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Shifting Sand

    Today we see trucks, draglines, and endloaders do the work that at one time was a back-breaking and time consuming job. We need to go back about 50 or 60 years to get a look at this physical fittness. This story pertains to the basic part of construction work, no matter how small or how large the project was that was undertaken. As we were eating our noon meal at the Lowden City Hall one day, while dismanteling the depot, the discussion naturally led to the top of construction. Feature a team of horses and a high wooden wheel wagon with a box 10 feet long, . . .

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. . . 3 feet wide and one foot deep. This box would have the capacity of a little over a cubic yard, maybe if heaped, 1 ˝ yards. Drive 5 miles to the river, load a half load of sand with a shovel, haul it out to solid ground, unload it with a shovel, drive back to the river, and load up another half load. Then drive out, reload the sand that has previously been loaded, hauled out and unloaded. Now drive 5 miles back to your destination and again unload it. Usually several wagons and men worked together. It was not uncommon to get stuck and have to hitch several teams of horses in tandem to move a wagon out of the soft sand.

     Extra supplies that were taken along were several heavy ropes, perhaps a pair of harness tugs, hame straps, and maybe a singletree or doubletree.

     Wm Kahl told of how, when he was a teenage boy, his Dad, Joe Kahl, and Water Meyer, another teenager, and himself hauled sand from the Wapsipinicon River, east of Wheatland. They hauled it to Wheatland and there they unloaded it into railroad boxcars. This sand was then shipped to Clarence and sold to local contractors. One time, as one of their wagons was driven into the river so that the horses could drink water and cool off, the wagon gave way to the shifting sand and the wagon box floated out of the bolsters and drifted on down the river. The horses swam to an island with the wagon gear, and the driver had to scamper to his own safety. O yes, these days had excitement too.

     Edwin Wenndt told of how he and his brother, Martin hauled sand from north of the Massillon bridge. As they drove their wagons into the water, a man across the river accused them of ruining his fishing for the day.

     A royalty of ten cents a load was paid by the sand hauler to the person who owned the land that was crossed when going to the sandbed. I recall when I was a small boy, how I rode with my Dad, as he hauled sand in a similar manner. I am sure that every older person has a similar story to tell. To me it was quite interesting, listening to the stories told my the older folks.

Gathering Wood

    Similar stories could be told of cutting trees for firewood, splitting posts, and hauling this home. Every household owned five to ten acres of timber for this purpose. This timberland was carefully harvested; dead trees, all limbwood, and brush was removed. I sometimes think we could learn a lesson on resourcefulness from these past generations.

              Norman Kroemer

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I REMEMBER WHEN -

. . . . first class passenger trains no longer stopped at a small town with or for passengers, but the train did stop for first class express. Our burro, Spunky, had arrived from the “Spiegel's catalog.” Father and grandpa hurriedly took the back seat out of the 1946 Ford and picked up the fellow and brought him home. A very excited depot agent was much relieved to send it on its way.

              Mrs Leroy (Ester Strackbein) Boettger