Memories

It is time for another Memories article and this time I have chosen a couple and family who were very close and special to Phyl and I. That couple was Joseph (Joe) and Marjorie (Marj) Schallenberger.

“Shifting Scenes Vol. II” has an article written by Joe about his family homestead days, early school days, hardships, good times and bad. I found it interesting and it brought to life the changes that have occurred from his childhood until the present time. Also, I have some more information that was given to me before their passing.

I will be quoting from Joe and adding a few thoughts of mine. It may take a few articles to cover so bare with me.

“In 1908, Joe Schallenberger came to join the Frank Schallenberger family. His mother (Nellie Cooper), father, brother Floyd and sister Mildred were then living in central Iowa.”

He reports that the family moved to Minnesota and after four years of partial crop failures, his dad decided to go to Montana.

“In the fall of 1915, Frank and Floyd came in an immigrant car with what belongings they could get in. Mother came the next week on the passenger train with the rest of the family and we settled about seven miles northwest of Ekalaka, Montana.”

The family’s first home was a small two room tar papered shack and in order to make use of all space, the boys slept in the attic which was reached by climbing a ladder fastened to the wall.

“One Sunday, when planning to visit a neighbor, Mother went up the ladder to get our Sunday clothes, which she kept in a trunk in the attic,” Joe writes. He reports that Clyde, who was about two and a half years old, followed her and when he attempted to throw the clothes down the hole, he and the clothes all fell, striking the floor below, knocking him completely out. This happened right after dinner and Clyde didn’t come out of it until about five o’clock that night. There was no visiting that day and no serious results came from the incident.

As I watch some TV, those houses that sell for $200,000 to $500,000 are quite a contrast to those years — not to mention the changes in medical progress and care.

School: “Starting to school in the fall, I walked two and a half miles to a one-room sod shack — papered inside with building paper held on the wall with burned nails stuck in the wall. Our desks were homemade and each family had to provide chairs and stools to sit on. Two people sat at a desk- — ‘no whispering please.’ There were twenty-seven students, ranging from practically grown men and women, to six and seven year olds. Mable Berg was our teacher.

To anyone reading this, I trust you will thank the taxpayers for the schools we have today, including the pipelines.

Weather: “1919 was known to all as the dry summer followed by the hard winter during which many cattle and horses literally starved to death. There was no feed on the ground and the snow was deep. Dad hauled feed from Baker for John Oliver — making some twenty trips with horses. It was just short of fifty miles and sometimes took seven days to go one way.”

Hardships: Joe reports there were many hardships, but somehow they survived. “We hauled wood and coal all summer and in the winter hauled ice. Wood was hauled fourteen miles from the National Forest with a team and wagon or sled — depending on the season. Coal was easier for us to get — still it was work, stripping, blasting and loading. Since the mine was down in a canyon, it took two or even three teams to pull a two ton load up on top.

Joe didn’t say where the coal mine was, and I have no idea, maybe some of you readers have the knowledge.

Enough for now, but more to come!