French Island was formed by the overflow of the Kankakee River near DeMotte , Indiana and that is where My first home was.

        The house is still standing and fields of gladiolas, etc. and asparagus are growing there.  I go back occasionally, to see my old home at French Island.

      My last visit was with Charley, Elbert and Fred. The owner gave me a rock that the Indians used to grind their corn. I found another rock under the big tree  in the yard, where my mother used to rock her babes and do her laundry by hand in the shade of the tree.

   My father was Milton Frazier Antrim and my mother was Mary Charlotte O’Connor.  Her father was James O’Connor from Dublin, Ireland.  He married Elizabeth Wheeler.  Who was a sister of Aunt Catherine .  Adda’s  mother and a sister to Charlotte.   Mary Reeve’s mother and to Nathan Wheeler .  Each of them had a farm east of Medaryville, Indiana.  Nathan’s children were Nettie  and Della.  James and Elizabeth had Margaret ( Aunt Mag ), Mary Charlotte ( my Mother)  and Charlie, a couple years older than Charlotte. And Ellen  (Nellie).

    The four children were orphaned at an early age.  My mother was very young and was here. Not having any real home. Aunt Mag fared best as she lived with Aunt Catherine.  Adda and Margaret were the same age.  Charlie and Mother were here and there and were mostly with Nathan.  It wasn’t a very pleasant life for either of the children.

    Mother’s parent owned the farm east of Medaryville.  Where later Ralph Manning lived .  When the parents  died.  I feel Nathan took over the farm for Keeping Mother and her brother.

    Nathan’s first wife. Aunt Lize.  Was good to the orphans,   But she died and Nat married Angeline and she was no angel and whipped them more than she should.  Mother said one day . Angeline was going to whip her and Charlie, only sixteen years old said “Don’t you dare touch her” and she didn’t.  Soon after that Charlie could stand no more of Angeline and he ran away.  Mother didn’t hear from for years. and when Mom was married. Charlie sent her $100.00 to come Iowa to live.  My folks stayed in Indiana, so I never heard any more from him.

    Ellen was in foster homes and the last Mother  heard from her she lived in Michigan and she sent pictures of her three children Grant, Opal, and Reece.

   Mother had a grandmother whose name was Tabitha her second husband was Daniel McBride and the grandparents were real good to Mother.  When Mother would go to visit Tabitha and Daniel with her brother, Tabitha would say to them “well children have you had your whipping yet?” She was referring to Angeline, Nathan’s wife. Nathan’s daughters, Nettie and Della lived in Michigan.

   My grandfather Antrim was Dr. Thomas Antrim and he practiced medicine in Rensselaer Indiana.  He died before my time but I really knew my grandmother Lucinda (Massey ) Antrim. She spent Spring, Summer and Fall at our house her winters were spent in Rensselaer, Indiana. With Aunt Rachel Dad’s sister.  We were always glad to see Grandmother come as she could tell us interesting stories of the Indians and her former home.

     My Father was Milton Frazier Antrim,  He had three brothers Mahlon Francis (Light-foot Lee) ,Jimmy And George. His sisters were Rachel, Becky Jane, and Caroline, Dad called her Carline.

Mahlon was seventeen when he joined the Union Army and he spent four years in the Civil War.

    My Dad married Martha Record, Ham Record’s sister who lived on a farm west of Medaryville.   Dad and Martha had one child, Eunice, my haft-sister.  Martha died when Eunice was very young.  She and Dad lived in Rensselaer with Grand-father and Grand-mother Antrim.

   Frazier got acquainted with my orphaned mother and he would go a courting on horseback twenty-six miles to Medaryville to see Mom.  He would have his baby on the horse in front of him.  Frazier and Charlotte got married so both orphans had a good home with my Father.

   They lived around Medaryville, Hebron and Valparaiso, Indiana.  Their children were William, Fraco, Charles, Elbert, Frank, Owen, Edna, Margaret Thelma, and Fred.  Dad when talking to Rae, my two year old sister she called me T.   I have gone by that name up to now and my grand and great-grandchildren call me Teantie.

   At times when the Kankakee River was high  Mother had to go shopping in DeMotte by boat and the older children also used a boat to go to school.  My dad and older brothers worked in the hayfields in that area stacking and baling hay.  Other young men worked along with them and when it was too far to ride the horses at night, they stayed in a cabin provided by the land owner. Mr Marble. He would hire a cook for the men and then on weekends the men would go home. During the haying season .

    When I was two years old I tried to follow Ma to the vegetable garden and I got lost in the high grass and the hot sun and I took a nap. I can remember how hot  it was. Charlie and Elbert took me over to my former home and showed me where the garden was and how all the family where trying to find me.

    WE moved to Ingram Ranch from French Island.  It was four miles from Wheatfield, Indiana. This was Fred’s first home. I remember cowboys riding over to our house and rounding up cattle. At times three or four cowboys were herding the cattle , one of them had a peg-leg and I can still hear him thumping up our board walk for a snack.  Mother said my dad would stand out in the road and hail tramps and peddlers, etc. to come in for a meal.

