JUNE 4, 1924 -- DENA THADEN MARRIES MENNE PLUCKER

                                                               PLUCKER-THADEN

"The E. L. Thaden's home was the scene of a charming wedding ceremony last Wednesday noon, June 4th, marking the marriage of Dena Thaden, the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thaden, and Menne Plucker, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. John Plucker, of Lennox, S. D.

"The wedding ceremony took place at high noon in the presence of a number of relatives and intimate friends. The ritual was read by the Rev. John Schmidt. The bride was attended by Cathryne Bunger, a charming young lady from Davis, S. D. She was attired in white silk satin and carried a bouquet of white sweet peas. The groom was attended by the bride's brother, Jerry Thaden, a student from the University of Dubuque. After the ceremony a delicious three-course dinner was served, to which all did justice.

"The parlor was decorated with blue and white crepe paper and adorned with beautiful flowers of various kinds.

"The bride was attired in a beautiful all silk charmeuse satin. She carried a beautiful bouquet of white roses. She is well known about the city of Willow Lakes. She was educated at the University of Dubuque, and also took a course in nurses' training at the clinic hospital at Huron. She has through her charming ways and her good character and personality won a host of friends. We are assured  that she will bring happiness and sunshine to her new home that is about to be organized.

"The groom was attired in a blue serge suit and wore a bouquet of white roses. He was educated at the University of Dubuque and has for the last few years operated a grain elevator at Lennox, S. D. He has by his kind ways and his personality won a host of friends.

"The young couple left for Princeton, Ill., for a short honeymoon. They will be at home to their friends at Lennox, S. D., after June 20th. May happiness and success be their tide as they go on their journey on the sea of time."

DENA THADEN'S NURSING MEMOIRE

I have no idea when my Mother wrote the following memoire. It was found in a small booklet called “Uniform Method” – the School Series, an Upper Grades Note Book. In extremely faded pencil, you will see:

“D.M. Thaden,

Huron, So. Dak.”

Mom’s handwriting fills the first few pages and after that, all that can be found are drawings I seem to remember Dad making for me when I was sitting with him in church.

My Dad’s distinctive handwriting: “Jean Ellen Plucker” and “M.E.J. Plucker,” homely birds, scribbles, trucks, a clock drawn to show 1:15, funny looking faces – all drawn very quietly while listening to some preacher or other and letting the licorice taste and the smart of Sen-sen grow in our mouths.

When did she write this? What was written before this first sentence? She must have written something about “Night Duty.” Did she do this while wondering if she should have continued her training to become a registered nurse instead of marrying Dad when she only had one year left? We’ll never know...

*******************************************

          However, the memories of night duty don’t compare with those
of the diet kitchen. If patients ever fuss, you may be sure it is about their
trays. The eggs are either too soft or too hard and what should be hot is
always cold, and what should be cold has had a rise in temperature, and there
you go!

          About the time I began thinking I was a regular nurse and
knew everything, I was put in charge of a floor. I learned the excruciating joy
of being blamed for the other fellow’s mistakes and along with all this came
those frequent visits to the office, for leaving undone those things that
should have been done. But after all, there is a certain satisfaction in being
able to make things run smoothly and systematically.

          Of course, every nurse knows that some time in the dim and
distant future she will enter the operating room. I tremble now when I think of
the day I reported there. I felt like an unnecessary piece of furniture. It was
“don’t touch this,” and “don’t touch that,” until I wondered what there was I
could touch. But finally I mastered the mysteries of aseptic technique, learned
to keep my head when doctors yelled – even though my ears did tingle for a week
– and was able to answer, “Yes, Doctor,” when asked if all the sponges were
accounted for. These days were full of interest and the training was very
valuable for accuracy, quickness and skill, but it was a glorious day when I
went back on the halls and became once more familiar with people’s faces
instead of their insides.

          The bane of my existence was class work. The weary hours I
spent on anatomy and Materia Medica! Such labor never entered my mind when I
was having fond dreams of being a nurse and relieving suffering humanity. Why
couldn’t bones be named something shorter than Ossa Innominata, or a drug
something simpler than Hexamethylamine and why are there so many nerves,
muscles and blood vessels? Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And
how discouraging, when trying to make one small head hold all that knowledge,
to have a doctor remark: “They are the brightest looking class of girls to be
so stupid I ever saw.”

          There were days that were a continual grind; when nobody
could be pleased; when life didn’t seem worth living. Ye shades of Florence
Nightingale! Where have all our beautiful ideals flown? We vowed daily to go
home, but why didn’t we? We were held fast by the lure of nursing.

