Dad's 1st Birthday Party

Saturday, November 21, 1925: A lovly day. All but mother went to town this afternoon. Quite a crowd in town. Aunt Tillie went up to Aunt Annie’s again this forenoon. Friday was Dad’s sixty ninth birthday. It was a most beautiful day and evening. We were busy all day making bread, angel food cake, cleaning up and getting ready for the party. We could hear them coming about seven oclock or a little later. Ruby & I got dressed. Dad was reading, not suspecting a thing when they heard the cars. Mother said “I guess Uncle Edds are coming”. Then he said something is up. Then they came in. Wilbur Bastians and Lottie came a little later. Most all came that were invited but Bert Weis. There were thirty two here, eight of Fiedlers, Tressiders, Wilbur Bastians and Lottie, John Ethel & Leslie Tippet, Win & Martha, Mr.& Mrs. Butcher and Uncle Edd & the Aunts. All seemed to have a good time. The men folks were out in the dining room and the women in the parlor. The parlor was almost too small. The women and children played games & etz. The men talked. About eleven oclock we served supper. Had lots of sandwiches, pickles & cake, We had three cakes besides ours. About twelve thirty they departed for home. Aunt Tillie stayed all night. Had got a picture of the Apple River Canyon from Win & Martha and three handkerchiefs from Leslie Tippet. Think Dad was quite tickled about the party. His first birthday party.


Thursday we were busy getting the house cleaned up for the party. We swept upstairs and etz. That forenoon Uncle Henry & Aunt Lue called in. They and some more of the family were on their way to Galena. Nice day. Wednesday Uncle Edd and the Aunts came down in the forenoon to spend the day. Dad and Len were stacking fodder. Agnes suggested to Aunt Annie Sunday that they invite in a few neighbors to a surprise party for Dad on his birthday Friday evening. So they wanted to know if it would be all right and they are to tell Agnes as they went home.

Tuesday Dad and Len went over to Jim Ivey’s funeral. I went up on Weis’ hill and looked over with the field glasses. The funeral went by here from Spencer’s to the cemetery. They had a Warren minister to officiate. We washed. Monday it was cloudy all day. Dad, Ma & Len went to town. We started out with our car, but it went so badly that we turned around up at Uncle Edd’s and came back & got Len’s car. Jim Ivey’s funeral was at one oclock from John Spencer’s. He was buried at Miners Cemetery. Monday afternoon we all went up to Aunt Annie’s by car. John, Agnes, Milton, & Blanche came up there too. Jim Ivey died yesterday at a Duburque hospital of an operation.

Armistice Day ~ No, Veterans' Day!

Sun. November 14, 1926 was very cloudy and showery. We were at home all day. Yesterday it rained some in the morning and also rained that night. So we didn’t go to town Saturday. Friday we stayed home and baked bread, coffee cake, apple kuken and a cake. We also churned.

Thursday was Armistice Day*. Eight years ago the war ended. Dad, Ma & I went to town in the afternoon. That eve. we all went up to see the Aunts & Uncles. Wednesday was a nice clear day but cold. We ironed. Len & Ruby husked the standing corn. Dad helped too.

* From Military.com we learn, “Veterans Day gives Americans the opportunity to celebrate the bravery and sacrifice of all U.S. veterans. However, most Americans confuse this holiday with Memorial Day, reports the Department of Veterans Affairs. What's more, some Americans don't know why we commemorate our Veterans on Nov. 11th . It's imperative that all Americans know the history of Veterans Day so that we can honor our former service members properly.
Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was originally set as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which officially took place on November 11, 1918. In legislation that was passed in 1938, November 11 was "dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day.'" As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.
In 1954, after having been through both World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress -- at the urging of the veterans service organizations -- amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.
In 1968, the Uniforms Holiday Bill ensured three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the last Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.
Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11th "

Sat, Sept 25, 1926: Thursday was a cloudy, rainy day, a very bad day for the Elizabeth Fair. We intended to go if it had been nice weather. We washed in afternoon and made some yellow tomatoe preserve. There were storms and heavy rain that evening. On Friday, we were busy baking and etz, & etz. We made two kinds of jelly. I wondered if the Fair would be put off, as the weather was cold and wasn’t much better than Thursday.

