A House Abuzz

January 27, 1934  It is Saturday.  I took care of my beloved.  Mary and the boys did Saturday’s work.  C. Dalkes were here this morning.  Mrs. Dalke took care of the baby.  In the afternoon Mother and sisters came over, also Mrs. John H. Reimer.

Cornelius’ emotions made another rare appearance in the diary in the day after their seventh child was born as he mentions caring for his beloved wife, Margaret.  Women were expected to stay in bed for a week or more after giving birth to rest and to regain their strength.  It would have been a very busy time in the family.  Cornelius was busy helping his wife Margaret.  The three boys, Jake, Corney, and John, had to help Mary with cleaning and baking.  Mrs. Dalke was busy taking care of baby Anna.  And of course, relatives came over to see the new baby – Margaret’s mother Katharina (Barkman) Reimer, Margaret’s sisters, and sister-in-law.  It would have been a houseful of joy and excitement.

Blessed with a Baby Daughter!

January 26, 1934  At 5:20 a.m. we were blessed with a baby daughter.  Dr. Botkin and Mrs. C. Dalke assisted.

On this day, the Siemens household was blessed with joyous news – a baby girl was born.  While Cornelius mostly reports the facts, the time of birth and the names of the doctor and midwife; he does note that they were “blessed,” a word that for him was extraordinary, but certainly in character because Cornelius loved children and believed they were a blessing from God.

The baby was named Anna Margaret – Anna in honor of her aunt Anna (Reimer) Dalke, who helped with the birth, and Margaret for her mother.  Although “baby” is mentioned a number of times in the diary, the name “Anna” is not mentioned until August 29.

For millennia, women had given birth at home, usually assisted only by a midwife.  Only wealthy city-dwellers could afford to have a doctor for the delivery, and he always came to the home.  But for most births, a midwife came.  Midwives were usually self-taught women in the community who assisted at many births, and the journals that some of them kept are great sources of genealogical information.  But in the late 19^th century, this started to change - it became more common for a trained and licensed doctor to be present.  By the 1930s, most children were born with a doctor present, although still at home.  So Dr. Botkin came from the town for Meade to be in charge of the delivery and Anna Dalke only assisted as the midwife.  Only after World War II, when most towns built hospitals and most families had cars to drive to the hospital, did it become common to go to the hospital for a birth.

Selling Grain in Town

January 25, 1932  Corney and I took a load of wheat to Meade.  We got 32 cents per bushel.  The children did laundry.  In the afternoon it began to snow.

Cornelius had a small granary on the farm, so he usually saved some wheat from the harvest to sell later when the price would be higher.  Farmers were still somewhat self-sufficient, meaning that they mostly ate what they produced on the farm and made most of their own clothes and did virtually all of the labor on the farm.  But by the 1930s, they needed cash to buy a tractor, implements, a car, lumber, fabric for clothing, shoes, a kitchen stove and utensils, furniture, and many other things.  Selling wheat (along with cream, eggs, fryers, and garden vegetables) was the main source of cash for the family. 

This was no grain truck that they drove to town.  Cornelius and his son Corney would have driven the five miles to town in their Model A car, pulling a trailer with sideboards full of wheat.  There were two competing elevators in Meade, the co-op that was owned by all the member-farmers of the area and the commercial Gano elevator.  Many farmers sold only to the co-op because they were members there, but Cornelius liked to do business with both because sometimes the commercial elevator would offer better prices.  He probably had a few things that needed to be purchased in town as well.

But there was another very important purpose to these trips to town.  Cornelius loved to visit, and he would talk to anyone who had time, from the poorest ne’er-do-well to the richest man in town.  He certainly would have talked with workers and other farmers at the elevator and people at the stores.  He may have seen some acquaintances on the street and stopped to talk to them.  He visited with Mennonites and “English” alike.  And then he and Corney returned home with all the news of the community and a little cash in his pocket.

Laundry Day

January 24, 1933  The children did laundry.  Mama helped.  I helped make meals and helped take care of the little boys.  In the afternoon Jacob and Corney plowed.  Very nice day.

