Agnes

This blog post is about my mother's side of the family. It is about my Aunt Agnes. She was born in 1909 in Pray, Wisconsin and never married. Pray is a small town in central Wisconsin. It was was an important logging area in the late 1800's. Pray is named for the man who owned the first sawmill, not for religious reasons. It had a train depot and my grandpa and a couple of my uncles worked on the railroad. It was an up and coming community and then it wasn't. Now it would be a stretch to say 10 people live there. 

All of Agnes's siblings had a spouse and children to document their lives. In a small way I would like to fill that gap for Agnes. My mom was very close to her oldest sister, and I spent a lot of time with her. I will be interested if any of my cousins have their own memories. She had a long and interesting life that included many people.

Agnes was the oldest child and my mom was the second youngest of ten children.  This family photo was from September 1932. They were poor but they were all together at this point. Imagine cooking on a wood stove for all these people, carrying water and no indoor bathrooms. 

This next family picture was taken in the 1940's. Agnes is on the far left, continuing in descending birth order to my mom second from the right, and last on the right my uncle Gene. This picture was before all the 4 youngest brothers went to WWII, some were newly married, the two oldest boys were working on the railroad with grandpa and Agnes was teaching.

We all called her Aunt Aggie. She was the oldest and took on the role of caretaker for all of her brothers and sisters. Their mother died when Aggie was just 28. She had more than one chance to marry but declined. I know she was engaged, but as a young person I never heard any details. She wrote in a journal for much of her life. I don't know what happened to those journals, but I am sorry they were lost. I think that since their mother was very ill for years and died so young, Aggie felt responsible for some of her younger siblings. When their mother died, five of the ten children were under 18.  

When Aggie graduated from high school, she went to Marathon County Normal School in Wausau, Wisconsin. I believe it was only a one year program because she graduated in June of 1928. She was 19 years old. 

From that point, she became a teacher in a one room schoolhouse in Pray, Wisconsin. Since she taught all primary grades, she ended up teaching six of her siblings. 

 

The Pray School was in Pray Wisconsin in the Township of City Point. The township included the towns of City Point, Spaulding and Pray. City Point and Spaulding had their own schools. It was built before 1900 and closed around 1942. The few students that were left were transported to the City Point school.

Interestingly I found an autograph book from the 1928-1929 school year. It had two entries written by Aggie's sisters Christine and Bernice. They had to call her Miss Jepsen. My mother said Aggie was harder on her siblings than the other kids. She couldn't show favoritism. These pages say they are sorry she won't be back the next year but my mom, her brother and a future sister in law are in a later photo. I found out that Aggie taught from 1929-1940 except for 1931 and 1936-1938. The very same Bernice who wrote in this autograph book became the teacher from 1941-1942. 

 

My mom is the girl in the middle, her little brother is in the bottom row and far right. Aggie is in the top row and next to her is what would end up to be her sister in law Lillian. My mom was in 8th grade in 1936-1937 and Aggie was not teaching for those years. I think this photo was probably a couple years before that. I don't have an exact date. 

When it was time for high school the kids would board in a town with a high school. Imagine at 13-14 years old going away and living on your own for the week. They would often come home for the weekend, but many times they would not. They didn't have money and lived on what ever was provided by the boarding house. Grandpa would give them a nickel for spending money. My mom said they would get day old sweet rolls and eat them.

The curriculum was pretty hard. I found a lesson plan book from the 1940. They learned to recite poems, act in plays, do the normal 3 R's plus a lot of history and literature. Those of you who attended country school know you learned from the grades ahead of you. I think it made for some pretty smart and well rounded individuals. It wasn't all bad, except for the bathroom facilities and having to stoke the fire in the winter so everything wouldn't freeze. There were no buses and no cars. They really did have to walk a couple miles each way through the woods to get to school. 

When it was time to quit teaching, Aggie moved to Madison, WI. That is where she lived until she died. I don't know what she did for a living at that time, but she ended up working at the University of Wisconsin library in Madison. She loved it there and made many friends. She traveled all over the world. She seemed to enjoy her life. She loved jewelry, colorful clothing and perfume. I wasn't a fan of that perfume. 

She also wasn't much of a cook. I remember having to spend every Christmas Eve with her. I don't remember much about the meals except for one thing. She would always have a jello salad with some type of berry in it. To this day, I don't know what it was. They tasted like puke, and the thought of it makes me gag. I am sure my sister will remember the "puke berries" as well. Aggie was not much of a housekeeper either. She had a lot of books, magazines and clippings from newspapers. I am lucky she did that because she kept and wrote on everything. That has made it easier for me to piece together her story. All my cousins will remember the fawn picture she took. She sold it to a postcard company and everyone had a copy of it. Every drawer and bookmark was a picture of that fawn. 

She introduced me to pizza and shrimp. I thought she ordered "peach pie" but it turned out to be my first slice of pizza. She called it Pizza Pie. I told her I liked the shrimp except for the hard part I couldn't chew. She told me those were the tails and I wasn't supposed to eat them. 

I think she was a mother figure for everyone. When she died in 1995, I was there. Just like my mom at the time of death, she turned back into a young looking version of herself without any stress or pain. It was a comforting thing to see. She was cremated and I went by myself to the funeral home to pick up her ashes. They stayed with me and later we transported them back to the old home cemetery and church in City Point, Wisconsin. She was buried with her parents and grandparents. I go to the cemetery twice a year to put flowers on the cemetery and remember. It is something I will do as long as I can. 

We all choose our paths. Sometimes it isn't the path others think we should be on, but it is our own journey. Aunt Aggie had a rich and full life. She loved all of her siblings and their families, and they loved her in return. You can't ask for anything more.