A JOURNEY T H R O U G H L I F E B Y C A R L R. L U C A S This book is dedicated to my three daughters, Carolyn Blotz, Wanda Wienkers and Marjean Kraemer.

I f i t were not for them, this would not have been written. They insisted that I make a story o f my travels through life. To each o f us there is a beginning and for me, that beginning started on September 28, 1915. I joined two brothers and two sisters. One brother had died in infancy. We were later joined by another brother. M y earliest recollection o f things happening around me was when I was about four years old. It was a very stormy, snowy night and I was waiting and looking out the window for my brothers and sisters to come walking home from school, which was about a three mile walk. Our toys were not too much. I remember only one hand-me-down rag doll that was about worn out by the time i t got to me. I loved to iron clothes and towels. Mother would heat the flat irons on the stove and then give them to me to iron making sure that they weren't hot enough to burn me. Another thing I loved to do was to bake onions in mother's stove and then eat them. Our stove was an old stove that had four claw feet and four burner lids on it. They could be removed for us to toast bread over an open fire. I t also had a warming oven above the stove to keep things warm after cooking. One other nice thing about the stove was the reservoir, a storage place to hold about four gallons o f hot water for cooking and washing dishes. I n 1921, I started to school. Each morning I and my older brother and two sisters would walk three miles to a country school called W i l l o w Springs. There were about twenty-five children in eight grades taught by one teacher. The older boys brought i n the wood for the fire. The water was also brought in from a pump i n the schoolyard. Our playground entertainment was drowning gophers out o f their holes and playing Andy Over, Red Rover and Fox and Geese. I would get very tired walking home from school but there was a huge rock about half way home and I would rest on i t . There were about five children i n the first grade and we all attended school until the weather got too cold then we didn't go anymore. I n the spring when school was out, the teacher promoted each o f us into second grade the next Fall. We went to Cobb Grade School. The other children went to Montfort and Highland schools. Each one o f my classmates stayed i n second grade for about three weeks. By then the teachers decided that none o f us were ready for second grade so back to first grade we went! I liked going to school i n Cobb. There were lots o f kids and something was going on all the time. The high school boys used to tease the small kids. They would get us kids to fight. About this time I had my first o f many fights. The older boys got I and another k i d about twice my size to fight. I t happened that when we fell to the ground that I was on top! I thought to myself what w i l l I do next? I knew that when he got up, he would surely beat me up. Looking at the ground beside me I saw a square old time nail so I picked it up and commenced to pounding

on his head. He stared crying and yelling and the boys were laughing their heads off! So one of the boys pulled me o f f and the k i d run as fast as he could and never bothered me again. A s a matter o f fact, we became very good friends. A t noon we would all sit i n the shade with the high school boys and eat our dinner. This one time, the senior boys all came dressed in their best suits because they were going to have their graduation picture taken. A boy, whose name was Freeman Fox and was 6 ' 6 " tall and always full o f fun, was teasing me so my brother said; "Throw your egg at h i m . " I had this softboiled egg i n my hand so I threw it and hit him in the belly and it broke and ran down his pants. I then made a quick exit as he was a mess and plenty mad. However, I wasn't a troublemaker because I always had many friends and got along just great with everyone. About this time, my Dad decided he would need a new barn. For more that two years, he would cut logs (all on his farm) i n preparation for sawing lumber. He also quarried all the rocks and sand for the rock walls. He hired A l f Vickerman to haul all the sand for i t which was quarried on our farm. There were piles o f rock, sand and logs wherever you looked. When that was done, he had a big sawmill come i n from Boscobel to saw the lumber. They brought their own crew o f men. Everett McReynolds owned the sawmill and he had Neal Wilkinson, George Combs, George Peacock, Manual Streeter and Jud Wilkinson. I don't seem to remember the others. They would saw lumber all week and then go home for the weekend. There were about seven men and they would board at our place during the week. I don't remember how long i t took them but imagine most o f the summer. They sawed out 93,000 feet of lumber. Several thousand feet o f it was for the neighbors. When that was finished, Dad hired a carpenter from Fennimore with seven men to build a new barn. B i l l Kephart was the carpenter and he hired most of the sawmill men to help h i m . I t was 126 feet long, 36 feet wide and about 45 feet high. I t was the largest barn i n the country at that time. We had two sides o f stanchions with 20 cows on each side and had a lever that we pulled and it would close all 20 stanchions at a time. Our farm that Dad owned was 248 acres and he rented another 80 acres. W e never ran out o f work. M y father was a good man and a very hard worker. He expected everyone to work and do their fair share. When the masons were building the rock wall for the basement o f the barn, they mislaid their mason hammer. They told me i f I would find i t they would give me a quarter. I looked for several days but couldn't find i t . Then one day my Dad said, "Have you looked for the hammer?" I said, "yes, but I can't fmd i t . " So he said, "Come with me and I w i l l help you l o o k . " We went around one corner o f the wall and there i t was lying so I got my quarter. I still think Dad had found it and put it there so I could find i t and get the quarter. When the sawmill workers and carpenters were staying at our place, Dad and Mother ordered 25 pound boxes o f cookies and dried fruits to feed them. There were boxes o f dried apricots, prunes, boysenberries and other kinds I can't remember. Also many different kind o f cookies, which I can't remember. One o f our upstairs rooms was full o f boxes. These were all bought from Sears and Roebuck.

I was about seven years old and it was time to put hay i n the new barn. M y j o b was to drive a team of horses on the hay wagon pulling the hay loader. A man would be on the wagon and would build the load of hay. When we had a load, we would take it to the barn. Another group of men would unload i t into the barn. We would take another hayrack and go and get another load. This we would do all summer so as to have enough feed to feed the dairy cattle all winter. We would milk 40 head o f Holstein cattle and haul to the cheese factory more than 2,000 pounds o f milk every day. W e usually had six or seven people milking by hand. We did have milking machines but during the Depression, we did the milking by hand. M i l k prices got as low as 67 cents a hundred pounds. In the early days, Dad had Durham and Shorthorn cattle. They were a dual-purpose breed; good for the both milk and beef. I n the summertime, the farmers would get the cows home from the pasture i n the morning and night and milk i n the barnyard rather then i n the barn. This was done because the barn was too warm with the cattle i n i t . The cattle were trained to stand i n a certain spot while they were milked. Some o f the cows would have such large udders and so much milk that they would be uncomfortable. They would follow us around and wanted to be milked first. Each spring, about the middle o f A p r i l , it would be time to go to the field to prepare the fields to sow oats. First we would plow the ground, then disk i t and then harrow i t , sometimes twice. Then we would plant the oats, barley or wheat. I n about a week, the ground would start to green up. About the 10 day o f M a y , we would start to plant corn. Dad always checked the
th

corn i n . This was done by rolling a wire across the field. This wire had a knot or button every 40 inches. The wire was then put into a slot in the corn planter. As the team o f houses went across the field, the wire button would trip the slot on the corn planter and three or four kernels o f corn would be dropped into the ground. This was done so the corn could be cultivated both length way and cross way so as to get r i d o f the weeds. Then we would have to cultivate the corn about five times. Or until i t was knee high which was about the 4 o f July.
th

Each year I would spend many days cultivating the corn with a team o f horses and a riding cultivator. N o w our farm had a long ridge over a mile long with a strong running spring on each side o f it. Evidently in earlier years, the Indians would gather at the springs to live, hunt and fish. When I would cultivate the corn, I would find the Indian arrows lying on the ground. After a rainstorm, I would sometimes find as many as 13 i n one day and maybe the next day, I wouldn't find any. A t one time, I had over 1,000 o f them. I later gave the arrows to my six grandsons. I made six Indians teepee frames past experience to live on with my grandchildren. After the corn was planted and cultivated, i t was time to cut and shock the oats, barley and rye. To do this j o b , Dad had a grain binder. I t was quite a machine and had a seat for a man to sit on and was pulled by our Perchan horses. This machine would cut six foot o f grain each time the horses pulled it around the field. As the grain was cut, a reel with six paddles would lay the grain on a platform. N o w this platform had a canvas apron on i t . The traveling apron would take the grain to two more aprons. The grain and straw would go between those tow canvas aprons up an incline to some packer fingers and twine knotter. When so much grain and straw was i n the bundle, the binder would tie i t and the machine would kick the bundle 4 to mount them i n . I wanted some o f my

