Ludwig Rittel ( dad ) was born in 1868 . He had 4 brothers and two sisters . His father died when he was 9 years old and he came to the U . S . with perhaps two of his brothers . he took out a homestead near Streeter , North Dakota in Logan County and married Katherina Graf ( mom ) . Katherina Graf was born in Neudorf , Russia in 1868 on June 25 . Her family was part of the group of " Germans from Russia " that had gone into Russia to farm , but then were told to leave after Catherine the Great died . Mother 's grandfather had a winery , she helped him to make the wine and she became quite good at it . She said at one point that she drank too much of the wine and fell asleep behind the stove . The family lived in Russia in a commune . It was more like a town , but the people would go out to the fields to work . Mother fell in love at age 17 . Her father decided to immigrate to the U . S . , but she didn 't want to go along , but her father forced her to accompany them . When it was too late , she found out she was pregnant . She said the father 's name was fisher , but didn 't say what his first name was . The child was a girl she named Lydia . Fisher later came to the U . S . and someone told mother that now she could marry him , but by that time she had married dad and decided to stay married to dad . She came to America with her parents at age 17 and married Ludwig Rittel in 1888 in South Dakota in Scotland . The preacher was Michael Hieffer . In the fall , they moved to North Dakota . In 1889 they moved onto a farm and lived there 18 years . They moved to Wichita Falls , Texas in 1908 next and lived there until 1910 . Then they moved to Cordell , Oklahoma and lived there until 1912 . From there they moved to Kingman , Kansas and lived there until 1917 . They then moved to Marion , Kansas and lived there for 6 months , then to North Dakota for another 6 months , then back to Herington , Kansas in 1918 for one year , then over to Marion where they lived until Ludwig died . Katherina then moved to Herington where 4 of her children lived ( Sam , Gus , Louis , and Julia ) . She had a three year old daughter Lydia that Ludwig adopted . They had 10 children of their own , including one boy who died just after birth . Katherina was able to teach herself how to read and write in English . Because of discrimination starting in WWI and WWII as well , she was hesitant to speak in town because of her thick accent . Mother like to do work with her hands . She crocheted a lot , could knit , made flower arrangements to sell , and made a lot of comforters from wool squares that came in books from the men 's clothiers . She would get the books , remove the squares and sew them together and have sometimes wool inside and then a flannel back . Dad sometimes drew a picture of a chicken or rooster and she would outline it on the comforter . Then they would tie the three layers together . She made many quilts and also made a lot of punchwork pillows and hot pads . ( Rosalie note : I have a number of her quilts and they are in excellent condition . I will see that your family gets them ( Uncle Ted Rittel ) , but please , please check with a quilting society for proper storage and cleaning . They should last another hundred years if properly taken care of . Grandma used new fabric to make them while a number of women back in those days made quilts out of used dresses and shirts . They disintegrate easily . Many of hers were made of flour sack material , but it was new . I think they are quite beautiful . She made some for the other kids , too , but don 't know how many she made . Mom said that Grandma told her she made several for aunt Bertha and when she went to visit her , she saw that Bertha had bleached them and over - washed them and they were already worn out . She never gave her another one and all she made after that , she gave to mom ( Julia ) . She made her own soap out of lye and fat and said that goose fat made the very best soap . ( Note from Rosalie : it takes around 5 hours to make a batch of soap ) . One time she got some lye in between her fingers and it ate off all of the skin before she got it cleaned off using vinegar . I wonder now how she managed to get the meals , wash the dishes , etc . with that large deep chemical burn , but she didn 't complain . Mother wasn 't the best seamstress , but she did pretty well . I recall one time she made me a black and white checked suit and a coat from her old plush coat - this would have been a difficult project , so she was really pretty good . She made her own clothing , too . ( Rosalie note : Aunt Bertha was an excellent seamstress , as was Mom . Both were self - taught . Bertha went professional and made clothing for movie stars who sought her out . I visited one time and she was making a dress for Rosalind Russell . It was a sequined material and looked extremely uncomfortable , but it was really beautiful . Mom made clothes for her , dad and me for many years . ) Mother didn 't know much about cooking except the old , simple cooking , but she was ready to learn . One time they were invited out or stayed