History
Reproduced From The Book
The Golden Years
from 1908
Life Stories of Edwin M. "Ned" Culver & Family
from 1908
Life Stories of Edwin M. "Ned" Culver & Family
Phyllis Melissa Culver Raymer
My sister,
this is a tribute to her memory.
PART I - 1908 to 1910
FOREWORD
The principle aim and purpose of this book, in essence, is to recall the memory of our family life in Northern Minnesota from 1907 to 1920 when we then moved to Hunter, Missouri. After a few years there, and still maintaining our legal residence there in the Hunter area of Carter County, three members of the family ventured out to the wheat harvest and lead mines of Kansas and Oklahoma to work. After returning home to Missouri for the winter, two members then left in the spring for Illinois to find work.
The articles written here are for, and in the interest of, BERT and EDNA CULVER, family members descendants, and not meant to be a family biography as such, as that would be too large an undertaking at my age of 85 and no one left in the family to corroborate with.
Phyllis (my sister) planned to write a family biography; but before she could get the necessary data together, she suffered a debilitating illness that eventually led to her death (November 18, 1989).
It was then suggested by Dorothy Raymer (Clayton's wife) that I (Ned), being the lone survivor of the Bert and Edna Culver family, should write its history of migration from 1907 on. The items written here do not describe family lineage in whole, but primarily places and events that occurred over the years as I remembered them. The dates may not be as accurate as I would like as Phyllis is no longer with us to corroborate with, and I am sure she could have recalled many more interesting events and the dates that I have forgotten or overlooked.
The contents of this book are nonfiction and not intended to be degrading nor an affront to anyone mentioned herein.
I, Edwin M. Culver, came to light June 21, 1908, in Keewatin, Minnesota (a small borough in St. Louis County), to "shine" and not just "absorb light." Later in life, I've found it hard to follow, but at least I try.
Mom said I was the first white boy born in Keewatin as there were many Indians living in that area.
When I was older, I was told of one incident that occurred while living there. Dad was a Deputy in the Sheriff's Department and was called upon to serve a lady with a legal warrant or summons, but this was a rebellious woman who wasn't in the mood for such legal shenanigans. She tried to scald him with hot water from a kettle she held in her hand. Not wanting to touch her, he just took out his gun and shot a hole in the kettle--and that cooled the nettle of the woman with the kettle. The summons was served.
Years after we left Keewatin, the folks drove back for a visit to see old friends and pointed out the building where they once lived and where I was born.
I doubt if the town has grown any since so many of the iron mines have closed down and the main highways have bypassed the smaller towns, choking off much of its commerce.
J
WORLD WAR I In the year before World War I, a mixture of different nationalities came to America to escape the turmoil and political strife in their home countries and to start a new life here in Northern Minnesota. It is fitting here to mention that many of these foreign people could hardly understand or speak the English language, if at all. But in their determination to conquer this handicap, they themselves went to night school to learn; and they insisted that their children get a good education to prepare themselves for a profession of some kind later in life. Example.
NIGHT SCHOOL - DICTION DEFICIENCY
Teacher to Pupil. 'Tell me what you see on page 42.'
Chisholm is a village east of Keewatin where I was born, and is in Saint Louis County of Northern Minnesota, the center of what is known as Mesabi Iron Range. In its heyday of production and operation, that area contained some of the richest, largest mines and open pits in the world.
Through the towns, from Grand Rapids to Virginia and Eveleth (about a 50-mile distance), in a southwest to northeast direction, ran an electric, inter-urban train which carried passengers and freight. As I recall, it was noted for its punctuality on the double-trip daily run.
Since there were very few automobiles during that time, the inter-urban was the main mode of travel between these towns, and patronage was at a high level most of the time.
In going through Chisholm, the inter-urban ran through the center of the main thoroughfare of Lake Street. The name Lake Street was derived from a beautiful lake being at the lower end of this 10-block-long thoroughfare.
Describing Lake Street brings back many memories of enjoyable events and parades along that street when I was young.
J
JUST A NOTE OF LANDSCAPE BEFORE CIVILIZATION
In some of the rural areas, especially north of town, were many large boulders, some the size of a small house, scattered over the countryside.
The story of their origin, as told by historians, was that during the Ice Age many thousands of years ago, a large glacier covered much of the northern continent and was moving slowly in a southerly direction, digging and gouging the landscape as it moved along. These boulders and other debris were trapped and encased in the glacier. As time went on, perhaps centuries, the glacier began to melt, dropping the big boulders along the way.
