July 28, 1941 (Monday)

SVEN ERICKSON, AGED 82, DIES

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Beautiful day very

hot. Temperatures in the

90s —

Good shower of rain

would be very acceptable.

Ironed this evening.

Sven Erickson aged

82 yrs died at his

home yesterday.

Men setting over oats

shocks so they could

dry better.

Expect threshers to-morrow.

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Sven Erickson was born in 1859 in Sweden. He immigrated to the United States in 1888. It seems that most of his siblings and his parents soon followed. They all, somehow, ended up living in Bowne Center.

"During the 1880s alone, some 330,000 persons left Sweden for the United States, the peak year being 1887 with over 46,000 registered emigrants. The pace of immigration remained high after 1890 and by 1910, the U.S. Census recorded over 665,000 Swedish-born persons in the United States." (Dr. Dag Blanck, "Swedish Immigration to North America," augustana.edu)

By 1921, when Sven applied for a United States passport, he was a naturalized U.S. citizen. According to his passport application, Sven intended to travel to Sweden to visit family.

A photo attached to his passport shows him with a woman. I am not sure who the woman in the photo is. I haven't been able to find any records to indicate that Sven ever married. For a moment I thought it might be his mother but she passed away ten years earlier.

Although he may never have married, he lived in a home filled with people. Several census records show that Sven lived in the same dwelling as his parents, siblings, their spouses, and nieces and nephews.

At the time of his death, Sven resided across the street from one of his nephews.

Sven Erickson was a respected member of the community. His death was noted several times in the July 31, 1941 edition of the Lowell Ledger. He is buried in the cemetery at Bowne Center.

July 27, 1941 (Sunday)

ANOTHER VERY HOT DAY

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Another very hot day.

Thermometer in the 90's

more + more every day.

Walter Wingeier here for dinner.

The Lowell Hot Points

playing ball at Campau

Lake against Campau Lake

team.

Kate + Bill here tonight.

Played euchre. Men 4.

Ladies 1. —

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"More + more every day."

Edna has had enough of the heat.

I complain about the heat and I have the luxury of air conditioning and fans.

Edna has been experiencing heat in the 90's with no AC for several days and those temps are going to continue for several more days.

I imagine her clothing options weren't all that heat-friendly either. Perhaps she owned a few lighter weight cotton house dresses but she did not have shorts, sleeveless tops, or a sundresses in her wardrobe. It is not improper for me to wear a dress without stockings. Despite the high temperatures, Edna probably wore stockings with her house dress.

I love the Montgomery Ward catalog page from1941 (shown below) showcasing house dresses and aprons.

"Young-looking comfortable styles"

"Aprons that add zest to your housework."

Thank goodness you could purchase attire that allowed you to look young, feel comfortable, and do your house work with zest!

The ad also uses words like practical and slenderizing. And, the prices are right (starting at low as seventy-nine cents).

July 26, 1941 (Saturday)

OH, SUCH A HOT DAY

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Another very hot day.

Orlo helping Simon Wingeier's

thresh oats this P.M.

Threshers came here at

2:30 PM and threshed

the oats in the 7 acre field

280 bus.

Through at 5 o'clock.

Supper for most of men.

Alice helped me but Oh,

such a hot day.

Lowell Hot Points playing

ball at Woodland to-night.

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At 99°, July 26, 1941 was the hottest day on record in Grand Rapids that year during the month of July (Climatological Data. Michigan, Volumes 55-56).

That is a hot day for just sitting around. But it is "oh, such a hot day" for threshing oats, making and serving supper to all of the threshers, and playing a game of ball.

Hank and Orlo helped with the oats at Wingeier's farm before coming the Johnson farm with all of the threshers to tackle the "7 acre field." Not all farmers owned their own threshing machines so the threshing crew would make the rounds from one farm to another using the same machine and employing the help of farm hands and farmers from the area.

Edna and her daughter Alice spent the day making food to serve to the men for supper once they completed their work for the day. My dad (Enda's grandson) said there were often 15 or more men on working in the fields on threshing days. On those days, he recalls that his grandmother would start preparing food before the break of dawn.

I am always so excited when Edna notes some sort of statistic or fact. In this case, she wrote that 7 acre field produced 280 bushels of oats. A little research indicates that the average oat crop yield per acre in the United States in 1941 was 31 bushels. My quick math (math is not my best subject) shows that they were averaging 40 bushels an acre. This is better than the national average for the year and the national average of 35 bushels per acre the year prior ('40) and the year after ('42).

I hope Henry and Edna were pleased with the results. I hope the threshers enjoyed the meal Edna and Alice prepared. And, I especially hope Hank and the Lowell Hot Points won their game.