Stamboom familie Eilders » Reina Negen (1907-1970)

Persoonlijke gegevens Reina Negen 

• Alternatieve naam: Rena Negen (ook bekend als / alias)
• Zij is geboren op 6 februari 1907 in Parkersburg, Butler County, Iowa.
• Zij is overleden op 19 december 1970 in Willmar, Kandiyohi County, Minnesota, USA, zij was toen 63 jaar oud.
• Een kind van Hendrik Negen en Reina Ottens

Gezin van Reina Negen

Zij is getrouwd met Henry Buss.

Zij zijn getrouwd op 27 november 1928 te Emden, Renville County, Minnesota, Verenigde Staten, zij was toen 21 jaar oud.

Kind(eren):

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Notities over Reina Negen

I was born September 26, 1929 on the Harry van Buren farm near Prinsburg, MN. I came into the world before the doctor got there. Mom covered me with a blanket and when the doctor came he said all was well.

My first memory is on the Daly farm south of Bunde church, we lived with Mom's sister and her husband, Uncle John Hillenbrand. Those were the dry years of the 30's. Mom told me the peat ground was so dry and dusty that it came through the windows and everywhere else. My cousin Vern and I are just two weeks apart in age and we had the measles at the same time. We were to stay in the dark so as not to hurt our eyes. Of course we did not obey and were soon out by the windmill, we sure got disciplined by my Mom. I do not remember Aunt Harriet saying much, I suppose she was busy with Mel, who was born about that time.

It was on that farm that Mom went to Granite Falls sanitarium for observation of tuberculosis. I was about three at the time so I stayed by another of Mom's sisters, Aunt Marie and her husband Albert Knapper. This stay lasted about three months. Helen Johnson, who later married cousin Renco Blokzyl, also worked at our place but her mother said she had to come home because she heard Mom had tuberculosis. She felt very badly for me and my Dad.

I do not remember any moves we made. The next place was the Thissen farm by Clara City. Ken was born there on November 18, 1934. Many years later, Ken could not find his birth certificate, the doctor was from one county and we lived in another, apparently he did not bother to register Ken's birth. My cousin Romona Knapper worked for us at that time. I remember she would curl her hair with a curling iron heated in a kerosine lamp chimney.

On January 11, 1935 while Mom was nursing Ken upstairs, I started screaming. She found me on fire downstairs! Instead of throwing me in a snow bank she put the fire out with her hands and was badly burned. I told Mom when the match got hot I put it in the bottom of my dress. We wore dresses, slips, long underwear and cotton stockings. This was during the great depression and Dad was gone working for the W.P.A., building bridges etc. We did not have a telephone so Mom told me to walk and wave my arms to cool the burns while she ran to the neighbors for help. While going down the driveway, the neighbor daughter came by. How I got to the hospital, I do not know, but I was there for two weeks. I remember having long blisters and the nurse came in and broke each one with a long pin. I thought she was going to cut my arm off. Romona Knapper stayed with me and fed me. I laid with my arms up with no bandages on. Romona is an artist and drew pictures for the rooms in the hospital. Mom could not stay with me because she had been in the sanitarium. Mom told me she would have 2 babies to feed when I got home but they wrapped my hands so the thumb was out and I could feed myself. Mom said my fingers looked like wieners, my nails were gone, hair singed, eyebrows and lashes gone. Only the top of my dress and slip were left. The fire burned a hole in my underwear on my stomach, the clothes, the Doctor said, saved me from any more severe burns. The only scars I have today are on my arms. I am certain that Ken cried when all this was going on as he was only about 2 months old and Mom said he was a fussy baby.

We moved to the farm near Kerkhoven the spring of 1936, I was 7 the following September and started first grade. I did not start school when we lived by Clara City because they did not have a country school and the folks did not want me to go to town school. Marge and Tom were born on that farm. I do not remember anything special about Marge's birth on March 9, 1939. It was during the day and I was in school at the time. When Tom was born, I did not know that a new baby was coming, nothing was said about those things in those days. At Christmas I always got a new dress for the programs. Mom could not go to town and get me one so we sent for a couple from the catalogue and I could pick out the one I liked the best. One night Dad's sister, Aunt Jennie, came and went to sleep with me at night. I said, "why are you leaving your stockings on?" She said "I might get my legs and feet cold". The next morning, Christmas day 1940, when I woke up there was a new baby boy. Dad called Mom's brother, Uncle Otto Negen, that we had a new baby and he thought it was not true because it was Christmas. When Aunt Jennie gave Tom his bath he thought her face was dirty and gave it a spray. We both had a good laugh over it.

