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Thompson, Oscar T. / Home town : some chapters in reminiscence
(May 1942)
Chapter 2, pp. 4-6
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in Dane county, where he was well received. I don't know how he happ'ned to come to Beloit but here he arrived in the summer of 1850, making the trip from White- water to Beloit on foot. He soon got work at his trade. For a time he worked in a small shop located where the May Booth property now is, between the Bill Tucker home and the Grinnell building. The old Lee stone house was at that time a school house and the children used to come and watch the sparks fly from the anvil. Later he worked in a shop which stood in the rear of the L. C. Hyde house in West Grand ave- nue, which I believe was later in- corporated into the main building. For several years he worked for C. W. Munger, who ran a black- smith and wagon shop at the cor- ner of Pleasant street and St. Paul ave. He roomed and boarded with the Munger family and it was there he acquired his ability to speak the English language as per- fectly as a native American. He never spoke English with the pe- culiar brogue or accent of the Scandinavian. Later he went to Rockford and got a job at the Briggs & Enoch Plow Works, where he acquired the art of mak- ing American style steel plows. In 1856 times were getting "hard." The panic and depression of 1857 was coming on and work and money were scarce. He decid- ed to take a trip back to the old country to see his mother and oth- er relatives. That winter he met and courted my mother. They were married May 13, 1857, and a week later started for America on their honeymoon. They went by way of Hamburg, Germany, and came over on a German boat, the "Brusia." On reaching Beloit they were met at the station by Charlie Hansen and were invited to stay at their house for a few days till they could look around and get settled. He and my mother started housekeeping in rooms upstairs in the Benjamin Brown homestead which stood back in a yard at the corner of State and Grand aves., where the McNeany store now is. That had not yet become business property. All this property is still owned by the Brown family. Later he bought some property on Third st., where he established his own business in 1860. This was the nucleus of the business, which later became the Thompson Plow Works and which continued up to 1918. He bought a house three blocks up on Third st., where most of his family of children were born. The American way of life in the sixties was somewhat more primi- tive than it is now in our present era of luxury, but we were com- fortable and had plenty to eat. Perhaps our home on Third st., may be taken as fairly typical of the average homes of that period, not of course including the homes of the well-to-do people of that time. Our house consisted of eight rooms, parlor, living room, five bedrooms and kitchen, and in ad- dition pantry and wood shed. The rooms were not spacious but we got along very nicely. The parlor was opened only for company and was nicely furnished. In the kit- chen was a wood range, and wood stoves heated the rest of the house in cold weather. Just outside the kitchen doors was the well and pump, and at the kitchen sink was the cistern pump. No house in those days was with- out a cistern. In the yard was usually piled up three or four cords of wood. Oak wood rated $4.00 to $5.00 per cord, poplar at $2.50 to $3.50. Chapter 2 Father kept a nice vegetable garden ard mother had a bed of "sparagus" which she prized very highly. We also had currant and raspberry bushes, two cherry trees and a plum tree. We raised some sweet corn, but bought our potatoes, winter vegetables and apples. We did not know any- thing about vitamins in those days, but had a varied and whole- some diet. 4
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