someplace overnight in Streeter when the kids were small . The lady served oatmeal for breakfast , and mother wanted to know what it was . From then on , the kids got plenty of oatmeal . ( Rosalie note : Mom said Grandma didn 't use many spices , so the food tended to be fairly bland . She did use garlic , and we grew some she had brought over from the old country . Unfortunately , after taking it all over where I lived , it died at our place in Finley , Washington when some chives crowded it out , or I could have shared it with you . ) Mother liked to travel and would go to California at times , leaving me in charge of the cooking . I took Domestic Science in high school so she knew I could cook . Before that I wasn 't allowed to cook for fear I would ruin the food and it would have to be thrown out . ( Note from Julie Scott : My grandmother Beatrice Rittel went with Arthur and their two youngest children , Ted and Darlene , once to visit the Rittels in Kansas . She said that Art 's mother always fixed a big breakfast every morning - huge bowl of oatmeal for everyone , german sausages , etc . Grandma always said she could barely eat it all ) One time I had to prepare supper for the family as a science assignment . I had to make my own menu . I remember I served hot biscuits and Spanish rice - that is all of the menu I can recall . After supper , Dad said , " Mom , why can 't you cook a meal like that ? " So I am sure she was embarrassed , but at least they were happy with the meal . I used to bake Raisin Bran date muffins . Ed ( one of Arthur 's brothers ) used to wait until I took them out of the oven and come and eat some while they were hot . He really loved them . ( Rosalie note : Mom was a terrific cook and I have many of her recipes in her handwriting . Let me know if you want them down the road . It is a great collection of 3 1 / 2 by 5 cards in a card box plus a couple of recipe books . ) Mom used to make a type of noodle called " rivel " . It was flour and water and something else made into a dough that was forced through a sieve or grater into boiling water . I really never acquired a taste for it , but the egg noodles were quite good . Those were made into dough and rolled out , then the flat dough was rolled up and sliced very thin into noodles . The noodles were hung to dry and would keep a long time . We also used to make bierochs ( beer rocks ) , which was similar to a piroge - meat , cabbage and onion mixture that was wrapped in bread dough and baked . Some of the kids liked ground beef in the recipe and some liked shredded . Bertha liked the shredded . Only the Germans from Russia made bierochs . Since they were baked in dough , they would keep well for lunch . In North Dakota , we lived in an adobe house that had a high enough roof that the boys could sleep in the attic . It had a very large bedroom , a dining room , living room and kitchen . The walls and floors were white - washed . The oven and stove were also mud adobe or made of sod . The adobe bricks were made by forming a large oblong bed about 2 - 3 feet deep and filled with sod , straw and water . Then they let the horses trample it to mix it all up to the right consistency . It was then dried and cut into bricks to make the walls of the house . Later Dad built a wooden house with 2 stories - two rooms upstairs , a dounstairs entryway , living room , bedroom and kitchen . We had a pond with ducks and geese . Dad had a stallion for breeding ( Rosalie note : I have a photo of him with his stallion ) . He also had cattle , sheep and horses . We had a Dutch windmill with a blacksmith shop inside . He did horse - shoeing and also sharpened plow shares . There was a grist mill to make corn meal , wheat , rye or whatever grains needed grinding . The grist mill was operated by having a mule go around in a circle . The farm is now being used by the government for experimental growth farm products . Sister Lydia 's one child died of a bad heart - she couldn 't breathe . The child was placed in a casket and set out on the porch in preparation for burial , but the ground was too frozen to dig the grave . It was dug as much as possible each day . When it finally got deep enough and they were to bury the baby , the grave had 2 - 3 feet of water in it . Mom didn 't say what they did then . Dad had a threshing machine and cook shack ( Rosalie note : I have a fabulous photo of the threshing machine ) . He hired girls to do the cooking and men to pitch stacked wheat onto the threshing machine and went wherever wheat or oats needed to be threshed . It had a header to cut wheat . Ludwig decided to run for sheriff , but another man wanted to buy him off , which was against Dad 's principles , so he just dropped out of the race . Dad could play the organ and also the accordion and was good at raising sheep , cattle , horses , hogs or whatever he put his mind to . He was a good vet and was asked by others to help heal their animals . He could set a broken bone , and I recall a little boy being brought to our house very late one night . The boy had fallen and it was feared he had broken his