Dear Ida,

What a lot I have to tell you about. First of all we went to Chester's school play earlier this month. It was called Mummy and the Mumps - and Chester had the leading part of Lord Chelsea and he had some love scenes with a girl called Myra. We all enjoyed it.

Then on his birthday, his friends had a surprise party for him and he was out til 3 a.m. I know that he is a man now, and I can't watch him every minute and have to trust him to be sensible, but I was so worried I couldn't sleep until he got home.

Then we had his graduation. It was a very pleasant do, and we got to see many of his friends that he has talked about, but we hadn't met before.

We met the Pricipal, she's called Mrs. Helen St. Jacque. She seemed a nice enough person. Then we met the President of the School, a man called Albert Marquart, and his daughter, Elizabeth who seems to have quite a crush on Chester. All the girls seemed to be fussing about near him – Toots, Ruth, Annie, Myra, Thelma, Ingrid, Gertie, Ella, Pearl and the one I think he is most interested in is called Harriet.

There was one I remember in particular, because her family are moving to Jamestown, and she will be going to Jamestown College too. She is called Irma Adams.

They all talked about what a good sportsman Chester was, and although we knew he was playing basketball and doing track events, we hadn't realised how well he had been doing. Nick couldn't wait to tell his brother Len about it, because Len was the one who was always involved in races. In fact Nick used to set Len up in races way back when they lived in Chicago – and took bets, and then when Len won, as he nearly always did, they would split the money because it was Nick who organied it all. In fact, when they first moved to North Dakota, Nick and his dad had come on first – and when Len finally arrived -  having travelled in a cattle car with some stock, he found out that it had been arranged for him to be in a race with all the local lads here. Practiclly the first thing he did when he arrived, and of course he won that too.

Chester, as class president, gave a little talk about what he had valued most about their years together. I think it was the friendships that he thought was most important, but he said how much he had enjoyed the writing work he did for the school newspaper. They seemed a very close group.

I feel that he is grown up now, and things won't be the same once he has left home in the fall.

Love.

Laura

Christmas 1930

Dear Agnes,

Chester has gone off to Jamestown College. He is the first in our family to go to College and I am so proud of him. He writes often.

He has taken an interest in being part of the Collegian, the College newspaper, which is now a weekly publication so takes up a lot of time. He says the College annual, which they call The Hea Kan (from the Indian word for hilltop) is always dedicated each year to somebody with special service to the college.

He really enjoyed their Homecoming this year which is the biggest social event of the year. The College is celebrating its 21th birthday this year so they talk about it coming of age. In only two years, Chester will come of age too.

Shortly after he got there in early September, there was a destructive fire in one of the buildings, called Old Main. But there was a huge donation of a gift of $50,000 from Mrs. L.E. Watson of Fargo, and I think they will be naming the new building after her.

I do miss him so.

Allan has decided he is quitting school after this year. There is no compulsion for him to carry on and he is not at all academic. But he is quite gifted when it comes to mending cars, and that is what he hopes to get a job doing.

My mother-in-law, Teuntje, has sold her house in Pettibone and moved in with Len and Lydia. She has pernicious anemia and is on medication for that. She also has had a few epileptic attacks in the last years. Once she had one at the dining table and sometimes she falls while walking in the yard. She doesn't want anyone to know about them or to even mention them to her. As if it was something to be ashamed of. She can't help having them.

Love from Laura

Dear Mary,

Not much to write about, but want to keep up with my correspondance so will see if I can fill a few lines anyway.

We enjoy having Len and Lydia's little girl Eileen comes around to visit us. She has such fun with the animals. She likes the baby chicks and turkeys and little goslings and isn't the slightest afraid of the horses and cows. Nick gave her one of our kittens, and you would have thought he had given her a gift of gold. He also said she could bottle feed one of the lambs whose mother rejected it. She named it Sue.

Hope all is going well with you and the rest of the family.

Love

Laura

*****

September 1931

Dear Ida,

Now that your divorce is over and done with, you can get on with your life.

Mildred is finishing school this year, but she hasn't actually got any plans for next year yet. She would like to be a teacher, I think. She has been sickly so much of the time, and needs to make up quite a bit of missed work in order to graduate on time. But she works very hard, and has a good brain.

My baby, Laurence started school this year, and he is coping pretty well. And my eldest, is also doing well. Chester sent a picture of himself with his friends, which I will send on to you. He is the one on the far right. He is always talking about a girl who at the College. She is from Lisbon and called Lura Lynn Straub. She's on a scholarship too, like he is. There are 600 students all together, which seems a lot, but is small by college standards. She's got a job in the school office as a secretary to the registrar and the president but she only earns 25 cents an hour. She enjoys playing cards and Chester has taught her how to play bridge. I wonder when he has time for such frivolity.

I hope he isn't getting serious, as he is too young. He is working his way through College by being a milkman before class.

The only news around here is that my brother-in-law and his wife have had their second little girl, who they called Delores. Lydia is entertaining her parents, and the children are so frightened by her father, Carl Netzke, who is a crusty old German, and is 76 years old. He was only twelve when his family moved to Minnesota, and he homesteaded and worked on a farm all his life, having eight children. Recently he has turned his farm over to his son August, who is running it with the help of his son, Magnus.

Come to think of it, Lydia's children are frightened of their grandma Wyngarden too, when she says to them that if they don't keep quiet she will call the police.

I've been having some bad stomach pains lately and seem to be really swollen up. I have made an appointment to see the doctor in Bismarck. Nick will take me in.

November 10, 1931

Dear Mary and Bertha,

I wonder if you could let the others know. I have to go into the hospital in Bismarck. They don't know what is wrong with me, only that it is serious. They will be doing an operation on my stomach tomorrow. The pains are getting worse and I can hardly stand it. We have taken Mildred out of school to take care of the other children. I know it is her senior year, but there didn't seem to be any other choice.

I have asked her one of my friends, Pearl Smith she is called, if she will come and help her out with the housework and such like until I am back home and able to do it again. Of course, I might never get home again. I have a bad feeling about this pain. Pearl is a lovely lady, about 30 now but never been married. She is working for some people we know, but Nick has agreed that we can ask her to work for us, part time too. She is very good with the children.

She was over one day when it was Richard's birthday, and she had the kids all making blarney stones. Do you know what that is? You make a sponge cake and then when it is cool cut it into squares. You put frosting on all the sides of the cake and then roll it in crushed peanuts. The kids loved them, but boy did it make a mess, and she told them they couldn't lick their fingers in between, but I noticed a few licks going on when she wasn't looking.

If things do turn out for the worst, I hope you will keep in touch with my family. Especially Mildred, as she values the contacts from family so much, and having only brothers, she might need somebody to go to for advice when she gets a bit older. She is a good girl, a hard worker and I know I can depend on her, but I don't want Nick to turn her into his housekeeper, if something should happen to me. She needs to have a life of her own too.

I'll let you know how things turn out.

Lovingly,

Laura