The Little Boy from Wagoner Hill

By Clifford Zimmer

The book was transcribed from his notes by Douglas Zimmer, a grandson through his son George Robert (Bob) Zimmer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503585140

Clifford Zimmer

The author of this autobiography is Clifford Zimmer. He is third-generation Prussian American.

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Copyright © 2015 by Clifford Zimmer.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015911369

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-8516-4

                Softcover        978-1-5035-8515-7

                eBook             978-1-5035-8514-0

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.

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Rev. date: 07/17/2015

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E ditor’s Note: This was copied by Doug Zimmer, grandson of Clifford George Zimmer, and son of George ‘Bob’ Zimmer from a hand written manuscript found after my father’s death. It was written on a small paper tablet, of which the binding had disintegrated and all of the pages were loose. I have made no changes of any consequence except a very few grammatical changes. I am thankful to grandpa for making this record, to dad for preserving it, and to my wife for a last edit c heck.

Introduction

D on’t expect the intimacy of my life to be exposed here.

I would not let my children or my grandchildren know of these. I think I have this right of privacy.

I n 1860

there was born in East Wayland a man by the name of George Zimmer*. He had three brothers, Fred, William, and Philip**.

(Now this is supposition: Four sisters K. R. LaRue of Wheeler, Mrs. Chris Stroble, Mrs. C. C. Hill, Miss Elizabeth Zimmer. The last three from Dansville, New York)***

He was a man of great ambition and energy. He lived in East Wayland a number of years farming it. He finally met a farm girl with looks and ambition. Her name was Julia Strick. She has three brothers and two half-brothers. Brothers were Adam, Lewis, and Philip. Half-brothers were Chris Kausch and Jacob Kausch. I can’t say too much about this second marriage on Julia’s mother’s side as I was never told to my knowledge too much about it and I was too dumb to ask questions****.

They were married and had three sons, Bert, Alonzo, and Arthur while they lived in East Wayland. Then George got the urge to have a farm of his own. He knew that a doctor by the name of Matthews and a lawyer named Chase had this farm of 230 acres outside of Avoca on what was called Wheeler Hill. He and his wife looked it over and decided it was what they wanted. The price was $5,500.00 which was a lot in those days with a family of three and another one on the way which later was called Clifford.*****

Now George had no easy time paying for this place. The three older boys were pretty small to help much but I am sure they helped when they were able.

George and my brothers would plant 25 and 30 acres of potatoes to sell to help pay for the farm. One year the bottom fell out of the potatoes, in other words the price went way down. George had put 3,000 bushels in the cellar expecting a good price (say 75 cents) but he had to carry them all out of the cellar and sell them for 15 cents a bushel. The poor man took a licking that year. But Matthews and Chase knew that he would make it or else. Julia would make butter and sell it; also eggs of course. Most of this was swapped for groceries. These are but a few of the hardships they went through to pay for the farm and raise us into manhood.

By now I am sure you must know that Cliff is writing about his Dad and Mother and Brothers. I was born on Wheeler Hill in 1898 with the help of a neighbor woman. Shortly after I was born I had scrofula and for a long time my Dad and Mom would change off carrying me around on a pillow. I had tubes running in one side of my neck and out the other draining the puss from the lymphatic gland. Thanks to two wonderful parents I am here today to tell about it.

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George and Julia Zimmer

Quite some time later Bert took sick one night in the winter with terrible pains in his side. Dad hitched up the horses on the sleigh and drove into town to get the doctor. He came out of the bedroom after the examination and said it looks like appendicitis and that Mom and Dad should keep putting hot plates wrapped in towels on his stomach until morning and if by that time the pain hadn’t gone he would come out and operate at the house. This was another time of loving parents. You see their life was no bed of roses and their pleasures were much less.

I don’t remember too much outside of feeding the chickens and gathering the eggs of being much help. About eight years of age I remember Dad saying you think you could drag that field over there and I said yes so he hitched the mules up and we went to the field where he hooked them to the drag and started me off. Well I want to tell you the mules made my legs move. This was a field of 16 acres and I was through by noon and dead on my feet that night. Supper and off to bed. I didn’t wait to play Old Maid, Flinch, or dominoes which was our way of entertainment at night. Sometime we would pop corn and Mom would put melted butter on it but not too often as any surplus was traded for groceries. Then sometimes Bert would play the organ and we would all gather around and sing. Eating apples at night in the winter was another evening past time. When it was time to butcher the hogs, Lon and Dad would kill them and clean them and cut them up into roasts, hams, bacon strips and get them ready to smoke in the smoke house.

There was always sausage which was done at night. These strips of meat was all laid out on a table and Mom would always do the seasoning. Then the grinding would begin. Sometimes I would turn the grinder and sometimes Lon would. This was no easy job. Dad would feed the grinder the lean strip and fat to mix it up. Mom would take this sausage and pack it in 5 lb. crocks and take grease from the lard of the hogs and pour over the packed sausage. This would keep it way into spring weather. She would cook the tenderloin and put it in cans or glass jars and pour the grease over it.

Another evening job was to peel apples with a hand machine which would core and slice the apple at the same time. These would be put out in the sun to dry, later to make pies from. We used to cut the sweet corns from the cob to dry or to can as Mom saw fit. In the fall of the year we would put apples in three or four barrels and pour sand around them to keep them all through the winter. Mom would can all kinds of vegetables and fruit.

Wheat was ground into flour by a miller. This was done on a percentage basis; so much grain for so much flour. This was for bread and for pies and etc… Buckwheat was dealt with the same way. This was for pancakes. All this was done to save money to make payments on the farm. When the threshers would come to our farm they would come with the idea of staying for meals as they knew that Mom was a good cook. She would