Tom & Esther get married

Tom and Esther were married at her parent’s home in Belmont Township north of Jackson at noon on October 2nd, 1935. Twenty five relatives and friends were invited. The best man was Gaylord Miller and the bridesmaid was Inez Sether. After the ceremony was performed by Rev. A.M. Mannes, a wedding dinner was served by the bride’s mother and assisted by Mrs. Ingman Sether. Tom’s brother Severn took movies and pictures. The bridal party went to the Windom photographer later in the afternoon. Tom and Esther also stopped to see Tom’s mother, Mary, who was in bed at George and Ella Rinkob’s home.

Early that evening the newlyweds left in a Ford Model B (Freel’s car) and drove to the Cataract Hotel in Sioux Falls. The next day they visited Herman Hunters at Humboldt, South Dakota. They continued on their honeymoon – to the Badlands, Black Hills, Cheyenne, Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, and Fort Morgan. They stayed in tourist cabins and cooked their own meals. On the way home, they stopped at Sioux City and Tom bought feeder cattle.

Grand Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Cabin at Kadoca, SD





Esther and Tom arrived home from their ten day honeymoon to a busy fall season of harvesting the corn by hand (with a team of horses on the wagon) and preparing their house and farm buildings for winter. The hired men lived with the newlyweds - Ralph Anderson and Walter Groth - to help with the crops (corn, flax, alfalfa) and livestock (cattle and hogs).

After their marriage, Esther did not teach again. The farm in Enterprise Township that Tom purchased became the center of their life as it was here that they raised a family, grew crops on the rich prairie soils, raised livestock, and involved themselves in their church and the Jackson community.

The old farm house left much to be desired and many of the farm buildings were in poor shape.

Even though the Great Depression lingered on, Tom and Esther were able to purchase things and establish their new home. In November of 1935, they purchased a radio and a wind charger - as there was no electricity yet. Because of the Great Depression everything was very cheap. For example: a wedding ring cost $11 and new flooring for a room cost fifty cents - (prices found in Esther’s daily record books).

Their first Thanksgiving as a married couple was spent in Baraboo, WI, with Severn (Tom’s brother who was a high school math and science teacher), his wife Catherine and their six year old daughter, Corinne. Esther and Tom enjoyed seeing home movies of their October 2nd wedding that Severn had taken.

A bad blizzard arrived on December 24th for the newlywed’s first Christmas. Tom’s brothers and their wives, Freel & Neva and George & Ella and their children, Bud and Lorna, were able to make it to Tom and Esther’s home on December 25th. Ella brought plum pudding (an English Christmas treat enjoyed by the Ringkobs through the years) and they exchanged gifts. On December 26th, Tom and Esther went to Esther’s family’s home to celebrate Christmas with her parents and brothers, Art and Gordon. The temperature was bitter cold, minus 18 degrees.

The winter of 1935-36 was cold and snowy. Roads were often blocked for several days. Once, Tom and Esther were shut in at the farm for two weeks. Temperatures were below zero from January 18 until February 22, 1936 - took a lot of coal to heat the house. They had a cookstove in the kitchen, a heating or coal stove in the dining room, and a hard coal heater in the living room. It was also a real challenge to keep the livestock fed and watered.

1936 was an unusual weather year - very cold and lots of snow and then very hot and dry in the summer that hurt the crops. Tom and Esther kept busy with many projects. They remodeled their old house; added on to the barn, doubled the size; built a silo; moved cattle shed around and onto a foundation; painted all the buildings white; and planted pine trees, elm trees, apple trees and raspberries.

One of the really big changes came to the farm in 1937-1938. The REA (Rural Electric Association) erected poles and strung wires throughout rural Jackson County. They then put one pole in the middle of the Ringkob farm yard (it still stands there today) and everyone in our family called it the “yard light”. The marvel of electricity came and farm life was forever changed. -Marita & Kent