Pike Township Family Stories
HOWARD HUMMEL FAMILY
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, page 232
By Norma Jane Hummel KirchoffI was Norma Jane Hummel when I lived in Nichols. My father, Howard Hummel, passed away in April 1945. I came to Atlantic, Iowa and stayed with Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Fox. He was the station master at the Nichols train station and was transferred to Atlantic. They wanted me to stay with them, and I found employment there.
I married Paul B. Kirchoff in August 1948; he died in January 1973. My son, David Paul Kirchoff, is my only living child. My twin daughters are deceased.
David Kirchoff married Robin Lee. They live in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he is employed as an electronic draftsman at Union Pacific in Omaha, Nebraska.
My grandparents were Frank C. Hummel and Nettie Mapes Hummel and Irene Meisky and Lou Meisky. My Meisky grandparents left Nichols in the early 1920s for California. They are all deceased. My mother and stepfather, H. A. Forshay and Velora Meisky Hummel Forshay live in California [1984]. My brother, Ramon Hummel, lives in Crestline, California; he and his wife have three boys and two girls.
I graduated from Nichols Public school. My family (mother, father and brother, Ramon) lived on a farm one mile south of Nichols. I remember the stores and especially Rice’s Café, where I worked for a while.
I have many memories of growing up. I remember my Grandmother Hummel making soap while I tagged along after her. I watched her make bread and noodles and cottage cheese. I remember the butchering of a hog and helping cut up and render lard, the big dinners for threshers, picking tomatoes and digging potatoes. I also walked beans. I remember the lazy hot summer days, taking water and lemonade and lunch to the men in the field; walking the horse for they hay fork. They are good memories that children today have never experienced.
My grandfather, Frank Hummel, came to Iowa from Ohio with his brothers, John Hummel and Fred Hummel. My grandmother, Nettie Mapes, her brother and his wife Mary Mapes, came to Iowa from Florida; I think they came from Ireland. She was 16 years old at that time. She died in 1937. They had three girls and two boys: Lola Hummel, Faye Hummel, Marie Hummel, Howard Hummel and Lloyd Hummel.
Uncle Fred Hummel and his wife lived in Nichols. He was a cobbler and used to half sole my shoes. I thought he was great; he looked like Santa Claus with his white hair and chubby build.
I remember the deep snows of winter and riding a pony to school when your breath froze on your scarf. One year we used corn instead of coal to heat with, and we would sit around the kitchen stove eating popcorn and apples. I told ghost stories to scare my younger brother.
I work now [1984] as a dietary employee for Southwest Iowa Homes, Inc. at Heritage House in Atlantic, Iowa.
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