I grew up in the 1950’s on a farm located in the northwest corner of Wells County that my grandfather homesteaded on. My father was born there in 1917 and lived there all his life except for a time during World War II when he served his country and then in his final years.
The farmstead yard was very large. You could get a lot of exercise in a day just walking from the house to the barn!
The mid-section of the yard from the house to the barn was fairly flat and sat a little higher than the ground around it. There was a slope on each side of the yard so it had excellent drainage.
There was huge and beautiful windbreak trees on the north, west, and partially south side of the yard. Lots of beautiful lilacs.
The house sat on the west side of the yard and was pretty small. To my recollection there were 3 rooms, a kitchen, bedroom, and living room. There was also a porch that could be used as a guest room in nicer weather but in the winter it served as a freezer.
I was born in 1950 which my parents said was a very good year because besides getting me, they also bought a new blue Chevy sedan car and an International Harvester refrigerator! The refrigerator was still functional when they sold it in 1987 at an auction. As for me I am still functional too, most times.
My older brother was born in 1947, my sister in 1948, a brother in 1953, a sister in 1957, and my youngest brother in 1963. So the house got pretty full at times!
Us kids slept in the bedroom and my parents slept on a pull out couch bed in the living room.(romantic huh?) There was an oil stove in the living room and on winter mornings we would all stand around the stove when we got dressed.
Even though we didn’t have a big house, I never felt crowded. We had lots of visitors and my Dad’s siblings considered this the home place so they visited often. I remember many times of my aunts and uncles dancing in the kitchen while my Dad played the accordion.
There was no running water in the house but we did have a large cistern. We didn’t use the cistern water for drinking or cooking. We carried that water from the well which was on the other side of the yard.
We had a pail of water by the sink with a dipper in it that we used for drinking. We always made sure the dipper was emptied before putting it back in the water pail. No extra glasses to wash!
Under the sink we had a slop pail where any waste was thrown into and we would give this to the pigs. They loved it! Any edible table scraps went to the dog. No dog food bought ever.
For baths in the winter we used a small tub in the kitchen. Once you got too big to fit in the tub you took sponge baths.
In the summer we would put a galvinized tub, looked like a small water tank,on the lawn by the house and in the morning filled it with cold well water and then let the sun warm it during the day.
The order of baths was youngest to oldest so my Dad was always the last one to take a bath. The water was pretty yucky by then!
Bath times were on Saturday usually in the evening. On Saturday nights after baths, we would get a treat. Sometimes a third or a half of a candy bar and a juice size glass of coke. As a kid I told myself that when I grow up I am going to drink a whole bottle of Coke by myself!
There was a huge hip roofed beautiful barn on the east side of the yard, straight across from the house. The barn was on a hill and behind it the land sloped lower.
In the winter we would clean the barn gutter with a wheel barrow and would wheel the manure out the east door of the barn and dump it over the side of the hill. Over the years the manure pile kept growing so the hill the barn was sitting on became longer.
Below the hill to the north was a slough where all the water from snow and rain would run off into. In the spring the slough would be very large and deep and the water in it was usually pretty dirty from the manure. My brother and I called the slough Lake S—-agoshe.
My brother Bradley and I would build a raft and sail on the water until it got so dirty that we would get “the itch” which usually occurred about the middle of June. We were easily entertained!
The barn had 14 stanchion for milk cows on one side of it. On the other side were 4 big calf pens and 2 tie stalls for 4 horses. In the winter all the livestock would be in the barn and it would be toasty warm in there.
On the west end of the barn was a good sized room for the cream separator. We called it the milk room. Across from it was the ground feed room. The barn had a huge hayloft and it was full of loose hay that was hauled in with a hayrack and slings. When we had small square bales we would put them up there also. There was a little room for a whole oats bin too for the horses.
