So with a possibly incomplete history of the DeHoff-Strouse-Whan
families, we go into the Burnie DeHoff and Ocie Whan era. October 7,
1885, Burnie DeHoff and Ocie Whan were married at the home of the
Bethlehem Lutheran Church pastor. Their honeymoon was a day at the
Kendallville Fair. These were my parents. Mother was 19 years old and
father was close to 28 years old.
Father had been farming his mother's farm (which is where Burly
Hindelang now lives). After marriage, Mother and Father for a short time
made their home with Grandmother DeHoff and his three sisters, Alice,
Emma and Rittie, then they moved to a small house near by. In 1886,
Grandmother DeHoff sold the farm and moved to Avilla. Father and Mother
then purchased 40 acres, now the Raymond Pfleidner farm. This was part
of the original Jonas Strouse farm. This was in the start of one of the
worst panics the US has known. Earning a living on a farm or as a
laborer was rough. Mary was born here in 1887.
Father and family left the 40 acres to try his luck on a large farm
moving with Uncle James Stewart's family to the Shoaf farm in Allen
County. This was in 1889 - September 25th of that year twins were born:
Gerry and Gertie.
After one year they moved back to their 40 acres in Swan Township. The
nation was still going into a greater panic - times grew still more
difficult. At that time a young man could not go to the bank for a loan.
If he could find some one who had saved a little money they made a
personal loan at 8 and 9 percent interest. So with the tightening of the
economy and a family of three children, they sold their farm, made a
sale and moved to an old house just across into Green Township - it was
here Mary started to school at Summit. Later they concluded they had
made a mistake in selling their farm.
Their only possession was a mare named Flora. She bore a colt named Bob,
which all our family can remember. A trustworthy old white horse which
we all grew up with. So here we go again:
After living in Green Township a short time, the DeHoff family in dire
straits moved in with Mother's family which then had one son Edwin and
family living with them. This was overcrowded. So early in 1893 Father
went to Garrett, a very important railroad center and got a job in the
shops. He moved his family to Altoona and very shortly a strike was
called. Again Father found the wolf at his door.
He then tried to operate a feed store - without success. He worked out
on a farm by the day wherever he could find work. Earning 40 to 50 cents
a day with long hours and hard work.
Early in the spring of 1894 he purchased 56 acres with partly cleared
land, no buildings. Gerry has related to me of Father hiring a man with
a team of oxen to clear logs and burn them. This parcel of land is and
has been the DeHoff homestead for nearly 80 years - it has been in the
Strouse family, then Whan and DeHoff families ever since purchased from
land agents by Grandfather Strouse.
Father and Mother bought this parcel of land for $1700 with only one
horse to farm. They moved back of the woods across from Hopewell
Cemetery to live till they could build a house - Father borrowed a horse
and built a straw shed. This was built by setting strong posts in the
ground and putting some boards on the tops and sides. When they
threshed they blew the straw on top and around it making a quite
comfortable barn. In it he kept a couple of cows and his mare and colt
till the next year the colt, Bob, had become a workhorse. This same year
he started a house, 28 X 28 feet square - a kitchen, living room, two
bedrooms and a pantry.
In 1898 another child was added to the family named Virgie. The house
progressed. Father purchased oak logs to frame this 28 X 28 house from
Uncle James Stewart for five dollars and Jim helped to cut the logs.
These were purchased just east of Green Center. Father hauled them to
Schanner's sawmill just east of Ege and there they were sawed into
proper framery material. The house was a go-go!
Mr. Oliver Ley, a stone mason, was hired to put up the wall, which is
about 18 inches thick. Carpenters and plasterers were hired - the labor
was 50 cents per day - and these men walked 5 miles from Avilla and back
each day. When the house was finished, Father had $300 invested in it.
They moved that year (1898) and Virgie was born. And then 1900, I
(Forrest) arrived. I was the Omega, I guess, in our family. I never knew
whether Father and Mother thought the size of the family was sufficient
or whether when they saw me the decided they better quit! Anyway, I have
had the honor of being the baby of this family.
As you read this account be not hasty in judgement of the financial
difficulty suffered. Remember this was probably the most difficult
financial era in United States history. And the European Countries, such
as Italy, Poland, England, Sweden, Ireland, Germany and practically all
Europe, were also suffering a serious recession. Father and Mother with
family were only one of hundreds of thousands suffering the pangs of
depression. And all the time the rich families of the East - the Astor,
Vanderbilts and such as these, became richer and richer.
This even continued into the first quarter of the 1900s. In this time, I
recall Brother Gerry went to Kendallville - McCrays - drawing from $1.50
to $2.00 a day. Mary taught school walking 2 ½ miles each way for $1.25
per day. Gertie worked at housework for $3.00 a week. Father worked from
sun-up to sundown in the summer. In the winter he would leave to cut
wood before daylight, carry his dinner and get home after dark. But this
was the way of life and seldom did anyone complain - poor relief and
welfare were unheard of.
