"Memories" by Gary L. Wiese

Upper Pine Creek Bench

“How the Wiese Family came to live on the upper Bench”.

Frank Stoltenberg came to our home in Ririe and told my father that Jenny Jacobs was looking for a renter. The rest of the story is history....

Photo courtesy of Candice Traughber

We arrived the fall of 1940. I was age four: no electricity, heat and cooking was by and on a Monarch wood/coal stove. The stove had a water reservoir attached that provided hot water, if there was a fire in the stove. Light was by oil lamp and gas lanterns, and we had a pantry. As I was looking at the pantry door I heard this verse on our radio :

"A mouse a-chewin on the pantry door, He’s been at it for a month or so. When he gets through he’d sure be sore. Cause there ain’t a darn thing in there."

The cream separator was cranked by hand, butter churned by hand. A root cellar and a large garden spot came with the homestead, as did the outhouse.  In those days the farm yard provided fried chicken or chicken and noodles any time the cook requested, and she dressed and cooked the bird.  Hauling in wood and coal to keep the household warm and fed was a constant labor. Electricity was wired in by the spring of 1941. By contrast the Kruse Ranch got electricity in 1936, and a modern bathroom, Evelyn says, about 1941.

The 1940 Census lists the following residents.

Mr. and Mrs. Russell Farnes and seven children

Mr. and Mrs. Roy Farnes & Virgil Cherry

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Jessen and six children

Mr. and Mrs. (little) Herman Jessen

Mr. and Mrs. Earl Johnston and one child, and

Madge Hutchens, sister in Law.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry (Hank) Kruse and three children

Mr. and Mrs. George Thomason and four children

Mr. and Mrs. Arno Winterfield

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Winterfield and two children

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Humphrey and three children