March 10, 1945 (Saturday)

EDNA REFUSES TO PLAY MORE HANDS OF EUCHRE

---

A fine beautiful day.

Did usual Sats work

and had to repeat cleaning

that I did day before

yesterday. Henry sowed

clover seed on wheat field

by other house.

Kate and Bill out to-night

Played 3 games of euchre

and men won every game

so I refused to continue

playing so we played

"dirty eight" and had more

fun.

Dick is staying all

night as Bob went to

Freeport + Paul went to basket-

ball tournament at G.R.

Hank went some where too.

---

Edna is not having it. She is not going to keep playing euchre if the men are going to win all

the games.

There have been plenty of times she has mentioned playing euchre where the men win more games than the women. She has never refused to keep playing before.

I wonder if perhaps the men were rubbing it in a bit.

That and Hank went off somewhere and didn't tell her where.

She put an end to it. They played a different game and everyone had more fun.

#strongwomen

#girlpower

March 2, 1945 (Friday)

EDNA'S GLASSES BREAK. JEN AND WANETTA VISIT.

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Cloudy disagreeable day.

My glasses broke apart

on my nose last night

so went to Lowell this

P.M. and had them

repaired. Did a little

grocery shopping also.

Raining to-night.

Jen and Wanetta spent

evening here last

night. Jen is freezing

some of her beef to-

morrow and will can

it in Pressure Cooker.

---

Jen is Edna's sister-in-law, Henry's sister. I wasn't sure who Wanetta was. I thought that perhaps she was a friend who was visiting or, given that Jen was a widow, possibly someone who was living with and helping Jen at her home.

Jen's husband, Ozi Pardee, passed away in 1932. His death certificate indicates he had been diagnosed with cancer of the colon and rectum three years prior to his death.

Jennie Johnson and Ozi were married on Christmas Day in 1889. Jen was just 20-years old. Ozi was 22. They never had children.

Jennie would outlive Ozi by 22 years, passing away at the age of 85 in 1954.

In the 1940s, the South Bowne news column in the Lowell Ledger, which was published weekly, was often compiled by Jennie Pardee herself. The column in the March 8, 1945 edition of the Ledger, written by Jennie, made note of the fact that she and Wanetta Schray called upon Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Cosgriff (Jenie's sister and brother-in-law).

I was glad to see Wanetta's name in print. Edna's handwriting left me uncertain and she had not included a last name. But Jennie and the Lowell Ledger made the formal introduction of Wanetta Schray to me nearly 80 years later.

It was the South Bowne news column I saw in a later edition of the Ledger that led me to conclude that Wanetta was most probably live-in company and help. In that column, it was noted that several people had called upon Jennie and Wanetta the previous week.

On October 2, 1945 Wanetta was married to Raymond Kruger, just a little over a year after this journal entry. She was just 19. Raymond, a truck driver, was 23.

The 1950 U.S. Census shows that Raymond and Wanetta had a 2-year old daughter named Betty and that Raymond was working for Consumers Power as an electrical lineman. It is possible they had other children but my quick search didn't turn up any results.

Wanetta passed away in 1995. Raymond lived until 2002. They are buried next to another in Woodland Memorial Park cemetery in Woodland, Michigan.

March 1, 1945 (Thursday)

EDNA TAKES RED CROSS HOME NURSING COURSE

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March came in like

a lamb, nice mild

day.

I took the day off

and visited the Home

Nursing Class at L.A.S.

Hall.

The class served a

very lovely cooperative

dinner - I also enjoyed

a review of the

lesson. Mrs. Pfarrer is

a very good teacher.

The following were members

Edwina, Edna Lott, Roxie Seese,

Joy Weeks, Mary Krebs,

Mrs. Everett Richardson,

Mrs. Howard Lite, Mrs. Geo. Howard,

Laura Blough.

---

During WWII, the Red Cross provided a variety of services overseas and on the home front. Offering training in first aid, nutrition, and home nursing in communities of all sizes, including small rural area like Bowne Center, were a few of services they offered.

You can read a brief history of the efforts of the Red Cross during WWII here: https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/National/history-wwii.pdf.

A short article in the Lowell Ledger for March 8, 1945 confirmed that the home nursing course Edna documented was indeed a Red Cross course.

I love that historical copies of the Lowell Ledger are archived online. It is wonderful to find little tidbits that support Edna's journal entires and that add more to the story or clarify questions I have.

It isn't always easy deciphering Edna's handwriting. In this entry, she mentions that the course instructor was a good teacher. I couldn't make out the last name. I thought, perhaps, it was Pfarva or Pfarna.

When I came across the Bowne Buggle Notes column, I uttered out loud, "Thank you, Myrtle Porritt and thank you Lowell Ledger." Myrtle documented the details and the Lowell Ledger published them.

Pfarrer was the name. Mrs. E. Pfarrer to be precise. Mrs. E. Pfarrer, R. N.

Elizabeth VanDam married Ernest Pfarrer in 1915 in Chicago, Illinois. They had three children. One was still born. Caroline and Frederick long outlived their mother, Elizabeth, who passed away in 1972.

When Elizabeth Pfarrer, R.N. taught the home nursing class at Bowne Center in 1945 she had been a widow for more than 20 years. Her husband, Ernest, died in 1924. According to his death certificate, he died of of a cerebral hemorrhage after having been accidentally struck by a car.

Two years after Elizabeth Pfarrer instructed the home nursing class at Bowne Center, Dr. R.J. Harrington went missing.

According to a Muskegon Chronicle article, Dr. R.J. Harrington legally dead, but disappearance generates some controversy (republished by MLive in 2014), Harrington was declared legally dead in 1954, on the seventh anniversary of his disappearance.

There was a brief mention of Elizabeth Pfarrer in that article,

Seven years before he disappeared, the state health commissioner had removed Dr. R.J. Harrington as director of the Muskegon County Health unit for "failure to conduct a proper immunization program" and "the lack of a proper health program and failure to properly trace sources of venereal disease within his jurisdiction."

Named director in 1936, Harrington did not start his duties untilAugust 1938 after completing a course in public health at the University of Kentucky. He was removed less than two years later.

The state first began looking into Harrington's performance as director after he fired the health unit's supervising nurse, Mrs. Elizabeth Pfarrer, who in turn brought charges of "dissention and lack of cooperation" against Harrington.

Elizabeth VanDam Pfarrer (around 1915)