Around 1905-1906, emigrants were pouring into the US by boatloads and
the English were coming to Canada. The English government would give
them free transportation and a small pittance to survive on till work
could be found. Many of these English the crossed into the US.
I recall seeing an immigrant train going west on the B & O freight cars
with the door boarded up part way and each car was full of men and women
watching the passing countryside.
Polish settled in settlements and many never learned the English
language. Irish scattered more. Italian, German, Hungarian and many
others formed whole communities. Italians and Hungarians mostly chose
the large cities. Irish, English and German - many chose rural. And from
Sweden many went on to Wisconsin and Minnesota. The immigrants and their
offspring became valuable American citizens. Our family lived between
German and Polish settlements. It was not uncommon on going to town to
hear a large group of people conversing in their native tongue.
I was born in 1900 in the center of all this. In my boyhood days we
lived humbly, but comfortably and happy. Father and Mother worked long
and hard hours and the children were not exempt from work. Father's farm
implements were horse-drawn implements, which he walked behind following
a team of horses. A good day consisted of more than 8 hours - many times
12 - 14 hours. Mother's modern kitchen, what were her tools? I guess her
hands and her will to work. She baked her bread and on bread day we had
dumplings for dinner. A chunk of bread dough broke off and dumped in a
kettle of hot water - it raised to a large fluffy dumpling we ate with
milk and sugar. It was tasty. We had cinnamon rolls. Coffeecake - none
other like them has ever been made. She churned her butter. This was one
of the children's jobs and after turning the churn for what seemed like
hours and hours, finally we heard the thump that was music to our ears -
butter had come! We would cry out "the butter has come"!
Mother raised vegetables, dried apples and corn and stored them away in
a dry place. Nothing was ever like these - to slip in our pocket as we
started to school and so handy to eat in school time. We butchered our
meat, five and six large hogs at a time. We took our wheat to the mill
to get our flour made. We raised chickens in the back yard for both meat
and eggs. And how careful we had to walk in our bare feet! The chickens
were never yard broke. How did we live - I guess just through the mercy
of God. We had no vitamin pills, no special baby rations. We knew
nothing about balanced rations, ecology or birth control. No chemicals
to kill the weeds nor any to make the corn and potatoes grow. But still
we lived and grew strong.
We attended a one-room schoolhouse where one teacher taught 8 grades
with 40 - 50 pupils. Order was obtained with a heavy pointer for heavy
offenders and a small switch for lesser offenses. "Spare the rod and
spoil the child" was unknown. I might add (with no offense to the
present day youth), we were never accused of being the smartest
generation the world had ever known, nor were we credited as the
dumbest. We learned to read and write, to spell, to add and subtract,
the history of America and other countries. We learned the rivers and
mountains of the world. We studied authors and statesmen. We also
learned man must work to live. After school as we all walked home
together, our lessons were still being taught. We learned to fight or
run, whichever we choose. I developed a good, strong and swift set of
legs - and strong lungs. I never enjoyed a bloody nose.
Our home was heated with an airtight wood-burning heater. The side
toward the stove roasted - the opposite froze, but we learned to turn
around. We cooked on a large wood stove, always hotter in summer than
winter. Our light was a coal oil lamps. The glare never ruined our eyes.
Our literature for entertainment a Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward
catalog which we called our "want book". The room today called a
bathroom or restroom was a small building in the corner of the yard -
too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. Its furnishings were
two seats and an old Sears Roebuck catalog serving several purposes, one
of which was to read while you waited. It was also inhabited by flies in
the summer.
At an early age, my oldest sister annoyed me by calling me the baby of
the family. Later years I outgrew the annoyance and found some
advantages in it. Father read a lot and as early as I can recall always
took a daily paper (some times a week late) - the Chicago Daily Journal
- thus he kept up on current world events.
My parents liked to clean up and dress up on Sunday and although my
mother rubbed many thicknesses of skin off my neck in washing it, I've
always appreciated their cleanliness. When there was church, Mother took
us to church.
When we went visiting, we drove two white workhorses hitched to a
two-seated buggy. Father used to like to sing as we drove along.
Although he was no opera star, I thought he sang very well. His favorite
song was "O Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean". Mother sang quite often at
her work. Her song was "Roll, Jordan Roll". In later years as I stood
besides the swift running Jordan River, I thought, "this is the river
Mother sang so much about".
As our farm bordered on a cemetery, church and schoolyard, they all
played a part in our lives. As children, Virgie and I spent many hours
reading tombstones. A habit I haven't entirely shaken. We learned to
know these people by name, when they were born and other historic facts.
Some things we imagined - these people of the past became our friends.
Even today I feel honored when younger people come and ask about their
ancestors - some information I know I learned by reading their
tombstones. The church had become a real important part of our lives.
The Hopewell Church was Presbyterian, but for 30 years we had an
Evangelical pastor. I will write later of the value, history and
influence of the church on the DeHoff lives.