MARION AND   MAXINE  SIGLIN

Marion was born in 1910, June 21; Maxine 1913, Sept. 27. They were born and lived in Boone County. Maxine’s parents were John and Lulu Jessen. Maxine is the oldest of four children, one brother and two sisters. Marion’s parents were Jacob M. Siglin and Florence Siglin and he was the middle child of nine -- four brothers and sisters on each side. Marion remarked that the saying is, "Beware of the middle child" Both began their schooling in a one-room country school and went to high school at Woodward, Maxine for two years, Marion for four. When Marion told his father he had a chance to play football he was told, "If you’ve got any time on your hands I can use you here," so he never went out for sports.

Marion became the spokesman for their story: We got married in 1934 and lived on the north edge of Dallas County. Maxine was 20, I was 24. Before that we couldn’t afford to even think of getting married. Maxine was working for neighbors; I was working for $1 a day but I got to thinking that I would never get anyplace at that wage. I didn’t realize the big wide world was out there with other opportunities; but for most of them a college education was necessary. The folks couldn’t afford to put me through college so I started farming. I got somebody to sign a note for $5,000. You could start farming for that amount in those days. Now it wouldn’t even buy a second hand tractor. Farming was an entirely different ball game then. These days a farmer needs a college education but in those days all you had to do was use your good horse sense and muscle. We knew what a scoop shovel and a pitch fork was.  They didn’t have any moving parts except your own hands. Manure was the fertilizer. There were no herbicides for weed killers or insecticides for corn borers. Instead we used the cultivator. Now there is so much technology coming in. Farmers use computer language I don’t even understand. We don’t have one and I doubt if we ever do.

My brother just older than I wanted to farm, too, so in 1939 we went together into cattle feeding for four years. Brother Jake bought a farm which left me alone on a big farm and I didn’t know what to do. We heard of a farm in Lucas County and came here to look at it. I made an offer. My uncle who lived in South Dakota thought I’d ought to live there but before I could decide about that I got a phone call. The manager of the farm owned by the Equitable Life Insurance Company in New York, called me and said, "Meet me in Des Moines. You’ve bought a farm." That was in 1943.

During those years in Boone County our three sons were born. Larry, the oldest is now 62. He is a farmer and also works for HyVee. They live on same farm as we do, in a different house. He and his wife have a boy and girl who live in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Kynard, now 58, is a school teacher in Des Moines. They have one daughter who will also be teaching school.

The youngest son was David who would have been 54 at this time. He was a doctor in Princeton, Missouri and was killed in a train-car collision when he was 52. He and his wife who came from Kirksville, Missouri have one girl the same age as Kynard’s daughter.

David fought for his life for two weeks after the accident. They tried to save him by amputating both his legs and it was almost a relief when we got word that he had passed away. It was the worst thing that had ever hit us. We’d seen hard times and problems before but nothing like that. Money and other material things become meaningless at times like that.

The death of a son tests your faith in God and you wonder why that had to happen; but, when you think about it, similar things happen every day so you’re not alone. At the funeral we met people we hadn’t known. They told us how they loved and respected David. Everybody who knew him. That counts for something.

Maxine and I hadn’t decided where we would be buried. We had bought a plot in Perry, then when we moved to Lucas we thought we might be buried out near our farm; but when David was buried in Kirksville that helped us make up our minds and we decided that is where we wanted to go also. We are going to order a stone that will have a 4—leaf clover in one corner to honor the ten years Maxine spent in 4-H work, and a Masonic emblem in another corner because I am a 50-year Mason.

Back to our move to Lucas County in 1943: The farm was owned by old Fred Kelly. He lost it during the depression. We moved here on March 1st and Fred moved off the farm the same day. He left a fire in the stove for us. He was the father of young Fred Kelly who was married to Charlotte. We also knew Fred Carlson. He had lived in Madrid and knew my folks. He worked in the bank and hired C. D. Friday to help him. Fred Carlson’s wife’s sister Linnea lived there. She and C. D. got acquainted and were married. When the bank closed Fred and his brother-in-law, C. D. Friday, went into the insurance business in Leon, then later in Osceola.