As we got older we would save space up there for a basketball hoop. We spent a lot of time playing in the hayloft. All the cousins and our close friends still talk about playing in the hayloft. We would swing from the sling ropes like Tarzan, hide in the bales and loose hay. Lots of fun!
There was lots of other buildings in the yard too. The outhouse was north of the house down by the trees. It was a 2 holer and it was very dark in there at night time. We didn’t have a flashlight to use either. Spooky!
Twice in my lifetime I had to help dig new holes and move the outhouse. I always thought what a disgusting job because you had to move the outhouse before you could cover up the hole so you had to be careful not to fall in it!
There was a brooder house which was used for many things. Sometimes my Grandpa would sleep in there in the summer.
There was a big chicken coop, a small steel bin for barley, and a big pig house with a small pasture for them.
As you drove into the yard there was a tall windmill. It was on the highest part of the yard. When you climbed to the top of it you could see for miles. We always knew what the neighbors were doing.
Next to the windmill was a small shop and across from it a wooden granary. The garage was on the north side of the yard but we couldn’t use it in the winter due to snow would pile up there.
Our snow removal system was shovels. If it became too deep our neighbors, the Sannan’s would come over with their loader tractor and help out.
South of the house was a big garden. In the spring Dad would plow it with a B John Deere and a 1 bottom plow. Mom raised lots of vegetables and we all had to help pull weeds and help with the harvesting. We even had fun doing that!
Our big beautiful shelter belt was a great place for kids to play in. We built forts there, played cops and robbers, played “in the dirt” building roads and towns for our toy trucks and tractors. There was an old cook stove there so the girls had a playhouse.
One day my brother Bradley (who was about 7 or 8) and I got the bright idea to build a gopher ranch in the trees. We cleared out a little area and built some cages.
The reason for the gopher ranch was because the county pays 5 cents for a gopher tail and we thought it would be much easier to raise the gophers than to shoot or trap them. Brilliant huh? Of course we didn’t mention this to our mother, for obvious reasons. What could go wrong?
We managed to catch several live gophers by flooding their holes with water and trapping them as they came out. We were in business now!
One day when our parents were not home we decided to doctor one of the gopher’s legs as it had gotten hurt when we trapped it. So Bradley reached in the cage, grabbed the gopher, and was holding it while I was going to put mercuricrom on it.
But lo and behold, the gopher didn’t think much of the idea so he bit Bradley and of course he dropped the gopher and it got away. I’m sure a gopher bite is painful and Bradley was crying but he was crying because he thought he would get rabies and die a horrible death. I tried to re-assure him everything was okay but we both knew that wild animals could have rabies.
So we tried to find the gopher again so we could get him tested for rabies but he was long gone! We didn’t know what to do.
Bradley was a nervous wreck, he was sure he was going to die. I told him don’t tell Mom but as soon as her and Dad got home, he blurted out to her what happened.
I think my Mom was just amazed at how stupid we were. She did her best to calm Bradley down as she felt sorry for him. But she was very unhappy with me as I was the oldest and should have known better. My Mom was a very patient person, she had to be after raising 4 sons!
We had to let all the gophers loose and so ended our gopher ranch enterprise. My Dad thought it was hilarious.
Our closest neighbors were the Sanaan’s. They lived about ¼ mile to the west. There were 5 adult brothers; Clifford, Adolph, Joe, Ed, and Roy and their mother whom everyone called Mrs. Sannan. Her first name was Susan but no one ever called her that. It was always Mrs. Sannan.
The Sannan brothers were always referred to as the “Sannan boys” even though they were as old or older than my Dad. The Sannan’s were the best people ever created. They would do anything for anyone and never spoke an unkind word.
My Mom always said “I think were related to them”. And it turns out, she was right! I did some family history research a few years ago and discovered we were related by a marriage.
When Mrs. Sannan was very elderly, she broke her hip and was bedridden. My mother would go over to the Sannan’s house everyday and do Mrs. Sannan’s daily cares and bathe her. Mom never expected or received anything for this but she received the undying love and gratitude of the Sannan family. If we’d have been catholic, they would have given her sainthood!
