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Harold Balis Stevens
by Granny Stevens
26 February 2004Dear Children,
Today I am writing to you about your grandpa's daddy. His name is Harold.
Harold Balis Stevens was born 25 Aug 1908 in Redfield South Dakota. He was the third child of Edmund Stevens and Flora Lulu Balis, joining his sister Kathryn Harriet who was almost 8 and his brother Paul, age 6. The Stevens had been in the Brodhead area of Wisconsin since 1878. But in the spring of 1908, Edmund and Flora, pregnant with Harold, decided to try their luck farming in South Dakota. They had planned to go west with Edmund's sister and husband, Ina and Lennie Dedrick of Brodhead, but the Dedricks never showed up. Edmund and Flora stayed for six years homesteading and living in a sod house in Spink County near the town of Redfield. About 1914 the family returned to Footville, Wisconsin. I have a postcard that Flora sent to her sister Hettie in California. It's dated March 2, 1914 and postmarked from Brodhead.
"Dear Sister. We are here and we are settled but we are all too tired to think of writing much. Harold has been quite sick with grippe and is very miserable with it today. The rest are well. It seems nice to be home again. We found everything in fine shape and the house extra clean. Write when you can. Love from all - Flora"
Whether this card refers to their arrival in Brodhead from South Dakota or from a shorter trip we do not know. But we do know they were back in Brodhead by the spring of 1914. There Harold's dad farmed for several years, raising tobacco and other things. Here is what Harold's sister, Kathryn, wrote to her great niece, Dawne Stevens, about their days on the farm.
"There we did not have electric lights but kerosene lamps. Washing them was a daily chore. A large kerosene lamp was used for our reading and study work. We drove to Brodhead and back each day with a horse and buggy... While we were living on the farm near Brodhead, my mother had taken us in the buggy to Brodhead. A car had gone from Janesville to Brodhead. The store people told (Mother) not to go home until she knew the car had gone back. I remember seeing that car."After several years the family gave up on farming. By the 1920 census the family is living in the town of Footville. They bought a house across the street from the grade school.
Ed set up a blacksmith shop on the back of the lot behind the house. Being a kind hearted person, Ed found it hard to press people to pay their bills if he knew they were in difficult financial circumstances. Flora helped out by taking in boarders, school teachers from the school across the street. Harold went to Janesville for high school - Janesville Craig. He rode to school everyday with a group of boys. Again from Kathryn's letter,
"(Harold) and Paul had one of the first autos in Footville."In April of his senior year, Harold's father died. The Great Depression that was to come had already hit the farm communities of the USA. There were not many jobs to be had in Brodhead or surrounding communities. So Harold did what many young men of his time, out of work and looking for adventure and opportunity, did. He rode the rails. He became a hobo. Now a hobo was not a tramp or a bum. Dr Ben L. Reitman stated: "The hobo works and wanders, the tramp dreams and wanders and the bum drinks and wanders." Hobos rode the freight trains as they roamed the country looking for work. Harold was one of them. He rode around the country in railway freight cars. He would stop in a town and work for a while and then be on his way again.
One time he worked on a chicken farm. Every night the farm wife would fix chicken for supper. But she knew how to fix it so many different ways that Harold never grew tired of it. Another time Harold worked for the circus, Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey, as a roustabout. The circus would come into a town on the railway, set up a tent city on the edge of town, give several shows, then take everything down and move to the next town. The roustabout was the guy who put it up and took it down. That was Harold.
Another time when he was riding the freight cars he woke up to find a dead man in the car with him. He reported this fact in the first town he came to, but nevertheless, the authorities kept him in town for a week until they had run an autopsy and determined that the man had died of natural causes.
After several years of being a hobo Harold came back to Wisconsin and lived with his mother in Janesville. For a while he worked in a grocery store. About this same time he developed a disease called recurring erysipelas. The disease started with a strep infection (Just like Thelma DeMouth's rheumatic heart disease). Then it progressed causing a high fever and pain and swelling in the legs. The famous French philosopher and poet, Voltaire, also suffered from this disease. Recurring erysipelas no longer bothers people in the USA because we have penicillin. But at that time, for Harold, the disease was incapacitating. Several years earlier his mother, Flora, had suffered from an incapacitating infection in her right arm. She never had total use of that arm again. Beset with both of these problems, Flora and Harold decided to move to Waukegan, Illinois where Kathryn was teaching school. That year was 1929. The year the Great Depression began in earnest.
The Depression was a terrible time in American history. There was hardly a soul in the country who wasn't affected in a bad way. The official beginning was the stock market crash of 1929. Many banks lost all their money and so the people who had put their money in banks suddenly had no money. People lost their jobs. Many lost their homes. Farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms. Some people starved. In cities great long lines of people would wait for free food at soup kitchens. This is when our two sickly ancestors chose to transplant themselves to Waukegan.
What could they do? Fortunately Flora had been very careful with her money since her husband had died and had enough to buy a big old house right near downtown Waukegan on Utica Street and she took in boarders, mostly school teachers, just as she had done in Brodhead. Harold enrolled in a two-year accounting program at the Walton School of Commerce in Chicago, hoping that when he graduated he would qualify for a less physically demanding job. It was obvious he was not going to be working as a roustabout anymore.
When he graduated from the program the depression was in full swing. Good jobs were very hard to find. Any job was hard to find. For the next several years Harold worked at whatever he could. He worked in a grocery store again; he worked for the Diamond scrap yard; he ran a poker table; he worked for the Mordhorst Moving Company.
In 1933 a young second grade teacher from Whittier School came to board with the Stevens' Family. She had already been teaching in Waukegan for four years. Her name was Helen Frances White and she soon began dating Flora's son Harold.On Harold and Helen's first date they rode the North Shore Line, an electric train, to Chicago to see a hockey game. Harold did not have a good enough job to support a wife, so, they dated for five years. During that time they went to see every movie that came to town for 15 cents a show. Finally, Harold got a job at Abbott Laboratories allowing the couple to marry on January 1, 1938 at the Stevens’ home in Waukegan. Shortly before this marriage, Harold's sister Kathryn, had married Arthur Blanchard and they had moved to Maywood, Illinois. So as soon as Harold married, Flora moved to Maywood and lived with her daughter and son-in-law.
