September 4, 1916

 Last summer Far Guy's cousins Jack and Pat gave me a pretty little wedding booklet that was with some stuff that they bought for their antique shop. 

Well...anyone that knows me...knows that I am always curious.   Wouldn't someone like it as a remembrance?

The only real lead I had was the find a grave page

The couple were parents of two children.  Their son was a 19 year old Marine who was killed in Iwo Jima March 21 1945.  They also had a daughter.   All leads to return the booklet to family seemed like a dead end.  I scanned the booklet and put it up at Find A Grave at Robert and Luella's pages...they coincidentally have the same last name as Far Guys Maternal Grandparents...so they could be related...who really knows for sure.

Yesterday I got an email from a relative ( a cousin of Luella) who is thrilled to get the Wedding Booklet. 

So the mystery is solved...and the booklet will be on the way soon. 

One less thing for my daughters to discover and say "Why in the world was Mom saving this?"

Far Side

Wistful Wednesday:Old Tractor

Far Guy inherited his Paternal Grandmother's Garden Tractor. ( It was most likely purchased from Howard Sexton in an unknown to us year)  It is a 1941 Case VC.  Uncle Archie gave it to Far Guy with the understanding that we should try and pass it on to a relative.  We offered it to Cousin John a few years ago, he never came to get it.  Recently Far Guy talked with Cousin Jack and the tractor has found a home with Cousin Katie and her husband. 

We got the tractor in 1986 or 1987 when we moved to the resort.   It was a stump puller, wood hauler...when Far Guy was felling trees in the woods I would crouch down by the tires  in case a tree came the wrong way.  I learned to drive it...we drug the driveway with a bedspring to level out the road after a rain. We used it to put the fishing docks in and out of the lake...we had four docks that had to come out in the fall and into the lake in the spring.  We hooked up a screw type woodsplitter up to the back of the tractor and split mountains of wood.  It was a real work horse for us.  Far Guy and his Dad worked on restoring it, it gave them both something to tinker with.

We put it in storage for a few years and out it came to haul sand bags around after the Flood of 1997.   The trip to Harwood North Dakota was harrowing...we transported it on a car trailer and tied it down but it was still an accident waiting to happen that thankfully didn't happen.

Then it went back to storage...another 95 mile trailer ride that was exciting.

Finally Far Guy drove it up the road to where we live now.  It pulled stumps out, it has hauled firewood and brush.   Grandchildren sat on the seat and pretended to be farming. As I recall it was a really good babysitter for Adam!  I have a photo of Adam someplace...I could not find it.

2008 the Grandgirls;  Paige, Maddie and Savannah

Now it is time for it to go to a new home...after 34 years it is about time.  The original owners manual will accompany the tractor.
Here it is out in the yard ready to be loaded on a trailer.

Far Side

The Buckskin Jacket

Far Guys Dad had this buckskin jacket made for him.  He wore it..you can tell that a little boy must have played cowboys in it. There are no photographs of him in it.

Perhaps his sister remembers something.
Perhaps he wore this with his Davy Crocket Handkerchief..we have that somewhere it is almost worn out.  ( Note to self..locate it someday.) Perhaps he put on his side arm..in his Gene Autry Holster.
We always wanted a photograph of one of the grand boys in it.  It was either too small or too big.  Perhaps a Great Grandchild will pose in it someday.
I can always hope that he wore it for kindergarten class pictures.  The theme seems to have been cowboys and cowgirls.  There were several sections of kindergarten that year..he was not in this section.  I am hopeful that someday someone will bring some more old class photos into the museum.

Linda, Mark and Jackie are in the middle row in the center with the huge smiles! Floyd is in the back row third from the right.
Nowadays that little kid in the front row third from the right would be carted off to jail.  Times have sure changed:(

Wistful Wednesday :1953

March of 1953, I was still an only child..my baby brother was born the next year in March.  From what my parents tell me, I went everywhere with my Dad.  I was his shadow.

