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Note: In 1934 Vern Cunningham took a truck load of hogs to market, and when he only could get two dollars for them, decided to quit farming (thankfully). We moved into the town of Girard where he did hauling jobs and worked at a gas station. In the early 1940's he worked for a while as a roofer in Hayes, Kansas. In the early summer of 1943 he moved his family to Yakima, Washington where he planned to get a job working as a pipe fitter at the new AEC plant in Hanford.
We travelled to Washington with two other families. As none of the men had experience as pipe fitters, we stopped in Wyoming for several weeks where they got jobs as pipe fitters at the Sinclair Oil refinery in Sinclair. We stay at a 4 unit motel at Walcott Junction, about 10 miles east of Sinclair. When we got to Yakima, we rented a small house in the northeast part of town. Dad, now experienced, easily got a job as a pipe fitter at Hanford, comutting the 100 mile round trip daily. He worked as a pipe fitter the rest of his working life.
In the winter of 1944 we moved to eastern Tennessee where Dad was going to work at the new AEC plant in Oak Ridge, TN. I believe they had recruited experienced workers at Hanford to go there and help bring this plant on line. We drove to Girard, Kansas where Dad left Mom, Merle and I, while he went on to Tennessee with Chuck to get work at Oak Ridge. Mom had "adjusted" Chuck's age on his Birth Certificate so he would be old enough to get a job there. We stayed in Girard several weeks where Merle and I attended the local schools. Dad came back and drove us all to Tennessee, where he had rented a house on a farm outside Andersonville, Tennessee, where Merle and I finished the school year. Returned to Washington in the summer of 1945, where they purchased a two story house on East Chestnut Street. They moved to Lynnwood, Washington about 1955-56. In 1966 they purchased a mobil home on a large lot in Lake Stevens, Washington.
My father often said he got his middle name Vinton from a "can of corn". While researching relatives in Vinton, Iowa I discovered they had a large cannery that produced a very popular canned corn, called "Vinton Sugar Corn". It was very popular in the mid west, especially in the early part of the 20th century. I found a picture of this can of corn on the internet and have a copy in his file. Maybe he wasn't pulling our legs after all, and maybe there was some truth to his story.
1. 1930 census, 12 Apr, Sherman Twp, Crawford Co, KS, Roll T626_698, Pg 4A Fam 83. Verne Cunningham 26, head of household, farmer, rents farm, b. KS, wife Alice 21, b. KS, son Charles 7/12, b. KS. Note: Elmer and Bess Nelson were 2 farms away (Alice's sister), Elmer's brother Augustus was next door to him.
Certificate of Death 146-8, State of Washington Dept of Social and Health Services. Alice Mary Cunningham, Bon
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