September 1940 • Watsonville and Vallejo ~ The family moved back and forth between the towns of Vallejo and Watsonville. In 1940, Dad was working for Union Ice, and he occasionally took Larry with him on deliveries. My brother was impressed with the tons of ice in the huge vending machines, … [Read more...]
1.016 Letter from My Mother
From my mother (age 26) to my father's sister, Amelia Conway (age 39), living in Byron, Minnesota: Watsonville, Cal. Nov. 22, 1941. Dear Amelia and all: The last letter I had from you was dated July 11, whether I have written since then I don’t know but I probably haven’t. Not much to write … [Read more...]
1.015 Where Babies Come From
1939 • Watsonville, California ~ Our house was right on her way home from the grammar school and Marceline (Uncle George and Aunt Verda’s daughter) loved to stop off and visit mom. Marceline held Babe in high esteem, elevating her to a kindred spirit and favorite aunt. She thought our mother a much … [Read more...]
1.014 Sketches of Clemens Family
My Father’s Family (Carl John Clemens) The Clemens’ place was a 210-acre dairy farm that in the first flurry of winter was a Norman Rockwell picture of snow-covered paradise. It was the first farm lying just west of the outskirts of the city of Rochester in the Township of Cascade, Olmsted County, … [Read more...]
1.013 The Clemens Farm (part 3)
The Clemens and Nigon families did well, all successful farmers of German heritage. Not one family lost their farm in the Great Depression, like so many farmers who had strapped their land with bank loans. They worked, paid cash for what they needed, then drank beer and danced... but not until work … [Read more...]
1.012 The Clemens Farm (part 2)
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)
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
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...]
1.009 Everything is a Gamble
Feb 4, 1933 • Colusa Sun-Herald, Colusa ~ At an early hour this morning Miss Noreen Chatfield became the bride of Carl Clemens of Rochester, Minn., at a ceremony performed in Our Lady of Lourdes Church immediately following 8 o’clock mass services. The members of the immediate families of the couple … [Read more...]
1.008 Golden Eagle Cafe
1932 • Colusa, California ~Three years into the Great Depression, when there were no jobs and little money and Herbert Hoover was unable to keep his campaign promises of prosperity, my grandmother, 59-year-old Nellie Chatfield, moved to the bustling rice town of Colusa, the county capital built on a … [Read more...]
1.007 Sign of the Cross
More backstory • Chico ~ As she got older and her burning feet made it too far to walk, Roy drove his mother the mile and a half to 7:30 morning Mass. Cruising up in his black four-door Hudson Terraplane sedan, hopping from the car, offering her his arm and walking her up the thirteen red brick … [Read more...]
1.006 Sketches of Chatfield Clan
My grandmother ruled the roost and her word was law. There was no question about it. As a result of her righteous positions, she was on the outs with most of her children throughout her life—and the higher she stood on her moral ground—the lower her family descended. Family Lineage Charles Henry … [Read more...]
1.005 Boucher Street, Chico
In 1915 the Chatfields left Los Molinos and moved to the up-and-coming agricultural town of Chico, buying a fairly new two-story corner residence in the Chapmantown district, a working-class neighborhood near the Diamond Match Factory. In those days most people rented; few owned their own homes. … [Read more...]
1.004 My Mother’s Father
Sep 30, 1915 • Red Bluff Daily News, Los Molinos, California ~ WOMAN ALL ALONE GIVES BIRTH, CHILD TAKES CARE OF IT. LOS MOLINOS. — When a baby girl was born last night to Mrs. C.H. Chatfield of this place, the woman, unaided except by some of her small children, rose from her bed, washed and … [Read more...]
1.003 Canada, Cuba, or Bust
A letter from my grandmother Nellie (Chamberlin) Chatfield (age 30) to her younger sister Mamie Chamberlin (age 16). At the writing, Nellie had five children: Charlie Jr., Leo, Howard, Roy, and 6 month old Nella May. Two years after Roy was born, Nellie Mary "Nella May" Chatfield came along. She was … [Read more...]
1.002 Crazy Quilt
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...]
1.001 My Maternal Grandparents
Dec 26, 1894 • Fruita, Colorado ~ In a ceremony in her parents' home, my grandmother, twenty-one year old Nellie Chamberlin, married Charles Henry Chatfield, a ranching man of twenty-four. Nellie was a no-nonsense Catholic girl and exceedingly religious, but she also had a mind of her own, and … [Read more...]