The Move Back to Stambaugh

1945

When Grandpa Oscar died, the family was living in the mining-owned house in Palmer. As Aunt Nan said, they never owned a house, never had a lot of money in the bank, and they had 11 surviving children. They sent Uncle Ray to the School for the Deaf in Flint in Lower Michigan when he was 7, along with Nancy who was to learn how to be a teacher, and learn she did! She taught there for many years, even after Ray graduated from high school.

Left at home were Grandma, Janet and Marlin. They were living in a Mining owned house, with no close relatives nearby, with very little savings. By this time her brother Willard was working in Calumet, up near Houghton-Hancock and there were no relatives living near Marquette at the time. And so the move was made to an upstairs apartment in Stambaugh close to Oscar’s relatives who may have helped her find the apartment, and old friends from their first move from Commonwealth. Kenneth was in the army; Lloyd was in the Navy. Still living in Stambaugh at that time were Huldie Hughes (Frank had been one of the pallbearers at Grandpa’s funeral) who also came from Commonwealth and Hudie was Grandma’s close friend. Andrew Lundwall and Aunt Inga, the Carl Lundwalls, the Walter Lundwalls, and Andrew’s daughters, Maggie and Tillie all lived either in Stambaugh or Iron River.  

Now Ward and Margaret were living in St. Paul; Doris and Dave were in Trout Creek; Margaret, Roger and Cathy went back to John in Chicago; Violet and Steve were in Chicago. Nancy and Ray were in Flint, Michigan. Janet met Bill, and Marlin went to Trout Creek. Lloyd returned home from the Navy and met Aunt Joyce. Joyce at the time lived upstairs of the house that Uncle Bill’s parents lived in at the top of Stambaugh Hill. Janet and Bill got married and Lloyd and Joyce got married.  Janet and Bill went to St. Paul, returned home and lived in a side-by-side house on the left, part-way up Stambaugh Hill. Lloyd and Joyce went to St. Paul, returned home and lived in an upstairs apartment next to Maggie. 

Grandma Teckla sometime during this slightly chaotic period moved to Iron Mountain, probably to be closer to her siblings who were still living. Aunt Ida was living in Aurora, her brother Emil was living in Commonwealth, Aunt Julia was still in Homestead, and the Krans’ (Roy, Robert, Edward and Vernon)  were in Aurora, and Uncle Charlie Krans was living with Tom and Beda Krans Beaudry in Aurora as well. Grandma moved into a little house owned by Rose Krans Olson in Iron Mountain (living room, small kitchen, small bedroom off the kitchen, a tiny bathroom off the other side of the kitchen, and a small bedroom off the living room) and the rent was probably pretty minimal. Rose Krans Olson still owned that house in the early 1960’s because Gayle Krans and her husband lived in it when Jerry and I lived in Iron Mountain and had dinner with them there. My husband Jerry and 2nd cousin Gayle were working together at Dickinson County Hospital at the time. 

Alice and Earl had a small trailer house (about the size of a small RV that could be pulled behind a vehicle) that was parked next to this house for awhile. I’m not sure how long, but I remember going from Grandma’s to Aunt Alice’s just across the driveway. I think it was moved after that, and later I seem to remember Alice and Earl living in an upstairs apartment in Iron Mountain.

The summer that Grandma lived in Iron Mountain, in that house belonging to Rose Krans, Roger and I were staying there during the summer. We were allowed to go to the movies one evening and we were supposed to go the theater closest to the house to see a comedy. Roger wanted to go to a scary (monster?) movie at a theater a couple blocks further away, so off we went without telling anybody where we were going. I don’t remember the movie, except it was very scary, at least for a girl, and we ran all the way home in the dark and we didn't tell anybody what we had done.

In Iron Mountain, we could walk to the dairy on Carpenter Avenue and buy an Eskimo Pie for a nickel, a special treat. A block or two the other way had a gas station with a big Red Coke machine shaped like a big box with a lid that opened on the top. You opened the top, put a nickle in, and slid your bottle of pop to the corner where you could take it out.  The pop machine held Orange, Grape, Root Beer and Coca-Cola. Hard choices on a hot summer day.