After the marriage Helen was allowed to keep her job only until June, because at that time in Waukegan married women were not allowed to hold teaching jobs. When June came both Helen and Harold lost their jobs.
In September Helen got a job teaching at Spaulding School which was outside the Waukegan district and had different rules. She was given a class of 47 first and second graders. At home she had a husband plus two roomers to cook and clean for. Life seemed very hectic.
Meanwhile Harold got a job at the TB Sanitorium. His boss suggested he bring his wife in for a screening. It was then discovered Helen had had TB in both lungs. After that Harold insisted his wife take life a bit easier which became more possible as Harold was once again employed by Abbotts and became the Paymaster
Their first home was an apartment on Sherman Place. There Paul Robert was born on April 6, 1940. Then they moved to 1501 Ridgeland, where Lois was born on June 19, 1942. In late summer 1945 they moved to 220 N. Butrick. In 1946 they purchased a large Dutch colonial at 28 N. Elmwood for $13,000.
Paul remembers his dad as a good-natured man. This quality shines through in a tale told by his wife, Helen. Paul was a very bright inquisitive child. One day he went through the house removing every door knob he could find. His mother became very excited. It was not happy excitement. But when Dad (Harold) got home he calmed the situation right down with the comment, "Well, I reckon he learned quite a bit from that."
Harold was a wonderful provider for his family. Struggling through the Depression, scrambling for every job he could find, no matter how menial, had taught him the value of a good job once attained. He wasn't home much. His Abbotts job paid very well but demanded a lot of time. It also kept Harold out of WWII. Being a pharmaceutical industry it was vital to the war effort. The new wonder drug, penicillin, was saving lives as never before. He always came home for dinner, but his life revolved mainly around his job.
He had learned from his own father to be handy with tools. He had a wonderful table saw and knew how to use it. It now belongs to his son, Paul. Sometimes he went bowling, and when tropical fish became available, he got an aquarium set up and shared that hobby with Paul. He was treasurer of the Lake County Tuberculosis Association and also of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ denomination) where he attended with his family.
Paul remembers his dad never drank. Harold's mother's family had been big in the Temperance movement, which may have influenced him. Occasionally he would have friends over to play poker. He kept a bottle of whiskey for his friends at those times. Paul says as far as he knew that one bottle lasted Harold's whole life.
Harold's own father had died at the age of 54 leaving his widow in somewhat fragile financial circumstances. Partly because of this experience and partly because of living through the Great Depression, and partly because of his own good sense, Harold bought a generous life insurance policy - just in case. And it was very fortunate for his family that he did so.
In the spring of 1955 Harold became ill. His doctor put him in the University of Chicago Billings Hospital. Three weeks later, on June 5, 1955, he was dead from pancreatic cancer and Helen was left with two children.
So this was your great grandfather, Harold Stevens. He was born in a sod house on the prairie. He rode the rails with the hobos. He survived the Great Depression and saw American through many changes in her standard of living, from kerosene lamps and horse and buggy travel to electric lights and automobiles. He made an important contribution to the country's war effort through his pharmaceutical company job. He was good-natured and kind. He was a very good provider for his family, providing for them even after death. You can be proud to have Harold Balis Stevens in your family tree.
Here's how you're related to Harold Balis Stevens: Harold married Helen White and they had Paul Robert Stevens. Paul married Dianne Zimmerman and they had Dawne Stevens. Dawne married Jason Pamplin and they had Sara, Hannah, Timmy and Becky Pamplin!
So hooray for Harold Balis Stevens!
Love, Granny
The Helen White Story
22 Feb 1906 - 16 Aug 2002
August 18, 2002
Dear Children,Tonight I will tell you about one of your great-grandmothers.
Helen Frances was the fourth of four children born to William Wesley and Anna Adelaide Nicklas White, February 22, 1906, on the White family farm near Apple River, Illinois. She followed Wilbur, born in 1900; Dorothy Ellen, 1902; and Phillip, 1904.
When Helen was two years old, her mother developed neuritis in her face and was advised to go to a warmer climate. And so the family moved to Virginia where they bought two farms at Midlothian, near Richmond. The children soon turned yellow from malaria, but they all survived it.
Helen’s dad was a clever and inventive person. A favorite memory was of the merry-go-round he made for the children out of a wagon wheel.
Another favorite play activity for Helen and her sister was to make dolls out of the empty thread spools. Any old scrap of fabric would do to dress them. Here's how Helen's sister Dorothy described the spool people. "They were just spools that our imagination gave heads, arms, legs, and faces. Mother sewed, so we had the use of many empty spools. We dressed them in bits of cloth. Spool families would visit one another."
Wesley White was also a great reader and stressed the value of education to his children. The Reader’s Digest was one dependable source of reading material the White's had in their home. From her father Helen developed a love of reading. Two of her favorite books from childhood were David Copperfield and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.. After dinner each evening the whole family would sit around the dining room table and read or do homework.
Aunt Dorothy writes about school days in Virginia. "After fourth grade we went by horse-drawn schoolbus to a consolidated school. I remember that a neighbor boy just didn't want to go to school, and he didn't have to go."
Later she writes about high school. "Some of us near Richmond, Virginia went to high school via train. We had a whole train society. The conductor would come through the car punching holes in our tickets. He might call out, 'Tickets, tackets, and pocket books!' Besides the school children there were college students and men and women who commuted to their jobs.'"
When Helen was 17, her mother, Phillip, and Wilbur went to New Mexico because Wilbur had TB and the wet Virginia climate was bad for him. Wilbur died there of TB in 1923. Mrs. White refused to come back to Virginia, so the family was forced to sell their nice farm and move to New Mexico where it was extremely hard for Wesley to make a living. In retrospect Helen realized it was a blessing the family moved to the southwest because both she and Phillip had developed TB though no one knew at the time.
The Whites lived right on the border of New Mexico near El Paso, Texas. Helen completed her senior year of high school at a huge high school in El Paso.
