Letters from a Rocking Chair

By J. D. Patterson

Through letters Jane Wilkinson describes her life as a pioneer Iowa farm lady. She was born during the Civil War and died eighty nine years later. She bore seven children, and although widowed, she became the anchor of her family. Her steady pursuit of self reliance and the importance of family and stead fastness reflected qualities which have never gone out of fashion. Her credo was life is only boring if youre bored with life, a condition she never allowed. As a child she came to Iowa in a covered wagon and her many descendants continue her legacy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462849352

J. D. Patterson

James D. Patterson’s early life was as a farm boy in Missouri. He has an A. B. from the University of Missouri, an S. M. from the University of Chicago, and a Ph. D. from the University of Kansas, all in Physics. He taught and did research in Physics at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, The Florida Institute of Technology, and Idaho State University, among other universities. JDP now lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This fictional story’s origins come from his observations while attending a cardiac Rehab group in Rapid City.

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Copyright © 2011 by J. D. Patterson.

ISBN: Softcover          978-1-4628-9079-8

ISBN: Ebook              978-1-4628-4935-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events, and characters are either invented or used fictitiously. Resemblance to actual incidents, places, or people living or dead is often coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

Chapter 1: A Widow

Chapter 2: Farming

Chapter 3: The Great Depression

Chapter 4: World War

Chapter 5: Decline

Appendices

1. List of Ann Patterson’s descendants.

2. Important dates in Ann Patterson’s Life

3. Madison County

(Bridges, Apples, Geography, and map of area of interest near Truro)

4. The Great Depression

5. Crops, Animals and Farm Implements

6. Herbert Hoover

7. New Deal

8. Hybrid Corn and the Wallace Family

9. Farm programs of Wallace and Roosevelt

10. World War II

11. Radio Programs

12. Iowa Physicists

Dedicated to my Grandmother

Ann Frances Hamilton Patterson

(1862-1951)

Acknowledgments

My sisters; Dr. Amy C. King, and Patricia E. Paden, my wife Marluce M. Patterson, my cousins: LaVerne Middleswart, Phyllis Ann Geyer, J. David Denly, Karl Denly, Marvin Phillips, and Martin Bishop, gathered material, made suggestions, or told me stories about my Grandmother. Mely Rahn proofread and made suggestions but all mistakes are my own. Rosa Coelho painted the cover and gave me permission for its use.

Preface

Several words of explanation are in order. These letters were written by me, but I have tried to stick as close to the spirit and facts of my grandmother’s life as possible. They are rather dry, but so were my father’s letters (see his letters of Feb. 10, 1932, April 2, 1941 and May 14, 1944), and therefore I am led to believe my grandmother’s were also. Possibly it is in the genes. She would have written more about her flowers and other domestic things and less about how she felt about family and world affairs. But I wanted to tell her story as I envisage it, so I had to change a bit what she probably would have written. The events are as true as I can make them. The letters from my mother, my father, and my sister are the actual letters, but with name changes. My mother and father are dead, and my sisters and I have agreed to let his and her letters be published. My older sister told me it was OK to publish the letters she wrote her grandmother. There were obviously more such letters, but I think the ones I chose are enough to be representative. They greatly help project the spirit of the times. I don’t remember seeing any letters from my grandmother, but my older sister got several, and I have used my interpretation of what she told me about them to assist in writing my fictionalized versions. I did not use fictional letters as a vehicle to reply to real letters. You may assume my grandmother wrote many more letters than I have constructed and replied to all letters addressed to her. I was 17 when she died and certainly knew her well enough to know she answered letters faithfully. Because I had to invent several thoughts of my grandmother, this book is fiction. So I have changed the names in the letters. However, I have recorded the real names of my grandmother, her children and grandchildren upon which the fictional letters are loosely based in the appendices.[1] I particularly needed to fictionalize the Grandmother letters, as I don’t know my grandmother’s inner thoughts about her children and other matters, and I may well have distorted them. My apologies to anyone I have offended. Let them take solace in the fact that the book is fiction, and that I have refused to be constrained by fact if fiction seemed to make a better story.

In the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War aired on Public Television it was noted that before the Civil War one said The United States are . . . . , and after one said The United States is . . . . That is, the Civil War decided we were not just a collection of states but one country, a Union. This was a historical divide. Grandmother Patterson was born on one side of this divide, but lived on the other side.[2] When she was born, the Civil War was in progress and Lincoln was alive. When she died the Korean War was in progress and Truman was President. She lived through the Spanish-American War, World War I, and World War II. She saw the end of the Indian Wars and the Great Depression. When she was young there was the telegraph, but no radio, no television, no available telephones, no cars, no airplanes, even the transcontinental railroad was not built at the time she was born. When she died, computers, radar, atomic energy, transistorized microelectronics, and practical rockets were becoming a reality. She saw the end of the completely independent farmer, using horse drawn implements and the beginning of the mechanized farmer heavily dependent on government programs. Health care was making great progress in her old age, for example penicillin, had been discovered in 1928. When she was born, many felt it was much better to stay at home than go to the hospital if you were sick. Too many bad things happened to people in a crowded hospital. My grandmother, during her lifetime, lived through a total watershed in human affairs. How much she thought about this, I do not know.

