Sixth Generation

769. Elmer Alonzo CURRENT was born on 7 Sep 1886 in Brown, Minnesota. He served in the Army during WW I. He died on 14 Apr 1949 in Nebish, Beltrami, Minnesota.⁴⁷⁶

Elmer Current 1886 - 1949


By Maudie Osborn


(The following account is of the life of Elmer Current written many years ago by his wife Maudie. Elmer was born September 07, 1886 in Brown County, Minnesota and died April 14, 1949 in Nebish, Minnesota.   His parents were Marion Everett and Martha Ellen (Middleton) Current.)

”We, Elmer and I, were married December 4, 1920 at Redby, Minnesota by Reverend Smith. My gown was white silk and my flowers were American Beauty Roses. Our first home was there. Elmer was a night watchman for the round house railroad where steam locomotives were serviced and turned around.

Redby was by an Indian reservation on Red Lake. Lots of logging was done between Redby and Bemidji, where a large saw mill was operating. Logging camps, through the timber and the log train, hauled the logs to Bemidji Mill. Also, a passenger train ran each day, except Sunday to Bemidji and back to Redby.

The company had taken a caboose and put it on a foundation and that was our first home. It was sort of cute, too.

When he (Elmer) was laid off work in the Spring, logging was through until the next winter. We went to Williams, Minnesota where his father, one sister and three brothers lived. The Winter of 1922 and ’23, Elmer and I cooked in a logging camp out of Mispah, Minnesota. Elmer’s dad had an attack of inflammatory rheumatism and was not able to work out in the cold and snow.

We went by train to Mispah and the camp boss met us there with a team of horses and a bobsled. He also had to pick up supplies and drive back 10 miles or so through heavy timber to the camp.

There was a cabin for the camp boss and his wife and a “cook shack” as it was called. This was where we cooked all the meals and had tables for serving the meals. We had 22 to 23 men to cook for. That was quite an experience for me but we did very well. We sure had nice men (to cook for), most were married and at that time, logging was about all the work men could find during the cold winter months.

Our room was built on the side of the cook shack so we could go right into our room without going outside. Then (there was) a bunk house where the men slept and spent time when they didn’t work in the timber - which wasn’t much - only if it stormed too bad to work in the timber. There was a store house where food supplies were kept, a tool shed and barns where the horses were stabled.

In other words, it was a busy place.The married men use to come into the cook shack on stormy days. They peeled potatoes, swept floors and set tables. They missed their families and we were so glad to have them visit us. I think the big attraction was our son Marion. The men like to come and play with him and spoil him! We always had a full coffee pot and cookies out for whoever came in. The boss came sometimes but his wife never did.

When Spring came and logging was over until the next Fall, we moved to Puporky. We lived there many years. This was the bad years after World War I. Work of any kind was so scarce. Elmer was a steam engineer by trade but there was no work of that sort anywhere in northern Minnesota at the time. So, he worked the summer months in the harvest fields of North Dakota and Canada. He drove a team of horses hauling bundles of grain to the thrashing machine. He also fired the boiler on the engine that ran the separator and shucked bundles of grain. This meant that I was alone with the children much of the time.

Uncle Elston lived with us quite a lot. During the winter months, he would go back to the logging camps and returned every couple of months. In the Spring of 1927, Elmer went to work at Lake Jubi, T. B. Sanitarium as a gardener. Dr. Laney was the doctor there at that time. Then later he was given the night engineer’s job. The hospital, doctor’s cottage, and nurses home were heated by steam boilers.

A new lady doctor came on January 1, 1930. Dr. Mary Ghostley. Elmer worked there as a night engineer until September of 1940. The first five years he worked twelve hours a day. Then Dr. Mary hired another engineer so they each work eight hours a day but it was seven days a week. There was no time off.

We always raised a big garden. I canned lots of vegetables. During those years of the Great Depression Elmer’s wages were $60.00 a month and our wood for fuel and house was furnished by the sanitarium.

During those year Grandpa Current lived with us. After he passed away, my mother lived with us, too. In 1941, Elmer tried to work in the woods again but his health wasn’t good. His asthma was bad and he couldn’t stand the cold weather anymore.

In 1942, he went to Eamas, Washington to work in a paper mill. He worked there until July of 1943. Marion and Grace were married. Eugene and Marion were in the Navy during World War II. Roy had already gone by bus out to be with Dad. The rest of the family and I then traveled by train to Portland, Oregon. We arrived there July 18th.

Dad was in the Veteran’s hospital in Portland. His asthma was very bad. The doctor thought perhaps, southern California climate might benefit him so we traveled by train to Fresno, California for awhile.