When Helen graduated from high school, she wanted to marry a boy her parents disliked. They offered her a chance to go to college in Platteville, Wisconsin, so off she went to Platteville which is quite near Apple River, Illinois, and Helen was close to many White and Nicklas family members. Her Aunt Annie White was especially helpful in paying for school expenses, as was Aunt Eva Nicklas.
After getting her teaching degree from Platteville Helen began teaching in Waukegan, Illinois in 1929. At first she lived in the YWCA where they had very strict curfews. She was teaching 2nd grade at Whittier School in 1933 when she began boarding with the Stevens family on Utica Street and soon after that began dating Flora Stevens’ son, Harold. On their first date they rode the North Shore Line, an electric train, to Chicago to see a hockey game. It was the Depression. Harold did not have a good enough job to support a wife, so, they dated for five years. During that time they went to see every movie that came to town for 15 cents a show. Finally, Harold got a job at Abbott Laboratories allowing the couple to marry on January 1, 1938 at the Stevens’ home in Waukegan.
After the marriage Helen was allowed to keep her job only until June, because at that time in Waukegan married women were not allowed to hold teaching jobs. When June came they both lost their jobs.
In September Helen got a job teaching at Spaulding School which was outside the Waukegan district and had different rules. She was given a class of 47 first and second graders. At home she had a husband plus two roomers to cook and clean for. Life seemed very hectic.
Meanwhile Harold got a job at the TB Sanitorium. His boss suggested he bring his wife in for a screening. It was then discovered Helen had had TB in both lungs. After that Harold insisted his wife take life a bit easier which became more possible as Harold was once again employed by Abbotts and became the Paymaster.
Paul Robert arrived on April 6, 1940 and Lois Marie on June 19, 1942. Their family was complete.
Their first home was an apartment on Sherman Place where Paul was born. They moved to 1501 Ridgeland, where Lois was born, and then to 22 N. Butrick. In 1946 they purchased a large Dutch colonial at 28 N. Elmwood for $13,000.
Many consumer goods were in short supply during war time. The Stevens were not able to purchase their first car until 1946. But they were the first family in the neighborhood to have a TV. If the shade was up on the back door it meant it was OK for neighbor kids to come and watch. And come they did! It was not unusual in the afternoons to have the living room carpeted with children watching Howdy Doody.
Helen was always a gracious hostess to her children’s friends. Whether it was 30 neighborhood children watching TV or a friend needing a place to wait after school ‘til working parents could pick her up (Dianne), it was fine. If Lois happened to bring a new friend home from camp who wanted to stay for a week, no problem. If 40 kids from church needed a home to serve the entree for the youth group’s Progressive Dinner, well the more the merrier! You could count on the Stevens’ home to be warm and welcoming.
Paul was a sickly child and spent as much time out of school as in school in the days before widespread use of penicillin. During those times Helen, who was a stay-at-home mom, would read to him and help him memorize poetry. Among their favorites were poems by James Whitcomb Riley and Eugene Field. These have been passed on to grandchildren and now, to great grandchildren
In the spring of 1955 Harold became ill. His doctor put him in the University of Chicago Billings Hospital. Three weeks later he was dead from pancreatic cancer and Helen was left with two children.
Because of life insurance, there was no immediate financial peril. Helen went back to school at Roosevelt University in Chicago to earn her Master’s degree and bring her teaching credenntials up to date. She then returned to teaching and taught at Clearview Elementary until her retirement in 1967.
On July 19, 1957 she married Alvar Romppainen, a man of Finnish descent who worked for Ammco Tools. He and his brother Arvo had been roomers with the Stevens family. They sold the Elmwood home and bought a smaller house at 1818 Monroe in 1963.
Helen thoroughly enjoyed life after her retirement. She engaged in many social activities and hobbies. She sewed for herself and her family and for friends who had troubles getting things to fit. She did upholstery. She played bridge. She took up oil and watercolor painting and created many works treasured by her family including several renditions of the family farm in Apple River. She was an active member of the First Christian Church and the Waukegan Women’s Club. She was a volunteer with the Victory Hospital Auxillary. Her grandchildren fondly remember their visits to “Nana’s” house where she kept a room just for them, well stocked with toys and dress-up clothes. One of her favorite activities with grandkids was a trip to the library.
When Al died very suddenly of a heart attack on August 28,1987, Helen abruptly sold her house and moved into a retirement home in Vernon Hills, IL. She stayed only one month because she was so miserable and disoriented. Lois helped her relocate to an apartment at 520 N. Genesee Street, Waukegan, where she had several old friends. With Lois’s steadfast support she lived there independently until after her hip replacement surgery in 1992 when it became apparent she needed full time support. That was when the wonderful Lucy was discovered and became her full-time live-in caregiver. Lucy stayed with Helen until her death, August 16, 2002, including over four and a half years of care when Helen was totally bedridden.
That's the story of you great grandmother Helen Frances White, She was an intelligent, industrious, talented, independent-minded, and resourceful woman. From her birth family she inherited a strong sense of family, a love of books and learning, and a practical and inventive approach to solving lifes problems. She acquired a college education long before it was the norm for women to do so, and she used her education to support herself before her marriage to Harold, and after his death, to support her children and herself. She made her home a welcoming haven for her children and their friends and her grandchildren. She lived through TB , the Depression and World War II, and outlived two husbands. She was a good teacher, wife, mother, and person. We can be very proud to have Helen Frances White in our family tree.
Here is how you are related to her. Helen Frances White was the mother of Paul Stevens. Paul Stevens is the father of Dawne Stevens. Dawne Stevens is the mother of . . . .Guess Who! So Hooray for Helen Frances White!
Love,
Granny
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The Edmund Stevens Story
April 6, 2009Dear Children,
Tonight I will tell you the story of your grandfather's grandfather. That would make him your great great grandfather.
Edmund Stevens was the 4th child of Charles and Catherine Stevens. He was born April 9, 1872 in Lake Mills, Nova Scotia, Canada. He moved to Wisconsin with his family about 1880 when he was 8 years old. Most likely they came to this part of Wisconsin because Edmund's mother's brother, John Patriquin, had settled here. First they lived in a little town called Orfordville. The next year they moved closer to Brodhead.