onto a bundle carrier. When about four bundles were i n the carrier, the man on the binder would push a pedal with his foot and the bundle carrier would trip the bundles on to the ground. After about four rounds around the field were made, we would start shocking the grain. This was done by taking the bundles by the grain heads, one bundle i n each arm and standing them on their butts. Then two bundles on either side o f the first ones and one bundle in the middle on either side. Then we would put one bundle on top to act as a cap. I n a l l , there would be nine bundles i n a shock. .After about three weeks, the neighbors would all help each farm thresh the grain. There were usually eleven or twelve farmers in each threshing crew. There would be six to eight bundle wagons to haul the bundles into the threshing machine. One bundle wagon on either side o f the rracbine. The men on the wagons would each pitch the bundles into the machine. There were usually two spike pitchers to help load the wagons. There were two grain wagons to haul the grain to the granary for storage. Each wagon had to unload its own grain. There was usually one man to run the blower, which would blow the straw onto the ground. I n those days, each fanner built his own stack o f straw and sometimes would have five or six stacks. When they were finished, they were beautiful to look at, as each farmer was a master at building them. I clso built many stacks for the neighbors. Usually a young boy, about twelve or thirteen, would run the blower. He would have to turn the blower forth and back across the stack so the men in the stack could spread the straw and build the straw stack. Needless to say, this lad thought he was doing a great job! Sometimes the threshing machine would break down, as was the case one-year while they were threshing at Dad's place. So Dad and the owner o f the threshing machine had to go and get repair parts for i t . The men would just hang around and rest or try to make trouble. A couple o f young boys about sixteen years old tried to catch some o f us younger boys. They said they were going to do bad things to us. We boys, about ten years old, were good runners and we ran away from them. They told what all they were going to do when they caught us. Needless to say, they scared the hell out o f us. I didn't know how I was going to protect myself because i n the fall, I would have to travel past one o f the boy's home on my way to school. I went to the hardware store and bought a used 32 Colt revolver. I n those days there were no questions ask as you paid for i t . I hid it i n the machine shed i n some lumber. When school started, I would take it i n the buggy to school and would hide i t i n the oat bin that we kept there to feed our pony. A l l the time, I was thinking about my predicament. I didn't want to hurt anyone and I didn't want anyone to hurt me. I thought this is not the way to solve this as I would cause my parents and everyone else involved a great deal of sorrow. I thought there was a better way to protect myself...I w i l l learn to be a boxer and then I w i l l be able to protect myself. I got a pair o f brass knuckles (kid size) and later on I got an adult pair o f brass knuckles each weighing about a pound. I would put them on inside the boxing gloves to train and get accustom to this extra weight and it certainly helped with my durability. There was a man i n Cobb that lived alone and he was a very good boxer. He had a regular size boxing ring i n his barn and he trained several other boys so I asked h i m i f he would train me. He said no problem and I could start anytime. I was so happy at the thought o f being able to protect myself and no one would get hurt too badly. I would go to his place before school started i n the morning and again at noon hour. We boys enjoyed it and he enjoyed watching us 5

punching each other. I was left -handed and there were very few left- handed boxers then so I did have an advantage. M y love for boxing grew through the years and I continued to train wholeheartedly. When I was a junior i n high school, we had a principal that was a heavyweight champion boxer for the University o f Platteville and he was my trainer for the next three and one half years. During this time, I also trained at the Y M C A at Dubuque, Iowa and sometimes at the Y M C A i n Madison. I was left-handed and had a punishing left hook and uppercut. By this time, I felt that I was ready for anyone who chose to cross my path but I definitely was not looking for trouble. After the threshing was done, there was a second crop o f hay to make and soon i t would be silo-filling time. The neighbors would again help each other until all the silos were filled and refilled which would take about two days at each place. There would be about eight bundle wagons to haul the corn bundles i n to the silo fillers and a man with a corn binder to cut the corn. There were not so many men involved because some farmers didn't have silos. Later on in the fall, each farmer would cut and shock the corn. Then about November 1st, they would again help each other shred the corn. A man with a shredder would go to each farm and about eight bundle wagons would haul the corn shocks i n and shred them. There would be two corn wagons to haul the ears o f corn into the corncribs and unload them. The corn fodder was usually blown into the barn by the shredder to be used for feed and bedding. In the spring, about March l , the farmers would exchange help to saw wood. Three or
f l

four neighbors would come over the help carry wood usually cut i n ten or twelve foot lengths. One man would saw the wood into about fifteen inch pieces and another man would throw the pieces onto a pile to be burned later i n the kitchen stove or the furnace to keep us warm i n the winter. This j o b was always done i n the spring so that the wood would dry out over the summer. M y two older brothers would go threshing i n the summer and Dad would send me to the timber with an axe and one-man saw and a pail o f wedges. He told me to go through the umber and cut down all the dead trees, saw them into twelve foot lengths split the larger ones so they could be piled i n a neat pile and burn or pile the brush. On a 248-acre farm, this was a big j o b . I f I had a good tree that I could get a ten or twelve foot log then I would save i t to make lumber. N o w i n the summer this was a very hot j o b . I n the fall, when we had time we would haul i t up by the buildings so we could saw i t i n the spring. Cutting wood was a dangerous j o b for one man to be doing because a tree could fall and k i l l h i m and no one would find h i m for hours. I was very lucky. Years later, my Dad was killed by a falling tree. Our day would start at four i n the morning. We would go to the barn and start milking. Our herd o f forty milking Holsteins plus all the young stock would be waiting to be fed. Each one of us had his own individual work besides helping with the milking. M y j o b was to feed the little calves. One o f my brothers would feed, curry and harness the horses. A currycomb was used to comb and brush the horse's hair. I t would help to get the sweat o f f o f the horses and 6

make them feel fresher. Another would feed the hogs. When this was done, i t would be about six o'clock and time for breakfast. Sometimes i t was bacon, eggs, toast and cereal. Dad was a diversified farmer as most farmers were. I n March our sows would farrow. We usually had about six to eight sows and would hope to have seven to eight pigs i n each litter. In six to eight months, these pigs would weigh 200 to 220 pounds and would be ready for market. I n those days, we just fed them ear corn and whey from the cheese factory. We had no concentrate to feed them so i t took longer to finish them. N o w days the concentrate and other feed makes it possible to get them to weigh 200 to 220 pounds i n four to five months. In the fall, Dad always had some sows to farrow. Our hog pasture had many oak trees i n i t . The sows would farrow i n September just when the acorns were dropping. The sows would make their nest i n the oak leaves and we wouldn't see them for about a month. When they had eaten all the acorns, they would come to the building bringing with them the little pigs. They were very fat and w i l d . We also raised some sheep. This was Dad's j o b to see that lambs would suckle and the mothers claim i t . I n about June, it was time to shear the wool off. This was done with a scissors-like shear. A fleece o f wool usually weighed about eleven pounds. When the ewes were freshly shorn, the lambs wouldn't recognize their mothers and would bleat for a day or more. The wife o f the farmer always took care o f the chickens. They were her property and she usually got some o f her money from selling them and the eggs. The eggs were always traded for groceries at the store o f her choice. The extra money was hers. Mother had two incubators for hatching the eggs. A n incubator was a tin square box well insulated, standing on four legs about 30 inches high. They would hold about 100 to 200 eggs each. They were heated with kerosene lamps. The heat had to be kept at a certain degree. It was always a worry for her that the light would go o f f and chill the eggs or be to hot and cook them. The eggs had to be turned by hand every day. I n three weeks, the incubator would be filled with little yellow chicks peeping to get out. They were then taken out and put under a brooder. This was metal box-like with four legs standing about four inches o f f the floor. I t also was heated and had a light inside. The little chicks knew where the heat was and would go i n there to get warm and then go out o f it to eat their specially prepared feed. I n about July, they would weigh about three and one-half pounds and mother would start to fry them. No one could fry chicken like my Mother could. In the summertime, the chickens would run around outside. The chicken hawks were always a threat to them. Mother would always raise a few Guinea and when the chicken hawks would fly over our barnyard, the Guineas would make such a noise and the chickens would run for the buildings and hide. The Guinea was a dark feathered finely spotted bird and they had a loud shrill cackle, which alerted the chickens that there was danger aloft. The chicken is not too smart a bird and when a rainstorm would suddenly start, the smaller chicks would stand out i n i t with their heads pointed toward the sky. The rain coming down would sometimes drown them. We would have to go out and get them and hold them by their feet so that some 7

