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Shortly after we moved to Montpelier, mother must have become pregnant with Gordon. He was born July 5, 1924. Doctor Spencer of Montpelier was in attendance. He must also have provided care to mother during her pregnancy. Doctor Spencer did not own a car and Dad drove into Montpelier to bring the Doctor out to the farm house. Doctor Spencer was accompanied by one of his daughters. It was the day after the Fourth of July.
July 5, 1924 was an especially hot day and Doctor Spencer and our father spent part of the morning out of doors on the north west corner of the house which was shaded. The only shade was near buildings. There were about a dozen small Green Ash trees that provided nesting sites for a few Kingfisher birds but not much shade. It was hot in the sun and we children, Lois, little Eugene and myself were playing in the shade near the house in an area where Daddy had planted a pail of Angle worms. He planted them not so much to improve the soil as to provide bait for fishing expeditions to Beaver Creek or the Blind Ditch. Dad and Doctor Spencer talked about their army experiences. Dad had been in France and Doctor Spencer had been with troops along the Mexican border. I only remember the conversation was about war.
In the winter of 1924-1925, I am not certain of the month, Gordon became very ill with pneumonia. The Doctor had been out or my folks had taken him in to the doctor's office but the doctor told our parents that he did not think the child would live. We older children had to pretty much fend for ourselves during this period of illness. My memory is of us three BIder children sitting on the floor and an image of mother sitting in a wooden rocking chair with the baby wrapped in blankets. I have as part of that image, mother mixing mustard plaster poultice for the baby. I vividly remember my mother's fierce determination that the child should not die. I'm not sure now, but I doubt that she put Gordon down except to change him and then pick him up and hold him some more. I did not understand at the time but I am now convinced that her determined spirit communicated to Gordon gave him the will to survive. It was love and care with such force that the desire for life remained strong. Despite the dire prediction of the Doctor, Gordon recovered from his illness and thrived afterward.
Gordon grew physically strong and big but for a long time afterward mother would worry if he got a sniffle or a cold and began immediate treatment. She also worried about his mental capacity since he was long delayed in speaking. Gordon started talking when he was four years old and did very well after that.
Mother need not have worried, he is probably the most mentally capable of all her children. The real tragedy is that the opportunity to educate and train that mind through school would not be available to him. Even without much formal education his ability to think clearly and logically does not seem impaired in any way.
It was shortly after Gordon was born that Dad took me to Edgeley for some dental work. I was taken to Doctor Brodkorpt. (Edgeley Mail, July 27, 1924.) After the work was done or the tooth pulled the dentist gave me a nickel. Gordon's birth was also announced in that same issue of the Edgeley Mail.
It was between 1921 and 1925 that there were crop failures, I believe due to being hailed out. Mother spoke of being hailed out three years in a row. Some of The years were when we on the Sydney farm and the first year on the Montpelier farm. I have a memory of one of these events and it must have occurred in the spring 1924. I remember waking up with pounding going on in the house with other noise outside. I got out of bed and went into the kitchen where mother and Dad were trying to cover the window openings. There was glass allover the floor and a lighted lamp on the table. They appeared distressed and angry but were perhaps more frightened. I probably added to the distress as I stood in the middle of the floor crying in my fright. They must have been afraid that I would cut my bare feet on the splintered glass. I was taken back to bed and told to stay there, that it was over now. I didn't know what was over. I must have stayed in bed and gone back to sleep while they cleaned up. I was later told that after they secured the house that Daddy went outside with a lantern to look around. They did find some baby chicks but not many. In the morning, half dozen chicken brood coops were gone as were most of the chicks and the hens. During the day a couple of hens and a few chicks came wandering in from the prairie across the road. Altogether, I think we lost five hens and their broods of chicks.
There was debris scattered allover the yard and into the pasture beyond the yard to the west of us. There had been hail and I have wondered whether a tornado tore through our place and caused all the grief that night. If not a tornado it was a mighty gust of wind that tore things apart. There were no radios or televisions to give warning of pending storms in those years.
