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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781426919633 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 08/18/2010 |
| Pages: | 248 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d) |
Read an Excerpt
Years of Grace and Grit
Growing Up on an Illinois FarmBy Del Kehl
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2010 Del KehlAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4269-1963-3
Chapter One
I. Sense of Place"... The sense of the place, the savor of the genie-soul of the place which every place has or else is not a place ... There it is as big as life, the genie-soul of the place which, wherever you go, you must meet and master first thing or be met and mastered.... This Midwestern sky is the nakedest, loneliest sky in America." (Walker Percy, The Moviegoer)
"The end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time." (T. S. Eliot, "Little Gidding," The Four Quartets)
The Region
The Kehl place is located in the gently rolling hills of northwestern Illinois. It's situated in a region shaped roughly like a crescent or triangle (sometimes called the I-88 Corridor), bounded on the east and south by the Rock River, on the west by the Mississippi River and Iowa, on the north by Wisconsin. This region, punctuated in its northeast corner by Rockford and Beloit, its southwest tip by the Quad Cities (Rock Island, Moline, Bettendorf, Davenport), and its northwest tip by East Dubuque and Galena, is arguably one of the most historic and picturesque in the state. It boasts the homes of two U.S. presidents—Grant's home in historic Galena and Reagan's boyhood home in Dixon—as well as other historic places, such as the site of the second Lincoln-Douglas debate in Freeport, the Arsenal Prison for Confederate soldiers at Rock Island, site of the Second Battle of Black Hawk near Kent (a 56-acre battlefield where 23 were ambushed in 1832 and where Abe Lincoln, with militia from Dixon, came to help bury the dead). It includes the scenic 2550-acre Mississippi Palisades State Park north of Savanna, five other state parks, the highest point in Illinois (1,236 feet, near Scales Mound), and other attractions. It encompasses three counties (Carroll, Jo Daviess, Stephenson) and parts of four others (Winnebago, Ogle, Lee, Whiteside). Besides the mighty Mississippi River and Rock River, waterways include the Apple, Galena, Pecatonica, Sugar, and Plum rivers, along with Apple Canyon Lake, Lake Le-Aqua-Na, Spring Lake, and Lake Carroll (manmade). Towns with female names seem to abound in this region—for example, Elizabeth, Lena, Nora, Florence, Pearl City, Adeline, Shannon, Coleta. It was a wonderful place in which to grow up, but as Fred Allen said, "California's a wonderful place to live—if you happen to be an orange," so some might say that northwestern Illinois is a wonderful place to live—if you happen to be a stalk of corn. The Carroll County area itself is said to have been called "Man-I-Tumi" by the Indians, meaning "Land of God."
The Town
The Kehl hometown, of course, is Mount Carroll, named after Charles Carroll of Maryland, the last survivor among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. (Shortly before his death at 95 in 1832, Carroll wrote: "On the mercy of my redeemer I rely for salvation, and on his merits, not on the works I have done in obedience to his precepts.") "Mount" signifies its consideration as a quaint little "city" set on a hill (originally called "Baby Mountain"). The town dates from 1841, when a flour mill was built on Waukarusa Creek (the mill terminated in the 1920s), plotted in 1843 and designated the county seat, but it developed slowly until 1862 with the arrival of the Chicago, Minneapolis, and St. Paul Railroad. Residents reportedly called the town "a bit of New England in the Middle West." In his book Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places, Bob Puhala devotes 35 pages to Northwestern Illinois, describing Mt. Carroll as "pure nineteenth-century Midwest America with its cobblestone courthouse square in the center of town, Victorian architecture, and 1870's-style storefronts lining Main Street." Another writer has referred to the town's Federal, Italianate, and Queen Anne styles. A 19th century writer described the town and its environs as follows: "The Indians were numerous and friendly. Game and fish were abundant, and so were mosquitoes, flies, and raccoons, also blackbirds, crows, and other birds of prey. In fact, the first corn fields had to be guarded from the depredations of the latter." According to the 2000 census, there were 1,832 residents but 1,704 in 2005, with 41% reporting German ancestry.
Notable features include the town square with its red brick Italianate courthouse, constructed in 1858, and the 1891 Civil War monument, crowned by a cavalryman holding a flag and facing cemetery hill, another facing south and holding a rifle, left leg thrust forward and symbolizing "Endurance," a mustachioed third soldier facing north, his right hand resting on a revolver in his belt and symbolizing "courage." The inscription reads: "Slavery abolished. Carroll County to the memory of the men who saved the Union that their Example may speak to Coming Generations." An annex (1895) of additional names (listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not as the only memorial with an annex) is adjacent, along with cannons and bandstand. To the north is the Glen View Hotel, built in 1886. The female "Seminary," which opened in 1853 and later became Shimer College (its Georgian Revival buildings dating from 1905) closed in 1978 and was converted to the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies. The Christian Science Monitor described the town as follows: "A small round-paned window here, a few pillars there, a curlicued pediment somewhere else ... (here) is a beautiful town."
