INDIAN EXPERIENCES, LOVE OF NATURE, MORE COLLEGE, IDAHO JOBS

Indian Experiences
My stay in Kamiah proved to be a most interesting experience. It is the headquarters of the historically prominent Nez Perce Indians.  Chief Joseph, during the period of Indian wars, made the longest fighting retreat recorded in the history of those wars. A goodly percentage of the Indians in the Kamiah area were well-educated and were successful farmers or businessmen.

Example of a Nez Perce girl in 1910.  Library of Congress

A nice looking young Indian girl named Josephine, who had spent several years in schools in the East preparing to become a school teacher in an English school, returned to Kamiah while I was there. A few (white) young people with whom I had become acquainted knew Josephine and would invite her to accompany us on a picnic or cook-out. She would tell us about the history of her people and point out interesting writings on rocks made by Indians many years ago.

Example of Anasazi petroglyphs, New Mexico.  Library of Congress

One day she told us she would be leaving in a few days to accept a teaching position in a college in Kansas. The next day one of my white friends said, ‘Did you hear what happened to Josephine?’ The tribal council had held a meeting to consider Josephine’s plans and concluded she was about to get entirely away from the tribe. They decided she should marry one of the middle-aged men of the tribe and so informed her. A few days later, I saw Josephine on the street wearing the typical Indian shawl over her head and with her eyes looking downward. She never again spoke to any of us and was clearly back into the tribe--undoubtedly with a broken spirit.

Love of Nature
Never having lived in a mountainous area, I was truly fascinated with the Kamiah setting. I got a pair of elk skin high top shoes that were waterproof and began hiking among the foothills. Father had a Brownie (camera) that took 5” x 7” pictures and had a splendid lens. He had converted it to a film pack from the original glass plates. I would strap that camera over a shoulder, take a lunch Mother had prepared, and spend most of the day hiking and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Kenneth ready for a hike

Carrie Mae, Elzumer, and Roland; Kenneth in back

Carrie Mae in the center; Roland is on the far left and Kenneth on the far right.  Others?

Winter was an especially interesting time. All cars were put in storage as the road up the bill to nearby towns was too treacherous for winter travel so horse-drawn sleds were in common use. The snow storms were the most beautiful I have ever seen. Being located in a “pocket” among the hills, we never had winds of any consequence, so the snow would pile up six inches and more on fences and tree limbs and the large flakes would fall so thickly one could hardly see across the street.

Occasionally the sun would appear and settle the snow, then another big snow would pile it up again. I would join a few boys my age in shoveling off a frozen part of the river nearby for skating but by the time we had the snow pushed away, we would be too tired to do much skating. Often there would be another snow during that night— so it was a contest with the weather and so far as skating was concerned we usually lost out.

Example of ice skaters at Lake Forest, Chicago.  Chicago Daily News negatives collection. Courtesy of Chicago History Museum

First Employment in Idaho
Father was able to get an appointment for me as his assistant to help him with his duties as receiver for the three failed banks. When he went to Kooskia [Orofino], I would stay at the bank in Kamiah and occasionally I would spend a few days at the Orofino bank.


Christmas with Indians
The most unusual Christmas program I ever at tended was at an Indian church in Kamiah. They had a large Christmas tree that reached to the ceiling and was attractively decorated with home made ornaments.

There was a program in which the children took part and finally the chief of the tribe recited the experiences of the tribe when the government troops were pursuing them in what has been recorded in history as the longest military retreat [1,600 miles]. This was given in their native tongue while the congregation swayed back and forth with a monotone that reached a loud pitch at crucial points of the story. A member of the tribe sitting next to me interpreted the story for me--and it was an exciting story!  [Click on Retreat and Surrender and scroll down to section of the same title read the account.] 

More College
I decided to enroll with the Lasalle Extension University for a higher accountant degree. I completed the course about three years later and took the C.P.A [Certified Public Accountant] examination in Boise.  At that time I was living in Blackfoot, Idaho. The man who took the two day examination when I did wrote me about the outcome. He learned from the clerk in the Idaho State House that our papers were graded according to the standards of the American Institute of Accounting in New York City and both of us received passing grades.

One of the two members of the Idaho examining board signed the report. When the other board member came in the clerk said, ‘We have two more C.P.A’s” The board member marked through our grades on the report and reduced them about 30%. He said, “Now add up the grades and see how many new C.P.A’s we have.” Of course that failed both of us.

My companion took the examination again and was given a passing grade. I had become manager of the Livestock Credit Corporation at Blackfoot and never took the time to go through that two-day ordeal again. So that is how near I came to a C.P.A. degree.

Kenneth Leroy Scott

Car Accident
One day when my father had a business trip to a neighboring town up on the prairie for transportation he engaged a man who had a taxi business, and took Mother, Roland, and Marvin along. While coming back down the canyon road, the steering gear broke and the car went off the road, rolled over, throwing everyone out and landed in a ditch. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt except Mother who had a ligament in one of her legs injured and she suffered from that the remaining years of her life. Roland must have been asleep and was pitched into some bushes and came crawling out shouting, “What is going on here?”

