Name/Title
My Life StoryScope and Content
"My Life Story" by Lauren G. Vande Zande
This thirty four page narrative written for his family includes memories of his family, friends and aquaintences and life events both personal and historical.
MY LIFE STORY
BY
LAUREN G. VANE ZANDE
December 26, 1994
About a year ago my son Calvin suggested that I write a journal about different things and activities that have happened during my lifetime. He said that his wife's grandfather, who is a few years older than I, wrote such a journal, and it proved to be very interesting, especially to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
There have been many changes during my lifetime of 74 years, perhaps more changes than at any other time in history. I am referring to our methods of transportation I have lived through the era of horse and buggy and dirt roads to the hard surface roads and the beautiful and dependable automobiles that we have today. Also, during the past year my wife Jean and I visited our daughter Dorie and her family in Papua New Guinea on the other side of the world, making the trip in a few hours with a jetliner When I was growing up, one could not even imagine traveling over the oceans in such a manner.
Also, I very much appreciate the central heating in our homes today. When I was young and we would go to church or other places during the winter, the house would always be cold when we arrived back home Now the temperature is constant whether we're gone an hour or all day. These are just a couple of the dramatic changes that have occurred during my lifetime. There have also been many others.
I was born on August 18, 1920, the oldest child of Henry T. and Josie Ten Pas Vande Zande. Two other sons and a daughter were to follow in the next 12 years. My brothers are Glenn and Harvey, and my sister is Lois, now Mrs. Marvin Bos.
I was born on a farm located 2 miles south of Waupun on Highway 26, a farm known at that time as the J. C. Johnson Farm. This farm had been purchased by the Johnson family from the federal government in 1846, about 150 years ago. It is interesting to note that this farm on which I was born was to be our farm several years later. During the intervening years, Mr. Johnson died and the estate sold the farm to Robert Stelsel. In 1959 Mr. Stelsel had family problems, and he and his wife decided to sell the farm. We purchased the farm and moved there the following year, 40 years after I was born there. I have always felt that it was the Lord's will that someday I would own the farm on which I was born.
At the time of my birth my uncle Bert Vande Zande rented the farm on shares from Mr. Johnson, and my father was his hired man. My folks lived in the same house with my Uncle Bert and Aunt Tena. About that time my Uncle Bert bought a farm located about 4 miles northeast of Waupun on Center Road. My folks moved to that farm on October 1, 1920, when I was about 6 weeks old. That was to be our home for the next five years, and Glenn and Harvey were born there during that time.
At this time I would like to make mention of my grandparents. All four of them were born in Holland. My grandfather Tunis Vande Zande was born in 1853 and died in 1914. He came to the United States with his family in 1870. My grandchildren are now the sixth generation of Vande Zandes to live in this country. My Grandfather Vande Zande married Alydia Rens, who was born in 1857 and died in 1948. She came to the United States in 1868.
My grandfather Garret Ten Pas was born in 1873 and died in 1947. He came to this country as a young boy with his widowed mother and a brother and sister. He married Jane Koekoek, who was also born in 1873. She came to the United States with her family when about 2 years of age.
My Grandfather Ten Pas only formal education was grades one through three in Holland. It seems that his mother remarried shortly after coming to this country, and my grandfather's stepfather was not a kind man. He made him work hard full-time so that he never was able to go to school again. Somehow he self-taught himself to read the English language, and he was able to read newspapers and sing from the hymnals in church. Of the three grandparents that I knew, none spoke with a brogue.
