April 18, 1992

The Day of New Beginning...

The beginning

Recorded by Katie Ellebrecht May 2012

Small Yellow paperback journal, written by Thelma Craighead Fleming

In 1916 I was born of Nellie J. and Burley W. Crandell, Feb 14, on a farm home in Pingree North Dakota. When I was two years old I moved with my parents to Olivet, Ill. where daddy went to school. These are some things I remember about Olivet in the next two years.

            One time running in the house playing with my sister, I ran thru the kitchen door into a hall, the door slammed and mother could see my finder from the other side held at the hinge of the door. She quickly released me from the hold and nursed my finger tenderly. That evening it was a very great comfort to sit on daddy’s lap and know he was sympathetic about my sore finger.

Daddy dug a basement from under out house. He used a team of horses and a big steam shovel.

We had our bedrooms in an upstairs. Some college boys roomed in one. I remember when Mother entertained some of the Benner family.

A college girl lived with us, her name was Mary.

In summers Mother took us 3 girls and went berry picking in Michigan on the Sommers berry farm. I helped pick berries. Mule teams passed by the farm home and the big tent we stayed in. One time a man left his team for a while – I said “Git-up”—The mules started up. The man ran after the team. He never understood why his trusty team ran away-I never told him either.

We went to Sunday School and church in the college chapel. I love to sing “Bringing in the Sheaves” and let my feet swing and dangle to the rhythm. We sang a pretty little song about pennies dropping when we took up the S.S offering.

            I can still smell (it must have been a mystic perfume) the odor from a certain women we used to sit by in church. I never could understand that mysterious so called perfume smell.

I started to school in the middle of the year. I must have been quite a disturbance to the teacher—because I found myself under her desk being punished for being noisy.

It was then that we moved back to the Crandell farm (1922). I went to the one room schoolhouse called the Gray school-named after my Grandmothers family- Mary Gray Crandell. My teacher was Miss Rapture. One day in school I was embarrassed when I discovered I had my nightgown on under my dress.

            My older sister, Lola, and younger sister, Arlene, and I went to school in a two wheeled cart. When “Fanny” had pulled us to our school we let her go the mile and 1/2 home. In the afternoon the horse was sent to school after us.

            My mother could play the organ-she helped our teacher for 2 weeks at Christmas time teaching the songs for the Christmas program.

In the cold of the winter Daddy drove us to school in a covered bobsled pulled by a team. He grew a beard that winter. The cold frosted his whiskers. At this Christmas he was home and before our Christmas program he set up the tree. To surprise us when we got home. He also surprised us by showing off his beard. He played Santa Claus at the Christmas program. I was in a little play and my big line was that my little boy I had been all ready to go somewhere and the last minute got himself all dirty.

            We went to school with the Wendal kids a large German family- our closest neighbors 1/2 mile away. Some of our second cousins the Grays, went there too. In the play I was to kiss a big girl – I remember in practice how nice and soft her cheek was to my lips. Just before the program she talked me out of performing the act.

We lived 20 miles from Jamestown Holiness Camp Meeting grounds. It was a horseshoe bend of the James River. A beautiful grounds with shade trees. There were two tabernacles-one called the children’s. Straw was the floor mat. Many white tents were pitched for the people who came to camp meeting. Mother and we girls went to stay the 10 days of camp meeting. Daddy would go home every day in his Model T to do the farming chores.

We had two children meetings a day. It was in an alter call in one of these meetings that I gave myself to Jesus. In a Sunday afternoon service of meeting Dr. Morrison-then a Dakota holiness preacher-later a General Supt. Baptized me by sprinkling.

1923

Dad was going to South Dakota to be a preacher to a country charge. This fall we started to school in the Gray School House and the teacher Miss McGossich even stayed at our house. Dad sold off the big things and rented Grandma’s farm to Leslie and Nellie Schafer, Dad bought a brand new Model T ford. We took the precious and most needed items in a two-wheeled trailer. We three girls rode in the back seat and kept tab on its trailing. One time we looked back and it was not there. When we got back to where it was- the wheels were still whirling-the trailer upside down in a ditch. The damage done was the dishpan-the last to put on the trailer was smashed. We got the trailer somehow to a little town nearby-Fullerton, N. Dakota, which was a town important in my life a few years later. We were there a few hours and when he trailer was attached more satisfactorily we continued our travels.

            We got into S. Dakota. We stayed overnight at Mitchell S. Dakota with a preacher named Griffith.