Experiences as Bank Receiver
In 1921, I was appointed receiver of the failed bank at Montpelier, Idaho not far from the Wyoming line. Later, I was receiver of the State Bank at Weiser, Idaho. My third assignment was at the Fruitland State Bank near the Oregon line. I rented a warehouse to store several big trucks that the former cashier of the bank bought with bank funds that I repossessed. Also I accumulated farm equipment and some livestock that borrowers turned in as payment on their debts. One day a borrower came in the bank and said, “I’m leaving town. The only thing I have left under the mortgage to the hank is a horse and saddle and I’ve tied him to the tree in front of the bank.” I occasionally would hold a public auction to sell those items.

My next and final receivership was of the D. W. Stanrod and Co. Bank at Blackfoot, Idaho. This had been one of the oldest and largest banks in southern Idaho. It was established by Mr. Stanrod who had a general store that supplied miners and truckers who hauled ore from the mines in the Salmon River Country to the smelters in Utah. The miners would ask him to store their gold nuggets in his safe and that led to his opening a bank.

Example of gold nuggets from a mine in Alaska, circa 1900.   Courtesy of Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library

At the time of the bank failure, Mr. Stanrod was quite old and he could never believe that his son, the cashier had committed many crimes of misappropriating bank funds and bonds left for safe keeping and had made many bad loans which caused the bank’s failure.

The State Bank Commissioner sent John Beaker, an able attorney and certified public accountant with much experience in investigating bank failure, to Blackfoot to make a thorough audit of the bank records. I was authorized to help him make the audit which proved to be an exciting experience. Presently, I was able to trace irregular transactions through the bank records and help assemble evidence for the criminal trial.

As receiver, I received many claims for preference over depositors. I would assemble facts from the bank records and prepare a formal presentation to the District Court. To save the expenses of an attorney presenting the cases, I was granted permission to present those cases to the District Judge for decision.

This period of bank failures when the depositors often lost practically all their deposits resulted in improved examination of banks and ultimately to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee deposits up to certain amounts.

In this period when I was a receiver, I saw many extremely tragic cases where persons lost their life savings. Sometimes well managed banks without any irregularities would be the victim of false rumors causing “a run” on the bank when depositors would form long lines into the bank to demand their deposit in cash.

Since no bank ever has more cash than a small percentage of its deposits, such a run would force the bank into receivership for no reason except the panic of depositors from false rumors. The difference now is that depositors have confidence in the government guarantee.

 

KENNETH MOVES TO LAMONI, IOWA, THEN BOISE, IDAHO

In this post, we return to Kenneth's account of his life in his own words:

After graduating from the Chillicothe Business College, I returned home and shortly afterwards obtained a job as office manager with Donaldson and Bill, a Ford agency at Lamoni, Iowa.

Kenneth Leroy Scott

Early Cars
This was in the days when the cars had to be started by the use of a crank at the front of the car. I often operated the gasoline pump, which was operated manually with a crank to dispense the gasoline. After making the gasoline sale the customer usually wanted me to start the car by cranking it. There was danger of the engine “kicking” if the spark lever was too far advanced which could break one’s arm.

Man cranking a Model T Ford.  Courtesy www.ncroots.com

It was customary for Ford dealerships to have a “closed territory”, often for an entire county, in which no one would be given another dealership. This was a very profitable business, but the Ford Motor Company sometimes took advantage of the dealer. There was such a demand for Fords that they couldn’t manufacture them fast enough to supply the demand. So we had to present signed orders to get a freight car load, which was the way they were shipped. So we would order for example: 3 coupes (which were new and very popular), 2 touring cars and one sedan. Maybe I would receive I coupe, 2 touring cars, and 3 solid-tired trucks (the latter being in oversupply). Without warning we would sometimes receive notice that there was a freight car load of Ford parts and tires at the railway station with sight bill-of-lading attached which we must accept or endanger our standing with Ford Motor Company.

Incidentally, my father purchased the first Ford Sedan in our area. In a weak moment, he let me take the Sedan, which he valued greatly. I called a neighbor girl and we started for a ride. Presently I heard a ‘bump, bump” under the car and by the smell realized I had hit a skunk. There was no way to remove that terrible odor except to let it wear off over a period of weeks. Needless to say, I didn’t drive the car again for many weeks.

Ford Model T Sedan.  Source:  http://picsdigger.com/domain/oldcarandtruckpictures.com/

My father, like many others his age, had trouble learning to drive after years of driving a team of horses. He practiced driving in our large barn yard. The Model T Ford had three foot pedals, one was the low gear when pushed down and also the driving range when released, the middle pedal was reverse, and the third pedal was the brake. On his first attempt at driving, Father started off slowly in low and when he saw the woven wire fence "approaching,” he began shouting “whoa, Whoa, WHOA” like he did for the team of horses and only stopped when the fence held the car.

