This is the last bit of the book on here, but in printed form it has about 6 pages of photographs at the end.
January 15th, 1932
Dear Aunt Agnes,
Pa said I had to write this letter to Ma’s sisters, but I am writing to you, because I was partly named after you, and because you have been the best letter writer in the family. I’m hoping you will pass the message on to the others.
It was such a shock when Ma died. She'd been in the hospital for a few weeks, and then when she had the operation, they said she had stomach cancer and it was too far gone and there was nothing they could do. So she just got weaker and weaker and they gave her morphine for the pain and she pretty much slept all the time and then she died, in the night. Pa was with her.
The funeral was so sad. She had such a lot of friends. Everybody around here knew her and liked her. We were all crying. She is buried in Pettibone, alongside our grandfather.
Ma died on the 7th. She was only 46. Pa is very upset, and he drinks a lot and takes it out on us kids. I suppose I will have to stay home from school for awhile and take care of the rest of the kids now. Chester is at college, and I want to go back and finish high school but Pa says not to go making any plans just yet. Richard is 11 but Laurence is only seven, and he still needs a lot of looking after. Pa isn’t used to having to do things for kids. I have to do all the cooking and washing and cleaning and everything else. We've had Pearl to help out and I told Pa that I thought he should hire her permanently as a housekeeper, so I can go back to school in September, like I planned to do. We all like Pearl very much and Pa gets along with her too.
I’m also worried because Pa drinks so much. I go and empty out the bottles whenever I find them, but he just hides them somewhere else and gets really mad with me.
So that’s about all I have to say. I hope somehow I can work this out.
We do miss our mother so.
Love from your niece,
Mildred Agnes Wyngarden
Epilogue
My intention in writing this book, was to try to bring my grandmother, Laura Hills Wyngarden, to life for me - as I never knew her. She died long before I was born. I also wanted to include aspects of life in North Dakota that my children and grandchildren will not know about, and perhaps might find interesting.
I had much help in researching the information for this book from Eileen Wyngarden DeKrey, and Inez Wyngarden Rosenthal, and through letters from years ago, my aunt Mildred Wyngarden Parry. I also had the excellent resource of a family history compiled by Karen Hackman Martin, a second cousin (daughter of Benjamin Hills' daughter, Alice Hackman), who produced many of the details about the lives of the Hills family that I have used. She called her book, The Kjorstad Clan and wrote it in 1952, but updated it in 1995. I also borrowed heavily from information on the internet.
Much of what I have written is fiction - because I know so little of what my grandmother’s life was like. But whenever I could, I used real information gained from the ancestor.com website. I used real people’s names who lived in the area, and who might well have said and done the things that I attributed to them. I have not intentionally made anyone say or do anything that I think would have been out of character.
When Laura died, her husband Nick hired Pearl Alta Smith, to come to be his housekeeper and care for the younger children. In the 1930 census, Pearl, 31, is listed as living with and possibly working for Henry and Ida Reed, both 63, in Weiser Township, Kidder County, North Dakota.
Here is what Pearl's daughter Inez said about it. "My mother (Pearl Smith at the time) did stay at the Wyngarden home to take care of Laura after Laura found out that she had cancer and also to take care of the children that were still at home. I think Chester was already out on his own. As I understand it Laura picked my mother to stay with them. I think they knew each other and were probably friends.
My mother took care of Laura and the children and cooked for the family until Laura passed away. Laura told Nick that she did not want anyone else but Pearl taking care of her kids after she was gone. My mother stayed on as a paid employee to take care of the kids and cooked for the family for the next year at which time Pearl and Nick got married. I think I got this information from both my mother and Mildred. My mother always spoke kindly of Laura so I am sure their relationship was good.
Laurence was six years old when his mother passed away. He told me that he remembered two things about his mother. One was that he was trying to put his own snow boots on and knew that his mother would not be able to help him anymore. He also remembered what song was sung at her funeral. Dick must have been about 10 years old when she passed away. My mother seemed to love all of the Wyngarden children, but she was especially close to Dick and Laurence. Perhaps because they were so young when she started to take care of them."