There was no running water or electricity in the house which will describe what our living was like in those days. We had always been Methodists so one of the first questions we asked was if there was a Methodist Church in Lucas. We were told there was kind of a combination of Presbyterian and Methodist. The Methodist church had been torn down so we came to Osceola and joined this church.

We have been Farm Bureau members over 60 years, ever since we were married. It was called "The Voice for Agriculture." It helped for us to be active in programs that were good for agriculture and to be associated with those who belonged who were involved in the same business and facing the same problems. Every year there was a membership drive and we went out with other people and recruited members. I liked the total philosophy of the organization. It was conservative, but I am also conservative. And there were also other organizations.

I wasn’t a Mason when we came to Lucas County. My father wasn’t a Mason but we had a family friend, Jesse R. Perry, in the clothing business. When he heard I was moving to southern Iowa he asked if I had ever considered joining the Masons. "You don’t know anybody where you are going. It wouldn’t hurt to join the lodge. You’d get to know some pretty good people." Just after we moved I was getting gas one day and asked a fellow what a certain building was. He said it was the Masonic Temple. He was a Mason and said he could give me an application for membership right then to join the Paul Revere Lodge #28. Paul Revere was a noted man in Revolutionary days – a coppersmith, and they named that chapter after him. I have enjoyed it a lot. I am not as active as I was. During the 50 years I have been through all the chairs. When you are a 50—year member you don’t have to pay dues anymore.

In the 1960’s I ran for the Legislature. I had always been interested in politics. Maxine didn’t think that was too smart but she went along with me all the way. I was the Lucas County Representative in the beginning but the next year the Supreme Court said that the districts had to be changed and we went through that. I never represented the same district twice. I had parts of it but they would take away or add to it I ended in the northwest corner of a district that went clear to Moulton, 100 miles away. I would have had to try to persuade all those people that I was better than their incumbent and it got to be too big a job trying to run the farm and represent the people.

It was about this time that the church got involved in social issues and there was a lot of controversy. They would come in and tell us how things ought to be done without knowing all the ramifications whereas we studied it for months. We’ve got a lot of do-gooders — a lot of programs that are well intentioned. People get on the receiving end, they lose ambition to do for themselves and they get to be freeloaders -- not all, but a lot of them. Bureaucrats like the money and they say they could more good if they had more money but somebody someday is going to have to pay the bill.

Harold Hughes was governor during that time. I always admired him. He was an alcoholic but he admitted it and licked it. He was elected to the United States Senate but he soon had enough of that. I thought he had high morals. I didn’t get to know him as well as Governor Ray because he was a Democrat and I have always been a Republican.

I voted the Democratic ticket once or twice. I voted the first time in 1932, when FDR (Franklin Roosevelt) was running. I was going to stick with Herbert Hoover but he chose a fellow named Curtis to be his running mate. He was in northwest Iowa to give a talk. As usual he opened the meeting for questions. An old fellow tried to ask a question and didn’t get an answer. He had to ask three times and finally the answer he got was, "Maybe you’re just too danged dumb to understand." That made me mad and I voted for Roosevelt.

I voted for Harry Truman, who was a Democrat. Old Harry would say what he meant and he meant what he said. I have difficulty finding that in some people these days. He would cuss people if he needed to. His daughter, Margaret, was a piano player and some fellow criticized her and he told him off. I admired that. One of his famous expressions was "The buck stops here". He had the last word for dropping the bombs on Japan. That took a lot of guts. I was for dropping the bombs. It killed millions but it also saved millions.

I didn’t get my way on every issue while I was serving. We had the death penalty in Iowa removed under Governor Hughes. I’m for the death penalty even today. At the time I talked to two clergymen who happened to be Baptist, who said they wanted to keep it and I felt that meant something. The sheriff of  Kossuth said we’ve got to keep the death penalty so I voted to keep it but lost that one.

