1906

The coolest thing happened last week, as we started our new school year.  Eli is beginning history and last week was an intro into "what is history?" and "how do we learn about history?" and we talked about how we can talk to our grandparents to learn our own history.  That very morning I got an email from my dad about the history of my great grandpa Eli Yoder (who Eli is name after).  His cousin had found this rare picture of him from 1906 and then my dad met with my grandpa to get more stories about great grandpa Eli.  The kids LOVED hearing these stories and I want to have them documented in our history, so I'm excited to share my dad's stories on here.  Maybe I'll start "Family history Fridays" or something catchy.

-- Eli Thomas Yoder.

          Born in Sept, 1885 in Missouri.  Died in Sept, 1972... at almost 87 years old.  He died 11 days short of his birthday, of a heart attack.

          When Grandpa Eli was growing up many kids only went to school during part of the year, because during the spring and fall they had to help with farming.  So it took longer to complete your course-work and it wasn't until age 20 that he went to Goshen Academy for High School.  It's a Mennonite school in Indiana.  But during high school, his Dad (Samuel K Yoder) had a stroke so Eli had to come home to run the farm.

          He married his first wife at age 23.  She died at a young age and they had no children. 

          He then married Grandma Ida in 1919.  Ida Plank, a young school teacher.  She was 12 years younger than Eli.
Their first child, Arnold was born in 1925.  Then Mary.  Then my Dad was born in 1928 when Eli was 43 years old.

          In the picture below, this was how he looked and dressed for church.  He had 2 suits, that were very nice dress clothes.  The picture may have been a church picture.  Grandpa always wore a suit and tie to church.  Also, to weddings and funerals.  At the time of the picture he would have been living at home, helping with the farm.  They were proud people, and each of them had at least one good outfit.  They also had a good buggy, and a good horse.

          By the time he married Grandma Ida, he was a little older and he had a car.  A model-T Ford.  When they got married, he got a car for Ida with a starter.  Otherwise you had to crank the car to start it. 

          They used horses to farm.  But when my Dad was 4 years old they moved to Hesston and Grandpa got a tractor.

          Then, in 1932, in the midst of the depression, Grandpa couldn't make his farm payment so the bank took the farm away from him.  It was called:  he lost the farm.  Many people had their farms repossessed in the 1930's.  So they had to move.  They rented a farm a few miles west of Hesston from Maggie Prouty, and were able to make the rent payment.  They were poor, but they never went without food and clothes.  Each Fall, grandpa would take the kids to town and buy each one a new pair of shoes for school.  By then, their kids went to school the full year and he wanted them to have good shoes because they walked to school.  That was it.  They had one pair of shoes and one pair of jeans to last them the year.

          Then in the early 1940's things got better and Eli bought a farm near Walton.  That's where Dad grew up and he went to school in Walton.  In High School my Dad drove the school bus, and kids no longer had to walk to school.

          If you go back to Eli's childhood family, it's like this:

- His dad was Samuel K. Yoder.  Samuel K was born in 1833.  He had 17 kids.

- His first wife died.  But they had 7 kids, six of which were boys.

- Then he married Barbara S. Yoder.  Her original name was also Yoder.

- When Barbara married Samuel K, she helped raise the kids.

- And, she had 10 of their own... but only 4 of them lived.  Six of hers died at childbirth.

- The 4 that lived were:  Delus, Ida, Eli, and Amanda.  So Eli had a sister named Ida, and then a wife named Ida.

Stories from my dad:

 

When I was a youngster... your kid's age... Grandpa Eli didn't have combine to cut the wheat like you see today.  He had what was called a "Thrasher."  It was a very small early version of a combine but you pulled it behind a tractor.  Someone had to ride on the thrasher to steer it and control the height of the cutting blade.  So Grandpa drove the tractor and my Dad rode on the thrasher.  We kids sat in the pickup and watched them go around the field.  Then they'd empty the grain into the back of the pickup to take to the grain elevator in Walton.  The pickup bed had sideboards on it so they could carry more grain.

