Andrew

The photo at the left shows a basketball team of five young Tenney boys—four of whom would experience an event a few years later that would change their lives forever. These guys are, from left to right, Orval Wittman, Ralph Larson, Andrew Larson, Paul Roser, and one of the Kapitan boys (Warren, I think?).

My uncles, Andrew and Ralph Larson, like their father, A.N. Larson (who ran the Larson Store in Tenney), were avid hunters and fishermen from a young age, as were many young men in Tenney, and eagerly looked forward to the fall pheasant hunting season each year. In October of 1931, pheasant hunting was on the minds of the first four young men you see lined up in this photo—Orval, Ralph, Andrew, and Paul. The boys were all 16 or 17 years old. One can imagine the male adolescent chatter flying throughout the vehicle as this foursome was embarking on a late afternoon/evening of hunting with their buddies. Ralph and Andrew were in the front seat, with Ralph, age 16, driving. Orval and Paul were in the backseat; Orval behind Ralph, and Paul behind Andrew.

At 3:00 in the afternoon, in their travel toward a hunting destination just south of Wheaton, the boys spotted some pheasants by the side of the road. Ralph pulled over and, in the excitement and commotion of the moment as they were preparing to hop out of the car, Paul’s loaded gun accidentally discharged from the back seat, firing through the passenger-side car seat and hitting Andrew in the back, just above the hip.

17-year-old Andrew died that night at 11:00.

During the time between the accident and his death, Andrew was awake and was talking about his disappointment that, due to this injury, he would be unable to play basketball that winter for the North Dakota State School of Science (Wahpeton) basketball team. You can see from the above photo that Andrew was long and lean and even at a young age had a basketball in his hand. He was apparently a gifted athlete and was a starter on his Elbow Lake High School basketball team.

Andrew’s death at age 17 is tragic, and the effect on his family and community magnified by the death of his young mother only two years prior. My grandfather A.N., Andrew’s father, had to feel like a beaten man. As I mention in my book, A.N. was a compassionate man and a man of principle. Shortly after Andrew’s death, A.N. went to Paul Roser, the young man whose gun had accidentally discharged, put his arm around Paul’s shoulder, and assured him that this was an accident, that he was forgiven, and there was no malice toward him. A.N. and Paul remained friends for the remainder of their lives, and Paul Roser served as a pall bearer at Grandpa A.N.’s funeral 36 years later.

I am struck by the innocence of this photo—five young boys just being small town boys, yet full of promise and hope, as are all young children. Andrew’s face reflects a confident but gentle boy who could probably have had the world by the tail had he been given the opportunity. His striking resemblance to my mother [his half-sister] is compelling to me. Who could anticipate, in looking at this photo, the events in Andrew's life that would take away the innocence and promise of his young life? In a few short years, Andrew at age 15 would experience the extended illness and loss of his mother, and then lose his own life a mere two years later.

I am tempted to focus on what could have been and an unfinished life when I look into Andrew’s face. Instead, I wrestle myself into focusing on a 17-year life full of friends and school and family and hunting and the simple joys of living in the only town he ever really knew—the little town of Tenney, Minnesota.

Tenney Gathering - Time Confirmed

I mentioned in the previous post that I would let you know for sure when the times were confirmed for our Tenney gathering on Saturday, May 10. The times will be noon to 4:00 p.m., with Tenney stories and excerpts from THE TENNEY QUILT at 2:00.

I've heard from several of you already that you are going to try to get there - if you do know for sure, let me know. There's no way of knowing how many will come, but to a limited extent it will at least help us guess.

Hope to see you there - can't wait!

MARK THIS DATE ON YOUR CALENDAR

On Saturday, May 10, we are planning a get-together in Tenney. Though I was invited to come to Tenney to do a book signing on that day—and I will indeed be doing that—I want to expand it slightly and invite all of you to take a beautiful spring drive to Tenney that day. It is my hope that many of you who have some connection to or interest in Tenney will simply come and visit with me and with each other. There will be coffee, goodies, maybe a door prize or two, and yes—even a porta pottie. The actual Tenney Quilt will be on display so that you can find your people among the 530 separate people whose names appear on the quilt. I will be set up on the street outside the Tenney Church. How many places can you set up a table on the street and not get run over?

The time is not yet set in stone, but until you hear differently (I’ll let you know through this blog), we’ll plan on noon to about 4:00 p.m. I’d like to have some Tenney story telling at 2:00, with some excerpts from THE TENNEY QUILT, as well as any other reminiscences by any of you who have something to share. Other than that, this will simply be a time to visit. Come when you can; leave when you feel like it.

