November 1, 1948 Memories...

This blogpost is the transcription of some email messages shared between my parents James and Edna Groves' 5 children in November 2021.  It started with myself, Linda, sharing some entries from the diary of her mother, Edna, which had been written as James and Edna and their 4 children moved from Viroqua, WI to Fountain City, WI in November 1948.  These memories are shared in the hopes that future generations will find some information about earlier generations, who they were, how they lived and what their lives were like.

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I, Linda Groves Worden begin the email I sent to my four siblings and their families. 

Nov. 1, 2021

I want to remind us about the day our parents moved themselves and four of us from the farm in Viroqua which was owned by Minnie B. Cox Groves to the farm Dad and Mom bought and that we remember the most about near Fountain City.

While I was visiting the Berndts in La Crosse in June, we got out some boxes the Berndts are storing that have items which belonged to Dad and Mom.  We went through things and disposed of items in a few different ways.  As I prepared to leave, I asked Marge if it would be OK if I took Mom's diary that covers the years 1946-1950.  I had never read any of Mom's diaries and wanted to read about 2 major things - the 1948 move to Fountain City and the Jan. 1949 car accident when I had 6 baby teeth knocked out.

Today I am going to share about 2 weeks of entries made from Oct. 26, 1948 - Nov. 7, 1948 + a few extras...

Oct. 26 Tues 1948  A memorable day! Nellie &  I dressed 12 chickens. Put 10 in deep freeze.  Paul & James picked up corn.  All men & Uncle Harvey came & we settled with Gram.  She owed us $832.38.

Oct. 27 Wed 1948 Went to town in a.m. & tended to business matters.  James went to Foun. City. Took inlaid linoleum up.  Hazel Morrison had a party for Gram.

Oct 28 Thurs 1948  Scott, Thelma, Henry (or Harvey) & Iiva McClung & I went to Foun. City & laid inlaid linoleum.  Scott had been very ill yesterday with v.b. nose bleed.  Got home about 9.  James took a truck load up.

Oct 29 Fri 1948  I got our clothes in order to go to Halloween party & farewell for us at the School house.  Nellie helped pack.  Party collection $18.69.  ($18.69 in 1948 is worth $212.73 today.)

Oct 30 Sat 1948  Helen & kids came down & Gen, Norma & John also.  All packed Gram's things & James took them out to Gen's.  Rainy dreary day !

Oct. 31 Sun 1948 Had to work all day in order to get ready to move.  Washed clothes & did quite a bit of packing.  Fuel pump went bad on Pick-up.  Had to get a new one & put on.

Nov 1 Mon. 1948 Got up at 4:10 a.m.  Got all our things packed & were ready to leave about 11:30.  Jas & I had dinner at Tryggestad's.  Zube's took children to F.C.

Nov 2 Tues 1948  Tried to straighten up the kitchen a bit.  Gas man came & installed the stove in afternoon.  I took Jimmy to meet his new teacher.

Nov 3 Wed 1948  I was exhausted!  Felt terribly dizzy & weary so slept 2 hrs. when kiddies did.  James went to Viroqua & divided the cattle.  Olaf Walby & Uncle Harvey helped.

Nov. 4 Thurs 1948  Semi brought 27 head of cattle.  Had fuel pump trouble. Bad rainy day.  Half died on the way.  Others were down & almost died but revived when they got air. Jas. brought a load of hogs.

Nov 5 Fri. 1948  Bad, rainy day.  James had to leave the Ford truck in Winona last night so I took, him down today to get it.  Put linoleum on table top & ledge in pantry. 

Linda Groves Worden's Grandparents...

Minnie B. Cox Groves

I have a few memories of some of my Grandparents but unfortunately my life has not been blessed with long periods of time in which to know my Grandparents.   

When I was born on December 7, 1944, my family and I lived in the home of one of my Great-Grandmothers.  Her name was Minnie Brithomart Cox Groves. She is pictured in a photo probably taken about the time I was born. 

My parents were married in the yard of that home on June 7, 1941. 

I have a picture showing those who attended that wedding.  The photo shows Pastor Ferguson, his wife, an unnamed person just behind my Great-Grandmother Minnie B. Groves,  my paternal Grandparents, Minnie's son, William, his wife, Amanda Isaacs Groves, my parents James B. Groves, Edna Matson Groves, my step-Grandmother Ella Lind Matson and my aunt Mildred  Groves.  Below those folks are my Dad's brothers, Hubert and Vernon.  I do not know the names of the woman or child.

Life's Changes...

When I was a child, one of the chores on our dairy farm that needed to be done each day during the summer months was to "get the cows."   This chore meant a person had to hike into our woods to find where the cows were eating or resting and get them to head "home".  In other words get them to walk back to the barnyard so they could be let into the barn for milking in the evening.  As soon as the cows were found, roused and standing they knew where to go and how to get there.  Sometimes we had a dog that helped with the round up of the cattle and sometimes we had our horse, Patches, to ride for this purpose.  This was frequently my job.  Especially during the beautiful autumn days, I loved to do this task.  Our woods had  lots of maple and oak trees whose leaves turned brilliant golden, crimson, russet and amber each fall.  We had hickory nut trees that bore immense crops of nuts that carpeted the ground below their branches.   There were wild apple trees with juicy, fragrant fruit that provided a delicious snack for the interested child following a herd of cows home.   And when this was my privilege, I would occasionally pick a few apples and sit leaning against the trunk of a hickory nut tree and dream about my future.  I felt my surroundings were gorgeous.  I must have been an adolescent just beginning to imagine that some day I would meet a Prince Charming and when that happened I wanted to bring him to my beautiful spot where we would dream together about an exciting and meaningful future.  In the future I imagined, we would not live on a farm.  My Prince Charming would be a tall, dark and handsome Pastor or missionary who would serve in a church or another country far from the United States.  I had already decided that I wanted to some day be a Pastor's wife.  At that time I thought a Pastor's family got to host missionaries when they returned from the mission field and came to speak about and present their work to a church congregation.  I loved to attend those services at our church and I imagined how wonderful it would be to get to know those people better which I assumed was a privilege of a Pastor and his family.  I definitely wanted to be a mother so I imagined having a family and having the joy of all that brings with it.  This is how I imagined my life would unfold.  Is this what happened?

I grew up on a 200 acre dairy farm in Wisconsin which my parents owned and operated.  There were 120 acres of tillable land and 80 acres of wooded pasture land on that farm.  My Dad milked an average of 26 cows twice daily until he retired at age 65.  He then sold the farm and retired with my mother to a home on an acre of land where he could have a garden but no cows, pigs or chickens.  My Dad had been raised on a dairy farm so grew up doing farm work year round.  He took on full-time farming after he completed high school and a one year Normal school course to become a teacher.  He must have had a challenging  experience while student teaching because he decided after that to return to the career he had grown to love which was dairy farming.  He and his younger brother, Hubert, had been farming their Grandmother’s farm following the death of their Grandfather so he continued with that opportunity.  His brother decided to pursue education to become a pastor about the time my parents met and married.  My parents continued living on that farm until they decided to leave the tobacco raising area of Wisconsin for another dairy farm they bought 75 miles away from my Great-Grandmother’s farm.  In her advancing years she was moving in with one of her daughters for six months of the year and a second daughter for the other six months of a year so she sold the farm.    My parents had four of us children when we moved to the dairy farm near Fountain City, WI.  Another sister joined the family after the move.