of the water would exit through their beaks. Then we would place them under the brooder and warm them. I n so doing, we would save many o f them. In the fall when they were about six months old, we would catch them i n the evenings. W e would them put them i n the chicken house. They would stay i n the chicken house all winter along with plenty o f feed and water. The end results would be lots o f eggs. A very pretty sight to see was when a hen would steal her nest away i n the weed or barns and later would appear with ten or fifteen little chicks. Mother also raised some ducks and geese but we never had any running water i n our farmyard so we were hampered i n that respect. She also had raised a few turkeys. Dad and Mother also had about 25 beehives. When I was about thirteen years old, my j o b was to put the new swarms o f bees i n a hive when they would swarm. This always would take place during June and July. W e would listen with our ear to the back o f the hive to hear the Queen bees fighting. Each hive would have one Queen bee and she was the leader o f the rest of the bees. Then there were the workers and some o f them would gather the nectar from flowering plants. Others would gather the pollen from the flowers. This they would bring back to the hive where other workers would make it into honey and the pollen would be made into wax for the honeycombs. There were also drone bees and they would care for the new bees. A beehive would each send out a new swarm three times each year. The first swarm was always the largest, sometimes larger than a five gallon pail. The second swarm would come i n about nine days and the third would come three days later. This one would be much smaller and when they swarmed, the sky would be thick with flying bees. I would settle the bees by making noise with a tin pan or spraying the area with water. They would think i t was raining and would all gather on a branch o f a tree. They would hear the queen calling and she would settle on the branch first and the rest would settle with her. I would then place a new hive close to the swarm and cut the limb o f f and carry it to the hive and sprinkle i t with water. Then I would shake the bees o f f i n front o f the new hive and they would go straight into the hive. Sometimes they wouldn't want to stay i n the hive; they would come out and try to leave. I then would have to settle them again and do it all over again. I didn't like this so I would get a scissors and when I got them settled, I would watch for the queen. She was much larger and a little longer than the others. I would catch her and cut o f f about half o f one wing then she couldn't f l y . The rest o f the bees would try to fly away but she could only go to the edge o f the hive. She would then go back into the hive and the rest would come back. When Dad found out what I was doing, he was not too happy but after he seen that nothing was hurt, he said i t was ok. I f I had a small swarm, I would k i l l the queen and the rest o f the bees would go back to the hive they had left. The queen and the drone bee did not have stingers but the rest o f them d i d . As a rule they weren't too mean unless i t was rainy and cloudy and they couldn't swarm when they wanted to. They were very mean i f their hive was full o f honey and they had no place to put it. I n that case, we would add another super on top o f the hive. The hive was a square box type o f structure 20 inches long, 16 inches wide and 10 inches high. This section was where the bees stored the honey for their own use i n the wintertime and 8

it was usually enough but sometimes i n the late winter, we would have to add sugar water to carry them through to spring. The supers that we added on top were usually the one-pound box type. There would be four boxes i n a row and seven rows, which would be 28 boxes i n a super. We would buy them from Sears Roebuck. We would put a little starter wax i n each box so the bees would start building the cone the right way. I and my brother and cousin would set i n the shade and play Michigan Rummy while waiting for the bees to swarm. We used watermelon seeds for money. I have completely forgotten how to play the game. Sometimes a neighbor would find a bee tree in the timber or a swarm would make their home in the inside of a house, church or schoolhouse. We would do this just to help them because they were afraid o f them. We didn't want the honey because we had more than enough at heme. I usually wore a bee mask to keep the bees o f f my face. This mask was like a hat with screen around the brim and an elastic band around the bottom to fit tight around the neck. Sometimes I would use a bee smoker to keep them away. I would put a few coals i n the smoker along with some rags or sulfa and that would solve the problem. We had a large blacksmith shop and we would do all our repair work. We boys never looked forward to a rainy day because Dad would put us to work i n the shop. Dad could make a sled e r a wagon and was excellent with wood. We had a forge i n our shop and we would start a fire i n it with hard blacksmith coal. When we had a broken piece o f iron, we would heat i t i n the forge getting i t red hot and then put flux (sand) on the two pieces and weld them together by pounding the two pieces together. This took a lot o f practice but we boys could do a pretty good job. We could also shoe our own horses but most o f the time Dad would do i t . We would also walk over the farm cutting or pulling weeds. This was a hard, wet j o b as it was always done after a rain so the weeds would pull easier. The Canadian thistles and bull thistles e always cut with a large knife or shovel. I t was an all summer j o b . We always had a large orchard and i n the fall we would pick apples and store them for the winter and they would last till spring. Mother also dried apples and also canned them. We always raised our own potatoes and cabbage for sauerkraut. She would store i t i n five-gallon crocks. She would put caraway seed with it to flavor i t . I never cared for i t hot, but just loved it when she would take i t out frozen. I can still taste i t . The carrots were usually stored i n dried sand and kept i n a cool dry room. In the fall Dad would always butcher a mutton (sheep) and sometimes a veal (calf) about 300 pounds. After Christmas, we butchered a beef when the weather would turn bitter cold and i n January we would butcher eight hogs. Bear in mind that there were eight i n our family to feed. On butchering day, Dad would start a fire in our butchering shed and by the time we had the morning chores done and breakfast finished, the water would be scalding hot. After the hog was killed, we would raise and lower them with a pulley and rope into the scalding water to which we had some wood ashes. The lye in the ashes makes the hair scrape 9

off much easier. When this was completed, they were hung up, cut i n half and left to cool and freeze. When the chores were done i n the evening, they were now frozen stiff and we would carry them to our summer kitchen. Mother and Dad would spend a week or more cutting them up. They would cut the hams and shoulders into about one inch thick pieces and fry them down. They would then put them i n five-gallon crocks and f i l l the crocks with hot grease. When this could cool it sealed the meat and we would have meat all summer. They would also make sausage, which was very good. We also had a smokehouse and they would smoke the bacon and ham with a smudge fire using apple wood and I can still taste i t . Our beef was usually cut up and put in one and two quart jars then the jars were put i n a large cooker filled with water. I t was then put on the stove and brought to a boil. This I believe would take about two or three hours. After they were cooled i n about another two hours, they were stored i n the cellar for winter use. We would get tired o f that food but now I would love to have some, as the taste was delicious. Mother would usually save about one quarter o f the beef to use fresh, as it would stay frozen. She would also make dried beef. I t was smoked and then sliced o f f real thin just like we buy i n the store now. This procedure was done each year. We always had plenty to eat. I t was just plain food with plenty o f milk and fresh bread. I remember when I tasted Jell-0 for the first time. I t was at our school picnic. Our teachers would take us to a park area. We would each bring some food, cake, cookies, Jell-O, sandwiches or what we wanted. The teachers would furnish the pop. I thought the Jell-0 was the greatest. One day Dad sent my younger brother and I to cut thistles in our pasture. N o w this pasture had a nice trout stream running through i t . It so happened that a boy about five years older than us was fishing there. His name was Wilson Kramer and his Dad was the banker i n Gobb and he thought he was " b i g stuff." He started taunting us. We tried to ignore h i m . But you just don't push a Lucas around and get by with i t . Harry said to me "let's throw the S.O.B. i n the creek." I said, "That's a great idea." Harry went after h i m and the k i d was swinging his fishing pole at Harry and he yanked it out o f the kid's hand. I grabbed the k i d by the arm and planted a left hook right on his nose. Harry and I then threw h i m i n the creek. He called us some choice names and also how much he loved us. We wouldn't let h i m get out for awhile; then we broke his fish pole i n half and dumped his pail o f fish back into the creek. He was one sad looking sack as he walked home. He never bothered us again.

Dad played baseball when he was a young man, so he bought Harry and I each a glove and a mitt. He would hit balls out to us to catch. We couldn't throw the ball i n to h i m so I would play way back and Harry would play half way i n . I would catch the long fly ball and throw them to my brother and he would relay the ball to Dad. This was always done i n the evening and we boys looked forward to i t . I would spend hours throwing i t onto the roof o f our big barn. When it came rolling down, I would catch it and repeat the procedure. I n Cobb Grade School we had a baseball team. We would play some o f the other schools. Usually the seventh and eighth grade boys played. When I was i n sixth grade, they ask me to play with them. I played sixth, seventh and eighth grade baseball for Cobb Grade School. Then I played four years i n high school. I was a left-handed pitcher and had a good fastball and curve ball. I n due 10