          I got to ride along to the grain elevator one time, when I was in 1st grade.  When we got there, the pickup drove the front tires onto a hoist with a strap, and they opened the tailgait in the back.  They slowly lifted up the hoist and the whole front end of the pickup came up off the ground.  This was so the wheat would pour out the back of the pickup bed.  They kept lifting the front end of the pickup until it was 3-4 feet off the ground... which was terrifying to a 1st grader.  However, later when I was safely back on the ground I decided it was pretty cool.  But on the next load, I didn't want to go to the elevator.  I let my brother Sam go!

          Usually the wife would bring lunch or a snack out to the field when the men were working or harvesting.  Particularly during harvest, because you didn't have time to stop and go home to eat lunch or supper.  Once they started cutting the wheat, they needed to get it done and to the elevator before a hail storm or rain came in.  If it rained, that could delay your cutting by a week or 2.  And if there was a hailstorm it could ruin your entire crop.  If that happened, you were sunk.

          Occasionally, but not very often someone's wheat field would catch on fire.  Particularly after they had tractors, and trucks and other equipment that would get hot.  If someone parked a truck in the wheat stubble and the engine was still hot, it could catch the wheat on fire.  Or, back in those days when you started a tractor, or pickup, it would sometimes "backfire" or create a spark.  If you were sitting in the wheat stubble, it could catch the field on fire.  Once they learned this, they were very careful not to park in the wheat stubble.  But that was tough because a pickup, or a larger grain truck was needed to unload the combine and take the grain to the elevator.  They had to drive out in the wheat stubble to off-load the grain from the combine.

          When a field caught on fire, everyone around would quickly see the smoke, and everyone ran to help.  That farmer could lose whatever grain hadn't yet been cut... and usually did.  But more important, it could catch the neighboring fields on fire as well.  You don't hear of wheatfield fires much anymore, but I've seen one of 2 of them from a distance.  Never up close, thankfully.

          Grandpa's wife was Grandma Ida.  Ida Plank.  She went by Ida Plank Yoder.

          Grandma had a sister named Ella.  They grew up in Harper, which is west of Newton about 40-50 miles.  Grandma Ida was a school teacher.  I think Ella was too.  They lived with their Dad, who I think was Saul Plank.  We just called him grandpa Plank... even though he was our great-grandpa.  If you get any materials from Duane, he will have alot better information about g-grandpa Plank.  We never heard anything, or knew anything about his wife.  No idea who she was, and she had died long before we were born.

          We also called Ella, Aunt Ella, even though she was my Dad's aunt.  She never married, and lived with grandpa Plank her whole life... in Harper.  They never moved from the original house that Ella and Ida were born in. 

          And it was a terrible house.  Located on the very edge of town, it was literally the smallest house you've ever seen.  You walked in the front door to a small living room.  On one side of the living room was a kitchen that was no bigger than 10 feet.  On the other side of the living room were 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  That was it.  They had what was called a floor furnace, and no air conditioning.  We (us kids) hated to go visit there.  When we did go visit, we pretty much stayed outside.  There was a train track running right beside the house... literally 20 feet from the house... so that was fun.  We'd go play on the train track.  It made Mom a little nervous, but they kept on ear out for trains.  When a train did come by, it was going fairly slow (maybe 20-30 mph) because it was going through a little town, and we'd stand as close as Mom would let us.  It was both exciting, and a little scary to be that close to those great big train cars going by.  And they're really great big when you're in the 3rd grade.

          We always wanted to put something on the track to see what would happen when the train ran over it.  But Mom wouldn't let us, because she heard that trains sometimes derailed when people did that.  And for that reason, it was illegal.

          So, back to Grandma Ida... she never brought lunch or snacks out to the field.  After marrying Grandpa Eli, she became a writer.  She wasn't much of a cook nor a farm wife, so she just didn't do those fieldwork type things.  She was a more educated type person, and wrote a column for the Mennonite Weekly Review, which was a fairly prominent newspaper/periodical back when I was a kid.  Not so much today anymore.  But it was circulated across the country to Mennonite churches, their church members, and Missions organizations.  There were alot of Mennonite churches in central and western Kansas, and Grandma Ida was quite well know in Kansas and some parts of the Midwest.  Many people read her column every week, and thought it was the best part of the "Weekly Review."

more to come...