Life in Sac City...experiences in the years following the death of George B. Barrett

My mother, Wilma Barrett, continues her life in Sac City, after the unexpected death of her father...
 
"My brother Herbert stayed to help Mother on the farm, and she decided to sell off the equipment and the land and move to town.

"I haven't mentioned my sister, Bertha. At the time of my father's death, she was in Des Moines going to business college, and she later came home and worked at an office in Sac City. She married Paul Wells of Lake View, Iowa.

"Mother bought a house in Sac City near the grade school where I was going to school. For several years she kept roomers and boarders. I know some of them were school teachers.

Maggie Barrett, wearing her Sunday dress. I do not know what the occasion was, but she had a corsage, so it must have been something pretty important...perhaps the graduation of one of her children from high school.

"We lived in that house for several years until it and the house next door had to be sold so a new gymnasium could be built.

"We moved across the street to a small house owned by Dr. Frank Molsberry, a dentist. We didn't live there more than a couple of years when we bought a house down the street about a block, across from the Methodist Church. Mother got a job as a custodian of the ladies' rest room in the basement of a building down town. This rest room was provided by the city as a service to the farm women and other shoppers who came to town, so they would have a place to rest, use the toilet, change the baby, and meet friends.

"Mother kept the place clean and stayed there to supervise from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. every day, and Wednesday and Saturday nights until 9:00 p.m. She received the sum of $25.00 per month. How she supported us on such a small income, I don't know. She did have a little money from the sale of the farm and my father's insurance in a company called Modern Woodmen of America. She rented out rooms and baked bread for people, specializing in tea rolls ordered by women giving luncheons, etc. She worked for a seamstress at one time in the mornings, helping with dress-making.

"She was faithful in going to church every Sunday and was at that time a member in the Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church in Sac City.

"We had a coal furnace, and Mother tended it in the heating season. She would bank the fire before she went to bed at night so the coals would stay alive until morning. Then she would shake down the ashes, put on fresh coal to start the heat for the day. The furnace also heated water for washing and bathing. But in summer when the furnace wasn't going, we had to heat water in the teakettle to put in the tub, and then add cold water for baths. For washing, we had a large boiler which sat on the cook stove and heated water for the washing machine. That machine was operated by hand. The white clothes were first washed, then put in the boiler, boiled, and then rinsed, and hung on the line to dry.

Maggie Barrett, about 1917 (my mother Wilma's writing on the photo)

"When I graduated from high school in 1917, I received a certificate to teach in a country school. But while growing up and still in school, I found a job at The Candy Kitchen. It had a soda fountain as well as being a candy store. I started working for Mr. Truesdale ('Truesy,' as he was called by the young people), for $3.00 a week. I opened up the store and cleaned up the soda fountain from the business of the night before. A woman of the name Lil' Riley also worked there. 'Truesy' made some of the candy and specialized in cough drops containing menthol. One summer, Madame Schumann Heink was on the Chatauqua program, and 'Truesy' somehow presented her with a box of his cough drops. She responded by saying, "They are very helpful," which was then printed on each box of cough drops he sold.

"On Wednesday and Saturday nights the stores in town were open until 9 or 10 o'clock, and The Candy Kitchen was a popular place for folks to go for a dish of ice cream, a soda or a sundae. So we worked late on those nights.

"When I was in high school, I took what was called the Normal Training Course for Teacher Training. You could teach in a country school (there were many of them before school consolidation took place). I got a job teaching in a school in Coon Valley township, Sac County, about a quarter of a mile from the farm of Daisy and George Neal, my relatives. So, I stayed with them. This was about six miles southeast of Sac City.

"World War I was going on at this time and my boyfriend, Gold Sonneborn, went into the army."

...But, that is another story, so keep visiting my blog to find out what happened!