Pictured above is Dwight L. Haight and his wife Ann Haight. Ann was born Ann Hamilton (daughter of Sam and Maude Hamilton). She married first Charlie Alley in 1927. Charlie Alley passed away in Dec. 23, 1949. She married second (ME) Dwight L. Haight in Austin, Texas Jan. 25, 1951.

I Dwight L. Haight married first April 7, 1924 Helen Penrod at Peterson, Iowa. Two children from this first marriage. Lloyd 1925, Barbara born 1926.
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Let's get this picture straight:
It is of Dwight Haight and his wife Ann Haight married 1-25-1951.
Above picture of Ann and Dwight (ME) Haight taken May, 1959.
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1900
This period is of course, not what I remember but what I have been told.

1905
I was born some time after midnight and before day light in the S.  W.  down stairs bedroom at Glenn Alphine Home which is in Sec. 15 Brook Twp.  Buena Vista County Iowa on a Friday morning, Jan 12-1900.  My older brother remembers early that morning someone saying- "It's another boy."  I was the ninth consecutive boy born to Laura Edith (Cassiday) Haight and her husband Fredrick P. Haight.  Not even one girl.  I think I perhaps was lucky that the Little Sioux river ran past, over a mile away.  I doubt the ninth boy was very welcome.  I will say right here and now however that the folks always said they were glad there were no girls mixed in the bunch for it made raising a family much simpler.  Maybe so.  Taking grain to the mill on the river to be ground into flour will never be rough.  Having seven older brothers I suspect I got pretty good care and perhaps more attention than I deserved. The next older brother Dale had died when about, 10 months old which also more than likely made them take special attention to me.  Several baby pictures show me not a bad looking youngster something that did not stay with me for long.

1905
I think my first memory is of the funeral service held in the front room, or parlor, at Glenn Alphine Home of my younger brother -Elwood - who had died 1/17/1905 at the age of about ten months. This made a lasting impression.

1913
Some time during the summer of 1905 the folks with me went to Portland, Oregon to the Worlds Fair celebrating the 100 years since Lewis and Clark had wintered near there at Fort Clatsop.  The trip on the crowded train I remember well.  Crowds- riding on the smoking car causing me to heave Jonah many times.  The stop in Montana at Elmer Lytle ranch.  His wife was a relative of mothers and mine.  They had come to Montana and homesteaded in the late 1890's or 1900 along side the Missouri river at Winston Mont., which is not far from Helena.  They took us into the mountains on a picnic. We forded the Missouri river and as I remember it the horses had to swim down stream quite a distance even though they were hitched to the spring wagon. When we broke camp to come back down the mountain a tree was tied behind the wagon to serve as a brake.  This I remember even though I was only five.  Was there any other "Haight Bro's" in Montana before 1905?  If not then I lay claim to being the first one to come to Mont.  From Helena we went on the train to Portland Oregon.  About all I remember of the Fair was the ride up on an elevator in a hotel.  I was a green country boy and I don't mean maybe so this was quite an event.  Upon wakening the next morning or perhaps that is what woke me was the- clop- clop- clop- clop of the milkman's horse making his early morning rounds.  You in this day and age will never know the sound.  The horse trotted made a sound never to be forgotten.  A day or two after that in Portland much discussion as to whether the folks could afford to buy an Edison phonograph took place.  They decided in favor of buying it. So when we went back to Iowa and the farm we took with us in 1905 a wax cylinder playing Edison "Graphyphone" as they were called.  It was one of the several wonders in that day and neighbors came from far and near to hear it.

It was along about this same time the telephone was installed in our home. Anything that made for better - easier- or more contented living, both (to.) Mother and father were for.

It must have been along about this time that someone decided I should go to school.  I definitely remember heading the half-mile o so toward Brook center schoolhouse with, Trevor, Rex, Burl, Elger, and Ray, not sure but think Ernest was in the crowd.  They went to fast for me for they knew the well-beaten path well.  I with my short legs could not keep up.  Some one lagged behind to help me.  I would like to make a bet it was either Rex or Burl.  Both those boys had kind hearts and believed in the "Golden Rule" (Do you know what that is?  Bet you don't.)  Anyway I got to school the first and may the first week but I guess the teacher or some one thought I was to young or to stupid for I think I stopped going until the next year.

When I did start all but Trevor had gone on to higher education or else were staying out to help with the farm work which was the custom in those day and age.  Anyway I think there were Clarence and Carl Swanson - some Plagman children- - some Meyer kids - some Story outlaws myself and maybe a Carl Kruse and his sister.  The first day I leaned how to play - "Pussy wants a corner" and we threw beanbags, I remember.

From that first day we learned the three "R's" "plus a lot of roaming the hills for flowers etc.  Etc.  Sliding down hill and was it "Blind Man Buff" and something to do with sheep?  Was it "Sheep man down ?" - A lath leaned again the building and all hid and one to watch the lath.  The point was to get in and throw the lath as far as you could before the man who was "It" beat you to it.  Some such deal.  There were woods and hills near our schoolhouse and believe you me the "Riders" did not always stick to the rules.

George and Mildred Lindlief started soon after that and they were closest neighbors and our best friends.  Or I should say- my.  For 15 years or so George and his sister Mildred and their folks were very close to me.  I was there so much their parents must have tired of me.  They were nice family. (Mildred latter married my cousin Craig Newcomb) (Now in 1958 the older Lindlief's nearly 90 Live in Alta Iowa not far away).

Each school year was much the same.  Until I started school many of the school terms were held only in the summer.  About that time they began starting school in Sept and running it nine months until late May or June. We had many teachers.  Among them wee Bertha Bowers- Ray Haight- Mable (Chamberlain) Haight Maude (Thompson) Haight- - Burl J. Haight - Myra Evans - Miss Stewart - and some gal from Missouri I cant think of her name but she was close kin to Mark Twain.  Niece I think.  I learned a lot in my eight years in Brook school from the teachers.  And I will bet you a doughnut the teachers learned almost as much from us kids.  They learned how kids smoked corn silk- did not always tell the whole truth though they did tell the truth. How they could forget things they should remember when they wanted to. How they could remember things they were supposed to forget, how in winter we could go miles to slide down hill and in summer how boys and girls alike we could find swimming holes deep enough to swim in. Well to get wet all over in and come back to school with our clothes dripping wet.  We learned all right but so did they, the teachers. I got to get along here as I am spending to much time and space on those school years.

Finished the 8th grade right there at Brook center.  Nights after school when I got home the first thing I had to do even though I did not want to was change my school clothes to some not so good.  (Neither were anything to write home about)  One more than likely clean overalls and the other not so clean.  Mother always saw to it our clothes were clean so neither were very bad I would guess.  Anyway after the clothes were changed it might we if we were lucky we could have just one cookie or more than likely a piece of bread with butter on it.  Jell ?   Sure I asked but usually was told if I was not hungry enough to eat just plain bread then I was not very hungry. Sometimes got cream and sugar on the bread.  Then came the chores.  Cobs had to be gathered from the hog pen.  No it was not a dirty job.  The cobs were clean and the tubs were carried or hauled to the house or the "cob house" then two, three or more armfuls of wood was carried to the house.  Couple three buckets of coal packed from the coal bin.  The eggs to be gathered and then you were through and could go play until super at six P.M.  This you sure did and fast.  So fast some times you did not get your chores done.  However in one way or another the folks saw to it you did not shirk very much.  And each night you went ahead without being told what to do.  Why should they tell you for you knew it had to be done anyway?  One night I forgot to get the eggs.  They kept quiet and about bedtime they asked if I had got the eggs?  That night I had to go with no light to the chicken house and get the eggs.  I was scared of the "dark" and need I say never again did I forget to get the eggs.

About this time for some punishment I got sent to bed with no supper.  Boy I never forgot or will I ever forget that.  It did not hurt me nor were my feelings hurt.  I lay there knowing I would never live until morning if I got nothing to eat.  Whatever I did must have been pretty bad for the folks did very very little punishing of me.  Maybe they tried so much on the boys before me that by the time I came along they had just given up in despair the punishing of children.  They just had a way of making you want to do what was the right thing.  In fact that was one of mothers most often replies to my questions about something-" Now Dwight" you know without asking me what you should do and what is right and what is wrong so why don't you just do as you think you should do.  One always did.  Well most always unless he was so far from them he forgot their influence or unless he was darn sure they would not find out about it.  And I learned the hard way they found out sooner or later about everything so I think I was at least an average kid.  Any bad habits I ever acquired was after their influence was not so strong and after I left home.

If I am not mistaken I got my eight-grade diploma in 1912 or 1913.  Being so far from high school they decided to send me another year and try to learn what I could even though I had completed the eight grade.  I think due to my not trying and due in part to the teacher knowing I was just an extra kid. And she did not need to spend her time on me I don't think I learned a great deal.  I could have and should have.  Milking cows after school was added to my chores about this time.  As was helping with the washing and with the dishes.  Mother used to say though she would rather do it without my help and for me to go on outside and play.  I got fast.

I must go back a bit here and come back down another way to 1913.  The folks had moved a hundred fifty miles or so to a college town- - Cedar Falls Iowa - for the older boys to go to high school and college.  I think this was the fall of 1905.  I went to kinder-garden which was in one of the big college buildings.  The inside of that big building scared me and I got lost trying to find home after school to.  Had been told just to follow this street car track and it would bring me to home.  Fine except I followed it the wrong direction.  Guess I went a mile and Mike took me home or else I would still be following it now in 1958.  One or the other.