My Grandpa and Grandma Ten Pas also lived on Center Road; but they lived nearer to Waupun, so we always went past their place on the way to town. When we first lived on Center Road, my folks didn't have a car, so we had to rely on horse and buggy for transportation. One of our horses was a bay mare named Daisy, and she drove single on the buggy. I remember one time when I was very young, my mother took Daisy and the buggy to town. On the way to Waupun she picked up my Aunt Hazel and left Glenn, who was a baby at that time, with Grandma Ten Pas. On the way to Waupun, about where the gun club now has their shooting range, Daisy got her tail over one of the reins. I can just picture this whole episode as if it happened yesterday. My mother wasn't a horse person, and the harder she pulled on, the rein, the tighter Daisy held her tail down. Then Daisy started backing up right in the middle of the road. After awhile the two ladies finally got the rein from underneath the tail, and we went on to Waupun. I imagine that after that my mother held the reins rather firm and tight so that Daisy would not get her tail over them again. Quite often even now when I travel along that stretch of road I am reminded of that horse-tail incident.
I have many happy memories of visits to my Grandpa and Grandma Ten Pas when they lived on the farm on Center Road. Quite often during the summer we would spend a day with them, sometimes staying overnight. My Aunts Rachel and Jeanette, who were six and seven years older than I, would always make the day special for us. Also, we always went there on Christmas Day, They had a Christmas tree, which we didn't have at that time, and that was always a treat for us. Also, during the time that the tree was up, we quite often went there for an evening so that we could see the candles lit, on the tree. While they had the candles lit, they always had a pail of water nearby with a dipper in it,because as soon as a candle burned down in the holder, the hot wax would set the tree on tire. It had to be quickly put out, or otherwise in a minute the whole tree would be on fire. After a couple of those flare-ups the candles were all put out. It was fun and rather exciting while it lasted.
Also, at Grandma Ten Pas' for afternoon lunch she always had either sharp American cheese, which she sliced off a round daisy, or dried beef. The dried beef was the strong, old-fashioned kind, and both the cheese and dried beef tasted good to hungry boys.
My Grandma Vande Zande and her daughter Aunt Christine lived in Waupun on State Street. My Grandpa Vande Zande had passed away many years before while they still lived on the farm in the Township of Trenton, just off Highway 68 about halfway between Waupun and Fox Lake, My grandma was always hard of hearing, so we youngsters communicated very little with her. My Aunt Christine was good to us and did nice, pleasant things when we visited there. On Sundays quite often my folks would go there after church for coffee while we kids were in Sunday School. After Sunday School was over, we would walk to their house, and Aunt Christine would always give us a cookie before we went home.
When I think about the time we lived on Uncle Bert's farm on Center Road, a few things come to my mind. First of all, a threshing machine powered by a steam engine came to thresh our grain. You can just imagine what a big deal that was to a boy less than 5 years old.
Another thing I remember is going to Alto, either to Uncle Will's or Uncle Garret Vande Zande's, for Thanksgiving dinner. At that time a used Model T Ford had replaced Daisy and the buggy. I remember that it was a cold, brisk day, and the side curtains were not airtight. My father drove the car, and Glenn sat on one side of my mother and I on the other side in the back seat. We were all wrapped up in a hairy robe, and the leather seat was covered with a blanket. Heaters in cars were unheard of in those days.
I also recall a time when I was probably about 3 or 4 years old when we were going east on the short road that connects Center Road and Cattaraugus Road. A group of gypsies was just breaking up camp. They had been there a few days and were moving on to a new area. They didn't have cars--just covered wagons drawn by horses. In my mind I can still see that old gypsy woman sitting on the seat in the front of the covered wagon, dressed in bright clothing and driving a team with several horses following that were tied to the back of the wagon. The gypsies would buy, sell, and trade horses and steal anything they could lay their hands on to make a living. I don't believe that gypsies traveled much longer than that with horses, and in the late twenties they all had cars.
Just a little about the farm on which my Grandpa and Grandma Ten Pas lived, They purchased that farm in about 1911 or 1912. Much of the land was not cleared, and the buildings were in very poor shape. The Leonard Frens family now lives on that farm. As soon as they were. financially able, my grandparents built a new house and barn. The house cost S1500 and the barn was built for $1400. The barn was later enlarged and both the house and barn are still being used today. In fact, the house is the square type which was popular at that time and is very attractive. The Frens family has taken very good care of it. By today's standards the cost of these buildings seems ridiculously low, but in those days money was very scarce. Before moving to this farm with her parents, my mother had attended one-room country schools. But this farm was located in the Waupun School District, and she and her sister and brother had to walk to Waupun to attend the South Ward School, a yellow brick building that stood where the Waupun Library now stands. That was a long walk. Also. she later walked to the hosiery factory, located near the railroad tracks, where she worked for several years.