In 1899 Edmund married Flora Balis who had grown up in Brodhead with her Derrick grandparents. First they had a daughter, Kathryn in 1900, and then a son, Paul in 1902. While Flora was pregnant with Paul, her sister Hettie came to stay and help with the work. Hettie wrote in her journal about her stay with the young Stevens family. You can read about it in Flora's story. My, there was a lot of work to do. They were living on a farm near Brodhead. There were cows to milk, chickens to feed, water to be carried, gardening, washing, ironing, baking, and churning to be done. Life was not easy 100 years ago. In 1908 when Flora was expecting her third child, our ancestor Harold, Edmund and Flora decided to homestead in South Dakota, so they took off in a covered wagon for the South Dakota prairie and settled in Spink County, near the town of Redfield. They lived in a sod house just as Flora had as a child. That's where Harold was born. We don't know much about their life in South Dakota., but it probably didn't go too well. The 1910 census shows them living in Iowa. So after only two years they were already working their way back to beautiful green Wisconsin. In 1914 they came back for good.
For several years Ed farmed near Brodhead, raising tobacco among other things. Then the family moved to nearby Footville into the old Snyder homestead across the street from the school. Ed opened a blacksmith shop behind the house and earned a living at the blacksmith trade in which he had also engaged as a younger man. The earlier 1900 census listed his occupation as “blacksmith.” Even today horseshoes are being dug up around the area where the blacksmith shop was. We have one of them brought by Ed's great-nephew, Richard Nyman. Ed was known to be a tender hearted soul who wouldn't press people to pay their bills if he knew they were experiencing hard times. And so, Flora took in roomers, mostly teachers from the school across the street, to help buy groceries.
Ed was involved in all the civic affairs of his community. The organizations he belonged to as listed in his obituary are Odd Fellows of Footville, Methodist Episcopal Church of Brodhead, Woodmen of the World, Equity Fraternal Union, Commercial Club and the Fire Department.
While they were living in Footville there was a terrible measles epidemic. Ed became very ill and soon afterwards developed Leukemia. He died of Leukemia in 1926 on the day after his 54th birthday..
Edmund and Flora's first child, Kathryn Harriet Stevens, married Arthur Blanchard in 1936. They never had any children of their own but were a wonderful aunt and uncle to your grandfather and his sister Lois. Before she married, Kathryn taught school in Lodi, Wisconsin, and Waukegan, Illinois. It was because Kathryn had a teaching job in Waukegan that her mother and brother Harold moved there in 1929, a move which had tremendous implications for your coming into the world. After her marriage to Arthur, they moved to Oak Park, Illinois. Kathryn worked in the book department of Marshall Fields in Oak Park for many years. We have a lovely set of art books that she bought for us while working there. Aunt Kathryn was a meticulous housekeeper. When I was a young bride the family had me spooked about her visits to us because of her legendary housekeeping. But she was not at all critical. She was a lovely kind woman that was delighted with my interest in the family's history. She passed on to us a plate that had belonged to her grandmother, Mary Derrick. Her husband Arthur was a skilled cabinet maker. We have a white kitchen cupboard he made. When our children were small he made them a sweet little table and chairs set. After Kathryn and Arthur retired they moved back to Brodhead, Wisconsin where they had a lovely home that backed up to the Sugar River. In the late 1960's Kathryn and Arthur moved to a retirement community in Sun City, Arizona. Several years later Kathryn developed dementia and went to live in a nursing home until her death in 1980. Arthur died 6 years later. He had moved to Washington state by that time.
Edmund and Flora's second child, Paul Derrick Stevens, grew up and married Dorothy Schlink. He and Dorothy went out to Idaho where Paul had several uncles (Edmund's brothers) and Paul became a potato farmer. He and Dorothy had four children, Rosemary, Edmund, Harold, and Lonabelle. Isn't that neat? The two brothers, Paul and Harold, each named a son after the other. Paul Derrick Stevens named his son Harold, and Harold Balis Stevens named his son Paul Robert. I never met Uncle Paul and Aunt Dorothy, but they sent us a set of tableware when we married. I think they must have been very much in love. They look so sweet together in their pictures. Paul died in March of 1986 and Dorothy only lived two months afterwards, dying in June 1986.
Harold Balis Stevens, Edmund and Flora's third child is our ancestor and he has his own story.
We can be very proud of our ancestor Edmund Stevens. He came as a child immigrant from Canada. He learned a good trade as a blacksmith and also was a farmer. He went west in a covered wagon and homesteaded in South Dakota. He came back to Footville, Wisconsin where he was known as a kind-hearted pillar of the community. He was a good husband and father, but died much too young and never got to know his grandchildren. So Hooray for Edmund Stevens!
Here's how you are related to Edmund: Edmund and Flora had Harold Stevens, Harold and Helen had Paul Stevens, Paul and Dianne had Dawne Stevens, Dawne married Jason Pamplin and had ...my four wonderful grandbabies!
Love,
Granny
April 13, 2004
Dear Children,
Tonight I want to tell you
The Flora Balis StoryShe was your Grandpa's Grandma and he knew her. Flora Lulu Balis was the 3rd child of John and Mary Derrick Balis. She entered the world on July the 7th of 1876. The family was living in the community called Clarence, which was near the present day Brodhead in Green County, Wisconsin. Flora joined her two older brothers, Frank and Robert. Two years later a baby sister, Hettie, was born. Here is how Mary described her little daughter, Flora, in a letter to Belle Moore Derrick, wife of Mary's brother, Frank. " Skippie (Flora) is such a fat strong little Dutch woman. She is good as gold. " Flora was about 9 when her mother wrote those words.
We don't have any other words that her mother wrote about Flora. Nor do we have words that Flora wrote herself. We do, however, have two wonderful journals written by her next younger sister, Hettie, in which she describes many childhood experiences shared with Flora. The parts with quotation marks (''...") around them are from Hettie's Journal. You can imagine it's Flora speaking because she experienced the very same things. The words inside Parentheses ( ) are my additions (Granny).