   Our house was on a sand hill and we had fun making foot houses in the sand.  Another pleasure was when Aunt Mag came from Chicago to visit, and she would go on hikes in the woods across the road and we would pick bouquets of wild honeysuckle and ferns.   Our neighbors the Thomsons had twin boys Rae’s age. She like to play with them but was always coming in and asking Ma to clean their noses.  Their names were Harley and Carley and the Thompson's had an older son and my big brother called them Harley and Charley and “Blib Blib” , Blib Blib drowned in the Kankakee river.  We also had other neighbors the Ginders and both familys remained our friends all their lives. Mr. Ginder played his violin at our neighborhood parties and dances.

   Grand Mother Lucinda (Massey) Antrim spent the warm months with us. Dad’s brothers Jimmy and George were school teachers and they looked down on Dad’s occupation, farming and they let him know it.  Dad told them “never mind, I’ll be taking care of both of you before it’s over. As both Jim and George lost their jobs do to alcoholism.  Uncle Jimmy, E.M. Antrim’s father got consumption and he came to our house.  Dad took him in with our big family and Grandmother.

   Mother took care of him and he died at our house.  I remember Grandmother being there and her crying and the black coffin.  Uncle Jimmy had the downstairs bedroom  with an open stairs where the young folks slept.  We had the older children and three little ones and in-between we had three teenagers who were around sixteen years old.  The three teenagers got the disease. The were Frank, Owen, and Edna and all three were born in October, They were two years between them.  In 1908 Owen died, the same year Frank died after being in a sanitorium in Michigan.

   We moved from Wheatfield to a farm near Hebron, Indiana. Edna was very sick when we moved and she died whining a few months of her two brothers.  All three were driven by horses to be buried in the Medaryville Cemetery.  Mother was very brave and she never let the rest of the family see her cry. She would cry in her sleep and wake us all up.  We all tried  to take the place of the ones who left us.

   Dad and Mother both worked hard to pay the doctor and funeral bills.  One trip to Wheatfield he paid for the funerals $800.00 and that was a fortune in that day.  In return for prompt payment he received a willow rocking  chair and a hand painted plate.   Uncle George was also an alcoholic and would come and stay with us, off and on , He was always welcome except when he’d bring his bottle with him.  Elbert hated drunks and he confiscated Uncle George’s bottle of whiskey and Mother made camphor out of it by adding camphor gum to it.

   Uncle George’s first wife Viola died and left Blanche and Ross Antrim , they stayed with our family and my sister , Grace and Blanche were the same age.  They would put a ladder up in the big tree in our front land and take their books up in the tree to read so as to get away from the little kids and their brothers. The brothers would take the ladder down to tease the two girls thinking they would beg them to bring it back  but the girls would read till finished and would climb down to the ground without any help.

   Uncle George second wife Marie (Burns) Antrim died and left two little boys , Rae’s and my ages. They were Clyde and Thomas. Guess who took them Dad and Mother.

   Eunice married Fred Long who ran a grocery store. They had one child, Hugh Long, and when he was still tiny Eunice died he stayed with us after his dad married Myrtle.  She wasn’t a very good mother to Hugh, so he stayed with Mother, who understood how orphans felt.

   We all had to pitch in with the many chores, My job was to go down to the meadow and bring the cows ”Cherry” and “Mae” home.  Sometimes they would be back in the woods or in the tall grass.  My bare feet  and legs would be bleeding when I got back home.  It was fun as the meadow was full of wild Iris (Flags) , Buttercups and daisies and yellow cowslips. Also so many birds along the way. It was good to hear the thunder pumppers , meadow larks and prairie chickens.

   As I drove the cows home down the lane I would grab a cows tail and I’d just hit the high spots as I hurried the cows home. That is till I got in sight of the barn lot. There Dad could see what was going on and that was a no no  as  he said cows don’t give as much milk as when they walk home.  But it was so much fun.  When I drove the cows down the shady Lane I always thought of “Little Brown Hands”

    WE had lots of neighborhood parties and dances for the whole family and Mr. Ginder played the fiddle. WE made our own fun such as games etc.  We made our checker bords and used red and yellow corn for checkers. On Easter it was the boys against the girls and we’d hide eggs weeks before Easter from the boys They always found them so one Easter we filled a gallon pail full of eggs and buried it in the ground then at Easter we dug them up and took them in for mother to cook for our breakfast. We had races to the chicken house to see could find the first turkey and duck eggs Elbert   ran out in the snow in his bare feet and came in with a duck egg.

   At Christmas time we made our Christmas decorations by stringing popcorn and cranberries and by making colored paper chains, one Christmas I got up to see what was in my stocking and I found a hunk of coal, When my Dad saw the look on my face he told me to look down in the toe and I found a box with a gold ring in it. On May 1^st we made colored baskets from paper and filled them with candy and wild flowers and  would exchanged them with the neighbor children.