time, I pitched for many city teams, East Dubuque, Platteville and Richland Center. I finished high school i n 1934 and this was when the Depression was at its worst. The East Dubuque team would give me seven dollars to pitch a baseball game. This was always done on Sunday and I done this o f f and on for about two years. Dad and Mother did not approve o f this and let me know about it but one has to do what he as to do. By doing this I always had some money in my pocket. I learned very early i n life that one had to save money and I was a master at i t . I could squeeze a Lincoln penny until his tongue would stick out! In October o f 1929, the stock market fell and the great depression started and lasted until 1937. I n 1930 following the crash o f the stock market many people rushed to the bank to draw their money out and keep i t at home. As a result the banks did not have the cash flow they needed and had to close down. The Cobb bank closed for about a week and when i t opened they only paid ten cents on the dollar and many people were hurt. A t this time, everyone was suffering from dry weather as well as low prices. For the next three or four years the weather was very dry. The oat and hay and corn were all very short and not very much o f it. The corn had to be cut by hand. The framers would help each other cut for a half a day and then haul i t in loose i n the afternoon to f i l l the silo. Dad would by molasses by the barrel and add water to it and spray i t on the straw so the cattle would eat i t . Somehow we managed to survive. For bedding we would pick up leaves i n the timber by the wagonload. They were not too good but were better than nothing. I must also mention that i n the early 1920's many o f the farmers would sell their cream to a creamery. M y Dad had a De Lavel cream separator. They would pour i n the m i l k into a bowl on top and one person would turn the crank. This machine would separate the cream from the milk. Then the skim m i l k was fed to the hogs and calves and the cream was sold or made into butter. Every family had a butter churn. M y family had two and I still have one o f them. I t is a barrel type and w i l l hold about five gallons o f cream. The barrel is on a stand and is turned w i t h a crank. The other, which Mother used and sometimes I would help with, was about 20 inches high and about 12 inches i n diameter. I t was an earthen crock with a l i d on top with a hole i n it. A round wooden stick with an X shaped piece on the bottom o f it was placed i n the hole. I t was pulled up and down in the cream, which would turn into butter. Dad never liked selling cream so started hauling his milk to a cheese factory. Soon all the neighbors had done i t , too. A t one time there were six cheese factories around Cobb. The factories were Cobb, Ipen, Holmes, Sunnyside, W i l l o w Springs and High Point. N o w there is only one. The farmers each hauled their own milk. Later on the cheese factory would pick up the milk and that was a big help. When we boys were growing up our Dad always told us "boys, i f you want something but don't have the money, then don't buy i t . " He said that's like paying for a dead horse. Each year when I was farming, I would decide on the piece o f machinery I needed most then I would plan to sell enough springing heifers to pay for i t . I would tell the salesman that I couldn't pay for i t until I sold them and I never went back on my word and they always trusted me. One year I bought a baler with a bale thrower on i t . I said to myself now I can really 11

make hay! I can make 400 bales a day. So I cut about that much hay and when i t was dry, I baled it then unloaded it onto the elevator and would get another load and unload i t . I worked all day to get the 400 bales i n the barn. Then I done the milking and went i n the barn and piled all the bales. I never tried that again as I was all tired out. I had a good friend who was i n the feed business. He wanted to sell me feed. I said I ' l l buy your feed but I w i l l only pay you at the end of every month and he said I wish everyone would do business like that. Once I had some hogs to fatten. So I told Bud Faull you get a contract for me to sign and I ' l l buy the feed from you. He said that he would get i t ready for me. Each week I would ask h i m i f he had i t ready for me. After about a month, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Carl, I don't need a contract with you...your just pay me when you sell." I n later years, I helped his son get started i n the milling business. D o w n through the years, I helped many young men get started. I would always tell them no matter what you do, always save something for yourself, even i f i t is small. Squirrel i t away and i t w i l l surprise you. When I started farming, I would sometimes buy bonds. When W o r l d War I I started i n 1939, I would buy a Series E War Bond. I would pay $18.75 for a $25 Bond to mature i n about ten years. When I could, I would buy a $50 one. I could buy them for different amounts, $100, $500 and $1,000. Later on I would buy the $500 Bonds and the last three years I farmed, I would buy a $1,000 one each month and it surprised me how it would accumulate. I n about 1960 the government stopped paying interest on the older ones so I had to cash them i n . I would then roll the money over and so to speak, I was getting compound interest. I had built up a real good herd o f dairy cattle through artificial insemination and some o f my cattle were sold to Mexico, Canada, Texas, New Jersey and various other states. I t was a sad day September 9, 1978 when I sold my 30 head o f dairy cattle. After selling the cows, I didn't have much to do and I couldn't cope with that so I converted the dairy barn into a hog farrowing operation. I had twenty farrowing crates and would farrow twice a year. I would aim to sell 300 head o f fat hogs a year an average over one hundred dollars a head. There is nothing as cute as a little p i g . I raised hogs until 1994. Then I rented the land to Neal Thomas on a cash per acre basis and he is still renting it today. I still miss farming and working the land. Nothing smells so good as fresh plowed ground in the spring. I bought my first tractor i n 1946. I t was new and had a cultivator. The total cost was $1,103. It was an Allis Chalmers and they said it would last as long as any man and they were right. I t had no power steering and with the cultivator on i t , it was a bear to steer. I had to buy i t through O.P.A. (get a permit to purchase i t ) . I n my lifetime I have had about nine tractors. The one I have now is a 4040 one hundred horsepower John Deere. I bought i t for $19,500. I have had about twelve cars and trucks during this time. In about 1928 Dad purchased a carbide home lighting system. I t was an underground steel tank. In it we would put gravel type carbide pellets along with water, about 200 pounds. This would last about three months. Underground pipes led from the tank to the house and barn. The lamp fixtures were l i t by turning a flint-like fixture similar to a cigarette lighter. The spark would ignite the gas and we kids had great light for doing our homework. However, this

12

device did not go over so great as i t was quite expensive and with the depression at its worst, Dad could not afford i t so back to the kerosene lamps we went. Herbert Hoover was our President and he was blamed for the depression. Franklin D . Roosevelt decided to run for President on the Democratic ticket. He ran on a platform o f "3 and 2 tenths and propriety". The people were behind h i m 100 percent and he won by a landslide. He started many new programs to put people back to work. One o f his first programs was the C.C.C. camp for young men. I t was called the Civilian Conservation Core. They would get $30 wages each month most o f which was sent home to their wives or parents. They lived i n barracks and were from all over the United States. There was one camp i n Highland, Wisconsin so we got to know many o f the boys and some o f them married local girls. This also helped i n 1940 when war broke out because the government had everyone registered and knew just where we were. W i t h the sale o f beer and many taverns starting to add to the economy, the country slowly started to recover. Roosevelt started many new organizations. The National Recovery Act, N . R . A . , was designed to get everyone back to work. Groups o f middle-aged men were given jobs building swimming pools, theaters, street repair, just to name a few. We also had W . P . A . , Wisconsin Public Works Administration, which gave men employment. We all called it "We Poke A l o n g " . R . E . A . was Rural Electric Association. The local Wisconsin Power and Light Company installed electric lines i n the rural area so the farmers all had electric power. That itself was the biggest help for all the farmers. We were the first to get hooked up i n our area. When the war broke out i n 1941, we also had O.P.E.C. We had to have stamps to buy gas, sugar, flour, meat, film and many other things. These stamps were issued according to one's needs. Here the framer got a break because they couldn't control how much meat we had to eat. We would trade meat for f i l m and other things we needed. Gas during the Depression was about nine cents a gallon. Dad sold milk for 67 cents a hundred and hogs were eight cents a pound. Cattle price was as low as one cent a pound. I had a nice Holstein heifer that weighed 1,200 pounds. Dad had given i t to me when it was a calf. Dad sold i t for twelve dollars. M y brother had just got married and Dad gave i t to h i m as he had just started farming. I never did get another heifer. Dad always told us boys that i f we stayed home and worked on the farm until we were 2 1 , he would buy us each a new car. I n 1925, he bought my oldest brother a Model T Ford. M y next brother got his car i n 1928. I t was a Model A Ford. So far, so good but the boys didn't do as he expected so he said no more o f this i f the other two boys want a car, they w i l l have to buy their own. Harry and I thought we had gotten a raw deal. Neither o f us stayed home after graduation. Dad and Mother were very religious. They were Presbyterian and i n the fall our diet was five days o f school, Saturday was religious training and Sunday was church. We would be i n church on Sunday until noon then drive five miles home, have our hurry-up dinner and then want to go hunting but Dad would say "have the cows home and i n the yard by four o'clock boys." N o w how i n the hell were we going to do much hunting i n a couple o f hours? I guess we just got soured on the whole thing. To this day, I still think there is more to religion than 13

