|
a.
|
Note: Family tradition says that John's brother, August Swenson sent for him. August had a farm near Genoa City, WI, and John came over here to help him on the farm. One year on the farm they had planted all cabbage. They had an early frost and lost all their crop. August gave up the farm and moved back to Chicago. John and Gladys moved to Orangeville when their eldest son was five or six years old. John had been transferred to another Borden's milk plant where he fired the boilers. They then moved to Freeport, Illinois where he worked in a Stovess factory galvanizing windmill parts. They made a lot of windmills only 12 feet tall and sent them to South America because it was flat country. Then they moved to Browntown where he went back to work for Borden's. They lived above a cheese factory. John worked for Borden's about ten years when he rented a farm and started farming. He farmed and worked at a sand plant when the depression came. He made a dollar a day at the sand plant. During the depression, he worked for the WPA. They would pick up their shovels at Madrell's store and walk down to Starks (about a mile) and start shoveling the snow off the roads. That was how the roads got plowed.
|
