Enos and I have gotten together to try to tell a history of the Mills family.
Joel Webster Mills was born on February 22, 1875, on a farm near Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, later moving to Hubbard, Iowa. He was the fifth child of Alexander and Ruth Anna (Terrell) Mills. They were Quakers and regularly attended the Friends' meetings. The extent of the formal education of Joel and his brothers is unknown. The only textbook surviving Is a McGuffey Reader and it's unclear how many years they attended school. Joel's third grade reader has been kept and it reveals a level of education well above what is true of a third-grader today.
Joel
The first part of Joel's life was undoubtedly kept quite busy working on the farm, and in 1895 the family moved to Estherville, Iowa. That's up in northern Iowa. They had an 80-acre farm, part of which was in farm land and part in timber, In 1900, much to the objection of his family, Joel got a job with the Illinois Central Railroad as a fireman. In those days, railroad work was pretty dangerous and exhausting and his folks worried about him quite a bit. I think he stayed at that job until 1903. Because of that experience on the railroad with steam boilers, he took a job as engineer on a stationary steam engine that was used for running thrashing machines and followed the harvest. This took him into northern Minnesota into the Red River Valley.ENOS:
Ida
Ida Jane Stewart was the daughter of Thomas Deachman and Agnes (Ferguson) Stewart. The young couple immigrated from Canada in 1881, along with about a dozen other young-marrieds. Her story is best told in a paper she wrote in 1952. It goes this way: "Seventy years ago on April 6th, 1882, I first saw the light of day. I guess I didn't pay much attention to it then, but I'm sure I did cause quite a disturbance in the home and, indeed, in the neighborhood. In those early days in Fisher's Landing in Minnesota, life was very primitive. No good roads, no telephones, far from doctors.
I wonder how women ever had the courage to have babies. But in my case, my grandmother came all the way from Ontario, Canada, to welcome me. My father and mother had immigrated to the United States the year before, with about a dozen other young couples, full of dreams, full of hopes, and most of all, courage and faith to make homes in the new country. They settled along the Morais, a small river which had almost dried up. Otherwise known as a swamp, it was fringed by good timber that provided fuel and logs for building those first small homes.
These folks depended so much on each other for help that everyone was ready at any emergency to be on hand. So it was on the night I was born. Several women and my grandmother all helped through the ordeal. In the weeks following there were two more babies born in the settlement, These two have passed on to their reward some time ago. My mother had six other children, all living now except for one sister. I remember one incident that my mother used to tell of the night I was born. It being spring time, snow had melted and, of course, no roads and water in all the low places. As my father went to get one of the neighboring women, ice had formed and was so sharp that it cut the horses' legs as they waded through the water and ice.
Ida very young
about four
about eighteen
As I grew, when 1 was about four or five, I stayed with my grandmother a great deal. I remember how I disliked going back home. I think now it was because I had all the attention there. As I had a sister and a brother by that time, I always liked to stay at my grandparents' home and always helped take care of them, as long as my grandmother lived. I was 22 when my grandmother died and shortly after that I married and began to make plans for my own life, which is another chapter."
Well, Mama never finished the other chapter, but I can fill a little around it. The Stewart family attended the Presbyterian Church in Mallory and that village is where my mother finished high school. After high school she went to a business college in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. She used to tell about the fact that when she would come home for a weekend, her transportation back to school was her horse and buggy. Her horse's name was Johnny. Johnny knew the area so well that she could take her horse and buggy back to East Grand Forks, unload her luggage and turn the horse loose and Johnny would find his way back to Mallory without any guidance.
wedding
wedding day
She met Joel Webster Mills in 1903 when he came with a threshing crew to thresh Grandpa Stewart's grain. She reports that she wasn't terribly impressed with him when they first met, but apparently Papa was impressed with her and began a correspondence. He returned the following year with the threshing crew and before the season was over had proposed marriage and she accepted.
dress lace
detail of the lace on the dress
They were married that November. After the marriage ceremony they journeyed to Estherville, Iowa, where the Mills family lived, spent a short period of time there, and then went to Ames, Iowa, where they enrolled in University of Iowa extension courses; Ida Jane enrolled in some home economics courses and J.W. enrolled in engineering courses, where he learned surveying. When they completed their courses, they settled in Windom, Minnesota.
TOM:
The year was 1906. Road conditions in the whole area were pretty primitive, because most transportation was with horse and buggy. There were a few cars starting to show up. Joel got a position with the county as a highway engineer to lay out and develop roads. It was during that year that the first child was born-- Stewart Alexander, November 19, 1906.
Papa's first car
This is a picture of the first car they bought in Lakefield, about 1907.
It was a two cylinder engine with opposing pistons, located under
the front seat.
Papa got his first new car in 1907. It was an International, high-wheeler; wheels were about three and a half to four feet high, thin hard rubber tires, engine under the front seat, two-cylinder. He had a problem with it. He had been accustomed to getting expense money-- mileage-- for his horse and buggy. The judge that was controlling that account declared the automobile was not practical; he really shouldn't be using it in that work because he was scaring all the animals. It took Papa quite awhile to convince them it was practical and he should get his expenses. He worked that job until 1914, moving to Lakefield in 1909 because it was more centrally located.
Ruth Agnes was born in Windom April 30, 1908; Eunice Hazel and Alvin Wesley were born in Lakefield-- Eunice on March 5, 1910 and Alvin May 14, 1912.
the wagon
When the vehicle finally wore out in about 1920, Joel took the chassis and turned it into a wagon. Here is a picture with John and Alvin on top.