   We would tease our geese and turkey and make them mean they would chase us. Our backhouse was in the same lot with the geese and turkeys, we could out run them but when we had older guest they couldn’t It was fun to watch them.

   When Rae was little she had pneumonia and was very frail and had to have a silver tube in he back to her lung.  Dr. Zuick drove ole Toppie from Wheatfield ever day to change the tube.  Grandmother and I would see the Doctor coming and we take off for the barn lot, so we wouldn’t hear Rae screaming when the tube was changed.  Grandmother walked with two canes so we had to hurry before the doctor came.   Mother had to be there and listen to her screams. 

  It seems someone was always sick in our family us kids that is .  When Owen died the rest of us were all sick with measles up-stairs.  Charlie and Elbert were recuperating from and they took of us while Mom and Dad went to Owen’s funeral in Medaryville.  Little Freddie told Charlie to help him to bed, He said “My legs are lazy” . I would play possum and pretend that I was asleep and that way they passed me by with the medicine, I seemed to be more healthy than the rest. So I’d try and help Mother by standing on a box to wash dishes. I’d hold the end of the sheets and she‘d wring the water out of them. She washed by hand out under a tree.

    Mr. Prop came once a month to stay over night with us,  He had a crackey wagon full of his wares such as table cloths towels etc . He would give Mother some of his wares for keeping him over night.  He also had a store in De Motte. 

   Grandmother and the little kids in our family would sit out on the front porch to see who could catch the most Jun bugs. 

   In the night when Dad and the boys were working we would hear the wolves howling in the woods. We would all want to sleep with Mother.  My folks bought flour and sugar in 100 lb, bags in the 4x flour was a recipe which read. “read me, you may need me”  Mother never needed a recipe as her homemade bread was the best. Mother used the flour and the sugar sacks to make us underwear. My drawers had Pillsbury on them, but then it didn’t bother me I was glad to have them on.

   I thought my chore of grinding coffee was just too much to ask of anyone. But it was my job and I did it. Another job was picking off potato bugs and putting them in a can of kerosene.  We also had to replant corn three grains to the hill. In areas where it rained too much.

   I was always out helping Dad and Rae stayed in and helped Mother , She learned to be a good cake and pie baker. I became a good farmer.

   As we sat on the porch of an evening with Grandmother Antrim in her rocking chair  , we ‘d ask her to tell us Indian stories, She would say she did not know  any stories of Indians, So then we would try a different approach and ask if she’d ever seen an Indian. Then she would spend the eve telling us how she lived close by the Indians and how they became good friends with them. She then lived in Marion Co. near Kokomo, Indiana near the Mississinewa River. 

   Grandmother at first was afraid of the Indians and she and Grandfather had two big dogs, “Bull and Trip”. When the Indians came near Grandmother had the dogs trained to put their paws up on the fence and face the Indians.  They were very much afraid of the dogs.  But it wasn’t very long until my grandparents and the Indians became good friends. The Indians would bring berries they would pick them along the way to Grandmother, She would make pies out of the berries for them to eat.   One day yhey brought Grandmother a pie that they had made they stirred the berried and flour all together, II don’t know if Grandmother ate their pie but she had found some good friends.

Grandmother told us a story about some bad Indians who were not so friendly, The Indians stopped a man in a wagon and they scalped him and not only that they skinned him alive, The man tried to escape by running around his wagon but he died. But the ones my grandparents  knew were very nice people and would do anything to help her.

   My Grandfather Dr. Thomas Antrim died before my time but I’ve heard my brothers tell about him being a Doctor in Rensselaer, Indiana.

    My big sister Grace’s chore was to look after me and to comb my hair, which was long and I hated to have it combed and she would get upset with me and say “peaches and cream” and under her breath “you little devil you”.  One day when I was one year old. She was leading me up the steps to our home and I slipped and so hit my elbow. They took me to Dr. Wells in De Motte and he set it and then handed me an apple. I threw it at him because hurt my arm. He told Mother he guessed my arm was fine.

    Little Teddy (Fred ) slept on a trundle bed in his folks room. He was hard of hearing even when tiny. One night he got up to find the thunder mug. He couldn’t so Mother told him “to feel all around over the floor”. He did just what he thought Mother said and fired all around the room. Mother laughed so hard that she couldn’t tell him to hunt further for the pot.  Fred never liked to hear this tale about when he was a babe.

    We always had folks come from Medaryville to hunt and fish and they stayed at our house.  I went with Dad to fish in the Hodge Ditch.  While he fished I caught minnows.  Some of the men who came to hunt and fish were Nath Guild, Harvey Cox, Hank Ballard.

   We picked raspberries and also blackberries along the fence rows. Mother either canned them or made jelly. We found the sweetest wild strawberries along the Erie Railroad right-of way.

