Because You Lived We Also Live

Grandma's Memoirs

This is a memoir written based on interviews by one of Grandma's relatives (I'll get the reference), it is based on an oral history project interview:

Life on the farm

Born April 18, 1908, on a farm ½ mile north of Keyeser, Wisconsin. She was the fourth girl born to the second marriage of Bernard Bredeson. His second wife, Anna, had one more girl before a son, James, was born. Ruby Pauline had six half-brothers and one half-sister who were older.

Her early tales that she used to relate to us was that they had a lot of fun (and hard work) and they loved to play tricks on each other. Bernice seemed to be the butt of most of the jokes.

They had to walk to school, which was about 2 miles west, going through Keyeser. The biggest threat was a bull that was kept in a field along the road, and they would run fast to get by before he noticed them and would come running up to the fence. Don’t know if he ever got out!        

There were eight grades taught by one teacher. There were large families in those days so the school population could be up to 40 or 50 pupils. The older children had to help with the younger ones. There was only recess, no gym classes, the teacher taught the music, art, and whatever the curriculum included. On top of that, she usually was the janitor, too. Pauline (She wasn’t too fond of her first name, Ruby) graduated from eighth grade and that was the extent of her formal education.

Her dad raised milk cows, crops like corn and tobacco and oats. He also had a large apple orchard in back of the house from which canned apples made good eating in the winter. Horses were kept for field work and also to pull sleds in the winter. There were no snow plows so when the roads were impassable they would cut across the fields and make their own roads.

They attended church in Keyeser, and at first, the sermons were in Norwegian. Religion classes were held on Saturday mornings. Confirmation required a lot of memorizing of the catechism, and the Bible. Pauline used to baby-sit and work for the Pastor and wife at the parsonage.

The church was heated with a wood furnace which had to be started early Sunday mornings, and Anna Gullickson-Mickelson’s mother would walk up to the church in the dark, cold snowy morning from their store across the street with her lantern and start the fire so church would be somewhat warm when people arrived.

There were no big Christmas presents, but stockings were hung on Christmas Eve, and IF you were lucky, you got an orange and some hard candy in it in the morning. Homemade gifts like a knitted scarf or sweater were what to expect.

Grandpa Bredeson was quite musical. He could manage to play a violin. There was an organ in the parlor that was played by using your foot to pump wind for the sound. There were “stops” that you pulled out to get the various sounds. Diane still has the little round stool that you could spin the top to make it taller or shorter. Glass marbles completed each foot of the stool, each encased in a metal foot.

When she was 16, she went to live with her oldest sister, Lulu in Madison, WI. There she, along with her sisters Lulu and Inez, worked in the Ray O Vac company making batteries. They used to send some money home every paycheck for help in running the farm.

She met Martin Henry Mickelson at a barn dance in the Keyeser neighborhood. He lived on a farm about 4 miles from her place. He also came from a large family. Martin was born on August 1, 1897. He had attended the Columbia County Normal School in Columbus and was to become a teacher. However, he and his brother, David, became farmers instead. Martin lived on the home farm, and even though he was 10 years older than Pauline, he proposed, and she accepted. She was 18 then. They were married on November 26th, 1926. Witnesses were Lulu Bredeson, sister, and Herbert Mickelson, brother of Martin.

His mother, lived with them and helped with all the chores. Back then, they butchered and canned their own meat, canned vegetables, and raised enough potatoes so that Martin could take truckloads to Madison and sell them, door to door. Chickens and eggs sold well, also. This was during the 1930’s depression, so money was scarce. Being on a farm meant that you may have not had money, but you never went hungry either. Often, men mostly, would be walking country roads, asking for work and/or money for food. Martin would have them do some chores, and then give some food to them.

There was no running water in the house so water had to be carried from a well 30 yards from the house. The “Outhouse” was the bathroom and it was located usually 20-30 feet from the house. Baths were usually once a week and water had to be heated by a wood stove, so that was a Saturday night ritual.

Four children were born to Martin and Pauline. Harold LeRoy, Evelyn Delores, Diane Burnette and Glen Gerhard.

