in a tank in the cream house. The windmill pumped water into the tank to keep the milk and cream cool. We churned our own butter. We also cut our own wood for the cook stove and the round pot-belly heater. Mother baked bread, corn bread, lefse and other goodies on the cook stove.

Helen, Alice and I attended country school until the 4th grade and then went to the West Side School in Decorah. We walked 3 1/2 miles when the weather was good; when the weather was not good, Dad took us to school with the horses and buggy or the surrey. In the winter he took us in the sleigh with hot flat irons on the floor to keep our feet warm. One time it was 30° below when we went to school. We have the lights from the surrey on our house in Decorah.

It was a very hard time for the family when Helen Beatrice died in Iowa City. We never saw her after she and Dad left to go through the deep snow to meet Noecker's cab at the end of the drive. Helen’s hair was so long she could sit on it.

If Dad and Mom were living now, they would have 13 living grandchildren (one died) and many great grandchildren.

Gutzka, August and Minnie

(Ransome Bolson)

The Gutzkas came to America from Germany with their daughter Bertha and son Willie. They came to Canada first and their daughter, Anna was born there. They eventually settled on a farm in Winneshiek Co. where Minnie and Henry were born. They belonged to the Locust Church.

Bertha Gutzka married Emil Rosendahl who also came from Germany. He operated a grocery in West Decorah and one at 300 West Water Street. At one time he had a saloon. They lived over the West Side Store, at the corner of Center and North Streets. They had a few milk cows they pastured where the Jack and Jill Market is now. Later they built a new house near where the Decorah swimming pool is. Emil was a member of the City Council and the Fire Department. Emil and Bertha had a son, Willie who was a farmer; a daughter Bertha who worked at the Winneshiek Co. Bank and married William "Bill” Noecker, a long time Decorah cab driver; a son Ernest who was a pharmacist, beverage operator and had other interests; a son Julius who farmed and had a feed mill in West Decorah by the Tavener Bridge and sold dogs; and a daughter Lucille, a singer, and wife of Fremont “Monte” Anderson, long time Decorah City Clerk.

Anna Gutzka married August Krueger, a wheat farmer near Tower City, ND. They had two sons: Arthur, who fell off a horse-drawn vehicle as a young boy and was killed, and Edward who farmed the home place in North Dakota until he retired. His wife Minnie was a school teacher.

Willie Gutzka and his wife Eda farmed near Traverse City, Ml. They had two children: Hazel and Ernest.

Henry Gutzka had a brief first marriage and then was a bachelor farmer for many years. The farm was about two miles south of Locust and then west on a long driveway, about a mile in length. Henry married Jennie Sanoker, a long time school teacher in Freeport and the Burr Oak area. They were active members of St. John's Lutheran Church at Locust. Henry and Jennie retired to a home on Iowa Avenue, West Decorah. They were conservative farmers and took care of their farm animals and garden. Henry's sister, Minnie Young and her daughter, Violet, made many trips by horse and buggy to help “Uncle Hank” (as some called him) with household duties, cooking for threshing crews, etc. during Henry’s bachelor days. Henry and Jennie are buried in the Locust Cemetery.

Minnie Marie Sophie Gutzka was born 11 May 1874. She was confirmed by Pastor Knut Seehuus on 15 Jun 1890. She married George Young. (See George Young history.) After their son, George, Jr, married, George and Minnie moved to a brick house in the 200 block of Iowa Avenue, West Decorah. On 14 Oct 1951 George, Sr. got up, had breakfast, walked into the bedroom to lie down