On June 1, 1933, Nick married Pearl. They continued living on the farm in North Dakota for several years, and had two more children: Inez, born April 8, 1934 and George, born January 26, 1938. Because of the terrible farming conditions during the 30s Nick sold his farm, and moved temporarily to Minnesota - but then moved his family out to California, where they had a good life.
This is what Inez says about those days. "I remember that Chester, Mildred and Allan always wrote a lot of letters to my mother after they left home. I also remember one time when Allan wrote home to borrow some money and my Dad did not want to send him any. My mother sneaked the money out anyway and sent him a Money Order. I was with her when she got the Money Order and she told me not to tell."
Inez also wrote the following about their early life. "As Is remember it, my Mother and Dad's reason for moving to California was that making a living in Minnesota at that time was a struggle and Dad was a bit of an adventurer.
The year they went out there was 1948 and Dad was about 63. They sold their farm, all the animals and all their furniture etc. at a big auction. They bought a nearly new 1947 3 hole Buick and a new 27 foot travel trailer. They took a trip out to California where they met one of my Mother's cousins. Dad decided he could grow cotton here. So they came back to Minnesota and picked up us kids about mid term of my Freshman year in high school which I finished in California. Dad and Mum did several jobs for a farmer that was a neighbor of Mom's cousin. They learned about planting, irrigation etc. of cotton from him.
That next fall Dad leased a piece of land that included a house and barn and we moved out there and out of the trailer. We bought a used tractor and some necessary equipment and planted cotton in the spring. Nearly all of the work was done by the four of us. The only time we hired help was to pick cotton and us kids had to do that too.
Dad was never afraid of anything and had a lot of confidence in himself. Although he only had a seventh grade education, he was very intelligent. He was pretty much self taught. I remember him helping me with my geometry in high school. Math seemed to be very easy for him. At the time of his death he was in the process of teaching himself Spanish. He was using some tapes and books that he found at the book store."
Laura’s sister Josephine, who lived in Canada, died on December 22, 1939. Her family continued to live in the Saskatchewan area.
Laura’s other sisters, Bertha, Mary, Ida and Agnes, all ended their days in Oregon. Benjamin and his family continued farming in the Kidder County area where he had originally homesteaded, and he died in 1960. I believe that Oscar continued to live in Montana where he died in 1960.
Of Laura’s children, Chester, who was my father, after getting his degree in chemistry from Jamestown College, worked as an orderly at the State Hospital, where he met and married my mother, Ann Woychik Hutchinson, who was a widow with a daughter, Kathleen. They moved to Bismarck, where he first worked at the State Penitentiary for a few years as an orderly, and then trained to become one of the first X-ray technicians in North Dakota and worked at the Quain and Ramstad Clinic. They had three children; Donald John who died when he was three weeks old, my older sister Judy and me. Dad died in 1976. Judy died in 1998.
Mildred wrote this about her later life. "It was my senior year in high school when my mother passed away. I had started school the fall of 1931 but had to quit as mother got worse and went to the hospital. She passed away in Jan 1932. I started school again that fall and graduated in May 1933. That summer I went to Steele and wrote teacher’s exams and passed and received a certificate for teaching good for two years. I applied at Chase Lake School District and was hired. I taught there from 1933-1935. A country school, all grades but I didn’t have that many pupils. The district was hard up so I took part of my wages by rooming and boarding at the different homes. At the end of the second year either I had to write again to renew my certificate or go on to school. I chose school as I didn’t feel I should be teaching without more education. That summer I went to summer school at Valley City. I didn’t care for teaching and would have had to go to school a couple years, so that was when I decided on nurses’ training. I had decided I wanted to be a nurse years before when we visited my aunts Ida, Mary and Agnes were nurses at the Deconess Hospital in Butte Mont. I applied at the Trinity Hospital in Jamestown and was accepted for Fall 1935. I enjoyed nursing and was there 1 1/2 years. when my health broke down so I had to quit.
I spent 10 months in bed, and the doctor had said I had TB. It has since been decided that he was mistaken. I had a thyroid problem. During this time the folks lost their place in ND and moved MN. I went with them. That was 1937. I was there when George was born in 1938. That spring I left Minnesota to live with Ida in Parker South Dakota. That was where I met Lyle.