We moved back to Peterson Iowa and Glenn Alphine home in the spring of 1906. This place - Glenn Alphine Home- was on a little creek and in wooded hills. The oak trees when I was young were mostly about four to eight inches through and ten to fifteen feet high.  When it rained hard the creek rose so a horse had to swim.  Now in 1958 the trees have grown so big that there is no run off of water and almost no creek.  The older boys used to fish- swim-and even had a boat in this creek which ran maybe forty rods from the house and a mile or two down into the Little Sioux River.  In winter we skated on this creek sometimes down to the river and back.

Sundays were quite often spent in visiting some relative.  It meant the driving team was hitched up to either a buggy- spring wagon or a sled and away we went to- Uncle Jim's two miles south.  He was fathers brother and my cousins there- Clayton- Stella- and Leilte Haight were all older than I was. However Uncle Jim was such a jolly old soul and he always saw to it that we had a good time.  Sunday dinners in those days were some thing to write home about and those at the Jim Haight home that Aunt Rosie Haight got, were the
best.

Then some Sundays we went to eight or miles down to Grandma Haights.- Fathers mother who lived with her son Lafe Haight on the old William J. Haight homestead.  Not b. 1826. N. Y. that except the house was old (Still standing now in 1958) and a cistern pump in the kitchen.  Also Grandma Haight smoked a little old clay pipe. She got started I guess through lighting her fathers pipe from hot coals for him when she was a young girl  Her husband did not use tobacco.  She died 2/12/1909 at their home in Elk Twp. Iowa

Another Sunday we would go to visit fathers oldest brother William E. Haight who had a flock of kids about the ages of myself and my brothers.  Things began to hum upon arrival.  Foot races - maybe a ball game- bicycle riding- an the older ones talking all about- - their girls-.  Aunt Minnie was a hard working fine woman and her dinners also were tops.  I know for I eat many a one there.  Lots of home grown stuff- - such as strawberries and cream- chicken tomatoes- etc..   Etc..  Aunt Minnie was rather plain spoken and if you did not get enough to eat it was your fault which she made no bones about telling you so.  I liked our trips behind Cap and Colonel in the buggy to Uncle Will Haights.  Some times it took tow rigs to haul the folks and all their kids to Uncle Wills.

Then for a real Sunday thriller was when we went to Uncle Frank and Aunt Stella Martins.  Stella was fathers only sister.  They did have a flock of kids.  And what kids could not do and would not try just was not worth doing.  They were a husky- hardy Scotch family and believed in the survival of the fittest.  I some times thought I would not survive.  All the things they did were not to bad but dare devilish and you were chicken if you could not do it.  I did it or at least I tried.  It would take to much time and space to list the things here.  One that I was not in on was when Jo and Floyd thought an practice Indian raid would be fun so they proceeded to tie Leo a younger brother to a fence post and pile corn fodder around him. Guess Leo would not five up or sign a peace treaty or something anyway they set the corn fodder afire.  It got so out of hand and had not their father Frank Martin been close by and seen it the result would have been disastrous.  Leo carried burns to his dying day.  Don't think I did not enjoy our trips to Uncle Frank Martins for I did and I will bet the other boys did to.  Uncle Frank was a very stern person and when he spoke folks jumped let me tell you.  His wife Aunt Stella was- short- fat- had a stiff leg and was so understanding of kids and if there was ever a more jolly person living I never saw them.  She was wonderful.

Mother had a sister a Mrs. Lon Hunter who had four daughters and of course we went there sometimes but not as often.  Aunt Lizzetta had been a schoolteacher and it seemed that the family were always in hard luck and had hard times.  They did live four miles away but moved to Spencer Iowa which was 30 or so miles north.  When we drove up there we usually stayed all night.

In that day and age I don't think parents told their kids too much about the "Birds and the Bees" and they just found out for them selves. May be good may be bad I don't know anyway I think they found out more faster than now days when they are told more.  At least what they are told is correct and what they found out through gossip and experience may not always been the best. Anyway lets put it this way not having any sisters I had to find out things and I think I learned for more from the female sex than I ever did from my own.  Neighbors- cousins- school- etc. etc..  Never learned it all and like all things have not yet in this year 1958.  I also saw "Helen Keller". (Blind etc.) at Des Moines.

Lets see I think the folks and I went to the State Fair in Des Moines in 1908.  Saw Ezra Meeker with his four white oxen.  He was re-tracing the Oregon trail.  He was real all right.

Went to Montana the summer of 1910 to Suffolk to visit E. W. and Rays?  Went to Montana the summer of 1913.  Got off train not at Lewistown as in 1910 but out at Hailger in 1913.  End of R. R. then.  Went home with E. W. down the bench west of Christina and past George Evens place, turning west and down bottom of coulee toward Rays.  Could find the old trail yet (1958) as well as the old Kendall Winifred stage road if it has not been plowed up.

One more thing about that 1906 to 1913 era.  The first meal I recall eating away from home was at the Nige Fulton home a mile south of Peterson with the folks maybe in 1906.  I later married his grand daughter (Ether Williams) daughter a- Helen Penrod. She was not yet born at the time of this first away from home meal.

Right now I see I must go to cutting out a lot of extras or I will run out of space.  1913-1914 Montana trip and usual work around home.  1915 a cold wet summer and corn frosted early much of it spoiled.  Rex was in his last year of college or next to the last I guess and when he went to Cedar Falls that fall they let me go with him and go to high school I roomed with Rex. He went to Iowa State College and I went down to the regular Cedar Falls High School.  A kid from the wooded country hills who did not know straight up and into what looked like to me the biggest city in the whole world was quite a jump.  I learned some.  Could have learned more.  To interested in athletics and not good enough to make the first team.

I think my being with Rex and the other college students may have contributed more to my education than my schooling.  I ate my meals with the Ufford family.  Rex soon after that married Sylvia Ufford who lives now in 1958 in Missoula Montana.  Rex died-12/22/1943 in Missoula Montana.  Unless it was the folks Rex had more good influence on my life than any other person.  I saw much of him when young and some but not as much as I would
have liked later in life.

Summer of 1916 I spent at G. A. H. and think I worked for Elger on some sort of share- pay- board basis, about that time.  He had a deal worked out with the folks to farm the home place.  Along the line many of those years I used to pick hazelnuts in the fall and shell them in the winter and sell them by the gallon to town folks.  Made quite a bit at it.  The folks also turned over to me the chickens and I raised chickens and sold both chickens and eggs.  They also let me raise some potatoes and some pop corn.  I remember being asked one fall what I was going to do with my spuds.  I said "Keep them and plant them next year".  That brought a laugh and father said maybe I better go out of the potato business before I had the whole place in spuds.

1917---
Some more school at Cedar Falls.  Some more experiences both in and out of school.

1918-
Worked for different neighbors around G. A. H. Made and saved my money.  Why shouldn't I for when I did not have work I could always go home and eat couldn't I ?  Worked for Ernest Haight that summer near Suffolk Mont.  Much experience.

1919-
Father passed away.  Mother moved into Peterson a town of 600 where she bought a house.  I bought an old Ford car and began to broaden out in area covered which had been my horses or by a bicycle until then.

I see I left out one of the most interesting and important families we used to visit.  The Sam Porter family ten miles south near Alta Iowa.  Ray -Clifford- Irene- Ralph and Scott Porter all son's of Sam and Nellie Porter. Well Irene was a daughter.  They were all about my age and I perhaps saw more of them up to the time I married in 1924 than any one family.  They were cousins on my mothers side.  Now in 1958 Irene and both parents and Ray have all passed away.  They had one of the first Autos- a Carter Car chain drive affair.  Boy could it go.  Ray took me 60 miles per hour between Storm Lake and Alta on a dirt road way back in maybe 1914?  Not very fast and it was in those days.  Clifford Porter and I took Adeline and Irene Howalt riding in a single buggy.  4 of us.  MY FIRST DATE.

Following fathers death I went to the Iowa State College at Ames Iowa with good intentions. I did not stay long for I spent all my time in the gym and let my home work go and when I saw I would never be able to get it caught up I just walked away from the college.  Sure it was a mistake but that is what one gets when he lets thing go undone until they pile up on him.

Anyway "World War One was on and Burl in the army and overseas- Rex in the Navy- - and Trevor in officers training school in Kentucky.  Lots of work with big wages on the farm so why bother to go to school.  I worked for various farmers.- Roy Johnson - Lee Pennington- - John Kracht- - George Kracht- Rupert Wilmes - Viggo Hashr- Frank Lindlief- Fred Plagman - - Kenneth Martin- Jessie Martin - John Watterson- Hans Ericksen - Theodore Halverson and many others whose names I can not think of.  Some of this work was corn picking in the fall.  Rex and I picked corn various places one or two falls.  Oh yes one of the best places I worked for was a George and Meta Brandt five miles S.W. of Peterson and two miles west of Glenn Alphine home. This was in 1922 or 1923.  No one ever had a finer home or was treated any better than I was in this home.  (George has passed away now in 1958 and Meta lives in Peterson Iowa).  1923- 1924- I worked for Oran and Elsie Fordyce on Salt Creek in Montana best place in the U.S. to work.

