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!

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Doily Box, Part 2

More from the Doily Box:

This doily, old and tattered and stained as it is, is one of my favorites.  It was made by my great-grandmother, Elvirta Knutz.  I don't know when she made it, but I remember seeing it on my grandmother's couch when I was young, and my grandmother gave it to me when I moved into my first home back in the 1970s.

Here's another garage sale find.  I love the colors!

Who remembers silver asbestos mats?  I picked these up from a garage sale.  My grandmother had similar ones on her kitchen table, and it was a *big* deal to get to pick out a new cover and put it on for her.  Note the Good Housekeeping seal on the back of this mat - a little ironic, knowing what we know today about asbestos!

More to come~

Treasure Chest Thursday - The Doily Box, Part 1

I've heard it said that you can't keep everything.  I'm living proof that it's not true!  However, there comes a point in every packrat's life where she has to start looking at her stuff with a critical eye.  This morning, it was my "Doily Box," which was overflowing with "who knows what."  Here are a few highlights of what I found:

This cute little hand-embroidered napkin holder is something I picked up at an auction sale in Princeville, Illinois.  It has family significance for me, as the lady who did the embroidery is a distant relative, Eloise Bliss Graves.  Her husband, Leo Graves, was a second cousin to my grandfather; I don't think they had seen each other since the 1940s.  What wonderful timing that I was in Illinois at the same time they were holding their auction!

I got this beautiful embroidered card-table cloth at a garage sale, a frequent source of the things in my Doily Box.  I look at these items and wonder about the woman who created them.  Did she fall asleep at night designing her next project, as I so often do?  When did she do her crafting?  As she watched her children play?  While she was watching television or listening to the radio?  Was she a farm wife, or did she live in town?  I love the history of these items as much as I enjoy the items themselves, but most of the time the history is lost.

And one final item for this post - lovely embroidered flowers gently swaying in the warm summer breeze.  A welcome thought on a cold winter day!

Another Sentimental Treasure Bites the Dust

Well, another sentimental kitchen item bites the dust, and I killed it.  I know nothing lasts forever, but I didn't think it would go down like this.  I have not been so traumatized since the demise of my electric frying pan three years ago.

This may seem like a silly thing to be upset about, after all, a double boiler is easily replaced.  But this was not an ordinary double boiler.  This item has been with me since I left my parents' house at the tender age of 18, with nothing to my name but some clothes and an old car.

I had rented a small, unfurnished house, and my grandparents, who had little or nothing as well, set about helping me get started with "adult life."  They scoured garage sales and auctions, and before I knew it, I was set up with a bed, a washing machine, my grandparents' old silver kitchen table, and my great-grandparents' old couch and chair.  I made a purchase for myself as well - a color TV, from a garage sale, for $2.  What they didn't tell me was that it had only ONE color - green.  But I digress.  I also had a kitchen full of various gadgets.  I saw the double boiler and had no idea what it was, so I stored it in the back of the cupboard with the hand-held potato masher and other mystery items, and went on with my life.

Eventually though I discovered my "culinary side" and I used the double boiler frequently.  I often thought how well-made things used to be, that I could have a second-hand double boiler for 35 years and it was still awesome.  I loved that thing - it had a smaller than typical footprint, and had a deep well, perfect for dipping candies at Christmas.  And it reminded me of my grandma, and how she lovingly took what little she had herself and put together a functional kitchen for me.  I can honestly say I never used it without thinking of her.

And, it was during just such an acitivity (dipping candies at Christmas time) that it met it's demise.  The large, hardened glob of almond bark in the bottom of the pan was driving me crazy, so I picked up the Murder Weapon -

- and attempted to stab the glob in half for faster melting.  Unfortunatly, the sharp blade went through the bottom of the upper pan -

- and managed to even pierce the bottom of the lower pan as well.

Is that "Taps" I hear?

I'm going to keep that knife in mind if I ever have an intruder in my home.