Doing laundry.  It sounds so simple today, but less than a century ago it was a task that was involved the whole family and took all day.  (Although this day was a Tuesday, usually the Siemens did laundry on Monday.)  The Siemens had a small wash house next to the main house where they had some shelter from the cold and wind while they did laundry.  There was a lot of heavy work involved, so the men and boys participated too. 

First, a fire had to be built to heat water in the huge kettle, the Miagrope, and water carried from the well.  [CORRECTION:  The Siemens had their laundry in the basement, so it was a warm place to wash in winter once the fire under the Miagrope got going.  They had a cistern that collected rainwater and a faucet in the basement from which they got the water for laundry.  Rainwater was softer, so it required less soap.  Cornelius was good at fixing up conveniences such as this.  They only got the summer kitchen/wash house in the 1940s.]  If blocks of homemade soap had not been shredded earlier, that had to be done as well.  Then the hot water, soap, and dirty clothes were put into a hand agitator which was rocked back and forth to clean the clothes.  Agitating was hard work, so everyone took turns.  Then the clean clothes had to be rinsed of the dirty, soapy water, run through rollers to press the water out, and hung on the line to dry.

On this day “the children” did laundry – Mary, Jake, Corney, and John.  They were teenagers, so they took the main responsibility and wife Margaret only had to help.  Cornelius helped his wife make meals so that there would be food ready for the hungry laundry crew and took care of “the little boys” – Henry (21 months old) and Elmer (9 months).  Cornelius had been a widower with four children from 1920 to 1930, so he had had to make meals and keep house before, unlike most men of that era, and he could even bake bread.  As a result, more than most husbands, he appreciated housework and was willing able to help in the kitchen and with the little children.

Then after dinner, Jake and Corney escaped the laundry and went to the field to spend a very nice day plowing in the field, leaving Mary and John to finish the laundry.

Saturday's Work

January 23, 1937  13° cold [3° F.] with south wind.  Mama and Mary did Saturday’s work.  In the afternoon Mama and I went to Meade.

The Siemens lived by a weekly routine.  Sunday they went to worship service, visited, and rested.  Monday was laundry day.  Tuesday they ironed and put the wash away.  And Saturday was the preparation day for Sunday.  In his diary Cornelius frequently notes that the women “did Saturday’s work.” 

What was Saturday’s work?  First, the house was cleaned so that it would be ready for Sunday and for another week.  Everything had to be dusted, the floors were mopped or washed, and the bed linens changed.  Then there was baking and cooking that had to be done.  His wife Margaret and their daughter Mary always baked tweeback on Saturday, enough to last the whole week, and loaves of white and rye bread.  And often they would bake cake and cookies.  Tweeback (the Low German word) or zwieback (the High German word) are a traditional Low German Mennonite yeast roll consisting of a larger bottom and a smaller top and rich in lard or butter.  And they get food ready for Sunday dinner because they always expected company.  They would cook a huge pot of potatoes with peeling - for Saturday supper they would eat them with gravy and then on Sunday for dinner they would shred them and fry them.  Also they would soak beans and cook a big pot of pluma or rosina moos.  (Moos is a cold Mennonite fruit soup made made with plums, raisins, cherries, other fruit, and even sorrel.)  As the family finished its week of work and gathered for Saturday supper, everything would be sparkling clean, and the smell of fresh baking would fill the house.  And the Siemens family was ready for a Sunday of worship, fellowship, and rest.

Chiropractors

January 22, 1932  I went along with K. H. Reimer to Dr. Schlichting.  ______ _______ Mama and Mary mended clothes.

The most common medical help among the Mennonites was chiropractors, and Dr. Schlichting was one of the favorites.  He lived near Minneola, Kans., which was twenty-two miles northeast of Meade, had an office at his home, and was self-taught.  His brother lived at Corn, Okla., and people would car pool from Meade to get treatments there.  It was believed that everyone from the smallest infant to the oldest adult could benefit from his treatment and that it would be good for whatever ailed you.  So the Siemens would regularly go to Dr. Schlichting for treatments.