The glacier's deep gouging of the earth's surface had created thousands of lakes in the state of Minnesota, including the larger one, Lake Superior, not to mention Lake Winnebago, Oshkosh, and others in adjoining states.
As I remember, when I was a kid and since, Minnesota has always been notorious for its 10,000 lakes and fishing sport.
J
CHISHOLM FOREST FIRE
About 1909 or 1910, as it was told, a forest fire, out of control, reached the Chisholm city limits. The fire could not be contained by volunteers or the fire department because of the intensity of the flames and the wind velocity. It actually got so hot that some of the flre hoses burned, and the roaring blaze sucked up combustibles like a vacuum cleaner. Many of the homes and business places were destroyed. After this disaster, there was a drastic need and demand for all skills to rebuild. So Dad, with a background in machinery, wood and cabinet-making, decided to move to Chisholm and open a planing mill. He also bought a small house at 114 Birch Street and did so well at the mill that he found it necessary to hire employees. I recall much of my childhood on 114 Birch Street in Chisholm.
On our street were sidewalks of planks with fairly wide cracks between; and me being a little kid with a strong penchant for pennies, I'd look through those cracks for coins. Believe it or not, I did find some. That was back when pennies had value. Dad later put a concrete floor in the basement; and upstairs, where a pantry had been, he installed a modern toilet and varnished the floors. We lived in the basement during that time of renovation. Before that installation, we had, like most everyone else, the "stately outhouse" that could hardly be called a place of "comfort," especially on a cold winter day or night. Many times as I was going down the alley leisurely killing time, I heard a man's voice from within emulating Enrico Caruso in a tenor concerto. I doubt if he ever made it to the opera concert hall.
During this time of the year in the fall, it was common to see large stacks of grape stems along the side of the alley. I heard a couple of families would get together and buy grapes by the boxcar load from the West Coast to make what they called Dago Red Wine.
J
FRONT ROOM FIRE
In those early days, some of the homes had wallpaper that was thick and porous but smooth with colorful designs printed on it. Such paper was very fashionable, but often was used only in the front room, as in our home. I remember an incident that occurred when I was a little tot playing in the front room while the other kids were in school. Mom was in the kitchen cooking. This was a cold winter day and frost had formed on the inside of the window glass.
The heating stove was situated in the front room where I was playing. I glanced up in time to see the flames going up the wall. The heat from the stove got so hot it singed the thick, porous wallpaper and set it on fire.
I called Mom and told her about it. She came running in with pans of water and put the fire out. If I had been somewhere else, the house may have been destroyed.
During that time, we most always had a Christmas tree during the Christmas period, and it was a thrill to watch my brothers and sister trim the tree with strings of popcorn and colorful Christmas ornaments, including the star Lawrence cut out of cardboard and covered with shining tin foil that sat at the top of the tree.
We didn't have the electric tree lights like we have today; however, we did have tree lights. They were little colorful tin cups that snapped onto the branch and a small candle sat tightly in this cup so it wouldn't drop and cause a fire.
When all were around, the candles were lit and we would stand back and enjoy the brilliance. (I don't recall hearing of any Christmas tree fire.)
J
DAD LOST HIS LEFT HAND
One day disaster struck at the planing mill! While the machines were running (to warm up, as it was a cold winter morning), a part flew off, striking and mangling my dad's left hand. Surgery then was not advanced enough to save it. The hand had to be amputated. As time went on, he had to take morphine and other drugs to alleviate the pain, which resulted in difficult withdrawal later on.
Insurance on an accident was not as prevalent then as it is today; and the cost of the hospital and doctor bills, combined with low profits at the time, made it necessary to close the mill.
The family had a hard time getting by, and Mom had to work out at restaurants and at other jobs to support the family. There was no such thing as unemployment benefits or government help.
That was the same year the folks didn't have money to buy a Christmas tree, so Mom did the best she could to have some semblance of Christmas around the house.
She decorated the front room by stringing a colorful garnish-a telescopic paper cross-over-from corner to corner of the room, close to the ceiling, with a large, red paper Christmas bell hung in the center. It looked nice.
I cried and cried. I told Mom that Santa Claus would not come if we didn't have a Christmas tree. "I just know it." She tried to be assuring, drying my tears.