leg . Dad examined him , but found nothing amiss . If an animal needed to be castrated , Dad took care of that , also . Once a young colt fell and broke its leg , but rather than destroy the animal , Dad set the leg and put splints on it that extended beyond his hooves . The colt was able to hobble around without harming the healing process , and he turned out just fine . Dad also shoed horses ( a farrier ) . We used to castrate the male roosters so they would become capons and would grow quite large . To castrate a rooster , you had to cut into them below the wing and remove the testicle . Dad taught the boys how to do this and that became their job . Sometimes the roosters would get an infection and die , but most of the time , it worked fine . Dad did his own butchering . He would scrape and clean all the pig intestines until they were spotless and then proceed to use them as casings to make the family sausage . He taught the boys how to clean the intestines and the boys always complained that it was the worst job of all when they had butchering day . Of course , there were no rubber gloves then , and now they clean them by blowing them out with a garden hose - so back then , by the time you were done , you were a filthy , smelly mess . Hams were put in the smokehouse as well as the sausage . Cooked pork chops were put in the crocks and covered with hot fat to preserve them . ( Note from Julie Scott : When I lived with my grandparents in 1963 , Grandpa decided to go into the sausage business with his mother 's recipe . He bought all the casings and expensive meat , seasoned and stuffed them , but didn 't check to see if the intestines had been cleaned properly . Consequently , all of the sausage that was on every flat surface in their basement went bad , and my grandmother threw it bit by bit out onto the canal bank for the dogs wandering around . ) Dad was a good farmer , and he rotated his crops . He was a very religious man and was a deacon in the church . He was very conscientious and extremely honest . Dad had his own threshing machine in North Dakota and threshed wheat for our family and many others . The family moved to Wichita Falls , Texas in 1908 . In Texas , I recall wandering around the pasture . One of the boys killed a huge rattlesnake that he held out at arm 's length and it almost touched the ground , it was so big . We had a nice pond there and a large barn . The boys slept in the loft . I recall playing in the hayloft - there was a saddle over a big board and we used to climb up onto it and pretend we were riding a horse . One day I fell off and hit my head , skinned it , I guess , since it bled so much . Mother cleaned it up and rocked me in her arms until I was quiet . There was a store fairly close by and Mother would give me a little basket and put 3 eggs into it . I would traipse off to the store and get some candy in exchange . I recall one day on my way , I met a bunch of soldiers - they were probably Texas Rangers . I was afraid of them , but they didn 't bother me . One time after supper , the boys were resting under a large tree and a tarantula came by . Gus picked up a stone and threw it and killed it . I also remember going to a show in Wichita Falls and there was a large lake in the area - I remember there was a large colored lady spitting tobacco . We didn 't stay too long in Texas because my brother Louis became very ill , but the family was never able to find the cause . They had a doctor come out one time and paid him their last ten dollars . Louis was still ill and would go by spells . It was really bad because at one point he suddenly couldn 't walk . ( Note from Rosalie : Perhaps it was from a tick bite - that would explain some of the symptoms and the fact that he later had heart trouble . The bacteria can cause all sorts of organ problems and they didn 't have antibiotics then ) . The family sold the farm and moved to Cordell , Oklahoma where they lived until 1912 . After about 4 years , they sold the farm and moved back to Streeter , North Dakota . Again , six months later , since Dad could no longer stand the climate , they moved to Herington , Kansas . Gus bought a pair of kid bloves for Bertha and she was so proud of them that she wore them when she played the organ for church . I will never know how she managed that . I don 't recall the name of the church . Bertha had cousins her own age , so they became friends . Adolph and his wife Reika lived close by , and she sewed . She made Bertha a beautiful navy blue serge dress with a yoke and then pleats from the yoke down in front and in back . She made me a dress , too - I think it was a two - piece red dress . She was a good seamstress . Alvin was a baby and he was in a carriage that they named Alvin . My grandfather was still living , so we got to meet him . He looked like my mother . We also met most of my aunts and uncles - at least those that still lived there . CORDELL , OKLAHOMA - 1910 We lived on a farm in Cordell , Oklahoma for a while where we grew alfalfa and cattle . Although we lived closer to Cordell , we went to church in Bessie . There