The following is a quotation from a chain letter written by my cousin Geraldine Jordan, daughter of my uncle Charles Scott, in which she describes a typical experience with the very early automobiles:

"That old Overland was a source of pride and achievement to Mom and Dad.  We kids thought we had just about everything!  In fact, we were THE FIRST to own a car in the neighborhood.  I'm not stretching the truth--whenever we came to a steep hill, Papa would tell Mother to get out of the car with us kids and WALK up the incline, and he would make it alone.  He never was sure the top would be reached in safety!   Momma would be so concerned too, for fear the car wouldn't climb a hill.  The driver and rider in the front seat always had to get out each time gasoline was put in the tank.  (Note by Kenneth:  The first car Dad purchased was a Ford Sedan--the first in Harrison County--and it had this same arrangement for a gasoline tank.)

American-made 1914 Overland being pulled over a river in Queensland, Australia, courtesy John Oxley Library, via Wikimedia Commons

If a storm was possible, everyone had to get out and help with the top, and side curtains were installed all the way around.  Our Overland was SUPER.  It had a self-starter and the lights were battery operated.  When we reached a speed of 50 miles per hour, we were really flying and that was TOP speed."

Kenneth joins the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Back to my Lamoni experience. I engaged a room and meals at the home of a family living near the Ford agency. This was a nice clean place with good home cooking. Presently I learned they were members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints and that the headquarters of that church was located in Lamoni. They persuaded me to go to their services and eventually to be baptized and receive membership. About a year later, I migrated to Idaho where I went to the services of the Reorganized Church in Boise a few times. That was the last time I attended any of their meetings.

Kenneth’s parents move to Boise, Idaho
Shortly after I moved to Lamoni, Father sold his bank interests and loaded the family belongings in a railway freight car and the family boarded the passenger train for Boise, Idaho where he purchased a 5 acre tract and large house a few miles west of town on the “Bench” toward Meridian. My Grandfather Scott had sold his farm and moved to Meridian [Ada County, Idaho) where he purchased a nice home and several acres of fruit trees. When my folks moved west, they left their Ford Sedan with me to be driven out later.

Typical farm in Ada County, May 1936  (Source:  Library of Congress)

Trip to Idaho; A Harrowing Experience
In the spring of ..., I started for Idaho in the Ford Sedan, never having been farther west than St. Joseph, Missouri. When I reached the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, the highway went onto a planked rail road bridge to cross that rather wide river. The rail road track turned out of sight on the opposite side of the river and there being no watchman in sight, I had visions of meeting a train about half way across the river so I just waited. Presently a car came from behind me and went across so I got up my courage and nervously drove across.

Bridges over Missouri near Council Bluffs, circa 1952.  Courtesy of Douglas County Historical Society Archives

The next event I recall is when I came to the Platte River in Nebraska. It was a turbulent, rushing stream slapping the bottom of the wooden single lane bridge with a turn-out at midstream and with much of the guard rail missing. I pulled to the side of the road to appraise the situation.

Presently a car load of young people came along and went rapidly across with surface boards rattling. So I cautiously started out gripping the steering wheel and watching the roaring stream from the corners of my eyes until I reached the other side. Later I learned that the river is rather shallow and I was seeing it at the spring run-off time.

When I approached Cheyenne, Wyoming, I got my first glimpse of mountains. While I was eating lunch, I asked the mechanic at a nearby garage to tune up my motor. When I again started down the road, the car keep slowing down, requiring me to use the low gear to get up speed only to have it slow down quickly. I grumbled to myself about that mechanic getting my car out of order until I looked back and discovered I was going up a rather steep grade toward a mountain.

Garages were rather far apart and whenever I came upon one, I filled the gasoline tank and inquired about the direction toward Boise, Idaho. The answer invariably would be “keep to the main road”. When I would reach a fork in the road, each looked similarly traveled. It was just a case of guessing which was the right direction and stopping the first car I met (which was quite infrequent) and asking if I was on the right road. If not, I had some back tracking to do.

Once I came to a sharp incline in the road that was too steep for the gravity gasoline feed in my car. The road was too narrow to turn around and try to drive up in reverse which improved the gravity feed in such a situation. So I parked the car by the road side and walked over to a near-by hill to see if I could locate a ranch house. Fortunately, there was house about a quarter of a mile away. There I inquired about gasoline and the answer was “yes” in five gallon cans at 50 cents per gallon and $1.00 for the car — a terrific price in those days. The nearest I could come to that price was a $10.00 bill which was my salary for 2 days work.  The lady returned presently and said she had no change. I said, “Well, I’m rather tired traveling so I’ll just sit here on the porch until someone comes along with change.” After about a half hour a man showed up with my change and I walked back to the car, poured the gasoline into the tank under the drivers seat and was able to get up the grade.  For the remainder of the trip, I carried five gallons of extra gasoline.