On this occasion, Cornelius went along to Dr. Schlichting with his brother-in-law, Klaas H. Reimer (1892-1976).  That way they would have company on the drive and save gasoline by making one trip instead of two.  Cornelius likely paid K. H. for his share of the gas on the trip – Mennonites paid each other for everything that had been purchased.  Cornelius often did things together with his wife’s brothers, Heinrich, John, and Klaas; so it seems that he got along well with them and with his new wife’s family (they had been married less than two years then).  Since Cornelius was a very social person and never held grudges, perhaps this is not a surprise.

Dr. Schlichting’s treatments were quite painful; but the more painful the treatment, the more effective it was.  He would give a piece of candy to children, and this was known as “Schlichting candy.”

[Notice that this diary got wet at some point, so the ink on the corner has bled.  I have tried to recover the handwriting here with a little success, but even so it is hard to read.  Below is the best image I could get of this page.  Compare it to the unedited scan above.]

Darkness at Mid-Day

January 21, 1933  We got _____ __________ and also one cow.  We got a big dust storm, so it got all dark.  11° warm [57° F.].  Southwest wind.

The Great Depression in the United States started with the collapse of the stock market in October 1929.  The resulting loss of wealth and jobs was devastating for city dwellers and affected farmers too, but farmers continued to do better than city dwellers for several years because they were more self-sufficient.  But 1932 had been a year of disaster for the Siemens family (and for many other farmers).  The 1932 harvest had been so bad because of drought that the Siemens stopped harvesting soon after they started because the value of the grain was less than the cost of harvesting. 

Now in the winter of 1932-1933, the dust was starting to blow.  Three days earlier, on January 18, the Siemens had had a dust storm that Cornelius had noted in his diary.  Today so much dust blew that it got completely dark when the sun was shining brightly.  Imagine the sensation of day turning into night as the wind blew and the dust clouds rolled in.  Imagine Cornelius watching as the howling winds carried away the good topsoil that produced his crops and left only hardpan.  And imagine Margaret cleaning up the next day as every surface in the house was covered with a thick layer of dust. 

And this was only the beginning – there were several more years of worse and worse dust storms to come.  No wonder so many people gave up in despair and left for California.  But the Siemens never left.

[Note - The blanks are where Cornelius' handwriting cannot be read.]

Dust storm approaching Stratford, Tex., in 1935.  Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

Map of areas affected by Dust Bowl.  Source: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/about/history/?cid=stelprdb1049437 

Butchering - Or Turning a Hog into Useful and Delicious Things

January 20, 1932  We butchered a hog.  John H. Reimers, C. Dalkes, and Anna Friesen helped us.  Nice weather but very muddy, so the cars got stuck.

Butchering day was an important event for the Siemens family, as it was for all farmers.  It was expensive to buy meat in the store, if it was even available at all, so raising their own meat was much more economical.  Even though it was a long, long day of hard physical work, it was also a great social occasion with a lot of laughing, story-telling, and visiting.  Everyone looked forward to butchering day, and neighbors helped each other out.

Who was the work crew on this day?  First of all, Cornelius and his wife Margaret (my grandparents) and their four children Mary (19 years old), Jake (18), Corney (16), and John (14).  Then Grandma Siemens’ older brother John H. Reimer and wife Katharina were there and her older sister Anna (Reimer) with her husband Cornelius Dalke.  Finally, Anna R. Friesen (20 years old) who was Grandma Siemens’ niece was living with the Dalkes, so she also came to help.  Son Jake must have taken advantage of these opportunities to get to know Anna Friesen because they were married a few years later.

Usually the Siemens butchered two hogs, although on this day they only butchered one.  The day started with the Siemens doing their chores before breakfast.  Then the friends who were helping would come for breakfast at about 6:00 a.m. and then start butchering while it was still dark.  In the morning the women cooked in the kitchen to feed the crew dinner and faspa later on while the men got the actual butchering started.