was another farmer who lived almost across the road from us . There were a lot of Indians living around the area . Every time some would come to our place , I would run and hide under the bed . One time an Indian man and his wife came to the house and kept talking to mother . They seemed to be arguing , but Mother was unable to understand what they wanted , so they finally left . When Dad butchered a beef , the Indians would come and catch the blood and drink it . I recall going to town and seeing the Indians with their blankets wrapped around their shoulders . I don 't think we lived too far from town because one time Ed and I and maybe one other brother started to town . We had to cross a railroad track , and there was a man with his back towards the road , and we thought he was preaching , but he had his arms raised toward heaven , so maybe he was praying . We went on without any trouble . It was while living in Cordell that Arthur ran away from home the first time . Dad looked all over for him , even went to the police , but couldn 't find him . I think he was 14 at the time . From then on , he never stayed put - he would come home for a while , then leave again . One day , Mother went across the road to visit the neighbor lady , leaving me at home all alone because I was sleeping . I was only 4 - 5 years old . I woke up and started over to the neighbors , but they had a dog that kept barking at me , so I got scared and went toward the school where I knew the other kids were - at least a mile from the farm . On the way I passed some gypsies camped by the river or creeek . I was afraid , but I went on until I got to the school house . I arrived during recess . They were really mad when they saw me . I began to cry on the way home , but Mom was so glad to see me , she just hugged me and rocked me . The boys had even looked in the well for me . They didn 't know what had happened to me when Mother came home and didn 't find me . We had 3 buildings we used to live in : a summer house which was used as the kitchen and dining room , a 2 room house where we had 2 bedrooms . Mom and Dad slept in one and then we had a folding bed in the other room that was taken down at night , and Ed , Bertha and I slept in it . The bed was made of wool and somehow became infested with bedbugs , but I was the only one they would bite , so I ended up in the third building where the older boys slept . It was more of a shack , and as I recall , had 3 beds in it . Dad was a light sleeper , and we had a lot of cyclones in that area . It seemed that almost every night we 'd have to head for the cellar for safety . One night Dad called the boys and they figured they would sleep it out , but when one corner of the house began to lift , they grabbed me and raced for the cellar . We had quite a few friends there , but only had the horse and buggy for transportation . Mother would take me along . One lady offered to give me the material for a dress and I chose black . I remember the first funeral I went to was of a man and his wife that was a murder - suicide . When we moved to Kingman , Kansas , it turned out there was a $ 2 , 000 mortgage on the farm and Dad got stuck with it . We lived there for about 5 years before moving to Marion the first time for 6 months . We had a lot of fun on the farm , but it was a lot of hard work . Ed and I fed calves out of milk buckets . I hit one on the head with my fist . I had a ring on and found that the stone was missing . The calf kept butting the bucket and it made me mad . . A creek ran through our land , so we would take a stick and fasten a hook of some kind to a line and dig some worms to go fishing . I don 't recall catchng many fish . We had a nice stand of trees to play around in and also a good sized orchard . Mother would slice apples and spread them out on a sheet on the porch roof to dry . At Kingman on the farm , the boys had a small riding pony . Art and I went to the pasture after the cattle and on the way back down a hill , there was a creek . The pony jumped over the creek so smooth it didn 't even jar us . Gus worked for a farmer or rancher close by . He had a motorcycle . One time , he took me for a ride on it , and it was either misting rain or sleeting . It really did sting my face , but it was fun . When we arrived at Kingman , Dad tried to send me to school , but the teacher refused since school had already begun . A board member rode over one evening ( Gus 's boss ) and told Dad to go ahead and send me to school since that teacher couldn 't refuse me - so I went to school . I held my hand up one day to be excused so I could go to the bathroom , but the teacher refused . I was unable to hold it and pretty soon it was running down the aisle . After that she always answered our hands and permitted us to go . The blackboard was partially broken and there were just some laths in one place . One day a snake began to crawl out between those slats . The snake was right behind the teacher . Everyone began trying to call her attention to it , and after so long a time , she turned and saw the snake and stepped back away from