It was about a year or so later that Dad went out one morning and there was a fuss in one of the brood coops. The baby chicks were scattered and the mother hen was battling a weasel. Dad somehow dispensed with the weasel and rescued the hen, which had been bitten in several places. She did, however, continue brooding her chicks and she became a kind of chicken heroine to us children.
Another thing happened in the fall of 1924. We must have had threshers at our house. Anyway, Lois and I were in the yard playing on one of the hay racks that stood there. As we were playing I slipped and fell hitting my face against long iron bolt that was on the rack. The fall against the bolt split my lip open. I am sure I was crying and spraying blood over everything. This entailed a trip into town to see Doctor Spencer. I do not know why but the Doctor did not want to use or did not have anesthetic medicine necessary to put me to sleep or deaden pain. I remember that five women held me on the operating table while he put stitches in my lip. They were Mrs. H.B. Hanson, Mrs. Fred Boelter, Mrs. D.C. Debra, Mrs. Frank Ward and my mother. My mother and Mrs. Debra were both nurses. There was no local anesthetic used. The doctor sewed that lip together and I was reminded long afterward that my screams could be heard allover town. I have never doubted it! The scar remains today and it has never bothered me and I can remember only one person and that in recent years who referred to it by asking me if I had had a hare lip repaired ---no a split lip repaired under harrowing circumstances. It may seem strange but about fifty years after that accident I went through an exercise in which six people tried to hold me down while I was to try to break loose. The image of the experience on that operating table came back with full force.
The accident experience makes me wonder when I hear so much concern about scars and plastic surgery. I also think it is wonderful that scars such as mine need no longer be a concern. It is a comfort to many that surgeons are able to close up the results of accidents with great skill. It is another indicator of the progress made in medicine and surgery. In my childhood day the concern was to get the thing closed up and the bleeding stopped. The hope was that there would be no deadly infection. Somehow my parents never made me very conscious of that scar on my lip though the scar is still noticeable when I look in the mirror. I have never defined myself or my appearance regarding it.
There is one other memory that remains of this period. It has given me a life-time awareness of Tetanus, in those days known as lockjaw. One of our neighbor went into her yard and discovered a board with a rusty nail sticking upward. She put her foot on it to bend it and it did not, it went into her foot instead. She did not go to the doctor until it was too late. Mother went over and stayed with the woman during her last days. Afterwards someone blamed Doctor Spencer for her death. I remember my mother defending him by telling someone it would not have ended that way if the lady had gone to the doctor immediately. She could have received an injection that would have saved her life.
Doctor Spencer died in the fall of 1925. He came to Montpelier about 1918, just at the beginning of the Flu Epidemic. He was recognized for having saved the lives of many people during the epidemic. He himself said he only lost one patient and she died because she did not follow his recommended treatment. Two people who also gained recognition during the Epidemic were the men who drove Dr. Spencer about the country. They were Sam Kenny and Charlie Finnegan. The story of their part in the Flu Epidemic is found in a paper I wrote for Sam Kenny's 100th birthday Celebration, May 24, 1992. Sam Kenny was at one time the foreman on the Chicago Ranch and Charlie Finnegan was our neighbor in the 1920's. It is a story that seems almost incredible today. I have included the paper written and delivered for Sam's one hundredth birthday:
SAM AND LEONA KENNY: LIVING HISTORY
MAY 24, COUNTRY CLUB IN BISMARCK, ND., AFTERNOON 2 TO 5 PM.
"I remember Sam Kenny as a farmer in Sydney Township in Stutsman County. The year about 1928-29. My father was purchasing a Shorthorn bull calf. If I remember correctly it was or could have been registered. My Dad was paying by check. Sam, being a cautious man, would not take the check until it was countersigned by Ed. Bon who owned the small general store in Sydney.
