This is not history, biography or a yarn. Just memories, accurate, inaccurate or maybe only hearsay or dreams. What does one remember and why? (I stayed in most of one recess to learn to spell that word. I had to r-e-m-e-m-b-e-r).

Some early recollections:

1. Visiting school in a tent. Was sent out to draw a picture on a slate of teachers pony. Went to sleep on the job.

2. Some one lost-maybe me- found in the "bush-patch" just above the "turn" in the ravine. (A road which led from Iowa's level and to our home in the valley).

3. Someone else lost-cousin Harry, I think. Found in the empty side of the milk cooler tank with the lids down.

4. Kindergarten stuff - left by D. A. Hamm, a mystery man - kept we tots busy for many hours on "inside days", of which there were few in our young lives.

5. Father returned from Chicago minus his sideburns and was hardly recognized.

6. At about that time Ernest showed me why I should never tough father's razor - to prove it was sharp out a corncob - cracked the blade.

7. A horsepower thresher struck in the creek is almost as vague as memories of its operation.

Early days were spent in a stone house next to a hill with a long kitchen-dinging room addition on the south side. House eaves came nearly to the ground on the north. Roof made good sliding on frosty mornings, but was hard on trousers and shingles. A very nice sandpit back and above made a fine play spot. As the family grew beds appeared in the attic, rainy nights were wonderful. For some years it was outside and up the ladder to bed.  Frosty on the feet sometimes.  Finally a stair on the inside balanced with a weight over a pulley was pushed up to the ceiling when not in use. One stone in the north under certain conditions and was considered a barometer.  At about the time Burl and Edgar were playing Corbbet and Fitzesimmons roles a new house was built.  It had a basement replace the "cave" which had been used for vegetable storage.
During the stone house days we must have been busy pounding nails of all sizes into the kitchen doorstep. An area of probably two by three feet was practically solid nail heads. Nail driving in loose lumber was strictly forbidden - too many bare feet. Then there was a stone-pile to climb over and the brush pile to crawl through. Stones gathered from the fields, saved for future use and willows from two to six inches from along the creek to be chopped for winter fuel. Too much energy in the house or too much vigor at play might find one assigned to wood cutting duty.  Or just plain need for fuel must be met. And in season always cobs in the feeding pens to pick up for present use or storage. During the fall and early winter feeding time it was often so many tubs per day. If there was trouble about who did what some one might find an assignment of extra tubs.  Sometimes a full day with a crew of boys and a team and wagon would clear the feeding pens.  Cob throwing battles enlivened the job.
 

Gun-weed supplied chewing gum. Properly stored in a little box it was available for chewing or trading later. Colored string braided, marbles or a whole pocket-full of miscellaneous stuff had treading value, especially when school started. Some times the lunch pail carried something of trading value.

Where and when one grows up may have a lot to do with how and to what.  We were a bunch of kids, eight of us from one to eighteen, working or roaming the hills together in comparative isolation.  Sometimes with a raft of visiting cousins.

The building site, well up from a small creek some thirty rods away had been started as an overnight camp, then as a temporary site, by a spring on a hillside well below the level land of Iowa's prairies.  Threes were planted as shelter on the level land above, but the buildings never located on the selected spot. Joining the farm was an area of ravines and small hills with brush, grassland, small trees, and wild fruit. And most unusual for that part of Iowa some sand pits and scattered rocks -marble size up to one - Big Rock - some six feet in diameter. The Little Hill, South Gate, The Big Rick, Hell's Peak, Brook's Creek and the Indian Mounds needed frequent exploration.  Floods rushing down ravines and creeks created new situations. New swimming holes might be possible or an occasional deer, elk or buffalo horn might be uncovered.

Nearby trees were oak, hickory, basswood, willow, ironwood, and by the river walnut, elm and others. Wild fruit and nuts were common - grapes, plums of many kinds, choke cherries, wild currants, black haw and hazelnuts. An occasional flock of beribboned girls invaded the area during the hazelnut and plum seasons just before fall school time.