During the period of the early 1940’s World War II was raging and rationing of practically everything occurred. Each family was given a ration book with stamps, and you had to use it to buy things. This was done so that the army would have enough materials to fight the war and noone complained too much. Farmers were given some exemptions as they needed gas to grow crops. Kids in school bought war bonds. Diane remembers every Friday kids would bring dimes to buy as many stamps as they could for a book of war bonds. Another thing kids remember doing is collecting milkweed pods. I think they were used to make life jackets…at least that’s what people were told.

Everyone felt great pride in America and we learned all the patriotic songs of the army, navy, etc. and the Star Spangled Banner. We said the pledge of allegiance every day at the beginning of school. People listened every night to their radio to hear how the war was going. There was a feeling of unity, a pride in America then, as almost every family had a member or relative in the army. The draft called almost every able-bodied person to help in the war.

Martin and Pauline raised tobacco, corn, oats on their farm. It wasn’t a large farm, only 80 acres, but a lot of the work was hand labor and horses were used a lot before they finally bought a tractor. Oat fields were cut with a binder, which made small bundles of the oats for threshing which happened when the oats had dried in shocks. Shocks were about 10 bundles stacked upright together in the fields to dry. That was all done by hand! When it was dry, all the neighbors would help thresh the grain using a threshing machine. There would be 5 or 6 wagons pulled by horses that would bring heaping loads of oat bundles to the machine and each driver would throw his load into the threshing machine to have the grain separated from the straw. It took two or three men to operate the machine. The straw came out a long pipe and piled up to a huge mound. The grain was caught in gunny sacks and stored in the barn for winter food for the animals. It was a dirty job and when it was Martin and Pauline’s turn to have the threshing crew, Pauline was the lady who made dinner and supper for them. As kids, we often got to ride on a full wagonload from the field, which was great fun! Helping with the meals, doing the dishes, not so much.

Another hand-labor intense crop was tobacco. It started in the spring with tobacco beds seeded with the tiniest of seeds. Pauline actually loved working outside and was very involved with the actual labor of getting the tobacco planted, hoed, speared and stripped. It was a crop started in the coolness of spring and ended in December!

Pauline also loved gardening, and always had a large garden. Along with strawberries, raspberries, she grew vegetables, and flowers. One of her enjoyable times was to go to the woods of neighbors or farmers that she knew. As kids, Diane remembers taking a small bucket with a handle and, wearing long sleeve shirts to ward off mosquitoes, gingerly going into wild berry patches. Wading through scratchy, tight stalks was extremely hot but the jams and sauces were worth it!! (Glen never seemed to get in on those kind of outings!)

Those same woods would have hickory trees, and in the fall, Pauline would take anyone who would go with her to look for hickory nuts. Sometimes she would have baskets full, and other years the trees yielded nothing. It was the “journey” for her and she loved being outdoors.

The 1950’s brought weddings. Evelyn and Charles Owen on October 28, 1950. Pauline Mick and Harold were married May 30th, 1953. August 20, 1960 Diane and Raymond Schmitt were married and the last wedding was Glen’s and Karen Haug on February 24, 1961.

Grandchildren arrived…Tom, Steve and David to the Owen family. Harold and Pauline had Susan, Debra, Randy, Jean and Kelly. The Schmitt family had Karen, Rebecca and Judith. A son, Raymond III, died shortly after he was born. Glen and Karen had Keith, Brian and Brenda. The grandchildren had many wonderful times at Grandma and Grandpa’s farm.

Martin died on March 10, 1974. Pauline decided to have a farm auction and move to Columbus where she found an apartment on Fuller Street. Harold and Pauline bought the family farm. One of her favorite things was to write to all the grandchildren about all the news as she knew it. She also remembered all their birthdays.

Pauline enjoyed the Senior Center in Columbus and lived in three different places before finding she couldn’t handle living by herself anymore. It was then that she wanted to move to the Columbus Nursing and Rehab. Center and it was there she spent the rest of her life. Her mind remained fairly sharp until about a month before she died. It was damaged by a large stroke which was her demise. She died on December 11, 2005 at the age of 97. Funeral services were at Keyeser, Wisconsin On December 16, 2005.

World War II Interview

Grandma gave an interview on memories of World War II to great grandaughter Audrey Mickelson for her English class writing assignment in 2004. This is a scanned copy of Audrey's interview.