"In May of 1879...they (our parents, John and Mary Balis) decided to migrate to Nebraska and homestead...Folks usually tried to homestead near a stream with some shrubs and small trees on account of fuel and water. On their way to Nebraska in a covered wagon... they stopped at Mary and Henry Reasoner's in Iowa. She was father's cousin. They got their washing all done up and replenished their supplies. They went on from there to Orleans, Nebraska close to the Kansas line. It was just across the Republican River. They homesteaded 10 miles, I think it was, north-east of Orleans close to a creek." (Flora was not yet three years old at the time of this trip.)"They first dug a dugout back in a bank or hill. They roofed it over with poles from wild plum trees and choke cherries (from) along the creek. Then they plowed large thick (clumps of) sod and laid it over (the poles). Over that they put clay dirt... I still remember having pans set on the dirt floor to catch the leaking spots. The dugout was just one big room. Of course lumber was very high (probably, non-existent). Our floor was just the dirt. It finally got hard and smooth. "
(You might wonder why little Flora, would have to live in a hole in the ground. That's what a dugout was, a hole, or cave dug into the side of a hill or river bank. When pioneers got to where they were going, if they were among the first settlers, there were no hotels or motels. There were no stores. Often there were no neighbors to stay with til you got your own place up. Shelter, constructing a home, was usually the first order of business. If you were moving to an area with lots of trees, you could make a log cabin. Harlan County, Nebraska did not have a lot of trees. In fact it had practically no trees. In this area and other parts of the great American prairie a dugout was the quickest and easiest shelter that could be built in a few days. A room was dug from the side of a hill and the opening closed in by whatever was avaitable, often the wagon's cover. This type of shelter also had problems. For one, they leaked. Not only water, but also mosquitos and small animals could get in.)
"After that they built a better larger dugout and took the first one over for a chicken house. (They) also built a barn the same way. I can remember living in the second one but not the first one. Mabel was born in the second dugout and I don't know but Ernie was too. (Flora's sister Mable was born in 1880, and Brother Ernie in 1882.) (First we) lived on the homestead in a small dugout, then in a larger one, and finally they built a good sized sod house. I can remember quite well when they built the sod house. It's quite an improvement over a dugout..."
(To understand what a sod house is, you first have to understand a little bit about prairie plants. Prairie plants have thick deep roots. It is very difficult to plow prairie soil because of these tough roots. You can cut a block about a foot deep out of the prairie soil and it will stay altogether almost like a brick. And that's how the prairie settlers used it. They cut blocks out of the top layer of soil, called turf, and used the blocks just like you would bricks to build a house.)
" Two very troublesome things mother had to fight were fleas and bedbugs. They seemed to even be in the soil. We would have to take the bedsteads all apart and pour boiling water all over them. I guess they did not have bug killers in those days. We were not bothered by them after we moved into town and the frame (wooden) house."
"The folks from Wisconsin sent different kinds of berry plants and trees. Mother and father had a big garden down near the creek, as sometimes they had to water some things. They plowed their fields so each side of the property was protected from prairie fires that sometimes came sweeping across the plains." ( Why do you think a plowed field would protect against prairie fires?) "Father put down a well and had the first windmill I ever saw." (One problem the prairie pioneers faced was water. Rainfall can be extremely unpredictable on the American plains. But, with no forests to break it for a thousand miles, the wind is very predictable. A windmill was used to pump well water that saved the farm in times of drought.)
"Brothers Frank and Bob would herd the cattle, mostly cows and young stock, on the range bare footed. There was lots of cactus and rattlers but we were all quite lucky. The boys as they got a little older would (grow) pop corn (and) would have as much as a barrel of ears of pop corn. We raised sugar cane and would have a barrel of molasses. (We'd also have) a barrel of salt pickles. Just cucumbers salted down were not pickles till they were soaked out and put in vinegar and spices. But us kids loved to eat the salty ones sometimes. We would also have a barrel of sauerkraut, and potatoes and some vegetables all in the cave."
"Father always had hogs to butcher, also beef at times. But then they had not learned how to can beef or pork or vegetables. Pork, one could salt and smoke and keep it for some time. And lard would never spoil. But I have read letters my mother wrote to relatives in Wisconsin saying Father had been down on the creek and had cut a load of wood to haul to Holdridge, 15 miles away, to trade for groceries." (So there were at least SOME trees around. I think Hettie means that although they grew and raised most of their food, they were not totally self-sufficient.)
(Hettie tells about a number of experiences she remembered from Childhood that would have been experienced by Flora as well.) "Grandpa and Grandma Balis lived in a location where they raised apples and would send one or two barrels of apples. They were sure good." (Grandpa and Grandma Balis, Thomas Jefferson and Mary Ewers Balis, homesteaded about the same time as did John and Mary and their family.) And we always stood at mother's knee, each one waiting for our peeling, as she pared them for cooking. Twas always customary to eat the ones with a bad spot on them, of course, first.""I remember Sister Flo and I washed the dishes...We used two chairs, one with a dish pan on it and one with a pan of rinsing water. I wiped and could just reach to get them on the table. We always took the chairs which were just plain wooden chairs outside when the weather was nice on Saturday and wash them."
"For fuel... two of us would take a bushel basket and start out and pick up cow chips if they were dry or turn the damp ones over for next time. (We) would also pick up buffalo bones or anything that would burn." (Remember, where Flora's family lived there were very few trees. There was no electricity. There were no natural gas lines. How could they cook their food or keep their house warm in the winter? They had to have fuel. Do you know what cow chips are? They are big blobs of cow poop. When it dries out it can be burned. It's hard for me to understand how they could get enough cow chips to keep the house warm all winter. It can get very cold and snowy in Nebraska.)
"While we were still living on the homestead mother was not very well and Father took us three girls (Flora, Hettie, and Mable) for a ride one Sunday over to the Sweed settlement. Another Sunday he took us up to Holdridge. A lot of men and mule teams were working and and using scrapers like the ones they used to move dirt with. They were putting the railroad through. I well remember. Ernie was a baby and I guess he took us so Mother could rest. I remember though, well, the men working. We did not see so many things in those days so we remembered it."