   We went to grade school in Hurlburt, Indiana and we walked down the Erie R.R. tracks. Some days the Section crew came on their hand car and let us ride with them to school.  I had to walk a mile to get our mail at the Wheatfield center school.  I’d play with my little friend , Ruth Kennedy and I would some times forget what came for “The mail.” One of my big brothers would take pity on me and hop on a horse and ride down to get the mail for me.

    Grandmother Lucinda Antrim and Aunt Rachel Cox lived in Rensselaer next to the Iroquois River. Dad called it the “Arkwise” River.  Dad took Rae and me to see Grandmother (on the train) . We visited Jerome Massey on the way home and they took us to see my first vaudeville show in Hammond, Indiana. We stopped in another town on the way home at a hotel.  Dad and the owner were friends. Dad and the Hotelman had Rae and me go in a room where two young boys, our age were playing we were all too shy to talk. They brought our dinner in (fried potatoes etc.) for both the boys and Rae and me. It was a very quiet dinner and I never forgave Dad for such an embarrassing time.

   We would go with Dad in his cracky wagon to Stoutsburg to get Grace and her babes at the train. It took all day by train to come from Medaryville.  Grace missed her train three times when going home because Fred and I didn’t want her to leave and we would hide her babies bonnets  . That way she got to stay longer.  Willie took me and Grace with him on the train, My clothes were in a little satchel and William called it a didy bag and he wouldn’t carry it. I had to I used to wonder why Grace would buy and make clothes for Blanch and not for me, later my mom explained it to me.

   William always was dignified and expected us all to be likewise.  We weren’t We sing to him, when he’d get all dressed up to see his gal “       ‘where are you going Billy boy Billy boy Where are you going, charming Willie- I am going to see My wife she’s the joy of my life and she ‘s a young thing and can’t leave her Mother. ‘ we had to be quite a distance from him so we could out run him. He didn’t think we were very funny.

   Lena and her sister Minnie were German neighbor gals and good friends of our boy and of our hired help.  William , Charles and Elbert all were married to Hebron girls and lived all their lives there.

   Dad and Mom took us to see Buffalo Bill and his circus in Valparaiso, Indiana. We saw Bill Cody and his Indian performers and animals and the fat lady, That same day I rode home with  our Hebron grocer in his automobile, That was my first auto ride.

   My family would all pile in a wagon where we had room for all the family. Later on we all would take in the Valparaiso and Crown Point Fairs.

   Sam Adams had a grocery  store in Hurlbutt, Indian. And all the young folks met there for the evening. Lucy Adams was Albert’s girl and had to help her close the store. Lucy’s brother George and cousin Phyl would walk Rae and me home down the Eria Railroad to Gold Knob.  Many happy and wholesome hours were spent at Sam’s store.

   Sunday’s we’d all gather at Loomis near Hurlburt and Ethel Loomis would play piaino and we’d all sin.  Mrs. Loomis fixed my first box social at Skinner School. (Later I taught school there.) The other gals had fancy boxes ready to go, so on the spur of the moment she fixed me a box of goodies. Rae’s boy friend. Kenneth Brown got my box. I was too shy to talk to him.

   Grandmother Antrim always wore pretty dark calico long dresses with tight waist and full skirt and a ruffled bonnet to match, indoors she wore a white lacy hood. Her long dress had a built-in pocket in which she had a string yarn for balls and colored chalk and rock candy.  She would unravel worn out sweaters and use the yarn to make balls for the boys.  Her brother , Uncle Lucian Massey used to come with Aunt Lize to see Grandmother, He had a beautiful rig and team of horses and he’d take her for rides down our country roads, He always made room for us little guys to ride on a board at their feet.

   Eunice died when Grace was still home. Both were seriously ill at the same time, Grace had typhoid fever, Eunice wanted Mother to come and be with her, so Mother left Grace seriously with Dad and stayed till after Eunice’s funeral. Dad couldn’t go to her funeral as he couldn’t leave Grace.

   When we were small Dad butchered three or four hogs and we would have a wash tub full of sausage to be seasoned by Mother , She would fry each of us a sample. Dad saved the bladders for balloons for us. He did likewise with the large fish bladders , those were the only balloons we ever had when we were young. They made head cheese and stuffed it in cheesecloth bags and Mother would make a 10 gallon jar of pickled pigs feet for winter. The sausage was fried and the grease pored over it to preserve it for the winter. Hams and bacon were smoked and we filled a rain barrel with sauerkraut.  Our Vegetables and fruit were underground on straw for winter use. Garden vegetables were all canned and stored in the cellar.

   One 4^th of July all the Howe’s in Medaryville came to help us celebrate in Wheatfield. There were Grace’s family, Howard’s Ada’s family and Spony Howe.  Our beds were all full, so when William came home work, he didn’t know about all the company. He tried to find an empty bed but none was to be had. He said “Well I’ll be damned” and he slept sitting up on the floor, leaning against a couch that was occupied.