          There is a fascination that every girl feels if she has the
true spirit of a nurse. Can any joy equal that when we have had a part in the
saving of a life? Oh! There are hundreds of rewards for our toil and we are
glad that we are nurses. We want to live up to our clinic ideals as they have
ever been held up before us by our Superintendent, Miss Mabel Heldstab. She has
been our constant inspiration and we think Longfellow must have had her in mind
when he wrote: 

A noble type of good

Heroic womanhood

In the picture to the left, Dena is second from the right. In the picture on the right, Dena is on the right.

  

It is a strange feeling to find something written by a woman who I thought of throughout the years as being "my mother," "my dad's wife," "my children's grandma" and who now can be seen through new eyes as a woman who had deep thoughts and feelings quite apart from all of that.

I thought I knew my mother. I thought I knew what she thought, what she felt, what her life was always like. Those years before she married and had children will always be a mystery to us, but with this small discovery, we know a little more. She had aspirations of becoming a nurse, of helping people, of being useful in society.

And she was! It was just on the farm and in the house, in the church and in the community, not in a hospital.

Part II DENA THADEN PLUCKER'S STORY

[Here is the rest of the story written by Dena herself in the mid-1960's.]

"All this led up to my being organist in the Willow Lake Presbyterian Church for quite a number of years, and much later pianist and organist in the Germantown Presbyterian Church, also for several years.

"As you can imagine, there were no automobiles in those days so whenever we went to town or to church, it was with a buggy in the summer time and a bobsled in the winter. My folks had a two seated buggy, so on Sundays all of the children went along with the parents to Sunday School, at least those that were old enough. It was not possible for all of us to crowd into the two seats, so usually two of the bigger boys had to s tand up behind the back seat. Those trips were very enjoyable because we all had time to really enjoy nature.

"The bobsled rides were something like this: First of all, a bobsled is just a wagon box mounted on runners. Usually we had a layer of straw in the bottom of the box to sort of keep our feet warm. A spring seat was mounted on the wagon box about in the center. This was for Mom and the smaller children. They were kept warm with horsehide robes and possibly a heated soapstone for their feet. Dad would be up front in the box so he could drive the horses, and the rest of the children would be standing up in the rear part of the box. If we complained about being cold, Dad would tell us to get out of the sled and run behind until we were warm again.

"By the time I was old enough to remember such things, my mother was no longer using the washboard but had a mechanical washing machine. However, it had to be manupulated by hand. There was a handle that had to be pulled back and forth. All of us children got a chance at that chore. One can imagine that a large family like ours had a lot of laundery every week. Also much food was consumed, so much that my mother had to bake bread at least twice a week. A bakery in town where bread could be bought wasn't heard of. Once a week we had to churn about five gallons of cream. This was done with a large wooden box with a tight cover. It was suspended between two uprights and it had a handle so it would tumble the cream back and forth in that box until the butterfat separated from the milk and we would have several pounds of butter.

[How many cows would have been needed to separate at least five gallons of cream each week?]

"The beds of those days were quite different from what we now have. Instead of foam rubber or inner springs or even plain cotton mattresses, we slept mostly on straw mattresses. These mattresses were made of very heavy cotton ticking, being almost as heavy as the canvas tents are made of. Thes cloth was sewn into the shape of a large sack the same size as the bed. This was then stuffed with clean straw, usually soon after threshing in the fall of the year. It was great fun for us children to go to bed the first night after this was done. the mattress would be about three times as high as it was supposed to be. We would climb on top of this huge mound and then sink way down. Of course, as time went on, the straw became more leveled off and things were back to normal.