Also I carried a water can as the car would get hot occasionally, when I would get water from a stream and fill the radiator. A few times I had to remove the floor boards to tighten the brake and gear drums.

About half way across Wyoming, I began seeing an occasional splotch of orange colored paint on rocks along the roadway and recognized them as the first highway signs that the Lake Music Company in Salt Lake City had made to mark the road to that city.

Typical highway scene in Idaho County, July 1941 (Library of Congress)

The road from Pocatello, Idaho to American Falls, Idaho I soon discovered had “chuck- holes” hidden by about six inches of dust, so to avoid breaking a spring by dropping into one of those hidden holes, I had to drive so slowly I was constantly in a dense cloud of my own dust for about ten miles of that road.

Late the next afternoon, I reached Boise and presently I saw two boys whom I recognized as my brothers Roland and Marvin waving me into the driveway of a nice large house and I realized that my seven day drive from Iowa was ended. What a joy it was to see my mother, father, and brothers again!

Elzumer with Marvin (born 1916) and Kenneth (born 1899)

 My father was working with the State Banking Department with an office in the State Capital in Boise.

State Capitol, Boise, Idaho.  Courtesy www.CardCow.com

My folks had a nice 5 acre irrigated place, most of which was planted to a variety of fruit trees.

Typical family garden, Ada County, Idaho,  May 1936 (Library of Congress)

 
Kenneth moves to to Kamiah, Idaho

In a few days I returned by train to my work in Lamoni.  Idaho looked so attractive to me that I kept thinking about moving out there--an idea that was encouraged by letters from my parents.

In the spring of...,  I left by train for Idaho. At that time my folks were living in Kamiah [Ada County] in the northern part of Idaho where father was the receiver of a chain of failed banks at Grofino, Kamiah, and Kooskia, Idaho. At Lewiston, Idaho, I changed trains to a two car train that travel up the Clearwater River to Kamiah and a few miles beyond. It was an interesting trip up the Clearwater River Canyon mostly through a forest of splendid timber.

Example of Idaho railroad (Library of Congress)

At the station stops usually there were no houses in sight and I assumed the houses were on the top of the canyon. Frequently I saw a train line with many--what appeared to be--seats hanging from the steel cable. I thought that was how I would have to travel with my suitcase up to the top of the canyon when I reached Kamiah--not a pleasant thought.

When the conductor announced our arrival at Kamiah, to my pleasant surprise, it was located on a flat opening about 4 or 5 miles square, surrounded by stately pine-covered mountains. Later I learned that the tramways were only for transferring the bagged grain from the fields of the prairie down to the railway stations for shipment to market.

Birth of Marvin, Military Service, Education, and Death of Winnogene

Brother Born
[Kenneth’s youngest brother, Marvin, was born 6 Jan. 1916.]

Kenneth's sister Winnogene holding Baby Marvin Scott

Military Service
World War I was in progress and young men had the option of being drafted or joining some phase of the services. I chose to enlist in the Students Army Training Corp (SATC) and was ordered to report to training quarters at the William Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri. That was quite an experience with Army training under West Point officers.  [Kenneth’s service record indicates he was inducted on October 21, 1918.]

Soldiers in Student Army Training Corps, Milliken Univeristy, Decatur, Illinois, ca 1918

The armistice on November 11, 1918 resulted in the SATC program being discontinued. I received an honorable discharge from the Army a little before Christmas 1918 and returned home.

The following account is from a tape-recorded interview with Kenneth, found in the appendix of his and Mary’s autobiographies:

One time after I had graduated from high school, I went down to William Jewel College in Liberty, Missouri, and I went to that business school down there for almost a year, I guess. This was at the beginning of the World War and they turned that over to some military officers who were training some young men to be officers in the army. That’s what I was taking training for to be a second Lieutenant, I guess it was. They then closed that particular training down and then I went back home. Yes, I was really in the military.

I volunteered to go into the Student Army Training Corps. That was a year before the war ended. It was down to William Jewel College at Liberty, Missouri. They’d get us out and we had uniforms and army rifles we trained with. I remember one time they took us out and made us walk at attention down a muddy road for a mile or so…because somebody in this dormitory, someone had taken a big tall cardboard container for trash and…they’d taken it in the shower and it was up on the third floor and they were having just some mischief with some of the soldiers down on the second floor and they had this all poised up there on the rail, full of water, so that when someone stepped out down ther--one of their friends--they were going to tip this barrel over.  And the one that stepped out was the First Lieutenant, who was our training officer! They just soaked him with water.  So the next morning was when he got us all out, and he didn’t know who did it, but he got us out, and marched us at attention for about a mile or two down through the muddy road so that was a punishment that we remembered a good while. We didn’t want to get into that any more.

