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REMINISCING

     Leo ‘Trix’ Twachtmann, associated with Freund’s Dept. Store for 39 years, recalls counting and sorting eggs which came to the store packed in buckets, boxes, 30 dozen egg crates, or packed in cream cans surrounded by oats. Finding cracked or broken eggs in the oats was a messy job, but Mrs. Roach at the eating house was glad to get any that were usable. Sacking sugar in five pound paper bags and tying them weighing and sacking coffee and then grinding it fine, medium, or coarse to suit the customer were part of Trix’s job which netted him 50 cents a week during the school year and $5.00 a month full time in the 1910’s. Overalls could be bought for 79 cents a pair and chambray work shirts for 35 or 40 cents. Kerosene and vinegar came in barrels and were pumped into customers’ containers. Trix also served with the volunteer fire company. One time he was on a roof of a house when a fellow fireman on the opposite side of the roof unwittingly soaked him with the hose. The wool sweater he was wearing shrank down to about half size.

     Leroy Hansen, during his years as buttermaker at the Lowden Creamery, remembers several crises. In 1933 it was feared the cream checks could not be paid on time due to the economic situation and nationwide bank problems. A firm in New …

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… York to whom the butter was shipped came through with the actual cash and payment was made to the farmers in this manner rather than by check. In 1942 impending gas rationing caused twice a week deliveries instead of the usual three. In May 1943 butter rationing went into effect.

     Esther Conrad recalls that when coal came in boxcars to Conrad & Conrad Lumber Co., it ws necessary to scoop the coal up over the sides of the cars. Some patrons objected to having the coal delivery truck driven on the lawn, so coal would be scooped into baskets, carried across the lawn and hand emptied into the coal chute into the basement. A few even had to be pampered by having their coal dropped one chunk at a time by hand so as not to raise any dust in the house.

     Louis Stolte tells that when Leroy Hansen was the new buttermaker, ‘Roy” used to drop over next door at the feed store for visiting. One morning as Roy entered the place he heard a rather heated, verbal battle raging on the other side of a partition, with Louie doing most of the talking and barely giving the other man a chance to get a word in edgewise. Roy thought he should come to the aid of the seemingly defenseless man before they came to blows, but it was sort of an embarrassing situation and he hated to get involved. However, his curiosity got the best of him. He set a convenient ladder against the partition, climbed up, peeked over, and to his chagrin there was Louie, all alone, staging this whole thing as a joke on Roy. Louie ruefully recalls when the fire bell interrupted his trip to church. Being curious, he hustled to the fire scene and was ordered to pitch in and man the fire house. His new Sunday suit was complete disaster by the time the fire was out and Louie was ‘putout,’ too.

     Doc and Molly Montz were called to a home to deliver a baby. The husband and children were asleep upstairs. Doc and Molly put everything in order and waited. Since it would be quite a while Molly told Doc to lay on the couch and get some rest. Molly had to call the husband when time for the birth came, and she later prepared breakfast of the other children. Only when she told the husband she would be leaving did he get other help. The next time they were called to deliver a baby at this home, the couch was gone. The older boy told them his dad no intention to pay a doctor to come to his house and sleep!

     Lester Malottki, about eight or nine years old, had spent the entire day down town at the 4th of July celebration, was tired, so decided to go home and go to bed. Finding his own home dark, he went to the first home that had light, that of Dick Mensings (Paul Mensing’s parents). Being good neighbors, they took the young boy home and saw him safely to bed. Not until nearly four hours later, filled with anxiety over a missing son, did the lad’s parents find out where he was. The Mensings, investigating the large crowd and all the cars at the Malottki home, found out that the little boy they had tucked into bed had neglected to inform his parents of his intentions.

     The Ruprecht brothers, Harold, George, Edwin, Henry Jr. and Carl, all took their turns at hauling coal, unloading or delivering lumber, and unloading cement, tile, brick, coal, posts, sewer pipes, shingles, from whatever railroad car waiting on the tracks to be empties. All was manual labor, and until 1922 deliveries were made by horse and wagon. Harold also served illegally on the volunteer fire department for three years. Since he ws present at most fires, he was invited to become a member. When he was congratulated at firemen’s meeting upon reaching his 21st birthday, he was angrily berated by the fire chief before the entire group for not being aware of the age requirement, a most embarrassing incident. He was responsible for the ladder cart and once pulled the heavy cart by himself to the scene of a fire, only to find that the ladder wasn’t needed at all.

     Dick Sennett recalls the press they used for 45 years to print The Lowden News had only one welded spot in it. This was caused by two would-be printers, Hugo Rowold and Hugo Deninger. It seems the two Hugos were trying to be good Samaritans since S. E. Sennett was ill with the flu and had a sale bill to get ready. After getting the bill set up and in the form, the two put it on the press, not knowing that …

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… the type had to fastened very tightly. When they started the press, type went flying everywhere and part of the press was broken. Neither of the Hugos went on to be printers!

     Cyrus Kemmann tells about a Christmas Eve fire call while he was preparing to leave for church. He dashed to the fire station, climbed into the truck and headed full speed for Massillon. The wintry blasts were almost unbearable for one in his good clothes and no windshield for protection, and when the firemen got to the scene, they learned the fire had been in an outhouse and already had been extinguished. Meanwhile, an elder from the Lutheran Church ran to the parsonage to inquire where the fire was, and in his haste fell flat on his face in a snow covered flower bed.

