have assisted a great deal in providing a base of such a project. The person in charge was congenial and agreeable to the men and trusted by the officials in Bismarck---but had not had much training or perhaps the imagination to make a project such as this work. Perhaps it would not have worked and the objective of having given some young men a group work-living experience during desperate times was about all that could be expected. There were no serious personality conflicts or disturbances that I recall. We got along fine among ourselves---the group was well selected, congenial, cooperative and friendly. We learned with and from each other.
I don't know whether such a project could have worked in the long term. Had we continued I think the entry into World War II would have terminated the project. The Bureau of Biological Survey was fortunate to have a labor force that enabled the accomplishment of many useful jobs on the refuge. I only went home a couple of times while we were on this project.
In August Lois contracted Anthrax. We have no idea of where she got the organisms that cause the disease. A neighbor several miles away had some cattle die in a pasture. Without consulting a veterinarian he and another neighbor decided to skin them. A veterinarian was called in as cattle continued to die. He identified the disease as anthrax. Both men involved in skinning the animals contracted anthrax. One of them died. We do not know how Lois got the disease. Earlier in that year there was an item warning people about hairbrushes manufactured in Japan. Lois had not been near the cattle, the farm or the men. She became dreadfully ill and she was taken to the hospital where she was diagnosed with anthrax. She was in the hospital for about two weeks. On a trip to Jamestown I visited her in the hospital. She was discharged from the hospital on September 5, 1939.
Harold Rasmusson stricken with the same disease two weeks ago and a patient since then at Jamestown hospital, is also recovering nicely and expects to return to his home near Montpelier today.
Miss Cofell is the third person from that section of the county to be ill with this disease. The first, Peter Iverson, contracting the disease while skinning cattl~1 and passing away a few days later." (SCR., August 31, 1939)
I received the following letter while at Kensal:
Montpelier, N.D. Sept. 6, 1939
Dear Bill:
A few lines in haste, this A.M. Dad has been having trouble with his stomach for some time but has been getting worse all the time so yesterday when we went after Lois I made him see a Doctor and he has stomach ulcers and will probably have to go to the hospital.
He will go to the Veterans Hospital in Fargo. We will have to take Lois to see the Doctor Friday and will make arrangments for his going.
If possible, wish you could be there on Friday. Will probably go in about noon. They have him on a strictly milk diet and has to take tablets and stay in bed.
Love
(signed) Mother
I was able to be in Jamestown on Friday and met them on the street near the Doctor's offices. I was stunned by Dad's appearance and knew that I would have to return home. Fortunately the project at Kensal was already in the process of dissolution. It still took some time before I could get home.
Lois was looking pretty good after her bout with Anthrax but I also learned some pretty awful things had happened as a result of the disease. When Lois was diagnosed with anthrax, the health department had gone to our home and removed and burned clothing, mattresses, bed clothes and anything that might have come in contact with anthrax. According to Gordon, they piled the stuff in the yard and set fire to it. The health department also quarantined our cattle. They also told my folks that they should go to the welfare department and have the stuff replaced. The welfare department allocated them one mattress and a change of clothing for each person in the family. Our family had become more destitute in the summer of 1939. I came home later in September.
I do not have any information that dates the above disbanding activity at Kensal. I arrived home at the end of September or early October. Things had not gone well at home in my absence. The effects of the depression were no less grievous than they had been in previous years. I do not think my absence or presence would have made any significant difference in the family economic condition. There was no satisfactory employment to be obtained in our rural areas.