There I lived near by a family by the name of John Swanson and his wife and two sons Clarence and Carl Swanson.  There was a sister Ruby Swanson also she was younger.  Very fine boys Clarence and Carl.  Swedes as was George Lindlief.  The four of us had many a good times to-gether when we were in our teens and until we married.  I had a Model T.  Clarence and Carl had a Model T.  and George Lindlief had a Model T. car.  One -two- or all three of these were on the go most all Sat. nights- all day Sunday and almost up until daylight Monday morning.  All the country within about thirty to forty miles was known like a book  by us four.  Winter and Summer.  We knew many a girl, Swede and otherwise in this area.  We had much fun but looking back I don't think we intentionally did any harm to anyone.  Some Halloween pranks we pulled may have made some folks think otherwise.

I think it was along in the winter of 1923 when Clarence Swanson with his Model T.  took me and Helen Penrod with him to Royal 12 miles north where we picked up his girl a Freda?  And we went to Spencer Iowa to a show. Movie. It was a bitter cold night- flopping side curtains with the wind blowing in. We had an old robe with which to cover up.  Anyone now days would die on such a trip.  But we were young and foolish and it was the first time Helen and I had gone anywhere to-gether.  Or at least out of Peterson  when Helen lived with her grandmother- Helen Williams and her great Grand father a civil war vet. - Nige Fulton.  This family Nige Fulton, had homesteaded adjoining the Cassiday (Mothers folks) in Elk Twp, IA.  They homesteaded in 1869 and 1870 and were old friends.  Both living a mile or so from the "Haight" families.  Helen's mother had-re-married and she was raised by her grandmother Helen Williams.  Helen William had lost her husband and lived with her father- Nige Fulton.  Mrs. Helen Williams was one of the finest persons that ever lived.  Sewed for a living and many times did not know where the next meal was coming from.  She sewed for my folks.  They paid her with eggs and with milk and cream.  I remember when very young stopping there with produce with the folks.  In fact I remember when Helen and her sister Marjorie Penrod were little tikes a year or two old.  Back to 1923 or there bouts.

Lets get this first meal away from home business straight.  Nige Fulton and his wife- "Ret" homesteaded in Elk Twp. Near where my grandparents on both side lived.  Nige had several kids- the oldest being Helen Fulton who married first Irwin Williams.  He died maybe about 1908 and in about 1930 she married Walter Robinson.  Walter Robinson died in maybe 1945, in Los Angeles Calif.  Helen (Fulton) -was Williams * now  Mrs. Helen Robinson lives now in 1958 at 3291 Midvale Ave. Los Angeles, Calif.

The above Helen Fulton had two children by her first marriage.  Lloyd Williams who made a success of his life and has retired near where his mother lives in L.A.

The Daughter Ethel Williams married first Grover Penrod.  Divorced.  Ethel Williams then married a man with five kids Bert Dunkelberger.  Ethel and Bert had one of their own a girl named Doris Dunkelberger.  Bert died and Ethel Williams married third in Sioux Falls So Dak.  Lee Harbour.  Lee died in Seattle Washington.  Ethel Williams now in 1959 is staying with her mother- - Helen (Williams) Robinson in L.A.

Ethel Williams had two children.  First a girl Helen born Feb. 23 1907. Second a daughter Marjorie two or three years younger than Helen  Ethel Williams was then Ethel Penrod.  So the kids names were Helen and Marjorie Penrod.  Upon Ethel marring the second time to the man Bert Dunkelberger with five kids Ethel's own two kids stayed with their grandmother who took the best of care of them and made them a good home.  Helen and Marjorie's
father Grover Penrod married a very fine woman in Washington and they had one child name- - cant think now ______________________

Helen Penrod married April 7-1924-me- Dwight L. Haight, in IA.  Marjorie Penrod married ? When?______________ in Lewiston Mont.

Helen Penrod's marriage lasted 25 years then she re-married Marjorie Penrod's marriage lasted almost 20 years.  She re-married lives now 1959 in Seattle, Wa.  So does Helen (Penrod) Haight now Mrs. Lyle Clark lives in Seattle.

Now we got that straight just a word about the fine old people Mr. Mrs. Nige Fulton.  I have heard him tell many times about some of the Civil War battles.  And he was one of those present when Lee Surrendered to Grant at Appottmax in April of was it 1865.  Nige was very active- loved sports- and lived hale and hearty into his 90's.

That is where I with  my folks drove into the yard unhitched the team- Cap and Colonel-went in- and ate a fine dinner.  I was maybe only five but I remember her cleanliness and Nige's banter.  He like to kid.

Along in the early twenties I became acquainted with a boy about my age by the name of Winefield Bricksan who lived two miles away.  He and I became fast friends.  Many a swim in the river- many a hunt- many a water melon stealing- many a Sunday spent just he and I running over the hills on foot and in our old Model T cars.  He had one stripped down that roared like a jet and seemed to go just as fast.  He now in 1959 runs an auto repair shop in the town which both he and I grew up in or near.  He was so bashful he would turn his head at the sight of a girl.  On threshing crews he would go (Lou- Tom and Everett- Jensen were with Ges- Windy and me almost every Sunday- fishing- swimming-etc.-etc..) without his dinner rather than go into a strange peoples houses where we were threshing and eat dinner.  That is the gospel truth he was that afraid of women he would not even look at one.  Just turn his head and blush.  Well what?  You say?  I will tell you what before any one could say "scat" he married and had a youngster.  That youngster grew up and he had another. Was it just a case of being afraid in daylight and when it got dark he was un- afraid?  I don't know but he is a daddy and a grand dad now- something neighbors would have bet you ten to one would never happen.

Some may skim through this that would like a description of my parents Fred and Laura Haight.

Father-Fred Haight weighed about 165 lb. and his hair was dark getting gray. He was very even tempered never getting angry. Worked never to hard but he worked very steady.  He was honest and never would go into debt of any kind. Be in money or an obligation.  He was very saving but not stingy.  He liked to spend money for things that made living more pleasant or easier- -especially for mother.  He spent lots of money for reading material.  Many, many Magazines.  I can remember the Des Moines Register- - The Sioux City Journal- dailies- And a New York City Paper three times a week.  Some weeklies were-Country Gentleman- Harpers Weekly- Current Events Woman's Home Companion- - Youths Companion- etc..  Monthlies Laffolites (Wisconsin Senator)  Wallacers Farmer- (weekly) American - Magazine and others.  They used to say money spent for reading material was always well spent.  There were books galore.  Of course in books many were handed down from the seven (living) boys who preceded me.

Mother, weighed maybe 135 or 140 lb.  Graying by time I remember her. Smooth skin- must have been a nice looking young girl and woman.  Very and I mean VERY clean about herself and all she had anything to do with.  She to was very even tempered maybe more so than father.  It was her ruled the kids though she always had the backing of father - first and last and always. Never did I hear them in public or before me disagree on anything regarding us kids.  What one thought- right or wrong- was good enough for the other.  Mother worked very hard- Extra hard.  She had to keep eight boys dressed warm- clean- and cooked for.  She canned much stuff- tomatoes- peas- beans-beets- etc.. Etc.. And jams and Jellies.  Us kids picked wild-grapes-plums-choke cherries- mulberries-goose berries- beside the tame apples, plums, strawberries- raspberries- etc. and work had what was called a store room which was full canned stuff.  Canned in cellar- Jams- Jellies in another room.  In gallon to 20 gallon jars.  Little was bought from the store except- sugar- salt- pepper- and once in awhile some ginger snaps or sweet crackers.  They grew and we used our own meat.  Though the folks were not very strong for meat.  Once a day might be all we had meat.  We did live good but the work it must have been to cook- can- and cook and prepare those meals from 10 to maybe 20 on Sundays.  They were not much different than all folks in those days.  They may have seen harder times and believed a little more in laying in a supply of food to tide over a hard year or two if they were to come along.  And they did.  When young mother used to spin yarn from wool.  They also used to have nothing but candles for light and she helped us make the homemade candles by dipping into beef tallow.

I had spent the summer of 1923 working for O. A. Fordyce in Fergus County Montana.  Very good place to work- Elsie and Oran.  Came back to Iowa that fall from Montana where a lad Shorty Franker and I had driven both out and back in my old 1923 Model T.

Mother lived just a stones throw from Helen Williams - where Helen Penrod and Marjorie Penrod lived with her.  She being their grandmother.  Nige Fulton lived in this same home.  Mrs. Williams went to church every Sunday with the girls and some times two or three times.  I tell you she did her utmost to see they did what was right.  Daily-well from once to ten times a day mother and her old school mate Helen Williams went back and forth.  Helen as often as not was along.  Mother went to Fulton's and I with mother. In other words we saw much of each other.  When I was not out working most of every day was spent to-gether.  Helen was going to high school.  Junior I think.  Anyway along that winter some time some way we decided to get married and go to Mont.  Though I almost rented a farm a few miles north of Peterson IA.  (I guess)

Let me say something right here I meant to say long ago.  My parents Fred and Laura Haight were quite steady church goers all their lives.  From the time they were young until their last days they attended church.  They preferred Methodist but went to any church just so it was a church.  Their thought was that living a good Christian life was an every day affair and not just one of going inside some church on Sunday.  They believed this and lived accordingly- - good Christian lives.  If some of their kids have not it is no fault of their parents Fred and Laura Haight but the fault of said kids- - (I plead kind of guilty, myself).- Back to 1924 again.

