Cows, Crops and a Pony

I was born the same day that my grandmother was buried. It was a cold morning on February 2, 1934, Ground Hog Day. My father didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. I was the youngest of four children. My brother Gerald was nineteen, older sister, Doris was fifteen and my other sister Phyllis was six. I was born in our farm house and delivered by a midwife. The burial of my grandmother took place that same day. The funeral service was held in the house with burial at Wedges Prairie Cemetery near Ladoga, Wisconsin. So here I was born to a German family, whose parents both immigrated from the Pommern area and Mecklenberg Province of Germany, located near the Baltic Sea. They all came at different times by way of Ellis Island, New York. My Grandfather August Lange worked for the New York Railroad, until he was able to save enough money so that he and my grandmother and uncle could move to a farm near the village of Waupun, Wisconsin. The size of the original farm was about 160 acres. By the time I arrived, it had grown to over 300 acres due to the purchase of adjoining land, and some existing land a quarter of a mile along Wisconsin highway 26. The farm had a lot of potential. Crops were harvested and provided some of the income from sales of hay, grain, corn, hemp and buckwheat. Later, during World War II, major canning companies leased some of the land on shares to grow peas and sweet corn for the government. Additional amounts of grain and corn were used to feed the livestock. These sales along with milk from the dairy stock provided our income. The amount of money received depended on the open market. One had to consider the cost of fuel to run the tractors and other farm vehicles including the maintenance of all the other equipment. The farm had various types of animals and poultry and a large herd of cattle that was made up of both mature and young stock. The poultry consisted of chickens, geese and ducks. The numbers varied. Then there were horses, which resembled the Schleswig Heavy Draft type, as well as, Quarter horses. We had one other horse that was considered a racer, named Lady Grey. I knew nothing about her until my older sister Doris told me some years later. Other than racing at the local fair, I had no knowledge that she competed in any races of notoriety. I do know that I never saw any trophies or ribbons for any of her efforts. There were sheep with a number of new lambs born every year. Once a year the wool had to be sheared and it was baled for sale. I do know that shearing was not an easy task, but had to be done as it was part of the farm income. So you now have a feeling of the environment I was born into. Little did I know the fun that was waiting for me, when I became old enough to enjoy the world around me.