[In the photo of the three girls, Dena is on the left.]
"After I graduated from the eighth grade I had a desire to go to high school. It was not to be, because there was a new baby every second year and my help was needed at home. However, my best girl friend from our neighborhood went to Dubuque, Iowa to the high school department of Dubuque college. She came back with such glowing accounts of her experiences that my parents finally consented to my going there for one year. What happened there is pretty well explained in the other part of this little story, so I won't go over it again. After a year I was home again and not too well satisfied with what I had to do. I began to inquire at different hospitals as to what my chances would be to enter as a student nurse. Finally, the Sprague Hospital in Huron, South Dakota accepted me as a student. After some two and one half years, that man of mine became so insistent that I, like him, became a dropout, and we were married.
"Certainly many things have changed since the time when I was a young girl at home. By the time we were married, many improvements had been made. For instance, the first washing machine we had after we were married was still the hand-operated type. It was while we lived in Princeton, Illinois that we got our first electrically operated washer. We kept this machine while we lived in Princeton and in Dubuque, but when we moved back to the farm, it had to be changed over. Since there was no electricity out in the country at that time, we bought a small gas engine which was designed for operating a washing machine.
"This little engine was the cause of much grief. Many times on wash day my man was out in the field before I got started to wash clothes. Then, of course, the engine refused to start and I  would have to drop everything and walk to wherever he was and tell him to come home and start the engine. When electricity finally came in 1948, we lost no time in making the switch back to an electric motor.
"We did not get to use the lights very much the first day the electricity was turned on, because son Robert was in a play in Brookings, South Dakota. When we came home from there it was after midnight and high time to go to bed. Since that time electricity has changed from sort of a luxury to an absolute necessity."From that small beginning of one motor we have now progressed to the point where it takes 27 motors to keep us going.
"Before electricity, there was, of course, no refrigerator either, but we did buy an icebox that we used for several years. It was quite a thrill just to have it, so we would no longer have soupy butter and the milk and cream would not sour at the end of one day. Even though it meant going to town every few days to get forty pounds of chunk ice, carrying it across the kitchen while it was dripping, and emptying the pan of water from under the icebox every day, it was still a great help. Every so often the drip pan under the icebox would be forgotten and there would be ice water to be mopped up.
"To illustrate how thrilled we were to get the electricity, we turned on all the lights in the house and in the out buildings one evening and then drove a short distance down the road so we could see what the place looked like when it was all lit upl. Before this, we had a kerosene lamp in almost every room, and that meant washing the lamp chimneys at least once a week and refilling the lamps with oil. We also had a gasoline lamp that had to be filled every day with high test gas, not the same kind used in the car. Electricity did away with all of this, including the box of matches on the kitchen stove. Now, at last, we were free to walk into a dark room without first lighting a lamp so we could find what we needed.

"This just about brings things up to the present time. No doubt there were many small happenings that could have been mentioned, but we have tried to tell of only those things that would be of interest to you. Whatever happens now is known to you and has no real historic value yet. Perhaps when you granchildren arrive at the age we are now, you may feel like writing about some of the changes that happened during your lifetimes. We both feel that if as many changes occur during your lifetime as happened since about 1905 until the present, there will be a multitude of things that will be of interest to those who are living in 2030 to 2040."

Here is the Thaden family in the 1950's.

Clarence, William, Arthur, Ben, Clifford

Dena, Johannah

Harm, George, E. L. (Louie), Minnie, Robert, Jerry

[At the same time this story was written by my mother, my father also wrote about his life. As time goes on, I hope to post that as well.]

DENA THADEN PLUCKER'S STORY - PART I

By Jean E. Straatmeyer

[When my mother, Dena, was about 65 years old and my father was 67, they both wrote their "life stories." Here, now, is how Dena described her life up to that time:]

"I was born on a farm just seven miles away from where we live now. [Eight miles northwest of Lennox, SD.] Four boys in my family are older than I am, four more boys were born after that, then a sister, and finally, one more boy. These are the names of all the Thaden children starting with the oldest: Gerhard Ludwig, Jerry Herman and Harm Daniel (twins), William Leroy, Hendina Margaretta (shortened to Dena), Arthur Floyd, Benjamin Harry, Clifford Adelbert, Clarence Henry, Johannah Christina Amelia and Robert Lawrence.

"Although my parents lived in the same community as the Plucker family, it is doubtful if they even knew each other, since those were horse and buggy days and the only trips that were made regularly were to church and to the town for necessary supplies. My mother's family name was Buus, and they lived for the most part south of the town of Lennox, while the Pluckers settled north and west of Lennox. My great grandfather Buus came to this community at about the same time that great grandfather Plucker did, some time during the 1870's or 80's. [Pictured on the left are my Great Grandma & Grandpa Buus. On the right: my grandparents Louie & Minnie Thaden's wedding picture.]

"This is some of the history of the Thaden family as told by my aunt, who lived in Tacoma, Washington in 1966. She is the only one left of the generation of my father. In fact, she was married to my father's brother. She told me my great grandfather, whose name was Wilkens, was the organist in a large cathederal in Germany. The Wilkens family belonged to the nobility. Evidently the Thadens were not of the nobility, because when my grandmother Wilkens married grandfather Thaden, she was disinherited because she married beneath her station in life. This could very well be the reason why grandfather Thaden decided to migrate to America. They settled first near Peoria, Illinois. Later they moved to Pipestone, Minnesota, and finally settled in Washington state in a small town near Tacoma."