Animal live included prairie wolves, badgers, skunks, rabbits, muskrats, mink, weasels, squirrels and miscellaneous mice, moles, chipmunks, snakes, turtles, crayfish and bugs. Birds - crows, thrush, robins, meadowlark, blue jay, bee martin swallows, canaries, killdeer and many more, I'm sure. Spring and fall brought great flights of ducks, geese, crane and biant.

Eating is always important to outdoor working or roaming boys. There was a big garden with vegetables, berries, rhubarb, melons but for some unknown reason, few apples. They were bought from orchards to the south, frequently Longackers or Bradfields.  Wild fruit and nuts added to seasonal use and winter stores.  Bins of potatoes, carrots, cabbage, squash and a sack or two of navy beans and popcorn were standard. Supplemented by apples and sugar (usually in barrels at earlier dates) two, three and five gallon stone jars of plum, grape and apple butter - sometimes in combinations- honey in large quantities - a keg of pickles and rows of jam, jelly, preserves, canned fruit and tomatoes with plenty of home dried corn and apples. Meat and poultry and eggs home grown. Crackers in 18 to 22 pound wooden boxes wee always on hand. Cannot remember going hungry.

The farm, Glen Alpine Home, named by Uncle Frank, and purchased from the Railroad at $7.50 per acre, I think was surrounded by pasture lands mostly owned by farmers to the south,- Garberson, Mummert, Watson, Anderson and others. Around this group were communities which maintained their European customs and culture to a large extent, with church and school in their home country language.  Danish to the northwest, German west, Swedish south, Norwegian southeast, and Welsh northeast.  Several of these groups were divided by denominational or geographic differences.  Our school and surrounding schools usually had children talking German or Scandinavian when they wished privacy.  In some cases this was forbidden by the teacher.

Education - general:

Daily tasks in garden or on farm (a poor job meant go back and do it again) caring for stock, pets and poultry, picking potato bugs and pulling weeds, cutting wood and posts, hauling, post, straw, hay and manure, doing chores- and for me helping in the kitchen and with housework for several years - were fundamental education. (I do not remember disliking the aprons I wore).

Roaming the area watching and exploring everything in sight - flowers, trees, birds, animals (wild or tame), people, streams, springs, rains and floods, weather and change of seasons, sky, sun, moon, stars and clouds. Climbing trees, skating, sliding, trapping, fishing, hunting - all good training. Something was always being made or built, sleds, barrel stave skis, boats, bow and arrow, darts, kites, slingshots, popguns, traps. Any idea was worth a trail. Handles for hammers, axes and tools were made from home cut and seasoned hickory shaped with a drawknife and finished with edges of broken glass.

Perhaps the so-called "frills" in today's educational programs are efforts to provide for something lost from daily living in yester-year.

Social activities were not completely neglected. Bicycles enlarged the area for a time and brought in visiting, ball games and neighborhood parties. Later a long-legged sorrel team and snappy buggy widened the area still further and the sphere of interest (Sometimes that team seemed to know what road to travel).

Annual trips to Alta County Fair with occasional trips to O'Brien Count Fair were an exciting as Fourth of July celebrations and more informative.  Perhaps Herbert started a chain of events in 1906 at the Alta Fair when he elected to wander about the fair grounds with a couple of Alta High School girls and me.  I had the good sense to switch to his choice and follow through. 

Ernest and I went to Des Moines State Fair at a pretty early age - maybe 16 and 14.  Hired a tandem bike while there and rode into the country to compare with our own.

Camp meetings, Chautauqua's, and teacher's institutes offered opportunities to explore other fields of life. Sometimes one met interesting people who might consider evening strolls or sitting by the lakeside in the moonlight.  Organ lessons and an early Edison phonograph were interesting and helpful.  Special excursion train trips to State College at Ames created interest in wider education.

Elections at the schoolhouse were interesting.  Father always seemed to have some official capacity at election time or school board meetings.  Older members of the family went to watch the counting of ballots at night.  Observation of democracy in action.

