Loren E. Slocum - Life Underground

Loren E. Slocum

      It was 1909 when the stranger rode into Faith, South Dakota on horseback, pulling an Indian-style travois behind him.  Acquiring a farm three miles from town, he went about the work of constructing an abode - underground - a lifestyle he would maintain for the next 40+ years.

    Loren Slocum built his underground dugout for reasons of solitude as well as economy.  "God placed me there for important discoveries," he said, also noting, "I live underground because I'm too poor to survive above it.  If I had a shack, I'd have to keep it up and I don't have the money for that."  His 100 acres of land was devoid of any buildings, and his home was marked by a three-foot smoke pipe protruding through the earth, a trap door leading downward, and an old wood stove above-ground that he used for cooking during the summer months.

    Inside his 5 x 8 dugout, he had few belongings and slept on rough boards as a bed.  Critics were put in their place by Slocum, who argued, "Some people have said my dugout isn't healthy, but I've lived underground for 40 years and I'm still here and those others have been dead a long time."

    He made his living from his "old age pension" during the winter, and by raising vegetables in the summer, and had in fact acquired some fame as a gardener.  He won prizes from a physical culture magazine in 1928 for articles on the value of uncooked vegetables in the diet.  In that respect, he was apparently a man ahead of his time.

    He refused the label of "hermit," noting that he walked three miles per day into the nearby town of Faith.  He did not marry, and other than "kin" he mentioned in either Artesian or Alcester, he was alone.  A New York native who was born about 1871, he was not found (at least not easily) in any censuses prior to 1920.

    While friends and neighbors desired to help him , he refused, saying, "I'm old enough to take care of myself."  He was 80 years old when his friends finally convinced him that his health was not good enough to survive another South Dakota winter underground, and he moved to a nursing home in Sturgis.  He died months later on November 26, 1950, at the age of 80.

Sources:

Richard Soash.  Original newspaper clipping.  Unnamed and undated newspaper.  4 Mar. 2013.

Austin Daily Herald [Austin, Minnesota] November 27 1950, 2. Web. 6 Mar. 2013.

"Likes To Live Underground." Hutchinson News-Herald [Hutchinson, Kansas] February 16 1950, 13.
"20 Years in a Hole." Evening Independent [Massillon, Ohio] September 09 1935, 3. Web. 6 Mar. 2013.
Ancestry.com. South Dakota Death Index, 1905-1955 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004.
Year: 1920; Census Place:  Faith, Meade, South Dakota; Roll:  T625_1723; Page:  5A; Enumeration District:  133; Image:  579.
Year: 1930; Census Place:  Township 12, Meade, South Dakota; Roll:  2227; Page:  1A; Enumeration District:  108; Image:  941.0; FHL microfilm:  2341961.
Year: 1940; Census Place: Faith, Meade, South Dakota; Roll: T627_3862; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 47-9

When Opportunity Knocks, You Have to Open the Window

"When opportunity knocks, you have to open the window," a friend of mine used to say.  We enjoyed her inadvertent twisting of old sayings, but many times I've thought this goofed-up cliché was sometimes appropriate for family history.

Every so often we stumble upon that stubborn ancestor who refuses to “open the front door” for us - it is difficult to find any direct information on their families.  And then, those open windows, no matter how small they are, become all the more important.  Tonight, Uncle Soren opened up another window for me, when my Grandpa Pete wouldn’t open the front door.

This is not the first time Uncle Soren opened a window.  I’d researched Grandpa Pete before, using the few facts I knew about him – he was a baker, born in Dostrop, Denmark, and owned his own bakery for a number of years before selling out to purchase a farm.  I had his wedding photo, as well as a small photo of an older woman named Elsie Ericksen, said to be his mother, standing with a younger looking man that was her second husband.  They lived in Omaha.  I had some of Pete’s siblings names.  There were lots of bakers in the family, the younger men learning from the older men.  End of story.

The name “Peter Christensen” must be the “John Smith” of Danish names.  I had discovered information about Grandpa Pete, as well as his wife and children, but finding anything on his family of origin was much more difficult.    Enter Uncle Soren, Pete’s younger brother.  I determined to find out all I could about Pete’s siblings, hoping I would then be able to learn something of their parents.  I hit paydirt with Soren.  I found him in the 1920 census, living with “Gents” and Elsie Ericksen in Omaha’s 3^rd Ward.  “Gents” was 49 and worked for the railroad; his wife Elsie was 60, and Soren was listed as “stepson” and worked as a baker.  I followed Soren in subsequent censuses, and collected all documentation I could find on him.  He had continued in the bakery business and lived the rest of his life with his wife Agnes in a home on Pinkney St. in Omaha.  This matched an entry in my grandmother’s address book for “Aunt Agnes” on Pinkney St. so I knew I was on the right trail.  But the trail of “Gents” and Elsie went cold after 1920.

Back to Grandpa Pete.  I was doing some research on his bakery, “Bell Bakery” in Huron, South Dakota, and found his entry in the Huron City Directory of 1911.  He was single at the time and lived in a room above the bakery.  However, two entries down, I found a much unexpected listing for Soren Christensen, an employee of Bell Bakery, also rooming above the bakery.  Uncle Soren!! 