that. I do not think that religion means sitting on your duff on Sunday morning. M y theory is to be good to your fellow man, give h i m a helping hand and don't expect pay for every little thing you do. Going to church is not going to save you; it's the things you do as you journey through life that count. We had a minister that would get up on the pulpit and rave and rant that i f we played cards or danced, we would be damned to burn i n hell, but he could play checkers and smoke his cigar and pipe and that was all right. I did not buy i t . I believe you live religion seven days a week not just on Sunday morning. "Closed chapter." When I was i n eighth grade, my neighbor boy, "Pep" Joseph Wolenec, was i n the eighth grade also but went to a country school. He had a ruptured appendix and he died about a week after he graduated and never did get his grades. Getting back to school days....I always had a lot o f friends all through school. When I was i n grade school, we would eat our sack lunch and then go downtown. Sometimes we would lose track of time and forget to go back to school until it was too late to go. Sometimes we would go to the saloon and play pool all afternoon...that was before taverns. They never paid any attention to us. On a very rare occasion, I would get a nickel for an ice cream cone. I would spend the afternoon thinking about this ice cream cone and when school was out, I would go to get my pony to go home, but I would have to go past a water fountain, how this looked and tasted so good that I would drink my fill. I would then keep my nickel and go home. When I was i n the upper grades, we would play a lot o f baseball. I t was our main past time. Our school studies were getting harder and took more time. Agriculture and math were easy for me but English was not to my liking! Our eighth grade teacher was a bear but he liked me because I could play baseball. He was the kind o f a man who could bite the head o f f o f a tack. When I got to high school, my brother and sisters really scared me by warning me that i f I didn't play attention to geometry and algebra at the beginning o f the course, I would never learn it. So when classes started, I was all ears. I found it was easy and learned the theorems ahead of time. They said wait till you get to Prothagros theorem. I went ahead i n the book and worked it out. I t was to prove that the square constructed on the hypotenuse o f a right triangle was equal to the sum of the squares constructed on the other two sides. High school was a little harder than grade school because more was expected o f us. One o f the things I liked was going to school i n the spring. We could hardly wait to see the first birds along the road. They were usually Robins and Blackbirds and Meadow Larks. Sometimes we boys would get a little out o f line. We would borrow a watermelon from the back o f the grocery store and eat i t . Sometimes we even forgot to go back to school that afternoon. Sometimes i f our report card was not too good, we would get Jessie Kramer, a storekeeper, to sign i t . This would save a lot o f explaining at home. The one thing I detested was D . T . (detention). I t was a 45-minute stay after school and i t sure took the fun out o f misbehaving!

14

'.

l i > we boys wouldn't let the teacher ring the bell. We had a bell in a steeple on the top o f

the school so my brother, Harry and Tyke Kramer climbed up there and when the teacher pulled on the rope to ring the bell, the two boys pulled her up to the downstairs ceiling and then let her drop. She went and got the Principal and they pulled them both up and held them until they both fell off. O f course, some o f us other kids had helped pull i t off. That afternoon we were all called into the office but no one seemed to know who did i t . End results...more D.T. In my sophomore year, one o f my classmates, who was also my cousin, Daniel Novak, came down with pneumonia. He was sick for about two weeks and then died. This was hard on the class because everyone liked h i m . I was a pallbearer. When I was a junior, I went out for basketball and after the games, I would have to walk home from Cobb four miles. Sometimes after an away game, we wouldn't get back to Cobb until after 10 o'clock and then I would walk home. I would be so tired that I would want to sit on a culvert and rest but I was afraid I would fall asleep and freeze to death. I would see the shimmering Northern lights sometimes. Sometimes the sky would be filled with meteors, fallings stars I called them. Some o f them would seem to fall and others would streak across the sky. The stars were breathtaking and beautiful. This would usually happen on a bitter cold night. Our road by this time was usually plowed. But before 1930, we had no snowplows so when the blizzards came, the road would be filled with snow. We would then go to school with a sled. We would cut the wires i n the fences and drive through. I t was common to have snowdrifts five and six feet deep. I was a junior before I realized that I was having a good time and i t was not going to last so I made the best o f it my last year and a half. Each year I would letter i n Track, Basketball and Baseball. I liked Basketball because I could run up and down the floor all night and not be tired. I thought I was a better athlete than the other boys because they smoked and I didn't. That was just what I thought. We had some good players and I definitely was not the best. We had a principal who was a good man. man. He was strict and fair. One day he walked down between the rows o f seats. M y seat was just across from my long time friend B i l l Keyes. N o w Bill's thumb and finger were brown. He said to B i l l , "you been shelling walnuts, Bill?" and Bill said, "Yup!" That's all that was said but everyone knew why they were brown. This was about the time that Prohibition was coming to an end. There was a man i n town that made moonshine and we would go to his place and buy a pint for a quarter. We knew i t was illegal that is why we done it. We called i t "rot gut." Sometimes we would mix i t with orange pop and it would hit the belly with a bang! There were several moonshine places around the area. The law officers would fine them and close them down but i n a matter o f a week, they would be back i n business. Anyone could make wine but only about five gallon or so to be legal. Mother used to make Concord grape wine but she would give us a shot glass o f i t when we were working i n the timber and i t was bitter cold or i f we had a bad cold. I t wasn't enough to wet your whistle. When Harry and I were in high school, her wine started to disappear; where it went no one ever knew but she did stop making it until we left home! M y senior year went by real fast. We never had a class play or a Junior Prom because the senior girls didn't want i t . There were about eleven o f us graduates. I think our class motto was "Climb through the rocks; be rugged" and my class ring cost a little over eleven dollars 15

_ uger-eye set in it and it came in handj if I got in an argument.

D _-_-.g e Depression the local businessmen would sponsor free movies for entertainment. The farmers would spend the evening at the movies and then buy their groceries for the week. One could see a movie each night of the week at a different town. After graduation, I wanted to go to Platteville Normal College but we didn't have the money and there was no such thing as grants or loans. I worked for Dad or the neighbors and played a little baseball. Y o u had to be a good worker to get twenty-five dollars a month. The next year, a man near M i f f l i n needed help. He offered me 30 dollars a month, I said 35 dollars or I ' l l be gone. I got i n the car to leave and he came running out and said his wife wanted me to come to work. I t was a fun place to work. There was 270 acres i n the farm. We milked about 15 cows and raised steers. He would go away every day and sometimes for a week at a time. One day when I was cultivating corn, a severe storm came up with lots o f lightning, thunder and wind. I happened to look toward the house and Ray was waving his arms and carrying on. So I went to see what was the matter. W e l l , I soon found out. He gave me hell for staying out i n the storm. When he got done, I told h i m I was taught to stay out and do my work until it started to rain. He said it was too dangerous and I shouldn't do that anymore. That was the only run in I had with h i m . I t was just a matter o f knowing what he expected. That summer I made many friends around M i f f l i n and Rewey. I played softball with the M i f f l i n 4-H Club. They had a real good team with a fireball pitcher. They won the league and had to play Garrison Grove 4 - H Club for the Iowa County Championship. This team had always won i t . We played the game under the lights at Dodgeville Centennial Park and beat them by a score o f 6 to 7. I bought a 1936 Ford for four hundred dollars. I t was a very nice car for a young guy to have. I only lived one half a mile from M i f f l i n so I would very often walk down there i n the evening. The town had a grocery store, post office, dance hall and a tavern. There were a lot of young boys and we would play ball and decide where we would go and do. They would say, "Let's get i n Lefty's car. It's the best one." So someone would drive me home to get the car and we would go to Bennie Franks i n East Dubuque and play cards or just bum around. One time a bunch o f us from M i f f l i n , Gordie, Possum, Hefferon, Wally Scott, Frank Burns, Ted Crapp and several other guys, went to Rockville to a dance. When the dance was about over, we decided to go home. One o f the guys said, "Let's pretend we're having a fight." So when the cars started coming, we got out and started a fight. I t wasn't long before we had about two- dozen cars parked to watch. A car came up and stopped. I t was a cop. He gave us a hell o f a lecture and booked us for fighting. We told h i m wheat we were doing but he didn't buy i t . We were taken to the Lancaster Courthouse and paid a 12-dollar fine each. One o f life's costly lessons! I had a bunch o f friends i n Highland, Cobb, Linden, M i f f l i n , Rewey and Richland Center so there was never a dull moment. We would go to the Blue Goose in Linden, Lilac Gardens i n Arena, Butterfly i n Boscobel, and Castle Rock in Montfort Fennimore area. We had many, 16

many entertaining evenings there. I t was in M i f f l i n where I met my future wife. She was working at a boarding house for three dollars a week. We would sometimes go to Mineral Point as they had a big dance hall and would have big band names like Wayne K i n g , Guy Lombardo and Lawrence Welk. Sometimes they would come and sometimes they would send an assistant but the music was always excellent. That winter I worked for a man cutting wood and lived in Cobb. The next summer June 5 , Marjorie and I were married i n Highland. One
th