When I was 5 years old, my Uncle Bert decided to move onto his own farm, and my parents rented a farm owned by the Gore family, which was located about 2 miles to the east. This farm was located on Brown Road and is now owned and occupied by the Harland Kemink family. Altogether we lived on that farm for 13 years, first for a period of four years. At that time my folks decided it would be better to move to a smaller farm, and they rented the Heideman farm located on County Road M. Also, they rented the farm for cash rent instead of a 50/50 rental deal. About that time the Great Depression set in, and the owners of the Heideman farm would not lower the cash rental fee, so my folks moved back to the Gore Farm, renting that again on a 50/50 basis. We lived there nine more years.
There were some things that I disliked about the Gore Farm. One was the walk to school. The school, located on Highway 26 and named Willow Creek School, was so named because Willow Creek was located just a short distance south of the school where it wound its way across the countryside on its course to flow into one of the branches of the Rock River. If one traveled over the road, the distance to school would he about 2 miles, but by going across the fields straight east the distance was cut nearly in half. Going across those fields meant walking through deep snow in the winter and mud in the spring and fall. The weather or the fields had to be in rather bad shape for my father to bring us to or get us from school.
The other thing that I didn't like about the Gore Farm was that the road ran along the south side of the farm and then directly through the middle. A lot of roadside meant a lot of grass, and we boys spent, hour after hour tending the cows as they grazed along those roads. I'm sure that those cows got as much grass from the roadside as they did from their pasture. I despised the job of "watching cows," and after growing up and having children of my own, I don't believe I could have ever come to the point of asking them to "watch cows," as we called it.
Willow Creek School was a one-room, yellow brick building with a space heater located in the northwest corner. While going through the eight years of grade school, I had three teachers, and I was very fortunate to have the best one through the third grade. She was a young teacher just out of Teachers' Normal School, and she gave me a good start in the learning process.
The teacher we had at Longview School during the two years we lived on the Heideman farm didn't do too well. For one thing, she had too many pupils and wasn't really that interested in giving us a good education. I finished school at Willow Creek after we moved back to the Gore Farm for the second time. During the time we were gone, this good teacher that we had gave up teaching to get married, and her replacement was not a good teacher. She did not make me do my assignments, and I spent most of time reading library books.
School was not difficult for me, and with the proper instruction I could have gained considerably more knowledge during those eight school years. There were two girls in my class in the seventh grade, and they studied long and hard every day. At the end of the seventh grade we had to go to Lamartine to take an achievement test, and I was the only one of the three seventh graders who passed the test and did not have to take that course over the next year.
Those years when we attended Willow Creek School were the Depression years of the 1930's. People were losing their homes and farms through foreclosure because there just wasn't any money to make interest payments. There was unemployment everywhere, and hired men would work on farms during the winter months for their room and board and five dollars a month. We children at school didn't really realize at the time how poor we and those around us were. To have a nickel or a dime to spend in town on a Saturday afternoon was a big deal.
I was 14 years of age when I finished grade school and I stayed home on the farm after that. Two years later my brother Glenn finished grade school, and he also stayed horme to help on the farm. The Great Depression was still on; but I could never understand why my father kept on renting farms on a 50/50 basis, because my folks had enough money saved to make a down payment on a farm of their own. Perhaps the reason that my folks were afraid to purchase a farm was that many farmers couldn't make their interest payments and lost their farms through foreclosure. Anyway, I felt that my folks wasted the labor of their sons on rented farms, when it would have been to the advantage of the whole family to have lived and worked on a farm that was our own.
