Catherine Sevenau

Opener of doors, teller of tales, family scribe.

1.012 The Clemens Farm (part 2)

By

The Clemens children went to the county school just down the hill, and then to St. John’s Grade School in the former St. Mary’s Hall, a big, two-story brick building a mile away. The three oldest girls were so close in age that Grandma held Mary back a year so she and Elizabeth could start school … [Read more...]

1.011 The Clemens Farm (part 1)

By

My grandparents, Matt and Barbara Clemens, were known for attending funerals. Relatives, close friends, acquaintances, people they barely knew: it didn’t matter. They went to all of them. It was their social center. If anyone wanted to visit them and a nearby funeral was happening, they knew Grandpa … [Read more...]

1.010 Minnesota Catholics and Cows

By

1920 • Minnesota ~ When the wheels needed to be changed or the axles greased, my father—not yet a man—lifted the more than 200-pound hay wagon with his back, raised it higher with his arms, and held it steady while his older brother Aloysius, or Louie as the family called him, slipped the new wheel … [Read more...]

1.002 Crazy Quilt

By

1895 - 1915 • Nellie ~ My grandmother started her crazy quilt in 1895, the same year she started her family. Twenty years later, with the birth of my mother, Noreen Ellen "Babe" Chatfield, she completed them both. During Nellie’s first period of confinement (it was improper for pregnant and … [Read more...]

Visions of Hell on Earth: Chatfield Story

By

The Chatfield Story: Guest post from my cousins, Terry and Peg Chatfield-McCarty The flood of memories, the details of countless events recalled at late evening fireside, the myriad of horrid private images never shared with anyone—we can only begin to imagine how this original O’Dea Andersonville … [Read more...]

Teller of Tales

By

 Teller of Tales This tale is a history, a fable, a prayer of those gone before me, now gathered with care. The diaries and pictures and letters enclosed deciphered my kin and what they supposed. Those who are living—their stories intact, Those gone before us—who knows what was fact? I met … [Read more...]