night my friends came and shivaree us. They brought along some dynamite to help make noise and some of the guys were drunk. Margie's Dad wouldn't let them shoot the dynamite by the house so they went i n the cornfield and set it off. Marjorie's future brother-in-law would wait until it went o f f then he throw a bunch o f gravel onto the tin roof o f the house. The people were really scared. They thought they were surely going to be killed. Her Dad had a nice cottonwood tree growing by his cornfield and they tied dynamite to i t and blew it away and some large holes were made i n the cornfield. That summer I worked for my Dad but after November, work was scarce so we would work i n the timber. I always lad to go with Dad when he went to the timber because I was left-handed and he was right-handed. So I would take the left hand side o f the saw, leaving Dad on the right side. He always said the other boys would drag their feet when he sawed w i t h them. One time it was very icy out and Dad had this big tree with its top broke off. He wanted i t down but there was no place to drop i t because there were trees all around i t . He and I begin to saw i t . We notched it on one side and then started to saw. After sawing into i t about a foot, I placed a wedge i n the saw cut so as to tip it over. It was stuck i n the other trees so we sawed some more. When sawing a tree down, you never saw i t completely o f f at the stump. Y o u always leave a little holding so i t falls where you want it to go. We continued to saw a little and then wedge it some more. As I was pounding the wedge, the tree broke o f f the stump; we had sawed too much off. I t slid o f f the stump backwards and started sliding down the b i l l . Dad yelled that it was falling and to get out o f the way. I t was very icy and when I ran, I slipped and fell and the tree landed right beside me. Dad was so scared; he picked up the tools and said, "Let's go home." The next year I hired out to run a farm, 270 acres at M t . Horeb. We had a big dairy herd and lots o f hogs. I soon learned how some farmers operate. He promised me a hired man but I never got one. A l l he intended to do was work me to death. After three months o f that, we parted not the best of friends. A man called me from Livingston. He needed a man and wanted me to come and see h i m . I went down and he showed me around the farm, which was 560 acres. They had Scotch Shorthorn show cattle, about 200 steers, 200 hogs and about 1200 sheep, which he bought each year from Montana. After we talked for sometime, he said, "There is one thing that concerns me, you are kind o f s m a l l . " I didn't bat an eye, I said, "You show me the j o b that your big man can do that I can't." He laughed and said, "You're hired." We moved into a small but nice house on the farm that would be our home for the next three and one half years. Now this farm was a big operation and we never did get done with the work. We just quit i n the night and started back the next morning where we left o f f the night before. We always had 17

three hired men and many seasonal helpers. I f a man would ask me about the work I would tell them "you w i l l never be lonesome because new help w i l l be coming all the time." I meant this in an honest way because we always did have new help. We always had steers to feed. Sometimes we would grind the corncob and all and sometimes we would cut or break the ear i n four or five pieces; about forty bushel. I n real cold weather this was a bone-chilling j o b . The hogs would follow the steers and eat the manure. Fresh manure was real good for the hogs and they gained fast on i t . I always said one pile o f steer manure was worth one ear o f corn. Ted Griswold was the man I worked for and he bought a lot of steers, Angus, Herefords, and some Gallaways. They had long hair and a lot o f hair on their tail and they were a little on the w i l d side. We also had about fifteen dairy cows, which Marge and I had to m i l k . When spring work started, I was the tractor man. I never drove a tractor before but I learned i n a hurry. I also had to cultivate all the corn, about 200 acres. Some of the cornfields were a mile long. I would get so tired watching the corn go through the cultivator shields...I called it tired, tired drunk! I would let the tractor idle and take a wrench and climb underneath the tractor and have a little snooze. I n case I got caught, I could say I was adjusting the cultivator. However, I never did get caught. One day Ted sent me out to rotary hoe the corn. It was about six or eight inches high. I got on the tractor and went across the field several times and the corn was all bent over and twisted. I t looked awful. I went back home and told h i m what a mess it was. He came out to see what it looked like and said to me, "You get on that tractor and don't look back." So I did and i n a couple o f days the corn was standing straight and the weeds were all gone. We had many good friends there and still see them often. When it was time to thresh, I had to run the threshing machine. I t was a Red River Special and when we had a breakdown, I would have to fix it while the rest o f the help just sat around and waited. We had two silos on the farm and three barns on the farm. They were called barn one, which was for the dairy cows. Barn two was for the show cattle. I t had a big silo there. I t was 20 feet in diameter and 30 feet high. We would fill it and the third day when we would fill it we could hardly gain any fill, as it would settie about as fast as we filled i t . I n the winter when we would feed out o f it, it took a good man to throw silage out from the back o f the silo. Barn three was where we kept our young shorthorn show cattle. On October 14, 1941, our first daughter Carolyn was born. She was the center o f attention for Marge and I and also the Griswolds. The following spring, March 2 1 , a beautiful day, I was putting corn threw a roller m i l l . I had a tractor running the machine. I would shovel the corn into a hopper and a conveyor belt with cups on it would take the corn to the top o f the machine where i t was dropped into a high roller crusher where it was crushed and run into a bagger. I then tied the sacks. Ted came into to see how I was getting along. He said, " I ' l l grease the machine for y o u . " I t had two sets o f double bulldog gears on i t . The shields covering the gears had been taken o f f and not put back. He was putting grease on the gears and they caught his sleeve at the wrist and took his arm o f f above the elbow. As the machine caught h i m , i t knocked h i m out and he hit me i n the legs. I looked to see what had happened and quick went to shut the tractor o f f and run back i n to get Ted out. His arm or what was left o f i t was 18

hanging by just a little flesh. The one gear had some cogs broken out so I couldn't get h i m out alone. A salesman was just outside the shed so I hollered out for h i m to help me. Ted's wife was there also and wanted to know what the matter was. I was excited so I said you better go to the house. She climbed into the shed and a saw a gruesome scene. W e got Ted out by rolling the gears backward using a crowbar. They took h i m to the Platteville Hospital where they amputated his arm. I said to the other hired man, "Albert, you didn't see this happen. W i l l you clean up the mess."? He went into the building and soon came out white as a sheet and said, " I f you want that mess cleaned up, clean it up yourself." So I did and had about a gallon of flesh, bone and clothing. A l l i n a day's work on the farm! That same year, July 5 , Ted had just come back from selling steers i n Chicago. We were
th

making hay at Barn two. He said, "How are things going," and I said, "Not worth a damn. I can't make the car stay i n the car stay i n the track catch until the hay gets up to i t . " He said, "Take the load o f hay over to Barn one." As I was going to Barn one, I looked and saw Ted falling out o f a door at Barn two. He was going to close the door and reached out for it thinking he had the other hand to hold h i m . He fell about fifteen feet and landed on his head on a cement abutment. They took him to a Madison Hospital and tapped his spine several times but he died several days later. I was also one o f his pallbearers. I felt as though I had had i t and just wanted out, but his wife and father and mother talked me out of it. They said I was needed. I stayed on for about two years and helped run and manage the place. The son was going to the University of Wisconsin and would come home on weekends. One time I would do a j o b and he would say that it was fine, that's just as he would do it and the next time I ' d be doing it the same way and I ' d be all wrong. I did not like working there anymore. Griswold's always had purebred Scotch Shorthorn cattle and each year all the towns would have a fair. Lancaster, Platteville, Boscobel and Mineral Point would participate. We would have to truck the cattle from one fair to the other. I t would take up most o f the night and I usually did the trucking. I n the year o f 1942, they had a real nice steer they called Blitzkrieg, after Hitler's war machine. This steer won at all the fairs so they entered it i n the Little International i n Chicago and won easily. I t was a beautiful steer. Ted was on the air in Chicago and told how his kids had done all the work feeding, grooming and breaking it to lead. This was a damn lie because the hired men and I spent countless hours doing i t . The kids were only home over the weekend. I might also add that i n the three plus years that I worked here, I would judge that I worked with between 200 and 300 men. There were very few corn pickers and they were not very reliable. Ted would hire five or six neighbors with a team and wagon and two men to pick the corn. T w o good men could pick about 100 bushel a day. I don't recall picking any corn, as there were other things to do. After the corn was picked, we would have about 1,000 to 1,200 sheep shipped i n to graze the cornfields. They would come by train to Boscobel. The rail company would give so much time to get them out o f the stockyard. I and two other men each with a ton and half trucks would sometimes have to truck sheep all night and then work the next day. We would feed them for about 90 days before selling them. Montana's climate was dryer than ours and as a result, we would lose some due to damp and wet ground. The boy would come home for the weekend and have us load and spread manure. There was no such thing as a manure loader so he would 19