Church activities were a big part of our life while growing up. During grade school we went to Sunday School and Saturday afternoon Bible Class during the school year. When we reached the age of about 15, we started going to Bible Class on Monday evenings. We attended First Reformed Church, and the Monday evening Bible Class was large. The whole group was taught by the minister. Our pastor at that time was the Rev. Edward Tanis. He was a good teacher and an excellent spiritual leader for young people. He made a lasting impression on my life, as did Mr. Henry Van Buren, who was my Sunday School teacher for a number of years.
During my teenage years I, along with other young people who lived on farms, went through a period of inferiority complex. The young people who lived in town all went to high school, whereas most of us stayed at home to work on the farms. Also, in those days by and large, we did not have electricity, running water, and bathrooms. It was a rather primitive way of life for farmers when compared to living in the city. This lower standard of living was due in large part to the fact that a high percentage of the farms were occupied by renters, and the people who owned these places were hesitant to spend money on a farm house which in a sense did not provide any income.
While growing up, and afterwards while serving in the Army. I always felt that I was at a disadvantage because I only had an eighth grade education, especially in the field of mathematics. Now as I look back over the years, I don't believe this has been that much of a disadvantage. Being an avid reader all my life. I guess I have been sort of "self taught." In the Army and later on in civilian life, I have taken different written examinations and was always able to compete with people who had had much more formal education than I.
When I reached the age of 11 or 12 years, we joined our local 4-H club. Attending the 4H club meetings was a big part of our social life. That also included taking our projects to the Fond du Lac County Fair each August. That was the highlight of the summer for us. I was always in the dairy calf project, and Glenn usually showed pigs, both in the breeding and market classes. Later on, when he became old enough, Harvey also showed dairy calves. All three of us usually placed rather well when showing our livestock.
At first when we joined the 4-H club, we had a local club in our school district. After a few years our adult leader decided to quit, and then we were part of a much larger club in the Ladoga area. Most of our meetings were then held in the Ladoga Grange Hall. The Grange people were very kind and generous to let us use their facilities Also, each year the Grange sponsored a 4th of July picnic, which was always a lot of fun.
When I was about the age of 17 we left the 4-H. We would have probably been members for another year or two, but Fond du Lac County decided to have the fair extended through a Sunday, and my folks were very much opposed to that.
During the winter of 1935-36 the weather was very severe. We had lots of snow and cold weather. During the entire month of February the temperature was below zero every morning. Also, at that time the Township of Waupun didn't have any snow removal equipment, and they had to depend on the Fond du Lac County crews to plow the snow off their roads. The county was so busy taking care of the main highways that our roads were snow blocked for nine weeks. During that time my mother never left the farm. We would go into Waupun once a week with the horses and sleigh to take our cream to the creamery and get our supply of groceries and coal to heat the house.
Our neighbor, Lyle Brown, would ride along with us to get their groceries and the other things they needed. He only had two blind horses, and they weren't able to follow those tracks through the roads and fields. While in town Lyle would take us to the Farrner's Tavern for a noon snack. That consisted of a delicious hot beef sandwich and a glass of beer. The beer and sandwich cost of total of 25 cents. After nine weeks our roads were finally plowed out, and we were again able to go to Waupun and to church with our car.
In the year 1939, when I was 19 years old, I worked part time for a farmer named Ted Helgeson. I worked only when he needed me, like during planting, haying, threshing grain, etc. My pay was $1.75 per day along with dinner and supper. I did not help him with the milking or other chores. The Helgesons were in their 50's and did not have any children. Ted was a good man to work for. He always asked you to do something--he never told you Ted was a very level-headed man, and I learned a great deal while
working for him, He lived to be an old man, reaching the middle 90's, and his wife lived to be well over 100 before she passed away in the Christian Home in Waupun where she resided for several years. The last couple of years she was totally blind and stone deaf.