Education - formal:

All this learning was supplemented through the years by more or less formal education.  Older members started to school in a tent but by the time a school house was ready.  One room probably 24X30 ft., three windows on each side, and one behind the teacher's desk in front.  Triangle halls, on each side of the teacher's platform, one for boys one for girls.  Three rows of desks each seating two pupils - - two behind the stove and four on each side bellied stove in the middle of the room.  A long recitation seat in front of the stove.

Beginners were supposed to master one half of Appleton's First Reader the first year.  First page:

Cat

A cat the cat

A black cat

Second half started with the story of The Little Red Hen.

One reached Parnes Fifth Reader after probably five years, and some used a Sixth Reader.  These had some excellent short stories which were read and re-read.  Reading, geography, language, arithmetic, spelling, physiology and Spenserian "Copy Books" were main studies.  During the year there was always time to listen to the upper grades recite - and to daydream.

Teachers of many varieties, capabilities and capacities. A girl of 16 Lucretia Bradfield, a man-name forgotten and age unguessed- - who put a rawhide riding whip on top the blackboard on opening day "for use if needed".. Goldie Thomas who was not afraid to "speak up" to kids, parents or school board members.

Noon and recess with tag, hide-and-seek, pull-away, last couple out, run sheep run, ball, fox and goose and tree climbing.  Dist. 5 grounds were half covered by and surrounded with natural trees, to tree climbing was easy. Being "kept in" to get lessons or for breaking rules was common and disliked. Five minutes out of fifteen was long term confinement.

In 1904-5 (I think) Ernest and I went to Linn Grove School.  In town for school, at home weekends.  Probably some upper grade and high school work for me.  My high school work must have been pretty garbled.  Shortly after this Ernest went to Cedar Falls State Teachers College.  I followed shortly.  Spent some time in prep school and must have spent some time in college classes making up entrance deficiencies.  At least when enrolling in post graduate classes at Ames in 1936 found my Cedar Falls record showed much less college credit than I expected.

A big factor in our education was the many hours spent with books, magazines and papers. Youths Companion, Boys World, Christian Herald, Leslies Weekly, Ladies Home Journal, Saturday Evening Post, American, Monseys, Literary Digest, Current Events, Chicago Inter Ocean and The Homestead come to mind.  Books were plentiful.  Do not recall reading any paperback or dime novel of that day.  There were no funnies except Mutt and Jeff.

We joined the Methodist Church and YMCA in Cedar Falls.

Work started early with kindling, cobs and eggs.  Then chicken feeding, care of chicken house and coops, pumping water for the milk-cooling tank. Mothers finger test of temperature and "Guess it will do" or "Better change in again" often meant the difference between work and play. Garden and potatoes seemed to take lots of hoeing and weed pulling. Potato picking was a big job - took all day for one or more days.  Pretty tired backs at night. Pumping water for stock was a big job some seasons.  Milking strippers and easy ones started as a special favor and soon developed into a share of the regular milking.

Sometimes missing hills on corn had to be replanted.  Corn cultivating, with a "walking plow" for many years, started as soon as one could see the row and lasted, with only minor breaks between first, second and "laying by" till around July Fourth. Haying started just after this and meant lots of pitchfork use to get hay from field to wagon to barn or stack.  Stackers were used later.

Grain had to be cut, shocked, stacked and threshed.  This was an exciting event, lots of men and a big machine. Corn picking lasted several weeks. Up and team harnessed, breakfast over and on the row as soon as one could see the ears. Quitting when you got to the end of the row and it did not pay to start another-or when dark. No Sunday work even in harvest time.

When "big enough" one could "work out".  Start at 25 or 50 cents a day, get to $1.00 or maybe a little more for a mans work, $25.00 per month was common.  Seemed I could find most satisfactory man's work in Alta vicinity.  This was not true after the Chamberlain family moved to Missouri.