We Kehl kids didn't think of the town as especially "beautiful," but I remember the "thrill" of going to town sporadically to attend Sunday School and church at the Methodist Church and, during bad weather and planting and harvest seasons less often, on Saturday afternoon to get groceries at the A & P ("Gonna go down to the A & Pee") or, less often, at Nobles (Red and White) (seldom at Royal Blue), and to stand or sit around to watch who drove repeatedly down Market Street, made a U-Turn at Ivy's Monuments, and back up. Sometimes midweek trips to town were required to get a part for machinery or to get a broken part fixed (I loved to ride with John on his motorcycle on these trips). In town, Dad would sometimes give one of us money to get candy at Marth's ("Now don't get candy with nuts, because you know I can't chew it!") or over-ripe bananas at Nobles. (I recall one time being chided for getting chocolate-covered peanuts, having forgotten that he couldn't eat it.) Less commonly, we might go to Isenharts for a dish of ice cream (Meadow Gold, of course) or a Cherry Coke or a malt. On those trips to town we always hoped (but dared not presume to ask) to stop at Colehours gas station on the way home, for a bottle of Orange or Grape pop!
Major establishments in town included Krafts Clothing Store (on the Kinney Block), Marths Five-and-Dime, The Mirror Democrat newspaper office, Carroll Café, Fred Lee's Insurance Office—all on Main Street; Gambles, Coast-to-Coast, Isenhart's Restaurant, Poffenburger's Tavern, Sievert's Tavern, Fay Christian Funeral Home, Ivy's Monuments, Zink's Barber Shop (under the First National Bank)—all on Market Street; the Post Office, Noble's jewelry store, offices of Drs. Mershon and Petty, Franks Furniture and Funeral Home—all on Clay Street.
For me, the most distinctive establishment was the Mt. Carroll Township Public Library on the southwest corner of Main and Rapp Streets, funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1907. (Reportedly, Carnegie was so pleased that the two-story brick and stone structure could be built for the $10,000 he had contributed, he donated an additional $10,000 to purchase tables, chairs, and book stacks.) The library, with 1,250 books, opened to the public in August of 1908. (I remember Roberta Williamson, who was librarian from 1928-1959, and Mrs. Seitner shushing for silence and making sure no one presumed to check out more than five books at a time. I spent many hours browsing in the stacks and exploring the less-frequented upstairs rooms.)
Adjacent to the library was the Carroll Theatre, but we weren't permitted to attend movies, except for one we attended with Mel—"God Is My Co-Pilot," starring Dennis Day, the title apparently convincing our folks that maybe it wouldn't be too corrupting. Later we saw Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies, and Dad enjoyed seeing "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police." Farther down Main Street, past the Community House, was the brick grade school and high school (see more in Chapter VI). The town's churches were clustered in this vicinity—Methodist Episcopal (which we attended as children), First Baptist, Evangelical Lutheran, Church of God (directly across from the school), a small Catholic church on a side street, and the Center Hill United Brethren Church a few miles west of town (see more in Chapter VIII).
This little country town is situated not just on one hill but on several, including Punkin Hill on the east side. We moved from the farm to 210 Jackson Street in November of 1952. Mother and Dad did a lot of remodeling—closing up some windows and doors, later digging a septic tank and adding a bathroom designed and planned by Mother. She also drew up the decorative trim for the shelves, and Dad cut them out. Neighbors included Cora Rogers on one side and Mrs. Getz on the other, the McCrays, Cooney Hearse (later Ralph and Mildred Rogers), and the Davises across the street.
The Caroline Mark home, with its well-manicured lawn and nature trails for visitors, is on the northeast side, having been built in 1906 for elderly ladies at no cost to them. Good Samaritan Nursing Home, where Dad resided for several years until his death, is on the northwest edge of town. Point Rock Park, with Castle Rock on Waukarusa Creek, lies below Oak Hill Cemetery, which has gravestones dating back to the 1800s, the inevitable destination of most who remain in Mt. Carroll.
As for other little towns surrounding Mt. Carroll, each of us associates them with particular events and visits. Savanna, for years possessing the only stoplight in Carroll County, boasted a hospital and ordnance depot (referred to as "The Proving Ground"). As both a river and railroad town, Savanna had a certain reputation for wildness (where guys cruised the streets looking for girls). Stockton, north on route 78, was more sedate, where Uncle Chris and Aunt Ida lived and where Chris had his egg/ poultry business, where a quaint elevated wooden bridge carried traffic over the railroad yard. I remember Thomson mainly for its melons, both Chadwick and Shannon for visits (cold winter rides in the Model A) to the dentist (Dr. H. H. Hoy, who ironically tried to bribe us into submissive behavior with candy and gum), Milledgeville as the site of the Carroll County Fair (and where Mary worked in the Cheese Factory, slicing and weighing the Swiss cheese), Morrison for the Whiteside Country Fair and the Lincoln Highway that runs through the town, Lanark for the Green Giant Canning Factory (where I worked one summer), Loran and Pearl City mainly as way-points to Freeport, little Massbach as Mother's territory, Warren as site of the Jo Daviess Country Fair, Woodbine as the little town to which Mary and I remember riding with Mother and Dad to make farm loan payments to the Heidenreichs, or later as stop-overs on the way to or from Galena (the latter being my choice of the town with the most charm in the region).