Finally, in 1940 at the strong insistence of Glenn and me, my folks bought a farm which was located on Highway 151 northeast of Waupun. The farm contained 164 acres of fairly good land, and a branch of the Rock River ran through the pasture. The buildings
on the farm left much to be desired, and Highway 151 crossed the farm between the house and the barn. It was a rather unsafe place to live, even though there were fewer cars and trucks in those days, and they drove considerably slower than they do now. Shortly before we moved to that farm, Glenn began working at the Teeple Shoe Factory in Waupun. He worked there until the spring of 1942, when I took a job at the Waupun Canning, Factory.
At the canning factory I worked with the farm crew. In the early spring we began by hauling fertilizer in paper bags out to the farmers. They would use it at a later date when they sowed peas and planted the sweet corn. We hauled most of this fertilizer directly outof the railroad box cars. When the planting season began, we would haul out the seed peas each morning after they were inoculated. They were supposed to be sowed the same day as they were inoculated. After the peas were sowed, we began working on the pea viners that were scattered across the country, getting them in shape for the coming pea pack. During the pea pack I operated a pea mower that was mounted on an Allis-Chalmers tractor, The mower was mounted on the back of the tractor, and the transmission was changed so that the tractor always traveled backwards. This was a pretty good outfit for mowing peas, much better than the horse-drawn mowers that were used up to this time.
While at the canning factory, I worked under a long-time employee, George Elhert. George was a good man to work for, I would say the best boss that I ever had. We became good friends, and we exchanged letters for several years while I was in the Army.
After the pea pack was over we dismantled the viners, and that was about the end of my job with the canning company A couple of years later the company was sold to Central Canneries, which later became part of the Green Giant Corporation. After a couple of years they no longer used the canning plant, and it was never again used for processing peas and sweet corn.
In the early part of 1942 Glenn and I were in the age group that had to register at the Waupun City Hall for the military draft of World War IX. The linked States had been involved in combat since the previous December 7, 1941, known as Pearl Harbor Day.
After registering for the draft, we were given a number by some form of lottery. From then on the fellows were called according to the number which had been drawn, beginning with the lowest number. My number came up in October 1942, and I was told to report to a doctor in Ripon, Wisconsin, for an examination. This examination lasted less than a minute, I am sure. One would have to have had a severe mental or physical disability in order to fail that exam.
About two weeks later I had to go to Milwaukee for an Army examination. I was classified 1-A and was scheduled to leave for the service in two weeks.
Although I was 22 years of age at this time, I had never ridden in a bus or traveled on a train. We always traveled by car and never more than a day away from home. In fact, I had never been out of the State of Wisconsin. It didn't take the army long to change all of that.
On November 5, 1942, I, along with many other young men, was ordered to be at the Fond du Lac train depot at about 6 o'clock in the morning to report for active military duty. I still remember breakfast that morning. Ma served some delicious chicken along with the corn flakes and coffee.
After the whole family got in the car and we turned on the highway to go to Fond du Lac. I broke down and cried. I was leaving the security of home, family, and the Waupun area for a very uncertain future.
Although it was still dark and early in the morning, the whole area around the Fond du Lac train station was crowded with people. There were over 200 of us that were to report for Army duty that day, the largest group to be inducted up to that time. Among our group was Norman Dean, a neighbor with whom I had gone to school. Also there were Marvin Schouten and Alfred Van Loo and many more from Waupun and the Alto area.
It didn't take them long to get us all on the train, and we were on our way to Fort Sheriden, Illinois. All of the Army recruits from this part of Wisconsin were processed through Fort Sheriden during most of World War II.
By early afternoon we had arrived at our destination, and from there on things happened fast. Before dark we had been issued our Army clothes and had our civilian clothes packed in a box provided for us to be sent home. After supper that night (they called it "chow") they had us take our Army IQ examinations. Although I wasn't in the mood to do any writing and thinking, I did rather well on the exam.
I well remember the first night in the Army. I was assigned a top bunk There were two space heaters in our barracks, and one was next to my bed. The first part of the night it was hot in bed, and then when the fire in the heater went out, it became very cold.