it pretty fast . Since Louis was the oldest student , she asked him to kill it , but as I recall , the snake slithered back inside . It got the blackboard fixed ! One night the school house burned down . So the board members found an old deserted house so we could go to school until they built a new one . The abandoned house wasn 't much more than a shack . The new school house was built in another place about a quarter mile further from our place , but it sure was nice . Dad used to rent extra land and put it into wheat . At harvest time , he hire several hands to help with the harvest . A cookshack was usually set up for the cooking and everyone was fed . Dad always allowed everyone to take a nap after meals before they began working again . I am quite certain that one summer , one of the hands was Roy 's ( Julia 's future husband ) brother Jack . Ed went to town and he asked us to check at the post office to see if he had any mail . There was a letter for John H . Larue and we were so dumb , we didn 't know that Jack was the nickname for John . He was pretty disgusted with us . We had one horse that was sway - backed and one that somehow never grew to normal horse size , but she bore good colts . One mare that was beautiful just couldn 't seem to get pregnant , but when she finally did , she died before the colt was fully developed . It was about the size of a medium pig . Ed cut her open to see what was inside . Dad kept a stallion for breeding . They tend to become mean , so he was kept penned up in an enclosed stall . That is the only horse that I ever saw Dad whip . He would tak him out of his stall for exercise , but he would whip him with a buggy whip . He was broken to harness , so one time they hitched him up to a flat platform with slanting blades that was used to go down through the rows of corn to cut weeds . That horse bolted , threw Adolph , and he had his leg cut to the bone . He wasn 't taken to the doctor to be stitched up as they do now , so he had quite a scar on his leg . It was between the ankle and knee . For some reason , Dad sold our little pony , and one day while Ed and I were way out in the pasture , we came to a fence where there was a gate , and found the pony tied there . We were so glad to see him , we took him home , and of course Dad returned him to the people that bought him . We loved that pony . Sam got married while we lived there , and Dad helped him get a place of his own . We had a horse named Kate , and sometimes Ed and I would ride her to Sam 's place for a visit . She was a good , gentle , dependable horse . I guess Leona ( Sam 's wife ) had been used to going to dances because one time , she showed me how they danced . I just sat and watched . One time the boys ordered a case of whiskey , or bought it in town . Dad ran into it and broke every bottle … Mother always made kegs of wine out of mulberries . We had a long row of them , but she preferred grapes when she could get them . If we had company , they would go get some wine to serve our guests . She learned how to make wine from her grandfather . I do recall Mother putting up fruit or vegetables in cans . Seems that was the first method of preserving food other than drying , smoking or salting it . On Saturdays we would go to town . Mother made butter and sold it to the store or traded it . At that time , whenever you paid the grocer he would give the folks a bag of candy . We kids would watch people for entertainment . We were visiting once and I was wandering around and came upon a young man with his girlfriend . He said that if I would leave , he would give me a nickel . I did , but he did not give me the nickel . Well , every time I saw that man in town , I would hit him up for that nickel until finally he paid me just to get me off his back . I was really happy . I 'll bet he could have wrung my neck . The folks bought Ed a policeman 's uniform and he used to wear it to town . We even had our picture taken at a studio - Ed , Bertha and me . I think he felt pretty big in that uniform . Ed was small and had been sick when they were in Texas , so the folks rather favored him , and if anything went wrong , I usually got the blame , whether it was my fault or not . Never did we have a Christmas tree at our house . Once Bertha broke off a branch about 2 feet high and wrapped every branch with white tissue paper , then decorated it and that was our Christmas tree . They would always have me hang my stocking out on the porch , and on Christmas morning , it would have oranges , nuts and candy in it . I remember one year the folks gave me a set of doll dishes that looked like lead - could have been pewter - and I think they also gave me a stove . I was so proud of them . Dad made a cradle for my doll and painted it red . Bertha had one doll , too , but hers was larger than mine . The folks gave everyone a bible but Ed and me . I bought my own after graduation . Some of the bibles were in both German and English . We lived 3 miles from town , and Mother would let me walk there all alone and go to some church doing and then walk home again . I was about 