From Ruth's Niece, Leslie Flessner -- September 20, 2020

In reply to some of my queries, Ruth's niece, daughter of Don, Ruth's older brother, Leslie sent me this e-mail note:

Ekke was born in Thomasborough IL, near Chicago.  Presumably Ekke's side of the family went to Illinois and spread west from there.  Does that sound right?  

If Ekke's parents were still in IL, that would have required a train ride.  Maybe?

Dad was born in Palmer, due east of Storm Lake.  Population 167 in the 2010 census.  😁  I understood Dad to say it was 1 mile north and 1 mile east of their farm.  Fonda is to the west and Storm Lake is further west.

The farm, which they leased, is on an iconic black macadam road with iconic corn fields.  I saw it on several of my trips to IA with my family.  When Ekke moved his family there, it was mostly a dusty square around the house.  Dad (elementary age) planted saplings around the edge of the yard; he had to drag buckets of water to keep them growing, and grow they did, into mature trees.  My last visit to IA was in 1990; Dad and I took my infant son to visit Reka.  [Reka died September 11, 1990.] We drove past it then and the trees were still healthy. 

They had various livestock and a 1930s tractor.  My dad won a county fair prize for Most Creative Rabbit Display when, not interested enough to do anything more, he simply dumped all his rabbits in a box and submitted them.  (My son would do a similar stunt at a science fair 70 years later).  Dad talks about snow drifts above the fences turning icy and pushing the pigs on their behinds across the ice, over the fence, and back to where they belonged.  Essentially, bowling with hams.  They had seasonal farmhands and Reka ran a tight ship.  Ekke was a" veterinarian" through experience so he was able to care for the animals.  (Interesting fact, Ekke served in WWI as a veterinarian on board ship, tending to the horses, because he knew about livestock).

On one of Ruth's family trees there's a reference to a cousin Gilbert living on the farm with her and Don.  He doesn't remember this but Gilbert would've been younger than him. When grilling my dad about his childhood memories with Ruth, he doesn't remember much.  I understand this.  I have a brother 4 years older, as Don was with Ruth, and my brother rarely deigned to notice me.  He wasn't a jerk, he was just oblivious.   

Dad attended a one room schoolhouse through 8th grade, somewhere near the farm;  Dad's family was still living on the farm when he graduated Fonda HS in 1941.  He went to a few HS reunions in the 90s and saw Ruth there.

In the spring of 1942 Dad moved to LA and 6 months later joined the Coast Guard.  His story is exactly like your dad's. [Carl Oksol]  "I knew I was going to be drafted so I wanted to do it my way."  Like your dad, he served on a troop transport in the Pacific and Atlantic.  How cool is that, they did the same thing?  After the war he used the GI bill to attend U of Minnesota, where he met my mom.

My mom did most of the talking in my parents' marriage.  I knew all about her family heritage, even the things that weren't actually true.  But I knew very little about my dad's family.  I was therefore fascinated, also very proud of being progeny of immigrants.  Before it was cool to talk about.  Since my mom died I've been peppering my dad with questions about his past. 

Notes: when one does a cursory internet search of "Flessner" and Thomasboro, IL, one finds a long, long list of Flessner names. It is obvious that the Flessner name was very, very common in that part of Illinois, south of Chicago and just a few miles north of Champaign, IL. 

It is interesting that there is a "Flessner Avenue" in Rantoul, IL, just north of Thomasboro.

Grandpa Ekke Flessner was born in Thomasboro, IL. 

Looking at the map, it is very, very obvious that there would have been a railroad line from Champaign, IL, to Sioux City, IA / Sioux Falls, SD.