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Wyatt, Wydville

BUNCE FAMILY HISTORY

From Aunt Lydia Bunce: Page 1

Some of this was told me by my grandparents. Some by Loyals Grandmother Elvira Bunce, some by Eugene Pringle Bunce, some by Loyal himself
and some I heard and saw.
Many years ago, I do not have the dates. Some of them were in an old family Bible, which Annabell has. Roy Bunce wanted that Bible because of the dates and history. Annabell took out those pages so she could say "I have the old Bible, but there are no names and dates in it."

Oliver Bunce and wife lived in a small house in Jackson County just north of Mud and Crispel lakes. See the red dot on the map of the county. Oliver is the root of the Bunce tree. He had many sons. One, named Willford, who went to Alberta Canada. Twice he returned to visit relatives and tell them what a wonderful place it was. So the Bunces in Canada are related to us. Another son of Olivers was Edgar. When my mother was a teenager her brother Angus Lester was in a Sunday school class taught by Edgar Bunce. Edgar's wife, Lydia Bunce taught the class my mother was in. Edgar had two or three sons. I don't know where they went. Edgar could write beautifully. He was very musical, played different instruments. My grandparents had a photograph of him and his family, another photo of Edgar and his set of drums.
When I was a child I used to be at my grandmothers home a lot. She lived on Thorne Road, just north of the Bader Road. The land went back as far as the Kalamazoo River. See the red dot. The tiny dot on wrong side of the road is a mistake.
People did not buy their meat. They killed their own pigs or beef. Men would come from miles around to help. Their wives might also come to help the woman take care of the lard and the head. People did not pay in money for the help. They gave them liver and pieces of side pork.
When my grandparents butchered pigs, Edgar came. He must have lived quite a ways, because he stayed over night. He would soak a pig bladder in salt water over night, clean it up good, tie a string around one end and put a stem of a new white clay pipe in the other end and blow it up. It made a nice big clean balloon. The only kind of balloon I ever had. He would take off his shoes and play with me by sitting in a chair and kicking the balloon every time it came near him. I liked him very much.
Oliver had a son named Ance, who was mentally retarded. He was a man with the mind of a child. He saw his brothers climb the windmill to fix the fan when something went wrong or it needed oiling. One day he climbed the windmill and then was afraid to come down. No one could go up after him, as the slender frame would not hold the weight of two men. They had quite a time coaxing him down. That old windmill still stands. The house and barns are gone. There is a big walnut tree in the yard and the myrtle vine or plant still grows on the bank between where the house stood and the road.
Oliver had another son named Jeremiah. He is our tree trunk. On the West Side of the Kalamazoo River lived a Methodist minister. He traveled around the county organizing Churches and Sunday schools. I think he preached in the Methodist Church, which still stands at Hanover. I am not sure, but the Church is very old style of architect. There is another built like it at South Jackson Road, just north of Kimmel Road. See red dot. I like to think that he established both churches. That is only guess but they are old and have very old cemeteries beside them. A traveling preacher who went on horseback was called a Circuit Rider.
The ministers' last name was Wolcott. He had two daughters and a son. The son was a close friend to Jeremiah Bunce. Jeremiah married Elvira Wolcott, the youngest sister of his friend. She was a slender little thing about 17 or 18 years old. He was big and strong. Taller than most men, he had broad shoulders, and was thick through the chest. He had brown hair and full beard, which he never shaved off. He also had a sandy moustache.
They lived near Hanover and had five sons, Eugene, known as E.P. Bunce, Oscar, Fred, Jasper Newton, known as Newton or J.N. Bunce, and Dayton. The last two were several years younger than the first. Fred and Newton were tall like their father. Eugene and Dayton were shorter and stoutly built. Oscar was not as heavy as the others were.
When Eugene was 11 years old, he quit school to work in the fields. Most farmers' children quit young. My mother was 12 years and was in the 3rd grade.
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Don't think that people were ignorant because they quit school. They knew more of the necessary things than most high school graduated today. There was not wasted time. It was like the old song Reading and writing and arithmetic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick. That was very true. If a boy was looking around instead of studying, he was likely to get a blow across the back with a wooden pointer (a stick that was used to point to things on the large maps and to examples on the blackboard).
Every child was taught to write. They took great pride in being able to get it as near like the copy as possible. Some did fancy writing with many flourishes. Everyone must know how to figure, must be able to figure the hay in a mow, the straw in a stack, the price of eggs at so much a dozen, butter at so much a lb., wheat at so much a bushel, how many cords of wood in a pile so many feet long and so many feet high. Everything practical that they would have to soon be using in every day living, adding, subtracting, dividing, fractions and multiplication tables.
Good reading was very important. They might read slowly. Some words might not be pronounced as we do today, but they must be able to read aloud with expression.
Spelling was the worst, but very important. There was not time in school for many of them to learn it all, but they made up for it by having spelling bees around the county. It was a great honor to be a good speller. They would have two captains who would choose sides. All would stand. Then the teacher or some capable person would take the spelling book and pronounce a word clearly, sounding every syllable to a person on first one side and then on the other. When one missed a word, he had to take his seat. The object was to see who could stand up the longest. Sometimes it was a tie. They could spell every word in the book. Often one school would compete against another. Of course they taught history, geography, grammar and diagramming sentences. Things like that, but the reading, writing and arithmetic were the ones that must be learned well.
These boys and girls knew how to use their hands as well as their heads. The boys not only learned early how to clean a stable, curry off a horse, feed pigs, milk a cow and things like that. They must learn how much feed an animal required; what to do if a horse went lame; what caused his shoulder to get sore, and what to do about it; how to hitch up a horse, single or double or sometimes a three-horse team; how to tell when an animal was sick, and how to get medicine down it. Doctors and Veterinarians were not very plentiful. People cared for their own families and stock. They could go out in the woods and get roots and bark and make very good medicine. Babies were not born in hospitals, but in their own home with a few neighbor women present. My grandmother was often called out in the night to go where someone was sick. No charge. Everyone helped their neighbors. Women could knit warm wool stockings and warm wool mittens for the family. They must know how to can fruit so it would not spoil. How to make all kinds of pickles, jams and jellies. How to sew their own clothes and make the men’s shirts. A man had to know when to plant each kind of crop, when to cut his hay, how to make the potato pit that would not let the potatoes freeze in winter. So many things to learn. One must start very young and be learning every day.
Oliver Bunce is buried in Horton cemetery in the oldest part. On his tombstone it says Died September 25th, 1879, aged 79 years 9 months.
Fred either remained in Jackson County, and married young, or came back and married. They had twin boys who died at birth. Their mother died also Fred roved around working for farmers. He later married Ella Baker. They had no children.
I forgot to mention that the boys, when little, used to go to see their grandparents. Elvira's mother was very strict. Believed the old saying that children should be seen and not heard. If the boys became too noisy, she would wrap on the floor with her cane. All noise would stop. When visiting the other grandparents they learned to swim in Crispell Lake and to fish there and in Mud Lake. One time in winter Eugene and the others were skating on Mud Lake. The ice gave way and Eugene went under. Edgar pulled him out and saved his life, or this would not be written.
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Jeremiah and his boys had to cut down trees to make them a log house and barns. They used the tree stumps to make fences. Those in Jackson County were made mostly of stones. They did not have enough stones for that on their new land. They cleared the land, planted their crops and were doing fine: until one night after a heavy meal, they all went to bed. Soon Jeremiah's breathing changed. Elvira called "Boys come down here, your father is sick". Jean and Oscar pulled on some clothes and hurried down the ladder from the loft. That big strong man was dead. They called it indigestion, because he went to bed too soon after eating a hearty meal. Now days it would be called a heart attack. He may have hurt his heart lifting on the logs to build the house or on digging and pulling out stumps. It must have been weakened and the full meal made gas which crowded the stomach and heart and caused his death. I think they buried him on his own land as often happened.
Jean took over and planted everything, telling everyone what to do. Newton was 13 years old and Dayton was 11. They all stayed together except Fred. After a while Eugene became engaged to be married. She changed her mind and married someone else. He took it pretty hard. Either she saw someone else she liked better or she didn't want to live with all his brothers and his mother. (In handwriting here- Black Hair, brown eyes)
When Eugene was 29 years old he married Rozella O Connor. She was a slender little ting who did a lot of giggling. Could not talk plainly because when she was 3 years old she was lost in the woods. She cried so much that it injured her organs of speech. She never got over it. An Aunt took her to her home near Orleans, which is not far from Belding. Not so much woods there for her to get lost again. She must have been visiting her own family near Vestaburg when Jean met and married her. He took her home to his mother. She couldn't cook and did not know much abut keeping house. Trouble soon started. Jean took his wife and went to live a little farther west. They were married in February of 1889. Loyal was born the following Nov. 21st, 1889. The next September Loyals' sister Elvira was born. About one month after I was born here in Jackson County across the road from the old Bunce homestead. House is gone and all traces of where it stood.
Men used to raise what they could during the summer. When winter came, they left their families and went farther north to work in the lumber woods. Oscar married Deliah the sister of Rozella. She could talk all right. Poor Housekeeper. Their first son Wolcott was born about the same time as Elvira. The children were double double cousins as their fathers were brothers and their mothers were sisters. Oscar had 4 sons. Eugene had 3 sons and 7 daughters. There was no resemblance between the children of the two families.