Grandma taught us how to count to ten in Swedish, and she told me that Grandpa’s favorite song was “Jimmy Cracked Corn and I Don’t Care” when they played it on the radio.

After Janet and Bill AND Lloyd and Joyce moved back to Stambaugh, and Alice and Earl moved to Detroit, Grandma moved back to Stambaugh to be Rhiney Roberg’s housekeeper after his wife died suddenly. Huldie Hughes was a relative of Rhiney’s and probably arranged the job so Grandma could move back to Stambaugh.

Nancy came home to visit Grandma the following summer. She stayed at Rhiney’s for her vacation. When she went back, Rhiney called her and asked her to come back and marry him. Nancy said yes.

When the marriage took place, Grandma was out of a job and a place to live – but Carl and Walter Lundwall arranged for Grandma to live with and take care of their mother and her sister-in-law, Aunt Inga, who was older than Grandma, and also a widow. The terms were that Grandma would be able to live in the house rent-free until she died in return for taking care of Aunt Inga.

When Aunt Inga died, Grandma stayed for a short time. Margaret moved back to Stambaugh and Grandma moved in with Aunt Margaret to help take care of the kids (see Cathy's comment). Later Grandma moved on to a little house behind another house on Lincoln Avenue. My only memory of that house was that it was tiny and had a sloped floor -- if something was dropped, it rolled across the floor. 

At this time it was decided that each of her children would send a certain amount of money each month for Grandma’s expenses (back then if she got any Social Security, it would have been minimal, and Grandma didn’t have savings.) That didn’t work out so well because not everybody was able to send their share each month and now Grandma had begun to be even more forgetful.

Then it was decided that Grandma would spend a month with each family. Ward who worked for Northwest Airlines, could get airplane passes for his mother to fly, so transportation would be covered.

The first time she stayed with Ward and Margaret, she showed real signs of forgetfulness. One time, in the middle of the night when everybody was sleeping, the doorbell rang and it was the police bringing Grandma back to the house. She knew her name, but didn’t know where she was – she had gotten up, gotten dressed and gone out for a walk fully clothed, in her coat, hat and with her purse, and they found her wandering down the street all alone.

My mother, Margaret, put bells on all the exterior doors so this wouldn’t happen again, but Grandma was having a terrible time remembering things. One night helping Grandma with her bath, Margaret found the lump on Grandma’s breast. Margaret and Ward took Grandma back to Iron River to get treatment, probably because she could get medical aid in Michigan where she was still a legal resident.

Grandma was then sent to the Dickinson County Hospital in Iron Mountain, where Jerry worked. Jerry took care of Grandma for two nights after surgery in place of the required overnight nurse to save expenses. After that, Nancy and Janet took turns staying overnight until she got out of the hospital.

Grandma first went to stay with Nancy, but they were both gone most of the day – so Grandma went to stay at Janet’s. 

Memories of Grandma in her last years are difficult. By now she was pretty deep into altzheimers (or hardening of the arteries or dimentia) and unable to deal with living with a family that included young children, and the trauma it caused Aunt Janet trying to deal with not wanting to put her mother into a nursing home, yet dealing with the very real problems Grandma's condition was causing Janet's own family.

The Grandma I remember best was always the center of a very large family, very quiet much like Alice was or I am, looking on smiling at all the laughter of her children and their families; everybody who could be home for summer holidays were there, and we had large picnics rain or shine. All the women and girls wore dresses and dress shoes, and all the men were dressed in dress pants and shirts to these picnic get-togethers. One of my earliest memories is a large family picnic at the beach at Champion Lake.

This is the way I remember Grandma's life and times, and from what I have been able to piece together. Tomorrow will begin the rest of the memories I've received from some of you, and photos of get-togethers and the few photos I have of our generation. If you have photos you would like to share, let me know or email them to me or bring them with you to the reunion. 

It would be helpful if you would also bring full names, marriage dates, birth dates of your children and your grandchildren. I have everybody up to the 1982 reunion. If you are willing to share your parent's stories, it would give us all a chance to know our extended families better.  

I apologize for so many posts in one day, but the reunion keeps getting closer and closer, and there is so much to share.