In order of birth, uncle Emil was third. He was born on a cold February night, on the 23rd day in 1896. Grandpa had opportunity to sell the Nacora place and move the family south to the Nickerson farm. It was more settled and farming was better. He was able to get more land with the money they had saved and there were buildings on the property. Louie was 7-years old now and Alfred was four…Grandma still had to help a great deal with the outside work so she had full days. She would have to draw water from the well, heat it and wash clothes by hand in huge galvanized tubs. Bedding was aired during the winter, not washed. She continued to milk part of the cows as Louie wasn’t able to milk her share yet. She made butter to sell, they ate lard on their bread. Nothing was wasted and everything that could be turned into money was utilized. The savings were put aside for more land someday and more animals.

Emil was healthy and grew up having to entertain himself as the older brothers had. There was no time for coddling babies. Alfred had to look after him at times when Grandma, Grandpa and Louie were doing their barn work. There was always something to do at the barn. It was back-breaking to shovel the manure when it was frozen and the barn-yard had a huge pile of it to be put on the fields in the Spring. There were calves to feed from a bucket which took time and the weather was always a factor. Grandma knit everything they bundled up in. She made stockings, stocking caps, scarves, mittens…….all of that. When she found time I cannot imagine.

Uncle Emil’s life followed along the same line’s that Louie and Alfred’s did. He had work to do and by the time he was 10-years old, the two brothers had left the farm. He and his younger brother, Sophus, had to stand in where they left. It wasn’t easy and there were no rewards. Life was hard for everyone, not just the Andersen’s. Some of their neighbors had given up and gone back to the “old country”. The Andersen’s were resolved to stick it out.

Emil was still at home when he joined the Army. I do not know if there was a draft then as there has been since but he went just the same. He finished his training and was in New Orleans ready to ship out for Europe. He had had a bad cold and the day he was to board ship the doctor ordered him to stay in the hospital. He had double pneumonia. As he recuperated in Louisiana word came back that his company had been gassed in France by the Germans. He never went overseas and when the war was over he came back to the farm.

It was a short stay. He had grown away from the farm-life that was so demanding and unrewarding to him. He had enjoyed the freedom of being “on his own” and having some money. Gambling and drinking was fun that he wanted more of. He finally left and followed work wherever he could get enough money to last a while. He often went down to the river shanty’s to gamble and play cards. He was never going to farm again….life was too short to work that hard.

With all of his carousing he met a pretty girl named Helen Boston. She was unlike the other women he had known up til then. Her parents lived at Blair, Ne. and had a large successful farm. Helen was still living at home and was a quiet girl with a good upbringing. Uncle Emil was smitten and pursued her until she agreed to marry him. She was only 17-years old in 1922.….he was a worldly twenty-six. Sadly, their marriage ended tragically after only fourteen years.

Tomorrow we find out the “rest of the story.”

Until then,
Essentially Esther