While growing up in Montpelier Township our farm home bordered the Chicago Ranch, twelve sections of land owned by Fred E. and Mary Gray Lee ofDowagiac, Michigan. Fred E. Lee was President and General Manager of the Round Oak Stove Company. From 1914 until 1917 or 1918, Sam Kenny was working foremen of the Ranch. (And I mean he worked.) He left the Main Ranch to go farming on his own. He earned a solid reputation as a citizen and neighbor. He served" as a member of the Montpelier Township board in about 1918-1921.
There is a lapse of 57 years between 1928-1929 and June 7 and 8th of 1983, when I was privileged to spend two whole days with Sam and Leona in their home on 718 Mandan, here in Bismarck. We captured about six hours of conversation on a trusty tape recorder in an interview when transcribed was more than 120 pages in length. (For those of you who might sometime be interested, the interview with Sam and Leona, as well as a history of the Chicago Ranch are on file in the North Dakota Heritage Center.
Sam and Leona are both living History for the State of North Dakota. During those two days in June 1983 they were both eager to relate their knowledge and information. I was most impressed by their unstinted hospitality and consideration. It was a pleasure to renew acquaintance and on subsequent visits to learn more of the lives of Sam and Leona. They exemplified to a high degree the love of neighbor. The fact that they accepted into their home those who were suffering and in need of counsel and caring, especially children their own and the children of others are examples of this. I think any child in pain who arrived at their door was received with compassion and concern. The sensible counsel and guidance given by Sam and Leona to more than one lonely and confused teen-age girl or boy opened paths of salvation for those adolescents. There were many children Leona contacted in the schools talking about and demonstrating food preparation and preservation in homes in the 1920's and the 1930's. That was history that Leona knew intimately. It included the baking of bread and 'preserving of vegetables and meats. Leona did the work in the schools proudly and well.
During the interview a friend come to visit and I shut off the tape recorder and Leona got up quietly and went to the kitchen and shortly had dinner on the table. I had expected to go to a restaurant for lunch, but Leona would have none of that. The home baked bread made from wheat that Sam and Leona had cleaned, washed, dried, ground into flour and baked was a super treat. And Leona if you are listening many children must bless you for what you have shared. Those of us who have been recipients of your gifts of doilies, pine cone wreaths and other work of your hands also bless you.
In the 1920's and 1930's the life and role of farm women was very much different, without the conveniences considered commonplace today. Many, if not most children, were born at home. A doctor might or might not be present, the delivery often assisted by a neighbor's wife. Life tended to be isolated, distance between farms largely determined opportunity and frequency of visiting. The daily care of children and often of calves, lambs, colts and chickens as well, governed the daily routine. Leona was kicked by a horse she walked too close to carrying some squawking hens. There were no radios or television sets for entertainment and many farm homes did not have telephones. Leona knew this life and were she here today she might mention some events that lightened the task and lives of farm women. She seemed more ready to talk about these things than to dwell on complaints.
An event that marked the life of Leona in the home and community was representative of the lives of many North Dakota Women of that era and deserves mention. In August of 1928, a Miss Magdalene Heiberg arrived in Jamestown. She is mentioned here because she affected the lives of many women in Stutsman County including Leona and my mother. Miss Heiberg was the first Home Demonstration Agent in Stutsman County. She may even have been one of the first in the state. (SCR, Vol. 24, No. 52, August 16, 1928.) Harper Brush was the county agent and had helped organize some of the first Homemakers clubs but he was better at helping farmers raise sheep than in sewing a seam. He needed an assistant.
Miss Heiberg arrived in August and in an item published in October one reads: "The Beaver Community Homemakers Club met at the Sam Kenney home Thursday', October 18. The clothing demonstration was given, the project leaders being assisted by Miss Magdalene Heiberg, assistant county agent. A most bountiful dinner was served by the hostess. The next meeting of the Club will be Thursday Nov. 1, at the AI. Clemens home." (SCR., Vol. 25, No. 10, October 25, 1928.)