            A remembrance of this trip was crossing the Missouri river on a ferryboat. As we got closer to our destination Kadoa[?] S. Dakota the country had more hills. We were very prod of our Model T passing other cars up those hills.

            The first two weeks of our stay we lived in with a family- Gordon and Hazel Stout. The drinking water came from the same pond the animals drank from. Soon we moved to a little two-roomed house for a few weeks I guess. We went to a country school that had a big enrollment. Then we moved closer to the school house where the congregation met on Sunday.

            Miss England was our teacher. Dad took us over the hills in a bobsled when snow fell, and in the Model T. 3 miles. Here was Hazel stout-my birthday Twin. Miss England sponsored a community B.D, party with us as the honorees. There was a tall-tiered cake. She gave each of us a small kerosene lamp. This was one of my treasures for a long time.

            Our song leader and S.S Supt. was Jud Pepper. A large man and fun for kids. He was an auctioneer too, and farmer.

            The schoolhouse sanctuary had a pump organ-which mother could play very well. I like to hear her sing as she played. As daddy continued to pastor the country church-we moved to the town of Phillip. Dad also made a Sun round-up preaching 3 times to 3 congregations. The trips each Sun. thru Badland country was always fun. We picnicked along the way-stopping on the road and eating from the running board. Dad had stomach troubles- one time he was eating 2 raw eggs at this picnic hour. Uncle Bob was with us one summer and the antics of his added more fun. We moved from the country to Philipp-lived in a little square 4-room house. We walked to the school that was a top a steep hill. We could climb the steps or climb the hill. We lived in a direction away from the steps so I usually walked the hill. In the winter sliding down this hill was our play activity, but it was dangerous if the sled was misdirected. We had a sled that daddy made.

            I was in the third grade. The first day of school I was attracted to the shiny face of a boy. I admired his clean face and I wanted mine to be that clean always. Lola, was in the seventh grade and Arlene in the second. In the spring of the year Lola and I came home sick one day. I stayed sick for 6 weeks. Had pneumonia and after going back to school came back home with a serious earache. I suffered much with almost a mastoid on my ear. It was Easter time. I was delirious with fever. I got out of my bed chasing what I thought was rabbits at last I could go to school again. I enjoyed school. In my convalescence at home mother taught me to crotchet and I embroidered some things. Mother kept these in her keepsake box and in her later years gave them to me. They are tucked away somewhere in a souvenir box.

            Aunt Mary sent me fruits and an Easter hat. That summer we moved to Groton S. Dakota. My hair was coming out by the handfuls so Dad cut my hair bald. This embarrassed me no end. I went to a new school and I wanted to wear the hat in the school room-but the teacher wouldn’t let me. I always put it on at recess time.

            We lived at Grandpa Tollefsons home. He was a widower-a very good Christian man. We loved him. He was always kind to us. There was a piano in his nice big house. I  loved this. I would think I was playing it. I enjoyed listening to Mother play it. Lola learned to play some hymns. She played “I’m going home to the no more” Grandpa loved the song and told her he wanted her to sing it at his funeral. This she did years later from his homestead home near Verdon S. Dakota and I accompanied her on the piano.

            Groton schools were excellent. My 4^th grade teacher was Miss Burns. She started me with the lower group and in a week or 2 moved me to the upper. I learned to spell “vacation’ the first day. An art teacher came in one a week. I like to art class. The school put on a big program every month. Each grade would be responsible. I enjoyed these entertainments.

            Daddy was in evangelism work. He worked too to sell chickens for a hatchery from Groton. In the winter he held a store front meeting in Groton. We went every night-Grandpa- the Piggers family and us. Mrs. Piggers or Mother played the organ – Grandpa did the shouting and testifying. Some ladies from the Methodist church came. We went to the Methodist SS in this winter. I remember a party we had at our teacher’s house.

            Grandpa Tollefson put several bushels of apples in the basement. We always ate an apple before going to bed. This was a real winter treat.

            We had family prayer in the evening. I always enjoyed the prayers of Grandpa and my parents. We girls would take our turns too. Grandpa liked to read the scriptures and had ministry of giving Bibles to others.

            In Groton and near us was an eccentric person. We called him the “hermit” He lived in a make shift house he put up from boxes etc. He picked up from behind businesses. It was rumored he ate what he got from the garbage cans from behind the restaurant. Airedale dogs were his pets. Several always followed him to town and out to his dumpy house. But Grandpa was concerned for his soul and visited him. Grandpa was perhaps the only person to take a missionary interest in him.