At eight A.M. Monday morning April-7-1924 at the home of Nige Fulton and his daughter Helen (Fulton) Williams.  Helen Jemimiah Penrod and Dwight L. Haight were married by the Methodist minister- - Rev.________hitford. My mother  Nige Fulton- Helen Williams- Marjorie Penrod (he bawled).  Helen Penrod and myself (who shook like a leaf) were the only ones present.  Helen was 17 and I was 24.  Mother had seven sons married previous to my marriage but my wedding was the only one that she was at.  She never saw any of the others married.

When I look back it must have made an awful lonesome spot in her heart.  Me the last and only son left gone and her to go back to her house all alone and I mean all alone.  Her husband had died five years previous.  Those were trying times for her and she was not to well from that time on.

I remember Nige Fulton with something like 85 years of experience saying to me right after the ceremony.  Ray-(He always called me Ray) Ray it is you and Helen again the world now and don't you ever forget it.  Did I forget it?  I did not even remember it.  Until now 35 years later almost to the day.

Mrs. Helen Williams had one of the best breakfast I ever ate.  She was a good cook and she did her best that morning.  I guess we had piled our stuff in my 1923 Model T. the day before and about nine thirty we piled in and away we went.  Up main St. heading north out of Peterson Iowa to Suffolk, Montana, leaving behind I can see now several very weary and worried hearts. Such is it with all young folks and latter when we got older we come to our senses.

North a hundred or so miles on dirt road- (roads were not so hot in April 1924) and we stopped to eat the dinner or lunch packed so thoughtfully by Mrs. Helen Williams.  No spoons.  Doubt she knows that until she reads this in 1959- if she reads it.  Anyway we were happy as two bugs in a rug spoon or no spoon.  And I will say not putting spoons in a lunch was something Helen Haight never did so many a lunch did I eat after that with no spoon. That was good training that first day.

First night after stopping in Flandreau to see Ott Fulton, a brother of Helen (Fulton) Williams- we came to Helen's mothers place near Sioux Falls So. Dak.  We had made maybe 200 miles that day.  Believe 150 nearer the miles.  We thought we had really made some speed.  Stayed there over night. Helen's mother- Mrs. Bert Dunkelberger lived on a farm.  There were five kids around there.  Course they had to pay some for the ornery jokes they always play on newly weds.

Week there and on to Rapid City So. Dak.  Again in one day but old Model T. gave out some place alone the line.  No it was two days.  And it cant be over 250 miles.  Sure did not get far those days did we.  Lloyd Williams and his wife Thelma treated us royally while we were in Rapid City So. Dakota. He offered to get me a job and us stay there.  I bet if we had of tied up with Lloyd we would have gone places.  He did.  But maybe we did not have what it takes I don't know.  Anyway on we went along about April 20 or so. All went well until we got to a few miles this side of Sheridan Wyo. And a bad snow and mud-mud-mud.  Again you will never know cold- snow - a Model T. top down and mud mud.  We finally sunk about out of sight luckily near a farm house.  Two brothers bachelor brothers- (Bud and Pat Wallace) they pulled us from the mud hole and invited us to stay until the storm was over. This took several days.  These boys were hammering their mothers silver ware out and putting it on bridles and saddles as decorations.  Their folks had moved into Sheridan a short time before.  They made us welcome.  I never saw them again though passing near by I have wanted to stop some time.  Have heard reports about them.  One married and has kids and don't think other ever married.  34 years changes things so would be interesting to stop and see them.

After the storm cleared we took off getting about half way to Lewistown Mont.  Grass Range I think.  Next day we got to what was to be home.  A sorry looking place to a woman who had never lived anywhere but town.  I had imagination enough I could already imagine fields of grain- big barns- lots of stock- big house etc.. Etc..  This was never to be.  About the opposite, in fact.

We went over to Ernest and Maude Haight where they made us very welcome.  We in the next few days set up camp or got into the two room house on our place.  It was not finished inside.

The floors were rough- no steps- no nothing in fact.  Mother had had the foresight to order from - - Sears I think *  $200. worth of groceries- canned stuff and the like which was there or came soon after.  What we would have done without it I do not know.  I knew nothing about cooking and Helen knew no more.  We did not even know how to open a can.  Don't know if we had a can opener even.  Anyway our first meal was some kind of corn meal mush. Now corn meal mush is O.K. if you know how to cook it.  We did not.  It was something like you would stir up for little chickens.  Just corn meal stirred into water.  I think maybe the water was luke warm- I am not sure about that.  Now corn meal mush needs to be eaten with plenty of butter and I like milk with it.  We had neither. No milk- - no butter.  Some sugar on it helps to but no sugar.  That first meal on the place that was to be our home for some seven or eight years was not good.  We asked for it- -we got it.

Within a week I got a spotted cow.  I had ulcers until that time and I think that due to the fact we had nothing but milk so much cured my ulcers which I never had from that time until 20 years later.  Anyway we got a cow- we got a team of horses.  We had a Model T. but little money to buy gas.

Ernest- - Ray- - and Herbert Haight did much to help us to get on our feet. Ray and Herb gave us brood sows.  Burl and Ernest did as much or more.  They were very understanding as they had all been through the mill of getting start. They were going strong by that time.  Rex Haight had planted some winter wheat and had taken a school teaching job.  He offered us ½ if we would harvest his wheat.  Then on the Roy place there was a couple hundred Acres of wheat we also took to harvest on shares. Bought an old six foot binder with Iron pitman and with four horses cut most all this 300 A. of wheat.  Hired a furnished threshing crew to thresh the wheat.  No bin to put it in so ran it on the ground in piles.  Had I of hauled it to town myself I would have made really good on that first share crop harvesting.  However there were a few trucks and some young lads not to honest and it seemed at night they hauled more wheat than I did in the day time.  I was dealing with an experienced lawyer and with a not so honest elevator man so when I would up I had nothing but experience.  Well may $250.  Which we promptly spent on trading in our Model T. touring car in on a 1925 Model T.  Coup.  Some car let me tell you. (The remains set west of Suffolk at Ollie Hites now in 1959).  Then we borrowed $300. and headed back to the old home in Peterson, Iowa.  Wintered there.

The Spring of 1925 came back broke- borrowed $5.00 bought some- beans -spuds - flour - sugar.  Boy we did not live very high that summer. And in July of 1925 we got a boarder - Dwight Lloyd Haight- fat as a pig and as good natured.  How he could have been fat I do not know.

1925-1926-1927 More farming- more crop failures- more hard times- less and less to eat and to wear.  Car set with no gas nor money to buy it.  Rode horse back or behind a team in a spring wagon.  Hailed out in 1927.  Neighbors helped us out or we might have starved.  Went to the woods 5 miles away and cut down trees and cut into wood to keep warm.  Mined some surface coal.  Barbara put in her appearance Dec. 19- -1926 on a Sunday morning.  The Doctor Weldon said "all good babies are born on Sunday- -so they say".  Dr. Weldon must have known for there was never a better youngster from day of birth to the time she left home than Barbara Haight.  Have not seen enough of her to know since she got out on her own but from what I see I think it still holds.  Think Lloyd deserves some credit for he was very very good to Barb.  Even though much bigger and stronger he never used his advantage when a year or five-ten or 15 years old.

Lets see now what ?  The kids got ready for school in no time flat even though we had no money- no nothing.  How we got by I do not know to this day.  But we are all still living.  Along about 1932 the Milwaukee R. R. took out the agent and put in a caretaker who got smaller wages and a house to live in- coal etc..  The community choose by vote.  Helen received more votes than all other combined.  There were several wanted it.  This was a big help.  We had fuel- some money and a school rear by.

I continued to farm- Same thing- No rain- no crops. Dragged road for extra money.  Along about 1932 A.A.A. payments plus W.P.A. and P.W.A. came into being.  Let me tell you they were needed in Montana.  Helen's sister Marjorie had come to Montana with Herb and I in 1931 and she married a neighbor lad- - Henry White.  They lived near by.  Times were hard for them to.  Perhaps left a bitterness in the hearts of many a woman toward farming that will never be erased.

We had many friends- - Charley Simmons and family Everett- - the Art Drew family- - Bill Warren Family- - George Evans family- - Bill Phillips family - The Arthur's- Knudson's- Claus Jones- Hamilton's-(I was to later marry Ann Hamilton who was then married to a very fine fellow Charley Alley. He passed away in Bozeman, Mont.  George and Ida Osman - - Parrants-Mrs. Eaman- - Willis Anderson- Adairs- Byron Roberts family- - Gerard Miner and family- Johnny Martin and family- - Dick and Georgia Broe- - Fordyces's - - Baralous- Brooks - Jimmersons- Wickens family- Jackson family- and Murrays and many many more.  Folks in those days were all bound to-gether due to the hard times and through local dances and community meetings and Xmas programs were made to feel one another's troubles and share each others happiness. Many- almost all have had deaths and some have crossed the great Divide. Roy Anderson family is another and Mr. Mrs. Matt Mathew- There is just no stopping.  So many dry years along about 1936 and 1937 we began to look for greener pastures.(Fred Hininger family I forgot and they were one of the best)  Many had already left.  In fact most had except those who thought they could not.  We looked around Lewistown - Fairfield which was an irrigation project  150 miles west.  Boy all that water.  Water everywhere and for years we had been driving the cows two miles to drink.  And hauling our drinking water even farther.  We even went to Washington to the Grand Coulee dam country thinking we might go there.  We were about twenty years too soon for that country.  It is just now in 1959 getting settled good.  We went to Seattle to see Jo Martin.  How and what with?  A Model A. car and no money.  Slept on the ground and bought a load of bread here and there now and then.  Mostly- Then.

