The Brownes, The Curtises and The Hollands
Written by Hazel Florence Curtis. Submitted to wurm-hastings.com by Shirley Ann Worthen.
NOTE 3:
When George Browne was about twenty-two, he went to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to work as an apprentice under a depot agent that he might learn telegraphy.
When he had finished his course, he went to visit his sister, Mary Ann Browne (Warner), who had married Will Warner, a blacksmith, and lived in Marietta, Minnesota, USA. George was fortunate in getting a job with the Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railroad Co. as depot agent in Marietta.
Near Marietta, a farmer, John S. Baker, and his wife, Hannah Maria South (Baker), lived with their five children: Lucy, Mary Helen, George, Ella and Florence. (See photo below.)
Mary Helen was teaching school, although she was only sixteen and some of her pupils were nearly as old. George Browne met her and on December 1886 they were married in Gary, South Dakota.
A little girl was born August 29, 1889, but she lived only one day. Another little girl was born October 20, 1890. She was a great joy to her parents: Ella May Browne.
George M. Browne following a
serious illness.George became very ill with a kidney ailment, Bright's Disease. He was given up by local doctors but Mary heard of a specialist and took him to Minneapolis where he was cured.
He had been given a promotion to a larger station, Madison, next to Marietta. He was still very weak from his illness and decided to give up his job and go to a small place on another railroad in North Dakota, so they moved to a little place called Boynton in North Dakota.
Mary was expecting another baby. She planned that the baby would be born at a place about fifty miles from Boynton where there was a hospital and doctors. When they moved, they took a sixteen-year-old girl with them to have someone to care for little Ella May when Mary went to the hospital. The girl, Maria McAllister, was the oldest of twelve children and was used to helping her mother when younger children were born.
When they awoke on the morning of February 22, 1982, there had been a big snow storm. The tracks were covered with about three feet of snow and the trains were not running. (No automobiles in those days, and the roads were all covered with snow).
Mary became aware that the new baby was about to arrive. How fortunate they were that Maria McAllister was with them. Soon Ella May had a new baby sister; a long, skinny baby with a very red nose weighing less than five pounds. They named her Hazel Florence.
George kept his job for three or four months, and decided to go back and get a job on the Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railroad in Minnesota. He secured a job at Delhi, Minnesota, about 70 miles from Marietta, a very nice place which was our home for ten years. The neighbors were mostly Scotch and Scandinavian people. It was wheat country and there were five grain elevators along the side railroad track.
The depot was soon converted into a real home. A barn was built on the right of way and was soon occupied by a carriage, a horse named Old George, a cow, and a buggy. Farther up the right of way was a chicken house with one hundred chickens, and between was a garden with every kind of vegetable and strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
Between the main track and side track, was a large lawn and a swing; also a chair swing and two hammocks. Mary had a pretty bed of flowers and George built a lath house beside it. We had a lovely place to play when our friends came to visit us.
Father sold hail insurance to the farmers and took orders for McCormick and Deering binders and reapers (farm equipment), and thus added to his income.
When our two brothers, Lloyd and Cyril, were born; Ella May and I went up to Marietta and stayed with Grandpa and Grandma for a few weeks. After a few years, Grandpa gave his farm to his son, George Baker, and Grandpa and Grandma moved to Redwood Falls, Minnesota, the county seat of Redwood County. That was only eight miles from Delhi, so we often went to visit them on Sundays when father could leave the depot.
Mother used to get the four of us ready for Sunday School each Sunday and she would come to church later. We would go home and father babysat until mother got home.
The Minnesota River was about two miles away and often we would go down to the river for a picnic. In the summer, father would take us to wade in the river and mother would pick wild plums, grapes and choke cherries to be made into jelly and preserves. I would pick wild flowers.
In the winter, we would take our sleds and father would give us sled rides on the ice.
At first we had one horse we called Old George and a single buggy with one seat. That was soon too small for the family and then we had two black horses, Billy and Dick, and a double buggy. They were skittish horses and gave us a few scares.
There was a two story, white brick schoolhouse in Delhi, with two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs. One upstairs room was the assembly hall. One time when I was very small I was at home with the measles. Lightning struck the school building on the corner where one stairway was. (There was a separate stairway up to the assembly room). My sister was at school, but no one was hurt and no damage occurred, except to the stairway.
There were three teachers, the principal, Mr. Laidlaw, and two lady teachers. Two of the teachers I had were girls who lived in Delhi: Miss Barbara Cummings and Miss Sadie Stewart and later a teacher who came from Wisconsin: Miss Etta Kinsman. They were all nice teachers.
When I was three years old, the folks went to Tennessee where father bought some timber land. Lloyd was a baby, so he went with them, but Ella May and I stayed with grandpa and grandma in Marietta. Grandpa went shopping and when he came home, he gave us some gum to chew. I swallowed mine and grandma made grandpa hitch up his horses and go back to town for a bottle of syrup of figs and she gave me a dose.
In 1902 father became ill with chronic bronchial trouble. His doctor told him he should go to a warmer climate, so we sold most of our possessions and moved to a little place called Montoya in New Mexico.
Our teachers gave a farewell party for the four Browne children. After lunch, the principal, Mr. Laidlaw, had all the children march up the stairs to the assembly room. They had a program and cakes and lemonade. We each got four presents, one from our own teacher and one from each of the three rooms. The ones from the three rooms were books. We were sorry to leave our school.
Before leaving Delhi, I should tell you about ice-cream back in those days. I don't remember that they sold it in the stores then. Of course we didn't have refrigerators. We didn't have electricity. We used coal oil for our lights. About the only time we had ice cream was on the Fourth of July.
The lady who had the hotel had an ice house with double walls and saw dust packed between. In the winter, they went down to the Minnesota River and sawed out big cakes of ice and stored them in their ice house and it would keep pretty well into the summer. On the Fourth of July, the folks would buy a big chunk of ice from Mrs. House and we had a freezer (non-electrical of course!) and made ice cream. What a treat it was for all of us!