     Hank Twachtmann says that from the time he started barbering until 1956 his shop was referred to as one of three ‘butcher’ shops in a row – his barber shop, the doctor’s office, and the meat market set side by side. Hank also remembers being in the shop at 7 A.M. and with no specific closing hour. Shaves then were 15 cents and haircuts, 35 cents.

     Hazel Raiber’s history of Massillon states that it was settled in 1837 by Joseph Denson, a native of Kentucky, and was known as Denson’s Ferry. Mr. Denson operated a ferry across the Wapsipinicon River for the early settlers. It was the Denson’s daughter who was the first person buried in the Massillon Cemetery in 1840. Another burial is William Schick, who was a Pearl Harbor casualty on December 7, 1941. Later a hospital in Clinton was named in honor of him. A letter written by a pioneer indicated that in 1854 there were no railroads in the state. The Davenport and Northwest Railroad through Massillon was completed in 1871. It ran from Davenport to Monticello. The rail station closed in September 1940 and tracks were removed early in 1941. In 1868 a wooden bridge across the Wapsi River was built at a cost of $4000. Half the cost was paid by the county and half by citizen subscription and was a toll bridge until paid for. Thomas Shearer, an early settler of Lowden, was a county supervisor and largely responsible for making this bridge possible. The second bridge was built in 1882 with stone for piers brought on railroad cars from Stone City. Lumber for it came from D. H. Henry’s lumber yard in Lowden. The southern part of the bridge was built in 1899. This was an iron bridge and served until 1969. School was held until 1953 when the district was consolidated with Lowden. Lyle Raiber’s store closed in late 1971. This two-story building was constructed by P. H. Schneider in 1913-14. In early years the upstairs was used for dances and parties, plays, programs, corn and poultry shows. Other businesses have been stockyards, warehouse, elevator, steam mill, blacksmith, brick factory, lime kiln, stone quarry, three doctors, dreyman, sorghum mill, opera house, hotel, store, manufactures of brooms and ladies’ hair switches, a tailor and a barber shop operated by Jim Milota. There was a rack track for training horses on the place now occupied by Darrell Bunge, which horses then were sold in Eastern states. The post office was established in 1854 and discontinued on December 31, 1958. The area is served by Lowden rural route. A church stands in a corner of the cemetery. It was moved there in 1894 from the Diamond Cemetery in Jones County. Moving was done by setting a post and fastening a capstan, which is a form of block and tackle, around it, then pulling the church to the post with horses. Then the post would be set a couple rods further down the road and the process repeated. The structure was moved up and down hills and across streams by this method every foot of the way. Formerly of Methodist denomination, the group disbanded when membership dwindled. The church has been purchased with funds from a bequest of a life long resident, E. N. McGill, and efforts made to restore it. Earl Robinson, born and raised in Massillon, and his wife Mildred, wrote the song “The Church Upon A Hill” especially for the community and dedicated it in 1966 on the 97th anniversary of the church’s founding. Massillon residents are proud of their park which really hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years or more and which has been a favorite picnic spot for people from miles around.

     Arthur Fisher’s research on barns reveals that the first barns were of the …

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… basement type. One of these was built in 1896 where Norman Burmeister now lives. Part of the barn on the LeRoy Boettger farm was built in the early 1880’s. And do you remember when barns provided pastime for children? They could play ‘tag’ and ‘hide and seek’ and basketball, or let down the hay rope and use it for a swing. Many years ago two lads decided to climb into the haymow (which is like a second story) and tease the farmer’s bull. The bull could not be trusted that it would not charge or attack people, so it was confined to a pen below the haymow. One of the lads tied a string to his hat, lowered it through the haymow floor and let it dangle a few feet in front of the animal. The bull charged the hat, and went right on through the pen partition!

     Elgeva Stolte recalls her grade school days in country school northeast of Lowden, a building that has been her home over 30 years. One teacher taught eight grades and was janitor, music teacher, art teacher, physical education instructor, program director, everything. Drinking water was hauled by the students from a farm across the road. Central heating was a stove which stood near the center of the room and on cold days the students would line their seats around either side, thus keeping at least one side of their bodies warm. Slacks were unheard of then, but the girls wore bib overalls for extra warmth. Salaries for teachers were $85 a month in 1930, dropping to $45 a month in 1933. Elgeva also recalls county tests which 8th graders were required to take and pass if they wanted to go on to high school; children attending town school did not have to take these tests.

     Earl Kross remembers that during the late years of World War II, many trains that were carrying troops stopped in Lowden for coal and water, also hospital trains went through enroute to Schick Hospital in Clinton.

COUNTY PARKS

     The Cedar County Conservation Board maintains seven areas in the county, two of which are in the Lowden vicinity. One is the 20 acre park in the unincorporated village of Massillon, about five miles north of Lowden along county road Y-24 and adjacent to the Wapsipinicon River. Available there are a closed and heated shelter, an open pavilion, restored log cabin, picnic tables, boat ramp, camping, fishing and nature trails.

     About five miles south of Lowden along county road Y-14 is a 118 acre wooded area to be preserved in its native state as a wildlife habitat.

Taken from Lowden Historical Society files.