help us load the first load just to set the pace and then we would see no more o f him. We used to laugh about i t , but done our work at our usual pace. I said to Margie, "This is getting to be too much. The A r m y can't be any worse. I am going to j o i n the A r m y . " When Dad found this out he said, "You can't do that. Y o u have a wife and daughter to take care of." But I wouldn't change my mind. I was tired o f being someone else's dog. He then said, "There is a farm for rent about a mile from home. I w i l l help you get started farming and when you get drafted Margie and Carolyn w i l l have a place to live. I and brother Earl w i l l run the farm along with ours." I wanted no part o f this because my next-door neighbor would be one o f the men that had scared the hell out o f me earlier i n my life. I finally changed my mind and decided to let the chips fall where they may. This was an 80 acres farm and the rent was $340. I had 10 milk cows, four sows, about 50 chickens, some sheep and a team o f horses, a walking plow, harrow and seeder. I had real good crops and would pay the rent i n July. Then the rest o f the year I would have very little expense. The light bill was about five dollars and telephone bill was about the same. The Grant County draft board (one o f the hardest in the state) came to inspect my operation and never drafted me. They knew they had to eat too. I secretly regretted the fact that I never served in the War. About two weeks after we moved i n , our nearest neighbor and his wife came up to see us. I had my guard up but he had grown up too. We became the best o f friends and worked together for the next seven years that we farmed together. He was and still is more than a brother to me. He lives in Northern Wisconsin now but we manage to talk to each other once a month. I ' m a f i r m believer in fate. I still think that this was a part o f life's plan. In the winter we would walk across the field about 500 feet to their place and play Euchre, Pinochle or Five Hundred. Sometimes we wouldn't finish the game so they would come to our place the next night to finish. Margie and Twylah would talk on the phone every day. I t was a party line with about eight families on the line and everyone knew each other business. They would call each other up and say go outside I got something to tell you. So they would visit across the fence. The neighbors didn't like it but at least the girls had their own secrets. While we were on this farm, Wanda came to live with us on May 25, 1944. We fell i n love with her so she stayed with us!! We had many good times while living on the farm. We made many friends. N o w the neighborhood is about gone. B i g Chicago landowners have mostly bought up the land. Our girls went to Cobb Grade School. One week I would take our two girls and the neighbors girl and boy to school and the next week they would take them. We never had a bad word between us and we treasured their friendship. When Carolyn was i n first, second and third grade she was the miniature majorette for the high school band so we did a lot o f traveling to school functions. When she was i n fourth grade, she had polio and was i n the Madison hospital. I t still bothers her to this day. In 1949, I rented a good farm about two miles south o f Cobb. This farm I rented on half shares. I milked about thirty cows and had hogs and chickens. The farm was not big enough to be profitable for me and the next two years I slowly started going backwards. N o w when we 20

moved to this place my next-door neighbor was the other man who had frightened me. He and his wife came to visit us and we became instant friends. W e would do anything for each other. He again was more than a brother to me and we spent many happy times together. Again, I think this was fate playing out its hand i n life. They had two daughters and we took turns i n taking the girls to school. I also was a pallbearer for h i m at his funeral. I hated this j o b but would never say no because it was the last thing I could do for h i m . M y first time as a pallbearer was when I was sixteen and I have been doing i t since. On September 29, 1950, Marjean came to stay with us. Wanda and Carolyn were six and nine years old. Marjean was such a beautiful little girl and she wanted to stay w i t h us so we agreed to keep her, i f she would be good! Everything went real good until she was about five or six years old. She and her mother had a falling out, so she packed her little suitcase and told Margie she was leaving. Marjorie said, "Okay, you just g o . " So she went down to the road and sat under the W i l l o w tree. About 6 o'clock, I came i n for supper and she was still sitting there. I went down to get her and she was crying. I ask her, "What are you doing?" She said that she was running away. I said, " I t ' s going to soon be dark outside you better come to the house with me and tomorrow you can g o . " She took me by the hand and came to the house with me and never mentioned leaving again. I n fact, she liked it here and stayed for 20 years! In 1952 I bought an 80-acre farm about three miles south o f Cobb and we are still living on i t today. It is all tami soil, which is the best soil for farming. I t is known to be one o f the best parcels o f land i n Iowa County. I would farm the farm I had rented i n the daytime and at night; I would work the farm I had bought. Some nights I would get only about three hours o f sleep. I would get so tired that I would follow the fence to find the gate to go home. I called it tired drunk! I n the spring o f 1953, we moved to our new farm. I had one half o f the feed from my rented farm and all the crops from our farm. We were o f f to a good start and I could start paying off the debts I had made i n the last couple o f years. Margie and I had to pay three hundred dollars an acre for the farm but the neighbors said that I was a damn fool and that I could never pay for it but we fooled them and paid for i t i n ten years. I bought the farm on a land contract. I would give the previous owner 35% o f everything I sold and I would keep 65%. The 35% was to pay on the interest, principle and the taxes and farm insurance. He never said how much I could pay o f f i n a year. So I would raise extra hogs and pay the taxes and farm insurance out o f my own pocket. They complained about this. They said Carl is a good farmer but he is paying it o f f to fast. When we bought the farm we left the owner live i n the house until we could move i n . He was an unusual man and had some funny ideas. He once told me that he might never leave the farm alive. I would come down to work the land and before leaving home I would tell Margie, " I just hate to go down there, I ' m afraid that I ' l l find h i m hanging i n the barn." He would always scold me for not locking my gas barrels and putting them i n a locked garage so to keep h i m happy, I locked them up. One morning I went to the farm early, about six o'clock. I wanted to finish cultivating and start mowing hay. The garage was locked and they were not up yet. So I went to finish cultivating as I had enough gas for about three hours o f work. A t about eight o'clock, I was coming to 21

gas up and I met his daughter. She said, " I can't find Dad. W i l l you help?" So I went to the barn but he wasn't there, so I ask her for the keys to the garage. When I opened i t he was laying behind the car. He had gassed himself. I quickly felt for a pulse but there was none but he did have a revolver i n his pocket. I spent the rest o f the day answering questions. So again, I was a pallbearer. For the next five years, I farmed two farms along with mine. Prices stayed stable then time started to improve. I was among the first farmers to j o i n Grade A milk. We had more milk regulations but the milk brought more money. One summer I wanted to see how other people lived so I went to work at the Cobb Canning Company on the night shift. Bob Jensen and I would take the 6 o'clock shift and work until 1 o'clock or whenever we ran out o f corn. Sometimes Bob would get drunk and I would have to work real hard to cover for h i m . He was my baseball friend. I also worked with Steve Keys and he was a very good worker. The first j o b I had as shooting cans...putting cans on a track to be filled with corn. Then I was put on the blending line and I had to see that each can was filled with equal amounts o f whole kernel corn and cream corn. I did this for two years. I w i l l assure everyone that sleep was not plentiful. Marjorie also worked as a cook at the Canning Factory for nine years. She also worked 29 1/2 years as a cook for Cobb High School and Iowa-Grant High School. By this time I was about done playing ball as I had torn the muscle in my left arm and could not throw the ball overhand anymore. The girls stayed with me while Marge worked and they all could drive a tractor as good as any man. They were active i n school functions so we were kept quite busy. As a boy I always wanted to play a guitar or concertina but we had to work. There was no time for that. So when my girls were big enough we bought them a piano, guitar, accordion and Hawaiian guitar but they never had very good teachers so never got very good at playing. Although they all played i n the high school band. Carolyn was the last class to graduate from Cobb High School. Iowa-Grant High School was formed by consolidating Cobb, Linden, Rewey, Livingston and Montfort into one school. Wanda was the second class to graduate from it. Marjean finished in 1968. That year Iowa Grant had an A . F . S . , American Field Service, student and we were the host family. Doris Alamarz Castro from Bolivia was the first student. I t was a trying but rewarding year. I was the President o f the Chapter for four years. During that time, Marge and I had to take two other girls into our home because o f host family troubles, Elaine Wright from England and Carmen Ramani from Switzerland. When they would have problems at the host home, they would want to live with us. After three students, we left the Chapter. We thought we had done our share. But we did go to England and Switzerland to visit them i n 1973. England had beautiful flowers and Switzerland's Alps were a beauty to behold. We had a cottage in the Alps, which was our home during our stay. During the war, a Nazi Officer had lived there. I n the morning the church bells would ring on one mountaintop and would be answered by another from another mountain. One cannot describe the beauty o f the Alps. One weekend we went to a resort on the Mediterranean Sea i n Italy. The food was served i n about four courses. We could not understand each other so they would put some food on our plate and then look at us i f we wanted more. We would nod our head and they would give us more. We were always served a large bottle o f wine. The Italians

