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| James Burton Groves planting corn on his Grandmother's farm near Viroqua, WI |
James Steven Groves, son of James,
shares his memories sparked by this photo...
Hello Gang,
Thanks so much, Bob, for scanning and forwarding this picture to us. I
would like to add a little more commentary. But, before I do, I want you
to know up front that it is a Groves' Family History Lesson. This photo
of my Dad sparked the motivation within me to give some background to the
picture. Frankly, I want to do it now while I am of sound mind and
remember all of these details. This kind of information is so easily
lost forever if not recorded and shared. Some of you may find this
boring, so feel free to disregard.
1. I agree with Linda, these horses are not Sadie and Boots. I
definitely remember Dad (James) talking about a horse named Nig. I also
think he mentioned one named Sally. This could possibly be Nig and
Sally. I don't remember seeing them.
2. This photo was taken on the farm east of Viroqua. Compared to other farms in
the area, it was large, well over 200 acres. It was owned by my
great grandmother, Minnie B. (Cox) Groves. Her husband's name was Isaac.
He suddenly died of a heart attack in 1937 just south of the barn on
that place. Her son, William F. Groves, his wife, Amanda and their 4
kids moved into their big house and ran the farm after his death.
When one of their sons, James (my Dad), got married to Edna in June 1941,
my parents moved about 200 yards away to a separate home on the property
that was called "the little house".
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| 1st home of James and Edna Groves |
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| View of home - June 2008 |
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About a year after I was born in March 1942, Bill and Amanda moved to Chicago,
got jobs and continued there until 1955 when they moved up to Fountain City, WI
where they bought a home.
During this time Uncle Vernon was at the University of Wisconsin -
Madison working on his Ph.D in Educational Psychology. James and Uncle
Hubert were running the farm together, Hubert was not yet married. Later
he felt the call into Christian ministry and sold his interest in the
farm machinery and animals to James. He then went to Chicago and
attended Chicago Evangelistic Institute and later Moody Bible Institute.
The only other sibling was Aunt Mildred (Ming), the youngest.
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| Edna, left & Ming, right... early 1940's photo |
I don't remember all the details of her adventures. I believe she went to
"Normal School" which was then a 2 year program to be certified to teach
in a rural elementary school, which she did a couple of years.
Eventually I know Ming continued her education at Eastern Nazarene
College in Quincy (Boston), MA where Uncle Vernon was now teaching with
his new shiny Ph.D.
By this time my parents and us kids had moved back into the "big house"
after all of the other family members had left. Minnie continued to live
in "the big house" too where she had her own "apartment" and my parents
and all of us kids, except Marge who wasn't born until 1950, lived in the
rest of the house.
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| The "Big House", June 2008 |
| James Steven, Edna, Barbara Jean, Linda Louise, James B., Kathleen Virginia - Christmas 1947 |
James and Edna wanted to get a farm of their own and it would have seemed
logical for them to buy Minnie's home where they were now farming and
living. They didn't buy it for 2 reasons: A lot of tobacco was being
grown in the Viroqua area at that time and it was a big cash crop. It
alone really increased the value/cost of farm land. It was too expensive
for them to buy this big farm. The second reason they didn't want to
live there was because they didn't grow tobacco, felt it was morally
wrong, and wanted to get clear away from where tobacco was raised.
I can remember Mom telling about all people talked about when they went
to church was how things were going with their tobacco crop. Most
farmers would raise 5 -10 acres, this doesn't seem like much. But they
had to take care of it like it was their garden. Planting, fertilizing,
watering, hoeing, topping, cutting, hanging in tobacco sheds, packaging
and shipping to market, and a whole lot more. It was very labor
intensive and time consuming. For those who raised it, tobacco ran
their lives and dominated their thinking.
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| November 1948 - 1978 |
So, my folks found a 200 acre farm, costing much less ($11,700), 3 miles
from Fountain City, WI. They moved there in November 1948. At the time,
I was in the first grade at a rural elementary school called Bishop
Branch, about a mile from the farm. My last big hurrah at the school was
to get up in front and recite a piece, holding a pumpkin, in our school
Halloween program. Minnie Groves continued to live in the big house
after we moved until she died in March 1954. She was 89, just 3 weeks
short of her 90th birthday on 26 March. I was nearly 12 years
old and was a pallbearer at her funeral in the Methodist Church in Viroqua.
[Note from Linda: Minnie Groves, our Great-Grandmother, moved into the home
of her daughter, Helen Groves Hart, in LaCrosse, WI at some point before her
death because she was living with Helen at the time of her death. I think
it's possible that her need for more care and Helen's willingness to provide
that in her home, was what brought about the decision to sell the farm so our
parents had to decide whether to buy that farm or find another farm which they
could afford in order to raise their growing family.]