I think it was the last of Feb. 1938 when the Suffolk community with the Salt Creek folks gave us a grand farewell shindig at the Suffolk Community hall.  Fine turn out.  We hated to leave such a nice place with such nice people.

We piled our household belongings into an old hayrack made to be trailed behind a car.  Hitched it to our old Model A. Ford and the four of us Helen- Lloyd- Barbara and myself took off early one morning the 180 miles to our new home was also one mile east and one mile south of the Greenfield school. We left behind many years hard work and harder times.  Looking back I am not so sure but what hard times when we are going for us.  Better then than latter in life.  We in Fergus county had been farming some four or five hundred A. of dry land.  There was maybe 1200 Acres in all.  So we had pastures for some stock until dry years caused us to sell said stock.  Not many less than fifty head.  Got almost enough to pay off what we owed on them.  A neighbor at Fairfield - - Fred Hanson- hauled what little farm stuff we had and our two cows and our horses from Suffolk to our home at Fairfield.  Thus ended about 14 years of struggle on a dry land Fergus county farm.  What we owned the Federal Land bank re-possessed and what we rented we just let go.  I would like to say that from 1936 until 1959 21 years consecutive - there has been nothing but good years and good crops on this land we left.  Previous to 1938 there had been ten or so dry years when a rabbit or a squirrel could scarcely live. Thirty- forty and even some 50-bushel yields per A. have been common ever since.  Goes to show you one should not give up to easy don't it?  Those who stayed were rewarded.

1938 to 1949
On our Fairfield farm we had lots of water-. To much. Ground seeped in places- - drain ditches to carry water off.  Lots of work-to-much again - milked quite a few cows- irrigated- put up hay- seeded- harvested- kids went to school.  We had three tractors,  Lloyd drove an old Hart Parr that he got along with and did a lot of work.  Barbara drove a Model- A- International- and I had a Model A John Deere.  (The newest and best of course).  Helen drove any of them when some one needed to do something else.  We all four went into the hay field and put up our hay.  I suspect we all did so much hard work that it soured the kids anyway on future farming for a living.

We left Suffolk in Feb. 1938 to go the Irrigated country.  Along that fall Hitler invaded Poland starting a chain of events what was to change the lives of most every one in the U.S.   Anyway we worked hard- played some- community meetings- dances- card parties- school affairs and so forth. Looking back I am not as sure but the hard times in our lives were not the happiest.  At least it is better for the hard times to come first and not last in our lives of that I am sure.

Lloyd kind of found reason to go over a mile west to visit Shay's.  They had a fine daughter- Marvel- none finer.  Barb kind of took a shine to a family a mile south-Anderson's- another nice family.  Barb used to gallop down the road behind one or another

Of the three Anderson brothers- (Bob- Jim- or Bill) on an old white mare.  I think it was a mare and I think she was old.  At least they galloped and they enjoyed themselves.

Along about 1941 in July- in fact it was July 12- 1941 we got a new car.  A Chevy.  Quite an event.  Almost 20 years latter I remember the details as if it were yesterday.  This car widened our activities as we went farther than we perhaps knew at that time.

1941 brought the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Dec.  The kids had started into Fairfield the year before to high school.- 1940. Bombing of Pearl Harbor made everyone restless.  Not long after or fall of 1942 Lloyd headed for war work in Calif.  Barb became my right hand man and she was a good one let me tell you.  Then the winter of 1942 and 43 we let a neighbor Art and Elvia Campbell take our milk cows and we went to Seattle to work on "B-17" and "B-29" Bombers.

Lloyd enlisted- - no I think he was drafted into the army 1-19-1944.  The rest of us stayed in Renton and worked for Boeings.  Four of Barbs high school girl friends from Fairfield came out and boarded with us.  They were nice girls all four of them.  Helen- Tuel- Inez Austad- Mable Hovedon- and Evelyn Schrock.  ( All happily married and with kids live back here near or in Grant Falls now in 1959.  Helen Tuel lives in Calif.)

It was our intention to come back to the farm again in the spring of 1944. However Helen liked Seattle- crowds- pay check regular- and DID NOT LIKE A FARM AND NEVER HAD- so we finally decided to sell our stuff in Mon and remain in Seattle for the duration of the war.  In the mean time Lloyd had got a lot of training California and in Okla and had shipped to New Guenia and from there to Lozon, the largest island in the Philippines where a tough fight was raging.  Kind of a hand to hand fighting deal clear across Luzon into Manila where he was for 18 months fighting much of the time.

We did not go back to Montana but at the end of the was we quit Boeings and went to Calif. First then back to Mont.  Undecided as were millions of people at the close of the war as to what we should do.  Barbara did not go with us.  She came back to Grant Falls Mont.  Got a job in a bank- worked steady- found a boy friend or he found her and got married.  He was David (Bob) Anderson who had been one of the three Anderson brothers who lived near by at Fairfield and part owner in the old white horse Barb used to gallop, double, down the road as fast as the horse could go.  Bob in the meantime had been in the Navy- and Marines- and had had a rough go.  On Iwo Jimo and other places. (They to-day have two daughters and live in Havre Mont. 1959-)

In the fall of 1945 Helen and I took jobs at the King Street yards with the Railroad ( Pullman Co.) in down town Seattle. Feb,-13-(Friday) 1946 Helen went to her sisters Marjorie White at 217 Bennett St. Seattle Wa/ She quit her job.  I continued for almost a year.

Lloyd was mustered out of the service at Fort Lewis near Tacoma Washington in July 1946.

We had bought a new home in West Seattle along in 1945.  Helen and I furnished it with new furniture etc..

Harry White had come to batch with me in Feb. 1946 and then Lloyd being in hospital several months previous to his discharge was there a lot.  He was a Tech sergeant- got pretty good pay and aside from dislike of army life did not mine it.  Harry- Lloyd and I were there most all summer or until middle Nov.  of 1946 when we sold the house.  Lloyd and I got in the same old Chevy we had bought in 1941 piled in what stuff we could and left the rest.  What happened to the 25 years gatherings of Helen and I will never be known.  But imagine it went most of it to the junk heap in some dump or into the furnace which was a coal burning one a lot of old pictures- records- etc.- were destroyed needlessly.

Lloyd and I came back to Great Falls landing about Thanksgiving for Wallace Fluery family were good enough to ask us down for dinner.

Both Lloyd and I were pretty restless for a year or two.  That is putting it mildly.

I think it was the summer of 1947 Mable And Aron Barrit asked me to come out and help with the chores.  That was a lifesaver for me.  It got me back out to Fairfield and friends.  And what fine friends they were.  Art Campbell's- Maxwell's- DePratus- Okaness- Krauses- Roes- M Inery's- Fred Hansons- Burbridges-McCanns- Mark Sylvia and Mark Hitchcock and family-(One of the finest) Ralph Hitchcock's- Browns- Oaklies- Mang's- Dolezal's and many many more.  I was at Mable and Aron Barritts for most of the winter and later in the spring Mrs. Frank Mang asked me to help with the turkey raising that summer.  This also was a lifesaver.  She brought 5,000 turkey pouts.  She knew and knows turkeys.  I doubt we lost over 100 or so turkeys.  She also bought 100 tiny ducks.  She lost two and that was due to my ignorance.  I drowned them by not putting enough water into a swimming pool we made.  Yes tiny ducks will drown.  Try it.

The winter of 1947 and 1948 I worked at the A. C. M at the smelter here. Not hard work but not good working conditions.

Summer of 1948 Lloyd and I worked for a big wheat farmer 40 miles north of Grant Falls Mont.  He had around 5,000 A. of wheat.  Used all "Cats".  Was and still is now in 1959 farming on an even bigger scale.  Some of his machinery takes as high as 70 and 80 feet a swipe.

1949 I began driving cab in Great Falls and along with that job hauled the mail to the Air Force Base here.  This I did for some  four or five years. About now things started for a change.  A change for the better- -(For me any way) - As for Lloyd he had been doing pole climbing for electric line and did and still is - -1959-doing that type of work.  Married and lives with one daughter in Havre Montana. (Helen- Penrod and I - Dwight Haight were married April-7-1924-in IA.  Were divorced 25 years later last of April or first of May 1949. In Montana (Great Falls).


1949 to 1959
Lets see I left off with, or at, Helen (Penrod) Haight and me-(Dwight L Haight) after 25 years of married life-getting a divorcee at or in Great Falls Mont.  I think it was the first part of May- 1949.  I was in Great Falls and she was in Seattle Wa.

I drove cab- hauled mail to the base- batched-and loaded a lonesome life alone.  Some place along here I was in the hospital with ulcers.  My nephew Lyle Haight, working at the weather bureau, here at the time, was much help in and out of the hospital.

The Fred Haight Bro's were to have a - re-union-in Yellowstone park the summer of 1950.  Seven of us were there, Herbert- Ernest- Ray- Burl- Elgar- (Rex had died some time before) Trevor and myself.  All had their families with them.  First time since 1905 or 45 years that we had all been together at one time.  Several other relatives were in attendance.  Among them was Oran Fordyce who lived at Bozeman Mont. 100 or so miles from the park.