When Loyal was two years old his mother went to his grandmother and said, "Jean and I have talked it over. We have decided to give Loyal to you." The grandmother said, "I won't take him". But Eugene had always had his way. The uncles had always found fault with the way his mother cared for Loyal. Said she didn't know how to care for a baby. One of them, I think it was Dayton, said he went there one hot day in summer and she had the baby tied in his high chair, sitting out in the sun. Of course every young mother makes mistakes with her first baby. And one must remember that the sun can move rapidly. He may have been in shade when she left him or some older person had said that babies needed sunshine. Also Loyal was not yet a year old when Elvira was born. She must have been pretty busy with the two. So before Jean went to the woods to work for the winter, he took Loyal to his grandmothers and left him.
Years afterward his mother told me that his grandmother always dressed him nice She was very strict with him. Did not like him to get his clean clothes dirty. It hurt his mother to see the grandmother spank him. After Rozella had passed away Jean said to me, "I ought not to have taken Loyal away from her. It broke her heart". You see the real reason he did it was because Dayton and Newton might get married some day. Then she would have a boy or a man to look after her in her old age, which is just what did happen years later.
When Loyal was five years old his father and his uncles took up the body of Jeremiah Bunce and moved it to a cemetery beside Ferris Center Church. It was no place for a little boy. He should have been playing with other children, but they took Loyal with them. The rough box was rotting away. They wanted to put the coffin in a new box. They opened the coffin and looked down through the glass at Jeremiah He looked just as he had when buried. Loyal looked down at his grandfather who had died years before he was born.
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Eugene was always trying to show his superior knowledge. He said, "Now we will see death." He took his jackknife and made a hole in the coffin and let in the air. The face, hands, beard, clothing and even bones quickly sunk away, leaving nothing but dust. Have you read how when archeologists dig up ancient things out of the earth or take them from tombs, they must quickly put some sort of preservative on them or the same thing happens? The air causes them to crumble.
Loyal started to school when about 5 years old. Had a mile and a half to walk. See the "L" a little south and west of their home. The tiny dot near it is where Loyal was born. The church and cemetery are a little way south of the schoolhouse.
A year later when Elvira started to school, Loyal wanted to show her there was nothing to be afraid of. He sprang upon a desk and kept jumping from one desk to another down the row. I suppose the teacher soon put a stop to that.
His father used to bring him toys. His brothers and sisters had few toys. There were so many children that the father could not buy toys for all. So he bought for his lonely little boy who had no one to play with him, unless some of the cousins or a neighbor boy came. When his sisters or cousins came, they would break up his toys. He always took good care of them. He learned to hide the toys when he saw other children coming. He was not a selfish person. He just did not want his things broken. He had a little rocking chair. Richard had it when he was small. Took it with him when he got married.
Loyal was not big and rugged like his father and uncles. He had black hair, brown twinkling eyes and small bones like his mother. His dad wanted to make a man of him. He wanted to teach him to swim. Instead of going at it carefully, his father and uncles took him in a boat, out where the water was deep and threw him in. He nearly drowned. Never quite got over fear of the water. He later learned to swim a little in shallow water. Would soon turn blue and begin to shake.
None of his relatives drank, but all the men used to chew tobacco. Loyal was about 10 years old when he learned to chew. They thought they would have some fun. They made him sit on the wood box beside the stove where it was very warm. Then they gave him tobacco to chew saying "If you get sick, you are not old enough to chew. If you don't get sick, then you can have tobacco like the rest of us."
They felt sure that the heat and the tobacco together wold make him deathly ill. He did not get sick. They kept their word; from then until he was 24 years old and became a Christian, he chewed tobacco. The poison from that may have helped to keep him so small and slender.
His grandmother taught him to say The Lords' Prayer. The one found in the 6th chapter of St. Matthew beginning with the 9th verse. They always said it together at night until he was quite a big boy and she felt that he should say it alone. He told her that he didn't know it. Couldn't remember the words. She did not believe him and stopped saying the prayer with him. He really could not remember, so he did not say it anymore.
All farmer boys had to learn to hunt and fish. He was never any good at fishing. Said I never catch any fish and anyone I am with can't catch fish either. His dad was a very good fisherman, Could catch fish were no one else could. Just could not teach Loyal or did not try. Loyal learned to shoot and how to handle a gun. Newton always told him "Never bring a loaded gun into the house. Always unload it before you come in. “ One day when Newton was away, Loyal thought, "I will see if he unloads his gun as he says." So he picked up the gun and pulled the trigger. There was a loud report and a scream. His grandmother was in the kitchen and thought he had shot himself. She fainted. Loyal ran to the kitchen and saw her lying there and thought he had killed her. Newton could not scold him too much. Loyal said, "You don't do as you tell me to do."
Dayton left home and worked for farmers. The three other sons divided the farm, each taking 60 acres. Oscar kept the log house. They were all good with tools. Newton was a real carpenter. They made a house for Eugene on his land and much better house for the grandmother, Loyal and Newton on Newton’s land. The three men farmed together. They purchased farm equipment together. Would get money at the bank to pay for tools or seed. One would sign the note with another.
As soon as Loyal was old enough to help he only went to school in the winter after the fall crops were gathered in and corn husking done.
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Then as soon as it was dry enough to get into the fields in the spring, he had to quit school and work. Not much progress that way. He learned to read well, to figure some and to write. You can see in the Bible where he signed his name that he was a nice writer. Letters were plain and graceful, but he could not learn to spell. He reached the 8th grade and stuck there. Could not be in school enough to take the 8th grade examination.
His second sister Nina had red hair and a temper. She was Loyal’s favorite. Oliver died at birth. All the rest grew up. William Henry was 5 years younger than Loyal. His hair was a dark red, called chestnut. Nina came next. She and my sister Lulu were chums at one time. She was very cheerful and a nice person to be with. Ada and Alice had black hair.
By the time there was 8 or 9 children, Eugene was so deeply in debt that he felt he must leave the farm and move to Belding where the elder girls could work in the silk mills and help support the family. They couldn’t help on the farm like they could have done if they had been boys.
All the Bunce brothers had long mustaches that curled at the ends. None of them wore beards like their father. At one time Loyal had a black mustache. We used to have a picture of him in the woods. It did not look like him at all. The snap shot faded, so I no longer have it. He soon shaved it off. Did not like it at all. Had to always shave every day as he had so much thick black whiskers if he let them grow He was 5 feet 5 ½ and weighed 105 lbs. most of his adult life.
Dayton used to ridicule Jean and Rosy for having so many children. Jean used to say, “He will get it back.” When Dayton was 28 years old he married a girl of 18. Their first girl, Olive died when about a year old. Then there were Rhoda, Edna, Clifford, Iva, Doris, Delia, and Sophelia before Loyal and I were married. Seven girls and one boy. Stanley is Richards’ age. Thelma is between Richard and Verner. Dewain is a little younger than Verner. Then came twins Irma and Ina. Then Rena, then Lorain, and last of all Walter. 16 in all with 4 boys and 12 girls. Jean was happy over that.
Newton worked long hours and did not have much time to hunt for a wife. He advertised. Down in Georgia was a woman named Fanny. She was a nurse in an asylum for the insane. Not much chance to meet men. She put in her name and she and Newton began to correspond. Without even seeing each other they decided to get married. He went down there and married her and brought her home. She was a very friendly person. People liked to hear her talk the southern way. At first the women were slow to make friends. They felt she must have done something to be ashamed of to marry a man so far from home and a stranger. Her ways were so different. I time she had many friends like her daughter Annabell. At first she was very lonely.
She and Loyal always got along very well, but she and his grandmother did not understand each other. She would say, “What is this little old stuff?” The grandmother thought she was making fun of things. Did not know that was a southern expression. She wanted new furniture. One day she and Newton took the wagon and drove over to Stanton to get some. While they were gone, Oscar and Eugene took most of their mothers’ furniture and moved it into Eugene’s’ house which was empty. Their mother tried to stop them, but they thought they were protecting her. She did not have to be ridiculed by a stranger.
Eugene gave Loyal a deed to 40 acres of his land. He kept a life lease. In return Loyal was to pay off all of his fathers debts, while doing it, he had to support his grandmother, to buy stock and tools. Quite a problem and quite a load for an 18 year old boy. He did it. He paid off all of his father’s debts and took good care of his grandmother. He gave her the love he would have given to his mother. The bond between them was very close. They remained good friends with Newton and Fanny.
Loyal had no time to go any place for amusement; just the farmers’ picnic once a year and a Fourth of July celebration. He farmed with Newton and Oscar. First they would all plant Oscars’ corn, then Newtons’ and then when it was getting late, they would all plant Loyals’. When hay or oats or wheat had to be cut, it was the same. Take turns at everything. Loyals’ turn always came last. He worried a lot about his crops being behind everyone. But there was nothing he could do about it. He was not big and strong like his uncles. He did his best to keep up with them; to give them as good days’ work as they did him.
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He could not work fast. He would not last long if he did, but he worked a steady pace from daylight until dark When the work was done he was exhausted. They still had energy.
