Several years ago, in the early 1980's my grandmother, Minnie Schultz Smith, was interviewed for the Laurel Centennial Book I would like to share the interview again during this holiday season of 2014.
WILLHEMINA SCHULTZ FAMILY
I Willhemina Marie Fredericka Schultz was born May 25, 1889, the oldest of three children born to William August Frederick and Johanna Wilhelmine Gummert Schultz in Laurel, Iowa in the house my father built which still stands and is occupied by Laura McDowell.
Both of my parents were born in Germany and came to Laurel area in the mid 1880's. I grew up and was educated in the Laurel school until I finished ninth grade. My father was a stock buyer (livestock) and at an early age I knew all about cattle and hogs. A good price for cattle was $3.00 a hundred and hogs $5.00 a hundred.
I was married in a pretty home ceremony at my parents home April 3, 1907 to Henry Harry Smith, son of David Wesley and Sarah Ellen Birks Smith, who farmed 3 1/2 miles north and east of Laurel. For our honeymoon we took the train to Newburg and then to Marshalltown for 50 cents.
We were the parents of five children:
Vernon William-born November 4, 1908
Vivian Sara- born April 11, 1911
Doris May & Dorothy Fay (twins)- born September 3, 1913
Arnold Linden- born June 11, 1918
Dorothy Fay died at the age of six months of pneumonia
Vernon, Vivian, and D. May graduated from Laurel High School and each received special recognition for a perfect record attendance for their four years of high school.
I remember as a young girl having the first car going through Laurel. The telephone was only in a very few homes and businesses in the early 1900's. Electricity in the homes was unheard of as well as furnace heated homes. Kitchen ranges were the means of cooking and wood, cobs, and some coal was used to produce heat.
Washing machines were operated by hand. You hauled the water from the well (hand pumped) by bucket fulls and heated in large boilers on the cookstove. When the water began to boil, it was carried to the wash house, again by the bucket fulls, and you were ready for work. The rinse water was hauled in by the same method and put into a rinse tub next to the machines, thereby allowing you to rinse your clothes, running them through a wringer also operated by hand.
We received our milk from a nearby farm carrying it in small jugs. Eggs were plentiful during the spring and summer months at 6 cents a dozen. During the winter the price would soar to 12 cents to 24 cents a dozen. We purchased our food supplies such as sugar, flour, salt, and coffee from the Maytag store. Sugar was 5 lbs. for a quarter and was in a paper sack. Coffee was 29 cents a lb. and was ground while you waited.
Mr. Smith died January 7, 1941. My son Vernon died September 26, 1964 and a grandson, Stanley Smith died in Vietnam in May 1968. I have 11 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. I am the oldest living person having been born in Laurel.
*** My grandmother passed away on November 24, 1984 at the age age 95. She formerly resided at 206 N. 1st Ave in Marshalltown, Iowa and had resided at the Marshalltown Manor Nursing Home for the past 2 1/2 years.
We were the parents of five children:
Vernon William-born November 4, 1908
Vivian Sara- born April 11, 1911
Doris May & Dorothy Fay (twins)- born September 3, 1913
Arnold Linden- born June 11, 1918
Dorothy Fay died at the age of six months of pneumonia
Vernon, Vivian, and D. May graduated from Laurel High School and each received special recognition for a perfect record attendance for their four years of high school.
I remember as a young girl having the first car going through Laurel. The telephone was only in a very few homes and businesses in the early 1900's. Electricity in the homes was unheard of as well as furnace heated homes. Kitchen ranges were the means of cooking and wood, cobs, and some coal was used to produce heat.
Washing machines were operated by hand. You hauled the water from the well (hand pumped) by bucket fulls and heated in large boilers on the cookstove. When the water began to boil, it was carried to the wash house, again by the bucket fulls, and you were ready for work. The rinse water was hauled in by the same method and put into a rinse tub next to the machines, thereby allowing you to rinse your clothes, running them through a wringer also operated by hand.
We received our milk from a nearby farm carrying it in small jugs. Eggs were plentiful during the spring and summer months at 6 cents a dozen. During the winter the price would soar to 12 cents to 24 cents a dozen. We purchased our food supplies such as sugar, flour, salt, and coffee from the Maytag store. Sugar was 5 lbs. for a quarter and was in a paper sack. Coffee was 29 cents a lb. and was ground while you waited.
Mr. Smith died January 7, 1941. My son Vernon died September 26, 1964 and a grandson, Stanley Smith died in Vietnam in May 1968. I have 11 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren. I am the oldest living person having been born in Laurel.
*** My grandmother passed away on November 24, 1984 at the age age 95. She formerly resided at 206 N. 1st Ave in Marshalltown, Iowa and had resided at the Marshalltown Manor Nursing Home for the past 2 1/2 years.
No comments:
Post a Comment