8 - 9 years old . I had a playmate that lived over a mile from us , but I would go there at times to play , and sometimes I would stay all night . Mother became quite ill , and we thought she was going to die . So Dad sent Louis and Ed with a lantern to get a doctor one night . Mother recovered , but we soon had a telephone on the wall . It was the type you cranked to reach an operator . Sometimes I would listen to people 's conversations just for the fun of it . We had 2 dogs , a male named Fido and a white female . I can 't remember what her name was but she followed us to town one time and never came back . We figured she was probably picked up by the dog catcher . Mother had a yellow canary that usually sang constantly . When cleaning his cage , she sometimes permitted him to fly around the house . One day the cat got him . Mother could not find a single mark on the bird , but he was dead . She buried him close to the house and planted iris around his grave . I can still remember that when Dad sold the place and as we were leaving , Mother told the new owners that our canary was buried in the iris bed . There was a nice spring that Dad had built a box 3 / 4 around it , and on down the hill there was a dam . We kids used to walk around on stilts . Once we tried to walk into the pond on them , but with the deep mud , we finally gave up . We would go swimming in it , too . The older boys , especially Louie , I recall , did quite a bit of trapping . Sometimes I would go with him to make his trap line . There would sometimes be skunks and what else he caught I can 't recall . Mother fried the fat and used it for medication . The animals were carefully skinned and the hides stretched on boards to dry . When they had a bunch , they would sell them . I used to set traps for gophers and I would get 5 cents for each head or tail - maybe it was the ears . . We went to a picnic once for the school kids . Mother boiled some eggs in coffee so they would have a nice color , but the people refused to eat them . How that must have hurt her feelings . Mother 's own mother became quite ill and wasn 't expected to live , so Mother , Gus and Adolph went back to Streeter , North Dakota to see her . She died , however . Gus and Adolph decided to stay on , so Mother came home alone . School was to start before Mother got back , so a neighbor lady made me a dress . I also remember Mother buying me a ready - made dress one time . We sold the farm and moved to Marion for only six months . There , the house that Dad had rented , Mother refused to live in , so Dad found another house which was rather small , but the boys slept in the attic which had boards on the floor . We lived on the hill and had to go down into the valley to attend school . I had a great teacher . She must have liked me because whenever she encountered someone that knew me , she always asked about me . We used to play evenings out of doors under the street light . One morning , we were ready to go to school , but found out we couldn 't because the town flooded . We had no rain in Marion , but the stores , school and homes of people living in the valley were flooded . We had no school that day , and that made us all happy ! Sam couldn 't stand not being close to the folks , so he moved there , too , and lived about a block away from us . When Sam was of school age , the folks would send him to school in Streeter , but he only went long enough to barely learn to read and write . Somehow he refused to go back to school . Maybe that 's why he wanted to be close to the folks . After 6 months in Marion , the folks decided to move back to Streeter , North Dakota , but this time Sam didn 't follow . In Streeter , we lived in a large house that even had a bathroom , but the stool couldn 't be used in the winter months , so there was also an outhouse . We had a good school there , but it seemed to me that I already knew what they taught . We had one man professor that was mean . For some reason , he turned a large ring on his finger to the inside , and slapped Ed on the side of the head . Everyone there said there was no cause for him to do that . Ed had done nothing to deserve it . So some boys waylaid the teacher one night and beat him up . The next day , he had about 4 long scratches on one cheek . I asked him what happened , although I knew about the beating . He said he and Ethel ( his wife ) were scrapping and she scratched him . Dad couldn 't stand the extreme cold , so he left to look for a place to settle down . He went to Herington , Kansas and got a job , so we moved once again . We moved so much that the folks never paid much attention on how we enrolled in school . North Dakota had what we had already learned in Kansas , so when we moved back to Kansas , I enrolled in the 6th grade instead of the 5th . One day , the teacher said , " Are you sure you are in the right grade ? " right in front of the whole class . I did finish the 6th grade in Marion and went on to graduate from high school . I flunked civics , which was the history of Kansas , so I had to go to summer school so I could go to high school . I also flunked Latin , so had to take on extra subjects in order to get my credits , but I made it . In 1918 we were in Herington for one year . We moved into a 2 story house on S . 