[I believe my mother didn't know the exact location of the homestead in Minnesota - and there is still a lot of mystery about the story of "grandmother Wilkens" being disinherited for marrying into the Thaden family.]

"My father did not make the move to Washington at that time, but stayed in the Pipestone area for a while longer. He finished eight grades in the public school, which made him eligible to teach in a common school in those days. Teaching must not have been too much to his liking because he soon went to the Lennox vicinity to work on a farm. This is where he became acquainted with Minnie Buus, my mother. They were married in 1897, started farming in the Lennox vicinity, and in 1903 moved to a farm near Bryant, South Dakota. I was only one year old at the time, so I don't remember anything of that trip. My father rented this farm, but in 1908 he decided to buy a farm nearer Willow Lake. This farm is still known as the home place, occupied at present by my brother, Art. I did most of my growing up there.

"I was not sent to school until I was seven years old. My name was recorded first as Dina, but the teacher did not like that name, so she changed it to Dena.

"As you can imagine, growing up in a family with four boys older than I was, I got a lot of teasing and tormenting. One of the favorite ways of making me nervous was telling some real wierd ghost stories just before bed time. It was necessary for me to look under the bed before retiring, and after everything was quiet I imagined hearing the stairs creaking. Surely something or somebody was coming!

[On the left is Dena with her mother, Minnie. On the right is Minnie as a young woman.]

"Our school was located a mile and a half away, and when the weather was at all bearable, we walked to school. If it was too cold or stormy to walk we could always catch a ride with our neighbor, Mr. Edelman. I remember the names of his horses. They were called Morg and Gyp.

"Since my grandmother on my father's side was a musician, my father bought a reed organ that operated with air pressure, and had to be pumped continually with the feet while it was being played. It was on this instrument that I took my first music lessons. when I was about 10 or 12 years old, Dad went to town one wintry day and came back with a piano in the sled. Happy day! Dad being the kind of operator that he was, made it a part of the bargain that the dealer who sold him the piano had to promise that his wife would give me piano lessons. The transportation I used for these lessons was a two wheeled cart pulled by a Shetland pony. In the winter time, my hands would be so cold that I had to soak them in some warm water before I could take my lesson."

[Stay tuned for the second installment - coming soon!]

A SOD CHURCH - THE THADENS' FIRST CHURCH IN MINNESOTA

The Thaden family church had been a mystery, since what records we had said they went to a German Church in the Luverne, MN area. We finally found the church they attended on a trip to Luverne some years ago. It was located four miles south and four miles west of Luverne in the Southwest section of Luverne Township and was called the Ebenezer Evangelical Church.

     Soon after the Thadens moved to their homestead, the Rev. P. Bott became the minister. When the Thadens celebrated their 50th anniversary, an article appeared in the “Christliche Botsschafter” which said they were converted under the labors of the Rev. Wm. Oehler 35 years previously (1873) at
which time they united with the church.

     The first church was called the Sod Church and was replaced in 1884. The Thaden family is mentioned in their church history books. It later was known as the Pleasant View Church which was started as a German Church of the Evangelical Denomination. In 1946, this denomination united with the Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) and in 1968 the EUBs joined with the Methodists to become the United Methodist Church. In 1954 the congregation of this country church was moved to Luverne, MN and it is now the Methodist Church in that community. The building located at the Pleasant View site was moved to Kanaranzi, MN where it is still used as the sanctuary for the United Methodist Church there. In America, the Thadens were for all practical purposes, Methodists – and continued to be a part of the Evangelical Denomination when they moved to Washington.

     The church records say there were “many successful revival meetings with large numbers finding the Savior. They held yearly camp meetings in the summer in a grove of trees 1.5 miles east of the church. In already known history, after Martin purchased the portable organ for his mother, she often played for church outings away from the church and no doubt played for these yearly revivals held at the grove east of the church. The church was located a mile north and a mile east of the Thaden homestead. They undoubtedly became a part of this denomination because it was a ministry to German people and it was close to their homestead.

     Next to the church was the cemetery where we found the grave marker of Hannah Thaden who died at the age of 13 years and 8 months (her death was attributed to consumption of the lungs). It is a beautiful cemetery, with only a few markers on it, and hers is still very readable. No one knew for sure where she was buried until we saw the records of the cemeteries in Luverne and drove out to check it out. Poor girl! But those were pioneer days. No doctor down the street, no hospital up the road, no antibiotics to fight disease. In the two letters found written by my Great Grandmother Thaden, she remembers that she “lost my second child Hannah too, and she was 14 years old and I could (not) let her go either! But God gives us strength that we can overcome it, and obey His will meekly without murmur! God be with you is the prayer of your Grandma. And in a follow-up letter of June 2, 1924, she ended her letter with, “My dear children, trust in God. He will help you overcome your sorrow.”

