Grandma Pfaltzgraff's Journal - February 13, 1918 - February 25, 1918

13 - Wed. We washed this forenoon.  Fred had dinner at half past ten and then went Boos's.  I finished the was & decorated the pulpit at church & then went to the funeral.  Old Mrs. Nettz had dinner with us.  Cecil Boos was one of my S.S. scholars last year.  When I got home I did the scrubbing & rolled up the clothes.  Then we went to a school program. Basket (?) social are here.  They made $14 for the school 7 $18 for Red Cross.

14 - Thur.  This morning I recanned over twenty quarts of tomatoes.  They froze & forced the lids loose.  So I cooked them up and recanned them so they would not spoil.  This afternoon I ironed.

15 - I finished ironing today.

16 - I did up my Sat. work & did some of the mending.

17 - We went to church to day.  I did some reading this afternoon & went to church this evening.

18 - Mon. I finished mending & then did a little sewing.  Fred went to Taylor and traded the Chevrolet for a Ford car because Albert wrote & said he must have his money.

19 - Tue. I did some more sewing.  We got home late last night & couldn't get the car started today because it was so cold. That's a Ford for you.

20 - I made pillow slips - 2 pair - for the Red Cross & then went up a while & I did not stay long because I was baking, but I brought a hospital shirt along to make or finish which I had started there.  This evening I work at it yet & would have finished it, but I thought the ready made the pattern I brought along with me had the sleeves put in wrong so I waited to ask the Pres. about it first.

21 - Thur. This afternoon I went to the Lady's Aid at the church.  We had dinner there.  I took the shirt pattern along & asked Mrs. Nettz about it & we found out that they were put in wrong.  This afternoon Ross Eppelsheimer came to the basement to inquire for Mr. Pfaltzgraff & I told him he was not at home.  He said someone outside wanted to see him, so I asked if I would do & he said so & so I stepped out.  He said he wanted Fred to perform a wedding ceremony for him that evening, so I was to get him home in time.  So he & Alma Meyers, a Lymanite, were married that evening.

22 - Fri. Fred got a letter from home today that Albert was going to leave for training camp & he was wanted at home Sunday for dinner so as to have all the children together once more.  So Fred made up his mind to go tomorrow.

23 - Sat. Today is dear Fred's birthday & a sad one as it turns out to be, but yet very lucky.  He left in the Ford about 9:30 for Atlantic, this being the 3rd time he'd run it.  I & Hazel watched him go as far as we could see him & then went in the house.  I went at cleaning off the shelves in the pantry.  And I was not through yet when a knock came at 10:15 at the door & a strange man came & said, " Don't be scared.  Mr. got hurt with his care & we are bringing him home!"  I don't know how I felt.  Then I saw them bringing him to the house.  His clothing was covered with mud & his head & face covered with mud & blood.  But he was conscious & could walk of which I was very glad.  They helped put him to bed & then waited & pretty soon Mr. H.C.Schuler came & stayed & then Dr. Montgomery came & wehn he saw how bad Fred was he sent for his nurse so he came & then they put him on the table & tried to fix him up.  His shoulder was dislocated & the ligaments were torn but he thought a bone was broken & he put 5 stitches in his head where he had a gash.  Then he worked a couple of hours on his arm trying to set it & then Fred was very weak & faint & put him to bed & gave him some broth.  They all had dinner here & then went home.  I read to Fred a while.  Poor fellow he had so much pain.  M.V. Rudig & Verl & Harold Schuler brought his car home & then came in to see him.  The car was badly smashed.  I stayed up with Fred that night.  Ina came over to help me this afternoon.

24 - Sun. Dr. Montgomery came again this forenoon.  H.C. Schuler came in to see Fred & so did John.  John stayed & helped the Dr.  Dr. worked over his arm for a couple of hours again.  A lot of people came down to see him but Dr. was just working over him so they couldn't see him.  Mr. & Mary Rothe came down & tried to get Alice for a week but couldn't get her.  Rudig's & George Rose's came up to see Fred this afternoon & when they were gone again, I had to call the Dr.  Fred had so much pain.  Dr. came & worked over him again a couple of hours.  After services Dr. was still working over him.  Ed Bourcks came down to see him & George Rose & Verl Rudig & Harold Schuler came down, too.  Verl & George Rose stayed up with him all night.