His grandmother was lonely with him in the fields all day. She wanted him to leave the farm and move to some little county town, like Riverdale and either get work in town or work for the farmers around there. He would have been glad to do so. He hated the farm life. But he couldn’t, even after he had his father’s debts all paid off. All the uncles would have made a big fuss; would have said he was not taking good care of her.
They lived rent-free on his dad’s 20 acres with the house and other buildings. In town he would have to pay rent. He could not sell his 40 because of the life lease to his folks. If he just moved away and left it, all that work would be wasted. The land was very good. Not many acres cleared, most of it woods with a little stream running through it. He liked that 40 acres. It was beautiful, but there was no prospect of his ever being able to build a house and barns on it. He felt trapped. He father should never have moved them onto his part. He should have sold all 60 of his when he moved to Belding and bought a home there. But he always thought he knew what was best for everyone else and determined they should so as he had planned. How they felt about it made no difference to him. The years slipped by.
Meanwhile I lived in Belding and worked in the red silk mill; Elvira, Nina, and Bill worked there also We became acquainted. I liked Bill very much. He was 4 years younger than I was and I gave him much sisterly advice. He was about 16 years when I first knew him. He and his mother and the younger children attended the Methodist Church and Sunday school. I was a member of that church.
One evening Elvira and Nina were being baptized in the Church of Christ. Bill and I waited for them after the service. They were so long that we decided not to wait any longer. Bill took me home. He said, “I wish you could know my brother. He is not like me. I can’t go into peoples’ houses and talk. He can go anywhere and talk to any one.” He praised him, but I was not interested I had heard them say that “Dad gave the farm to Loyal”. Dad always gave everything to Loyal. “ And things like that.
One day I was at their house and his mother said, “I wish you knew my other boy. He is on the farm.” I said, “Which one is he like?” She said, “Ada”. I liked Ada the least of any of the family. I was sure I would not like him. She had black hair. I preferred blondes, or people with red hair. His mother said, “Loyal is coming to spend Labor Day with us. I want you to be at our house for dinner Sunday to meet him. “ I went. He was shy and did not say much. After dinner the two older girls and I went for a walk. I had not said many words to Loyal.
The Belding Labor Day celebrations were held west of town in a field, which had been Spicers’ racetrack. The ground was level. There was a merry-go- round and many attractions. Loyal, Bill, Elvira and I were together most of all day I thought, “Poor bashful country kid. He doesn’t look like he had ever had a good time in his life. “ So I was nice to him and joked with him a lot and tried to make him have a good time. I thought I may never see him again so it doesn’t matter how friendly I am. That was the beginning.
Some time later, Bill and Elvira went to Vestaburg to see their grandmother. After they returned, they spent an evening at our house. Before they left Bill said, “Loyal has a birthday No. 21st. Why don’t you send him a card?” I did not want to do it. Both urged me. Bill said, You made a hit there, all right.” I sent the card, not knowing that Loyal had asked them to ask me to do it. He sent a letter thanking me for the card. He waited quite a while and then wrote again asking why I had not answered his letter. We continued to correspond.
In February on his parents’ anniversary he came to Belding and again I was invited to Sunday dinner. The next June, Elvira went to Vestaburg and cleaned house for her grandmother who was past 70 years old They asked me to stop there over July 4th, when I was coming home by train from visiting my grandmother who lived between Gladwin and Harrison. See red dot north of 6I. I went to their place. I liked the grandmother very much and she seemed to like me. On July 4th, Wolcott took Elvira in his carriage and I went with Loyal in his to a celebration at Crystal, on the lake south of Vestaburg.
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We all had a wonderful day. There were launches to take people for rides around the island. There was a moving picture and a man, who claimed to hypnotize a young woman, then his assistant would rush in and help him lay her on a couch, then leave. The man would pass his hands above the girl and her body would rise in the air until he made a motion for it to stop. She would remain motionless like floating in the air while he passed a hoop over the body to show that there was nothing holding it up. Loyal actually thought that the woman was hypnotized and floating in air with no support. I told him it was a trick. I said, "If my brother was here, he could figure out how it is done.“ When I reached home, I asked Orvil about it .He drew me a diagram showing how. I sent it to Loyal. He wrote back that I was right. The equipment for lifting her broke down The man had to set some welding done. He promised to show the welder how it was done if he would not tell any one until after he was out of town.
Another time I was at Vestaburg a few days with Minnie and Bill. Loyal used to get Oscar to do his chores while he came to Belding on the train to see his folks and see me. Every summer in Belding they had Chuataqua in a tent for a week. High Class entertainment at a reasonable price. Loyal would send his grandmother down for the week, while he cooked his own meals. She came to our house and met my folks. She and I used to have great talks together. She was a wonderful person. I was so thankful she dad had Loyal to bring up instead of his own mother He had a refinement which his folks could not gave given him.
We became engaged one Easter Sunday evening. Neither of us were ready for marriage yet. He had his grandmother to care for and I had had been helping my mother to pay for our home It was not all paid for yet. Mother was a widow and depended on our board money to help keep going. I could not desert her.
The next August at Alma, he gave me a ring. We both liked the same one. A synthetic ruby with tiny pearl around it. Twice I had to have it stretched as I grew older and my hands grew larger. Now I have lost weight and it is too large.
The next winter Loyal was determined to be a Christian, that we might have a Christian home. There were many revival services in county churches during that winter. He went to as many as he could, trying to make up his mind which was right. For a while he thought it might be the Adventist Church. Finally he decided on the Ferris Center Church of Christ.
His grandmothers’ older sister had married when young and gone to live in Chatfield, Minnesota. They had not seen each other since then. The sister invited Elvira to come and stay with her all summer. In the early spring, Loyal had an auction sale and sold everything he had. Did not sell her furniture.
He bought her a lovely navy suit and other new clothes. He bought himself a soft medium gray suit instead of the ugly cheap brown suits, which he usually wore. They packed pictures of the relatives and things she wanted her sister to see, in a trunk. Put their cloths in suitcases and took the train for Minnesota. They were to stay all summer. We were to be married when they returned in the fall. It was quite and undertaking. They had to change cars in Chicago. Loyals’ grandmother always got very sick when riding on a train. Before he left he joined the Odd Fellows so if he ran into serious trouble he could make the sign and get help. She was quite ill, but he managed to take care of her and get her safely out there.
What a disappointment. The sisters found that they were strangers. Loyal had his photograph taken to send back to me. The sister also had a grandson living with her. His name was Darrel Welch. Loyal liked the name of Darrel, but did not care much for the fellow. Loyal got a job shingling a barn. When that was done, they came back to Michigan. Neither felt welcome there. The trunk stood on the porch unopened all the time they were there. The sister was not interested. Just too old to care for such things. Past 80 years.
When they reached Jackson County, Loyal took her to see old friends. She had been back a few times with Jean. Then they came to Belding to Eugene’s house while Loyal looked for work in Belding. He wanted to get married then instead of waiting until fall. When his father learned that they did not plan to return to the farm he decided to go up there and raise chickens. To leave his family in Belding and take his mother back to keep house for him. She was so disappointed and miserable. He said his work in the hardware store had too much lifting. That his health was giving out. Ho could not take the younger children from school or the older ones from their work in the silk mill.
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Before I go on from there, I will tell you some of the reasons why I decided that Loyal was the right one for me. He always came to Vestaburg to meet the train when I went there. We visited most of his relatives. We drove to Alma and Crystal and Twin Lakes. I never once saw him strike his old slow horse with a whip. He was good to his dog and very courteous and kind to his grandmother. A man who is kind to animals, will be kind to his children. If he is kind and courteous to elderly people, he will be kind to his wife. He did not waste his money. He knew it took a lot of money to keep a home. When we visited relatives, I noticed that every man of the Bunce’s would listen when a woman was talking, and not interrupt or contradict. All except his dad. He was not good to his wife or his children. Only to Loyal and his mother and to strangers. But Loyal did not seem to be like his dad in any way. He had an old fashioned gramophone with a big horn and cylinder records. It had to be wound up, like a clock. He used to play records for me. His favorite seemed to say what he was too shy to say himself. I have never heard the song anywhere else. It went like this.

I’m looking for a sweetheart and I think you’ll do. I think you are the nicest girl I ever knew. I don’t know how I strike you. I only know I like you. I’m looking for a sweetheart and I think you’ll do.

That was sung by a man. Then another similar verse was sung in a woman’s voice. She also was looking for a sweetheart.
After we became engaged, he said it was okay with him if I went out with other boys. Sometimes I did. I always wrote and told him about it. One evening I was sitting on a bench with a fellow named Dan, in a tin little park one block south of Main Street. That park is not longer there. A fellow named Vern came along. We talked and then Dan said, “Let’s all go and have some ice cream. “ On the way to the Ice Cream Parlor we passed Loyals’ mother. Next time she was at Vestaburg she said, “I saw Lydia on the street the other night with two fellows.” Loyal said, “We should worry. “ That was a common expression at the time. He wrote me about it and said, “I knew your heart was mine.” That pleased me very much I had seen so many couple make each other miserable by jealousy and suspicion. I felt that to have a happy home, there must be complete confidence and trust as well as love. I trusted him also. He had a girl friend before he met me. A younger sister of Dayton’s wife, named Sylvia. She wanted him, but he got disgusted with her and quit. He said she always knew when he was coming; yet he often found her bare-footed. Of course, farmer girls sometimes worked barefooted in the summertime, but he thought, if she cared no more than that about her personal appearance she would make a dirty housekeeper. I think he was right. She married about the same time we did. Her first child was about two months younger than Richard was. She also named him Richard. She came to our house one day on an errand for her husband. Her Little Richard was so dirty, while my little Richard was clean.
Now I will go back to where I stopped on page 7. I went to see Loyal’s grandmother at his Dad’s home. She followed me to the door telling me how badly she felt about going back to the farm. I put my arm around her and said, “You don’t have to go. Loyal and I will be married soon and we want you with us.” Jean persuaded her that it was her duty to go with him and she did. He bought a lot of day-old chickens and raised a nice lot of white Leghorns. He did well up there, but she was never happy again. He did not treat her as kindly as Loyal had.
I had a few nice pieces of furniture which I got from being Secretary of a Larkin Club. I sold goods to the girls in the silk mill where I worked. There was a rug sale in Greenville. I wanted a 9 x 12 rug. I asked Loyal to go with me to help pick it out. We went up there on the train. There were a great many nice rugs. Some had great big red roses in them. They would not look so beautiful when soiled. There was just one rug that we both like the best. Nothing flashy. Just a plain figured dark rug that lasted for years. We always liked the same things. He had good taste.
When Loyal was looking for work, I said, “Don’t get work in the brass factory on the Buzz Plainer in Factory A.” Cora had been engaged to marry a fellow who worked in the brass factory. The dust killed him.
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He breathed the dust into his lungs It caused abscesses in the lungs. The third one killed him. The Buzz Plained was not well protected. Wages were good, but work dangerous. All his life someone told him what to do. Now for the first time he was on his own. He may have wanted to assert his independence. Or there might not have been a vacancy anywhere else at the time. He got a job in the Brass Factory grinding hinges on an emery wheel. The hinges were made in a long mold all fastened together. They had to be chopped apart and then the rough edge ground smooth. I was worried, but I kept still. That was his business.
My mother came down to Jackson and married a man named Jams Thomas on May 20th. They lived here that summer, then bought a place in Belding together. I went to our Minister to see if he could manage to marry Loyal and I on a Sunday morning. He said someone would be sure to interrupt. That people came in early to practice a song or some music. Said Saturday evening was better as we did not want anyone to know about t it except our witnesses he started to tell me how important step it was. How one should be very sure. I said if everyone was as sure as we were that they were getting the right one, there would be no divorces.
On Saturday evening May 27th 1916 we were married in the Methodist Church with just Bill Lake and my sister Lulu and the Ministers’ wife. Bill was 16 years old. He had come to Belding to stay over Decoration Day. We did not have any wedding trip at that time, but in September we came down to Jackson to see mother and James and attend the Jackson County fair. You see he had spent so much money going to Chatfield and I had gone to see my grandmother, as I always did during the June vacation at the silk mill.
Loyal liked his job. He thought it was wonderful to not have to be out at daylight, doing chores. To work a certain amount of hours and then be through for the day. I kept my job I worked an hour longer than he did. He would play ball with other young men and them come to meet me. We lived in the house that mother and I had bought together. I was buying out her share. He took some of his money from his auction sale and had a furnace put in. We had always burned coal or coak.
In August he became very ill with a sore throat. Dr. said dust from the brass. He gave him terrible yellow stuff to gargle with. I sat up with him one night to see that he had it on time. He also had to rinse his mouth with hot water before the gargle. Lulu was with us. She had her room, but took her meals at neighbors. She sat up with him one night. He was lucky to get off that easy. Then he got a job in the silk mill. The one that has a clock on it and is now used for storage.
I wrote often to his grandmother. He did not like to write. He went up on the train to see her as often as he could afford it. So was so lonely.
When Mother and James came to Belding to live, they bought the square house on Williams Street. We rented the house on May Street and lived in two rooms upstairs at Mothers’ house and took our meals with them. I was paying her by the month on the other house.
I worked until February when my grandfather passed away. I went up there and stayed with her for several weeks. We made baby clothes. Loyal had said, “I want a boy, so I can make him whistles and take him fishing”. I wanted a girl, so I could make her doll clothes and name her Anita after a girl I had loved when I was 10 years old and she 9.
Loyal was not fast enough to work in the silk mill. It was piecework. He did not do very well. He changed to Factory A and the Buzz Plainer. He had worked around machinery all his life. Had worked on corn huskers and buzzed wood every winter to last the rest of the year. He felt safe. One day he became careless. Got his hand too close. The blade sliced into all four fingers of one hand. Not toward the bone, but toward the ends. It was then we learned about healing powder The Dr. did not even wash off the blood. Just put powder on it and told him to d keep it dry. It had to be bandaged. It was quite a long time before it was back to normal.
Richard was born one Sunday evening May 6th 1917. Sometimes I get dates mixed up. I just looked at my wedding certificate to be sure. Married in 1916. I was 25 years old when married. Loyal was 26.
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The following Saturday, Loyals’ grandmother had a stroke. They sent for him. She regained consciousness. The sons hired a nurse for the grandmother. Two people had to sit up with her every night. Loyal helped the nurse in the daytime. When they saw that she might live a long time, his father and uncles told Loyal that if I would come up there and we would stay until she passed away we could have all her old furniture and everything she owned. (Just trash) Said we would not have to pay any Dr. bills or for the nurse.
Deliah would phone to farm women for miles around and get two to come and sit up every night. They would not come till late. Would leave about 4 o’clock in the morning. Loyal would have to care for his grandmother until the nurse came down in the morning. Just Practical nurses. None could stand it over a month.
I went up there when Richard was one month old. I had him to care for and meals to get for 5 adults and lunches to set out at night for those who sat up. Loyal's father stayed with us. He did the washings from the sick room. I did the rest. He tended the garden, milked two cows and tended his chickens. At night he had to sleep in the barn on the hay among the mosquitoes.
Few people live more than a few hours with this kind of stroke. The muscles constantly pull them from one side to the other. They would just get her covered up, when she would throw off the bedclothes and say, “I want to go over this way.” And over she would go in spite of all they could do. Loyal could do me for her than anyone else. She called for him all the time. He was so patient with her. Never scolded as many folks did. He would pull her up in the bed and say, “Now I will fix you up so you can go to sleep.” He would tuck in the covers and sometimes she would sleep for a while. Not long enough for any one else to get any rest.
Richard never slept in the daytime .He cried all the time unless someone was holding him. Then he wanted to laugh and play, except in the evening when he wanted me to take him upstairs to bed. I did no dare put him up there alone. He must wait until after 8 o’clock when the dishes were done and lunch set on dining room table. Loyal would take him and try to quiet him. He would continue to cry. Loyal would put him down and say, “You can cry just as well in your basket as you can in my arms. “ Then his Grandpa Bunce would take him and talk baby talk to him Richard would look in his face and listen carefully. Eugene loved him and was very proud of his first grandchild. Rozella said he never held his own children like that.
She came up there for a few days when he was 3 months old and again when he was 5 months and let me go to Belding to see my mother and my grandmother who was living there at the time. She was so good to the old lady. They had never cared much for each other, but she treated her kindly. Loyal had always called his mother Rosy, Like his uncles and father did, until after we were married. I told him she loved him and he should call her mother. He said, “She gave me away.” I said, “Your Dad made her do it. She did no want to give you up.” He began calling her Mother and she was so happy over it. Said she thought as much of me as she did any of her daughters.
People got tired of coming for the night. Loyal had to sit up about twice a week and his dad once or twice. His Dad go to so tired and nerves in such bad condition that it was best for him to go home. He scolded his mother and frightened her. The nurse heard him and told Oscar and he and Jean had words. Of course, Oscar never sat up. Said he couldn’t.
After that trouble, I said, “There will be no more nurses.” Loyal and I would take care of her daytime. Deliah, Newton, Loyal and Dayton’s wife took turns sitting up. When the men sat up, I would have to go down about twice in the night and help. In the daytime it was no more eating by herself from a tray. Loyal would put her in rocking chair and drew her to the dining room. Richard would be in his high chair and they would wave at each other. The nurses had not wanted him in the sick room. She had not seen him much. Now they became fiends She was happier that last month of life than at any time since she had gone back to the farm.
One morning, after Daytons’ wife and another woman had gone home, I said, “Loyal, she is dying.” I called Deliah several times. No answer. I called Fanny and told her. She said, “Newton has gone to the woods or a load of wood. I will tell him when he comes.” I continued to call Deliah. No answer. They were butchering hogs and another woman was there, helping. Talking and did not hear. Finally I called Fanny again She said Newton had gone back for another load Then I really told her what I thought. Her dying and Loyal in there all alone.
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That got action. She called Dayton and Oscar and sent Newton over. All got there in time except Fred and Ella. Wolcott went for them, as they had no phone. The mother said, “Loyal, put me up in the chair as you always do.” He sat her in the chair and she told them all good bye. And the long suffering was over. It was almost Christmas time. Loyal had cared for her tenderly and with great patience for over 6 months.
The war in France had started. Bill, Loyals’ brother was over there with the first division the Government was sending out questionnaires asking every man his occupation. They were putting them into 4 classifications. One would go first. 2 would be called next, then 3 and last of all the farmers were class 4. Everywhere was big banners saying, “FOOD WILL WIN THE WAR. Keep it coming.” Loyal told his draft board he would go back to Belding and be in class 1 or he would get a team and tools and stay on the farm if put into class 4. They wanted him to stay on the farm and raise all the food he could. His folks signed off on the life lease. As Loyal’ money and mine was all gone to pay nurses and we had a very big grocery bill, he mortgaged his 40 acres and bought some strong young horses and a cow and tools.
I helped all I could. I planted corn. We got it in early and then a hard rain drowned it out. We had to plant most of it over again. I planed potatoes, set up oats, picked contract cucumbers thinned and topped sugar beets, etc, Phoebe was 14 years old. She came for the summer to care for Richard. We paid her a small wage and let her have every Thursday afternoon off to visit her Aunt Deliah and her cousins.
That spring when Richard was only about a year old Loyal was dragging a field. Richard slipped across the road and was going for his Dad I started after him, then went back and got my camera Loyal shouted, “Run, your mother’s after you.” I got a picture of him in Loyals' arms. It shows part of the horses and the drag.
In spite of all our hard work, we did not raise much. Everything was a failure. No rain. Things just dried up. We barely made enough to eat. Not much toward our debt. Another year like that and we would lose everything. You see all the rain seemed to be over in Europe in the trenches. Most of America was dry, while it rained there almost constantly. They said the jar of explosives caused the rain to fall there.
That fall two of the church members of Ferris Center asked Loyal to come work for them the next spring. He would much rather have worked for the second one, but he had promised the first one and he always kept his word. Verner was born on Feb 17th. My mother came and stayed with us a month. She helped us get ready to move south of Ferris Center Church to Bill Wilsons’ tenant house. When we were ready my stepfather came and helped also. He was 70 years old on the day that he and Mother were married. His hair was white and his hands shook until he took hold of something, then he was all right. He had fought at Gettysburg and received a bayonet wound over one eye. When he recovered, he went with Custer. He was wounded in the foot. That is why he was not at Custer’s Last Stand. He read a lot. Had traveled a lot. Was very strong for his age. A real big man. He felt that he knew about everything.
He was very good to Mother and all her girls and their husbands. We liked him, but he had one bad fault. He liked to brag about his knowledge, and to make other men appear as a little dumb. He liked to tell everyone how a thing should be done. Loyal put up with it with patience. He had been taught to show respect to elderly people. He never quarreled with any one.
The men took over two wagon loads of furniture with James taking charge and telling Loyal just where each thing should be packed, etc. On the third trip Mother and I and the children went along. It was a cold windy day in March. Not much snow, but a lot of ice. Mother sat up front with Loyal. The babies and I were packed in the center in a big black leather chair (Richard may remember it) with quilts and blankets around us so we would not take cold. James was at the back, so that if a rope came loose or anything fell off, he would know it. When we reached the bottom of a long hill, with plenty of ice on it, Loyal stopped the horses to rest. Jams began telling him that he should not have stopped them when we they were going good. He should have waited until reaching the top.
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Loyal seldom became angry. That was more than he could take. He had been driving horses almost from the time he could walk. He knew just how much they could pull and when they needed a rest. He said, “Everything all right back there?” James said, “Yes”. Loyal said, “Then you take care of your end and I will take care of mine.” James saw that he had gone too far. Nothing more was said for some time, but James let up a little on the bossing. He and Mother were not getting anything for their work, except their board. Not even their train fare. So Loyal felt that he tad to take a lot.
The house was a mammoth thing. Built in the time of lumbering when people had many men boarders. The ceilings were high and the rooms large. A woman and two boys were living in part of it until spring. She was the wife of the hired man of the previous summer. When fall came, he had deserted his family. Wilsons let her remain and paid her wages to help Mrs. Wilson at housework. She was working, but had left a good fire in her living room and said the children and I cold stay by her fire while the men and mother went back for another load, as they had left our heating stove and big kitchen range until the last load. I sat in front of the fire with Verner in my arms. It grew dark. No light but the fire light. Richard was not yet 2 years old. He grew sleepy. He looked at the baby in my arms where he had always been. He shoved a chair up beside me and lay his head over on my arm and went to sleep. He was never jealous of the baby. Just called him “Little Cry: and accepted him as part of the family. I told Mr. Wilson, “Richard gets into so much mischief.” She said, “If he can get into any more mischief than Mary can, I shall enjoy watching him.” Mary was 4 years old. She would take Richard by the hand and they would tramp all over that big farm on both sides of the road. If she couldn‘t get him over a fence, she would pull him through. I think I will put the story of Richards’ early childhood by itself.
Wilson had a big mean, lazy white horse. The former hired man was afraid of him. Would whip him and not give him near enough to eat. Loyal fed him good big portions. They were pleased with that. Loyal never struck him, but he made Joe understand that he must do his part. If he lagged behind and tried to make the other horse pull the load, Loyal would say sharply, “Joe!” Just the one word spoken only once, but with authority. Joe would jump into the harness and do his part. Wilsons were so pleased. They said that never had another man who could get the work out of Joe and yet be good to him.
We had our own cow and pasture for her. Had a good big chicken coop for chickens. An old orchard for them to run in. I did well with them. We had a small fenced in garden. I always wanted it plowed early. Loyal would plow it and drag it. Then it was my responsibility. The ground was rich. I had wonderful success. Mr. Wilson would not get his in until late. I supplied them with vegetables both summers we lived there. They had another hired man who boarded with them. Also a hired girl to help with the work. They were always borrowing a loaf of my bread and paying me back with theirs, which was not nearly as good. I tried to tell them the secret of better bread but they never got it quite right. They liked mine; we did not like theirs.
We burned wood in both stoves. When our supply got low, Loyal could have the team and wagon to go over to his place and get more dry wood. We had sold our team, wagon, buggy and all tools except things like shove, rake and little things. Loyal was very handy with tools and always had a lot of them.
One day I went with Loyal after wood. Verner lay in the wagon. Richard roamed around, while loyal and I got a good load picked up. No Richard to be seen. We called and hunted everywhere No answer. You know how people will teach a small child silly things in play. Loyal had taught him to call, “Hay, Straw, Bean Pods”. It sounded so cute. When we couldn’t find him, Loyal called, “Hay, Straw” and then listened. A tiny frightened voice said, “Bean pods.” He was in the swamp, surrounded by water, standing on a small hummock of dry grass. He was not wet. Must have jumped there and then was too frightened to jump across again.
Loyal would take Richard on the riding plow with him. Richard was quite disgusted to discover that there was no place to ride on the three-horse drag.
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We remained at Wilson’s for one and a half years. Loyal began to feel that he would lie to have his own place again. He sold the 40 acres for a good price, to be paid in yearly payments. Eugene sold his 20 to another man. We purchased a small farm, north of Belding, on the county line road, on a four corners. The war was over. We stored our goods in the house and boarded with Mother and James. We had our cow and some chickens with us as they had two small stables and a small chicken-coop. Far too small. We ate chicken until we were so tired of it, trying to make room for what was left.
Loyal and I both worked in the silk mill at the end of Main Street, which is now a garment factory. I had my old job. He worked in the dye house dying skeins of silk, which would be put onto spools of thread.
In the spring we purchased a model T Ford touring car and both learned to drive. We went to the arm to live and he continued to work in the dye-house. Worked there until the depression of 29 when the silk mills closed up and never reopened.
James was a good carpenter. We remodeled the house with his help. Paid him good wages. We raised it up and put a wall under it. Dug the cellar deeper, tore off the old kitchen and put on a new kitchen, bedroom and cellar way and steps. It had been a trap door before. Put on a new roof and new siding. Loyal would paint the gable ends in the morning, night or Saturday. I had coveralls and painted all I could reach from a tall stepladder. I was afraid of the other ladders. We put new paper on every room. It was beautiful. We thought we would have a lovely home. Things did not work out.
Next winter we lived in town again and I worked. When spring came we went back to the far and I said, “I am going to have a real rest this summer.” The hard measles were going around. Richard came down with them. We had built a nice screened porch in front. I put him on a cot out there so the rest would not get it. Loyal had never had the hard measles. He came down with them and was quite ill for a while. Then, Verner broke out with measles and chicken pox together. I was just getting things back to normal when Newton and family came to visit.
He had been living in Belding for several years. Fanny had cancer. Wanted to back to Georgia to see her brothers and sister. Newton sold him home and furniture and bought a new car. But instead of taking them to Georgia at once, he went up to Vestaburg to visit all his relatives first. Annabell had measles at Oscars’. Fanny tired herself out caring for her. When she was well, they came to see us instead of going to Georgia. Then Jasp had the measles. I had all of them to cook for and did all the washing. Annabell, 14 years old, washed some dishes and did most of their ironing. Fanny got so bad I could not take care of her. She had to go to the Belding Hospital.
I wrote her sister, who was a nurse, to come. She did and took Fanny to another farmhouse and cared for her while I had the rest of the family. Newton kept saying he would pay for it all. I knew he wouldn’t. When they were ready to go, he sold his car and went on the train. I had figured up what the extra food had cost and gave Loyal the figures. But when Newton asked, “How much do I owe you?” Loyal told me, “I felt so sorry for him that I said, “Nothing.” That is the kind of person Loyal was.
Nate Palmer, Lulus husband, had lived in upper Michigan and been a guide for rich men who came to hunt. He liked to brag and tell big stories. He seemed to look down on Loyal because he did not bragging. One time Nate needed money desperately. He had no one to turn to. He came to our house and asked Loyal if he could loan him $25. Loyal did not ask any questions. He just took out his billfold and handed it to him. Nate always treated him with respect after that. They were good friends.
Bill had married. Before Fanny became so ill, all the Bunces in Belding went for a picnic at Pine Island Lake. All those who cared to do so put on their swimming suits. Bill was the only one who could really swim well. The rest just enjoyed paddling around. Loyal was standing near me with his watch in his hand. I had just finished telling Fanny how Loyal could not swim in deep water and how he would become blue and begin to shake after swimming in shallow water a few minutes. There was a long dock A little girl was swimming at the end of it. Phoebe was the first into the water. She couldn’t swim well. She went out where the little girl was, not knowing that the
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child was an expert swimmer and the water deep. Soon this child called out, “That girl is drowning!” Bill and Loyal had their bathing suits on; Bill was the closest. He ran off the dock and jumped in, while his mother called, “Get her, Billy!” Loyal dropped his watch and also ran out and jumped in. He gave Phoebe a hard shove towards Bill and then had to fight hard to get himself out of the deep water and to shore.
Bill brought her in. He was exhausted. So was Loyal. Bill thanked him for his help and said, “I would not get a good hold on her until you gave her that push. Then I had a good grip on and could pull her.” Bill was the hero. Fanny and I know that Loyal also was a hero. He had risked his life to help Bill save his sister. Bill also knew what Loyal had done. They had often been swimming together at Twin Lakes near Vestaburg. He knew Loyal’s limitations. We had 5 pear trees and one cherry tree in the back yard. Loyal had trimmed them, but had not had tome to take care of the brush before he went to work. Verner had carried some of it into the front yard close to the road. He must have had some big idea of what he was going to do. When Loyal came home and saw it, he told Verner to take it back gain. Verner refused. You don’t punish a small child who is disappointed when his plans have gone wrong. Loyal put Verner’s hands onto the brush. And held them there while he walked with him to the back yard with the brush. Verner was so indignant. He came in the house and tearfully said, “Poppa dragged your baby right along.”
Things did not work out for us on the farm. No market for the broilers in Greenville like we had at Crystal. So we sold our chickens. We had 3,000 new strawberry plants. Put straw over them, but they winter killed. Only had a few left. Those had some kind of blight.
If we had sent the boys to Belding School, while living on the farm, the tuition would have been pretty steep, as we were over the line into Montcalm County. If they attended the country school, they had a mile and a half to walk the same as Loyal and I always had. For many reasons it seemed best to sell the farm and live in town. We traded it for a house in Greenville near the factories, which we rented to a widow woman who kept boarders.
The spring that Verner was 6 and Richard 8, we purchased on a contract the house on the corner of Williams Street and North State Road. While we were waiting for their new house to be finished, so they could move, Verner became very ill. We had bought the boys new bicycles. Verner was determined to learn to ride. He had a cold. They said he would stand and cough terribly and then get on again. Loyal and I were both working.
On Saturday we took him to the Doctor telling him the child was sick because he would not eat. Would come to the table and set there, then go and lie down. Dr. could not find anything wrong. Said, “That’s a very delicate boy. Take good care of him.”
Monday morning, we called the Dr. to come to the house. Verner was really ill. He did not come until night. Verner had a fever several days. “No food”, said the Dr. He said he couldn’t do anything. It was all in the nursing. I stayed home and cared for him, doing my best to follow all of the Dr. directions. He called it Typhoid grippe.
Years later other Drs. Said there is no such thing. That it was Typhoid Fever. If the Dr. had called it that, he would have had to report it to the Health Officer and they would have had to make an investigation of the sources of food and water to see where he got the germ.
When the fever broke, he wanted food. We gave him some fish. He said, “More fish.” We gave him a little bit more and then he wanted it so badly, the third little bit. That almost killed him. The fever came back and he was more sick than before. When the fever left, he was afraid to eat. Dr. said, “Give him two tablespoons of milk every two hours.” It would take him 15 minutes for him to swallow it. He would just lay there, so still and quiet. I tried everything to get him interested in things again. No success.
Loyal had an idea. He went down town and brought back a toy monkey on a string. The string was fastened to the foot of the bed, and then to a screw in the ceiling, then down to Verner. He could pull the strings and the monkey would climb the string from the foot of the bed to the ceiling and go back again. Verner’s eyes lighted up. He began to work that string. Exercise gave him an appetite. No more trouble about eating. He was soon well again. We moved across the street from Mother. I continued to work. Next fall Loyal's Aunt Ella came to help with the housework and care for the boys. Uncle Fred
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had passed away the previous spring, after years of illness. She had no home. She was a good cook. Had never had any children. I think the boys took advantage of her. She would not tell on them for fear they would get punished. Next spring she married an old friend from near Charlotte. I worked until June. Anita arrived the next October on the 19th.
She weighed about 4 and one fourth. So tiny and brown and just the image of her dad. We began taking her to Church when she was about a month old. I would lay her on a seat and the men would gather around and look at Loyal, and then at her. So tiny and yet so much alike.
Before I was married, I had always given a tenth of my wages to the Church. After marriage, we had given generously, but not that much. Loyal began to think we should give a tenth. We did not see just how we could manage to give that much with only one of us working, but he trusted God and started giving a tenth.
Loyal still worked in the Dye house. His boss was Lou Sales. For years Sales had been coming down to the mill every morning to get the silk ready before the workers got there. He felt he was getting too old to put in so many hours. He asked Loyal to come to work 45 minutes early every morning to get silk ready. The extra money was just the amount of Loyal’s tenth. A little extra work, getting up a little earlier for both of us, but we were thankful to have that money. Sales could have asked any one of his men. He trusted Loyal, because he was dependable.
Sales had a son named Orin. He made him second boss. The men liked Sales, but not the son. He was good looking with wavy hair, of which he seemed very proud. He seemed to feel above the men because he had an education and his father had money. The men nicknamed him Cocky among themselves.
There were no beauty parlors those days. Most women had straight hair. They used curling irons, which they would heat over a lamp chimney. I had two irons to make waves, which were called marcell waves. One time Loyal’ thick soft hair was quite long and needed cutting. On Sunday, just for fun, I used the marcell irons on his hair and put a beautiful wave in it. Monday he went to work with the wave still there. Another young man also happened to have quite long hair at that time. His wife also gave him a wave that same Sunday. Each was surprised when he saw the other. Young Sales was hurt and very angry. He thought they had planned it that way to ridicule him and his pretty, wavy hair. The men all enjoyed the joke. We never tried that again.
My sisters’ husband, Robert Grow also worked there. He was stout and strong. The men worked in pairs, two men to a vat of dye. Robert and Loyal worked together. One day the boss wanted several sacks of something brought up the stairs. Each sack weighed 100 pounds. He sent the men after them. Two men would carry a sack between them. When Loyal and Robert went down, Robert grabbed a sack all by himself. Thought it would be a joke to walk up with it and Loyal following with nothing. Loyal picked up a sack and followed. Of course it was too much for a man weighing 105 lbs. But he did it and said nothing. Robert never got over telling about how Loyal carried that sack. He still thought it was a great joke.
The people of our Church elected Loyal to be Chief Elder. In the Church of Christ, they have Communion every Sunday morning. Loyal’s duty was to uncover the things on the table and to give thanks for them before handing them to the other Elders to pass to the congregation. That was very hard for him, to pray in public.
He always returned thanks at the table at home, but to give thanks for the same things every time, was not easy. He did not want to say the same words every time. The Minister gave him a little book with prayers to be used at such a time. He did not wish to read his prayer. Each week I wold take a prayer and cut it down and change a few words to make it sound natural. I would write it on paper and all week Loyal would carry it in his pocket and try to memorize it for the following Sunday.
It was quite a task for him. Not having much education, he was afraid of making mistakes, either in grammar or in pronouncing it. He did well. But they put too much on him. They said, “The chief elder was automatically the chairman of the official board.” He did not feel fitted or that either. He had a small booklet of Primary Law. He would study it carefully before each meeting to be sure of doing it correctly. He would open the meeting and get them started, then just keep still and let the rest talk things over. There is a lot to talk about in a small church where there is
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never quite enough money. Where they must decide what must be done and what they can do without. When someone would make a motion, he would put it through. They liked him because he never took sides when there was a difference of opinion. He just let them figure it out and never tried to tell them what to do No one knew how hard it was for him. How much he worried over it, or how he would get a terrible headache every time. I think it must have been high blood pressure. We didn’t know about such things then. He headaches got so bad, that he had to resign. He would have done his best on one job, but he couldn’t stand the nerve strain of both.
At one time they wanted him for Sunday school Superintendent. Could not see why he would not take it I had to tell the woman who was pushing for it, that he was tone deaf. He could not sing. He loved music, but never knew what the organ was playing or when it was time to start singing. The Superintendent must give the signal.
Then came the DEPRESSION. The President of the United States closed all banks after the Wall Street crash. Factories closed. The silk mill took all their machinery and things to some other mills in the East. No welfare like there is now. One man in Belding killed himself because he had no money to pay his board.
The widow in Greenville could not pay her rent. We had sold a small house on a contract. They could not make their payments. Our house was not paid for. We both turned in our life insurance to get enough money to finish paying for the house.
I heard two women who had money saying, “I don’t think there is anyone in this town going hungry.” I told them of a family with 3 or little girls who had nothing in the house to eat except some canned pears she had canned and some pancake flour. The man would not go to the city officials to ask for help or let his wife go. They took food and went there and convinced the man that he must have help.
The government organized something-called “P.W.A.”. Men had to work a few hours a week for the city, making curbs and gutters and such things. They received enough pay to keep their families from being hungry.
Over near Ionia, was a farmer who advertised for strawberry pickers. Loyal, Richard and I went over there. When he learned that Loyal had been a farmer, he had Loyal help him. He dismissed all his pickers except Richard and me. We went every day to pick, while Loyal helped with farm work for 10 cents an hour. One day he dug a ditch and earned 50 cents and ruined a pair of shoes costing $5.00. One day he loaded hay near woods, which shut off the breeze. It was hot. He was no longer as strong as when he had lived on a farm. Muscles had grown flabby. He was almost overcome with the heat.
When strawberry picking and haying were over, we went with Annabell and her husband with two tents, up to Hart on the Lake Michigan shore, and picked cherries. We lived in the tents and did our own cooking. Took our baths in Lake Michigan. We made good wages. Richard and Verner stayed home alone. Mother cared for Anita.
When winter came, Loyal got rid of the Ford car and got a star. He got a job cutting wood. I think it was on shares. I know he drew the wood to town in the car. Next summer Verner stayed home alone while Newton and Richard went with Loyal and I to pick cherries. No work at Hart. More people there that they could use. We had to go farther north and pick cherries with stems on them for the stores. That is slow work and poor pay. The first year we picked with the stems off for the canning factories.
After the cherries were gone, we picked gooseberries and other small fruits. They gave us some of the cherries from underneath that were to light in color to sell. We took them home and canned them. We made our gasoline expenses and our food, that was all.
When tomatoes were ripe, Loyal went with Newton, Annabell and Harvey to Ohio and picked tomatoes for the canneries. Very hard work. They lived in tents. Annabel did the cooking, while the men picked all day. They had never had such backaches in their lives as they got that summer. Did not make beside expenses. Finally, the depression was over. Loyal got work in the basket factory for $15 a week. We lived on that.
In the latter part of August or early September just before Anita’s 8th birthday,
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her grandma Bunce died suddenly of a heart attack. Eugene was heart broken. How he regretted all the harsh things he had said to her and the selfish things he had done. He had been better to her after his mother died and the girls grew up and married, but not near as good as he might have been. The girls had hated him. Now they felt sorry for him.
He came to live with us. We had just given Richard the small down stairs bedroom for his own. Now he had to let his grandfather have it while he went back upstairs into a very small room with trunks and things stored in it. He made no fuss at all. All the children welcomed the grandfather and were nice to him. One day he said something about going over home. Anita said, “This is your home.”
The girls divided the furniture and everything. He brought only his trunk and his favorite rocking chair. We papered and painted his house all through. He could not sell it. He had only a life lease. Nina had helped him to pay for it and fixed it that way. The living room and dining room were very small with a door between. We wanted an archway. Newton and Eugene made the archway. It looked all right until they turned on the lights. The living room switch was in the dining room and the dining room switch was in the living room. All plastered up. Could not be changed. He rented the house and got a small amount of old age assistance from the state. He paid us $12 a month board.
Anita was not well. Each Dr. that she had talked with was more discouraging than the last. She could not keep the medicine down. Could not keep breakfast down. Nothing in mornings except Ovaltine. That is why she doesn’t have milk now. Her system had too much of it. She would go to school two or three weeks then have bronchitis for 2 weeks. I would get her schoolbooks and teach her for a week until she caught up. Then two or three weeks of school and then bronchitis again.
That spring Dr. Van Loo told me he did not think she would ever grow up. We could not give up on her. We determined to take her to Florida for the winter. We all saved as much as we could. Verner and Richard worked all summer and gave me the money. We purchased a tiny homemade trailer for her and I to sleep in and cook in. A small tent which tied to the trailer, for Richard and Verner to sleep in. Loyal’s father wanted to go with us. The state inspector said he could not leave the state or his Old Age Assistance would stop. He felt pretty badly about that.
James passed away that spring. In another month he would have been 90 years old. Mother lived alone all summer, but her income was not large enough to buy coal and pay other expenses through the winter. She closed her home and came across the street and did the cooking and housekeeping for Loyal and his dad.
We went to Haines City. Richard drove most of the way. Verner helped. I had not driven for several years. Never drove a shift car. Not much work in Florida. I worked in the caning only a few days. Verner could not get any work. Richard did some cleaning up with live steam at night in the factory and was able to help a little. Loyal sent us all he could. Anita went to school. No bronchitis. The dry air and sunshine were so good for her bronchial tubes. Next summer Richard worked in the basket factory a little. Then he got work in the C.C.C. camp in upper Michigan. Verner worked in the onions and for farmers and again gave his money toward taking Anita to Florida. Richard sent his money to us. He was now 18 years old and Verner 17. (Note-2004- can’t quite make out the age for Richard). Still hard to find work.
Mother did not want to give up her home again. So Loyal closed our house and he and his dad went to board with mother. He took care of the furnace for her. His dad died in January. A very lonely winter for Loyal. Morris Taylor proved to be a real friend to him that winter. I have always been thankful for that. When we came home in the spring and I saw how much older Loyal looked, I thought, “I will never leave him again.” Verner had worked in a restaurant in Bradenton that winter. Anita went to school there. No illness more than a common cold. Dr. said she must not live in the trailer. Said. “That lamp is taking oxygen this child needs.” We had no electricity. I worked quite a lot that winter for others in the trailer park who were ill and there for their health.
Richard left the C.C.C. and went into the Air Force. Verner got work at Hotel Ferry in Grand Haven. I taught Anita at home all the next winter. Then the Dr. said, “I want her to go to school, but she cannot go up and down the steps over the dam or the long distance
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around the dugway. You must live on the south side of town.” So we rented our home and purchased a place on Front Street where Verner lives now. Loyal was night watchman in the basket factory. He liked the work because he did not have to hurry. They liked him, because he was dependable.
One time when he had a hard cold, there was a fire at night. He turned on the sprinkler system and then phoned the owner and his son. They came and took care of things. Loyal was working down below the fire up to his knees in water. A cold night in winter. They took him home and told him to stay. He changed his clothes and went back. He ought not to have done that. His cold grew worse. He became very ill. Dr. Price said rheumatic fever. He had told him that early in December. Had given him a treatment, which hurt badly. Now he had Dr. Duzen. He was good. Loyal suffered for weeks before he was able to walk again. His back was so stiff he could not get his arms up very high. He would go to the back door almost every day and measure by that how high his arms would go. Just kept trying.
I took a nice old lady to board 87 years old. She stayed in her room most of the time, reading. Was not sick. Just not safe for her to live alone any more. I worked at several places doing weekly cleaning. About 3 or 4 hours a day. Dr. had Loyal have his tonsils out. That didn’t help. Had his teeth out. I don’t remember when. The new lower ones did not fit very well. He was hit in the mouth by a baseball bat when 18 years old that broke off about 4 teeth on the upper jaw. He had to have them dug out and have a partial plate. It fit so well that no one could tell. But the new ones were different. Dentist had torn his jaw so badly getting the lower ones out; that there was not much left to rest the lower plate on.
The next December Richard said he would make Loyal an allotment of $50.00 a month so he could go to Florida for the winter and get his strength back. Anita and I had to carry his suitcases to the bus. He was not strong enough to carry them. I had given him some recipes of things of things to cook like rice and potato, and onion soup etc. He went to Sarasota and rented two rooms. Cooked his meals. There was a porch both front and back. He would lay on the one in the forenoon and in the other in the afternoon in the sunshine. Some days he would take a bus and go out to the beach and lie in the sand. The sunshine and salt air did a lot for him.
The Second World War had started. After he came home in the spring, Richard came home to say, “Good bye.” Verner was sent from San Francisco. He did not get home. He was in New Guinea as cook. Got tired of that and asked to be sent into the battles. Was made part of the big gun crew. Had to carry a piece of it on the March. Went from there to Helmahara and later to the Philippines. Gone almost three years.
Richard was in England, Africa, Corsica, and in Rome. He can tell you about that. Over there almost three years. My mother had cancer. I helped take care of her while Loyal and Anita helped with the housework at home, until she passed away.
Near us was a thriving grocery store kept by Clint Kern. He had chickens so he could sell fresh eggs. He asked Loyal to come and work for him for small wages. He said, “You can feed and care for the chickens. You can put cans on the shelves. Take your time. You won’t have to wait on any customers. You can work for me until you get the chance to work full time somewhere.”
That was wonderful of Clint to offer Loyal a chance like that. He had not earned any money for over a year and a half. His back and arm muscles were still somewhat stiff. Yet he needed to exercise them. He worked there a while, getting better all the while.
