The Spare: Part 1

By Marsha May Fairchild Sumpter

I was born and raised on a working ranch twenty-eight miles north of Philip, South Dakota. As a young person, we worked hard and played hard, and events that occurred caused considerable pain to me both mentally and physically. My choices were not the best, and at seventeen, I was much on my own. The saying "I was the only hell my mother ever ra

• Language: English
• Publisher: ARPress
• Release date: Jul 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798893303070

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Copyright © 2023 by Marsha May Fairchild Sumpter

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2024900957

To Bill

Contents

Preface 

The Great Depression 

Arrival 

Mom and Family 

Philip Home 

Dad and Family 

Courtship 

First Home 

Washing Clothes 

Firstborn 

Second Born 

The Great Debate 

The Fire 

The Bill Mann Place 

Land Trading 

The Fantastic Barn 

Shearing 

Haying 

The Trip of a Lifetime 

Our Yellowstone Trip 

Monday Laundry 

Blizzard of ’49 

Reunion 

The Homeplace 

Survive and Grow 

The Blizzard of 1952 

Breakfast, Dinner, Supper 

Dinner/Lunch 

Supper/Dinner 

Time for Bed 

Doctoring 

The Radio, Then TV 

The Stranger 

Milking 

Dams & the Shelter Belt 

Horses 

Lambing 

School 

4-H and YCL 

Church 

Guns 

Driving 

The Outhouse 

What If? 

Beer and Fast Cars 

About the Author 

Preface

I have put this information together in the hopes that people will see what a hardship it was to persevere in the rough times of the formation of this country. The hearty folks that came, settled, and weathered the many storms and trials handed them by Mother Nature and life in general have to be applauded and revered for their persistence.

They passed on to the next generation the strength to wade in and get things done. Even though each of the three of us made choices that maybe weren’t the best, we lived with them and corrected what we could.

We all left the farm and left Mom and Dad to handle things on their own. Kent went into the Navy as soon as he graduated high school, came back to the farm for a short time, and reenlisted in the Navy and made it a career. Bruce came back to the farm after some college. He married and tried to farm/ranch and then moved on to the Seattle, Washington, area and worked for Boeing, retiring there. I was in Rapid for several years as the story goes and finally moved with family back to the farm.

The Great Depression

My life on this earth started after the Great Depression, but both Mom and Dad were up-front and personal with that devastating time. There was no money for food. Animals starved due to no moisture, and the relentless wind blew the farm ground into great drifts, burying everything in its path. Along with the wind and blowing dirt came locus, devoured everything in their flight. The siding on houses was eaten, fence posts, any green spears of plants gone overnight. Finally during that time from 1929 roughly through 1938, help finally came in the form of Civilian Conservation Corps set into motion in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dad went to work there as a young man. The CCC enrolled mostly young, unskilled, and unemployed men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Each worker received $30 in payment per month for his services in addition to room and board at a work camp. The men were required to send $22 to $25 of their monthly earnings home to support their families. Considered by many to be one of the most successful of Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, the CCC planted more than three billion trees and constructed trails and shelters in more than eight hundred parks nationwide during its nine years of existence. The CCC helped to shape the modern national and state park systems we enjoy today.

Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930’s, Volume III compiled by Rita VanAmber has me captivated by the stories. Does history repeat itself? Here in South Dakota, they were referred to as the Dirty Thirties, but if you ask someone born and raised on the West Coast, they quite often had never heard of it.

The Great Depressions was a worldwide phenomenon caused, in part, by maldistribution, as stated in Current History, 1932. There was no shortage of supplies, but there was a shortage of consumption. The rich saved and didn’t consume and the middle and poor classes were not able to buy, soon the middle class was reduced to the poor… Big business was blamed for hard times and as banks closed bankers and board members were suspected of mishandling funds and some were tried for fraud.

The Great Depression was more than that, it was also the great discouragement, the great despondency and the great despair at a national level.

As our nation struggles to stand upright against the deficit that continues to climb as well as reducing the middle and poor class to all poor with the high price of fuel, which in turn raises the cost of consumable items, we need to regain perspective and faith and control.

Arrival

I’m ready! Here it is, July 15, 1943, and I’m ready to be born. Mom and Dad have loaded things in the car, including my two older brothers and are taking them to Aunt Marion’s until Mom and I get home. But wait, oh no, now Dad is asking Mom if she can hold off having this baby until he can milk the cow, of all things! What does it take to get born around here?