No one had a gun, so they would kill the hog with a sledgehammer blow to the head and cut the throat to bleed it out.  (All you city slickers would do well to experience where your meat comes from.)  Next, they hung the hog up in the garage and scalded it by dipping it in a barrel of boiling water.  Then they would scrape off the bristles, saving the skin for the liverwurst.  Then they would cut the hog in halves and scrape the lard off the skin.  Next, the meat was cut into pieces – the ribs, bacon, hams, etc. were cut up.  By this point the cooking inside was far enough along that some of the women would come out and help with the meat and lard.

The lard had to be ground and rendered.  A wood fire was built under the rendering kettle, the Miagrope, and the ground lard was put in with the spare ribs.  The lard had to be stirred constantly while it rendered, or melted, and then cooked for several hours.  Once the lard started rendering, everyone would eat dinner (the noon meal), while one man stirred the lard.  It was very important to control the fire so that the lard and cracklings would not scorch.

The noon meal was very good with plenty of food because there were a lot of people to feed who had been working very hard since early morning.  Usually the meal consisted of fried chicken, which was a treat; potatoes; and fresh pies that had been baked that morning.

Next the meat for the sausage, liverwurst, and head cheese was ground up.  The sausage and liverwurst were stuffed in the intestines, which the women had cleaned.  The liverwurst was a mixture of ground pork and liver and was cooked, but the sausage was kept raw and then smoked the next day.  For head cheese the head was picked clean of meat, cooked, and ground up and pressed into a loaf. 

When the lard was ready, they would strain out the cracklings, the bit of meat from the lard, and pour the liquid lard into stone crocks.  It was very important to add up the number of gallons of lard from a hog – a good hog would give twenty gallons.  The lard was the cooking and baking fat that was used throughout the year and was stored for the whole year in the cool basement.

Once the lard was finished the work was mostly done.  Everyone would sit down for faspa and eat spare ribs that had been cooking in the lard, which was another treat.  Finally, everyone who had helped would get some meat to take home.  Unfortunately, the yard was muddy, probably from melting snow, so the cars got stuck and had to be gotten out, even though everyone was tired.  Then the Siemens still had to clean all the pots and pans, the cutting table, and the knives and then do chores again.  They had started long before sunrise and worked until long after sunset, but this was a day that would provide them with meat and fat for the whole year.  And it had been a lot of fun as well.

Getting Ready to Butcher

January 19, 1932  Pleasant weather.  We prepared to butcher.

Farmers raised their own meat – cows, hogs, chickens, and even ducks and geese for special occasions – and butchered them.  They butchered large animals in winter to make it easy to cool and to preserve the meat.  Pork was a staple of the Mennonite diet, so butchering a hog was an annual ritual. 

The day before butchering there was a lot of preparation work to do.   They had to bring out the equipment from the basement, the pans, the meat grinder, barrels, the large outdoor rendering kettle (Miagrope), and the work table for cutting meat and then clean everything.   And the knives had to be sharpened.  

The women would be busy butchering chickens for the next day and baking loaves of bread to feed the butchering crew the next day.  Then all would be ready for an early start to a long day of butchering. 

Farmers and Weather

January 18, 1933  2° warm [36° F.] in the morning, but a dust storm from the southwest.  Mama and Mary sewed.  I repaired the curtains on the car.

Like most farmers, Cornelius Siemens [I will call him Grandpa Siemens hereafter] was an avid observer of the weather.  Farmers lived much of their lives outdoors, and the success or failure of crops depended on the weather.  In fact, Mennonites believed that being a farmer was an especially spiritual occupation because it requires total and direct dependence on God to provide good weather for crops or to sustain them through times when he chooses to give bad weather.  So many farmers recorded temperatures, precipitation, and weather conditions in a diary or ledger book.