I was good at pitching fits to get my way.  I would stomp my feet and scream at the top of my lungs and then hold my breath until I turned purple. That behavior ended the day my Uncle Adolf witnessed a “fit.”  He was a big guy, he jumped up and down on the kitchen floor so hard it made the kitchen windows rattle.

This was taken in the kitchen at the farm. That window looked into the porch, and that door led out into the porch.  The Kitchen had bead-board that was painted white. Now I have bead-board in the bathroom upstairs…if I were to build a house again, I would have a red and white kitchen with white bead-board.  That door may have had a key..but I don’t think so.  Usually a butter knife was stuck sideways in-between the door and the door trim as a lock.  The linoleum floor was a dark green.

I have something that is in this photo.  Nope not the doll, and I may have that dress or perhaps the shoes..I would have to look at some of my early treasures to know for sure. 

The table off to the left.  Tammy and Trevor bought my parents old fishing resort and hauled that table off to the Osage Mall( Dump) and Far Guy and I rescued it.  It is in my garage. It is a little worse for the wear, but it still has the shiny legs and a pearl grey swirled top and an extra leaf for expansion.  In this photo it has an oil cloth most likely red and white on it’s top.

What is plugged in on the left? ..the refrigerator..and on the middle window ledge is a tin of Velvet tobacco and a little ceramic white swan. I cannot for the life of me remember what color the curtains were..I think yellow but they might have been pink.  Why am I sitting in the chair?  I was probably waiting for a snack, or staying clean until it was time to go someplace:)

The Third Treasure

Last summer at Auntie Esther’s garage sale, Far Guy got three gifts from his cousins Bonnie and Jay.  Family treasures that have been passed down, from one generation to the next.  These items all come from his Great Great Grandfather..or in one of those confusing statements..his Fathers (Marvin), Fathers (James), Mothers (Martha Jane), Father (Xaver). Xaver was a tailor in Philadelphia before he settled into life as a farmer in Harrison County Iowa.

 

The first item on the left is a lunch pail.  I wrote about it back in August. The item out front was a mystery item that I wrote about in July..it is a hog scraper.  Now for that third little item in the back. 

It has a cover that fits quite tightly.. lets look inside.

The note says: This Button Can was Grand Father Aleck.  From this note we can date this button can earlier than 1860.

Inside the button can is another mystery.

I added my own note: No Idea what the REM-UMC 45-99 shell casing is from, it was in the button can.

It remains a mystery.  Perhaps someone found it..and with lack of a better place put it inside the button can. 

My Nephew Hunter who lives next door did some research for me:  The spent casing is from a Single Shot Winchester or Remington. The 45 is the diameter of the bullet, and the 99 means that in the old black powder rounds it would take 90 grains of black powder. This shell would have been from after 1912.

So we have items from all parts of Xavers life..a lunch pail that was either his or his childrens, a button can from his time as a tailor, and a hog scraper from his time as a farmer.

It is a pretty little button can, with a patina all its own.  I wish it had some buttons inside of it instead of an old mystery shell casing and two notes.  I can only imagine what a delight it must have been to open it when it was full of buttons…I would have put my hand right in and let the buttons run through my fingers:)

Treasures from 1909-1910

When we visited Far Guy’s cousin up in Grand Rapids, she shared some of the things that were passed down to her from  Great Aunt Mae.  I have written about Frank and Mae before.  Mae was a school teacher before she married Frank in 1911.  She taught on the Indian Reservation. Frank and Mae never had any children.

These were either gifts from her students or something that she purchased from them.

A beaded purse.

A beaded coin purse made out of the softest leather you have ever felt.

And a necklace.

What treasures these are passed from Aunt Mae to her niece Marie and then to Maries only daughter.  It was a joy to see Aunt Mae’s treasures from so long ago.

I finished scanning all the old photos for that side of Far Guys family.  After I scanned them, I divided up the double photos and made a CD copy of all the old photos so that each branch of the family can have a copy.  One more project crossed off the list:)