"Another time he took all of us but Ernie to Orleans to a circus on the 4th of July. The Andersons had moved to town and had invited us to come and stay all night. It may have been just us three girls, but Ernie stayed home with Mother. She was expecting Baby Ina at anytime. The part I remember is sleeping on the floor. There was a whole row of us. The next morning I could not find one of my stockings, a big loss in those days. I don't remember how I got by, but I was terribly upset. That was the first time I had been in town."
"Another time they were having a lodge dance in Orleans, Woodmen of the World - Father belonged and had $2000 invested in it. Women were to wear calico dresses. Father brought home the material for mother's. It was a sort of grey with a red crescent shaped figure and little tiny white flecks. The Andersons still lived in the country and their two boys and a girl were a little older than us kids, even my brothers. They left us all at our place. Ernie was the youngest and us girls took him up to the out house so he would not see them leave. There were six of us(Balises) and three of them(Andersons), some sod house full. We thought we saw a tramp coming down the road and we were scared. We all got into the house and shut the door. Then we piled the table and chairs against the door and went back into the boys room and hid so the tramp could not see us through the window. We imagined we could hear him banging around the house. We didn't dare stir for a long time. When we finally ventured out we could not see hide nor hair of him. It's the only time I can remember them leaving us kids. Mother was always home with us."
"(The school) was also built of sod. (It) had no desks or chairs or blackboard, (only) a bench with no back. (You sat) with your books and slate beside you and a rag to wash the slate with. There was no out house. You had to go out back or down to the draw - the foot of a deep ravine. There was a big pot-bellied stove. I can't remember what they used for fuel or if they even had school in severe weather. I know there were times though when the draws were full of snow so I guess they did. We went to the closest neighbor to the schoolhouse, the Gilcrests, a quarter mile away to get water by the pailfull. It took two to carry it. We had one dipper, one wash pan, and one towel. Believe it or not we lived through it and did not have any more colds or sickness than they do today. I can see Father and Mother yet with a spoon and candle giving us something for a cough or cold. (They) always put a cold compress on our throat and wrapped it good to make it sweat."
"My uncle, mother's sister's husband, taught the school at one time. (This would be Junius Lamson.) He was Pearl and Trella's father. But the one I remember best in the sod schoolhouse was Jessie Patterson. Her home was in Orleans and she boarded at our house when school was in session."
" After we moved to town the two boys stayed on the homestead with a hired man Father had had for a long time. I only remember him by "Shorty." (On the 1880 census, a hired man, Aleck Preston, age 21, is living with the Balis family.) We girls went to school in town. I think when school started the boys came in town, for I know they went to school too. It was a two story brick building divided into 4 rooms. The 1st room teacher was Miss Poor, 2nd room Miss Muchmore, the 3rd room Mrs. Treat, the 4th room was for the upper grades taught by the principal, Mr. Nicolas. Each room had more than one grade."
"When Ina was born Father took Flo, Mabel, and I to a neighbor by the name of Gleason. They had two children who went to our school, Clyde and a girl. We stayed all night and most of the next day til they came for us. Mother's sister, Aunt Hettie (Lamson), came to the door and said, 'I have a surprise for you. You have a new baby sister.' I can remember seeing a man with a black bag come out of the house, so perhaps that was when sister was born in May (1884) and passed away in November of the same year. We older ones were up at the sod schoolhouse, not far, just from one little knoll across the creek to the top of another, our house on one, the schoolhouse on the other. Father came out and called to us to come home, that little Ina had died. That was the first time I had ever encountered death. I can see her yet in her little white casket with a little white cashmere pleated gown on and little white button chrysanthemums in around her. I never smell them that I don't remember. She was buried in Orleans Cemetery in the spring. We all gathered wild white morning glories and made wreaths for her grave. Mother never got over Ina's death. (Ina) had convulsions and died before they could get a doctor."
"In the fall of 1885 or the early spring of 1886 Father bought a frame house in Orleans and moved Mother to town where she could have more care and comforts. But she was moved on a bed in the back of a spring wagon. She was never up and around again. She died July 4, 1886. I have never gotten over missing her. She was a wonderful woman and had many accomplishments. (She did) considerable writing, both prose and poetry. (She did) lovely pen and ink drawings and sketches. Out on the homestead she got the early settlers to join a literary society. (They) would meet at the sod schoolhouse with benches to sit on and debate questions and topics of that day and have children recite and take part. How she done it with her family and home, I will never know."
" After Mother died in July Grandma Balis and Grandfather stayed with us for a short time. Finally, it was too much for them and they bought a place just over the fence from a Mr. & Mrs. Davis. Father hired a widow with one small boy to keep house for him and us six children."
" Being a deputy sheriff, (Father) was sent down into Kansas to catch some horse thieves. It was cold, wintery weather, January, and he caught a terrible cold and it went into pneumonia. He was bedfast in Kansas, unable to get home for two or three weeks. A friend of the family of long standing, Shorty, went down and brought Dad home. But he had a relapse and passed away Feb 22, 1887 (In "Thoughts and Memories over the Years" p. A52 Hettie says the friend who went down to Kansas to get their father was 'Mr. Kent. He and Father worked together buying and selling and trading. He went down and brought Father home.')"
"When mother and father were gone we children were all separated. Grandpa and Grandma Balis then lived in a house close to ours in Orleans, Nebraska. A cousin of father's, Mary Frary Reasoner of Newton, Iowa and Uncle Frank Derrick of Brodhead, Wisconsin, mother's older brother, came...Sister Flora went to Grandpa and Grandma Derrick in Brodhead, Rob and I to Iowa, Mabel to Uncle Frank. Ernie and brother Frank stayed with Grandfather Balis in Orleans." (We have a photograph of the six orphaned children just before they were all separated. They all, even the girls, have very short hair. I think it may have been because of the fleas and bedbugs that Hettie mentioned earlier.)
