Dad and Mother were married June 23, 1927. Farmed a rented farm near Uncle Wilber and Aunt Dorthy James, near Blue Ridge, a grain elevator on Wabash Railroad, north of Mansfield, IL.
Mother once told me that when I was born that a bolt of lightning hit into the hayloft. Bob and I were born on this same farm.
About 1932, Dad and Mother wanted to buy a farm of their own. They bought a farm, 207 acres, from the Federal Land Bank, St. Louis, MO. This farm was located 7 miles southwest of Farmer City, IL., 2 miles from Dewitt, IL. To the best of my knowledge it was repossessed from Jerry Lamb.
Dad bought a brooder house and cut two trees to put under it and used 2 horses he had bought at a farm sale and borrowed 2 horses from Verne Zieders, Dad's close friend and neighbor to move it to the DeWitt farm. Mother packed food for Dad to as he went. One winter morning after it had frozen the ground for several days, he started before sunup, now I'm not certain when he arrived at the DeWitt farm or when he got back.
In the winter of 1933 Bob and I got scarlet fever in December. When Doctor Hull came to see us he said "no self respecting germ would live in a house such as this." At this time Dad, Mother, Bob and I lived in one room because we had only one stove and the house was in such poor condition. For Christmas 1933 we received a motorcycle policeman and a slate. When we recovered from being sick I had to learn to walk all over again.
Dad got into the Milking Shorthorn cattle business in 1936-37. He felt that because by careful breeding could produce a lot of milk and the steers would go to market without a lot of feeding. In 1938 Dad built a dairy barn, designed by Jamesway Manufacturing Co., Jamesville, Wisconsin. It held 20 cows in stanchions. Before moving the cattle in he decided to hold a barn dance and invited the whole community to come. At first we milked the cows by hand, before long we bought milking machines.
It was during 1936 or 1937 we built a Michigan Wax Silo 10x30, then in 1939 built a Mason and Lawrence rib stone silo, in 1942 added 10 more feet. This was to be the first of many that would be built on the many farms that Dad and Mother would own. By my count a total of 7 were built in both Illinois and Minnesota. Some time during 1938 Dad learned that cattlemen in southwest Minnesota were in a drought situation and were running out of feed. Dad went Whalen, MN to buy cattle from Lars Odin Benson, when He unloaded them into the barn, Robert Leroy Meredith, my grandfather, said, "Son, those cows will have to stand up twice to see their shadows."
When Dad first went to Minnesota, he asked for a Lars O. Benson, when asked for directions he was told that were so many Lars Benson's he had to know the middle name. The first man said he lived over on "tuther" ridge, to take "walley" road, and take the fork to the right, along that road lived 8 or 10 Lars Bensons. A few years later, Dad tried to help him save his farm, so Dad and Bob went up to build a chicken house for him, it took almost 2 weeks.
In July 1941, Dad bought a new 4 door Chevrolet for $995.00 plus $150.00 for an under seat heater. In August that year Dad, Mother, Bob, Mariam and I went to buy cattle in Canada. A Mr. D.Z. Gibson was showing us around to see the various herds of cattle when he said, "now we dunnit" then he introduced us to Mr. George Dunnitt. When we got these cattle home we found they were more beef than milk cows.
We were amazed at tree stump and stone fences also that the farmers grew tobacco. We saw many jack rabbits. Dad and Mother had never had a honeymoon, so Mother said "We are going to Niagara Falls."
Back then there were no Holiday Inns or other chain motels. Just Mom and Pop cabins or hotels. When we stayed at the hotel in New Caledonia, Dad left word that there would be 5 people for breakfast. The front desk told the dining room people, the people for breakfast were cattle buyers. You should have seen their faces when Dad told them that we were the cattle buyers.
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