Pursuing Education and Career
I resumed my work in the commercial State Bank which continued until the regular assistant cashier, Gerold Smothers, returned from the service.  I worked at the bank until I got through school about one more year in high school. Then Dad sold his bank and moved to Idaho. I was working for a Ford agency and I stayed on.

Chillicothe Business College.   Courtesy www.mainstreetchillicothemo.com

Following the example of my father, I enrolled in the Chillicothe Business College for a business course including bookkeeping, typing, and shorthand.

Thomas Edward Sallee (1841-1917)

Adelia Putnam Sallee (1846-1904), wife of Thomas E. Sallee

For a nominal monthly charge, I had a room and meals at the home of my Grandfather Sallee’s, who owned a feed and coal business. Delivery was made by an employee who drove the big Percheron horse “Bill” hitched to a brightly painted heavy wagon. As a young lad, when I would visit Grandfather Sallee with Mother and Winnogene, I would thrill at the opportunity to ride on the delivery wagon and hear Bill’s shod feet just “clank, clank” on the brick pavement.

Delivery wagon and horse, ca 1990 (Source:  http://kingstonpubliclibrary.org)

In those earlier days, it was necessary that we travel to Chillicothe by train–leaving rather early in the morning and getting off about 25 miles down the road at Darlington to transfer to another train that went east to Chillicothe. Darlington was just a crossing for two railroads and there were no accommodations there except the train station with hard seats.

Train at  Marceline, Missouri , ca 1915 (Source:  http://www.kchistory.org)

As we had to wait there about three hours, Mother would bring along a nice lunch. presently the train going east would arrive and after riding it for about an hour and a half we would arrive at Chillicothe. Later when automobiles were in use, it was only about an hour’s drive from Ridgeway to Chillicothe–but before that the train seemed much better than the other alternative of a team of horses and a buggy requiring a long day’s journey.

This period of attending the Business College provided many opportunities to visit with Grandfather Sallee. He was a rather reserved person but one who had had many varied experiences and had traveled considerably including trips to Yellowstone Park, partly by stage coach. He was a captain in the cavalry during the Civil War and had a handsome sword from that experience. I was fascinated by the heavy gold chain that he always wore in his vest with a large silver watch on one end and the key he used to wind his watch each evening, on the other end.

Pocket watch and chain (Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org)

He wore a full white beard that extended probably eight inches below his chin. Like my Grandfather Scott, he could tell interesting stories of his travels. My grandfathers were good friends but Grandfather Sallee being a Democrat and Grandfather Scott being a Republican–they would have political discussions.

Thomas Edward Sallee

R
Death of Winnogene
I was called home February 27, 1918 by the startling bad news that Winnogene had died. She had been doctored faithfully by an old family doctor, Dr. Williams, for what he thought was an ear ache. Too late it was discovered to be a mastoid infection. Then she was rushed to the nearest hospital–in St. Joseph, Missour–but the infection was so extensive that she couldn’t be saved. My dear mother never fully overcame the great sorrow of losing this beautiful and lovely daughter in her 13 year of age. Winnogene was buried in the cemetery in Ridgeway, Missouri.

Winnogene's headstone

Early Inventions, Jobs in High School, Graduation, and Piano Solo

Early Inventions
It was about 1915 when Ridgeway first received electric lights.  Prior to that time we used kerosene lamps including one that could be pumped up and with a very gradual mantle gave a bright white light.  The source of our electricity was a diesel engine house about a block from our house.  For the first few years we had current only during the evening and morning hours--from about sun down to ten o'clock and for about an hour early in the mornings.  Once we were having a nice Halloween party at our house and the lights went off at the regular time while our guests were still there.  My father called the man at the power station and asked him to keep the engine going another hour for which he paid $5.00.

Kenneth later added more detail and discussed other early inventions in a taped interview, partially transcribed and included in an appendix to his and Mary's autobiographies:

For a long time we didn’t have any electric lights. We just had coal-oil lamps. A plain coal-oil lamp wasn’t very bright....but then they had another fixture that came along about that time and sit on the table. They had what they called a mantle. It was a little cloth arrangement... You’d take a match and lift the bottom of that and then it was a very fragile light mantle. You’d had to be very careful or you’d knock that candle or mantle all to pieces and have to do it all over again. It would give a nice white bright light. It was kerosene.

I must have been about 18 or 19 when we got electric lights. They had a diesel motor in a little power house. It wasn’t very far from where we lived. It was a big motor and it provided the power for that whole little town. In the summer time, it only came on about 5 or 6 o’clock in the evening and run until about 9 o’clock....My dad was in charge of the choir in the church... It would come to about 9 o’clock and he’d call the power company to run the unit another hour or something like that and it didn’t cost him more than 4 or 5 dollars or something like that.

Telephones were put in use; they had single lines. They had a number of individual house lines hooked into it and they would get that number on that particular number by getting certain rings. In other words, if they were calling you, maybe your ring would be three little short rings and then a long one. The neighbors might be two little one and two short ones and they all had a little different rings.  When they’d hear a ring, there would be several of you taking the receiver off. They were going to ease drop on that conversation. [He membered first telephone call in Ridgeway at about age five.]