All of my ancestors came from Norway and they all came to Stony Brook Township in Minnesota upon leaving Ellis Island.
How the Immigration system worked was you had to have a sponsor to come to America and you needed to prove you could support yourself.
Farming in Norway is kind of limited as the country is mostly granite so the soil is very shallow. Most of my ancestors were fishermen.
My great grand father, Nils Vigen, was a large farmer in Stony Brook Township in Minnesota and he would sponsor Norwegians and then train them to be farmers. That is how my grand father Severin Hovland, his brothers, and most of the Norwegians who came to Wells County became farmers. In my grand father’s case it was a little different as he married Nils’s daughter Clara, my grand mother.
The community we lived in around Wellsburg and Heimdal was mostly of Norwegian ancestry and everyone looked out for and helped each other. And of course everyone was Lutheran. Most of us went to Bethania Lutheran church in Wellsburg. The church and school in Wellsburg were the big social centers of our world.
You went to church every Sunday morning. Farmers could be excused at harvest time if the weather was good for harvesting. Everyone dressed up. Men wore suits, white shirts, ties, and after shave lotion. You could were a felt hat but no caps.
Women wore dresses, sometimes hats, make-up and perfume. With all the after shave and perfume in church the air was very fragrant. But it gave everyone the opportunity to dress up once a week.
Kids also dressed up. We had dress pants (no jeans), nice shirts with sometimes sweaters, occasionally a tie, church shoes (no boots) and a jacket just for church. Girls wore dresses or skirts.
Sunday service usually started with a hymn and with everyone standing. I think the hymn usually was Holy, Holy, Holy. We did not have a choir but there were several ladies who were good singers. My Dad was also a good singer.
Everyone was expected to be quiet and listen to the sermon although I think no one ever remembered the sermon afterwards. At the end of the service the minister would stand by the door and shake everyone’s hand.
After this people would stand around and visit and if you smoked you could do so in the front entry. I don’t recall there ever being coffee or lunches after church. They were saved for funerals. And boy, the funeral lunches were really something! Lots of hot dishes but the best was an open face sandwich on round brown bread with Cheez Whiz and sliced green olives. What a treat!
The Wellsburg Norwegian community was pretty established. The gravel road going east of Wellsburg was kind of the dividing line for the Norwegians and the German Russians. They called themselves “Roosians”. Most everyone north of this road were Roosians but the big difference between them and the Norwegians were, they were Catholic.
Back then there was a lot of differences between the Catholic and Lutheran religions. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the Catholics. In fact in 1976 I had the extreme good fortune to marry the prettiest Catholic girl in Bismarck although I did have to take classes before I could do so.
I must have passed these classes though because we have been married for 48 years.
The Catholics lived north of Wellsburg and around Selz and Esmond. Many of the kids came to school in Wellsburg. We had a lot of fun in school!
One of the things Catholics are really good at is wedding dances. They sure know how to throw a party!
For entertainment in the evenings people would visit with each other. They would take turns going to each other’s houses. No one called on the phone before hand, you would just show up.
If someone came over to visit, whatever you had planned for that evening, you cancelled it so you could visit. We would always wash up before supper so we were clean if someone came over.
The only time I heard my Mother swear was one evening just as we finished supper, she looked out the window and saw the “Smith” family with all their 6 kids. She said “Oh no, here’s Dick and Jane and the whole fam damily”! We were schocked!
When someone came to visit you would sit around the living room idly chatting and then about 9:00 Mom would get up and make lunch. Coffee, Kool-Aid, open face sandwiches, and cookies or cake. After lunch the company went home. This was always the routine, no matter who was doing the visiting.
Those were wonderful times, happy memories, and I am sure as kids we were all influenced positively by the good people who were around us as we were growing up.
