Imagine a time, not that long ago, when young women were homemakers. When they came of age, they got married (up if possible), took care of their husbands, managed the homestead, and raised a bunch of children. Then, a time came when women began to desire more for their lives and take an interest in the working world. Picture the Mary Poppins “Votes for Women” atmosphere. That’s the atmosphere that was beginning to grow when my grandmother Sidney was born in 1904.
In my memory, Sidney was a very stern person and a very hard worker. She didn’t have a lot of time for fun and games. I wonder if that’s because things didn’t quite work out for her the way she hoped they would.
In 1914, when Sidney was just ten-years-old, World War I erupted in Europe. The draft took men from across the United States overseas to fight. This created an environment where more women than ever before had the opportunity to join the workforce, filling in for men who had gone to war. While men reclaimed their jobs after the fighting ended, opportunities remained for women that weren’t there before. One of these opportunities was secretarial work. “Stenographer” and administrative careers became something of a trend for young, single women in the 1920s. They began taking on jobs that required shorthand, typing, filing, and other “female” skills.
For Sidney, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. She wanted to do more with her life than her mother had. However, Sidney’s attempt to enter the workforce started a chain of events that led to, well, something entirely different.
Business School on $10 a Month?
Sidney Roghers was an intelligent woman. As a young, optimistic teenager in post-World War I America, she wanted to make something of herself. (You know the feeling!) Unfortunately for her, she didn’t seem to quite know how to go about it. At 20-years-old, Sidney was just 1 credit shy of earning her high school diploma (another thing young women began striving for during the ‘20s).
But, before completing her high school education, she decided to drop out. Why? She wanted to go to business school. This was back in the day when a large, full-page advertisement in the local newspaper could impact your entire life. Its many testimonials and promises of high paying careers led dreamers to sign-up for whatever the ads offered. Clearly young people being overly impulsive isn’t a new trend.
The business school Sidney wanted to attend advertised that students would pay $10 a month for room and board. Her parents let her go and her father, stingy as he was, sent her $10 a month to live on. However, even in the mid-1920s, this wasn’t much money. Still, it should have covered food and shelter, according to the school’s promotional material.
Sidney did well in business school. She learned shorthand and was very proud of that fact. However, the $10 a month apparently didn’t cover the room and board as promised and Sidney found herself short of cash. I don’t know why the $10 a month wasn’t enough. Maybe it was false advertising! Perhaps Sidney spent money on other things (as young people do) and came up short for her room and board. Or, maybe the school pulled a “bait and switch”, informing her that the $10 a month was now increased to $15 a month.
For whatever reason, she wasn’t able to find any part-time work to help pay her expenses. Her funds ran low to the point that she couldn’t afford food. She was starving. Later in her life, when telling this story, she looked me square in the eyes and said it got so bad that she actually saw Jesus! I don’t know how long Sidney attended business school. Unfortunately, and heartbreakingly for her, she had no choice but to drop out and go home.
Catching the Train North
I can imagine how frustrated Sidney felt after not finishing school… twice! I can picture her moping around the house, spinning her wheels wondering what to do next. She must have driven her family nuts. By this time, Sidney was 22-years-old. Since she hadn’t earned a degree and hadn’t found herself a man to marry.
My great-grandfather decided to send her to Helenville, Wisconsin to visit her brother Hilbert, who was working as a farmhand up there. He wanted her to ask if Hilbert wanted in purchasing the family-owned farm in Marathon County. I guess he could have just written Hilbert a letter, but the errand got Sidney out of the house and away from her father. A good thing, since they were apparently exactly alike – hard-headed!
The farm where Hilbert worked was out in the sticks. After Sidney’s train arrived in Helenville, she began walking the many miles out to the farm. She walked. And walked. And walked. Finally, after hours of walking in the middle of nowhere, a local farmer drove up the road. To her relief, he gave her a ride the rest of the way. When she arrived, Hilbert ran out to greet her, excited to see her after so long. But, he wasn’t interested in buying the family farm. Again – could have been a letter.
I don’t know why, but after this journey Sidney decided to travel north to Marathon County herself. She was actually born in up there and lived in the county until she was about 14. Perhaps she was just homesick for the old farm and her extended family. She hopped on the train and traveled 200 more miles to the Wucherphennig family farm, near Edgar, Wisconsin.
When she arrived, after a much shorter walk, she found out that her Uncle Fred and Aunt Harriet Wucherphennig had purchased a farm of their own in Forman, North Dakota. They were actually getting ready to move. They invited Sidney to come along to help watch their children. With nothing else going on she agreed. So, in the fall of 1927 the family, Sidney included, moved to North Dakota.
An Awkward Situation
A widow named Hann Fjelstad owned the farm that Sidney’s uncle and aunt had purchased. Hanna had run the farm after her husband died with the help of her 28-year-old nephew Erick and a group of farmhands. In spite of the help, Hanna decided she no longer wanted to keep the farm and sold it to the Wucherphennigs. When the Wucherphennig family got to North Dakota, Hanna Fjelstad, her nephew, and her farmhands hadn’t left. It turned out they had no place to go and needed more time to arrange to move. Awkward.
The farmhouse must have been large because Sidney’s uncle agreed to let everyone stay over the winter. The two families roomed together until spring. Personally, this unusual arrangement would have driven me crazy, but there was a silver lining for Sidney. It allowed her to get to know Hanna’s handsome nephew Erick Hanson. Sidney wrote a letter home to her sister that winter boasting she had met a nice young man and she was going to get him to marry her. Her confidence paid off and she finally succeeded in accomplishing something she set her heart to. Erick and Sidney got married in 1928 in Breckenridge, Minnesota.
Sidney never got her high school diploma. She never became a stenographer. Nonetheless, she did achieve what most women in the 1920s still desired – she found herself a husband. A modern woman in a world that was changing. Needless to say, we were all rolling on the floor laughing when we found Grandma Sidney’s letter home with her sneaky scheme for Erick, my grandfather. Grandma got her man!
Image Credits:
Typewriter and train: Photos courtesy of Pixabay.
Sidney and Erick Hanson: From the records of Gerald and Ruth Dilley