Yes, Tenney has changed. Some of you may find it desolate or depressing. But just as with our own homes, when we go “home,” we go to our families and our people, not necessarily the boards and bricks that made up the home in which we grew up. Most of the boards and bricks of Tenney are gone. But that shouldn’t stop us from coming together to reconnect with the people, the stories, the memories.

I will have a message board there that day, with messages from those who are unable to come. If you would like to put a message on that board, I encourage you to send it to me, either by e-mail (tenneyquilt@yahoo.com), or to 2007 Prairie Lane SW, Willmar, MN 56201. Be sure to include your name and how you are connected to Tenney.

May 10 is the Saturday of Mothers’ Day weekend. How fitting, especially for those of you that are familiar with THE TENNEY QUILT, that we all get together during a weekend that celebrates our mothers and the women who came before us.

I hope to see a great turn-out that day, and please spread the word. This event will be held RAIN OR SHINE.

Echo and Jean

The photo at the left is my favorite Tenney photo of all time, and it appears in my book, THE TENNEY QUILT. I gave a framed copy of this photo to my mother this past Christmas and it proudly hangs on her bedroom wall between two framed doilies made by Gertie Kapitan, a Tenney woman well-known by anyone who lived in Tenney prior to the 1950s. The women are lined up in the town hall in front of the stage. These 1920s-era women are wonderful in their ordinariness—a line-up of women of all shapes and sizes that took care of the families, their church, their neighbors, and the little community of Tenney for many years and whose spirit I tried to capture in THE TENNEY QUILT. I don’t know them all, but front and center, third from the left, is a most delightful image of little Jennie Waite. She’s the one with a dark hat, “granny glasses,” misbehaved hair, and the telling hands—tanned, leathered—of a farm wife who spent hours in the garden and in Jennie’s case, hunting mushrooms out in the grove.

Lately I have had the opportunity to do many book talks and book signings, and was in Little Falls (MN) this week to speak to the Prairie Point Quilters group. I was absolutely thrilled when two women walked up to me as I was getting set up and told me they were the granddaughters of Jennie Waite: Echo [Andersen] Kowalzek and Jean [Andersen] Schwinn. I recognized their names, as they were both book customers, and I had quoted some stories from Jean’s family history book in my own book. It was such a pleasure to meet these sharp, spry women of ages 84 and 81, and witness their joy in seeing Grandma Jennie Waite’s name on the quilt. I snapped a photo of them by the quilt (seen here--Echo's on the left, Jean on the right), and if you click on the photo and look closely you can see Jennie’s embroidered name.

Though the sisters grew up in the St. Cloud area, they visited Tenney often as children and Echo told me the story of the time during her youth when she came and stayed for the entire summer at her grandparents’ farm, and hung out with Lois Wittman and Adeline Kapitan, and even played with my mother, who was a few years younger. They both told of their affection for the little town of Tenney, and shared many Tenney memories with me.

Grandma Jennie was born in Wisconsin and left home at age 12 to work for the Dexter Cross family, taking care of the children. In 1878, she traveled with the Billy Cross family to the Tenney area and worked for them for three years until she married Thomas B. (“T.B.”) Waite in 1881. While working for the Cross family, she owned one set of clothes. She would have to get in bed when they were being washed.

According to Jean Schwinn’s family history book, Jennie was called on many times to help care for neighbors and family members—she delivered babies (even nursed a neighbor’s child at the same time as one of her own!), cared for new mothers until they were on their feet again, prepared bodies of the recently departed to be “laid out,” and made beautiful knitted lace. T.B. and Jennie had seven children—Mayme, Earl, Carrie, Bessie, Florence, Rodger and Margaret, and they were very “hard up,” as such condition was expressed in those days. When T.B. died, the farm was rented out. Jennie had to borrow money to cover family debts. She borrowed $2,000 from a neighbor and signed over the farm as collateral. The lender said, “Don’t worry, Jennie, I’ll never foreclose,” but he did. She lost the 400-acre farm.

Jennie and her son Rodger rented various places, eventually landing in Tenney in a house next to the parsonage. After Rodger died, Jennie lived alone there until age 89, in 1947. She is buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in rural Tenney, where I have visited her and others frequently. If there is ever a second Tenney book, Jennie will certainly be featured as one of the pioneer women.