And now, I can't bear to throw it out, although it's completely nonfunctional for it's intended job.  I'll need to find a way to repurpose it.  Perhaps they'd make the perfect pots for kitchen herbs - they already have drain holes.  :)

Thanksgivings Past

Of all the days of the year, the day before Thanksgiving is one of my favorites.  I usually spend it in the kitchen, cooking and baking, alone with my thoughts and the wonderful smells wafting through the house.  Those smells invariably take me back to childhood Thanksgivings - walking in the door at Grandma and Grandpa's, and going up the stairs to the sounds of Shorty barking and posturing like he was going to attack, all from the safety of Grandpa's lap in the recliner.  And opening the door at the top of the stairs to those wonderful smells - roasting meats, and buttery potatoes, and the fantastic gravy Grandma made from cream of celery soup.  A few more steps, and we'd have to endure the torture of seeing the plates with the slices of pies of various kinds, all topped with whipped cream, sitting on the buffet.  It was as if they talked - "I'm going to call your name all through dinner..." but the sight of all Grandma's wonderful masterpieces spread out on the table usually got my attention back where it belonged.  Seeing the two pink bowls was always a treat, and still something stirs in my heart and my palate when I bring mine out of the buffet for our own holiday dinners.

I hope my own grandchildren come through my door with anxious anticipation, enjoying the sights and smells of the Thanksgiving table, and that they will hold onto those precious memories throughout their lives.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Inside Grandma's Sewing Machine Table, Part 3

As I headed downstairs to continue cleaning the basement this morning, I thought I had finished going through my grandmother's sewing items, and had things much less interesting to sort through today.  However, in cleaning out the shelves under the stairs, I found her sewing baskets:

This was the one she used the most when I was young, and in later years, it was delegated for the "better" sewing things.  Her everyday one was the brown basket, which sat with the old photo albums on the small wire stand by her front door:

Inside these baskets were many packages of rickrack and other old trims, most of them still unopened, in the original cellophane packages.  I can certainly use them for my own sewing projects, but something just seems wrong about opening them up and sewing with them.  I guess for now Ill just put them back where I found them and think about it. I'm not sure an old package of bias tape or piping is worth much, but seeing that old label is like a trip back in time.

Some of today's interesting finds:

There were two of these little rulers from the "Medical Sickness Society" in London.  I don't know how old these rulers are or where they came from, but this business appears to be a financial services business, at least in 2012.

When I first found this item, I thought it might be a maraca (hey, I've found stranger things in my basement!) but turns out it's my great-great-grandmother Nettie Graves' darning tool.  Had it not been labeled as such, I never would have known.  I would have kept trying to shake it and get some sort of rhythm going.

 

This little mending kit must have been a promotional item from The Lampe Market in Huron, South Dakota.  The inscription reads in part: 1889 - MEATS - 1927.  Since the market was still in operation in 1930, I'm guessing this mending kit was made and distributed in 1927.

Another promotional item was this shoe horn from Osborn Clothing Company, also in Huron.  Oddly enough, I do remember as a child my grandmother showing me how to use a shoehorn she kept in her sewing basket, perhaps this one.  While the Lampe Market had closed shop before my time, Osborn's is still in business.

In Part 2 of this series, I found a small mending kit for silk stockings; today I found a full-fledged mending kit, with 10 different shades of floss.  The box still has cellophane covering the bottom part.

And this item... I was reading a blog post by Nancy, owner of My Ancestors and Me, at her other blog, Joy For Grace, on the topic of "Unsewing."  This looks like the perfect tool to use in "unsewing."  One end has a thin blade, the other a sharp pick, and a handy cap for each end.  It's only stamped with "Rip 'n Pik."  Looks so useful I almost hated to pack it back up!  Looks to me like a "Million Dollar Idea" if someone would brings these back into production.

Sad to say, the rest of the afternoon spent cleaning the basement was not nearly so much fun...

Sources:

1930-31 Huron, South Dakota City Directory, R. L. Polk