Front: Gert & Henry Johnson
Back left: Paul and his mother Aunt Hennie Ocken
Back Right: Aunt Jennie Heilman and her son, DeWitt
Following was written and transcribed from audio tape by Janna Hey Dean:
After the War, Aunt Mart moved to Sabula, Iowa, where Mother and I visited her in about 1947. She and Gerhard managed a bakery there and lived above the facility. We did not go into their home. After they retired, they moved to Eldora, Iowa, where Aunt Gert's oldest daughter Grace lived. Mother visited her there several times in the early 1970s. After Sue moved to Sterling in 1977, she and I visited Aunt Mart in Iowa where we tape recorded a conversation with her. Following are a few of the things she talked about:
"My father bought a cemetery plot in Parkersburg with many lots so anyone in the family could be buried there. After Henry died, Robert sold those lots. Gert and Otto are buried in Ackley, Iowa, as is Gertrude (Rusty)."
My father was 19 when he came to America. Grandpa Jansen had sent money to his brother in Hoboken, NJ, to give to father, but he never showed up when the boat docked so father was asked to join the Huisenga family whom he had met on the boat. Huisengas invited father to join them as they traveled to Illinois. They settled at Baileyville and Dad found work at Davis and walked each weekend to visit the Huisengas and later married their daughter."
Dad was glad to get out of Germany, but did return in 1904 to see his father. His mother was quite short and stood on a box for pictures so she would not appear so small. Dad was sick from the time he left on the train until he got home again."
Breakfast was at 6 o'clock. We always had to be at the table on time or we didn't get anything. At 9 o'clock the kettle was put on for coffee. Dinner was at noon and tea with cookies at 3:00. Supper was at 6:00. We always had all the milk we wanted, but no skim milk—that was fed to the chickens. The boys had pigeons until we moved to Iowa."
After he retired, Dad told a friend he didn't know what to do with himself. He cared for the yard and garden, but that wasn't enough. So he bought a horse and a buggy and would take drives with Mr. Abel, a former neighbor from Forreston. There was a river north of Parkersburg (it's gone now) where Dad went fishing. Mother loved to fish and Dad cleaned them."