Leona was again hostess to the club about a year later. "The Beaver Creek club met Thursday afternoon with Mrs. Sam Kenny when election of officers took place, Mrs. H. W. Drake, was elected president; Mrs. C. Kertz, vice- president; Mrs. A. Meeker, secretary; and Mrs. S. Spangler, treasurer. The hostess served a delicious spring chicken lunch. The next meeting will be August 8, at the home of Mrs. Kertz." (SCR., Vol. 25, No. 51, August 8, 1929)
There were several other items that illustrate the involvement of Leona in the affairs of her community. This Homemakers Club was among the first visited by the new demonstration agent. Leona was part of that family, home and community improvement movement that added so much vitality to family living and social activity of North Dakota rural women when there was so much happening to depress and discourage. We also know that Leona was involved in these rural women's activity because she had the support and encouragement of her husband Sam.
One more event needs to be related demonstrating the involvement in needs and welfare of the community by this couple. Some time ago I wrote a story about the 1918 influenza epidemic in central North Dakota, dealing especially with the recorded experiences around Edgeley and Montpelier, North Dakota.
The Montpelier area was served by a Doctor John J. Spencer, who arrived in the community in the spring of 1918. He served a large area including all or part of townships of Montpelier, Manns, Severn, Corwin, Ypsilanti, and Sydney in Stutsman County and parts of the northern tier of townships in LaMoure county and part of the eastern townships of Barnes county. The flu epidemic arrived in the area in October of 1918 becoming particularly virulent in December and January. According to the Montpelier Magnet, Doctor Spencer treated over 1000 patients and lost but two or three cases. One week in October the Doctor treated 250 patients and in the middle of January 1919 he treated 139 patients in one week. The number of patients treated in the weeks between October 9 to the middle of January were between the figures cited. Nearly every home had one or more persons ill with the flu. Doctor Spencer did not own or drive an automobile and most of his patients were treated in the home.
The doctor would have been overwhelmed without the help and assistance given by Sam Kenny and his hired man, Charley Finnegan, who somehow managed to drive the doctor in some cases as much as 100 to 150 miles a day (MM, Vol. 5, No. 31, December 27, 1918) visiting patients for as long as 22 hours out of a day. (MM., Vol. 5, No. 21, October 18, 1918) The doctor needed to rest between patients, Sam provided the horses and he or Charley did the driving, changing teams and relieving each other when necessary. At the periods when the doctor was seeing patients, Sam or Charley often did chores and saw to the provisioning of stricken families. There were others in the community that helped their neighbors in various ways. It was Sam and Charley who assisted the doctor in sustaining life in a harrowing epidemic in which more than 548,000 United States citizens died. Compare that to the 53,513 battle deaths that occurred in World War I. Over 20,000,000 people died world wide from the flu.
Subsequently Sam was involved in community activities or in activities that benefited people living in community in Jamestown, Steele and here in Bismarck where he has helped beautify the city with his knowledge of growing things. What I have cited here are only examples of neighborliness, selfless concern for others, consideration and respect for fellow human beings. There are many other examples that could be drawn from the events of their lives. We ought to be encouraged that even at 100 years that Sam demonstrates an outgoing concern for the good of others. Lorraine and I visited Sam last year when he was hospitalized. He had an operation on his foot, while moving his wheelchair an attendant bumped his injured foot. Sam winced. After she left he said to us, "I could complain but that woman needs her job."
This brief summary illustrates only a very small part of the total contribution that both Sam and Leona made to the community as they strengthened their life with each other. We all are grateful and thank them for sharing their lives, experience and knowledge and for being part of the history of this state.
I would like to end this memorial in the same way that the writer of St. John's Gospel ended his book. In chapter 21 and the last verse of St. John's Gospel it reads: "There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written." John 21:25. What I want to say is that there were many other things that Sam and Leona did that are not cited here but if all the experience and activities and good things of their lives were put down they would fill several books.