Some rode the train, some by cracky wagons to Wheatfield and some went in Dad’s new surrey with the fringe on the top.  Spony road the train and he asked the conductor how much for the fare, and the conductor said “Where are you going” Spony said ‘To the four of July” I wanted to ride in Dad’s new surrey and Grace thought I should ride in the old cracky wagon with Dad and Grandmother, Gusess where I rode. In the surrey with the fringe on top. Blanche rode with Dad and Grandmother., Do you know what Grace called me “a brat”.  That was the first time I had ever heard her call me that.

   Mother had a neighbor lady make Rae and me a pink ruffled bonnets like Grandmother’s.  We had pink and white gingham pinafores to match. I wore my pink bonnet  to Wheatfield with Dad.  When I got out of the buggy I found a dime. Mr. Pinter the grocer gave me a big bag of candy for it.  At first I thought I’d save it all for me , but instead Dad and I munched on it on the way home and when I got home I shared it all the gang.

   One night I saw two big scary lights down the country road, It was the first car I’d seen It had engine trouble so Dad took his team of horses down and pulled the car into our buggy shed.  The owner was a grocer in Wheatfield,  It set in our shed several days until a mechanic came to fix it. Those two lights were scary to me as they were the first I’d ever seen ,cars then were scary to old Toppie, Our horse.

   One past time when Rae and I were little was to see if we could jump the ditches along the road, I was more  lucky than Rae as she fell in and didn’t change her wet clothes and that’s why she got pneumonia. 
one Sunday Dad and I walked to Sunday School I was dressed in a new white dress with blue dots, When I got home I thought I’d try walking around the edge of our big horse tank, I didn’t make it I fell in , Mother was very understanding about it.

   When in school Thomas Antrim my cousin was living with us and it was our chore to pump water into the tank for the animals, He didn’t like to take his turn as he was a very lazy boy, He growled and said

“  This is a damned Sunday occurance  that I always have to do”.. It was as Dad believed if you don’t work you don’t eat. We worked and we ate planty.

   When Owen was 14 years old He carved a small gun from wood and put colored sets in the handle for decorating it. He gave it to me and I still have it.  I also have Grandmother’s reading glasses. Dad also wore them when he read his newspaper “ The Inter Ocean”  He liked politics and always said “Fried rats and pickled cats are good enough for democrats”  He and Aunt Mag argued about politics but both were on the same side. Dad liked to take walks and he always brought back a bouquet of wild flowers for Mother. Some of them were weeds but it was so thoughtful of him.

   When we were older Blanche my cousin and I made navy blue dresses alike with white ruffled collars. We made them to take in the Crown Point Fair. Blanche and her brother Thomas Antrim lived with is on the farm after their Mothers death,  They both had the same Father  George Antrim , Blanche’s  mother was Viola Harrington and Thomas’s Mother was Marie Burns. Blanche was 15 years older than her brother Thomas, she also had two others younger brothers Ross four years younger and Clyde 13 years younger  ,  Blanche became a school teacher. 

   Mother fixed Blanche and I a lunch of fried chicken and other goodies which we carried in a shoe box, we rode the train from Boone Grove to Crown Point. Two guys rode the train also and they wanted to help carry our lunch. They did carry it till noon and were expecting to share it with us. At noon time we took our lunch and told the guys that we would see them later But Blanche and I ate what we wanted and threw the rest away. Then we hid from the boys until it was time to catch the train home.  These two guys were just too shy to have them eat lunch with us, any way they were not mad at us.

   Rae had a boy friend from Gold Knob, his name was Kenneth Brown. Fred got up and he was walking in his sleep in his BVD’s Rae was embarrassed and tried to get him to bed but all he did was stand by the base burner and shiver.

   We coasted down Gold Knob hill with our neighborhood friends on sleds and in the summer time we still road down the hill but then in a wagon. Another past time was sliding down the hayfork rope from the barn to a pile of hay. We had sore hands but it was fun.  Rae and I had a playhouse and ever so often we’d change our playhouse and Grandmother would say, “I see it’s moving day today” we’d find sparrow eggs and fry them but I am sure we never ate them. We would build a fire in a fire in a valley and along with Mamie a friend we would boil potatoes and make tater soup we only had potatoes and water and we thought it was delicious soup.

   When Fred and I were in Boone Grove High, we all decided to go in two bobsleds to a basketball game in Valparaiso. It was 22 below zero and the snow was plentiful and sparkling like diamonds. The sleds were filled with hay and kids. It was so much even though it was cold.  The game was called off because of the cold but we all had fun. When Fred and I got home at 2 A.M. Mother hadn’t been asleep as she was afraid we’d freeze but instead we came home singing.