In 1910 free land in the west called. Or was it mankind's homemaking proclivity?  Anyway hope to find satisfactory land and the probability of having use for it started me west.  Herbert was in Colorado and Ernest in Montana so in June 1910 after attending a YMCA convention in Green Bay, Wisconsin, I started west by way of (?), Missouri and Colorado Springs.  Worked a month or so in San Louis valley and Manitou Park College ranch. Found no satisfactory homestead land.  So north, via Denver, Alliance, Nebraska and Billings to Fergus County.  Ernest met me in Lewistown and we started the last 40 miles of the trip by heavily loaded wagon to the Salt Creek area.  Walked up hills and pushed when steep.  Went to bed under a wagon box a pretty tired pair. Finding and checking boundaries of homestead took many weeks. A walking job, find a section corner then "step-off" to locate by quarter sections or 40 acres.  Finally filed on 160 acres. (Eventually increased to about a section and sold to Herbert in mid 1940s). Built a stone dugout in fall of 1910. Went east for the winter.

Worked on Lindsay ranch near Kendall May to November 1911 and Montgomery near the homestead in 1912.

Trips to Iowa and Missouri finally set the wedding date - (??).  From apple-blossom time and hot days in Missouri to (rest of paragraph blank)

To be very brief -1913 to 1919 was a wonderful poverty, prunes and picnic time bringing lots of fun and two bright eyed youngsters who enjoyed picnics even as we did.  Upon doctors advice to change climate for Gertrude's asthma, we rented the place to Rex and started west again July 3, 1919.  Bought a 1916 Ford in June in which we traveled on mostly dirt roads to Puyallup.  From this on, life was almost a living travelogue.  To be short will brief Civil Service job descriptions (with an occasional comment).

August 1919 to March 1920.  Worked for Western Washington Experiment Station and in a Puyallup cannery.  (Bought a house)

March 1920 to March 1921.  Worked for Blangy Motor Ford Agency Tacoma and Seattle.  Selling tractors and farm equipment. Did considerable work in adapting tractor for industrial uses including big pneumatic tires.  (Gertrude started first grade and Cecil kindergarten in Seattle.  Sold house and moved to Redondo Beach then to Seattle)

March 1921 to August 1928.  Returned to Fergus Co. ranch.  Picked up a little blonde curly hared girl in 1921 and a pair of twins in 1924.  Built a nine-room house.  School problem too tough.  High school 40 miles so sold stock and equipment fall of 28.  Lucky time to sell- just before depression hit.

September 1928-June 1931. Considerable overlapping in jobs during this period.  Dairy herd testing and records for 25 members.  Farm Management Specialist working with 15 members and Extension Service.  Records of income and expenditures, labor use, etc.

Lived in Lewistown for school, on ranch in summer1928 to 1933.  Moved twice a year, lived in five houses in Lewistown.

June 1931 to August 1933. City Sanitary Inspector.(?) inspection, milk tests, cooperate with City Health Officer, garbage checks, etc.

Secured Livestock Ranch records in eastern part of Montana for Bureau of Agricultural Economics.

August 1933 to September 1934. County Extension Agent for Beaverhead, Madison and Jefferson Counties. Special attention to AAA program.  Family moved to Bozeman for college, and I lived in Whitehall except most weekends.

September 1934 to October 1942.  Land Use Specialist in Montana for National Resources Board, then State Representative for U. S. Bureau of Agricultural Economics.  Cooperated with local people and State and Federal Agencies in developing local and national agricultural programs and policies.  Headquarters in Bozeman. (Youngsters graduating from high school and college, getting engaged and married a separate story).  Unemployed a short time before next job.

October 1942 to April 1943.  U.S. Treasury Dept., to secure cooperation of Agricultural Agencies and rural people in War Savings Bond sales program.  My headquarters in Great Falls.  (From this time till 1950 my location moved with the work but the family lived in Bozeman.)