Sam and Leona we praise God for the goodness of your lives and for the goodness you have done. Thank you."
***
In the two year period between 1923 and 1925 our family got to know Doctor Spencer very well. He became a legend in that area of North Dakota. As I think of those days we were fortunate to have a Doctor in the village. Many towns were without medical practitioners of any kind.
Doctor Spencer was followed by Dr. Lange and when he left local medical needs were met in Jamestown, twenty miles away. Mrs. D. C. Debra and my mother also supplied assistance in birthing babies and minor emergencies that probably didn't require a doctor. They were often the first responders in several cases and made recommendations to get a person to the hospital because they recognized the signs of appendicitis or pneumonia. There were several deaths because of a burst appendix followed by peritonitis when the operation was performed too late. Among recommendations they also made was that no food or physic (laxative) be given when appendicitis was suspected. The advice was not always taken.
At the time of Doctor Spencer's death in 1925, I remember that mother was pregnant and very worried about not having a doctor present for this next delivery. My father tried to reassure her that they were working very hard to find a doctor who would come to Montpelier.
It can be suspected that Dr. Spencer was unpaid for many services rendered. There was an advertisement in the Montpelier Magnet instructing those whose bills were unpaid how to make their payment. I suspect that we had an unpaid bill for the delivery of Gordon, for my lip repair and for pneumonia services rendered before the Doctor's death.
Fortunately among other things Mrs. Spencer kept a cow. It might have been taken by her as payment for a bill. My father paid his bill to the Spencers by hauling in two large loads of hay and stacking it neatly outside the shed in which the cow was kept. I rode to town with my father on the loads of hay. It was late fall and already cold. I got to play for a few minutes with the Spencer's son, Raymond. I do not know how others paid their bill or if they did, but our bill was paid up in trade.
Minta Spencer was the recipient of a mother's pension paid out monthly by the county commissioners. The amount was $20.00 a month in 1928. In May of 1929 the amount was reduced to $10.00 a month when one of her dependents went to Iowa. She moved from Montpelier to Iowa sometime in 1930. The mother's pension continued to be an item in the County Budget until about 1934-35, by that time the names of recipients were no longer printed. I suspect that many of those widows received jobs with WP A canning food and making mattresses and clothing.
Over the years, Mother had many positive things to say about Doctor Spencer and his family. In an interview she said: "Doctor Spencer's daughter, his oldest daughter, Violet, visited Montpelier one time, long after he died and she came to see me. "(We talked about how) "She stayed, helped me out a few times at the house when children were born." (Interview January 31, 1976.) I believe that Violet Spencer must have helped mother at the birth of Gordon or Marvin and perhaps helped during both deliveries. She would not have been present when we were at Sydney. When Arthur was born in January 3, 1928, Mrs. Joe Brehm, a neighbor, came over and as midwife assisted with the delivery.
Doctor Lange arrived in Montpelier during December of 1925. As I can piece it together today, from items in the Montpelier Magnet and the Stutsman County Record his arrival must have been only a few days before brother Marvin was born. What I remember is this: Doctor Lange came to our house the evening before Marvin was born and a place was prepared for him to sleep and rest on the floor in the living room, the. warmest room in the house. I do not remember birth cries or anything else but I remember them preparing blankets and quilts so the doctor would at least be warm. I doubt that it was a comfortable arrangement. As with many farm families we did not have the beds or bed clothing to properly receive a guest of his standing. Yet some kind of accommodation must be provided. Marvin was born December 22, 1925 three days before Christmas. Ido not remember anything of Christmas that year, but I am sure mother celebrated in bed with her new son. She had a firm belief that women after giving birth should stay in bed for at least ten days. Probably a good thing in those days. We must have had someone come into help--perhaps one of our father's sisters came up from Edgeley. One of the daughters of Dr. Spencer may have come out to help, but that is conjecture.