   When I was in high School, Dad bought a new Buick car, Fred and I used it to go in it to High School Literary club meetings and ice cream socials,  We would drive week-ends to see Grace by way of the Snake Road between Medaryville and San Pierre.  One Sunday when in Medryville we took in the baseball game with Grace’s family I didn’t know many folks there. I did know Don Guild and that day he had on a green suit, and I said to Grace “I wish that Don Guild would get rid of that Pea Green suit”     Guess what? Standing next to us were Mary and Clara Don’s sisters, I wasn’t their favorite person after that and Grace tried to get me to appoligize to them. But I didn’t know what to say Anyway later on I found out the pea Green suit belonged to Daniel and Don P ,  I still don’t like the suit.

       I saw my first airplane when we lived near Hurlburt, It was piloted along the Erie Railroad tracks by C.P. Rogers and it was a Vin Phiz Flyer. It was a successful trip and kids in Hurlburt School would run around the school waving their arms pretending they were C.P. Rogers in his Vin Phiz Flyer.  In 1976, I went to Dayton, Ohio. To the Air Museum to see the oldest and the newest planes and missiles.

   We lived by the Erie Railroad when it was double tracked, As we walked to school young Italian boys were working there. One eve a group of the young men came with their guitars to serenade us. Dad invited them in but we couldn’t speak their language.

   Thomas Antrim joined the Army and was sent to Hawaii. It was too much work for Tom and he wrote and ask me to buy him out of the Army, I still have his letter, Dad told me to leave him in as it was the best thing for him, so he stayed in the Army for 12 more years so he must of got to the point were he liked being in the Army.

   I have another Army letter from France. Hugh Long sent it as the war was ending in 1918, He’d been fighting and was going to take a shower to get rid of his cooties and then he was going out and find himself a girl.  I have a silk apron from France sent during the war by Red Howe. It is white with red roses embroidered on it. I’ve kept it in tissue paper but it ‘s in shreds.

   I finished grade school in Hurlburt and Boon Grove High School. Then Dad sent me to Valparaiso University where I lived in 1916 at Altruria Hall. My room mate was Bertha Kroft. I knew several girls from Hebron and Medaryville. And we had lots of fun.  It was during  World War one and there were so many cute soldiers standing guard all around Altruria Hall.  A group of the soldiers and students went on a Sunday outing to flint Lake, One soldier didn’t come back with us he drowned in the lake. He was having so much fun and singing as we went out to the lake and then drowned in the lake , I saw them get him out of the lake I was sad to see it happen.

   I was teaching Nov 11 1918 so I didn’t get to celebrate the Armistice signing with my family in Valparaiso , I was staying with William and he and his family took me to celebrate in Hebron.  We burned Kaiser Wilhelm in effigy on Hebron Main Street.

    My second year I taught near Boon Grove and stayed at home till Dad and Mom moved to a small farm near Medaryville Then I stayed with Rae and Myron. One night it was zero and Rae was afraid I’d freeze , so she made me sleep with her and Myron , only she slept in the middle.  As I went to school I’d have to sit on snow drifts and rest as the drifts were so high.

   I taught at Porter Cross Roads the third year and often got home sick so I would take off Sunday eve for Medaryville.  I’d tell Lucy to teach for me.  Fred would say “ I reckon Teant will be pussyfooting in this eve” He had to get up at 4 AM. Monday so he could catch the milk train back to school.  Only sometimes I’d stay a day or two according to how homesick I was. The last and forth year I thought at Crystal Fountain near Medaryville and I got to stay at my home, It was two miles and to save on walking I would cut though meadows and fields full of wildflowers and meadow larks.

   We lived in this old house with a leaky roof and when upstairs in bed I’d get showered with snow and rain in the summertime.  We were building a new brick house and later used the old house for a barn.  I gave Dad money to build the front porch, we had to have a porch with all the guys there about s to entertain. I got a porch swing and moved my vicktrola out on the new porch. My favorite was “Love Nest” Dan’s was “ Little Gray Home in the west” Fred, Blanche, George and I had a house warming . we had a taffy pull and popcorn.  Mom And Dad visited Grace so as to be out of the way.  Dick McElroy was my dance partner, Thyra’s was Clarence McElory , Blanche’s Suz, Georgie and Ovia (How else) Irene and Fred Geraldine and Doug.  We spent many evening up in the K. of P. Hall dancing and also at Bass Lake at the Crystal Ballroom. One time McElroy and I went to the K. P. Hall to dance and there I meet Daniel who was with Mable Jane. After that , Dan and I went with Georgia and Ovia dancing. Daniel went to school that summer at Winina  Lake. He was always interested in sports and was learning to become a coach and referee. He especially liked football and he played that sport in high School. He went to Rensselaer High School as Medaryville had no football team.

                  ( Thelma Antrim and Dan Guild were married Jan 27^th 1922 in Porter.)