May 1943 to July 1946.  War Relocation Authority.  This Agency responsible for care of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the U.S. during the war period.  I was Relocation Office in Helena then Spokane offices.  Then Area Supervisor in Salt Lake office.  Duties:  Direct activities of Intermountain Area including Salt Lake, Boise and Spokane District Offices.  Determine policy in the Area within WRA regulations.  Assist in analyzing community sentiment and in organizing local committees.  Assist in evacuee placement and adjustment within the community.  Maintain contacts with local, state and federal officials.  Analyze problems within the area and secure cooperation of committees and governmental agencies.  Select personnel subject to approval of Washington Office.  (Headquarters - Helena, Spokane, Salt Lake)

September 1946 to February 1947.  Rent Inspector, Office of Price Administration.  Administer program of use, rates, service, leases, evictions and other factors.  Investigate complaints, hold hearings, issue rent orders.  Worked in Helena, Missoula, Bozeman and Billings.

February 1947 to February 1948. First as assistant then as Farm Labor Supervisor for Montana.  Secure adequate farm labor and proper distribution.  Cooperated with farmers and U. S. Dept of Labor in securing Mexican labor.  Sent crew to Kentucky and Tennessee to recruit 1,000 men for beet harvest, supervised transportation, housing and wages.  Directed migrant labor and custom combine movement.  Develop information program.

February 1948 to July 1953. Bureau of Reclamation as Settlement Specialist. Assigned task of developing a program for local participation; educational work, conduct negotiations for contract agreement, organize committees for irrigation development, assist water users to organize districts, and formulate settler assistance programs.  (Got service award and lifetime pass to U. S. Parks)

In after 1952 election adjustments was notified the position was discontinued but might apply for other Civil Service work  .At age of 67 did not seem to be a good idea so we retired and bought a home in Bozeman. Did apply for two-year service in Ethiopia, not hired.

I seem to be as busy as ever with no major activity.

Signed this day; Dec. 1 - 1958 - At Bozeman Montana.
709- Seventh Ave. So-The present home of Ray and Vernice Haight.

(Signature) Ray - Burton - Haight
 
 

Gertrude Blythe Haight

 

Gertrude Blythe Haight. -1-2-3-1b. 2/27/1914--- Oldest child of Vernice and Ray Haight born at the farm home four miles west and 35 miles N. W. of Suffolk and of Lewistown, Montana.  Born in the midst of a Chinook and most likely the only child of this generation to be born with all hand made baby things.

Married to-- George Martini Miller-  (b. 3/11/1917-- at Albion, Washington) in Bozeman, Montana on a Sunday afternoon, Sept. 15,1940.  We went directly to Wenatchee, Washington by plane, NO HONEYMOON* (darn it).

We had one child a daughter, Janet Ray Miller b. 1/6/1943 at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, Washington. (More about her later).

Back to my husband George Miller.  George has a twin sister Ella Maud Miller.  George's father was John E. Miller an Albion banker until he became a farmer.

Back again to myself (Gertrude Haight Miller).  I went to the first grade in Seattle, Washington, in the Broadway District.  I went through the following seven  grades -2 - through - 8, at a little old country school provided by the Montana Haight Bro's (Herbert- Ernest and Ray)  for their children.  Sometimes we got some help form county for school but more often they did not.  A few neighborhood children attended this school from time to time.  Doris Hinninger being one of the kids who went there.  Four years of the seven one or the other of my Aunts taught this one room school attended by from 3 to 7 pupils.

High School-- 1928  to1933

The family moved to Lewistown from the farm so I and the other four coming up might go to school. The 500 enrollment caused me no little concern - me being just a little old green country kid.   I had rheumatic fever during my high school years.  Made the Honorary National Scholastic. -Came the depression-- No Job--No Money for college so I took a post graduate course at the high school in Lewistown.

 College---1933-1937--B.S. Degree

I enrolled at Montana State College at Bozeman Montana in applied science but being in engineering Math prompted me to change my major to Secretarial Science, with a minor in education. Upon graduation, the depression still being with us-- no job. Oh yes I was honorary secretarial Lambada Phi Kappa. Enrolled in Business Administration at Washington State College at Pullman Wash. --1937-1938.  I had a teaching fellowship and taught half time typing and short hand.  Pi Lambda Theta National Education Honorary.
 

