Ruth's Brother Don Provided A Little Background To Their Early Childhood And School

Letter from Don Flessner, Ruth's brother, dated November 10, 2020. This was written to me shortly after Ruth passed away. I was curious about Ruth's train rides from the farm / Fonda to her grandparents. See the letter. 

At the time this letter was written, I believe Don was 97 years old. 

The letter from Don:

I, Don, was born in a farm house near Palmer, Iowa in August, 1923.  The family moved to Fonda in the spring of 1928 when I was four years old.  Ruth was born while our parents lived on the Palmer farm.  I don’t know if she was born in the same farm house or elsewhere but she did live in that house in her first year.   I have no recollection of the Palmer farm or house.   

The railroad was on the back edge of our Fonda farm a city block or two from our house.  I recall the house had a glass panel in the upper half of the back door.  When I heard a train whistle, I would run to the door, stand on tiptoes and watch the train pass.  I was age five on my birthday in 1928 and started first grade in September.  I attended a one-room country school—one teacher with six or eight students of various ages in various grade levels.  I completed my first eight grades there.  The school was about a mile and one-half from home.  I walked it many times joining school mates along the way.

Ruth attended the same school in her early grades.  Our parents arranged for her to attend Fonda Public School later.  I don’t know when she transferred, perhaps, when I went into high school.  She completed grade and high school at Fonda Public Schools.

Fonda in perspective. 

Fonda is a typical midwestern town serving the surrounding farm community.  Population at that time was eleven or twelve hundred people.  It is located on an east/west highway between Sioux City and Fort Dodge in north-central Iowa.   Travel from an intersection on that highway (now Iowa 7) south through the residential area approximately three quarter of a mile to reach town center and the retail area—a city block or two in each direction at that time.  A branch line of the Illinois Central RR ran generally parallel to the highway in that area.  It is on the south edge of Fonda retail area and southern side of our farm land.  Two passenger trains and an occasional freight train passed through Fonda each day—Sioux City to/from Chicago-- one in mid-morning and the other in late evening.

Our Iowa farm was located about two miles west of the intersection leading into Fonda.  Manson was approximately twenty miles east of the same point.  Palmer, a small community,  was fifteen or so miles north and west of Manson and about the same North and East of Fonda.

Grandparents Flessner lived in Fonda so we visited them more frequently—usually with parents.  Grandparents Folkerts were twenty miles away.  In those years, that was a longer distance.  We visited with parents.  Ruth’s train visit memories puzzle me—It probably was between Fonda and Manson because the normal passenger train schedule would work very well.

Leaving the Farm. 

I graduated High School in May, 1941—before Pearl Harbor but with much turmoil in the world.  Military service was a near certainty for the boys graduating.  I was working in a local drug store during High School and continued after graduating.  One of my high school friends was doing a similar thing in another store.  We met at lunch frequently and made plans to go to Los Angles to earn ‘big’ money in the defense work.

The two of us, in his car, left the Iowa farm on a spring morning in 1942.  Ruth, our parents and the family dog waved us goodbye.  We arrived in Los Angles, found living accommodations and a job.  I enlisted in the CG in December.  Sometime after our departure, our parents and Ruth left the farm and moved into Fonda.  Ruth completed high school and entered nurse training.

 Prior to receiving the above letter, Don's daughter, Ruth's niece, Leslie sent me this note:

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

If Ekke's parents were still in Illinois, that would have required a train ride. [The track went from Chicago, due west to Sioux City, Iowa, passing through Manson and Fonda.]

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, etc.  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 Iowa was in 1990; Dad and I took my infant son to visit Reka. We drove past it then and the trees were still healthy. 

They had various livestock and a 1930s tractor. My dad [Don, Ruth's brother] 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 Don. 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 high school 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.  

"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.