In 1927, I was five years old. I lived in Neenah, WI. Mother’s eleven year old brother, Vernon Andersen died on June 14, 1927. He was driving a team of horses on the hilly, curvy roads along Lake Superior in northern Minnesota when the horses got spooked and ran away. The boards of the empty wagon piled up on him and killed him. It was imperative that family go to Grand Maris, MN for the funeral. The winter before, when I was three, I went up there on the train but I do not remember that part. I remember Uncle Vernon carrying us kids down a hall and throwing us on a bed which we thought was great fun. As I was only 4 years old, I thought he was a grown up.
My great Grandma “Jane” Pryse, her daughter (my great aunt) and several of great grandma’s sisters plus my mother, me and brother, Sheldon, 3 years old, went on a train to Grand Maris, MN for the funeral. It was about 400 miles. At three and five, it was great fun to be on the train and fairly bounce up and down the aisle from one “old lady” to the other. There was a water faucet and a paper “pocket” that squeezed into a paper cup at the end of the railroad car and we seemed to be very thirsty as we got one person after another to help us get water. Little kids get lots of attention from “old” ladies when there is nothing else to do.
I do not remember any more of the train ride. When we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Andersen’s home, I found they had a country store which also was the Post Office. There was a big curtain along the side of the store and opened up into the living room of their home. The store was closed for business for the funeral. The casket was in front of the counter. The curtain was open and the people who attended the funeral were seated in the living room. Within a couple days, great Grandma Pryse and aunts went home and we stayed a few days.
I remember Uncle Vernon had a neat little wagon and I asked Mother if I could play with it. She told me “no”, thinking it might make Grandma feel bad and she interrupted with, “Let them play with it.” We did. My mother, my brother, Sheldon and I visited for some time and Grandpa and Grandma Andersen drove us back home to Neenah, WI. The car was Aunt Sylvia’s Model T sedan. Grandpa was concerned the whole trip that the Graham crackers Mother gave us would leave crumbs in Aunt Sylvia’s car!
Soon after we arrived in Neenah, Grandpa and Grandma Andersen got word that their home-store burned to the ground! The next year on, June 2, 1928 Grandma Margaret Andersen’s father, Edward John Pryse died. Grandma Margaret “Jane” Pryse at 68 years old, thought she was too old to live alone and her daughter Margaret and husband Harvey Andersen moved down to Neenah, WI to live with her mother. He got a job to run the Filter Plant for Neenah Paper Company. Margaret Andersen died Oct. 15,1936 at 50 years old. Her mother “Jane” Pryse lived until 1956 and died at 96 years old!
E. Joyce Reid
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