Neighbors and The Neighborhood
The Kehl place is a 249.7-acre farm seven miles north of town, in Carroll County (near the Jo Daviess County line), Freedom Township. Growing up, I recall going to and from town most often by way of "the cement," Highway 78—out the gravel road (for long just rutted mud, sifting dust, or drifting snow), past Judases, Sage School, Tiptons, the Charley Wolf place, left on the highway, past the Billy/Howard Schmidt farm, the Guentzler place, the Kecklers, up Sisler Hill, past the Elizabeth Road and Woodland Road, past Colehour's little gas station at the edge of town, up the hill and over the bridge, past the Glen View Hotel and courthouse square, with the post office on the left. Later, when Meyers Road was blacktopped, it was more common to take that route—down the hill past Nowaks, past the Skunk Hollow turnoff, over Plum River, past the Miseks and Butts places, past the Meyers farms, over the curvy highway (where John's car slid on the ice one winter when he was taking Mary and me to high school), past the Caroline Mark home and the American Legion Hall, onto Route 78 near the bridge.
Surely any history of the Kehl farm and family would be incomplete without some consideration of the two dozen or so neighboring farms and families, which, though isolated in varying degrees, constituted at least a semblance of community. When a shyster lawyer, seeking to justify himself, asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus related the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29), illustrating that a neighbor is a fellow human being, especially one in need, who is nearby (the word itself derived from the Old English neahgebur, literally "a nigh farmer"). "A bad neighbor is a misfortune," the 8th century B.C. poet Hesiod said, "as much as a good one is a blessing." The Kehl family was fortunate to have many of the latter and few of the former.
Each of us could make our own list of each kind, probably using some different criteria. Someone has defined a neighbor as "a person who knows more about your affairs than you do." Would a good neighbor be someone who minds his/her own business and lets you mind yours? That seems to be what Marcus Aurelius meant when he said, "How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy." The Roman poet Horace said, "It is your concern when your neighbor's wall is on fire," maybe not because of concern for the neighbor's loss, we might add, but concern for the security of your own. Another poet, Robert Frost in "Mending Wall," said, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, / That wants it down," but his neighbor insists, "Good fences make good neighbors." Most farmers, certainly including Dad and my brothers, would endorse the second view, especially after walking the fence lines following a spring flood, having to repair a neighbor's fence, or driving his cows from our hayfield or cornfield. The Scriptures command us repeatedly to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 19:19b, 22:39, Romans 13:9b, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8). English poet George Herbert summed up the matter when he said, "Love your neighbor, yet pull not down your hedge."
It might be helpful to envision the Kehl place as a hub with the neighboring farms in a series of three concentric circles connected by spokes to the center. The first circle, in closest proximity to the center, includes ten neighboring farms and families-the Judases, Tiptons, Nobles/ Nowaks, Kaufmans, Boens, Kantlehners, Fredericks, Schmidts, Maders, Beckenkellers/Dixons. The second circle includes eight—Rob Tipton/ Charlie Wolf, Randeckers/Deweys, Roy Schuberts, Prestons, Weeks, Wuebbens, Miseks, Lutts. The third circle includes seven—Dindermans, Rausches, Butts, Pollards, Wilsons, Meyers, Howard Schmidts. Some were tenant farmers, struggling to make ends meet and support their families, often a difficult matter if weather—drought, flooding, tornadoes—ruined crops or caused a poor yield, if equipment and feed costs rose and prices for milk, eggs, cattle, and hogs dropped, or if bad management or illness delayed getting the crops in on time, cultivating them, or harvesting them in a timely manner.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Years of Grace and Grit by Del Kehl Copyright © 2010 by Del Kehl. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction: It Takes a Family....................viiI. Sense of Place....................1
II. Kehl Family History: A Sense of Roots....................29
III. The Kehl Siblings: We Are Six....................61
IV. Remembrance of Things Past: A Kehl Sibling Dialogue....................101
V. Kehl Talk....................159
VI: Telling Tales Out of School....................169
VII. Flavor of a Family: Proof of the Pudding Is in the Eating....................189
VIII. A Legacy of Faith....................215
Conclusion: A Good Beginning and a Good End....................229