Last time I related some events in the life of my Aunt Eda Anderson taken from her “memoirs”. She was living with the Robinson family in Granville, Il. Her mother had died and Aunt Eda went through a very trying period. A 16 year old girl in a strange country, with little command of the language. After her mother’s death, Eda stayed at her brother Albin’s house for a while. She relates how she was obsessed with thoughts that her mother could see and hear everything she did and was very displeased with her. Albin and Sophie were very kind and understanding and after a few days she began to recover and and returned to the Robinsons.
Mrs Robinson was an ex-schoolteacher and very nice. It was here that Eda really learned to speak English. At her Uncle Nels’ they spoke mostly Swedish. Mrs Robinson had the book “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” which Eda had read in Swedish before coming to America. Between it and Mrs Robinson’s help Eda gained a good command of her new language.
Robinsons were in the ice business and got up at 4 o’clock in the morning. Mrs Robinson was kind enough to let Eda take a nap in the afternoon.
The family had a ritual every Sunday. Mrs Robinson owned a large Swedish trunk made entirely of iron. On Sunday she packed it with straw, browned meat in some kettles, put them, along with raw potatoes in the trunk, all heated as hot as possible, and wrapped in a cloth. Then they all went to church. When they returned the trunk was opened and the food was done and ready for Sunday dinner. Could we call this an early version of the crock pot?
That fall, Eda’s Aunt Mary had to go to Chicago for an operation. Eda returned to her uncles house to care for the kids, cook, and clean. She had learned a lot about cooking and was more confident than when she lived there before. In fact, she rather enjoyed being boss in the house. She stayed about 6 weeks.
She didn’t return to the Robinsons. A family named Bedenfeldt needed a girl so she took the job. She stepped into a lot of work. The Bedenfeldts were building an addition to the house (they needed it, they had 4 boys). Eda had to clean and scrub everything. They spoke German much of the time so Eda was back in a situation of not understanding what people were saying. Aunt Eda was a lady who wanted to be on top of everything so it was stressful for her.
The Bedenfeldt’s oldest son was still living in Germany. Even as early as 1910 the war drums were sounding in Europe and they wanted him to come to America, which he did while Eda was there. Mrs Bedenfeldt was nice but they also got up at 4 in the morning. In her 80’s Eda said she could still hear Mrs Bedenfeldt shouting “Wilhelm, Marion, Karl, Edward. Time to get up”.
Eda used to darn her socks in her spare time. Mrs B noticed that Eda was very good at it. She brought out the boys holy socks and Eda mended socks until she couln’t see. Eda liked Mrs B but that family worked every minute morning till night (after all, they were Germans). Eda got a chance for another job and took it.
Dr and Mrs Weeks needed a hired girl. Eda was told “you’ll never stay there, Mrs Weeks is so hard to work for”. Eda went anyway and was paid 3 dollars a week. A 50% raise over her previous job. The work was hard, but not as hard as at Bedenfeldts. The Weeks had stoves upstairs and downstairs and it was Eda’s job to carry coal and ashes in and out for both stoves. They washed Monday, rain or shine. If it froze, the clothes froze dry. Eda hadn’t been there long when her sister-in-law Sophie had to have her appendix out. She went to Chicago, to the same hospital to which Aunt Mary had gone. In those days surgery was still dangerous and rarely performed locally. Albin, Eda’s brother decided he would visit his wife. He asked Eda to go along. They went to Chicago by train on Saturday. They visited Sophie, and Albin decided he wanted to go to a show Sunday night. Monday morning Albin wanted to go shopping and Eda bought 3 new dresses. One was black with purple velvet. She was so proud! They didn’t get a train until Monday afternoon. When they got to LaSalle, the nearest train station to Granville it was almost dark. There was snow covering everything. No telephone. No overshoes.
They walked the 15 miles to Granville. Mrs Weeks was angry to the point of violence. Eda had missed wash day, a capitol offense. Mrs Weeks also accused her of staying two nights with a man. She wouldn’t believe the man was her brother. Aunt Eda finally said “If I can stay the night I’ll leave in the morning”.
Come morning the whole thing turned around. Mrs Weeks said she’d never had anyone who worked so hard and she wanted Eda to stay. She had checked and found the “man” actually was Eda’s brother and that they were there to visit his wife. So, Aunt Eda kept the job at the Weeks.