JOBS
 Fergus county high school  July 1938 to July 1939. Taught typing half-time and worked in the office under C. G. Manning. Worked in Agricultural Extension Service State Office Pullman Washington July 1939 to Sept. 1940. Before I left Lewistown, Montana after working for a year at the job there I was offered a full time job as teacher of bookkeeping - "No Like". Anyway it was time to get back to Washington. And my future husband George Miller who I had met during my graduate year. Soon the Sec. (Me) of the Director of Extension Office quit to get married.

 SINCE MARRIAGE
We went directly to Wenatchee, Washington, a fruit country, from Sept. 1940 until July 1942. George was R. A. C. C. for the F. S. A. (Regional Agr. Credit Corp. -(F. S. A.) is Farm Security Admn.) we lived some way some how the first five weeks with no pay check.  Five weeks no-- six weeks.  Just some of that government red tape that seems so screwy-- at times.

In Seattle Washington from fall of 1942 through Sept 1945 George worked at Boeing Aircraft Plant two- in Seattle. George being an engineer did then, top secret work, on a jet plane.

In Sept. 1945 we moved back to his dad's farm near Garfield Washington n. This is not far from Pullman Washington and is in the well known Palouse country. At first we farmed in partnership with Georges dad - John E. Miller.

We now farm for ourselves about 800 a. in all - wheat, dry peas - barley- oats. We have built our own home which between the two of  us we think is one of the fine stand most lived in homes in the state of Washington.

Service Record -- None.
Classified--2A-- Married and job deferred for George. I did not go into the service because--Housewife--and mother.

 HOBBIES and ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
4-H Salt Creek Montana Butterflies for years. Won an achievement trip to International 4-H Club Congress at Chicago in 1929. I am now a leader in "Busy Bakers" which is my daughters Janet's 4-H club. She wins far more honors that her mother ever I did.  I am in church work. Have taught 7th and 8th graders for nine hears now.  W. S. C. S. - Guild and others. I am president, at present, of Mental Health Association-- A. A. U. W. (American Assoc. of University of Women.)

Last but not least-- Love to sew- decorate and re-decorate my own house. I love to do - ANYTHING for high school  youth. Love music-- and to read.  --Finis--

Gertrude (Haight) Miller. Garfield, Washington- Nov. 1958
 
 

Cecil Paul Haight

 

Born:  15 August 1915, Suffolk, Montana, in the little, square shingle house where my parents (Ray and Vernice) homesteaded.

Early days:  Several things stick in my mind:  the seeming vastness of the country one could look as far as80 miles before the mountains in the NE obstructed the view; and the long rolling hills on the farm that were a challenge to short legs; summer days hazy with the heat and the dreams of a little boy in his coaster wagon; the cool shade of the apple trees laden with fruit, trees which all the neighbors told Dad would never survive the winters or the dry summers; the sharp clear cold of winter when snow crackled under foot and the breath of every living thing rose in a plume from the nose, winters when we would wake to find little drifts of snow that had driven through the key holes and the cracks around the windows to lie in powdery streaks along the floor; rides in the bobsled burrowed deep down in the straw and covered with a horse blanket to keep warm.

School for 7 years in a little one-room school taught, more often than not, by one of my aunts; the fall when my sister and I were the only pupils and we had a teacher, Ella Downs, who no doubt was responsible for giving us the lover of literature that carried both of us to a Minor in English in college; sled rides down a long rough hill, soup or cocoa in a small can heated on the old stove that served to heat the school; flood water in the spring that meant Dad would have to take us through a foot or two of water on his big, black mare, Star, so we could get to school.  Fabulous old-fashioned Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner sat one of the three brothers of Dads (Herbert, Ernest, Burl); Christmas trees of pine decorated with popcorn and cranberries strung on string and many needle-pricked fingers; 4-H club work - because of which my cousin, Lyle Haight, and I got to go to the State Fair in Billings where we most unexpectedly placed first as a demonstration team (the next spring or year the winners got to go to Spokane, Washington. - we only got an engraved cup?)

