Memories - ROY J. SCHLEICHER

My Early Life in Minnesota
Background: My parents were Arthur Schleicher and Elsie Roth who grew up in Carver County, Minnesota at Norwood and Young America. They married in 1916, purchased land in Polk County, MN, sections 28 of Lessor Township (6 miles north of Mcintosh) where they moved in 1916. I was born in 1918, brothers Lloyd in 1920 and Gordon in 1923. Augusta and Casper Roth were our grandparents. The farm they purchased was mostly wooded, with a small lake and very little open cropland. My dad and mother did a remarkable Job in a few years to clear some of the land, build a house, barn, chicken house and shed, raise a family of 3 boys, and start a good dairy herd, as well as hogs, chickens and other livestock.
Clearing the Land: Much of the land was cleared of trees by making cord wood, which was sold to the McIntosh Creamery every winter. The oak and poplar trees were made into fence posts or taken to a sawmill and made into lumber. Dad then used explosives to clear out the stumps and rocks, plowing up most of it with his 3 horses, clearing a few acres each year.
Selling Milk and Eggs: Dad had 11 milk cows most of the time which he and mother milked by hand, while we boys would play in the hay with the dog and cats. The milk was put through a separator; the skim milk fed to calves, the cream taken to town in 5-gallon cans along with the eggs from mother’s chickens. The cream was sold at the Creamery where it was graded by the butter-maker who dipped his pencil into each can running it through his mouth to proclaim it sweet or sour. The eggs were traded for groceries and other supplies at the local Wichern Store. This was more than a store because you gave your grocery order to a clerk to fill while you took the liberty of sitting in chairs in the front and visiting with your friends and neighbors. The general store would charge supplies to almost everyone. Some could pay once a month, while most farmers would pay their entire bill each fall when they sold grain or livestock.
Grain for Livestock: Grinding grain for the milk cows, hogs, calves, and chickens was a big job on the farm. Dad would sack up 10 to 15 sacks of grain, haul it to town where he had it ground and concentrate added, then hauled it home and dumped into various feed boxes. In later years, after Dad passed away (in 1934) Lloyd and I took the body off our Model T Ford and mounted a feed grinder on it to make our own rations right at home.
Harvesting grain: Our grain was harvested with a McCormick-Deering binder, which cut the grain and tied it into bundles. We would set these up, 8 to 10 in each shock, to dry for a few weeks. Then the bundles were hauled into the farmyard where they were made into a round stack, large on the bottom tiers, with each tier smaller, all the way up to the peak, 25 to 30 feet high. Several large shocks were made, and then a custom thresher would come, along with a few neighbors, to thresh the grain. After Dad passed away, we decided to join a threshing ring of neighbors and thresh directly from the shocks. Our ring had 10 farmers in it. Each furnished as many men and teams as they could. Lloyd was 14 and I was almost 16, so we went as one man with one team. The thresher had a large 42” machine powered by a big “oil pull” tractor—the biggest I had ever seen. This required 10 teams to haul bundles, 2 spike pitchers in the field, 3 grain haulers, and 2 extra pitchers at the machine. Two haulers would unload at one time—one on each side of the conveyor. The grain haulers sacked the grain, 1 1/2 bushel per sack, and these sacks were lifted up to a platform on the second story of the granary. A man above would pull them in and dump the grain through a hole in the floor, down to the bin below. So much for elevating grain until a few years later (1936) the custom thresher purchased a long slot conveyor powered by a gas engine, to elevate the grain. He rented it out for 1 cent per bushel. Custom threshing rates most years were 2 cents for oats, 3 cents for barley, 4 cents per bushel for wheat. Farmers would check each year to see which thresher offered the lowest rates. After harvest was completed, the neighbors in the run would meet to settle up. Each would turn in his record book of hours he had furnished teams or men. I was appointed to figure out all the bills. Each man received 35 cents per hour and each team was worth 25 cents per hour.
Threshing meals: The best part of the threshing run was the good meals at each farm. Fresh meat was always purchased and the farm wives were all good cooks. Breakfast was at 5:30 a.m. and lunch at 9 a.m. A noon dinner was served at 12 sharp, when everything shut down. After eating the men could rest up and smoke. The horses were watered and fed also. At 3 p.m. lunch was again served. Suppertime started when the farmer decided not to send any more teams out to load, usually between 9 and 10 p.m.
Telephone service: We always had a telephone as far back as I can remember. Dad purchased stock in Garden Valley Telephone Company, and McIntosh had one or two local operators and several party lines. Our line had 10 to 15 parties (families) on it. A party line had some features. If you wanted to make an announcement, you rang 6 short rings. When someone was calling a friend, you could hear by the vibrations who they were calling and you “rubber” by lifting the receiver partway. Everybody’s business was common knowledge. Having local operators was very helpful. Mother could call the operator to ask if she would have someone locate Dad so that he could pick up some item she had forgotten to put on her shopping list. Olga always knew who was in town, who died, who was sick, or who had a new baby.
Horsepower: My Dad had 3 large horses, 1700-1900 pounds each, to do the fieldwork or haul loads into town. He did buy a buggy horse that was a trotter, good to ride horseback on and pull the one horse sleigh in winter. In 1923 when I was 5 years old, Dad purchased a new Model T Ford Touring Car for $525 from the local Ford garage that was owned by Joe Espeseth. The car was good for summer transportation, but the horse and cutter were used on the winter roads. Country School: Country school was 2 ¼ miles by road, ¼ miles walking across fields, swamps and river bottom. We always walked it, every day, using skis in winter, many times getting soaked when the water was high. Our school was one room, 32’ x 16’ with 20 to 34 pupils while I went to school. My first teachers were paid $60 per month from which they paid room and board to some local neighbor. The teacher had all subjects for all eight grades, besides music and recess. She fired the stove, filled the water fountain, swept the floor, washed the windows, hauled in firewood, shoveled snow paths to the two outside toilets each 100 feet away. We always had very good teachers who were graduates of high school and one additional year of teacher’s training.
Automobiles and airplanes: Until we owned the 1923 Model T Ford, there were very few people who had autos in our community. From then on, more appeared and in 1928 when the first Model A Ford appeared, many bought them. I have a local parade picture of 1915, which shows 18 autos going down our main street—I don’t know where they were from! Airplanes were used in World War I, so after the war we had an occasional plane appear at a local fair or town celebration to give rides to look over the local country. Our big thrill came when Charles Lindbergh crossed the ocean to Paris, more so because he was a Minnesota boy.
Electricity: Our rural farms had no electricity until around 1940. Many farms had 32-volt battery systems charged by a gas engine driven generator. My first experience with electric lights and radio on a farm was at our close neighbor’s in the early 1920’s. My folks got their first radio about 1927 or 28, a battery operated one. As long as I was at home, until 1940, we had no electricity, so gas engines were used for power and the Aladdin lamps in the homes for light. In the barn, the kerosene lantern was our only light.