22

always served good wine, sometimes two or three bottles. They loved to party but the country was dirty. The pigeons were so thick i n the streets you could almost step on them. Going back to my childhood days, I do not know when my Dad had his first car but i t must have been before 1921. The first car I remember was an Overland and all cars were black i n color. This car had a canvas top and side curtains we would put on each side to keep the rain or cold out. They had no heaters or windshield wipers so we would wrap i n blankets to keep warm. There was no gravel on the roads, so when it rained, the roads were almost impassable. We would have to put chains on the tires. I n the wintertime, we put the car i n the shed and placed jacks or blocks under it so the weight o f the car was not on the tires. I t was not uncommon to have a flat tire or two while going to town, as the tires were not too good. We would do our traveling with a team or sled or a wagon. Dad also had a Buick and Chryslers. The last car he owned was an 1934 Chrysler and it was a beautiful robin egg blue. When we kids would go to school, we could name all the cars we met. Some are no longer made. Reo, Cord, Auston, Starr, W i l l y s , Paige and Studebaker just to name a few. In the 1920's before the Depression, Dad also owned two Titan tractors. They were huge and used kerosene instead o f gas. We loved to ride around the field with h i m . He later owned a Massy Ferguson tractor with a cultivator on it. I had to take a day o f f from my work and show them how to run i t . As I look back on my journey through life, I can't help to think that my generation has gone through more changes than any other generation. We have gone from the horse and buggy days to the automobile, to electric lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioners. Airplanes travel the airways. We have gone to the moon; enjoy radio and television and computers. We can talk to people all over the world. What more could we ask for? I do think we are living too fast. One sad thing is that trains have disappeared from the countryside. Years ago the trains whistle were part o f our life. We would hear the train whistle and would know just what time i t was. We lived about one mile from the tracks and would see them go by at all hours o f the day. As a boy in the early thirties, I clearly remember when the gas man would fill up Dad's gas barrels. I loved the smell o f gas. I would put my mouth over the spigot and inhale the fumes. One time I inhaled too much o f it and I got high on i t . I was lightheaded. I t scared me and I never did that again. Although I still love gas fumes. On Halloween we would tip over town toilets. One year one lady said they w o n ' t tip mine over because I ' l l be watching. So some o f the boys got a rope and tied it to the back o f a Model T Ford. They then drove by her toilet and one o f them threw the rope over i t and drove off. Now the old girl was sitting in the toilet and when it went over she screamed her head off. She didn't get hurt just a few bumps. She sure scared the hell out o f the boys and they never tried that again. One night we tipped one over and one o f the boys fell i n and no one would give h i m a ride home. When I was a boy in grade school, the high school boys would tip the

23

school toilets over. They were large toilets with ten holes i n each one. I guess that's where we learned how to do i t . I was always interested i n woodworking and i n the early forties, I started making things. M y Dad was a good craftsman and my Uncle was a cabinetmaker so I came by i t right. I don't make anything large because people would say i f that was made in walnut I would buy i t . After all they didn't want it at all they were just saying that. I have a wood lathe and I turn out fern stands on i t . I also make drop leaf tables, end tables, picture frames and small things. I do a lot o f repair work. I find it hard to charge people for my work. I have a room full o f things I have made. I f someone comes and want an item, I w i l l sell it to them but there is no way I w i l l set at a booth all day and sell. I just enjoy giving people things. I love to see a happy face. As I travel down the road o f life, I often think o f what my Dad would say...

"Boys, never hold a public office. I f you do and do the right thing, y o u ' l l be criticized and i f you don't do the right thing, y o u ' l l also be damned." Dad held many offices i n the T o w n o f Eden. That advice has stayed with me. Although I did serve on the Town o f Linden Road Committee for thirteen years and it wasn't too bad. I also served on the Iowa County Jury three times. The first time was in the wintertime and my sows were farrowing so I called the judge and told h i m why I couldn't come and he said, " Court convenes at nine o'clock, I w i l l see you there." Needless to say, I lost about half o f my hog crop. This trial was to determine who had the right to sell and truck hay i n a certain area. The second was for a hired man who fell o f f a barn he was working on for his boss. He was crippled for life and the j u r y awarded him forty thousand dollars. The third, and worst one, was a rape and murder trial involving three states, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. Three tough young men who were always i n trouble with the law were on trial. They had met this girl at a tavern, "Kelly's Cove," i n Dubuque, Iowa. They played pool with her and then they went across the river to Stump Island into the state o f Wisconsin. One o f the boys had lived in a second story apartment there. They started smoking pot and i n the end the three boys raped her. She told them she was going to report them. One o f them grabbed her by the throat and choked her to death. Then they put her i n a refrigerator and threw i t o f f the second story stairs. When it hit the ground the door handle broke and the body fell out. They put the body back i n , closed the door and tied a rope around it. The Mississippi River was within a few feet o f where the refrigerator landed. They then got a boat and loaded it and took it out in the river and dumped it. That spring the rope had rotted and the body had swelled up due to warm weather causing the body to force the door open. The body floated down the river and got lodged i n some brush i n Jo Davis County, Illinois bringing the third state into the case. Jury selection was November 2
nd

and i t took all day. I

was the third one selected. I think there were eighty i n our group. After we were selected each of the lawyers could scratch one juror o f f the list. This went on until there were only twelve people left and two alternatives. We were then sent home with strict orders to talk to no one, get some clothes and be back i n an hour. We were sequestered i n the Rock Motel for two weeks. We were told not to discuss the case with one another. Each day the Courthouse was crowded with people to watch the trial unfold. The three men were escorted i n with leg shackles on and hands cuffed. They would stare at the jurors as i f to dare us to sentence them. There were over 200 items o f evidence and many witnesses. When the trial was over, we were sent back to the j u r y room with instructions from the judge to pick a j u r y foreman and decide 24

on the sentence to impose guilty or not guilty on all counts. As we sat down at the meeting, one man said, " I nominate Carl Lucas to be our j u r y foreman," and the rest all seconded the motion. I , for once, was speechless, as I wasn't prepared for it. I felt that there were more capable people than me to do that j o b . That placed a big responsibility on my shoulders. I secretly intended to throw the book at those guys. The j u r y deliberation went quite well until we got to the conviction. Then two women started to get cold feet and wouldn't vote to convict them. They had a family member sent to prison and they said it was awful. I told them that they were ask by the Judge i f they had had a family member i n prison and they had said no and that they had lied to be Judge and that was against the law and that they had better shape up or I would file a report against them. We would review court report and vote again. Finally after eight hours o f deliberation, we had a unanimous vote o f guilty on all counts. I then had to sign my name to twelve guilty charges, four for each defendant, one for each rape case, one for each murder charge, one for each hiding a body and one for each on aiding and abetting charge, then present it to the Judge i n the presence o f the three defendants. The Judge then sentenced each o f them to life i n prison plus thirty years, but they could be illegible for parole in about eleven years. To the best o f my knowledge, they are still i n prison. W e were then dismissed and free to go home. But before we left, an officer came running into the j u r y room and ordered all doors locked. We were kept there until about 2:00 i n the morning. N o one would tell us what was taking place. Finally the Sheriff came and told us that a bunch o f people from Dubuque were going to get r i d o f the j u r y and the Judge. They were all caught and escorted back to Iowa. They told us we could stay i n our motel for the rest o f the night and it would be police patrolled all night. We all stayed because we had had enough excitement for one day. I learned early on in life that there were more letters i n the alphabet than the letter " I " and that I still had a lot to learn so when I started to write this journey through life, I would not write i t in chronological order. I would write i t as i t came to me because i n life things are always changing. The letter " W " means work and it never hurt anyone. I f you want to get ahead i n this world, you have to work. Very few people succeed i n life without a little help from someone else. Maybe it's your wife or husband or a friend that helps. I t might be just a little encouragement or a helping hand in time o f need. Money isn't everything but i f you work hard and use some judgment, the money w i l l come. As I travel through life I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful wife for sixtytwo years and three wonderful daughters, which come first in my life. I always think o f these four people first and then myself later. I also have three o f the best son-in-laws that any man could have and for that I am truly thankful. Every father wants to see his daughters with someone who really cares for them. I wanted my girls to have the things i n life that I always wanted but couldn't have because o f the Depression. I think I have accomplished this mission. I f I had not I would be deeply disappointed. M y family tree has been sending out branches for some time now. I have six grandsons and two granddaughters who have all gone to college and have good jobs now. I also have seven little twigs on my tree, seven great granddaughters and one great grandson. August 2002 25