“We didn’t have a bathroom [when he was young]. We had to go outside to one these outside toilets and when we wanted to take a bath why we had to warm a lot of water on the big kitchen stove and we just had one of the tubs my mother used to soak our clothes and we’d just get in the kitchen there and everybody would stay over in the living room and one at a time we’d take our bath. We’d have a whole big old tub of water, real hot on the stove and then we’d just take what we wanted in that tub and dump it in the sink and the next one would come along and take their bath.

My Father got the first Ford Sedan that they had in that county. We were all so proud of that little Sedan. It was a nice little car. The gasoline tank was under the drivers seat--a square tank under the drivers seat --and when you wanted to fill the tank up you just had to get out and take the cushion off; it didn’t hold very much gas and it was one of these that you had to crank.

I remember I had to go out and crank those cars whenever I had to fill a tank up with gasoline. I was keeping the books in that agency but I also had to wait on that pump out there and was always afraid somebody would put the spark down too far when I’d start cranking that car--they all wanted it cranked, of course.

Man cranking a Model T Ford

You know those automobile tires were so poor and they were high pressure tires that we actually would have--there was no guarantee on them at all--and we actually had examples of where somebody that lived out in the country, not more than ten miles, would have one of those new tires blow out before they got out there and there was no guarantee at all. He just had to come back and buy a new tire. It was terrible.


Early Employment
My first job in Ridgeway was at a food store during the summer vacation from school.  In the rear of the building they had an area where fresh cream was brought in for sale.  I was trained to reserve the cream, take a sample, test it in a tube that was rotated in a hand cranked machine, then record the cream content and make a simple written report that the patron took to the store owner to receive payment.  Eggs were also delivered at the same door and after checking for broken eggs, I recorded the count for the patron to turn in for payment.

The store owner had a roaster for reshelled peanuts that was operated at intervals during the day to keep a supply of freshly roasted, salted and buttered peanuts for sale.  During my first day of work, I was surprised to have the proprietor say, "Kenneth, you may help yourself to the peanuts if you would like them."  It wasn't until that evening when I had a terrible stomach ache that I discovered there was no better way to teach me to be very moderate in my indulgence at the peanut roaster.

During the summer of 1914, I worked at the Winkler and Young Cafe in Ridgeway.  They served hot meals and fountain dishes.  They had an ice storage shed in which they stored large blocks of ice cut from a pond, and stored in sawdust that would keep the cafe supplied with ice all summer for making ice cream.  Sometimes when I was tending the fountain, a party of school kids from Bethany, our county seat, would come in and try to "show off" by ordering a fountain dish I had never heard of.  I would mix up a conglomeration of ice cream and syrups and take it to them.  They would say, "What is that?  I ordered so-and-so."  I would reply, "That is the way we make it here," and leave.

The cafe had a large mechanical organ with various sound effects that was operated by coins, that was terribly noisy.  I worked from about 6 in the morning (when I swept the place) to about 9 or 10 in the evening--and midnight on Saturday for $1.00 a day plus meals.

During school vacation in 1915-16, I worked in the bank for my father as a book keeper for the canceled check statements of individual depositors.  We had an adding machine but all the ledger and individual statements were maintained by hand writing.  It was about this time that Father purchased a "Grandfather" clock that Father much later in life willed to me and which I shipped from San Jose, California to our home in Washington, D.C. after Father's death.  It still keeps good time.

Kenneth added more detail about his work at the bank in tape-recorded interviews, which were partially transcribed in the appendix of his and Mary’s autobiographies:

My father was a cashier of a bank that he had organized there, the Commercial State Bank. He would get me down there. First he’d let me do the janitor work--sweep out the place in the summer time and on Saturday. Later on he let me do the book work and we didn’t have anything but a simple adding machine--no book keeping machine--and everything would have to be written out longhand.

If a person made a deposit you’d go get their little book and when they’d come in with a check, you’d had to get the book and write it out again and that was a pretty slow way to work. Then I got so when the war came along in 1917 and the assistant cashier joined the army, my father said I could take over the books. So I was being real careful in getting them all added up.

For several weeks the books were nicely balanced, and one day, it was the Fourth of July, they had a big celebration there going up and down the streets, and my Dad said I had to go down there and get those books in balance. The books were off 10 cents and I couldn’t find that 10 cents. I worked and I worked and went over the figures and went over the figures and finally I went back and ran the tape on the figures on the day that the other young man finally closed the books and I found that 10 cents. It was his fault. But my Dad said, “If you’re going to be a banker, you’ve got to get your books all balanced and don’t be trying to get some special favors here.”

High School Graduation
In 1917, I graduated from the Ridgeway High School--there being twelve in the class:  six girls and six boys.  I was president of the class and played a piano solo during the graduation exercises.