   Dan taught at his first school at East Vernon and I taught at Crystal Fountain. Both Schools were close to Medaryville. He and Fred surprised me one P,M. and came to visit my school. He was good in Math and I in English. So to show him how good a teacher I was, I switched my Math class and taught an English instead. He would come evenings and graded papers and he’d help me with Math and I Helped him with English.   Grandma Guild and Marny had Zella, with big brown eyes, picked out for Dan, I guess he preferred blue eyes, Anyway Our kids all had blue eyes.    ( children of Thelma and Dan Guild were Donald Fredrick 1922, Helen Marie 3-16-1926,Robert Lee 10-15-1928, Richard Daniel 2-2-1931)

    When Don Fred was 1 .1/2 years Eve and I were in Valparaiso College , we took turns taking care of him.  One day we found him sitting on the front row with all the students in the music Hall, The teacher was keeping him till we came for him. Eve and her boy friends kept entertained. He’d get in front of Eve and say “Me got no feet, Eve carry me” . One day Dan was papering for my folks and had a bed springs leaned against the wall, Dan was up on the ladder and Donnie tried to climb the bed springs like his dad on the ladder, They fell and Donnie was under it. Dan tried to catch him but Donnie had a big gash on his head and had black and blue marks on his body.

   I ‘d been sick all winter and I couldn’t lift even  a pound or two of weight. So Donnie told my Dad to get Mommy a chair so I could rest.

   We lived three years in Kniman , Ind. And Donnie had to walk as I couldn’t lift him. I did spend many hours reading and rocking him Dan would put his baby buggy out in front of me before he left for school. I’d hold on so Donnie didn’t fall and he climbed into his buggy.  Some days he and I walked the mile where Dan taught and Dan would carry him home on his shoulders,  When I was reading to him if I skipped a page he always knew it as he knew it from memory. I was in the Valparaiso Hospital when Donnie was two years old.  Mary took care of him. He wouldn’t go to sleep and was awake till 2 AM when Mary fell asleep he konked her on the head with an ash tray and said “ talk Marny” She’s been Marny ever since.

   A map man came to Kniman school to sell the school a map, He told Dan about a vacancy in the Boswell Ind . school We went to see about it and Mr. Burnett the Superintendent hired him. The coach was P.P. Wayne and he and Dan worked as a team as both were interested in sports. They became good buddies and were up to the end.

   The summer be fore Boswell, we were in school at Winona Lake Clara , Dan and I took turns watching Donnie,  We all lived in a tent for three months at a Methodist camp. The tent leaked. Our umbrella leaked and it rained a lot . Such nice folks were in the camp, Donnie listened to the boy Scouts singing and he also sang “Gently sings the Donkey as he goes for Hay, Someone must go with him or he’ll Run Away” Hee Haw.  We spent many  happy hours listening to them sing. The boys left a metal plate by the spring where we got out drinking water. Donnie used that plate and we still have it. I’d dress him up with red curls and all, we’d take him to church, one day a lady asked if he was adoptable.

   I found him one day when he was supposed to be with Dan and he was out in the sun and had sandburs all over his feet.  I told Mom that was it I wasn’t going back, She said “oh yes you are” and I did and I was glad. I learned to make baskets and trays and footstools at Winina Lake. My professor said I should have a shop and make and sell my baskets.

   Dan and Paul Wayne (J.P.) were friends and spent hours golfing and coaching. I called them Damon and Pythias, as they were best of friends Roxie was my friend also.

   Helen, Robbie, and Dickie Dan were born in Boswell and Dr. Hubbard was our doctor. I always cooked for school teachers even the night before Helen was born.   Donnie’s first teacher was Miss Lamb. He was third in his class and always was a good student.

   Our first summer there, I picked strawberries from our garden, Miss Lamb, Don’s teacher came to buy some. Marny was staying while Dan was in summer school. I told her the gal at the door was Miss Lamb and just as I opened the door to greet her, Marny went “Baa”. Was I ever embarrassed. I could have Marny. When Ring came for Marny, and his strawberry jam all we’d canned was one jar the rest we had to sell to buy fishy, Marny said” If all we have is fishy we’ll eat fishy”.

   Miss Lamb was also Helen’s first teacher. She too was a good student. I remember her first day at Boswell school. I can still see her skipping along in her pink and white strawberry dress, holding her Dad’s hand. She was lucky to have her Dad to look after her.

   On band concert night, we would dress all four up in white suits and dress to show them off, as they were cute little guys . The banker wanted to give us $1000 for Robbie. Not for $1,000 000. I made their clothes, had to We’d look at clothes in Loebbs and I’d make a copy of them and go home and make some like the ones in the store window.

   Our boys and others had “a bunk” club over LaBrea’s  garage. They took my victrola up there. One day I went up to see about them and the bunk was full of smoke. Then Dan lined them all up to tell them smoking was dangerous to their health. These boys and ours had a BB guns and they saw a queer pair of Teddy underwear on a neighbor’s line, Low and behold they shot the Teddies full of holes with their BB guns. Elsie our neighbor told on the boys. I told them they shouldn’t have done it. But they said they thought it was so funny looking that they just had to. Our four kids grow up on the Purdue Campus.