High School;  We moved to Lewistown, Montana, so Gertrude (Sis) could start high school and I went to the 8th grade. In high school I took a college preparatory course and amongst other things, was Freshman president, on the Student Council, earned a letter in music and made the National Honor Society as a senior.  We moved back to the farm every summer so we were skilled movers by the time I graduated and we went to a college town, Bozeman Montana.  Lyle Haight, my cousin, was my constant companion and I approved of Beryl as a girl cousin. (Lyle and Beryl were brother and sister and children of Dad's brother, Ernest Haight, who lived a mile away.)  Beryl had a girl friend, of whom I was aware, but can't recall in the least, who was her steady friend.  (Beryl's girl friend here mentioned later became -Mrs. Cecil Paul Haight.)

College:  Montana State College at Bozeman, Montana, was a beautiful school in a nice, conservative town.  College was a riotous tumble of events with constant pressure from the faculty to work, work, work.  (Seldom did we have any activities except on weekends!)
 

I took the applied Science course with a major in biology, played four years in the "varsity" band as on the yearbook staff one year, became a member of the band honorary KKT, and the biology honorary ??, was co-activator of the co-op housing.  Looking back, my undergrad days in college are perhaps best summed up by Sigmund Romberg's "Golden Days" from the Student Prince.  Graduated in 1937, had a notion to specialize so went on to graduate school.

Graduate School:  Montana State College for a year, then Iowa State College at Ames, Iowa.  Had a wonderful time.  Learned what a big, good school is like and went broke at the end of a year.  Back to Montana State College where I got ulcers and eventually my M.S. degree in Zoology, major in Wildlife management.

Marriage:  Fall of my sophomore year, some more-or-less friends from Lewistown, Montana, brought their attractive daughter to college and stopped to in-quire about off-campus housing.  The girl was my cousin Beryl Haights best friend before mentioned by me. The family managed to get her settled with three older girls in an apartment, two of these three girls were very good friends of mine.  The year I was a grad and she was a junior, Peggy Hitch, (Now my wife) and I started going steady - we have been together ever since, although some of the time we had to live some distance from one another.

WARNING *-*- The results of this friendship now may be counted as:

Marilyn, 15, born in the Swedish Hospital Seattle, Washington, 1943:  Now a sophomore in High School here in Spearfish, South Dakota. She is a flute and organ player, reader of poetry, in declaim, a student in her spare time.

Larry, 12, born in Mary Greeley Hospital, Ames, Iowa, 1946: now a 7'th grader, trombone player, hoping to be an athlete, but 61 inches tall and 85 pounds don't add up to a full back yet.  He holds his own in school.

Nancy, -8-, born in St. Joseph's Hospital, Deadwood, South Dakota, -1950.  Any musical inclination would seem to be in singing.  Her interests are largely -people- and, ironically, she has the build of a full back.

All this has resulted in my being 17 years older, a big gray-headed, and considerably out of breath trying to keep up with the kids.  I guess the penalty of the friendship has been light -I'd do it all over again if I had the chance.

The seasons first snow is lying on the ground.  I've just walked home through the dusk and the warm light of many unshaded windows made a beautiful, friendly glow out across the snow and among the few, fluffy snowflakes hanging in the air.  It was almost unreal, yet terrible familiar, like something conjured up out of one's childhood. 

When I open the door I'll be met with the odor of supper (yes it's late) and Nancy will throw herself on me for a pre-supper tussle; Larry will be delving into an encyclopedia, a book on science or one on the Old West; Marilyn will be recounting her day at school or her woes at being a church organist before she is quite ready; and Peggy (My wife), -- she'll be there, that's enough. Penalty? Ha!

Service Record: - Ulcers.  4-F. - Peggy, as a graduate nurse and an R.N., did not go into   the service, but while in Seattle, Washington, during the war she worked night shift in a new hospital while I worked at Boeing Aircraft.