9th Street close to the railroad track . Dad worked for the railroad , walking the tracks and picking up coal . Walking on the rocks used for the track bed made his feel really sore . I remember he would soak them at night and they would have large cracks in them . He must have suffered agony walking on those sore feet . Finally he had to quit his job and go look for something else to do . We made a lot of friends while we were in Herington . The Hildermans were our next door neighbors . I recall Mrs . Hilderman had a baby that was stillborn , so Dad made a casket for it . Louis started dating Mary and ended up marrying her . Walter was only 4 years old , and there was Anna , Ella and Hulda . We also became friends with the Henrys and used to play with Leah and another of their children . World War I was on , and Gus was drafted , so he sold his ranch , horses and all of his belongings and turned the money over to Dad to keep for him . Mother knitted sweaters and socks for the soldiers , but they didn 't get them . They probably ended up on the black market . Mother would have a bad dream about Gus , then she would ask me to come and kneel beside the bed while she prayed for him . Finally the Peace Treaty was signed and while we were in Herington , Gus came home . I think Dad and Mother had already moved to Marion , because I stayed with Sam and Leona until school was out . It took Gus a year or two to get himself together . Then he went to Wichita to a mechanic school , then went to Herington and stayed with Adolph until he got a room with Mary Klieber and her father and a job with the Rock Island Railroad . Mary bought a house on West Main and they moved there and Gus ended up getting married to Mary Klieber . He was 33 years old ( Note from Rosalie : When Gus died , the bank president called Mom and told her that Gus had come in several years before and bought some savings bonds . The cash he bought them with was very musty smelling and the bank president was sure it had been stored underground or in a basement . The bank president told Mom she should check the house to be sure thee wasn 't more . Jerry and Mom went over to the house and looked in the basement , which had stones set for the walls - but never found anything . ) Adolph and his family moved to Herington , too , and he got a job with the railroad . Viola and Laurence were born in Herington , but Reika also had a miscarriage . When the railroad began making changes , Adolph was transferred to Moline , Illinois where they lived until both Reika and he died . ( Rosalie note : Larry and Viola were in touch frequently , but Alvin was always disappearing for years at a time and not telling anyone where he was going . When the last parent died , Larry and Viola needed to contact Alvin to finish up some legal work - they were coming to a deadline and had no idea where he was . All of a sudden , Alvin called my mom . I told her to be sure to ask Alvin why he would suddenly call . He said Reika appeared to him in a dream and told him he needed to contact the family immediately . He knew where Mom was , but not certain how to contact Larry or Viola , so he called Mom . ) I stayed with Reika and Alvin until Viola was born and helped bathe her . We went to Louis 's place when it came time for the baby to be born . I believe I stayed with her after Laurence was born , too . I remember they asked me what name to give him and I suggested several . One was Laurence , so he could be called Larry for short . Ed worked for the railroad in Herington . He was switching cars when one got loose and was running uncontrolled . It ran into the one Ed was on and broke his leg . He was 14 or 15 years old . Dad took him to Topeka to the railroad hospital where he remained for 6 weeks . By the time he got out , we were living in Marion . Dad bought a home in Marion , Kansas and opened a blacksmith shop of his own after working for another blacksmith for a while . Dad built a nice garage on our place at Marion with a sliding door . Later he built a washroom onto the back of the garage so Mother could wash out there . He installed a hotplate . When we first moved there , we burned wood and coal and had a 3 burner coal oil stove for summer cooking . Later , when Gus became available , we switched to a gas furnace ( floor ) and a kitchen gas range . There was a windmill and Dad made a high platform for a big horse tank and placed it on top to hold water so mother could water her garden . At times , the well would run dry , so it was a good way to store water . We also had a cistern under the house . Every so often , Dad would get a ladder and put it down into the cistern and clean it out so the water was drinkable . We had a large filter set up on the back porch that contained charcoal and something else , so the water from the eaves coming down the drain pipes would go through the filter before it went into the cistern . At one