   We all had fun and saw lots of games and the Purdue band marched by our house, and Dan coached sailors near our house during W.W. 2. We could watch them march from our house. It was a wholesome environment for the kids. The boys and their friends helped in our garden and the yard and some of the house work. And to pay them we would get a watermelon, hot dogs and what ever and bathing suits and go for a swim on the wildcat creek, where later Don and a friend Marion built a 2 story cabin.

   Mr. Wolf taught Helen and Rob to play in his band and at his church and in the city Band and in the concerts.  I always went with them for lessons so I could learn to help them. Only Mr. Wolf and I spent a lot of the lesson time talking politics. Rob took his lesson from Mr. Wolf and while Helen was taking hers,  Rob and little brother Dickie Dan went out in Mr. Wolf’s garden and had a rip tomato fight. They were all dressed up ready to play in the band concert after Helen was through with her lesson. When she was through the little Guild boys were covered with ripe squashed tomatoes. So Dan and I had to go shopping for some thing so Robbie could play in the band. And no one knew of the fight in the garden except  Mr. Wolf found out when he looked at his garden the next day. Then we were  30 miles from there and safe in West Lafayette.

   Dick one day was Tarzan and was up a tree The limb broke and so did Tarzan’s arm. Helen Helped him up the high hill and Dan took him to the Doctor. It was in a sling and one day he walked down our back steps and knocked the milk bottles off and they broke on the cement and Dick stepped on a big jagged piece of the bottle and he was cut all over his heel. I took him to the Doctor and held him down while the Doctor sewed his heel.  Sally and Margaret Rob’s and Dick’s gal friends brought over an old stroller for Dick to ride in with his arm in a sling and his foot all bandaged.  They brought him books to read and they pushed him ever where he ordered them to with his umbrella over him and the cart as it was a rainy day.

    When Robin was six month old  I was cleaning house while Dan and Donnie were at  Boswell school. Robbie was crying and I asked Helen 2 ½ years to play with him while I fixed lunch. She climbed up on his chair step and pulled him over on a coal bucket. His lip was cut open and she had a bump on her head. Neighbors called Dan at school and also the Doctor. So our noon hour was sewing up his lip. The Doctor said no anesthetic as it could cause pneumonia. So Dan had to hold him while Dr. Hubbard sewed his lip. It took six stitches to do it and I was out pacing in back and holding my ears, I just couldn’t stay and hear him scream.

   Helen after high school went one year to Purdue. She was excellent in English , writing and literature but quit as she hated biology and math. She spent one month in Florida at Booie’s taking care of the twins Gary and Pam while Booie’s next baby was born She worked at Purdue on PBX and the Lafayette Phone Co.

   Kenny Antrim came and stayed with and he left from our house to go overseas in W.W.2. He was at Ft. Firmin , San Pedro, Calif. For training and finally sent to Guvutu in the Ilands in and around Japan. The Kids and I all saw him off to war and we never let him know how badly we felt at his leaving. He was a way two years. He and his and our kids were cousins Bart lived across the street in Hebron and they meet out in the Pacific on Guvutu Island.  Don also left about the same time. He went to Depauw Un. To train in the Navy Air Corp, We would go down ever week-end to bring him home and take him back Sunday evening. He did fine in school but when he went to Muncie to learn to fly he found he couldn’t because of sinus problems, so he had to go to Grear Lakes for navy training. He spent weeks there and then was sent to Navy pier for more training then he was sent to New London Conn. And then to Rhode Island for more training . He occasionally got leaves to come home. He was in for three years and he was glad to b e back home in 1946.

   Dick joined the Army in 1951 and trained at Ft. Ord Calif. He also trained at Ft. Gordon Ga. And was sent on his 21^st birthday to Korea, where he operated a radio between the front and head quarters. He was in the Army three years. The last year he was sent from Korea to Ft. Irwin, Calif. And it was almost as disagreeable as Korea.  Rob was also in the Army and in communications as Dick was. Only Dick was in radios and Rob was in phone communications Rob also trained at Ft. Ord,  Calif and San Luis Obispo, Calif. He was then sent to Japan to Hokkaido.

   It was not far from Russia and it was so cold there. When Dick was to be sent home from Korea he asked the Army if he could go to Hokkaido to see Rob. The Army said no But the Red Cross said Yes So he went to visit Rob and both had a year yet to go in the Army . All my boys got home safely after being so far from home . Don lives up the hill from me Helen lives in Richmond, Indiana. Rob lives in San Fernando Valley  Dick lives in Eagar, Arizona. Kenny lives in Hebron, Indiana.

                                                                                   Teantie Murriel.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..                        In 1962 Thelma and her daughter Helen went to see my father Thomas Antrim at the VA. Hospital in  Arizona.  I never meet Thelma My Dad’s cousin but after reading her story I now feel that I know her.

 Clyde V Antrim