Childhood Highlights, Father's Business, Roland's Birth, and Family Memories

Red, White and Blue Sidewalk
While we lived at this home, my father decided he would replace the wooden sidewalk in front of the house with a cement walk.  He got some red, white, and blue coloring to put in the cement.  We had the only such walk in town--and maybe in the entire state of Missouri--of alternating red, white, and blue sections.  He did such a perfect job of smoothing the surface of the walk that when it rained or otherwise was slick, people walking were afraid to walk on it, since it was on a fairly steep little grade.

Spectacular Fire
While living here, I was awakened one night by someone running past, yelling "Fire!"  As my window was fastened over, and the light of the fire gave it a red glow, I first thought our house was on fire.  But I soon learned it was the three-story opera house on main street a few blocks away.  It was a spectacular fire; fortunately, the wind was blowing from a direction to keep it from spreading to nearby buildings.

In Ridgeway we had no fire fighting equipment other than a "bucket brigade," which consisted of people forming a line from the nearest well and passing buckets of water from one person to another, on up to the fire.  This usually was a futile exercise, except for a small fire.  It was a tragic sight to see a fire in a beautiful three story house.  We would rush in and start carrying things out into the yard.  There were actual cases of people being so excited that they would carry a load of clothes or bedding down the stairs and outside to safety and return and pick up a beautiful mirror or lamp and throw it out the second floor window--thus breaking it all to pieces.

Halley's Comet, May 4, 1910 (www.uh.edu)

During this period of my life [age 11] I had the privilege of seeing for several nights, Halley's Comet--a bright star with a long tail of light.

Father's Business
After being cashier of the First National Bank a few years, my father, with the help of a few well-to-do farmers, organized the Commercial State Bank of Ridgeway and became the cashier.  The bank prospered and provided my father with an income of $100 per month, which was above the average income at that time.  Father also was secretary for the Masonic Lodge, which was the source of a little more income.

Another Home in Ridgeway
It was about this time that Father had an opportunity to purchase a large two-story house and more than a square block of ground, 2 1/2 blocks from Main Street.  It was rather near the depot of C931Rail Road, running between St. Joseph and Chariton, Iowa.  There was a two-car passenger train that went down to St. Joe in the morning, and returned in the afternoon to Chariton each day.

This may be the two-story house Elzumer bought

First Bicycle
It was about this time that I ordered my first and only bicycle from Montgomery Wards and Co.  That catalog was the source of many things for our family, as the small local stores had very limited stock of merchandise.  For several days, I watched patiently while things were unloaded from the baggage section of the first coach of the train.  Finally, my bike arrived nicely.  My father helped me get it home and I began learning to ride it--by having a box at each end of the seat, to help me mount the shining new possession.

The Perfect, 1910 (http://oldbike.wordpress.com)

My Bay and White Pony
Our new home site included an oversized pasture for our cow and a large garden area, in addition to a large yard.  Father bought me a bay and white pony about 2/3 the size of a regular horse.  Queen was the source of a lot of enjoyment for riding, pulling the garden implements, the four-wheeled spring wagon, and the attractive buggy with a second seat facing the rear.

Kenneth holding the reins, ready to take a group of children for a buggy ride.  It may be Roland seated next to him and Winnogene in the back.

I had "gas pipe" runners to convert the buggy into a sleigh with bells in the winter.  This was a popular rig and when several of my friends would take turns riding with me, Queenie would get tired.  Despite my efforts to keep her moving, she would go to the side of the road and lay over against a snow bank until she was rested.

The following account is from a tape-recorded interview with Kenneth, found in the appendix of his and Mary’s autobiographies:

When I was about your age, we lived back in Ridgeway, Missouri. We had a pretty good-sized place, the area equal to about a block-and-a-half of land. We had a big pasture and a big garden. So [my father] got a pony for me. The pony was named Queenie. She was about as big as a pony we had out to the farm in Maryland. My father also bought a nice little buggy and it didn’t have a top on it but it had a nice wide seat in the front. Right back behind was a smaller seat that faced the other way....That little pony was a real nice pony to drive and she’d just haul us around in that nice little buggy.

I also had a little spring wagon. It was big enough for a pony to haul. It was a pretty-good size wagon but just for one pony to pull it. I haul things around it on the farm and our big garden we had and go down there and gather the produce down there and have a lot of fun. We had a cow at that time that we milked. That was my job to milk that cow every morning and then I had to drive the cow down to a bigger pasture--down probably about six or eight blocks and I had the job of taking some neighbor’s milk cows down there too. They were all gentle cows. I would stop by one barn and get the cow out and go down the road and get another cow and take them on down there. Then in the evening, I’d go down there and get the cows and take one to each one of the neighbors. This pony [Queenie] that we had in the winter time, I had sleigh runners I’d put on that little buggy and they were little gas pipe runners that fit up at the top and went back for the back. My, that was a nice little rig. I had some sleigh bells, a string of sleigh bells to put on the pony, and I was pretty popular.