That's about all we know of Flora's childhood. When her parents died she was sent back to Wisconsin to live with Grandpa and Grandma Derrick. Mary Derrick Balis's mother, Harriet Boslow, had died in 1871. In 1872 Grandpa Derrick married for a second time to Mary Ann Williams Northrup. It would have been this step-grandma that Flora grew up the rest of the way with. Flora turned 10 years old three days after her mother died and was not yet eleven when her father died. You can imagine how hard that was for her. I lost just my mother when I was nine and had terrible nightmares for years afterwards. Flora lost both parents and then essentially lost all her brothers and sisters on top of it. She probably got to see her sister Mabel as she also went to Brodhead, but not the same household. And Mable, at some point before adulthood, was sent to live with her mother Mary's older brother, Ted Derrick, in Kansas.The next we know of Flora is when she marries Edmund Stevens - Edmund Stevens had come to Orfordville, Wisconsin from Nova Scotia, Canada in about 1878. He and Flora were married in Brodhead in 1899. Their first two children were born soon after their marriage, Kathryn Harriet on Oct. 24, 1900, and Paul Derrick on May 8, 1902. At that time the little family was living and working on a farm near Brodhead. Flora's sister, Hettie, visited them there and stayed to help while Flora was awaiting the birth of Paul. Here's how Hettie described their daily routine at that time and place.
"When Flo was expecting Paul I went to help her at $1.25 per week. (At this time Hettie was a single mother with a little boy. She was always looking for ways to live and support herself.) I helped Ed milk the cows night and morning. I cared for the chickens, carried water from the wind mill to the house for every use. We did the washing on a board for five of us, also ironing, cooking, housecleaning. We put in a garden and raked and cleaned up the yard. We baked all our own bread and churned our own butter. The extra milk, Ed took to the creamery in Broadhead."
In 1908 with their third baby on the way, Ed and Flora decided to try their luck homesteading in South Dakota. They settled near Redfield, South Dakota, and lived in a sod house just as Flora had done as a small child. It was there that Harold Balis Stevens, our ancestor, was born on August 25, 1908. Apparently life in South Dakota was not quite as wonderful as they had hoped, because in 1914 the family returned to Footville, Wisconsin, where Ed farmed, raising tobacco among other things.
After several more years of farming the family moved to Footville to a house across the street from the school. Ed opened a blacksmith shop in the back of the house and Flora took in roomers, mostly school teachers. One year in Footville there was a terrible epidemic of measles. Soon afterwards, Ed developed leukemia. He died in 1926, only 54 years old. Not long afterwards, Flora pricked her finger with a needle and developed a terrible infection in her right arm. It took a very long time for it to heal and she never had total use of it again.
About this same time Harold developed a disease called recurring erysipelas. Beset with both of these problems, as well as widowhood, Flora and Harold decided to move to Waukegan, Illinois where Kathryn was teaching school. That year was 1929. the year the Great Depression began. Flora bought a big old house right near downtown Waukegan on Utica Street and she took in boarders, mostly school teachers, just as she had done in Brodhead. We can only imagine how difficult it was to get through the depression as a widow with a handicapped arm. But at least she had a reliable livelihood in the boarding house, and the support of her son, Harold, and married daughter, Kathryn, nearby. Her son, Paul, had moved to Idaho. When Harold married one of those school teachers, Flora went to live with her daughter and son-in-law in Oak Park, Illinois.
From Hettie again, "Sister Flo was 75 in July and passed away soon after caused by asthmatic trouble and her heart just could not stand any more. She suffered for many years with severe asthma attacks, very serious ones. It finally wore her out. She died in the hospital in Waukegan. " She died August 8, 1951.
So this is the story of your great-great-grandmother, Flora Lulu Balis. She got to be a pioneer twice. As a small child she went west in a covered wagon. As a young wife she went pioneering a second time, both times living in a sod house. She became a widow at the young age of 50, and had to survive trhe Great Depression on her own and with a bum arm. But she did it and left her family with a female model of American independence and resourcefulness. Here's how you're related to Flora. She married Edmund Stevens and they had a son named Harold Stevens. Harold married Helen White and had Paul Stevens. Paul married Dianne Zimmerman and had Dawne Stevens. Dawne married Jason Pamplin and had...Sarah, Hannah, Timmy, and Becky Pamplin! Hooray for Flora Lulu Balis!
Love,
Granny
The Helen White Story
22 Feb 1906 - 16 Aug 2002
August 18, 2002
Dear Children,Tonight I will tell you about one of your great-grandmothers.
Helen Frances was the fourth of four children born to William Wesley and Anna Adelaide Nicklas White, February 22, 1906, on the White family farm near Apple River, Illinois. She followed Wilbur, born in 1900; Dorothy Ellen, 1902; and Phillip, 1904.
When Helen was two years old, her mother developed neuritis in her face and was advised to go to a warmer climate. And so the family moved to Virginia where they bought two farms at Midlothian, near Richmond. The children soon turned yellow from malaria, but they all survived it.
Helen’s dad was a clever and inventive person. A favorite memory was of the merry-go-round he made for the children out of a wagon wheel.
Another favorite play activity for Helen and her sister was to make dolls out of the empty thread spools. Any old scrap of fabric would do to dress them. Here's how Helen's sister Dorothy described the spool people. "They were just spools that our imagination gave heads, arms, legs, and faces. Mother sewed, so we had the use of many empty spools. We dressed them in bits of cloth. Spool families would visit one another."
Wesley White was also a great reader and stressed the value of education to his children. The Reader’s Digest was one dependable source of reading material the White's had in their home. From her father Helen developed a love of reading. Two of her favorite books from childhood were David Copperfield and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.. After dinner each evening the whole family would sit around the dining room table and read or do homework.
Aunt Dorothy writes about school days in Virginia. "After fourth grade we went by horse-drawn schoolbus to a consolidated school. I remember that a neighbor boy just didn't want to go to school, and he didn't have to go."
Later she writes about high school. "Some of us near Richmond, Virginia went to high school via train. We had a whole train society. The conductor would come through the car punching holes in our tickets. He might call out, 'Tickets, tackets, and pocket books!' Besides the school children there were college students and men and women who commuted to their jobs.'"