We hung up our stockings anyway; and with my fingers crossed, early the next morning we ran in to look. There in our stockings Santa had put fruit, nuts and a toy in each. They were full.
I was Wrong "Santa did come after all."
I remember a particular winter in Chisholm when I was young. It was after dark, but it was snowing and I still wanted to go out into it.
So Mom bundled me up tight to keep me from getting cold. I walked to the corner where there was a gas light overhead. There was no wind, not even a breeze. The air was in complete silence and more like being in a vacuum. The large snowflakes were slowly falling, glistening in the reflection of the street-corner light and dropping on the sparkling snow banks below.
It was a beautiful sight that etched an image in my memory. I doubt if an artist's brush could duplicate a scene such as this.
J
THE NORTHERN LIGHTS
Another sight I saw on this same night as I looked up on the sky to the north was the Northern Lights, technically the Aurora Borealis. The slow movement of radiating lights were jerky-to-stable spears with different hues of blending colors, like a theater stage hand pulling switches.
I understand this phenomenon high in the stratosphere was triggered by electrical disturbance of the earth's North Pole interacting with the sun's erratic electrical storms and could be seen only in the northern region.
When the snow started to melt in the spring, from the rooftops you would see large icicles dangling from the eves of the roof, some several feet long. The water would slowly drip as the sun heated the rooftops. It was dangerous to be around them at that time. The street gutters were continually running with water during the day when the sun was shining but frozen solid at night.
After spring and everything warmed up, us kids always got a thrill going in the woods at the edge of town, picking pussy willows, dandelions and violets. We always looked for new birds' nests and, if they had eggs, we never bothered them but went back often to see if they had hatched. I recalled setting up a small tent in the woods and, as far as we were concerned, we were in the wilderness (less the bears, but they weren't far from there).
We didn't have a lot, but we enjoyed what we had. Some kids would go barefooted at that time of year, but Mom never permitted me to do that except on my birthday (June 21). 1 guess she felt that was my treat, which it really was.
There was no wonder why the folks wanted to get away from those cold northern Minnesota winters and move to a southern state where the summers are longer. I recall Dad saying that when the snow started falling in the fall and the ground covered, the snow never left until spring. But the winters are nowhere near as severe now as they used to be.
J
FUNERALS
During that period, we didn't have funeral homes as we have today. When a deceased person was prepared for burial it was generally done by a family friend or a cheap mortician, to keep the cost down.
When a member of the family died, an elaborate wreath was hung on the front door to signify a death in the family.
The funeral procession took the deceased to the cemetery in a big black hearse with large ornately etched glass sides and back to expose the casket inside, pulled by a team of horses covered with fly nets and flowing tassels. The horses were sometimes black and sometimes white. I guess the color probably signified male or female in the hearse.
In town the funeral procession had a band playing a slow cadence march and followed mainly by friends or lodge members honoring the deceased. At the edge of town, the procession disbanded and those interested continued to the cemetery, riding or walking on. It seems like there were more funerals from 1916 to 1918 because, during those years, influenza was hard to control.
I remember in 1918 Lawrence, Floyd and I had a touch of influenza and had to enter the Chisholm Detention Hospital. We were in a ward next to a room where a patient was placed who was near death. The nurse told us in a day or so that the person passed away. We called it the "Room of Death." It was such an epidemic, all our rooms at home had to be fumigated to prevent further spread of the sickness. There were many Spanish and American War veterans that, due to their advanced age, fell victim easily to the sickness in Chisholm.
J
MILK DELIVERY
I remember when we had home delivery service of milk. The delivery man came to the house from his wagon, bringing the milk in a large container with a measuring pail to measure the amount of milk desired.
Mom had a crock on the kitchen table. He poured out the amount she asked for. She paid him and he went on his way to the next customer.
When I got older, I thought of that raw milk and method of delivery. It was a far cry from today's sanitation and cholesterol concern.
Back in the wagon, the delivery man was sure the horse would not leave while he was at the house making the delivery because he had an iron weight he dropped to the ground through a hole in the wagon floor.
The horse reins were attached to this iron weight. If the horse moved forward, the weight would hold him back.
Pupil. 'A 'boid, " he said, smiling.
Teacher. 'No, not a 'boid,' a 'bird.'
Pupil. 'Vel, dot looks like a 'boid' to me,' he said,
shrugging has shoulders.
Loading Our Catch
The Milk Wagon
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