International Harvester's origins as a truck manufacturer go back to the early 1900's when they ventured into the Auto Buggy market. Designed to look like a horse drawn buggy, it was essentially a dual purpose vehicle built for farmers to carry both their families and farm produce.
Southern Minnesota is made up of some beautiful farmland. In those days it had a lot of swampy areas. Papa saw an opportunity to go into business for himself. They moved to Granada in 1914 and he went into business as a drainage engineer. It was a very labor-intensive business and he developed quite a crew of men digging ditches by hand, laying tile, draining water into the local streams. I remember one episode he liked to tell when one workman came to him and said, "Could you swear me in?" Papa said, "I don't understand why you need to be sworn in." "Well your foreman just cussed me out." All of this history is before my time, but Enos' history starts in Granada, so I'm going to let him take over and share some of his thoughts.
ENOS:
The Mills family lived in Granada from 1914 until 1923. During that time four more kids were born. John Joel Mills, August 5, 1914; Robert Everett, January 2, 1917; Louella Marie, April 29, 1918; and Enos Allen, March 2, 1921. Those were busy times. Papa was busy with his swamp drainage; his high- wheeler wore out; he bought new cars; he converted the high-wheeler to a wagon that a team of horses could pull to haul wood and such. We have a picture of that wagon with John and Rusty sitting on a pile of wood. They lived in the village of Granada for quite some time and then moved to the country.
Ida Jane was busy raising a family and involved in church and social activities in the village. She was invited to speak at a mother's club in 1916. During this speech-- it was about raising a family-- she commented, "If Johnny wants to build an airplane and you know it won't fly, you must help him build the airplane. It's not good enough to live for your children, you must live with them." That was quite a statement coming at that time and it rings so true today. They moved to the country near the edge of town, within walking distance to school. That was important to my mother. She wanted the kids to be able to walk to school.
Papa wired the house for electricity and it turned out that the center of the house was a log cabin that had been added to. He had to drill holes through logs to string the wires. It was rather interesting that sometime after the job was done there was a storm and the wiring made it possible for the lightning to travel into the house and caught it on fire. The story goes that I was a baby at that time and Eunice carried me out of the house on a blanket and parked me under a pine tree while they put the fire out.
We have neglected to mention that in 1906 Grandma Stewart passed away and Mama's younger brother and sister. Uncle Stanley and Aunt Ella, came to live with us. Uncle Stanley was about 12 years old at the time and Aunt Ella about 9. They lived with us for several years, so Mama was a busy lady. She did have time to get involved in community activities. During World War I she found the time to assist the ladies of Granada with what they called "The War Winner Cook Book", the front page of which states, "Published under the direction of Mrs. J.W. Mills, Granada, Minnesota. Every recipe given in this book has been tried and each one is recommended as being satisfactory. Mrs. Mills has used each one except those credited otherwise. Mrs. Mills' reputation for superior cooking is so well known that her recommendation of these recipes puts them beyond the experimental class."
The recipes were recommended in accordance with a presidential proclamation to save food for the troops overseas. The headings on the pages were, "Saving of Wheat and Meat", "Dine on the Dark Flour and Do a Deed for Democracy". Another page says, "Corner the Corn Meal and Cook for Your Country. You Will Learn to like it. Use it and Make Uncle Sam Smile." "Feed the World. Make Your Kitchen Cooperate With Your Country." They had Wheatless Monday, Meatless Tuesday, wheatless and meatless days, recommended by Hoover. They called it Hooverized Week. Hoover was the Secretary of the Interior at that time and directed this food-saving program. The cook book was published and we have some copies of it in the family. Some of the recipes seem a little weird, using barley instead of wheat flour, and things like that.
I was born a year or so after a terrible flu epidemic. During the epidemic, my Uncle Enos and a neighbor lady had gone from house to house taking care of the sick people, with Uncle Enos doing the chores and taking care of the animals. When I was born, this lady called Uncle Enos and said that Ida Jane had a new baby boy and they were going to name him Enos. Uncle Enos was so excited about it that he came tearing over from Huntley to Granada-- that's about six miles-- and wanted to see little Enos. My mother said that was the first she knew my name was going to be Enos and she didn't have the courage to tell him it was just a rumor. Ruth told me the brothers and sisters learned that evening that my name was going to be Enos and they needed to pick out a middle name. So sitting around the kitchen table, the other kids decided that my middle name should be Allen, because sitting over on a shelf was a bag of Ethan Allen flour that Mama had used for baking bread. They decided that Enos Allen sounded pretty good. So I was named after a rumor and a sack of flour.
By 1923 the drainage business was slowing down and Papa got an offer to take over the job of highway engineer for Martin County in southern Minnesota. They moved from Granada to Fairmont. He worked at that job for a couple of years, then moved over to the experimental department of the Fairmont Railway Motors, where they designed railway repair equipment such as weed burners, ballast cleaners, etc. The family was growing up. Stewart and Ruth were in high school and the management of the family was becoming more of a chore. They decided they needed to get out of town into the country, some place where they could keep a better watch on their boys. They heard about a place called Hollandale where there was an opportunity to grow potatoes and this would be a good business. I remember going out to Uncle John's one Sunday. They lived in Huntley, about 20 miles from Fairmont. There was discussion about our moving to Hollandale and Uncle John decided that's what they should do, too, getting out of the general farming business and into the more specialized business of growing potatoes and onions- So the John Mills family and the J.W. Mills family moved to Hollandale in 1927.
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