Clem Wilding's Life as a Bird Carver

By Mary Wilding

"Clem Wilding's Life as a Bird Carver" attempts to capture the essence of a man who lived his dream by working with wood and paint. He achieved a lifestyle consistent with his personality and as a role model for his children, 6 grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews. Parts of this book pull together and publish some of his own writings for great-grandchildren, extended family, friends, and collectors of the thousands of carvings he made.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503571303

Mary Wilding

Mary Wilding was born July 7, 1948 to Clem Wilding and Dorothy Groner Wilding and a 4 1/2 year old brother John. They lived on a farm near Berger, MO. Mary attended UMC and following a BA in mathematics worked in a variety of jobs. Over a 45 year period the jobs ranged from medical research assistant to programmer analyst to math specialist in a community college. Mary spent most of her working career in St. Louis where she met her husband, Ed McPherson, and their son, Christopher, was born. They often spent weekends in the country and when Chris began high school, Ed, Mary and Chris moved to the farm inherited from Clem and Dot. Ed and Mary continue to live in the home where Clem created so many works of art. They share their environment with deer, wild turkey and many smaller birds. Currently, Mary's volunteer activities include quilting, reading to preschool children, and tutoring junior high students in math. Mary can be reached at [e-mail].

Book preview

Clem Wilding’s Life

as a Bird Carver

Mary Wilding

Copyright © 2015 by Mary Wilding.

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 07/10/2015

Xlibris

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Contents

Chapter 1    Clem’s Youth

Chapter 2    Autobiography of Clem Wilding

Chapter 3    Clem Wilding Meets Dot Groner

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6    Clem Wilding and a Few of His Clients

Chapter 7    Private Journal from 1986

Chapter 8    Miscellaneous Comments

CHAPTER 1

Clem’s Youth

In December of 1909, two days before Christmas, a child was born. In fact, he was the ninth child to Herman and Anna Pfautsch Wilding. He had four older brothers and four older sisters.

There was no fast way to tell people, but there was a postal system and a nearby train, and most of the interested people lived nearby. An uncle and aunt lived on the other side of the river, so they were probably notified by post.

Clem was born at home as was the norm during that period, and when he was three days old, he was taken to church to be baptized in the Catholic religion. His eldest sister, Agnes, and a neighbor, Roy Kellner, were his godparents.

Before that, however, he was named. The Catholic Church gave out calendars every year. As his mom was in her eighth month and he was nearing birth, the picture for November was of St. Clement. She probably meditated on the picture while she worked as there was lots of work with no indoor plumbing, no electricity, and no telephones. They already had an Adolph, Oswald, Julius, and a Lambert. This baby was called Clement Stephan.

He wrote about his childhood and living in a large family during this period. He also told us stories.

He told us how he was closest to his younger brother (three years younger). One of my favorite stories was how he and Hap would zip under a table when Santa was mentioned. Now you may think, they were told how Santa would bring toys and oranges and treats at Christmastime. Not so. The rumor (and the older brothers and sisters made the most of this) was that Santa would put boys and girls in gunny sacks and take them away. As very shy little boys, they weren’t going to take any chances!

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Hap and Clem with horses

Clem and Hap also had a goat that caused lots of problems—getting into stuff it shouldn’t, eating clothes off the line, and such. They could hook it up to a cart though, so that made it seem like a real useful pet!

Clem went to a one-room Catholic school mostly with his brothers and cousins. He was good in everything but loved art as it was taught by his teacher, Mary Hamilton. She guided and encouraged his talent, and he continued his love of art not only through school but for the rest of his life.

He painted pictures usually on cardboard or Masonite, and then he started carving birds and animals. My brother, John, remembers him making a shadow box and not sure what to do with it. John says it was our mother who suggested putting birds in it. He probably had carved a few in the past, and this would be a way to enhance the frame and the carvings. And so a talent was furthered.

This book is a collection of parts of Clem’s life primarily for interested relatives, friends, and collectors of these bird carvings. At one time, he wrote about his childhood and later about meeting his wife and their early life together. Clem also kept the letters my mother wrote to him before they were married. He treasured these and kept them all together, and they were moved from house to house. All these documents are in this book.

Some of this part of his early life is repeated in the autobiography he wrote. I just chose to repeat some of it. The documents I have are all precious tome and I hope in turn you will enjoy reading them. They are about a talented man in the mid-1900s who had a dream that became a reality. On May 17, 1989, I lost a great person in my life, as did my mother, my brother and his family, my family, and all the other people who knew him.

I am going to tell you right up front, my father was not formally well educated. He completed grade school, and after that, he treasured knowledge in addition to art and nature. When others may have gone to high school, he helped his dad and brothers farm. I remember that he read a lot—mostly magazines like Audubon, the Missouri historical magazine, and various art and antique magazines. His writings may not always be grammatically correct. I want his personality, however, to shine through as some precious bits would be lost if I had made changes other than to correct a misspelling now and then which may cause it to lose the meaning. In fairness, his writings were quickly jotted down, not written and rewritten until it was polished for publication.

I want his legacy to be remembered and record what I remember and what others remember who have shared stories with me.

CHAPTER 2

Autobiography of Clem Wilding

Date of birth: December 23, 1909, near Berger, Missouri, a very cold winter. Dad carried me to church for three-fourths mile through about one foot of snow. Dad took the lead in the deep snow to break a trail. Sisters Agnes and Olivia and a boy neighbor, Roy Kellner, were following behind. Agnes and Roy were my sponsors (godparents). I was baptized three days after birth during very cold weather, and I was really bundled up. I was the ninth child of the family. My older sisters and brothers did most of my bringing up.

Mother was very good but wanted to place a little responsibility on the older children to be able to face the future. One brother was born after me and was closest to me all through life.

The first thing that stands out in my memory was my oldest sister Agnes’s wedding. I was three and a half years old, and I still remember the wedding dance at home after fifty years. The neighborhood boys furnished the music. They were good musicians though they never took a music lesson from anybody. They were self-taught and played entirely by ear. Dad often played in their band. This was a string orchestra. Dad played the bass fiddle. One of the boys could not afford to buy his own fiddle so Dad lent him $6 to buy one. It later turned out that it was a genuine Stradivarius and was valued at thousands of dollars. They did not realize this until about forty years later.

Dad was a man of few words. When it came to raising kids, he had a look that showed love, commanded respect and authority all at the same time. I don’t remember ever getting switched. Dad was a contractor and had quite a spacious workshop in the farm where we lived. This was one place in the farm among all the buildings and places that we kids were not allowed to enter at any time unless he was there where he could watch over us. He did a lot of his carpentry work in there on rainy days or when weather was cold; he would make window and door frames for houses that that he built in the summer.

He also made nice things for Mother, such as a fancy shelf or a picture frame. This shop always fascinated me. I just loved to watch him work with wood. As soon as I was big enough to hold a knife, I wanted to work with it too. I always liked the feel of it. I was really surprised at myself when I came up with a little boat that I whittled with my knife. Often in the summer when Dad was out on a