25 - Mon. Today Dr. came again this forenoon.  Mr. Rudig came up & was here a while & then he got faint & went home.  He faints so easy.  Dr. tried again for two hours to reset it & then went home & in the afternoon we had to call him again.  Fred had so much pain he couldn't stand it & so he & the nurse came both & Henry Schuler came too.  Mr. Weaver & Mrs. Schuler & Harold came to see him but Dr. was just working over him so they couldn't see him.  Mr. Schuler & Mr Rudig came & stayed up all night with him.

 

Grandma Pfaltzgraff's Journal - January 30 - February 12, 1918

January 30, 1918 - I did not feel very good today.  I felt so dizzy.  Fred had the Grippe, so I did not iron until the afternoon & then the iron went out and I did not get done.

31 - Today I finished ironing and di most of the mending and Fred got the pump man to come up from grant to fix our pump.  We had been melting snow every day as our cistern is empty and the well pump broke.

February 1, 1918 - Today I did up most of the Sat. work and then we went to town (Atlantic) to have some dental work done but when we got there the stores were all closed & the dentist was gone so we went to the depot to meet Leonard  Raecker who is to lecture here Sunday & when we go to the depot the train was 6 hrs. late last night so Fred was determined to take me home and so he did and then I went to bed and he rested an hour & then got up and went back 7 met the train.  It got there at 2:30 AM and it is due at 9:10 PM.

2 - Well this is groundhog day and he sees his shadow.  Fred &Mr. Raecker went to call on Mr. Miller.  We had soup for dinner & he said it "hit the right spot" ha!  Fred and he had to go up again this morning to get the grip which did not come last night.

3 - Mr. Raecker preached on "The Narrow Vision" this morning and this evening on "Forces That Win."  They took up an offering this morning & evening for Red Cross work.

4 - We took Mr. Raecker to Atlantic & had some dental work done & when we got back I cut out my blue house dress & worked on it the rest of the day.

5 - I sewed all day today.  Fred was scouting around for wood to burn & George Kuester promised him some.

6 - I sewed all forenoon.  This afternoon we went to the Red Cross meeting in the church basement and this evening to a wedding at Rudig's.  Maude and Clarence Hovius were married.  They had a big chivary.  The chivarers broke a glass in the door & stole a cake.

7 - We went to Atlantic again today to the dentist.  It was so nice we took the curtains off of our car.  When we got home Rudig's called up & said that they could not take any delegates for the convention because Verl had the mumps so we called up H. Schuller.  He thought we better call off the convention becaus there were so many cases of it around so we called up Council Bluffs and Audubon and had them call the rest of the places & let them know.

8 - Russel Schuler went to Atlantic yesterday and stayed so we did not need to go get Brother Faust.  Russel brought him.  It stormed & sleeted & snowed just awfully.  We planned to have quarterly conference anyway.  But it stormed so that we could not have any services at all this evening.  Brother Faust said he planned for us tomorrow.

9 - Brother Faust & Fred went to Lyman and called on Mrs. Knoke.  We had services tonight.

10 - We had services twice today.  We went to Dolches for dinner today.  Knokes were there, too.

11 We took Brother Faust away this morning.  J. Schuler rode up to Atlantic with us to see the income tax man.  We had a date with the dentist then it was about noon when we got home and Mrs. F. Schuler called us up & said that Cecil Bros was very low & a little afterward I heard her tell Mrs. Pilger that he had died.  We went over in the afternoon and left Hazel at William Eppelshiemers.  It was raining this afternoon. The we came home.  I came near to staying but I did not feel very well & on account of Hazel I did not hardly feel I ought.  I was going to start wash this evening.  Roy Rothe was here when we got home & said he would be up to see us very early in the morning.

12 - We got up.  I was sick with a chill all night and then we swept & dusted.  We did not feel like eating so we did not eat any breakfast.  Then Laura and Roy Rothe came to get married.  Ross E. and Mary R. were with them.   Laura wore a wedding dress of white crepe du chine trimmed with pearl trimmings.  Laura cried a little when Mary congratulated her. Mary did, too.  They went to Rothe's for dinner & Rothe's surprised them by having the rest of the children there.  I was very weak all morning so I went to Grant with Fred.  We got Hazel's 3 Liberty Stamps.  We bought them in January but they did not have them then.  This afternoon I scrubbed some of the clothes & then Della & Frank Knoke and Laura Funk & Harold Schuler came up here to practice for the funeral.  Emma Kuester came & played.