I had gone to the park with Lyle Haight but in order to get back to Great Falls to my job sooner decided to go home with Oran Fordyce.  Stayed all night at his ranch east of Bozeman and he took me into Bozeman the next morning to get a bus to Great Falls.  He delivered cream and eggs to Mrs. Ann Alley who lived at 327 N. Wallace St. in Bozeman.  It was noon and she and her son were home, she from work and he from- - work also-, trying to get a bite to eat. (Those of you who work for wages know, those who don't will not understand).  Her husband had died less than a year before.

Ann (Hamilton) Alley had lived as a young girl up to the age of 4 in a mining town of Kendall Mont.  Where her dad worked in a mine.  Leaving mining town like lots of others in about 1912 he with his family moved 16 or so miles north of Kendall to what is known as Salt Creek Mont. , and took a homestead.  Ann had been born while her mother was on a trip back to Missouri.

She grew up on the homestead some six miles west of Suffolk Mont. And 50 or so miles N. of Lewistown.  Going to grade school at a near by school and to Lewistown to High school.  Graduating and teaching one year before marrying Charley Alley in Texas.  Living  the following years in Texas some but mostly in Mont.  Several years west of Suffolk and the last ten years in Bozeman Mont. Where her husband - Charley Allen- worked for the city.  They had one son- George Dale Alley- (known as Buddy) who after the death of his father went into the navy and after getting out 4 years later went through Bozeman getting a degree in engineering and now in 1959 is an engineer at Boeing in Seattle, Washington.

In 1918 Ann's father- Sam Hamilton- pitched ball for a local baseball team. I played in the field.  A few other players were- Link Dennis- Jim Andrews- Ed Malloy- Turk Fordyce- George Caman- and others.  J. B. (Jess Fordyce was suppose to be the manager) What do I mean was suppose to be-He was.  Basil Fordyce played some of the time.  Oran Fordyce- Herb Haight- Knudson's Henry Brooks- Si Jones- Frank Clow-* Paddy* etc.. Etc.. Furnished some of the support.  Moral.  I was 18- Ann- 10.

Ann's parents Mr. Mrs. Sam Hamilton's  ranch and the Herbert H. Haight spread joined one another.  Ray- Burl- etc.- nearby.

Ann went to school to Mrs. Herbert Haight when a youngster at the Salt Creek school.  I went to school to Mable Haight some years before in Iowa at Brooks center school.

Come 1922- I worked for O. A. Fordyce. Ann Hamilton (Then) lived eighty rods away.  I was 22 she was 14.

Come summer of 1923 I again worked for Oran Fordyce and was 23 Ann-15- and beginning to be a pretty nice looking gal but to young (so I thought then) for me to look at.

Come 1924 I married in Iowa moved to Mont.  And from time to time saw Ann Hamilton.  Soon after it was not Ann Hamilton but Mrs. Chaley Alley. Charley was a very fine Dakota born fellow who had moved with his folks at an early age to Mc Allen Texas.  From Texas he had come north with the harvest thus meeting Ann who he married.  He died of a heart attack shortly before their 23 wedding anniversary.

Ann -M.1/26/1927 to 1959

Ann Hamilton b. 3/20/1908 Married Charley Alley- 1/26/1927.

Charley Alley b. 2/14/1898- - d.12/23/1949

One child born to them George Dale Alley-b. 12/9/1931.

Oran gave Ann her cream- she remembered me- and I had never forgot her. Long and short of it was she was alone - lonesome- and I was alone- lonesome- and neither living as one should live.

So Jan. 25- 1951 in Austin Texas- at the Methodist church we were married. Best thing that ever happened to me and I am not sorry.  Some times she may be but most of the time I think she has decided she just got to put up with me.

My mother used to tell me time and again - "Wash that dirty face".- - "Be sure and take a bath"- - AND PUT ON CLEAN CLOTHES.  I did not always pay attention to mother but I usually hear about the same thing and NOW I PAY ATTENTION.  I needed it long ago and I need it now.  Another thing rings in my ears from mother - -"Pick up that coat- - that hat- - those gloves- and hang them up".  Not much different from what I hear to-day 1959.  Now you don't think it could be me do you?  Couldn't be, or could it?

Anyway we married in Austin Texas- hurried back to Montana found a place to live.  This is an air force town so not so easy.  Moved three times and have lived here for the last six years in a small but comfortable home.

Ann works for Sears Roebuck and Co.  doing the house work up and I mean up- before and after- work, and Sundays.  I do my bit- wipe the dishes- track in dirt- and scatter papers etc..  All around.  How do I know.  She tells me so.  But I like it though I holler like a stuck hog.

I have been doing work as a school Custodian for the past five years.  Not the best but could be worse.  Kids?  None.  How do you get them anyway? Adopt them?

This brings me- or-us- to Feb. 1-1959,  What comes now?  Only time will tell.
Signed Dwight-L- Haight-b-1906

Lloyd Haight
I was born July 15, 1925 at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Lewistown, Montana. My mother was Helen (Penrod) Haight, b. 2/23/1907, and my father was Dwight L. Haight, who was born 1/12/1900.

My mother stayed with Mrs. Barrows a week prior to my birth and she was in the hospital about a week at my birth and then stayed a few days back at the Barrows home. My parents took me in their 1926 Model T Ford the thirty-five miles or so out to the ranch where they lived. This place was about two miles west of what was the Suffolk, Montana.

Pictures show I was a pretty fat kid. I wonder how that could have been for pickings were pretty slim in those dry years and depression times thrown in for good measure. Maybe because we lived mostly on milk spuds and bread. I had measles, scarlet fever and whooping cough, all before I was much over one year old. Scarlet fever came about being the end on Lloyd Haight. Spent a week or more in Lewistown with my mother and a nurse not knowing the outcome (so they say).

The first five years of my life I got plenty of exercise running around the nearby hills and playing with my sister Barbara.

My parents started me to school at the schoolhouse two miles from home and in Suffolk. Some of the time my Dad took me by horseback and much of the time I walked across the pastures. I think my first teacher was a man-Dale Miller. Not a bad teacher but a better marble player. He used to win all the little kids marbles (and keep them).

Some of the other children along about that time were, four Jackson's - several Miners - bunch of Sawyers - several Wickens kids - two Eaman boys - several Andersons - (both Roy and Willis Anderson kids) one Shaw - Pat Taylor - Katheleen McDonald - Billy Stephens - Ruynan kids - couple of Leach children and some Gaylans. There were others I can't think of right now. Wonder where they have all scattered to? Oh yes, there were two Schaeffer kids-Edgar and Patty?  And Gipp had three girls in school. My school days in Suffolk was from about 1931 or 1932 until 1938.

The first three years we lived on the ranch and along about 1932 my mother got the job of caring for the Milwaukee depot and we moved into Suffolk living in the railroad house. My father continued to farm the ranch. Part we owned and part we rented. We lived mostly on my mothers income and the little my dad got dragging the country road. Crops were poor and prices were poorer.

I had a sister Barbara, born Dec. 19, 1926, who was my constant companion. She entered school one year behind me.

We lived in Suffolk for about six years. I did not know it then but they were the most carefree years of my life. We had little in a material way but lived a happy family life. One found and had his fun where he found it. And around a small community like that, there was plenty. They're being some six or so other kids of our age living nearby.

In 1935 or maybe 1936 when I was about ten years old, I went with my father with cattle to Chicago on a stock train. The trip and the city of Chicago I will never forget. Nor will I forget the trip back to Montana with the stopping off in Iowa. In Iowa we visited at Davenport, my mother's grandmother - or my great-grandmother. Her name is now Helen Robinson. Her maiden name was Helen Fulton. It was at her house and her father's house where my parents were married. Not at Davenport but at that time she lived at Peterson, Iowa. (The above mentioned Helen Robinson now in 1959 lives at 3291 Midvale Ave., Los Angeles  34-Calif. and she is about 90 years old.  She is the grandmother of my kids grandmother all living five generations.

We stopped at Peterson, Iowa, where I went with my father to the farm in the hills where he grew up along with his seven brothers.

Along about 1935 we acquired in some way an old Model A Ford. In 1936 or thereabouts my parents - Barbara and myself piled into this car and went to Grand Coulee, Washington. My mother's father - Grover Earl Penrod - worked on the dam. We were in that hot place on July 4.

From there we went on to Seattle, Washington stopping at Cedar Falls which is not far from Seattle to visit my fathers cousin - Jo Martin. He took care of the watershed that supplied the water for Seattle thousands and thousands of mountain acres real pretty spot.

He took us into Seattle. A couple high points was seeing the ocean for the first time and riding on a really big ferryboat. Up to then I had thought our little old river at home was big. It was maybe four feet deep and thirty feet across. And my first real roller coaster ride. Was I scared? We made the trip on very little money - eating lunch by the roadside and sleeping out most all the time. Or at friends when possible. We stayed with Rex Haight - my uncle - at Helena the first night. Headed back to Montana wiser - poorer - and happy to get home like everyone who leaves home. Glad and anxious to take a trip but just as anxious and glad to get home again.