My brother Jesse and family lived there and had a large grape vineyard. Seedless Thompson grapes were used for raisins and are picked in September. So Roy, Raymond and I picked Jesse’s grapes. We then worked for several other people that needed grapes picked. The boys and I also worked in the grape packing house, packing fancy grapes for shipping.

The cold nights there were worse for Dad and his inflammatory rheumatism came back. So, we bought a car and drove back up to Portland where the boys and I found work in the shipyards. We rented an apartment in Bagley Downs, Vancouver, Washington. Government housing for wartime workers was in the shipyards.

It was awfully damp and foggy there during the winter along the Columbia River. Some times the fog was so bad we didn’t know if we would make it or not around the high cliffs along the river. First I rode in the company truck. They called it the “cattle car.” It was a big semi-truck with seats built in but the isle was always full of people standing. I generally was one of the standing ones as I was part of the last ones in. So after a month or so, I rode with a neighbor and his wife which was much better. At least I didn’t have to stand all the way.

Marion was in the Army at this point and Eugene was overseas in the Navy. Later the children were all sick with the chickenpox and bronchitis so I had to quit work to be home to take care of them. We then bought a washing machine and I took in people’s laundry. People would pay any price to get their laundry done so I worked at that for some time.

Then we were able to get a larger apartment in Vanport, Oregon so we moved there. There was a washing machine for every four apartments. Elmer was better again and went back to work in the shipyards. James was born in Vanport Hospital on September 4, 1944.

In 1945 we bought a Ford truck and in September we went to Dayton, Washington. Elmer and the boys worked in the potato fields. They also hauled peas for a cannery there. When the harvest was over, we decided to go back to California for the months of November, December, and January.

We started south and visited many interesting places such as parts of the McKenzy River, the beautiful Crater Lake area (on the top of a volcano), plus we saw big tall trees and beautiful mountains in Northern California. We spent several days around Sacramento, the states’ capitol. We drove the length of California down to the Salton Sea. Quite a large body of salt water. We saw the huge farming and gardening areas where the fresh vegetables are grown during the winter for shipping to colder states.

Elmer was feeling pretty well there and we drove around seeing lots of interesting places and things. We drove through El Centro, California to Yuma, Arizona where we visited the old territorial prison up on a rock mountain. The little “cells” were hewn out of the stone mountain and the little windows still had the iron bars across them and the iron doors. It was a spooky place - the graveyard, too.

We drove through to Tucson and visited the Vets hospital there. It was a big hospital and had beautiful grounds. We then drove on through New Mexico and the beautiful mountains there, through the panhandle of Texas to Oklahoma City, north through Kansas and Nebraska, then on the Minnesota to Bemidji.

We arrived there March 27th (Roy’s birthday). It was so nice seeing my mother, Marion, Eugene, Grace and our two sweet grandchildren - also, Ida’s family. They built us a house on 40 acres of land that Gene got. We lived there until Dad’s death. He passed away April 14, 1949 and is buried in Nebish Cemetery, Nebish Minnesota. We now have 29 grandchildren and 9 great grands. Elmer was born in Brown County, Minnesota on September 7, 1886. His family moved to Wadena, Minnesota and then later to Bemidji. They lived for a time on the old Enright place on Lake Julia, east of Puposky. His grandfather, William Putnam Current lived with them there until his death on January 1, 1904. I have pictures of him sitting in the yard by Lake Julia. He’s buried in Greenwood Cemetery, Bemidji, Minnesota.

Dad served in World War I and was stationed at Camp Logan and Fort Bliss in Texas and Camp Benning, Georgia. He was discharged at Camp Dodge, Iowa from the U. S. Army. He liked Army life. He said they had good officers and no one complained of any mistreatment or had any trouble. He had an honorable discharge and was on the east coast ready to go aboard ship when the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918.” –  Maude

Elmer Alonzo CURRENT and Maudie Faye OSBORN were married on 4 Dec 1920 in Redby, Minnesota. Maudie Faye OSBORN was born on 3 Jun 1905. She died on 29 Feb 1956.

[It was obvious while reading Maudie's story that she had a lot of information she wanted to pass on but didn't have the command over spelling, etc., so I made the adjustments necessary so her story would come out and not be thrown away. PLO]

Maudie said her sons liked to hunt game birds, deer and elk plus they enjoyed fishing.

Elmer Alonzo CURRENT and Maudie Faye OSBORN had the following children:

1338	i.	Marion CURRENT.
1339	ii.	Mary Ellen CURRENT.
1340	iii.	Eugene CURRENT.
1341	iv.	Raymond CURRENT.
1342	v.	Roy CURRENT.
1343	vi.	James CURRENT.