By the way, the move by my folks from Viroqua to Fountain City (85 miles)
was a big culture shock. They went from a Protestant, Scandinavian
community to a Catholic, German/Polish community. At the time they
moved, Viroqua was "dry", meaning there were no taverns or liquor sales
in the city. By contrast, Fountain City, a metropolis of 934 people, had
its own brewery and the beer was called, "Fountain Brew".
So many times I have thought about the courage and stamina they had to
make such a move with 4 little kids, lots of machinery and animals. My
Dad moved most everything, except the cows, by himself with his old 1936
Ford truck. The lights on the truck did not work. Therefore, he would
load up a load of machinery in the morning, drive the 85 miles to the
Fountain City farm, unload and then return to the Viroqua farm before
dark in the fall of 1948. And keep in mind, he wasn't driving on
interstate highways.
3. The part of the farm where the picture was taken was an area of
contour strips/fields where James and Hubert rotated crops of corn, oats
and hay. They referred to this area as "the bowl" because of its
semi-circular geographical shape. In the picture he is planting corn
with a two-row corn planter which planted the corn seeds along with a
shot of granular fertilizer. A few years later, Dad cut the long wooden
"tongue" to make it much shorter and adapted it to be pulled by a tractor
instead of horses.
They always tried to be done planting corn in May each year. Because of
weather conditions, etc. that wasn't always possible. But Dad always
said he needed to be done planting corn by their wedding anniversary,
which was 7 June. The reason it was urgent was because it would take
corn 85 to 110 days to mature and get ripe before the frost came.
Freezing would kill the corn whether it was ripe or not.
4. Hopefully this will motivate some of you to visit the old Viroqua
farm when you are back in Wisconsin (God's Country). The farm is 6 miles
east of Viroqua on Highway 82. There is a gravel side road right next to
the farm house that has a street sign labeled, "Groves Lane". The last
time I was there the place was nicely kept and the house and barn seemed
to be in good shape. You can actually go out to "the bowl" and see
roughly where this picture was taken.
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| Jim, Linda and Margelyn - June 2008 |
All for now, Brother/cousin/uncle/dad, etc. Jim
***************
Added March 25, 2014
Further explanations from Jim Groves in response to questions from Barbara Drew:
Did Minnie sell the farm? I'm assuming she did because no one we know inherited it after her death, right?
Good question. I don't know all the intimate details of the transition from Minnie to the subsequent owner but I know enough to give the broad picture. No one inherited the farm outright as many of her children were still living: William, Genevieve, Helen, Tom, I don't know if there were any others at that time.
They did have another son, John Ivan (always went by Ivan), who got TB (not uncommon in those days) who was taken to AZ for treatment and eventually died and is buried there in Phoenix. One time when James and Edna were visiting us in AZ we went to the cemetery and found his grave. We had difficulty at first because Dad/James was looking him up in the registry as Ivan Groves. Then Dad remembered that his real name was John Ivan Groves and we had no trouble locating the flat, ground level marker.
Minnie's son Tom, and his wife Leva, owned the next farm out the gravel "Groves Lane" road. Their farm was less than a mile from Highway 82 by the big house. Groves Lane runs through the "Sugar Camp", an area in the woods with a lot of maple trees where James and Hubert had their maple syrup making operation. Bill, Amanda and their family once lived on that farm where Tom lived and it was known as "the small place".
That place has interesting stories connected with it. I remember Dad/James telling two in particular. One was how they had a riding horse that he, Vernon and Hubert rode 6 miles to high school in Virquoa. I think only 2 of them were going to high school at one time. One would start off riding the horse and the other would walk. At a certain point the rider would get off, tie up the horse and start walking. The original walker would get to the horse and ride on past the walker and they would keep repeating the process all the way to school. They had a place in town where they kept and fed the horse during the day. It might have been with Harvey Cox, Minnie's brother.
The other story was about the time lightning struck the house at the small place. It was a bad thunderstorm and at least James and Hubert were in the kitchen when the lightning bolt struck the chimney and the electrical charge coming down and the one coming up from the ground met in the wood-burning kitchen stove. It blew the cast iron lids off the stove burner right next to them. As I recall James was soaking his feet in a pan of water next to the stove. No one was hurt but it really was a big shocker. No wonder they remembered it.
Back to Minnie's farm. I think Tom either bought or rented the farm from his mother. He probably rented it after James and Edna left and then bought it from the estate after Minnie died. I think Tom sub-lent part of the land out to others for growing crops because it was too much for him to farm both his and that place.
He and Leva had 2 boys, LaVern and Roger. When they grew up they both moved to Phoenix, AZ and were school teachers. Leva especially, was all about making money. Back in the 60's and 70's the go-cart craze hit the country and Tom and Leva built a go-cart track on a nice level spot on Minnie's old farm near the sugar camp. I remember visiting the old place and going to the go-cart track while Tom was there. I wanted to take a spin, which I did, but with Leva present, there were no free rides.
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