It just got dryer and dryer and in 1938 the folks had a chance to move onto an irrigated farm a hundred or so miles west. This was quite a change from dry land farming. Lots of water. In fact too much. Lots of work. Again there was too much. Electric lights, good roads, schools nearby - many good neighbors all of which made it a pleasant move at the time. This farm was eight miles N.E. of Fairfield, Montana. My sister and I went to school two miles distant where there were about 300 kids. Both of us finished high school at this Greenfield school. Both of us then started to high school in Fairfield. Barb going up into the last year and I wait due to war condition. Went into Army but after getting out did graduate from the Fairfield High School and have my high school diploma from that school.

Let's see the folks milked a lot of cows. Too many again. I worked hard helping with that and other chores all the time we lived at Fairfield. In fact we all worked hard - haying - plowing - fencing - raising chickens - etc. etc.
We were not too prosperous however we had plenty to eat and wear.

I took a shine to an especially attractive girl who lived a mile or so west. Roy Shays daughter.. Marvel Shay and we certainly had many happy days together. Shows, dances, plays, school etc. They were a fine family. We got to the point we thought we wanted to get married. (And we knew we did) Like all parents, my folks thought they knew what was best for us and talked me out of it. As we both were under age we could not marry without their consent. I realize now had I of tried harder they might have agreed. But as it was it seemed hopeless so Dale Mang and myself took off for California. We went to Redwood City, which is near San Francisco and got jobs loading ammunition onto boats. Good pay but dangerous and hard work.

This was the winter of 1941 or 1942 I think as the war was on. Dale Mang went to high school but I just worked in Redwood City. Did write to my folks. In fact they came down to visit us and see "Dad's" brother Burl J. Haight who lived near by at Palo Alto, California.

Later on Dale and I went on down to San Diego where we again got jobs staying at the Y.M.C.A. The world and California did not look as good as we thought it would so we started saving money to go back to good old Montana. Dale got his saved first and I was left alone. Soon after I got enough and back to Montana and home for some time.

I worked the summer of 1942 and 1943 for my folks getting some wages but also some freedom of use of car and having a home that kids away from home do not get.

My folks sold out after living on the Fairfield farm for 5 years and went to Boeings in Seattle to work. Two of my best friends Ruben Maxwell and Dale Mang were going into the service. Ruben Maxwell into the Marines and was killed on Iow Jima. Dale Mang into the Air Force and flew a bomber all through the war.

I had gone in Dec. of 1943 to Wallace Idaho with Ruben Maxwell and my folks picked me up there on their way to Seattle. Barbara was with them. I stayed a month or so around Renton, Washington with them and then headed back to Montana in Jan. 1944.

I was inducted into the Army at Fort Douglas, Utah. Jan. 19, 1944 and give the serial number 39622051. Had my basic training at Camp Roberts and Ft. Ord, California. I was sent to Ft. Sill, Okla to a special communication school. This was a tough school and training. And what a hot country.

I shipped out of Ft. Ord, Calif. In Sept. 1944 aboard the "David Shanks" landing some thirty or forty days later on New Guinea. Found out there really was a war going on about that time.

We left New Guinea, Christmas Eve 1944, under shellfire. What a way to spend Christmas Eve thousands of miles from home. We were on an L.S.T. heading for the invasion of the Philippine Islands landing Jan. 8th on the north or father end of Luzon. Manila being on the other end.

This was Jan. 8, 1945 we made our landing on Luzon. The next tow months we had tough going as we fought our way towards Manila. Clark Field was one of the main objectives about half way to Manila.

It was a rough country and the Japs were hid out in caves, trees, and all died fighting, rather than surrender. It was just a case of you "getting them" before they "got you".

We entered Manila March 7, 1945 setting up communication installation just hours before the American Air Force began their awful bombing of the city. Strett fighting went on for a long time and again it was either your or the other guy. Hand to hand fighting. This went on about three more months. Occupation too much longer and this to was a problem. I was in Manila V.J. Day. And stayed there for over a year.

In May of 1946 I left Manila for San Francisco aboard the General Wegel.

I had gone in a "Buck Private" and had for a long time bee a "Tech Sergeant". Landed in Frisco and went almost at once to Ft. Lewis in Washington State. Spent a couple of months in the hospital at Ft. Lewis before being mustered out July 1946.

May things like what we went through never happen to any of you.

War conditions had caused my father and mother to separate not long before. My father living in West Seattle I went there and the summer of 1946 was spent in Seattle. A town I never did like. We lived in West Seattle.

A week or so before Thanksgiving 1946 "Dad" and I loaded what the old 1941 Chevrolet would hold and took off for good old Montana. We left behind the accumulation of personal and household stuff that they had been 22 years getting together. They had sold the house.

We landed in Great Falls the day before Thanksgiving. I have never left Montana since.

The winter of 1946 and 1947 was spent in and around Great Falls and Fairfield. I had the misfortune to loose an eye in 1947 at Fairfield. Summer of 1947 I worked on a construction of light line around Fairfield.

Summer of 1948 I worked for Bill Robertson who lives five miles west of Carter Montana and this is about 25 miles north of Great Falls. My father also worked for the some man that summer. We had kind of an enjoyable summer considering everything.

I began work for the R. E. A. in 1949 working around Fairfield, Great Falls and Highwood, Montana. I have worked climbing poles fixing electric light wires about ten years now. Dangerous, but good pay. Some of the lines carry up to around 175,000 volts and we work on them "HOT". They always put the poles on some high hill or mountain and on windy days they seem all fired high.

In 1949 Wanda Sin Clair and I hitched ourselves to the same wagon and have pulled together ever since. Well together about like all married couples pull together. Real good most of the time and then some times seem (s) like we pull hard and don't get anywhere.

My wife Wanda Sin Clair was born in Grass Range, Montana. She went to Winnett to High School and to Lewistown also. Her Parents are Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Sin Clair who were both born in Iowa he in 1886 and she in 1888. She has three brothers and one sister.

The brothers are the twins Pat and Mickey Sin Clair born in 1920. Robert, Jr. born in 1930. And the sister Viola Sin Clair born? _______

Yes they are all Irish and I have some Irish in me too. Quite a bit in fact.

Wanda and I have one child a girl born July 7, 1952 at Harve, Montana. Her name is Penney Lee Haight.

We thinks she is a right nice girl. She is in the first grade now in 1959.

I believe I did not say I left R. E. A. light line work and worked some five years for the Bureau of Reclamation out of Harve. They maintain the line from Ft. Peck the tow hundred fifty miles or more to the Montana Power Co., at Great falls.

About a year ago I went to work for a man who is contacting maintenance and new lines for the Montana Power Co. So you might say I am still climbing poles doing line work, now for the Montana Power Co.

My wife Wanda, works most of the time at a near by store.

We like Havre, Montana, and own our own home though it is not as big and as new as we hope to have in the not to distant future.

It is however, "HOME" and who could ask for more? That with reasonable good health makes life worth living if one will and does enjoy it as he goes along.

From here on, or should I say now on….(ST. Patrick's day 1959) old father time, along with LUCK, Health, etc. will write the chapters to follow.

Who knows what they may be???? And why worry about the future?

Signed Dwight L. Haight 3-17-1959



                    
Barbara Haight
Dad, I don't know what you want me to write about myself. There is not a great deal to say and you know that old saying - - "If you want to know something about your business -  ask your neighbor". So if I don't do a good enough job just ask others and find out what I did as a youngster- on the farm- at Lewistown- Fairfield- Washington and so forth. I can't remember too much that I think would interest other folks.

Anyway here goes; as I have been told, I was born Sunday morning at St. Joseph Hospital in Lewistown, Montana.  My pictures show I was a chubby little girl. Why I have no idea for I am sure about all we had to eat in those dry years and hard times was milk- spuds and meat- - in the winter.

We soon moved in the town of Suffolk (maybe 40 population) and I began school in the nearby school. Kind of a country school. My brother a year older then myself was already a year ahead of me. There were mostly boys in that town and in the school so I learned to play ball - run foot races and do the things all young kids do.

A neighbor girl (Kathleen McDonald) was a quiet nice girl and taught me to play cards, which we did by the hour.
The storekeeper a Mr. George Evans was good to me and gave me candy and was a kind man. His wife also worked in the store and was fine.

The other folks in Suffolk did various things, - Dick Erie and Georgia ran the elevator - -Sedgewick  and his wife ran the other store- - Willis Anderson ran a dray business. There were several bars of course. After dances my brother Lloyd and I used to gather up the bottles and cash them in at a nickel each. Used to make from twenty-five cents to a dollar. We got up early Sunday mornings to do this as the dances were usually held Saturday night.

My mothers sister Marjorie White lived nearby and used to have us in to eat quite often.

Dad farmed or tried to while mother ran the depot.

After about five or six years of this and I was about twelve years old we moved a couple hundred miles onto an irrigated settlement.

Entered the Greenfield school and this was a fine school in a fine neighborhood and had many many nice girlfriends around Fairfield and on the Greenfield bench. Too many to try to mention.

I helped dad farm. We put up hay - milked cows - worked in the garden. I mostly ran the tractor. It was fun and it gave one a contented feeling when he had done a good hard days work and at the end of the day, was tired - but knew he had really accomplished a lot. Lloyd, my brother did the heavy work and I - well mine seemed heavy too.

I think maybe we worked a little to hard and it may have kind of made us dislike the farm life later on. However I do think the work was good for all of us.