We had 11 milk cows and I had to milk morning and night with my Dad. Milking was done by hand, Dad milked 6 and I milked the 5 easier ones. Before we went out to the barn in the morning I had a cup of tea, that was the custom of our family. We did not take showers before going to school. We washed up and changed our clothes. I am sure we all smelled alike. The poor teacher.

Dad bought a new 1940 Studebaker car. He went by train to Lafayette, Indiana to get it. While driving it home he stopped by his parents, our Grandpa and Grandma Buss, in Iowa. This car was to have new seal beam headlights that could really shine. I remember sitting in the kitchen, by the table, waiting for him. All of a sudden we could see him coming a mile down the road, as it was dark by then. What excitement that was! Mom did not drive at that time but Dad wanted her to learn so she could drive to church in Raymond. Mom took a big turn around a corner and Ken said, "Dad you better drive," he was scared. Mom had that car for many years.

I remember one trip we took with the car. Dad said we had a good car with new tires. We could now go to North Dakota and visit his Uncle and Aunt and cousins. North Dakota is very flat, with not much to see. We were on this wide country road where the road grader was grading the road and we had a blow out with one of the tires. It swayed back and forth and I was scared. I was also lonesome there. We stayed one night to sleep.

Sadness and change came in August of 1941. On Sunday afternoon, we visited at the home of Mom's neice Francis and her husband Sietze Epema. Dad complained of a headache on the way home. Charlie Hillenbrand worked for us at the time and was along with us. Each day that week Dad seemed to get a little sicker. On Wednesday afternoon he cut grain and said if he felt good he would shock the grain. But he came home. Mom said he should go to the doctor, I was to go with him and get a yeast cake. By that time his temperature was 103 and he would just lay on the living room floor and sleep. I do not remember if he had pills or not. By Friday night he was delirious. He called Marge to the bed and held her hand saying, "where did you put those nails?" He did not hurt her but just asked her about it. On Saturday morning, Mom went to Renville to get Tillie Sietsema, who went to peoples houses and helped out where needed. The neighbor lady stayed with us kids. All of a sudden Dad appeared all dressed. He said he was going outside, I quickly put the hook on the screen door and said he should go back to bed, he did and slept again. The Doctor came and said he should go to the hospital in Willmar. I believe the Doctor took him in his car and Tillie went home again. One of our Uncles and Aunts came on Saturday and took Mom to the hospital but Dad was sleeping and they wouldn't let her in. They did not tell her how serious it was so she did not go again until noon on Sunday. At that time they told her if he lived his mind would be in a vegetative state. By six o'clock he was gone, it was August 3, 1941, Dad was 34 years old. We kids had gone home with Uncle Otto's for supper and he was gone when we got back to Willmar. I never did see him in the hospital and am glad I can remember him like he was before he became ill. It was a private funeral at home because no one knew if encephalitis was infectious. Our Uncles did get the neighbors to see his body because the undertaker left and the coffin was open.

Charlie helped me with chores and milking. All the area farmers threshed our grain. On September 11, 1941 we had an auction sale of farm machinery, livestock and corn that was in the field. Some of our cousins took turns staying by our place before we moved. Mom's brothers arranged to buy a house and move it to Emden near the church where Mom had grown up.

Mom was very scared and I slept with her for a couple of years. Aunt Maggie made clothes for me as I did not have much to wear for school in September. I started the 6th grade by Kerkhoven and Ken started the 1st grade. He didn't want to go to school because the man teacher was not teaching, but he went anyway. We moved to Emden the day after Thanksgiving. When we got there Marge was not going to sleep in her crib. It was her bed but not her home. A very traumatic experience for one that age. So begin our new home, school and church.

One thing I do remember; Mom told me that Dad had a life insurance policy that had a premium due. Dad's mind would go in and out but he insisted that Mom make out a check and pay the premium, which she did. It was not a big policy but in those days it did help us through for a while.

In Emden I was older and did a lot of babysitting for Mom. She said once if it were not for me she would not have made it through her troubles, but if not me, there would have been other means to help her. God was good to us in supplying all our needs and cares. Never a serious sickness or surgery. Many times I think where we would all be today if things would have been different. But God had this all in his plan.

Marion Bohlsen

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