Keith Tillotson

Thirty-five Acres (1924)

I don't know what the reason was that we moved to Iowa from the Tillotson farm. I guess it was the farms were going to be divided up. They were going to give everybody a deed – give everybody 40 acres. Everybody got 40 acres. We got 35, cause they kept out five acres. All the boys were doing the farming anyway, so Grandfather and Grandmother Dent just decided to give the land away. They gave everyone 40 acres. Forty acres for Leonard, Lester, Robert – that was 120 acres all together. My Uncle Riley had 40 acres someplace else south of there.

And Uncle Raymond had 40 acres right beside us. That was all tillable. But he'd already accumulated a lot of land himself. He had 40, 80, 160 – and another 40 acres on the other side of it, and a couple on the other side of the road. I don't know how many – he accumulated quit a bit of land. More than the other people did.

Then just before we moved back to Iowa, I remember my Dad must have bought that car – a Scripps-Booth. We went down to get it, and a wheel fell off. I remember we had to get towed in for that. I can remember they did something to hold the wheel on while they were dragging it in into the garage in Alma. That's all I can remember there. The next time I saw that car was when [trails off...]

From there, my Uncle Bob Hanna – that was my grandmother's brother. I called him Uncle Bob Hanna, 'cause her name was Hanna. He'd be a great-uncle. Grandmother Tillotson – her maiden name was Hanna – and this was her brother. I've got a picture of him.

My mother was afraid to travel – she was very bashful. So Uncle Bob Hanna escorted us to Iowa. I don't know what Dad was doing – he probably had a job, or was doing something. I guess I got through the first grade in Nebraska. So, how old would I have been – six or seven? After we got back to Iowa, we moved in with Grandma and Grandpa Dent on the farm where I was raised. Dad came in a few months after that – that would have probably been 1926 or so. No ... say I was seven years old, would be about 1924 or 1925 – along in there somewhere.

He bought that old Scripps-Booth then. That was a pretty hot car in those days. It was a second-hand car – I think it was 1916. They were built in 1917 – along in there somewhere. They went out of business. It was quite an antique. I remember when he finally sold it I cried. I loved that car.

Anyway, we lived on the farm and my grandparents moved to town. The farm was in Red Line, which was 15 miles from town Harlan. Just before we got settled down there I think Dad got a job in Manning, Nebraska, which is a town up north, where I went to the second grade. I told you about the kid – the bully – that beat me up? Then we were back at the place again, and we were raising chickens, hogs and stuff like that. Cutting timber, garden stuff – although we only had about ten acres or so that was tillable at that time. I liked to work at the timber. Dad bought me a little ax. I have one just about like it now – a small ax. I remember when I was about eight years old he bought me a .22 rifle. Kenneth was about ten, and he bought him a .410 shotgun.

I remember a two-story building where I went to school. They had a slide to get out for a fire. You could jump in this hole, slide out – right out of the room. This was the school in Manning. The schools in Kirkman – those kind of places – shared one room. All grades in one room. Anyway, this school had like second grade – several grades in this building.

I don't know what Dad was doing up there – I had no idea. He must have had a job, so that's why he was there. We rented a place.

It was always a lot of fun to have a fire drill. Jump in this chute and come out. But the only problem they had was that a lot of the boys liked to relieve themselves in that place where you scooted out. Made it kind of rough – but you know how kids are. That's where that – I remember this kid that used to pick on me. I was a little skinny thing then, too, you know. But this kid was always wanting to beat me up on the way home from school. I can't remember his name. But I made a friend. I had one friend – he was kind of dumb. But he was my friend, and he was a pretty husky kid. So I gave him a nickel so he'd walk home with me so he could beat those kids up. That took care of that. He hit them both, knocked them, pushed them down – whatever he had to do. They didn't bother me anymore. Cost me a whole nickel.

I can't really remember anything about being a student. The only school I can remember is when I went to school north of Red Line, Iowa. I don't know why we started up there, but I was the best in doing mathematics. Quicker than most of them could I could do that. 'Cause that's one thing I always learned how to do. I could count to a hundred when I was four years old, and that was pretty good in those days. Other than that I didn't learn too much.

I was always jealous of my cousin Iris. She could read the newspaper, bout the same time I could hardly read. Iris was Uncle Raymond's daughter. [To Neal] We went down to see her, remember? Lived down in Docum(?), south of Harlan. Her husband died. [To Kitty] You met her, too. She came out to see us when we were there. She came up to Inona's.

I had a lot of cousins. I don't even know or remember all of them. I just know the ones you've heard me talk about. Inona [married to Clifford Axeland] was a cousin. Clifford Dent was Uncle Leonard's oldest son. Don Dent was about Kenneth's age. And Dennis was about my age. Don got cancer and died.

Inona was Uncle Lester's daughter. She had a sister named Shirley that died I guess 1925 or 1926. I remember going to the funeral. Boy, that really tore Aunt Daisy up. Diptheria, or some kind of disease – I forgot what it was. I used to go over and play with her.

Aunt Daisy was from Marshalltown, Iowa, which is a county or two over toward the center of the state. Her last name was Smith, and she was married to Uncle Lester. She was one heck of a wonderful person. She was just fantastic – and Lester, too. Never had a bad word to say about anybody. I don't know – they were just wonderful.

And Uncle Leonard, too. He saved the farm for us. They were going to sell it for sheriff's sale when Kenneth and I were in the Navy. 'Course my step-dad spent all the money on liquor – that's it. Whatever it was, went on whiskey.

My grandfather was pretty ill. But I remember him and my grandmother Dent taking us on a sleigh ride out in the timber. Hooked up a team of horses, a wagon – we put runners on the wagon and went out into the timber.

Next: The Flood (1926)