Grandpa Siemens had a special Réaumur thermometer that he had brought from Canada to read temperatures, something it was important for him to have.  The Réaumur temperature scale started at 0° for the freezing point of water, like the Celsius scale with which we are more familiar, and had 80° as the boiling point of water.  This temperature scale had been popular in continental Europe and especially in Russia, and the Mennonites had continued to use it in Canada when they immigrated in the 1870s.  Gradually, it was replaced by the Celsius scale in continental Europe, while the Anglo-Saxon world had always used Fahrenheit.  I have added the Fahrenheit temperature (sorry, Canadians, I did not add Celsius) to the text of the diary whenever he used Réaumur.  Interestingly, he only used Réaumur for winter temperatures but switched to Fahrenheit for summer.

Also, it is interesting how he described the temperature as "warm" when it was above freezing and "cold" when it was below freezing, instead of using "plus" or "minus."

Ominously, the dust was starting to blow.

Going to Church

January 17, 1932  Sunday.  We all went to church.  In the afternoon C. Dalkes and Ed Smiths came over.

Evangeliums-Lieder, Mennonite songbook

The Siemens all went to church every Sunday, as long as bad weather or sickness did not prevent it.  They were members of the Kleine Gemeinde Mennonite church.  At the worship service, the men and women entered through separate doors (see the two doors below) and sat on separate sides.  The worship service started with the congregation singing several songs.  Because they sang a capella, everyone sang in parts and most sang well because all they heard were their own voices and those of their neighbors.  When they prayed, they would turn and kneel at the pews.  Then the elder and some of the preachers would preach two or three sermons, so the service was long.  Finally, the congregation would dismiss with a song.  Even though the people spoke Plautdietsch or Low German, the worship service was conducted in High German because the Bible and hymns were in High German.  The Sunday worship service was a highlight of the week because it was a time to worship God, to see friends and relatives, and to rest from a week of hard physical labor. 

Jacob F. Isaac, elder of the Meade Kleine Gemeinde church

Kleine Gemeinde north church building, Meade, Kansas

Former location of north church building near Meade.  Cemetery is still there, surrounded by evergreen trees.

A Neighbor's Birthday

January 16, 1933  5° warm [43° F.] this morning, but the wind turned north, and it got colder.  In the evening Mama and I went to Mrs. K. B. Reimer for a birthday celebration.

The C. K. Siemens family lived on a farm four miles east and one mile south from Meade.  Mrs. K. B. Reimer was a widow who lived about half a mile southwest from the Siemens, and she was Cornelius’ wife’s second cousin.  Her husband, Klaas B. Reimer, had died less than two years before.  The Siemens and the Reimers could see each other’s farms, although the Reimers had big trees that blocked the view of their farm.  There was a small playa lake between the farmsteads, and the Reimers said that they could hear the Siemens talking when there was water in the lake.

 

Mrs. K. B. Reimer (1874-1951) was celebrating her 59^th birthday that day.  Since she was a married woman, it would have been unthinkably rude to call Mrs. K. B. Reimer by her given name, which was Aganetha.  For the genealogists, her maiden name was Aganetha J. Friesen.  A few years later, the Siemens’ son Cornelius would marry the Reimers’ daughter Margaret.

Introduction

Cornelius K. Siemens, 1938

My grandfather, Cornelius K. Siemens (1884-1950), faithfully made entries in his diary for decades.  Most of the diary entries are brief and unemotional, largely reporting the work each one in the family did that day, the friends and relatives with whom he visited, the weather, and church events.  On occasion, something exceptional is recorded, such as the birth of a child, a baptism, or a wedding.  But mostly it is the ordinary life of a Mennonite farmer in Meade, Kansas, during the Dust Bowl.

On this blog I will post a selection from his diary and make some comments to put it in context.  The selections will be from various years.  The years that have survived for us are 1930-1937 and 1947-1949 – the other years are apparently lost.  The diaries are in written in German Kurrentschrift (perjoratively called Gothic script), and my mom Anna (Siemens) Fast has been translating them.  My contribution is only as typist.  Once we complete the translation, we plan to publish them for family members.

This blog is intended for family members and descendants, but anyone is welcome to read and enjoy and comment.