Good grief, it’s twenty-some miles to get to town, the roads are dirt and rough, and Mom agreed to wait while the cow got milked. It seems that Dad couldn’t find the old heifer the night before, and with another hungry mouth on the way, they need to keep the cow fresh as long as possible. On a farm, you never know what will cause a delay, but usually it is a cow or sheep that tangles things up.

That was a close call, but anyway we made it. Now to get settled into this new world around me. It is a dry year, grass is short and fields not doing the best, and the United States is fighting World War II. What a time to get here!

Mom was in the hospital for quite a while. Sometimes new mothers stay for ten days or so, but that gave us a chance to settle in together. She wrote letters to family rather than baby announcements. Her letter to Aunt Emma (Fairchild) Patterson, July 18, 1943, reads,

Dear Pat and Emma, A girl! All predictions failed and I got my wish. Marsha May was born last (July 15) Thursday at 10:25 a.m. And weighed 8 lbs 11 oz. A nice big fat black haired baby. Wayne was just as glad it was a girl as I was. We have our complete family unit, barring accidents. I’m feeling fit as can be and as far as I know the baby is healthy. The weather has been so cool that I’m really enjoying my last vacation. Marion and Clint were up to see me a few minutes yesterday but Grandma and daddy Wayne haven’t been in yet. Of course Wayne was here last Thursday. Maybe all my family will be in today, I hope.

The letter goes on about the farm work and other news, but of course, I was the most important thing that happened.

Oh man, I got so excited about finally getting to be out in the open I almost forgot to tell you about the rest of the family. As I indicated, I have two brothers, four and two years older than me. Many a time I thought it would have been great to be an only child, but I came into the picture a little too late to get that wish.

Mom and Family

Mom was the youngest of four, born May 19, 1918, to Fleeta May (Weeks) Sherwood and MC (Mervin Curtis) Sherwood: Edna May, born July 5, 1908; John Gates, September 17, 1910; Charles Gordon, July 1, 1916. Mom was born in Pierre, and Dr. A. H. young’s delivered her at 9:30 p.m. at St. Marty’s Hospital. Edna took on the responsibilities of taking care of her brothers, John and Charles. Her Uncle Bert was around to help as well. Just a month after Fleeta brought Mom home from the hospital, M. C. deserted the family. Fleeta May wrote in her baby book, Papa left on June 12th and came home again July 14. He went away again July 22… Baby Ruth sobs very hard some nights in her sleep. This is the results of her mother’s suffering before she was born. Mom had no recollection of her father. Edna, being the oldest remembers going with him and his secretary, Miss Tallage, when land transactions were taking place. MC was a teller in the Midland Bank and had gotten capital from both his and Fleeta’s relatives to help start the bank. Then loans were made to others for the purchase of land. The land deals went sour, and the bank ended up with bankruptcies and foreclosures and ownership of land they didn’t want. Several years after the bank was built and operational, MC moved his family from Midland to Philip. There he started up an abstract company. It was speculated that because of the investments he’d made that went bad was why he abruptly left without a trace, and there was also speculation that he had become unstable when he was struck by a baseball in the head. Whatever the reason, May found herself alone to raise four children: Edna, ten; John, six; Charles, two; and Ruth, an infant. MC’s uncle Bert (Gilbert Tayler) Blackman had come to live with the family while they were still in Midland, and he moved with them to Philip. Even after MC was gone, Uncle Bert worked for farmers and ranchers during the summer and the elevator in the winter months and lived at the Sherwood home and helped the family financially.

Edna was on hand and remembers quite vividly the arrival of her brother Charles at their home in Midland. It was in the upstairs bedroom. The doctor came, and there was quite a fuss. Edna, age seven, and Brother John, age four, were in the hallway trying to hear what was going on. They occupied some of their time playing in the basement as well because the adults kept shooing them out of the way. At the time Mom was due, Edna was nearly ten years old and very capable of helping around the home.

The day the family had been waiting for arrived, and Baby was born. Fleeta May was forty years old when Mom was born. It seemed easier to call the new arrival Baby, but three months down the road, she was named after her great-great-grandmother Ruth Fuller-Little by her Aunt Frankie Little (Mrs. JC Deal) of Kalamazoo, Michigan.