Jobs:- To numerous to mention.  Well, maybe I better since you insist: (That experience in moving surely came in handy)

1941 - Married - high school science teacher Thompson Falls, Montana.  Sanitary Inspector for State of Montana following summer.

1942 - Science teacher, Livingston Montana

1943 - Inspector, U.S. Food and Drug Adm. Seattle, Washington.

1944 - (late)  Time-motion studies at Boeing Aircraft, building B-29's, Renton, Washington.

1945 - (fall) Iowa State College, Ames IA, research assistant. BOY--- The money problem with two kids.

1946 - Biologist, Corps of Engr,, U. S. Army wildlife studies in areas above dams which were being constructed. - Job abolished. 

1948 - Science teacher, Black Hills Teachers College, Spearfish So. Dak. Been here ever since, taught algebra, physical science, all sorts of biology.  Fall here frequently reminds me of the brilliant blue skies and the golden leaves at Mont. State College at Bozeman, Montana, the air electric with the promise of big tasks to do and the certainty of challenge in new courses.

Hobbies, etc. --  Bird study, charter member and former director of South Dakota Ornithologist Union.  Scouts - Served my time as a troop committeeman.   Larry is active.  Gardening - and I do know how to fight weeds.  (Should) Remodeling - the older house we bought.  We're learning a lot and enjoying it-also learning to be unconventional if it will suit our needs.  Stop and see us sometime. Music-We are slowly building a collection of good LP records, partly because of our older daughter who LIVES music.

Extra-curricular jobs:  Currently Lay Leader in the church.  A director of the local concert association.  Former president of the South Dakota O-U.  Chairman of the Science Division at BHTC, which has top faculty members each in biology, math and physics, chemistry.
  

(signatures) Signed this Nov. 1958-
Peggy & Cecil Haight.

It was necessary for me to copy Cecil's original letter.  His was well written, punctuated correctly, spelled likewise etc.  Any and all errors are mine in copying.  Sorry, Dwight

 

Ray Burton Haight 6-23-1886in Brook Twp., G .A.H., Buena Vista, Iowa. Married 5-6-1913 to Vernice Chamberlain at Drexel, Missouri.  She was born 11-18-1888 in Nokomis Twp.,  Buena Vista, Iowa.

Gertrude Blythe Haight 2-27-1914 at Suffolk, Montana, she married 9-15-1940 at Bozeman, Montana, to George Martin Miller.  He was born 3-11-1917 at Garfield, Washington.

Janet Rae Miller 6-6-1943at Seattle, Washington.

Cecil Paul Haight 8-15-1915Suffolk, Montana married 8-29-1941 at Hobson, Montana to Margaret Hitchshe was born 7-27-1917 at Hobson, Montana.

Marilyn Lee 10-29-1943at Seattle, Washington.
Larry Paul 4-15-1946 Ames, Iowa.
Nancy Louise 10-5-1950Spearfish, South Dakota

Jean Margery Haight 10-20-1921at Suffolk, Montana she married 7-29-1946 at Bozeman, Montana, to Cecil L. Hess born 1-8-1923 at Stanford, Montana.

Cecil Larry 12-3-1947 Appleton, Wisconsin.

Lorinda Ann 11-16-1949Appleton, Wisconsin.

James Georbert 8-26-1952International Falls, Minnesota.

Lucille Marie Haight (twin)5-19-1924 at Suffolk, Montana, married 7-4-1947 to Delbert Miller at Walla Walla, Washington.  (Divorced from Delbert Miller)

Susan Ray Briggs 6-5-1948 married 9-27-1951 to Curtis Briggs at Billings, Montana.  He was born 1-27-1926 at Elk River, Minnesota.

Susan Ray 6-5-1948

Debora Ann 10-29-1952Sauk Center, Minnesota.

David Aden 7-12-1954 Elk River, Minnesota.

Chad Brian 11-27-1955Elk River, Minnesota.

Robert Duane Haight (twin) 5-19-1924 Suffolk, Montana, married 6-13-1956 to Audrey Jean Linscheid at Vida, Montana.

Haight Family Photo Album