Several hours later, I had succeeded in finding Uncle Soren on two ship manifests.  I’m still sorting out the details, but it appears Pete paid his passage from Denmark and apprenticed him in the bakery business, and then Soren went back to Denmark and brought his mother and stepfather back.  Between the information supplied on these two ship manifests, I’ve learned several things:

1) The sister we only knew as Christina was named Kristine Nielsen and she lived in Hobro.

2) Grandpa Pete had paid Soren’s passage to the U.S., and provided him with a ticket as far as Tyler, Minnesota, where Pete would meet him.  Soren was just 14 at the time.

Once again, Uncle Soren has come through for me.    While Grandpa Pete helped open the door to a new life in the United States for his family, Uncle Soren has been opening windows to the past.  Someday, I hope to get the opportunity to thank him.

Graphic courtesy of Rob Krause and stock.xchng (www.sxc.hu)

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Doily Box, Part 6

Some really nice items in this week's installment -

I loved this "swirl" pattern so much I started a bedspread from a similar pattern ten years ago.  I'm still working on it... not very diligently, obviously.    But I love this doily!

I like the shape of this doily, reminds me of something you'd set a butter dish on.

Someone did a lovely job on this dresser scarf.  The picture does not do the embroidery justice, and the crocheted border is so vibrant and lively!

And one of my very favorite sets from the Doily Box - 

This is probably a couch set, with the two birds in the center for the back of the couch and the two smaller birds on either side for the arms.  It blows my mind that anyone would want to sell this, but I'm always willing to give an orphaned doily a good home!  Below, a close up of the larger piece -

 Thanks for sticking with me through all these doilies!  There may be more later.  :)

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Doily Box, Part 5

A few more...

What you can do with a plain piece of linen and some thread...

And below, a dresser scarf from a garage sale.

The embroidery is done very heavily both on this bird, and on the fronds of the plant above it.  I have no idea how old this item is, but the embroidery on the tail still feels very thick and luxurious to the touch.

A simple pattern, but I love the colors.

I love this intricate pattern.

Having made a similar doily, with all the beautiful daisies around the border, I know how much work went into this.  Beautiful job, Unknown Crocheter!

I have a particular weakness for vintage crocheted potholders, and this one from a yard sale found a new home with me.

That's it for this week!

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Doily Box, Part 4

For those of you who are still with me, thank you!

Nothing fancy, but I do like the square look of this doily.

Another garage sale find, and they came as a set.  Perhaps a plate mat and coaster?

Another vintage purple doily.  If it's purple, I'll buy it!

I think this creation is to be used as a doily - obviously done from a "cutter quilt" with a crocheted edging.  Too thick for a dishcloth, not thick enough for a potholder.  Looking at the points of the stars, it makes me wonder if those pieces were made from another quilt. (A quilt made from a cutter quilt, which was made into whatever this is)

I do love doilies like this - intricate (and labor intensive).  Someone put a lot of love into this.

This is unusual - about 10" high.  I found it at a garage sale, and had never seen anything like it before, so I had to have it.  

Guess what?  That's right, there's more.  I told you this was a big box!

Christmas Walnuts

Before Christmas, I was thrilled to find unshelled mixed nuts at not one, but two local grocery stores.  I hadn't seen them in a number of years, and remembering how much fun my youngest son and I had feeding them to the neighborhood squirrels, I bought several pounds of them.  But looking at the walnuts brought back memories even further back, of "helping" my grandma make the prettiest decorations for her Christmas tree.

I could not have been more than five or six years old when Grandma Lill sat me down at the dining room table with a stack of walnuts, a paintbrush and a cup of thinned-down glue, and several packets of pretty glitter!  We never got glitter at home, and rarely got it at Grandma's, as there were always little sparklies of glitter to be found around the house months afterward, no matter how thorough the cleanup seemed to be.  But this time was an exception.  Grandpa Bill had put a metal hanger into the top of each walnut, and Grandma "painted" them with the glue, and I sprinkled glitter on them.  To my knowledge, the one pictured above is the only one of these ornaments to have survived that wonderful afternoon almost 50 years ago.

So one day last week, I went about putting gold ornament hangers into the walnuts, and gluing them in place with craft glue.  This morning I did the fun part - sprinkling them with glitter - gold, silver, red, green, blue, and a shimmering opalescent.  My husband may roll his eyes, but I think next year we're going to have a Christmas tree decorated with sparkly walnuts.

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Doily Box, Part 3

 Another installment of The Doily Box!

I love any sort of doily that's out of the ordinary, and this neat "square in a square" design is right up my alley.  I'd love to find the pattern.  Below is a similar doily in variegated thread.

I have no idea what to say about this.  The significance of the two pineapples at the top of the doily are intriguing... any ideas?

Here is one I made - I like traditional patterns with bold colors.  Something different.

Someone had a lot of patience to makes all these small flower motifs...

The embroidery on this vintage dresser scarf really caught my eye.  It's done with a heavier, twisted thread, and has an almost "relief" feel to it.

I saved my favorite, at least for this post, for last.  I love crocheted butterflies!  And this one is large - about 24 inches across, likely made for the back of a sofa.  I found it at a garage sale.  It's a little frayed in one spot, but I don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to get rid of such a beautiful piece!  And the previous owners were probably wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to BUY such a thing!  

But wait... there's more... next week!