The lawn of Grandpa’s house had tall and pretty shade trees. It was a summer time pastime to lie on the ground-look up into the sky and sing. The neighbor girl across the street wasn’t so impressed. She called out asking, ,”Is that the tune the old cow died on.”

26-27 Groton

27-28 Fullerton

28-29 Ellendale 8^th

29-30

30-31

31-32

32-33-Graduation

At Groton we lived closer to Mother’s relatives. And living at Grandpas big house made it ap-ra-po as the place for family gatherings. Thanksgiving was a big Tollefson get together. What fun with cousins- at Dick-2 Time-1 George- 3 Nellie –3 Ruth-3 Ada-2 least 14 of them. We were jumping off the garage, racing, playing hide and go seek. It was our chance to know each other. During the winter of 1926 Dad was a co-evangelist with rev. Griffith at Fullerton. N.D. in a community non-denominational church. This congregation chose to have Dad come to be their pastor. Moving was a fun time as far as I was concerned. Uncle George helped Burley load our belongings and we landed at our new home. Dad had preceded us and planted a big garden at the house just outside the town where we would live. After settling the household one of our jobs was to give the yard one good cleaning. We needed rain. That was always the wish-that it would rain. But the stories we heard of starving Chinese made us thankful for our blessings. This old house had 3 rooms downstairs and a barracks upstairs. We girls slept upstairs and when the wind blew I could hear creeks and crackles. This caused an illusion I had of seeing a ghost. It really wasn’t a ghost. Father had come upstairs to calm my fears. Mother had come in her white gown and I took her to be the ghost for sure. It took me a long time to recover from my nightmare fears.

            A wild cat came on the scene. We managed to tame her somewhat by feeding her. A friend had given us a ground owl – which we didn’t manage to keep alive. At its death Arlene and I were acting out a funeral for it in a granary building on the place. It was abruptly interrupted when we spotted 3 baby kittens sleeping in a straw bed. Now we had kittens to play with. This house was isolated from playmates, but about 1/2 mile away lived a Bohemian family. They had a little girl and she could not speak English. But our childhood desire to pay overcame the speech problem. Arlene and I walked in our bare feet to her house. Bohemian custom had more meals a day. We were invited at their table. Their ways and foods differed from ours. But we surely enjoyed their hospitality. We were always overjoyed when she came skipping down the road to play with us.

            This old house had rugged wooden floors.  Mother kept them clean, teaching us how to scrub floors on our hands and knees. She observed our methods and saw we did it right.

            There was a well on the place and troughs to hold water for the cow we had. One time to carry out some kind of teasing I was carrying on, he picked up and dipped me in the water. We raised chickens to supplement our diet.

            This old house was difficult to heat as winter came on. So when an opening came we moved to a big big house lived in by a widow of a doctor. She reserved a bedroom for herself and her bull dog. We took our favorite cat with us. Of course we had the cat in the house. After some previous irritating episode with the bulldog came a splitting experience. The bulldog chased the cat thru the house with devastating results. The widow lady moved across the road to Frank Brokaws who were dog lovers plus. About this place was lot of disposed of medicine. When Frisky got sick and died we presume it had eaten some poison.

            At this house we lived about 1/2 mile from the town school. In the winter we wore our long underwear and walked The school had grades 1,2,3 in one downstairs room and 4,5,6 in the other. Upstairs 7, 8^th in one room, and the first 3 years high-schoolers in the other. Arlene a 4^th grader, and I a fifth were in the same room with Miss Zimbleman as teacher. I irritated her with the worst fight I ever commandeered. Off the school grounds Ruth Gilbertson spit in my ear. I couldn’t like her then. Half the recess kids suck up for me and Ruth had some on her side. The fighting was mostly verbal and perhaps getting tougher when I looked in the school room window and saw a neutral classmate telling the teacher all about the feud. So I called a truce and walked in and talked with the teacher. She thought I should be a better example for a preachers kid. So I made amends and tried to be friendly with Ruth again. There were some boys I was smashed on, but I don’t believe they recognized it. When I got a valentine from the l liked best I was embarrassed to recognize it.

            Having attended the good Groton school I was ahead of 5^th grade class. Miss Zimbelman passed me on to the sixth grade in the middle of the year. It gave me one tearful problem I was not ready for the transition in arithmetic. If it had not been for y mother’s help I would have cried more tears.

(Janitor life)

The next year I got to go upstairs being a 7^th grader. My teacher was pretty Miss Fritch. I liked her because she could sing real pretty. She sang “Blue Heaven” in a jazzy way at a school social making eyes at the young guys in the back of the auditorium.