Anyway about 1940 I went into Fairfield High School. Played in the band - studied - got fairly good grades. Had a lot of fun and again had many, many of the best friends in my life. Some of which live not far away this year of 1959 and I do not see as often as I would like.

Came the war and many changes- - -

Dad sold out and we went to Seattle, Washington where we all worked at Boeing's making airplanes. I liked that. I spent almost the entire two years helping build the first then - X-97. It was a wonderful plane. I saw it the first day it flew. Climbed up on top of the plant where we were told not to go and were told to come down but there was no one willing to climb up to make us come down. What a view we had and what a thrill.

The wars end and back to Great Falls, Montana for me where I worked in the bank.

Must say right here I think my first paying job away from home was at the Club Cafeteria in Great Falls, washing dishes when I was maybe 15 or so. It was summer - no dishwasher in those days - boy was it hot! I nearly died but stuck it out. A few years later I worked in this same place behind the steam table and it was hard but not like dish washing. I want to just forget that.

The bank job was good and I liked it. Was nearly twenty before I quit.

Had known a boy out at Fairfield by the name of Robert Anderson before he went into the Navy. I thought him tops then and when he got out of the Navy, saw much of him.
David R. Anderson (Bob), serial number was - - 554-78-59 (Navy). He was born in Great Falls, Montana same year I was born in Lewistown. He was born 3/7/1926. He went into the Navy not long after the start of the war in 1941, serving with the Marines in hospital work - - mostly out on the battlefields. Iwo Jima was the worst he saw and was as bad as it can get.

Anyway, we were married 2/8/1946 - in Great Falls, Montana. His full name is David R. Anderson but everyone knows him as just plain "Bob". He did various work for the city -etc. etc., until around 1949 he started with the Great Northern Railroad. We moved to Havre which is 100 miles north of Great Falls (we tried farming too). He is now an engineer on the Great Northern. I did work at the hospital but for two years have been working at Buttreys Dept. Store in Havre. I like it. We built our own home and have it very nice. Two girls - Betty Lea Anderson - born 3/23/1948 and the second girl born 9/23/1951. I like them both.
    
That about ends it Dad. Is it O.K.?
    
Signed - - Barbara Anderson - (early) 1959.
(daughter of Dwight L. Haight - born 1926)

Barbara Helen Haight b. 12/19/1926
- - -And - - -
Dwight Lloyd Haight  b. 07/15/1925

Ancestors on their mother's side of the Family Tree
1- Adonijah Fulton - - born ? ? ?   Perhaps from Scotland married Irene Robinson born ?       Perhaps from Scotland. Both were Scotch but not known if born in Scotland (known as "Nige").
    
2- Adonijah Fulton - - 8th child of 14 from above couple b. 7/3/1840 at Lisbon, St. Lawrence County, New York State d. 10/5/1934 at Vets Hospital, Minneapolis, Minn.
m. 2/7/1866 to Loretta Graves - - at Canton, New York State b. 4/21/1844- - at Lisbon, N.Y.
d. 12/31/1917- - at Peterson, Iowa.
     
Both Nige Fulton and his wife Loretta are buried in the cemetery on the hill north of Peterson, Iowa.
    
3- Helen Fulton - - the eldest of a large family b. 3/14/1869 at Lisbon, New York State
living now in 1959 at - - 3291 Midvale Ave., Los Angeles, Calif. married first to Irwin Williams at Peterson, Iowa.

4- Two children of this marriage; first- Lloyd Williams - date of birth, I do not know.

4- second- Ethel Williams b. 9/11/1888 at Peterson, Iowa Ethel is living now with her mother at 3191 Midvale Ave., Los Angeles, California  (this is 1959) Ethel Williams married;
Grover Earl Penrod on 11/27/1905 (he was Pennsylvania Dutch.

5- Two children were born of this union first- Helen Jemima Penrod born 2/23/1907 second- Marjorie Penrod born 1909 ?? (not sure) Ethel Williams divorced and married second, Bert Dunkelberger. After his death she married Lee Harbour. Lee Harbour died in
Seattle, Washington about 1956.

 
Ancestors of Barbara Haight and Lloyd Haight

Helen J. Penrod 2-23-1907 (Living now in Seattle, Washington 1959) married first: Dwight L. Haight on April 7, 1924. Dwight and Helen Haight had two children: First Dwight Lloyd Haight born 7-15-1925, Second Barbara Haight born 12-19-1926.

Lloyd Haight born 1925 married Wanda Sin Clair 1950 they have one child Penny Lee Haight 7-7-1952.

Barbara Haight born 1926 married David Anderson they have two children Betty Lea Anderson 3-23-1948 and Peggy Rae Anderson 9-23-1951.

Dwight and Helen Haight were divorced in 1949

Helen Haight married second: John Freeman, third: Lyle Clark and they make their home now in 1959 in Seattle, Washington.

Dwight Haight married second Ann Hamilton in 1951 and now in 1959 -we- live in Great Falls, Montana.
Foregoing written by Dwight L. Haight, May 30,1959.

 
Taken Near Christmas 1942 or 1943 at Harry White's.
217 Bermett St. Seattle, Washington.
(L-R): (Mrs. Dwight Haight-first marriage) Helen Penrod, Dwight , Barbara and Lloyd Haight


ADONIJAH FULTON CELEBRATES *85TH BIRTHDAY
A large gathering of relatives held Civil War Veteran stage real celebration
the day before 4th of July.

Nige, as he is known all around town, was a Commissioned Lieutenant in the
Civil War following the "Battle of the Wilderness".

Nige Fulton, Civil War veteran and a pioneer of this locality celebrated his
85th birthday, Friday, July 3, and a flock of his children, grandchildren and
other relatives were here to help him do it.

The events of the day included a big dinner at the home and in the afternoon,
Nige held a reception at which hosts of his friends and neighbors called to
pay their respects.  In the evening he had seats reserved at the Legion
Theater and took the whole flock to attend the show.   Saturday, July 4th,
the following day, was spent by many of the gathering at a picnic 25 miles
S.W. at Storm Lake Iowa.

Mr. Fulton was presented with a handsome easy chair as well as "socks" as he
calls them, handkerchiefs and many other things.  Mrs. Dr. Gaston, a near
neighbor and friend donated two birthday cakes which Nige declared melted in
his mouth.  The birthday dinner was served by Nige Fulton's daughter, Helen
Williams, at one o'clock Friday July 3 or Nige's birthday.  The color scheme
for the dinner was yellow and white and the floral decorations were beautiful.

Mr. Fulton was born at Lisbon, St. Lawrence County, New York State on July 3,
1840.  In the same spring as the John Cassiday family (Dwight Haight's
grandfather on his mother's side) --1869-- he decided to go west and grow up
with the country.

He came to middle Iowa--Boone-- in the spring and in the summer or fall he
came to Elk Twp., Buena Vista County Iowa and his homestead joined that of
the John Cassiday family at the place.  It was slightly over one mile east of
the William J. Haight homestead also located in Elk Twp. of Buena Vista County
Iowa.  About 1881 he moved to a farm south of Peterson, IA., some ten or so
miles north of the Elk homestead.   Here he has continued to live either on a
farm or in the town of Peterson for the last 45 years.  His wife died in 1917
and Nige now lives at his home with his daughter, Helen Williams and with his
great-granddaughters, Helen and Marjorie Penrod.

Nige served in the Civil War.  He enlisted at the age of 21 in New York State
and served four years or throughout the war.  He has taken an active part in
all GAR affairs and until recently never missed a state encampment.

Nige now spends his days in peace and contentment.  He plays a good game of
checkers, tends store for John Fasenow and for Charley Stipe in his hardware
store. Nige said he has never been in jail  and says he thinks now he never
will be.  He is hale and hearty, tall and as straight as a bean
pole--slightly over six feet even at 85

The Peterson Paper with his friends in N.W. Iowa wish him many more "Happy
Birthdays".
      
3)- Dwight L. Haight -b. 1/12/1900 - In Brook Township, Buena Vista County, Iowa
d. Living m. 4/7/1924 - To Helen Penrod at Peterson, Iowa (first marriage) b. 2/23/1907 at Peterson, Iowa
                     

                                          Children of Dwight and Helen (Penrod) Haight
Dwight Lloyd Haight b. 7/15/1925 - In Fergus County - at Lewistown, Montana m. 4/1/1951 - To Wanda Sinclair - at Montana b. 10/6/1918 -at Grass Range, Montana
                                                            
Children of Dwight Lloyd and Wanda (Sinclair)Haight
                                      
(5) - Penney Lee Haight -b. 7/7/1952 - at Havre, Montana
                                             
Barbara Helen Haight -b. 12/19/1926 - In Fergus County, at Lewistown, Montana m. 2/8/1946 - To David R. Anderson - at Great Falls, Montana b. 3/7/1926 -at Great Fall, Montana.
                                                            

                         
Children of Barbara and David Anderson

(5) Betty Lea Anderson -b. 3/23/1948 - at Great Falls, Montana
                    
(5) Peggy Rae Anderson -b. 9/23/1951 - at Havre, Montana
  

(3) Same Dwight L. Haight as above, married second, (b. 1/12/1900 - at Brook Twp., Buena Vista Co., Iowa) m. (second) 2/25/1951 - To Ann (Hamilton) Alley - in Austin, Texas b. 3/20/1908 - in Missouri.
              
(No children from second marriage)