It took quite awhile for me to get to sleep that first night, but before long they were blowing whistles and shouting for us to get up for reverie or early morning roll call. That was something I had to get up for every morning, except Sundays and holidays, for the next two and a half years.
The first full day in camp we received some shots and vaccines and had a quick dental exam. Also that day our orders came through, and I was assiened to go to Camp Wallace, Texas. There were about 40 of us in that group and the next day with a sergeant in charge we were put in a Pullman car and on our way to Texas. Our trip to Texas was rather enjoyable. We ate in the dining car and the porter made up our beds. Also, the scenery was great.
After a couple of days we arrived at Camp Wallace, Texas, which was located on the Gulf between the cities of Galveston and Houston. We were soon introduced to the Army's style of doing things. They lined us up outside our Pullman car and had roll call. Most of us didn't know the difference between a corporal and a colonel at that time, much less that we were to address officers as "Sir." When they called our names and we answered with "Here," the drill sergeants and corporals holldred at us for not answering with a "Here, Sir." For the next couple of days I was addressing everyone as "Sir." It didn't take long, though, to catch on to how it is done--one learns fast in the military.
Camp Wallace was an anti-aircraft artillery camp. I was thankful that I was not sent to the infantry, but our next few weeks of basic training were about the same as infantry basic training. We were issued rifles and spent our time learning to march, close order drill, as it was called. Also, we fired our rifles at the camp firing range, had bayonet drills, went on long hikes with our full field packs on our backs, and had calisthenics each afternoon. I was fortunate at this time to be with a rather good group of men. This was called a school battalion, and we were all supposed to go to some Army school somewhere after our ten weeks of basic training. The food was good, and I gained a couple of pounds while going through this training. It was a young man's Army, though, and the old men that were over 35 years of age had a difficult time. Instead of building up as the younger men did, they developed foot problems and just weren't able to make it. In the early part of 1943 the Army issued an order that all men over 38 years of age could receive a discharge if they so desired, and nearly all of them took advantage of that.
Shortly after the holidays my folks, Lois, and Aunt Christine came down to pay me a visit, and I suppose to see how their boy was getting along. During that time I was lucky to get a three-day pass, and we spent a couple of days in Galveston. Traveling in the South was also an experience for my folks. They didn't know about the Jim Crow laws, which made Black people take the back seats on a bus and sit in designated areas on the trains.
A few days after my folks left, orders came through for a group of us to go to Camp Davis. North Carolina, to go to an electronics school for the next three months, after which we would he assigned to some permanent unit. Also at that time I was promoted to the rank of corporal.
The electronics school turned out to be a radar school, a system used to spot and track airplanes through the sky and to be able to tell the anti-aircraft gun crews where the enemy planes were flying. We spent part of our time in the classroom and the rest of the time on the equipment located on the Atlantic Ocean shore, which was about 5 miles from the camp. Half of the time there we trained during the day, and the rest of the time we left camp shortly after noon and stayed there until 10 o'clock at night. After dark it got rather cold after sundown during January and February.
After finishing school in early April, orders came through assigning me to Fort Bliss, Texas, which was located near El Paso. I was given travel pay and was allowed about 11 days to go to Fort Bliss on my own, which would give me a few days at home. I later asked for and received a seven-day extension, so that gave me quite a few days at home. During the next two and a half years, I came back to Camp Davis two more times, and altogether I was there about two years.
After I reported to Fort Bliss I was assigned to Battery D of the 111th Anti-Aircraft Battalion. This unit had 90 millimeter aircraft guns. The shells used in these guns were about three inches in diameter I was part of the radar unit and was with these same fellows for the next two years.
Fort Bliss was divided into two sections. The upper section was all anti-aircrafi guns, and the lower section was still all cavalry. They had thousands ... [truncated due to length]Acquisition
Accession
2016.0106Source or Donor
Waupun Historical SocietyAcquisition Method
Found in Collection