Today is a very cold day but sunshiny. We wanted to go to town today, but Dad has about 3 weeks’ whiskers on and wouldn’t shave so we didn’t go. We spent about all afternoon and evening gathering in tomatoes, peppers, sting & lima beans, cucumbers and etz. Ruby & I went over to the garden at Weis’ place and picked lima beans at eleven tonight with lantern & flashlight - everything was all ready frozen."

Having been a social worker for years before retiring, family dynamics always fascinate me. Here we have Charles and Amelia Dittmar Trudgian[see today's photograph], Lillian's parents living in the house that Charles grew up in with their two adult daughters - Ora Ruby Trudgian Stauss and her husband, Leonard Stauss and of course Lillian. They are living on 88 acres of land - what remains of the original purchase made by Joseph and Mary Pellymounter Trudgian [Charles' parents]. The rest had been sold off in years past [The land the neighbors -Fiedlers - live on once belonged to Charles' parents and then my great-great grandparents - Thomas and Rachel Kloth Trudgian]. In the first volume of Lillian's Diaries: Whispers of Galena's Past there seems to be a division of labor, with everyone helping out when a particularly large task had to be done like husking corn in November.

Now it appears Ruby and Lillian are working, working, working and occasionally their mother helps out. In the meanwhile Charles is out gathering nuts and Leonard is out helping the neighbors and his parents but not at the Trudgian homestead.

In the 1913-1919 period of the first book we see what might be questionable behavior of Charles......everyone is busy working and he takes off and to chance a ride* to another town and stays overnight, sometimes without telling his family who he is staying with or how long he will be gone..... or being so sick that all the womenfolk are worried about him and he is again leaves to chance a ride in the cold and rain to go somewhere.

In today's entry he hasn't shaved for three weeks and is refusing to do so. It seems that the whole family will stay home because he won't shave. Was it necessary to shave before going out in public? Was he growing a beard? I am sure that period of time had many more guidelines as to what was proper to wear or do while out in the community than we experience today......do you agree?

* to chance a ride is to hitch hike

Fall Harvest Continues

"Wed, Sept 22, 1926: On Mon we made apple sauce plus cooked 2 kettles of plum preserve or 4 ½ qts. and made a batch of catsup. That was besides digging some potatoes, gathering in plums,crab apples,tomatoes and pop corn.I went looking for hickory nuts but didn’t find many yet at our place. Meanwhile,Dad gathered nuts all day on the Weis’ hill. Tue we made 4 qts plum preserve and made crab apple pickles and baked bread, fired two stoves and nearly baked ourselves. Len & Ruby went to town in the afternoon and brought home a box of peaches. Today it is cloudy & gloomy most all the time but cooler. We put up 9 qts peaches, churned, and made apple sauce. Uncle Edd & the Aunts came down this evening brought 4 mush* & a watermelon.

* mush - yes you guessed it - is muskmelon. Although I have heard people pronounce it mushmelon as well as muskmelon. Either way, I am allergic to it and don't even remember what it taste like anymore.

Although this entry is not that exciting, it is an ideal example to illustrate how hard our ancestors worked just to keep going. During the September and October entries each year in "Lillian's Diaries: Whispers of Galena's Past" most of the information is about harvesting, preparing and canning the food that they would live on over the winter months and until spring when the process begins again - this time with all the berries. And all without air conditioning, food processors, electric stoves and all the other appliances and cooking aides that today we consider to be essential!

Once a year I get into my "Lillian" mode and for a few weeks spend all my free time preparing Wolf River Apples....this year we added Michigan peaches so the tiny freezer of our side-by-side is overflowing with unbaked French apple pies, peach cobbler, applesauce, peach freezer jam, peach/blueberry freezer jam and apple crisp! I have about a half bushel left to go and I am exhausted and we are going to buy a small freezer chest to suppliment the one we have! How did they ever do all this work and still manage to go into town?

Today, I also included the picture at the top of the post. This is a piece of farm equipment that Lillian's father, Charles Trudgian, designed and patented. It is currently at the Galena Historical Museum with some other items from the "old Trudgian house". Can anyone guess what this machine does?