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Lewis Murray Farley wrote his autobiography on March 8, 1970; transcribed as follows:
"I, Lewis Murray Farley, was born May 27, 1891 in Ackworth, Palmyra Township, Warren County, Iowa. When I was three and one half years old I was kicked by a horse in the head and breast. They say I didn't know anything for six weeks but I was too ornery to die and did live, that is why I am no good, my head never worked like it should. This is why I never got rich. I have had a lump in the...
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Lewis Murray Farley wrote his autobiography on March 8, 1970; transcribed as follows:
"I, Lewis Murray Farley, was born May 27, 1891 in Ackworth, Palmyra Township, Warren County, Iowa. When I was three and one half years old I was kicked by a horse in the head and breast. They say I didn't know anything for six weeks but I was too ornery to die and did live, that is why I am no good, my head never worked like it should. This is why I never got rich. I have had a lump in the middle of my back as long as I can remember and it has bothered me lots of times, now is worse. I started to school at five and one half years old, close to Ackworth IA.
"In the spring of 1896 we moved ten miles south west of Harrisonville Missouri, where my father bought a farm. He had to put all new buildings [up] as it was 160 acres of raw prairie, with no buildings on it, and dig a well. The ground was nothing but hardpan, which was hard to dig a post hole into, it was just as hard as cement. However, he did plow some of it, and raised a little crop. He was so indebted that he -- in two or three years -- had to sell it, and lost a lot of money. He then rented the place for a few years, but was so in debt that he had a sale and sold out. My father Lewis Henderson Farley's [b. 1859 d. 1940] uncle Joseph [Farley] and his wife [Rebecca Paul) came to see my folks in Missouri. Joseph Farley lived somewhere in Indiana [White County]. My brother Joe [Joseph Dunreath, b. 1884] went home with them; they were going to send him through school, but they never did. He finally got enough money to get back to brother Fred [Fred Rosco b. 1879] Farley in IA.
"My folks moved back to Churdan, Greene County IA, where he worked for John Canavan, 3 1/2 miles southwest of Churdan. I went to school that winter -- 1900, my teacher was Mary Fitzpatrick. In 1901 we moved six miles straight east of Churdan and [Dad] worked for John Flaning. I went to school at the Jim Cornory School. Miss Lucy Foltz taught there. In 1902 [my father] moved 5 1/2 miles west and 1 1/2 miles south of Churdan and worked for George Vader.
"I have to back up, when we lived at Flanings I worked for Bill Cornory driving 5 big horses on a disk and dragging. Then I worked for Bill Pembel one half mile east of Churdan, then to Edman Brown and cultivated corn till haying time, then worked for Cleo Whichen, then to Mr. Walker and his boys east of Paton. Then harvest was on, [and] I cut bands which was binding twine tied around bundles of grain. At that time they had a horse powered separator to thrash small grain, it was run with several horses. One man and his boys would stand at one end of the separator, wagons would drive in on both sides, the man would stand in the middle and a boy on each side of him with a knife in his hand and the men in the wagons would throw the bundles of grain down on each side of the man. We boys, one on each side, would cut the strings and the man would feed the bundles of grain into the separator. That is the way they used to thrash the grain out. I would go to school three months out of the year, Ada Bellock was my teacher.
"When my father moved to Vader's that spring I worked for Mert Carey till after corn was laid by. Then I worked for Herm Vader till fall corn picking then picked corn for a while for John Fey, then quit and picked corn for Herm Vader till corn season was over. Then I went to school for three months, quit Jan 14, 1905. Father went back and worked for John Canaven. That was when my sister Anna was born and I stayed home and did all the hose work while Mom [Margaret Jeanette "Nettie" Reed b. 1860 d. 1934] was in bed with Anna. I cooked, washed dishes, and all of the house work. Got all the meals, and baked bread, did the washing and washed Anna's dirty diapers. That spring I went back to Mert Carey's and worked till the last of April and had to quit and go to North Dakota with Mother and John [John William b. 1897], Buelah [Buelah Maud b. 1901], and baby Anna [Anna Lavon b. 1905]. Dad stayed in IA and worked for Canaven till Aug. I had to be the head of the family up there till my father came up.
"Mother's sister Eve [Etta Reed] Gill and her husband [Henry] lived up there 10 miles east of Wilton, North Dakota and was 10 miles west of where Dad had homesteaded 80 acres of land. My two uncles and I took his mules and two wagons and went to Wilton and got two loads of lumber to build a house to live in. We just got it built and were going to move in on Sunday. I was working for a man by the name of Mr. Lee 5 miles from where Dad's homestead was. On Saturday, right after dinner we just got to the field when my boss saw black smoke over to the east -- it was a prairie fire. I unhitched the horse and rode over with wet rugs and sacks for that purpose, but the house was all burned up. The fire started about 1 miles south and I have always thought that the bachelors set it on purpose, but could not prove it. There was a sod house one mile north so my uncle got the government to let Mother move into it till we could get money enough to rebuild and still hold the claim. You had to live on the land for six months out of the year, for five years, before it was your land and could get a deed. I stayed till September, and had given Mother all of my wage money up till then. I borrowed money from the man I worked for to come back to Iowa. I got off the train and went out to George Vader's that day. Hired out to him and started right to work.