Doctor Lang set up practice in Montpelier and remained about six or seven years. His daughter Inger was in a grade or two ahead of me in school when I started in the fall of 1926. Doctor Lang did several things for our family. My sister stuck a kernel of corn up her nose and it was causing difficulty and Doctor Lang extracted it. He also pulled teeth. He was the doctor that first examined my brother Eugene when he fell from the slide on the school playground and fractured his skull. He did not treat Eugene. Eugene was taken to Trinity Hospital by my Dad and Iver Ytreeide. More than once Iver Ytreeide provided transportation in serious emergencies for his neighbors. More on this later.
These country Doctors are due some special recognition by those they served. I remember someone commenting in rather contemptuous voice regarding Doctor Lang's laundry hung out on the line to dry. That someone was noting and remarking that the underwear used by the family was patched and sewn. I believe that the level of living of some of the Country Doctors was not far above and probably was at the level of that group of people they sought to serve. They also had to live frugally. There were no insurance plans in those days that assured payment for even some medical treatment. There was no way that Doctors could provide many things for themselves. The fees they charged were not very great.
It must have been about 1924 or 1925 that my father took me to a "show" (Movie). It was still the years of the silent movies and it was my first time. I do not know the name of the movie, but it was an oater or horse opera western. I had never seen horses run like they did in those early movies---and haven't since. My father didn't get over his habit of using profanity until quite late in life. We boys all acquired this art. Previous to going to this "show", I had all kinds of fantasies as to what" show" was about, but I went bravely along to find out. According to my father and others in attendance at that meeting, and from my own rather dim recollection, as those horses with their riders darted and galloped across the screen up hill and down at breakneck speed, I kept up a running profane commentary. This provided additional entertainment for those present as my commenting was adequately fortified with a lot of words learned from hearing my father use them. I do not like to blame my father but the child learns what he hears and it becomes second nature and gets repeated. I remember other occasions in which profanity was employed with considerable passion.
In those days automobiles were equipped with jacks, air pumps, tire irons, boots, and a patching kit. If it was an expensive car there was often a factory installed tool box on the running board. In cheaper cars such as the 1915 Model T Fords such tools were kept under the back seat which had to be removed to acquire access. These occasions have something to do with our learning of particularly intensive application of profanity.
The 1915 Model T Ford that was our motor transport until about 1927-28 had side curtains, fragile tires, and other such paraphernalia. The 1915 Model did not have spare tires such as were carried by later model cars. If a tire went flat while one was on a trip, the car had to be raised on a jack, a rather dangerous process in itself on unstable roads. Then with the use of tire irons and other tools the tire was opened up and the inner tube was removed from the rim. The hole had to be found. sometimes by attempting to reinflate the tube and then with appropriate cement and patch, a repair was made. If there was a hole or puncture of the tire casing, then a "boot" had to be placed within the tire and then the inner tube was restored to its place and the tire returned to its position on the rim. This was followed by pumping the inner tube full of air. If the job was done properly the tire stayed infJated and could be lowered from the jack. The tools were then restored to their proper place under the back seat and only th-n could the travelers continue on their way.
I think my father had a special vocabulary for these occasions. Anyway, I can remember my mother trying to get us as far from the car as was possible while Dad was in the process of repairing a tire. I realize now that it may also have had something to do with safety because ground and jacks were not exactly reliable in those days. Safety, however, did not require the distance my mother sought, I suspect it was language avoidance. As I think back almost all the men used rough language. It seemed to be some kind of mark of manliness. There were a couple I remember as extremely foul mouthed almost every other word either a profanity or obscenity. There were other males in our community using language such as our father used and that only reinforced the habit among boys. We also learned to be shocked when someone used such language in the presence of women and girls or when used by the female gender. Several times while growing up I was reminded of the entertainment I provided for the crowd at a Western movie in Montpelier. Very soon, I would learn to curb those words in certain situations since I was about to start school.