     When they moved to Washington, they helped organize an Evangelical Church in Tacoma and were members there for many years, perhaps until they died.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUILD A SOD HOUSE?

The Thadens lived in a sod house and probably the Pluckers did, too. Records describe sod homes as usually 9 x 16. They settled near rivers or creeks where they could secure small poles by cutting down the trees to make side poles and roof poles. Once this was erected, the holes were stuffed with woven grass. Over this was piled hay, then sod, and finally loose dirt. This was then, a sod house.

In a history of South Dakota written by John R. Miltdon, he says, "The typical settler had a family. With his oxen he cut sod for a house, long strips of three-inch sod, the prairie grasses holding it together as he stripped and furrowed. Then, with a spade, he cut the strips into three-foot lengths. The entire family worked together in stacking the pieces of sod-like bricks into four walls and with openings for a door and a window, which would be put in later. On the creek, they would find enough willow branches to make poles to support the roof. by criss-crossing enough poles, they got the support needed for the roof sod with only a slight sag in the middle. The completed sod house was windproof, fireproof and sturdy, but it would not keep out the water during the rainy season, and this was one of the paradoxes of sodbusting -- they had to pray for rain for their crops while at the same time praying for a dry house. They could not have both . . . If a town was established nearby, the settler could build a tarpaper shack or even a frame house."

The information we saw at the Rock County Historical Association showed that the Thaden homestead was the Southeast 1/4 of section two of Martin Township, but the deed record from Rock County records show it was the NW quarter of section 2. That piece of land is located four miles south and six miles west of Luverne, MN and there is a creek running through the quarter near the buildings. This confirms an earlier historical account that the kids weren't able to go to school one day because the creek was too high. This picture shows the exact spot of the Thadens' homestead.


On November 5, 1878, the Thadens received their homestead certificate at Worthington, MN. The description of the land was given and then the Patent Record says that it is his and his heirs "to have and to hold forever." Wm H. Crook signed the document on behalf of President Ruthiford B. Hayes.

The school the Thaden children attended was one mile south and two miles west of their homestead. As we drove by in our car, we found the remnants of a school with an old flag pole still standing. This picture is a site that looks like it could be the exact spot of the school the Thaden kids attended. It was just a couple of miles from the homestead site.

I WONDER . . . .

I wonder what my great grandmother Johanna had to go through to get from Germany to America and on to Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and finally to Washington State.
Did she get sick on the ship?
Did her four children behave on the ship?
Was she pregnant with her fifth child - my grandfather - on the ship?
What did she do for diapers when she just got off the ship? Did she bring them along? How did she wash them? What about baby food for Ella, who was only two?
What did they do for money? Did they bring plenty along with them from Germany? Did friends and relatives help them? Did they use a barter system instead?
How did they manage to get from Ellis Island to Peoria, Illinois? Train to Chicago? Covered wagon?
What happened to get them to Grundy County, Iowa? Did great grandpa farm there, too?
How did he farm? Was he just a hired hand? What sort of equipment did they have? How many horses?
Who told them that the land around Rock County, Minnesota was beautiful?
Did they gather everything they had in a wagon and drive the horses 270 miles? How long did it take? Was there a train track close? But if they took the train, how did they get their horses, cows, machinery along?
Did they make enough money at each stopping place to get them further along the way?
In Rock County, did Johannah help build the sod house? Was she pregnant again during that time?
Were all her 10 pregnancies easy? Did she get morning sickness? Did she have heartburn?
Did she always have two or three kids in diapers? Did she have to wash them all on a wash board?
Did Theodore and Johanne Catherine (who were 10 and 8 by the time my grandfather was born) help with the little ones?
Did she start a garden right away? Did they buy jars and canning supplies in Luverne?
Did she have to take care of farm animals as well as the children? Did she do the chores when my grandfather was farming?
In the 23 years they lived in Rock County, did she ever have time to enjoy life?
How relieved was she and the entire family to be gone from the disastrous snow storms and floods of Minnesota?
Were Johannah's other relatives happy to see them safely settled in Tacoma?
Was her life in Tacoma easier? happier? lonlier? sadder?
Did being involved in the church make her life more meaningful?

I wonder..........