1934 was an unforgettable year for Esther. In February, she was very sick with flu (yellow jaundice) and missed a month of teaching. Her friend and mentor, Irene Garber, taught for her. In March, she helped her parents move to their new farm in Belmont township, north of Jackson. She finished her fourth year of teaching and the temperatures reached 106 degrees in Minnesota on May 31, 1934. The summer that followed was a record breaking hot summer.
1934 also contained a couple of trips for Esther. In July, she and three of her girlfriends went on a week’s trip to the Black Hills. Esther drove her parent’s 1932 Chevrolet and they stayed in tourist cabins and cooked their own meals. In August, she went to Chicago and the World’s Fair. Tom took his mother and Auntie Bea Salisbury. He asked Esther to drive Bea’s new car to Chicago as Bea was on her way to Pennsylvania and unsure of driving in Chicago. Esther had actually been to Chicago the summer before and spent over three weeks with friends and had been to the World’s Fair then. That time she traveled to Chicago by train with her aunt and uncle, Alma and Henry Petersen.
Esther started her fifth year teaching in the fall of 1934. She continued living with her parents and driving to school – she took her brother Arthur to high school in town before going to her school to teach. But the exciting news that fall was that Tom bought a 160 acre farm in Enterprise township and they could make plans for marriage!
Tom farmed the home place with Freel until March of 1935. During the winter, he attended farm sales and bought some machinery and tools. He also worked on the house on his new farm – put a clothes closet in the bedroom upstairs, got a soft coal heater from his brother George for the dining room, bought a cook stove, and his mother and Auntie Eliza put up some curtains. Tom and the hired help hauled hay and grain and livestock to his new farm in mid-March. On March 31, 1935, Esther had dinner with Tom and his mother in the house at the new farm – their future home! In April, Tom and the hired men planted 1000 Colorado blue spruce trees and 600 Chinese elms – any Minnesota farmstead needs a good grove. He also planted barley, oats, and flax in some of his new fields and seeded grass in the new lawn.
Esther finished her last year of teaching the end of May and her brother, Arthur, graduated from Jackson High School. Tom was busy planting corn and soybeans with a team of horses (Fred and Barney) and then cultivating the crops three times to keep the weeds down.
In June, Esther took one last trip with girlfriends to the Wisconsin Dells and Red Wing, Minnesota, area. Tom kept busy on the new farm – grading up the lane to the road in preparation for putting gravel on it in the fall. He also shipped some cattle and hogs to Chicago and put up hay.
In July the barley and oats were shocked. On a hot Saturday evening, July 27th, Esther and Tom went to Fairmont and picked out a diamond engagement ring!
August arrived and it was time to thresh the oats. Tom’s brother Freel was married to Neva on August 14th. Tom was the best man.
September, Esther was busy getting ready for the wedding and Tom kept busy on the farm. Tom’s mother was very sick (nervous breakdown) the end of September and was in bed at George and Ella’s home. They felt bad that she was not going to be able to attend their wedding in a few days. -Marita
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