My friends would all like to go and take a ride with me in my buggy and one time we’d spent riding along for quite awhile weren’t thinking too much about Queenie and it was a pretty heavy snow. It wasn’t snowing then but it had piled up along the road where the grader had come along and pushed it out you know.

So Queenie got tired of hauling us around so she just insisted in getting over there to that big bank of snow along side of the side of the road and she just laid right down, right in the harness and everything. I had my whip and whipped her and got out there and got a hold on her bridle and tried to raise her up and she just stayed right there, just laying up against that big snow bank until she got rested and then she got up and we took another little ride.

Brother Born
My brother Roland joined the family circle on October 3, 1910, bringing joy and happiness to all of us.

Kenneth, Unknown woman, Roland, Carrie and Elzumer Scott

Memories of Family
Most of our neighbors kept a milk cow but in the summer they pastured their cow in a field about half a mile from our house.  With my pony, I arranged to drive 6 or 8 of the cows to and from the pasture each day for 75 cents each per month.  by this time I was old enough to go to my Granfather Scott's farm when the wheat and hay crops were harvested.  Grandfather's second family included three boys:  Howard, Russell, and Raymond.  I was about the age of Howard.

When we shocked the grain bundles, we four boys could easily keep up with the horse-drawn blinder, so occasionally we would run to a nearby farm--partially undressing on the way--for a swim, until we could see my Uncle Ralph had made about three or four rounds with the binder.  Then we would hurry back and catch up with arranging the bundles into shocks of about eight bundles standing on end with one on top as the cap to protect the grain ends of the bundles.

Grain shocks in an Amish field (http://powc2c.files.wordpress.com)

This may be the farm of  Kenneth's grandfather, Aaron Graham Scott.

During the evenings, we would sit in the yard and ask my grandfather to tell us about his hunting trips.  (There were no TVs or radios and no daily papers.)  He was a great story teller.  Most every year after harvest, he would take a trip to western Kansas and Colorado where his son, Oat, and family, and daughter Minnie Jacobs and her husband Ruthy [Rutherford] and family lived in that newly settled area.  There was an abundance of wild game and my grandfather was an experienced hunter.

Thanksgiving was a day when my grandfather Scott always wanted all his family there.  My Aunt Minnie was still at home.  Aunt Ruth and Kenneth Weary came from Cainsville, Nick and Myrtle and children came from a nearby farm and Mother, Dad, Winnogene, Roland, and I joined the group.  Each family would bring pies, cakes, and other food.  Grandfather would have shot several wild quail that became a quail pie.  He would have killed one of his large turkey gobblers.  There would be pork and beef that he had butchered from the farm animals and pies and cakes in abundance.  After dinner the folks would gather around the organ (with foot pedals) and have a joyful time of singing church hymns.  My grandfather had a good tenor voice and my father sang well as did each of the others.

Early Chores, Birth of Winnogene, Close Call

When I became old enough to churn the butter in a barrel-type churn, I did that for my mother in the cellar.  That was also where we turned the ice cream freezer.  Once in a while during the hot summer months, there would be an alert by telephone from one neighbor to another that there was danger of a tornado.  On those occasions we would go down into the cellar until the winds died down.  The cellar had a four-inch tile vent that enabled us to get sufficient air to keep us comfortable while in the cellar.

Kenneth Leroy Scott, circa 1906

When I was old enough to care for them, my father got a pair of rabbits for me and presently I had quite a number of rabbits--until a neighbor's dog got to them.

It was when we lived in this house that my sister Winnogene was born on March 25, 1905.

Kenneth and Winnogene with their parents, Elzumer and Carrie Mae Scott, in 1908

Kenneth and Winnogene

Winnogene Leta Scott, 1905-1918

My bed in those days was a folding bed that could be raised from the front and extend vertical during the daytime to provide more space in our parlor.  The bed had a large mirror in the front when raised and was then a rather attractive piece of furniture.

Winnogene and Kenneth

When we were to go out to my Grandfather Scott's farm--about five miles away--my father would hitch our driving horse to a single-seated buggy with a top and we would all climb in, Winnogene on Mother's lap and I between my parents.  When we made that trip in the winter, we had heavy lap robes and some hot bricks to keep our feet warm.

One day, when we were going out to the farm in the buggy, my father saw a steam threshing machine coming down the road toward us with the smoke and steam puffing out.  We were rather sure that Prince, our horse, would be frightened as most horses were of a threshing machine.  That day we were following rather close behind a wagon load of hay; Father said maybe we could get by the threshing machine that way.  When Prince came abreast of the machine, he reared straight up.  Had it not been for Father's experience in handling horses, we might well have had a bad "runaway" with the buggy being turned over and some or all of us badly hurt--or worse.

Steam-driven threshing machine, Minnesota, 1882 (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia)