Hanna
Bertha Prusse Hasler 1908-1969
bio by her Sister Eveline Karla Prusse Merkley
MY SISTER HANNA
Please first see some pictures of Hanna and Eveline through out their lives to give some context to the biography that follows. (by Hanna's son and Eveline's nephew, Fritz)
Hanna, Eveline, Hannover, 1911.
Hanna and Eveline Prusse , two little German girls, inseparable as children and lifelong best friends
This the only other picture we have of Hanna from her birthplace in Hanover Germany with her sister Eveline not quite 16 months younger when the two of them were about 4 and 3 respectively.
Hanna, Eveline, SS Cassel, April 1913
Two little blond girls beginning the grand adventure. On the ship SS Cassel coming to America
(with other children)
Hanna and Eveline, Salt Lake City, 1914
Hanna 6 and Eveline 5 the two eldest of now six children: The new Americans in first grade and kindergarten learning English
Hanna and Eveline, Provo, 1928
Hanna 20 and Eveline 19, the eldest of 13 children.
Eveline (top right) bridesmaid at Hanna's wedding, Provo, 1932
Prusse Marrieds, Provo, 1937
Hanna and Art Hasler (right) Eveline and Harold Merkley the first of the 12 Prusse children are now married.
Prusse girls, Provo, 1954
Hanna with red corsage and Eveline Center
Prusse Women, Granny's Funeral, Provo, 1962
Hanna and Eveline on left. This may be the last time they were together. Hanna would be dead of cancer in 1969. Eveline lived almost another 30 years, she died in 1998
Read about Hanna and Eveline's childhood below. As adults they thought nothing of driving the 2200 miles from Yorktown Virginia to Provo Utah .in the days before freeways, to be together
Hanna, Eveline, SS Cassel, April 1913
Two little blond girls beginning the grand adventure. On the ship SS Cassel coming to America
(with other children)
Hanna and Eveline, Salt Lake City, 1914
Hanna 6 and Eveline 5 the two eldest of now six children: The new Americans in first grade and kindergarten learning English
Hanna and Eveline, Provo, 1928
Hanna 20 and Eveline 19, the eldest of 13 children.
Eveline (top right) bridesmaid at Hanna's wedding, Provo, 1932
Prusse Marrieds, Provo, 1937
Hanna and Art Hasler (right) Eveline and Harold Merkley the first of the 12 Prusse children are now married.
Prusse girls, Provo, 1954
Hanna with red corsage and Eveline Center
Prusse Women, Granny's Funeral, Provo, 1962
Hanna and Eveline on left. This may be the last time they were together. Hanna would be dead of cancer in 1969. Eveline lived almost another 30 years, she died in 1998
Read about Hanna and Eveline's childhood below. As adults they thought nothing of driving the 2200 miles from Yorktown Virginia to Provo Utah .in the days before freeways, to be together
MY SISTER HANNA
bio by
Eveline
I remember knowing
that I had a
sister
Hanna at about the age of 5. At that time we were
living
at 642 Hollywood Avenue.,
Salt Lake City,
Utah, the year being 1915 and Hannna was 61/2 years old, Hanna went to the Hawthorne School to Kindergarten at
the
age of 5 years, four months
after arriving in
the Uni.ted
States
from Germany.
Hannah Bertha Pruesse
was born on May 22, 1808 at Hannover, Germany, the first child and daughter of
Wilhelm Henry Prusse and Johanna Caroline Conradi
Prusse, Hanna
had several ways of spelling her name.
First it was the original Hanna Bertha Prusse, then the last name went to
Pruesse and the "h" was dropped from Hannah, After that she never used the "H" again and the last name went back to the original
Prusse, which was Dad's way of spelling it.
Hanna lived in Germany
until April 1913 at which time the family immigrated to the Uni.ted
States. Passage to America was on the ship S.S. Bremen and it left from Bremen Haven, Germany. The voyage was of six weeks'
duration, landing in Galveston, Texas on Hanna's 5th birthday May 22, 1913. The journey was completed by train to Salt Lake City, Utah. I asked my Father why he did this and his reply was that he felt with five children
and the baby being seven
weeks old
it was best to take the long ship ride.
The ship was in port in
Baltimore for several
days and Dad took a
trip
into the City of Baltimore at that time. The ship then sailed to
the final landing
in Galveston, Texas,
Some of the things I remember
Hanna and I doing together as
little
girls were our play dinners together,
making doll clothes by the hours and
we would fill the big tin bath tub in the mornings on warm summer days so we could take a shower bath as we called it, and slide down into the tub, We
had large empty fields from
our house to Sixth East and there we had Bessie the cow, Nellie the
horse and
Sukie the calf staked
out. We picked dandelions and made chains out
of the stems and also braided
them into crowns. After a
rainstorm, Hanna and I
looked for mushrooms
for our Mamma and then we would help to lay them out so
they would dry and then they were stored in a nice clean small cake flour sack to be ready for Mamma to use for gravy and meat seasoning,
Hanna and I always slept together.
We walked to school together and we
played together and worked together. I do not
remember that we ever had a
quarrel. I remember well walking
together to Sunday School at the Waterloo Ward. We also went to Religion Class and to Primary. It was quite a walk
there and in the winter there were huge drifts of snow. Snow boots or galoshes had not
been invented at
this
time and we
wore high-top shoes which came about 2 to 3 inches above our ankles, These were either laced or had buttons on the sides of the shoes. As we walked along in the snow,
a buildup on our heels of ice and snow accumulated and it was such fun to have "high heels" on as we called it.
Since we had cows on
the place, there
also happened to he extra milk and our Mamma had a customer and we were the delivery girls. It was an old woman
and her daughter who lived across the street
and about three houses up
from
us on Hollywood Avenue.
We always delivered the milk at
night
and we just loved to stay and hear them talk. We had been warned not to stay late, hut as I recall
one night it could have been around 9:30
when
we came home and all the lights were out and the door was locked. Scared we
were,
but Hanna came to
the rescue and her idea was to lift the screen
out of the kitchen
window and climb in. Well, this we did and there stood our Mamma. Hanna had the money for the month's milk and she handed that in
first
but our Mamma was mad, We had stayed way too late on that trip. Another time, this being Halloween, we
went to de liver the milk and
when
we got back Dad had hidden a lighted jack-o-lantern in the bushes and we
were scared, but also delighted
with the surprise.
Our Dad was the one who cut out the pumpkin face for us.
We had a huge back yard that had chickens, ducks, a pig, cows,
a horse named
Nellie and we
used to ride her occasionally. We had a large wooden barn where the animals were kept, that is, the horse and cows.
This barn was large and had a large hayloft in the top of it. We
occasionally played in the hayloft
and one year
Hanna and I found the Christmas tree hidden there to our utter dismay for we were so
sure that Santa brought the tree fully decorated with lights and all and
the lights were real burning candles. There was also another barn-like building
with a flat roof on a slant where the surrey and the one-seater buggy, plus the old bob sleigh were kept, On the opposite side of the barn yard was
the large chicken house, a chicken yard on one side and a smaller one where the pig was kept and where
also the chickens
and ducks could go. Through this a
small
stream ran which then went to the garden area. We had mulberry trees in
the large chicken yard and there we often played house by
sweeping our rooms in
the dirt and we served our play dinners there and mulberries often were part of the dinners. The chickens also ate the mulberries. The stream that flowed through
the small chicken
yard only flowed occasionally, like when it was our turn to use it for watering the garden, so
we had to carry water to the chickens, pigs,
ducks and cows and horse, We did this as we grew older,
There was also a
coa shed on the alley side of the lot and an outside privy that stood next to the coal shed. Dad also kept many of his big tools in the big barn.
Our house was an all wooden one and painted white. There were five rooms and a bathroom. Dad put on a bedroom and took part of a hall and the kitchen to
make the new bathroom. We had a front porch and a back porch which
were screened in. As you left the back-porch door there was a large dirt cellar to the right and on the left were quite a few fruit trees. A large Bartlett pear tree stood
right by the back door to the left and
the
tree stands there today. We also had cherry, apricot and apple trees as far as
I can remember.
The cellar had a dirt floor with a dirt roof. This was an "A" shaped affair and then there were planks down the middle
of it for a
path
and planked wide shelves were on each side which held the bottled fruit and ever so
many
things, as potatoes,
apples, sauerkraut, eggs in
lime
water were kept and used
for
cooking as eggs were expensive in the winter
and the chickens did not lay so many. Hanna and I used to
carry many things for
our Mamma to that cellar.
Our two brothers, Erich and Alfred, also played with us. Just how large they figured in
Hanna's life I do not know. I
remember them as little boys,
especially Erich, but as I recalled they played together
most of the time and Hanna
and I played together.
When the Waterloo Ward was divided we were
placed
in the Wells Ward and
we went to an old large house on
21st
South and 5th East for our Sunday School
and all our meetings until the Wells Ward Recreation Hall, was completed.
We were in a special program in Primary in the new ward, also Erich and Alfred. This was so important to both of us and
we never missed practice,
we really liked
it.
Also the school boundaries were
changed and we had to leave the Hawthorne School on Seventh East and 17th South
and go to the new part of
the
Forrest School. This was in 1916 when Hanna was 8 years old and she stayed there until we
moved
to Provo in 1920. She finished
the 6th grade at
the
Forrest School, which
was on the corner of 9th East and 21st South. Hanna also played on the baseball team there. We used to walk to school together
each day and always took our lunch in a brown bag. We were often late for school. I well remember once when the principal called
us both in to explain our frequent
tardiness and Hanna explained
our Mother had a big family and
she couldn't get us all off.
As for the real reason I
do not recall.
A few of the things that
we did together and also with the boys, Erich
and Alfred, were to gather leaves in
the fall.
Hanna and I did it together at first, then as the boys grew older they helped. There were huge Poplar trees in front of
the house and also some in the back alley.
There were so many leaves that they were
more than ankle deep on us. Our Dad had gunny sacks and
plenty
of them and it was our job to fill them and
stack them in the barn to be used in
place
of straw for the cows and the
horse. Then in the spring or
nearly
all the time when it was possible the manure was put onto the land for
fertilization. I remember counting
the sacks once and we got to 50 and still we kept right
on collecting leaves.
This was done each fall as long as we lived in Salt
Lake
and we had cows up until we moved to Provo.
Another job we had was to collect all
the shoes in
the house each Saturday
afternoon and polish them all and
get ready for Sunday. The shoe cleaning and polishing was passed on
to the younger ones right along for many many years. Dad did all the shoe repairing as well as hair cutting and he sharpened all the tools and knives around
the place. Hanna and
I had long hair and we did not come under
the hair cutting regime. The boys were usually cut baldy in the summer time. An other job we had was to scrub the outside privy each week,
It was a two-hole
affair and there was a small box of lime that was used frequently. Also we had to cut newspaper each week for toilet paper use. The old Montgomery Catalogues were also there to be used as
well as a wonderful book to
look
at while at the privy.
Our Mother used to go to the Farmers' Market
downtown occasionally and once in a while we would get to go with her. She would hitch up Nellie the horse to the two seater, that had a fair amount of space in
the back for boxes and
the
produce she would bring home.
Now when you think of our Mother who was a city girl, so to speak, from Hannover, Germany
and who had not even seen or been on a farm or had
never
even lived in
a house that had a garden you can imagine what
a change this was for her. She was an excellent student and especially in grammar. She learned as
her trade to become a housekeeper and a clerk in a bakery where she met
Dad. Now the housekeeping was done at the home of
a Pastor of the Lutheran Church of which she was a member.
This I attribute to
her
good sense in cooking as
she did some real good cooking
and knew how to run a house efficiently.
Also after
they were married
Dad purchased a bakery and she worked in this besides
running her own home and having one child after
another. She was the one that got up at 5
o'clock in the morning and delivered the early morning
fresh breakfast rolls up the many flights of
stairs
in the apartment houses. She was a busy, busy
Mother and I would say easily never complaining.
On the other hand, Dad was also more or less a
city
boy though he was born and raised in a small suburb out of Hannover. Having lost both parents at an early age he lived with an Aunt who used the money, which
was left to rear the three brothers,
for partly her own use.
You can see why at an early age Dad was on his own and went to a Bakers School; and, of course, he
had to serve in the Army as well as
that
was absolutely compulsory for all German men. Where and how he obtained his knowledge of
doing
such a variety of things is rather amazing. He worked hard and night labor always. He always dug the entire huge garden with
a spade under his own power. That was a tremendous job and I remember he had a
pair
of Dutch wooden shoes that he wore
when he spaded the garden. He did all the work around the yard, except for what
little we all did and that was done in a child-like manner.
Back to the trip to
the
Farmers' Market which she usually
did as Dad was at
work and she would leave by 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning. We lived just two blocks from 21st South between
6th and 7th East, 642 Hollywood Avenue. The Market was on
1st West between 5th and 4th South. Now that was a jaunt. I re
member going with her several times and once she forgot to put her potatoes in
the buggy and didn't miss them until she got home. All the way back she went
with undying faith that they would
be there--but no potatoes and she had to buy more and that was real hard on her. This one time she went on a Saturday morning and Hanna decided
that we would clean up the whole
house to surprise her. We were little girls, around 7
and 8 years. We were so excited to have her come back home to find it
all cleaned up. Oh she was surprised and pleased and as a wonderful reward our Dad
took
Hanna and myself to Saltair, our first trip there, on the following Saturday.
My what a time we had. We
rode the street car to where the Saltair
open trains were
waiting. What a
thrill to ride the open trains and then to see the big water, the huge
pavilion and that rolly coaster, we had never seen such things.
People were out bathing. There was a merry-go-round and
that
we knew as Liberty Park had one of those. Dad was a good shot and
he tried his luck at shooting the ducks as they came around and around. He won and got a big beautiful tin butterfly that had a
stick
in the middle of the back and as
you pushed it those wings did move. It was a sensation with us.
We never did forget Saltair.
Another highlight
was when Dad had one of his butcher
friends come and kill
one of the pigs that we
had at the
time. This was done in the fall time of the year as we had no refrigeration and this was a real
problem at this time in our lives. The butcher stayed nearly all night and worked to make sausages,
bacon slabs and the meat was all cut up and then Dad took it
down
to a smokehouse to have it further treated. Then Mamma had the job of frying out the fat and this was the lard and Hanna and I were the watchers to see that it did not burn.
We also had an
early
washing machine that had a stick on the wheel
and this had to be pushed back and forth to swish the clothes
around, Now Hanna and I would take turns to do this and we each would
count so many times and then we would change off. We were both taught at an early age, either 8
or 9 years, how to mend
stockings. I remember well this was at Papa's insistence.
I vividly remember that we sat outside under a
tree
on a summer day and were taught the fine art of mending socks.
When Mamma went to town we were always the baby watchers.
I never remember of ever having anyone come in, We always did it. Mamma would
bring us a treat
from town once in a while. One
time
she brought us
each
a tatting shuttle but we
never learned how to tat. Mamma did not know that either, so I guess that was
the reason why. Mamma did much of the sewing of small
things and oceans of mending all the time.
She was very good at crocheting and
later
in life did some knitting too. Her work
was very neat and even as
a small child her Samplers made at school were beautifully done.
We also had a dressmaker come to our house about once a
year and this usually took place before school started.
Her name was Sister or Schwester Crane
as it was said in
German. She was very short, the frumpy dumpy type and worst of all she had a
huge
sore on her leg.
Just what this sore was all
about
we never did know but I remember Hanna and I going out to the pasture to collect a
certain kind of leaf daily for her to put on this sore. I never remember her getting over this as she came for several years and we always hunted
for the leaves.
Well, she always made us each a
dress
for school or
for best.
Sometimes it was made of new cloth and sometimes it was made over from one of Mamma's. This was a real event in our lives.
She would,
stay for a week and then Pappa would take
her back to her little home on the west side of Salt Lake and of
course
it was in the little buggy.
She did a lot of sewing for all the children and for Mamma too. Our Mamma was too busy to
make everything and she was always in the stage of having another child.
Hanna and I
did a lot of baby watching too. We had to help her a
lot
with little things around the house.
We just naturally accepted this and as far
as I can remember we did not complain. Bragging on ourselves probably.
We both were just either naturally obedient
or we just knew that we had to obey.
Another great event was always Easter and the finding
of the eggs that the Easter Bunny had left for us.
They were all over the yard and what fun we
had finding them. Then even bigger was St. Nicholas time that started
on December 7th, the first day and I believe it
is supposed to be just for one day but not at our house. It was done up to a
few
days before Christmas. You would put salt in a saucer and this was placed in front of the window
on the kitchen table and in the morning there
would be some
goodie for us and the salt
would be gone. Once in a while nothing would be left and once one of the boys got a piece of coal much to his sorrow.
It was great fun and magic to us.
Then Christmas, what a magic time for
us. Mamma had all the old German
customs plus the German Christmas songs. We always had a most beautiful
tree and when we would get up it would be
all
aglow with the candles
burning. What a sight and to think that this came down the chimney
or through the door at our house,
we had no fireplace.
It was absolutely magic of all magics. We both loved our dollies and I remember well our baby dolls.
The only difference was the color of ribbon on the clothes. If Christmas came on a Sunday, those dolls went to Sunday School with us. We sang many
of the Christmas
songs in German
and of course we were
learning them in English too. Now when Hanna learned
at school that there was no Santa she had to
tell
me. We shared all our secrets
together. She had more to tell than I did. It must have been at ages 8 and 9 that we learned this. We heard Dad say to Mamma, "It's 4 o'clock again
and they will soon be up. We must get to bed." Well Hanna said, "See
I told you they are Santa." We both had a real let down but we had the good sense not to tell
the boys.
Another high light was the German Christmas
party held in
the
Granite Stake House. A big Christmas tree, program
and gifts for all the children. No Santa at that affair. We never saw such a
thing
around. He came on Christmas night and we believed it
all and it was great.
We had a friend named Aileen
Jukes and she lived on the corner
of Hollywood Avenue. and
7th East. he often played with us. In 1917 at the height of the flu epidemic her Mother died and this was a great shock to us both. This seems to have been when we first came to really know death as it was somebody we knew. We were both wearing
white masks to school and also
Sunday
School. Then everything was closed down as it got worse.
In those days when someone died they would put a bouquet of
flowers on the door.
There was one on the Jukes' home and
believe you me we saw many
of them on homes and as little girls we were frightened. Also in those days when anyone
had a communicable disease
a sign was put on our houses and then it
had to stay up for about 21
days. I remember well when we had a
measles sign on the house.
A real summer highlight for us both was to walk to Liberty Park, going on
6th East as
there
was an entrance there. Here we joined in
Summer
Children’s Story Hour, played games and then later we were allowed
to go swimming. You could not go swimming unless you had participated in the Story Hour.
We did this fairly often. Hanna also played catcher
on the Forrest
School girls' baseball team. I do not remember this too well, but Erich certainly
did. Forrest school that year won first in all the city schools. By now Hanna was in the 6th grade and Iwas in the 4th grade. She had girl friends
at school but I
do not remember any girls coming to
our place except Aileen Jukes and a girl
from across the street named Verda who had a
large
goiter. She had an operation that year and died from it. This was also a
shock
to us. Then there were Helen and Norma Druke and they lived at
1905 Lake Street,
just about 3blocks
from us, but it
did seem much further away to me.
They were friends of the folks, the parents
were, and we did go up and
play
on rare occasions.
I remember no other girls that came. We had enough children
to play with all the time and then we were kept busy helping our Mother. Later when we
moved
to Provo Aileen came and stayed
for a week and this I never did forget. Hanna and I later on
in our lives did come to Salt
Lake
and stayed with the Drukes for a
visit
and that was something wonderful. We also exchanged Christmas gifts
while we were in Junior High School and
that
was so exciting to
us. We were in Provo when that happened.
Another one of Hanna's plans for the summer was that we all cut lawns. There were several of
us at this time and a
boy named Roy. Erich and Alfred were in on this too. We were saving the money
to have a real outing. Well, when the day finally arrived
for the big event somebody got hurt and we ended up by us all going to the
show and
when we came out, there was a bakery next door and Hanna bought a
cake
and the lady cut it for us and we
all had a piece and that was how we spent our summer's earnings from lawn cutting. The cake was a jelly roll. We did go to a few shows, such as
Tom
Mix and Pearl White, but believe you me they were few and far, far between. Hanna was usually
the instigator and I always went along with her.
Another real early memory was when we had a
terrible lightning and thunderstorm.
By now there were so many children
a bed was up
in the front room. We were both awakened and dressed and sat on the front porch on Pappa's lap and he kept us
calm
and Mamma had blankets
ready to grab the rest of
the
children and we were both instructed to
stay
together and walk off the porch, while they each
handled the little ones as they thought
for sure the house would be hit. It was an absolute terrific storm
and to this day. I shudder when it thunders and the lightning is bad.
In the winter papa had a
Bobsled. Now it seems that the
winters were much more severe than they are now, which
was entirely true.
Dad would hitch Nellie to the sleigh, put straw in it and we would have blankets over the straw or leaves usually and then we would sit around the sled with blankets over us and then
usually it was off to Sugarhouse that we
would
go. In those days 21st South
was just a dirt road and there was lots of snow and the streets were not
scraped in any fashion at all. It
seems
like the streetcars had snow scrapers
on the front
of each one and the scrapers would push the snow aside. It was a sort of an "A" line scraper attached to the front of the car. I also remember after a
huge storm a man on an "A" shaped ·plow,
all wood with a raised seat,
and of course horse drawn,
would come down the sidewalks of the streets and that was the snowplough job. Most of the time there
were no sidewalks but they would plough a walk. We had a concrete walk after a bit but
I do remember when it was all dirt. Hanna and I ran off to a fire which
was on 5th
East,
just about three houses
down from 21st South and across from the Catholic
Orphanage, This was on a Saturday afternoon.
There were no paved sidewalks and we were barefooted and it was
hot and the dirt was hot
on our tender feet as we
did not go barefooted too often. We had a glorious time at the fire and I remember they had carried out
a lot of clothes and had them strung on
hangers on a rope, I
didn't
know people had so
many clothes,
The Mother of the house was crying
and she said that they had just
gotten
through cleaning the house
for' Sunday and here it burned down. Well, coming home we decided to wade in
the
ditch to keep our feet cool and I managed to
get a nice piece of glass in my foot on
the side,
Well Hanna got me home all
right and Dad had to buy an extra pair of pliers to
put
it out. This was done after a week's treatment
of home remedies and the glass did not come out on its own.
Our Surrey
with the fringe on top was truly a Sunday affair. It had two seats and we all piled in it and off we would go
to the Cannon Ward on 8th West. This was between 21st and 17th South, The
families we would visit were the
Stuhff's and the Wagner's. These families came to America about the same time
our folks came and they knew each other in Germany. The Lasrich's came on the boat and they were a young married
couple. Mr. Lasrich used to help Mamma a
great deal with the five children coming across the ocean and we were on the ocean for six weeks. The Stuhff's had several children,
but best of all they
owned the Canon Ward Grocery Store. The treats we got out of that store I re member to
this
day and they were carefully saved and then we took them in our lunch to school the next day, Hanna and I
both thought
those treats were very
special. We were also given bananas and oranges, my
what
a treat. After visit ing with them for a while we then got in the surrey and off to visit the Wagner's who lived across the Jordan River. Now there was no bridge, just a
foot
bridge, so we were let out and walked across
or we stayed in the buggy and put our feet way up and then down through the river we would go and the water would come up over the floor of
the buggy.
Well, that was fun for us and then a bit scary too.
In the winter we loved to follow the snowplow
man but in the summer it was
that tinkle that we heard coming up the street
and it was that ice-cream man in his special wagon that was pulled by a horse of course. We would follow him and when our mamma bought some of
that very delicious ice cream it was
a treat for sure. We would bring out a glass
bowl and he would put the amount
of scoops she said
in it, then into the house
we would go to eat our wonderful ice cream.
In those days it was vanilla, strawberry
and chocolate and
that was it, I have never tasted such good
ice cream ever as that tasted.
Hanna and I soon learned to help our Mamma peal peaches,
pears, tomatoes and fruits of
all kinds for canning. We had a
large
black coal stove in our kitchen and it was the heat for the house too.
When finally the sewer came down the street we had a modern bathroom, I don't think there were two happier girls.
We really thought
that a bathroom right in our very own house was wonderful. No more
tub
baths which we had every Saturday in front of
the kitchen stove and more than one little girl and boy went into one tub of water. Hanna and I were both honey blond girls. Our hair was always a bit curly.
We wore underwear that came to
our ankles up until we were in the 6th and 8th grade for Hanna, for the wintertime. We wore black
stockings and buttoned and shoe-laced shoes for many years.
Another thing we did together and loved doing was to make all of our Valentines. That was such fun and we really worked at it. On Valentine night we would tie a string to
a valentine and go to a home and call "Valentine," and out they would come and then we would pull
it off the porch. We thought that was such fun. We made these valentines for a lot of
our school friends to
go into the valentine box and to the children
on our street that we knew. Valentines in those days were not given to each child in
our room.
In 1920 Pappa tried to buy a bakery in
Sugarhouse and applied for a
loan. All I remember was that a
man
was going to come and see pur place to
see if he would give Pappa some money to buy this bakery. Dad worked for many years at
the Applequist Bakery on
5th East and 9th South. He used to ride his bicycle to work as much
as he could, according to
the
weather, otherwise he rode the streetcar. We were instructed to clean
up the yard.
My how we worked. This involved the two boys and Hanna and myself. Pappa cut the huge hedge
around the place
which was from 6 to 8
feet
high. We swept everything and raked and really worked hard. The man came
but he did not get the loan. Pappa finally
got a chance to go to Provo to talk to a man about a
bakery
job with the hope of buying into it. A Mr. Jacobsen came from Provo. He was in the real estate business and owned part of a bakery. Mr. Jacobsen came and went
over our place which had this big yard. It was
about
the size of three yards with a
home
on each as it stands to this date in 1975. To think our Dad spaded this
huge garden on his own
power
and as little girls and also the boys we helped do all the weeding and
we would help with letting down the water in the various
rows to keep
the
garden watered. We also helped feed the chickens and take the cows
into the pasture that
was next to our place. The cows were on a huge chain
and we would
hammer
the stake into the ground. The stake was an iron one and we often would change their positions
during the day.
We did move to Provo, Utah in the latter part of June
1920. Dorothy was the baby that was expected and Mamma was worried for fear that the baby would come before we got moved.
Dad had been in Provo for a
short time and was delighted with the
prospects of owning the bakery. He found the house at 492 East 2nd South, right
across the street from the Maeser School. It was on a week end and when Pappa came he had the bakery
truck which he
was driving. It was loaded to the gills plus a
big box of chickens, live that is.
Dad took Hanna along with Hannna as
she
was the oldest to help her and they
left for Provo on the Interurban Train. Erich, Alfred and myself and Dad rode
in the truck. I sat on the chicken
box and two of the chickens died. At that particular time they were paving the road from Salt Lake to Provo and by the time we got to the point of the mountain it was then covered
with thick sand, which they were doing in those days to cure the cement. Dad hit a culvert that stuck out, he didn't see it and he was not too good of
a driver. I flew out of the car onto the road as this truck was open and had no door.
Dad was unable to handle the
car, but after the three of us did a bit of praying along
came a couple of men
returning from a
fishing trip and they helped
us. One of
them
drove with Dad and we got into their car and
finally got to Provo at
3 0'clock in the morning. Traveling in
those
days and on such a road was a living nightmare.
Mamma was
so glad
to see us and the baby came about three days later.
We entered school in
the fall of that year and Hanna went to the Provo Jr. High School. They had the 7th and 8th grades in
a separate building. What she
did in those two years is not clear in my mind. I know we both always went to Sunday School and to Mutual, we helped our
Mother a lot and often took turns going down to the bakery with Dad at night while he
made
up the dough. We thought this was fun, but that soon gave out.
It wasn't long before our Dad had us working in the
bakery. I know I started when I went to Junior
High School and Hanna was then already working in
the
bakery. We also did the selling besides helping frost cakes, wrap bread, etc., etc. She worked in
the
bakery until she went on her mission to
the Eastern States as it was called then. This was after she graduated from High School
Hanna was always interested in
Music. As early as the 8th grade she entered the Music Memory
Contest which was city-wide. I was in the 6th grade and took 2nd place in the city and Hanna took 5th or 6th place in
the Junior
High School level and received a
wonderful assortment of, records which I
liked better than my Silver Medal. ·She took music lessons from Hanna Packard and they both had a wonderful companionship together. She led
the singing in Sunday School, Mutual and often in Sacrament meetings.
She was always busy in
some organization.
In school
during her 10th to 12th grades
she was in all
kinds
of musical things and sang solos for many occasions.
She had a fair amount of dates and I was. always worried
that she be
sure
and get the right man to marry. She met Art Hasler and started to
date
him as I recall the last part of the 11th grade and the 12th grade. Then Art left for a mission to Germany and I remember her singing
the "Old Refrain" at his Farewell.
Hanna left on her mission in the fall of 1928 and returned two years
later. I was working in the bakery all the time and the first Christmas she was gone I told her to call home for a
Christmas surprise and that it was and I know it cost me $13 for that call, but it felt so
good to hear her.
Art returned home from his mission before
Hanna did and he went to the "Y" on his return. When Hanna came back she worked again in the bakery and
also took classes
at the "Y". It was hard for our Dad to see college
and we had quite a
time
of it. We were not able to go full-time as we did not make
enough
money. Hanna kept
on taking music lessons
and she was going with Art all the time. They were married in
1932
and left for Madison,
Wisconsin where Art had a
teaching job. When Hanna came home in 1934 for summer vacation time she brought along my Wedding Dress which she bought in Madison.When I think of it now and years ago I certainly had a
lot
of confidence in
letting her select it.
It pleased me very much and I was very happy over it. Hanna was always thoughtful of people and was a very good mixer. She had religion in her very soul.
She told me on one occasion that if it had not
been for the Church she never could have raised her
big family. Hanna was a true person
and a devoted Mother. She had a sense of rightness about her that was most admirable. She was a great pacifier and a wonderful homemaker. She was true and honest to
her family and husband. Though she never divulged a word to me I often felt that she had a tremendous fear and heartbreak in her
life.
When I last saw her it was nearly more than I
could
bear. We would walk up that hospital
hall and she would say, "Evelyn I've just got
to get well." I, of course, knew all the time that it was utterly impossible for her to do so. She fought a good
fight
and I'm sure she has gone to a
place
where there is much greener
grass and more happiness.
My sister Hanna was a most
lovely
sister and I
do miss her very much.
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