Then he took a job in the garment factory as a janitor. Not too much work. He could move slowly. Whatever he did he always did well. He noticed that there was o looking glass in the women’s restroom. He took an old mirror we were not using and hung it there. The women thought that was wonderful.
When cold weather came, he felt that he must go back to Florida again and keep away from the cold or he might lose all he had gained. He and Newton went to Haines City Florida. Did some carpentry work until there was an opening in the canning factory.
After he left I got a job in the garment factory. The girl next to me did not know that I was Loyal’s wife. She told me what a wonderful
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janitor they had had. How he kept the rest rooms cleaner than it had ever been before and how he had put up a looking glass for them. He said he would send them a crate of oranges. One day the crate came. The men divided it and put some on each woman’s sewing machine. I refused mine; told them he had also sent me a crate. They still insisted that I have my share, I gave them away. When he came back in the spring, he got a job in the same factory, but working for a different company. He worked from 2 o’clock in the afternoon until 10 o’clock at night, shoveling coal to keep the boiler running and after the workers went home, he had to go through the entire building once every hour to see that everything was alright. He liked the job, liked being his own boss. No one there to watch him. Could move slowly and rest when he felt it was necessary.
The boys came home from the war. Both married. His hair was thin and there was a bald spot on top. He had grown older since his long illness. He began to feel so tired out all the time that he thought he should go south once more. We had sold our car. We bought a house trailer. Verner took his car and took us to Texas. The men thought they could get work down there. They could not. When Verner’s money gave out, he and Mable and Gary, who was a year old, had to move into the small trailer with us. We were quite crowded. Sometimes Loyal would say to me, “I am not getting rested.” We cold not go home until March. A farmer had taken Loyals’ job to hold for him until spring. We had rented our home furnished for the winter. We had to stay.
He took cold and began to cough. We came back and he went back to work. The cough continued. I painted the trailer inside and out. We planned to sell it. There were 5 little children living near us whose parents both worked. No one to look after the children. They roamed all over the neighborhood. People hated to see them coming, would tell them to move on. Sometimes another brother and sister, who did have a good home, would be with the neglected children, making 7 in all.
Loyal would sit out on the porch in the sun when not working. He never told the children to move on. He talked to them and gained their confidence. They brought him their report cards. They knew he would be interested. One day I found marks all over the side of the trailer in the fresh paint. I knew one of the little ones had done it. I said, “Shall I speak to them, or will you?” He said, “I will talk with them.” I knew he could do it without getting mad. I couldn’t. That was his last talk with them.
His cough had been getting worse. I tried to get him to go see a Dr. He did not want to go. He said, “I am afraid he will tell me I can never work again.” He had not been to church in a long time. Something had gone wrong in our church. It seemed best for us to drop out for a while. We always meant to go back, but the longer we stayed away, the harder it seemed to go back. We made the biggest mistake of our lives when we quit going. We should have stayed and helped straighten out the mess that things were in, or else have began at once to attend somewhere else.
Church members must work closely together and as they are so different in background education and their ways of doing things and looking at things, sometimes there is friction. Some people find it difficult to work with some others. Some folks are too sensitive and get their feelings hurt when no one meant to hurt them. At other times there are misunderstandings which should be talked out. The surprising thing is not that Christian people have differences, but that it does not occur more frequently. People need to do a lot of praying for their church and for each other to keep things running smoothly. Things that looked so big then look smaller now. I have always been sorry we quit going, although at the time it seemed the only thing to do. We always planned to go back. Then Loyal got work where he had to work 7 nights a week and sleep forenoons. Then came his illness, then mother’s illness. Just one thing after another. So hard to get started, after once you have stopped. I don’t say we were not Christians when not going to church. We were just not very good Christians, because we were not doing our part. When he was in Florida, Anita and I began attending the Methodist Church. On Father’s Day, I tried to get him to go to church
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with me. He said, “I can’t put a lot of clothes on. I can’t breath.” Early on the morning of July 1st, 1947 he passed away in his sleep, aged 57 years. Richard came. I told the undertaker about those 7 little children. He arranged a time for us to bring them to the Funeral Home. When told that Loyal was dead, the youngest little boy said, “I can’t believe it.” We asked their parents if we could take them. They consented. Richard picked them up in his car. I had never seen the 5 clean before. They were very quiet in the Funeral Home. I held up the smallest one so he could get a good look. The undertaker said to me, “They will never forget it.” They knew they had lost a friend.
There are a few other things, which I have left out which I wanted to tell. How when Bill lost his health and went to the Veterans’ Hospital in Chicago, they said he had a tumor on the brain. They would not operate. Just kept him there, month after month, doing nothing. Loyal gave his father money to go get Bill. When he said, “I have come to take you home.” Bill said, “Dad, they won’t let me go.” His dad said, “We will just take your clothes and walk out.” They did.
Bill and Rena and their baby lived in rooms over a store for a while. The American Legion wanted him to go to Detroit to the Henry Ford Hospital for an operation. Bill did not want to go. He said, “If I could have just one summer here with Rena and the baby.” He knew it must be done soon or it would be too late. He went. Rena and the year old baby went along. She had a room in the hospital next to his. The operation was not a success. Too late. It was all through the brain and they could not get it.
Rena phoned to Loyal at the factory and asked him to come. I did not want to go as both our boys had bad colds. Loyal said, “You are going.” We just had time to catch the train, left our car there with keys in it for Robert Grow to take home. Reached Detroit at 12 midnight. No one to meet us. Rena had met an earlier train and went back discouraged and blue. She was so relieved when we walked into her room. We had taken a taxi. She did not want us to leave her. She curled up with the baby in the baby bed. Loyal and I lay down on her single bed; all of us fully dressed.
Next morning while we were getting our breakfast, Bill passed away. Rena and a nurse and a Dr. with him. Bill had told Rena, “If anything happens, don’t let Dad take me to Vestaburg.” That would be the family lot where his sister Elvira and his little brother Oliver were buried. We came home on the train with Rena, and Loyal made all the funeral arrangements, just the way she wanted them. We took her to our house on the farm with us until after the funeral. I don’t see her very often, but whenever I do she mentions that time and says, “I’ll never forget how you and Loyal came to Detroit when Bill died. Don’t know what I would have done if you had not come.”
Loyal would have made a good carpenter. During the Depression, he took out a partition in our home, moved the stairway so it went up from the dining room instead of the front hall. Put the partition back and made the living room about three feet longer by doing away with the hall. Then we closed the folding doors and shut off the living room two winters to save fuel. He liked good clean fun as well as anyone. One Halloween time, the adults of our church were invited to a masquerade party out in the country. He and I did not go into the house at the same time so people would not know who we were. I kept looking for him. He did not come. Another woman was also looking for her husband. There were two fellows dressed in black robes standing near. We did not recognize them.
Loyal and his friend Sam had planned that they would not wear the clothes their wives had selected. They had the black robes hidden and changed after reaching there and were among us all the time.
Another year Dr. Ray Price and wife invited the adults of the church to a Halloween party in their barn. Loyal and I went dressed as witches with black pointed caps that covered the hair. We both had black gloves. He was wearing the shoes of my niece Viola. He feet were so little that he could not wear my shoes.
Richard had just learned to drive. He took us almost there and let us walk the rest of the way so no one would see our car. After a while someone guessed
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who I was. No one could tell who he was. With his little high-healed shoes, no one thought of him being a man. Once Mrs. Price grabbed him and said, “Give Momma a kiss.” Even then he did not speak or laugh to give himself away.
Bill is buried at Otisco cemetery west of Belding, aged 27. By his side is his son. First called Orville William and then his named changed to William Orville after Bill was gone.
In the cemetery at Ferris Center Church, near the Church and west of the tool shed are Oscar and Deliah. Newton is buried on their lot. Fanny in Georgia. Up on the hill in one lot are Jeremiah Bunce and his wife Elvira. In the next lot is Eugene and Rozella Bunce with little Oliver and Loyal’s sister Elvira, who died when she was 26. A little further north is Dayton and his little daughter Olive. I forgot to say that Fred and Ella are buried on the lot with Jeremiah and wife.
Loyal’s sister Nina lives in Fruita Colorado. I write her about two or three times a year. Her hands are too crippled to write back. Her husband usually writes. If she writes, neither Anita or I can read it.
Minnie lives at Morgan Mills west of Greenville. Has a trailer camp beside a lake. Ada is dead. Her husband has a small house at Morgan Mills. His sons and grandchildren visit him. His daughter lives in Lansing. Very poor health. No children.
Alice is dead. Left two sons and a daughter named Rozella. Phoebe lives in Greenville. Had one son Morise. Her husband is retired. She still works in the factory. Estella lives in Grand Rapids. Her husband has made good as a real estate salesman.
I will close this with a verse from another favorite record of Loyals’.

In the daylight, in the darkness, in the sunshine and the rain, When the fields are bright with clover, and the birds come back again, I will love you just the same dear, whether skies be dark or blue, In the sunshine, in the shadow, I’ll be true to you.

I will put the story of Richard on another sheet.
Can you see Loyal now. Dark hair. Dark sparkling eyes. Good honest, kind dependable. Seldom angry. Never told dirty stories or swore. Never did anything spectacular. Just carried a heavy load and did the best he could do and was cheerful.