One thing I am sure of. My grandmother was a very strong and interesting character. I hope the letters reflect that. According also to all her descendants that I’ve talked to she was austere, but very loving and much loved. This is not a common situation, I believe.

Note to reader: From here on until the appendices I have changed the names. I have assumed most of the following letters were (fictionally) written by Grandmother Wilkinson to her daughter in law Gertrude, and are therefore addressed Dear Gertrude. A few were addressed to Randolph, Gertrude’s husband, and hence start, Dear Son. A very few were from Randolph to his mother, Dear Mother, many were from Gertrude to Dear Mother Wilkinson, and some were from her Granddaughter Elizabeth addressed Dear Grandmother. As noted before, the last three groups are real letters. To make sense of what you are reading it helps to note who the letter is addressed to and who it is written by.

Cast of Main Characters in Letters

Grandmother Jane Wilkinson (1862-1951) main letter writer

Edward Wilkinson (1862-1927) Jane’s husband

Aunt Emmy (1863-1943) Jane’s sister

Jane’s Children

Sally (1886-1906) Daughter

Laura (1888-1976) Daughter (children Brenda, Helen, Joey, Edward)

Dan Chapman (1886-1990) Laura’s husband

Ryan (1891-1909) Son

Carolyn (1893-1975) Daughter (children Andy, Fred, Sam, Laura Beatrice)

Virgil Mason (1888-1972) Carolyn’s husband

Randolph (Randy) (1897-1944) Son (children Elizabeth (Betty), Laura, Robert Charles(Bobby Chuck))

Gertrude (Trudy) (1895-1986) Randolph’s wife

Robert (Bobby) (1897-1943) Randolph’s twin brother (son Ronald Robert (Ronny Bobby))

Jerold (Jerry) (1901-1961) Son (son Edward)

Emma, Jerold’s wife-divorced

For others mentioned in letters, the context can often be used for identification. But note the following: There were two Lauras, as mentioned above, as well as a Laura Beatrice (Carolyn’s daughter), and other family names repeat, Edward was Grandmother’s husband, and then she had two grandsons named Edward (one was Laura’s son and the other was Jerry’s son), and also there were two Roberts or Bobbys as noted above. Also Robert’s son was Ronald Robert or Ronny Bobby, and so on. I don’t think the reader need keep this family tree clearly in mind as the main subject of this book is the ideas of Grandmother Wilkinson as reflected in her letters.

You think my life must have been boring since I was on an Iowa farm for all of it? Your life is boring only if you are bored with life. That to me is inconceivable. Life, and the consciousness of it, is the most miraculous thing that I know of. How can that be boring?

Jane Sarah Holmes Wilkinson, Truro, Iowa, 1945.

Chapter 1

A Widow

Dear Son:                                               Feb. 18, 1927, Truro, Iowa

Your father passed away a few days ago. I did not try to send you a telegram as I did not want you to try to come. The weather in Wyoming is too dangerous this time of year and Laura and Dan helped with the services. When the end was near your father told me not to tell you right away. Everything is taken care of and your father is buried. He left a will leaving everything to me so I don’t have to go through probate. We all knew it was coming, and Edward passed away peacefully. As you know, a little over a year ago the doctor told him that he had leukemia and that he needed hospitalization, but Edward just said all the doctors would do was get the farm and not help him so he just came home to die. He was a good husband and his problems are over. He worked hard and I’ll miss him but I’m glad he’s not worrying any more.

Edward had adopted a stray dog, Ned we call him, and he was a companion to the end. Now Ned is my friend. Laura and Dan wanted me to move in with them, but I’m staying in my own house. People tell me it’s pretty bare, but I like it that way, bare and neat. Some other place might not be to my liking. I’m nearly 65 and should be able to manage. Dan will keep the farm running and share profits with me, and that’s enough. He’ll pasture some of his cows over here and plant some corn. I don’t think it’s right to move in with your children unless there’s no choice. The church people have been a nuisance. I guess they mean well, but I don’t go to church. Too many hypocrites. In Boswell’s Life of Johnson, we find; no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures. If this is true, maybe church goers don’t always take pleasure in church. Edward was no hypocrite, but I gave him a church funeral. I figured he deserved that, and that was enough. Myself, I figure I get plenty of religion by reading the Bible.

I hope you and your family are OK. It must be tough out there in the winter.

Now, you’ll want to know what my other plans are. You always were the practical sort. I’ve written your brother Jerry about Edward’s death, and I’ve written Bobby’s wife. She’ll break the news to Bobby. If I wrote him, no telling when he would read it. I hope they get the letters. Your other sister Carolyn has been a help, but she does not live as close to me as Laura.

What I think is that the family still needs me. Jerry just roams the country and since he left his wife and son we never know where he is. As long as I have a house he has a place to come home to. He is a worry. Always was. I think Bobby will probably get along fine. Bobby has never really applied himself, and I guess his wife supports him by working as a nurse. Laura and Dan get along well, and so do their children and grandchildren, but I know they like me to be around. The old home place gives them an anchor to their lives.[3] That is even more true of Carolyn, Virgil and their children. This place is of course an anchor for me, more than anyone. The lower forty is even in my name since it came from the original homestead of John and Mary Holmes, my parents. Randolph, you remember the