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| Louise and Helmer Dahl |
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| Tillie, Pearl and Helmer Dahl |
This is a combined story from Roland Dahl and Dale Dahl (Helmer's sons)
Roland-
Helmer-our father, was born on the farm near Estelline on January 1, 1898. He died on January 11, 1966. His mother died when he was only 2 or 3 years old and his older sister Tillie more or less raised him.
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He farmed and raised cattle with his father at the So. Shore farm. He graduated from Estelline school, attended SD state for one year and then returned to farming.
Helmer married Louise Kopp in Watertown in June of 1920. A couple of years after they were married, our mother's brother Charlie brought his son Raymond to live with them. Charlie's wife had run off leaving him with a baby to raise. He was a railroad man working at the time in Tracy, MN and couldn't or wouldn't raise the baby so he gave him to our parents. I never knew this as a child and regarded Raymond as an older brother. They never leagally adopted him and never received anything for his upkeep. When Raymond was about 12 or 13 his father remarried and decided he wanted his son back. He came to the famr and a fight ensued. Afterwards he crawled to his car and took off. A couple of days later he came back with a court order and the sheriff and took Ray with him. This was very disturbing to me as a 7 or 8 year old and our folks were very upset for years. Mother wrote a letter to Ray every week or two and never received an answer. A few years ago, I got a phone call and it was Ray, just passing through. He stopped for a visit and I found out that he had been treated badly by his father and stepmother. He went to work in a creamery when he was 16, worked there for a lifetime and at the time of his visit he was semi-retired, working part-time as a janitor in a bank in Iowa. I expressed my feelings that he certainly could have at least written a postcard if not a visit to the family that had raised him for 12-13 years. I may have said a few things that were not too complimentary and we parted on a cool note. I haven't heard a word from him since.
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I guess the thing that finished the farming was the bank failures. Grandpa and dad had always raised cattle and took a load of fat steers into the yards in St. Paul. Upon returning, they deposited the check in the So. Shore bank with the assurance of the banker that it was sound. A few days later, the doors were locked and everyone lost everything...except the banker who came out smelling like a rose.
We then moved to Watertown where our dad worked in various construction jobs and finally as a truck driver for No. American creamery. We never went hungry but never seemed to have enough for the extras. Dale and I both worked as soon as we were old enough and haven't stopped since.
Dale-
Our dad worked hard and for long hours. I remember him most when he was a truck driver for North American creameries in Watertown. He was usually up at 6:00, ate a modest breakfast and reported to work at 6:30-7:00am. In those days, the driver helped load and unload the semi's (18 wheelers) they drove. He would sometimes work until 9-10:00am just in loading the trucks and then drive it 200-300 miles to unload it and reload it for the return trip. When he got back to Watertown, he would unload the truck and get home anywhere from 7-10:00pm. He worked six days a week and almost always brought home ice cream or popcorn on Saturday night for all of us to enjoy.
He loved sports-we went to many baseball and basketball games and he attended the football and basketball games I was in. He liked boxing, both listening to it on radio and attending Golden Glove events locally. He liked to hunt pheasants and ducks and to go fishing. Roland, John, he and I went to Quetico Park in Canada for a fishing trip that he talked about for many years afterwards. He liked dogs and was enchanted by a canary that he fussed over later in his life. He was an active vegetable gardener and grew flowers in rows like crops.
His death was very traumatic for me. My mother called in hysterics one day stating that "Pa" was having a heart attack. Rosie told her to call an ambulance and get him to the hospital and then called me. We drove from St. Paul to Watertwon in record time. He seemed to feel better and I volunteered to stay with him in his hospital room overnight. At about 7am he had another heart attack and was unable to get his breath. I had the alert team in the room in seconds but he died without a word. I had our family doctor come with me to Roland and Betty's house to tell Ma. I then arranged as much as was needed for the funeral, until Roland and Betty returned from a vacation they were on in Texas. They drove non-stop through storms to get home. It was an emotionally tough experience.