When Helen was 17, her mother, Phillip, and Wilbur went to New Mexico because Wilbur had TB and the wet Virginia climate was bad for him. Wilbur died there of TB in 1923. Mrs. White refused to come back to Virginia, so the family was forced to sell their nice farm and move to New Mexico where it was extremely hard for Wesley to make a living. In retrospect Helen realized it was a blessing the family moved to the southwest because both she and Phillip had developed TB though no one knew at the time.
The Whites lived right on the border of New Mexico near El Paso, Texas. Helen completed her senior year of high school at a huge high school in El Paso.
When Helen graduated from high school, she wanted to marry a boy her parents disliked. They offered her a chance to go to college in Platteville, Wisconsin, so off she went to Platteville which is quite near Apple River, Illinois, and Helen was close to many White and Nicklas family members. Her Aunt Annie White was especially helpful in paying for school expenses, as was Aunt Eva Nicklas.
After getting her teaching degree from Platteville Helen began teaching in Waukegan, Illinois in 1929. At first she lived in the YWCA where they had very strict curfews. She was teaching 2nd grade at Whittier School in 1933 when she began boarding with the Stevens family on Utica Street and soon after that began dating Flora Stevens’ son, Harold. On their first date they rode the North Shore Line, an electric train, to Chicago to see a hockey game. It was the Depression. Harold did not have a good enough job to support a wife, so, they dated for five years. During that time they went to see every movie that came to town for 15 cents a show. Finally, Harold got a job at Abbott Laboratories allowing the couple to marry on January 1, 1938 at the Stevens’ home in Waukegan.
After the marriage Helen was allowed to keep her job only until June, because at that time in Waukegan married women were not allowed to hold teaching jobs. When June came they both lost their jobs.
In September Helen got a job teaching at Spaulding School which was outside the Waukegan district and had different rules. She was given a class of 47 first and second graders. At home she had a husband plus two roomers to cook and clean for. Life seemed very hectic.
Meanwhile Harold got a job at the TB Sanitorium. His boss suggested he bring his wife in for a screening. It was then discovered Helen had had TB in both lungs. After that Harold insisted his wife take life a bit easier which became more possible as Harold was once again employed by Abbotts and became the Paymaster.
Paul Robert arrived on April 6, 1940 and Lois Marie on June 19, 1942. Their family was complete.
Their first home was an apartment on Sherman Place where Paul was born. They moved to 1501 Ridgeland, where Lois was born, and then to 22 N. Butrick. In 1946 they purchased a large Dutch colonial at 28 N. Elmwood for $13,000.
Many consumer goods were in short supply during war time. The Stevens were not able to purchase their first car until 1946. But they were the first family in the neighborhood to have a TV. If the shade was up on the back door it meant it was OK for neighbor kids to come and watch. And come they did! It was not unusual in the afternoons to have the living room carpeted with children watching Howdy Doody.
Helen was always a gracious hostess to her children’s friends. Whether it was 30 neighborhood children watching TV or a friend needing a place to wait after school ‘til working parents could pick her up (Dianne), it was fine. If Lois happened to bring a new friend home from camp who wanted to stay for a week, no problem. If 40 kids from church needed a home to serve the entree for the youth group’s Progressive Dinner, well the more the merrier! You could count on the Stevens’ home to be warm and welcoming.
Paul was a sickly child and spent as much time out of school as in school in the days before widespread use of penicillin. During those times Helen, who was a stay-at-home mom, would read to him and help him memorize poetry. Among their favorites were poems by James Whitcomb Riley and Eugene Field. These have been passed on to grandchildren and now, to great grandchildren
In the spring of 1955 Harold became ill. His doctor put him in the University of Chicago Billings Hospital. Three weeks later he was dead from pancreatic cancer and Helen was left with two children.
Because of life insurance, there was no immediate financial peril. Helen went back to school at Roosevelt University in Chicago to earn her Master’s degree and bring her teaching credenntials up to date. She then returned to teaching and taught at Clearview Elementary until her retirement in 1967.
On July 19, 1957 she married Alvar Romppainen, a man of Finnish descent who worked for Ammco Tools. He and his brother Arvo had been roomers with the Stevens family. They sold the Elmwood home and bought a smaller house at 1818 Monroe in 1963.
Helen thoroughly enjoyed life after her retirement. She engaged in many social activities and hobbies. She sewed for herself and her family and for friends who had troubles getting things to fit. She did upholstery. She played bridge. She took up oil and watercolor painting and created many works treasured by her family including several renditions of the family farm in Apple River. She was an active member of the First Christian Church and the Waukegan Women’s Club. She was a volunteer with the Victory Hospital Auxillary. Her grandchildren fondly remember their visits to “Nana’s” house where she kept a room just for them, well stocked with toys and dress-up clothes. One of her favorite activities with grandkids was a trip to the library.
When Al died very suddenly of a heart attack on August 28,1987, Helen abruptly sold her house and moved into a retirement home in Vernon Hills, IL. She stayed only one month because she was so miserable and disoriented. Lois helped her relocate to an apartment at 520 N. Genesee Street, Waukegan, where she had several old friends. With Lois’s steadfast support she lived there independently until after her hip replacement surgery in 1992 when it became apparent she needed full time support. That was when the wonderful Lucy was discovered and became her full-time live-in caregiver. Lucy stayed with Helen until her death, August 16, 2002, including over four and a half years of care when Helen was totally bedridden.
That's the story of you great grandmother Helen Frances White, She was an intelligent, industrious, talented, independent-minded, and resourceful woman. From her birth family she inherited a strong sense of family, a love of books and learning, and a practical and inventive approach to solving lifes problems. She acquired a college education long before it was the norm for women to do so, and she used her education to support herself before her marriage to Harold, and after his death, to support her children and herself. She made her home a welcoming haven for her children and their friends and her grandchildren. She lived through TB , the Depression and World War II, and outlived two husbands. She was a good teacher, wife, mother, and person. We can be very proud to have Helen Frances White in our family tree.
Here is how you are related to her. Helen Frances White was the mother of Paul Stevens. Paul Stevens is the father of Dawne Stevens. Dawne Stevens is the mother of . . . .Guess Who! So Hooray for Helen Frances White!
Love,
Granny