Another issue was liquor by the drink and we got it installed in Iowa. I lost that one, too. I lost another one: paramutual betting. There were a lot of people who were for it, and even people at home were saying, "Why should we have to go to Omaha? We should have it here." I stood in the way of passing that bill but later, of course, they got it so today we have horse racing, casinos and lotteries. Sometimes somebody wins a million dollars but I don’t know how many never see any return on their money. It doesn’t take any brains to play those games.

Reapportionment was a big issue at that time. Ward Reynoldson had become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Everybody had their own private map for how it should be done. Finally they put it in the computer. I was on the board for the West Ward housing complex and met Ward at the dedication. He said, "Siglin, I’m sorry for what happened. We put it in the computer and this is the way it came out."

The Legislature began every day with prayer. We were asked to invite our own preachers to come. I did that and one day Rev. John McCallum gave the prayer. I didn’t do a lot of talking when I was serving - I was a rookie. I thought I had some good horse sense but I could see that both sides had a lot of good points. I wouldn’t want to serve again and I don’t approve of what is going on now. Both parties are politicizing everything. Both parties are guilty of saying something is good for the country or bad for the country when they are just trying to say what they think people want to hear. It is the most disappointing campaign I ever went through.

Maxine and I agreed on almost everything. She may be more radical than I in some ways and Maxine agreed, "I hear something on the radio and would like to answer back!"

There are more important things than politics. I served on the Hospital Board, Mental Health Board, and the church board when Rev. Ivan Bys was here. I had the privilege of burning the mortgage. Rev. Bys had known my brother in Perry when he served the church there. We went to church one day. Rev. Bys said before he started preaching, "Marion, you can wake up now." I don’t think I was sleeping — I might have been but I told him I was meditating.

We were chivareed for our fortieth anniversary when the Bys were here. This was a custom when we were married but we somehow never got chivareed. People nowadays wouldn’t know but in older times people would wait until 9-10:00 after everyone was settled for the night, drive in and make a lot of racket. The couple was to hand out candy bars and cigars. I never smoked a cigar until I went to a chivaree when I was about 16. I decided I was old enough to smoke it but I swallowed it and got sicker than a dog.

Maxine and I have tried to take our turn serving the community in various ways. Maxine was on the Lucas Board of the American Cancer Society for years and worked in Girls’ 4-H for that same length of time. She would like to be more active in UMW (United Methodist Women) but we live too far away. She’d like to move to town where things would be more convenient but Marion is dragging his feet. "I have to keep Maxine toned down just a little."

We believe everybody should take their turn at serving if they are able because there are things that need to be done locally all the time. Some things are unpleasant but they still need to be done. It happens in church. We just had a letter about being in arrears. I couldn’t prove it but I feel it is because people haven’t fulfilled their pledge. We can afford it. People say they can’t but then there is a ball game and thousands of people go and pay $12 or more for a ticket. I know that goes on.

Now we have retired. We have farmed 62 years and have been forced into retirement. My health won’t let me do what I want to do. We rented the farm to our oldest son who works for HyVee. We divided all the proceeds. In 1994 he worked at night. Everybody has to sleep sometime and I couldn’t help like I used to. He was carrying too big a load so we sold our cattle, 150 cows, and rented the pasture.

I like to read and watch t.v. even if I get awfully tired of some of that junk. The last time I went to get my driver’s license I was told that I should see my eye doctor. I discovered I have cataracts. I am in the process of making an appointment to have that taken care of. I understand that it is entirely different than it used to be. Now they remove them and you can go home the same day. I’ll find out.

We are proud of our three sons and their families, and Maxine and I have many things to be thankful for, especially our family and friends. But we also have sad memories of losing our son, David, in his prime and with so much promise. Amen.

(Are you discouraged by the direction our
country is going?) lf my people who are
called by my name humble themselves, and
pray and seek my face, and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal
their land
(2 Chron. 7·14).

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Last Revised April 29, 2012