"I worked the rest of that year and the next, then I started to work for Jerry Mackey till spring, then I hired out to Ross Toliver, I quit in the fall and went south. 12 miles south west of Coon Rapids, working for my brother Joe Farley till about the first of November. It rained almost every day so we could not pick corn. Days it didn't rain I put four horses on a wagon and it was all four horses could do to pull 25 or 30 bushels of corn to the house. Then a big snow came, and that was the end of the corn picking for that year. I went back to Vader's and worked for him till the latter part of February, then to work for Herm Lightner, then in March I went back to Joe Farley's and helped finish picking corn. I went back to Lightner's and worked till after harvest and stayed till December then worked for George Autrum in the livery barn in Churdan.
"In March 1911 I worked for Bill Autrum at the Greene County Farm till May when I quit. Olive Violet Kloss worked there too, I told her to quit and she did, just to throw Bill out of any help. I was so mad at him because of what he did. It was real hot, and I was disking. One big nice horse was getting so hot I wanted to change horses. I told him I didn't think she could make another round, but he said she was wild and crazy and to go ahead, so I did, but she fell over dead before I got back -- she was worth two hundred fifty dollars. That made me mad is the reason for us quitting work for him. Then I went to digging tile ditch for Howard Guess till September, and worked for old Tom Wright schocking corn fodder. I picked corn for Herm Lightner till November 1911. Violet Kloss and I united in marriage November 24, 1911 license at Carroll Co IA, and we married at the Parsonage. We stayed in Burks Hotel, 3 or 4 days and then went to Churdan and I got our belongings. We went back to Carroll where I got a 3-room apartment from Mr. Brunner over the dime store.
"I got a job firing boilers at the Light plant till late spring then I quit and went to work for the C & N & W railroad cleaning coaches, then they put me to inspecting trains and I stayed there till April 1912 then quit and bought a team and started draying and hauling gravel. Later I got a team of horses and colts from Dave Ferguson up by Liier for breaking them in and hired a man and went to hauling. Lived at the Fisher place till in March; quit and moved to Glidden and worked for A.H. More House Lumber and Grain & Coal Co. till September, quit and went 12 miles southwest of Coon Rapids and worked for my brother till February. He fired me in March and I went to North Dakota at the last of April with my wife and children, started farming 10 miles west of Wing ND. Farmed two years and went broke and had a sale or gave the stuff away. Then moved to Bismarck, ND and worked for Mr. Walker's Transfer Co. hauling coal all over town, till spring, quit and went to work for the Standard Oil Co till that fall and quit. Bought me a team of horses and went on road work till winter. Before I bought a team I worked for the Carpenter Lumber Co till the fall of 1919. Hauled corn for that winter then sold everything and was broke. Borrowed money from Ross Toliver in IA and moved back to IA in the last of February 1920 -- we moved back. Worked for Ross Toliver three fourth mile east of Churdan for one year, then moved to C.U. Fisher's place.
"I worked for three years for C.U. Fisher, 8 miles north east of Glidden IA in Carroll County, south side of the Coon River. Then I rented the farm joining Fisher's farm on the west, and lived there for two years, then I rent Bert Cox's farm one mile north along the river and farm it for two years and had a sale. In 1929 had the Township Road work. In 1930 rented Art News farm and moved there. In 1933 the banks all closed. In 1934 Fran McCoy had a blanket Mortgage on all my stuff and sold me out, but no one had much money so stuff didn't bring too much, however I was able to have enough money to buy some of the stuff back. I got two cows and one team and harness and wagon and went to a few farm sales and got enough to farm with and stayed on. Then in 1936 we had a drought, and no crops, so I put all the farm to fall wheat and had a sale and sold everything but one cow and stayed on at the News farm. In 1937 I had a big wheat crop and bought stuff and stayed on farming till 1939.
"Had a sale and moved to Carroll IA and helped Chester and Robert Farley with the trucking grain business. We trucked grain and twine all over different states. At one time we all went out to Indianapolis IN and made our headquarters there. We hauled grain to Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan; got corn from Illinois. In July we hauled twine from the Jackson Michigan prison, and brought it back to Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois, then corn back to Michigan. Sometimes we would haul corn to Missouri and bring twine back from the prison from Missouri to Iowa. Then in November I stopped trucking and rented Art News' farm. Chester bought B.J. Hall's farm that winter. In the winter of 1941-1942 Robert was inducted into service for Uncle Sam.
"In the fall of 1948 I bought Art News' place where we had always lived for one hundred dollars per acre. In July 1950 I sold it for two hundred dollars per acre. Then in September 1950 I bought 15 acres from George Waldo, six miles north west of Jefferson, in Greene County IA, for forty to one hundred & fifty dollars per acre. Lived there till the fall of 1957, sold it for eight thousand, and five hundred for my machinery. Bought a house on north Pine Street, there was a measure easement against, which they did not pay so I made them take it back, which cost me $175 for lawyer expense. Then I bought a house at 704 North State Street, where we do live now for $3775. We had six children, names in order: Ruth, Irene, Chester, Rebecca, Robert, Mae. Two infant babies only lived one day, buried at Churdan, IA.
"That is the most of my life story at age 76 -- in April 2, 1970 at quarter past one p.m. My wife is Olive Violet Kloss age 78 in 1970. Now you see with all that quitting, and moving around how could I have made any money or saved it, till the last few years that I didn't move so much, then I began to make some money. You can not make no money moving all the time. So my advise is to get something good and stay by it, if you want to make money. This is the end." --- Items in [brackets] added 29 November 1991 by Adriana Farley. |