            A very everlasting influence was my privilege in Fullerton. Mrs. Brokaw the S.S superintendent’s wife conducted a children’s meeting every Sunday night. There were the Durheim kids the Lubrin boys and other kids who were almost always there. Mrs. Brokaw motivated us to learn scripture and she brought Bible stories alive using various methods of presentation. The Sun. School belonged to the American SS Union. This organization was starting the vacation bible school movement. Mrs. Brokaw added to her own expertise the plans the Union published and pioneered a VBS in Fullerton. We started off having a parade thru town. The VBS was held in the public school. The result was a bang up experience for all the town kids.

            We moved from the big house to just about the prettiest and commodious house I ever lived in. It’s downstairs was spread out to a bedroom, living room, dining room, and a big kitchen with a big pantry. A front porch was an attraction to me. Upstairs was at least 3 bedrooms if not 4. The ___ and was that it was just across the street from the down dance hall and there was a dance every weekend. It was prohibition days and liquor was banned. But there was plenty of it bootlegged especially at the dance. Burley was a booze fighter and upon observation of the drinking going on at the dance hall and some episode of misconduct of a drunk man brought on the arrest of him. Burley was the witness and a big trial was carried on in the dance hall. It was a town event- even the high school kids went as a class project observing a civil trial. The arrested man was acquitted of whatever the trial was but the battle against booze with burley got more aggressive. But he had some enemies. Some of his salary at the church diminished. To lessen expenses we moved to a smaller house; 2 small rooms downstairs and 2 upstairs. It had a big fenced yard where we raised Rhode Island Reds. It had a big garden spot.

            Dad joined a group of 100 men of Dickey county who fought booze. They persuaded him to run for Sheriff. He won the election which meant we’d move abut 14 miles distant to the county seat Ellendale. 1928

            One happy prospect was that Ellendale had a church of the Nazarene. I would still be a preachers kid because Dad was filling in for awhile as interim pastor. The joy was that in the church was Dorothy Heinke who was in the same grade as I. It was comforting indeed to go into a new classroom having a friend to show me the way. We went into the Jr. High that housed the 8^th and 9^th grade. Mrs. Blatchford and Mrs. Strang were our teachers. They were the pros for sure.

            The first few months in Ellendale were slim pickin’ for Burley’s family. He would not take office until Jan. Christmas was hard to find a nickel for family or friends. At school whose name did I get but the teacher’s. This was embarrassing and I’m still embarrassed to think that I gave her a little porcelain doll in a little porcelain bathtub. She never commented and that made me more embarrassed. At first we lived in a 4-room house plus a shanty room as a kitchen. It was about a mile from school. The Heinke girls, the 3 going to school, ate dinner with us each day. Gladys, Dorothy, and Le__ who was in the lower grade.

            Starting in a new school is difficult for most. For me my inferior feeling stemmed from my pig nose, freckles, and sandy hair. As soon as I overcame the jibes of these characteristics with recitations showing my ability in class work my peers became friendly. One day we had an assignment in English class to bring anything of our choosing to read or recite to the class. I chose a very comical letter I found in a yearbook of Olivet college 1920. the class was in hysterics and I won my humorous reading recitation reputation. They asked me to give recitations on several occasions. N. Dakota had a 7^th or 8^th grade course of study called “our state.” It happened that I had the course in Fullerton so I was excused from repeating it in Ellendale. To substitute I took a high school class in Old Testament which was taught by an astute local minister. One end of the school year activity was the class’s visit to an historical sight in the hills south of Ellendale. We visited a National monument about an Indian battle. We listened to an historian telling all about it and had a picnic dinner. Dad supplied his car to take a carload.

            We started our new year with younger teachers Mrs. Graham and Miss Black. I was surprised one day when Miss Black strolled back quickly picked up a boy and spanked him with her fist on his bottom. I guess the boy was just being idle not getting his work done. Another time I overheard her remarking about a certain boy. She said, “He’s so homely he’s cute.” Miss Black taught me algebra I and I enjoyed it.

            Ellendale church had some very faithful families attending. The Heinke family with 4 girls, the Benson with 4 little girls. the Flemings with 2 boys, the Durheim family we knew in Fullerton with one girl and 4 boys. There were other families and young people who came less faithfully.

            Rev. Malmberg came as pastor. He was of Swedish descent and had a brog. He ha been a bible student at N.N.C and had a sweetheart there named Myrtle. She finished college… [end of this edition]