time , they had the football field just across the road from us . When the lights were turned on at night , Dad could see well enough to shingle the house . I think Dad may have made the first camper . A man had a truck and asked Dad to make a camper over it . It was made of wood and had all the conveniences inside that the man asked for . It was something to behold at that time . It was during the 1920 's . Due to the flooding , many people moved out of the valley , as did the stores . After Dad sold the place in Mation just before his death , the new owners began selling off the acres in lots for building houses . Now there are homes there all around , and a hospital where the football field was . It is quite pretty there now . Mom and Dad had just sold the home place , so mother was forced to move . She bought a nice home and continued to live at Marion for perhaps 2 more years or so , and then she sold that place and bought a small home in Herington on 10th Street where she lived until a year before her death in 1963 . She lived in a nursing home for about a year before she passed away at the age of 94 . ( Rosalie note : Mom said at some point after her dad died , a man named Wunsch wanted to marry Grandma , but the only reason he wanted to marry her was to hopefully get at any money she may have gotten when they sold the farm . They were not married long and Mom and Grandma didn 't talk about him at all . There wasn 't any money left that he got hold of that I know . When she bought the small house in Herington , Wunsch was gone by then as far as I know . She had to go on welfare to get by , though we shared food from our garden . Another story I remember was at one point , her neighbor called Mom and said excitedly that Grandma had gone crazy and that Mom had better get over there real fast . Mom asked what Grandma was doing , and the neighbor said she was out in the yard picking dandelion blooms . Just the blooms , not the leaves . Mom went over there and asked her what she was doing and Grandma replied : " I haven 't had any dandelion wine in 45 years , and by Gott , I am going to make some " … and she did . I was in high school and took advantage of the recipe and made some of my own . It was really quite tasty , but you have to make it correctly and absolutely pick out as much of the green as possible or it will be bitter . I still had some when we moved to California , and we were in an apartment with a wine chemist at the time . She tasted it and wanted to do some chemical tests on it . She did , and was very excited to tell us that the balance was excellent . In other words , Grandma 's recipe and instructions on how to make dandelion wine resulted in a very good wine . I thought that was pretty interesting . We still have a little bit left , but I realize you don 't drink alcohol ( to Uncle Ted Rittel ) . Let me know if you decide to do some " historical research " to taste it … . . ( Mom ( Julia ) continues : I started working in a photo studio while in school - the man just asked me if I would like to work for him . I worked after school and on Saturdays . I got $ 3 a week . If the weather was bad , he would take me out to lunch . They were beautiful people . His wife 's name was Rosalie , so I later named my daughter after her . He had planned on opening a studio in Hilsboro and put me in charge of it . However , he became ill and died of a goiter problem . An elderly lady , also a photographer , bought out the place and I ran it for 2 years . Another photographer was angry because he hadn 't gotten it , so he opened his own studio , which hurt our business . I sold my share to the lady and went to Herington and began working for a title company . I was promoted as bookkeeper to Service Representative in Abilene . I was over Solomon , Gypsum , Enterprise and Herington . ( Rosalie note : In her notes above , mother didn 't mention a story that she told to me many times . She was a pbx operator for a number of years and worked her way up to be the branch manager of the Southwestern Bell telephone office in Herington . She dated dad for 13 years before getting married . She liked the work a lot and said she had experienced a lot of discrimination . But the policy was that if you got married , you had to quit . She had pushed the biological clock to the limit and I was born when she was 39 and Dad was 40 . ) I taught myself how to play the organ with the help of Ludwig and Bertha . I played hymns for the church . Louie bought me a piano while I lived in Herington and I taught myself to play that as well . I enjoyed playing the piano a lot and wanted Rosalie to play too . Rosalie did not enjoy the piano , though she took lessons for several years . She did take voice lessons , though , and sang in an octet for several years and soloed in church and with the choir . Roy inherited a number of musical instruments from his side of the family . He had an old violin that was supposed to have come from France to Canada and down to Kansas and was played in the civil war . He also had a mandolin that was quite old , and a relatively new banjo .