In 1939 Ida and I both went to Sioux City, Iowa, to work in the Methodist Hospital. I could have gone back into nurses’ training at that time but didn’t. I have often wished I had. Lyle and I were married December 24, 1940, in Sioux City. I stayed on and worked until spring - Lyle went back to Parker where he was employed at a service station. I moved there on April 1941. On November 21 we moved to Monroe, South Dakota, where Lyle took over a service station. In August we moved to Sioux Falls and Lyle started work with the Chevrolet Company. He worked for them until February 1948 when we moved to the edge of town and Lyle became self-employed starting Lyle’s Garage. We did very well there, but Lyle always dreaded the winters. He had polio at age six and one leg was left paralysed. That leg always bothered him in the winter so when an opportunity for work in California came we decide to move to Lemoore. We moved in 1966."
They had three children, Bill, Dean and Betty. Bill died in 1968. Dean and his wife Mavis live in Gresham, Oregon and Betty and her husband, Randall Fisher lived in Everett Washington. Mildred and Lyle both died in California.
Laurence, the youngest son, also moved to California, and he also became an x-ray technician. He married Annaliese, who he met in Germany and they had one son, Ralph. Laurence died in 1989.
Allan and Richard both servedin the Second World War, and after it was over, they moved to Madras, Oregon, where they both worked on a seed farm. Allan married Ruby, and they had no children. Allan died in 1990. Richard married Doris, and they had three children, Jay, Mark and Gayle. Doris died and Richard married again, to Betty. Richard is still living in Madras Oregon.
Allan's wife Ruby wrote this to me, about 1980, and said this about him. "Allan served in the Air Corps. He was a welder on aircraft and was stationed in England for three years from September 1942 until August of 1945. He saw a lot of England and Scotland. We own our own home in Madras and have lived here since 1951. He retired in 1979."
The descendents from Hills family - specifically from Laura’s family – numbered over 150 in 1995 -and no doubt have increased by many dozens since then. Some still live in North Dakota, but many now make their homes in Oregon.
Nick’s brother, Len’s family stayed close to their roots. His son Leonard married Barbara Vellenga - the daughter of one of the people I mention as being in the community when the book starts. They continued to live on the homestead property, and although Leonard died in 2003, now his daughter, Jane, farms those same acres, and no doubt has many of the same problems to face as the early farmers did.
Len’s daughter Eileen, married Warren DeKrey, again from a Dutch family that moved into Kidder County at the same sort of time as the Wyngardens. Warren was a banker, and they are now retired and live in Bismarck.
Eileen has answered many of my questions about her family, as well as my grandther's over the years. When I asked them about the move to California, she said this.
"I remember visiting with your grandfather and Aunt Pearl, going over to their place on horseback, riding Tony, the black horse that your Uncle Allan had given to us to take care of while he was in the Conservation Corps during the depression, becauset there wasn't any work for young men. Your Aunt Mildred had TB, and would sometimes be out in the yard in bed so she could be in the sunshine and fresh air. Inez was very young at the time, and Laurence was about seven or eight years old.
The weather was so dry, and the crops so poor, that many people were on relief, a government program that gave us food and fuel. I think the Wyngardens were too proud to take a handout, so I remember not having oranges in my lunch box while others did. The grasshoppers also were a scourage so that any green grass of garden crop that had been painfully watered by hand, was eaten up when the hoppers came through in dense clouds. They would even gnaw on the handles of tools left outside. Uncle Nick and Aunt Pearl went first to a little farm near Detroit Lakes along with Laurence and Inez.
"I don't remember how long they were there, but their farm was bought by Albert Halverson and his wife Agnes. Their only son, Marvin still lives there.
"I just talked to my brother Leonard, and he rememered a bit more about it than I did. He said they left because of soil erosion, grass hoppers, no rain. George was born in Minnesota. Their address was Four Corners and it was near Detroit Lakes and Frazee. I'm sure the living conditions were not too good in Minnesota.
"Leonard remembered when they were in California picking cotton, Aunt Pearl was quite fussy about keeping it clean, but Unlce Nick worked faster and had some dirt in his sacks, but since they were paid by the pound, he figured it was more profitable that way!"
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