Elizabeth (Beth) Cornwell Carlson and Theodore (Ted) Carlson

 This is my mother's sister, Beth, with her husband, Ted, on their wedding day on 3 Jun 1925. They were married on her parent's farm near Kramer, North Dakota. I love the adoring look that she's giving Uncle Ted.  I knew Aunt Beth better than my other aunts, because she lived until 1997. We visited each other and corresponded for many years. I received much of my information about the Cornwell family from her. She was a nice person...always fun to be with. I asked her about her wedding and she wrote the following. I like putting her story with these pictures...

"Ted and I were married on the farm as it says, not in any town. We had no church at that time. None of our family had weddings. Marie went to Astoria Ore in 1919 where John was in military service camp. Royce and Kate were married in Rugby (by a judge, I think). Helen and Bill just picked a church, a pastor "out of the blue the congregational" in Minot. My "happened to be " boyfriend at the time, I was teaching near Eckman, stood up with them. Percy and Mary eloped, and Alice, you know, secret, double wedding. So I decided to have a wedding with just family and close friends--all the siblings were living near there. We had had SS and church a few years during my last grade school, in the school house a mile south of the farm & the pastor, Rev. McBain married us. It was a hilarious affair, ab't 3 pm June 3, 1925! Royce & Kate were late--it was supposed to be 2:00. The pastor and his wife from Botno br't my bouquet and wedding cake as we planned, when we contacted them. I don't know if the Rev. had ever married anyone before but we stood in front of the big north window facing the guests and with his back to them. John and Royce sat on the couch in front of the big south window and kept winking at us! Jessie Page was bridesmaid & Percy, best man. The bouquet, carnations, baby breath, ribbons cost $3.00. Ted had a carnation in his button hole. The wedding cake from the bakery cost $2.00. Ted paid for them and gave Rev. Mc. $10.00 which was a lot for then. We had a sumptuous lunch with Helen, Alice--Marie & Kate to help mama--chicken in buns, pickles, cupcakes, coffee, salad, lemonade and wedding cake. Dad was all smiles and even kissed the bride. There was so much kidding and laughing. Percy rescued our suitcases from being raided and they had a "just married sign" and lots of old shoes and junk clunking along from the bumper. Ted had a 1924 chev. coupe. We took them off as soon as we got to McLeans, a mile south. Ted had a new blue suit and my powder blue dress with long jacket trimmed with insertions of lace (cost $35 in Minot) & black pumps with gloves, silk black stockings cost $10.00 at Samuelsons, which is still in business. I still have them but had my dress dyed brown and made over during the depression. Forgot to say we got some nice wedding gifts. We drove to Rugby the first night, about 50 miles, at 22 miles an hour, possibly speeding up to 25. We put the car in the garage--no one ever left their precious cars out then, and went to the one big hotel. Then the shock! Every room was taken for a Royal Neighbor Insurance convention. They directed us to The Grill, a greasy spoon with rooms above. We paid the $1.00 and went up. There was a hall with rooms on both sides and no windows. As soon as we turned the light on the bedbugs started scooting in all directions on the ceiling. There was a funny smell and we figured they had put something on the mattresses to discourage them. We kept the light on all night and never opened our suitcase or went to bed. There was one chair and we both sat in that, or I sat on Ted's lap. It's good that I only weighed 100 lbs. People in other rooms had lights on and every once in a while we'd hear a thump, like the bug had got too close. it was awful, if it hadn't been funny! We were tired from the long day and really slept some but both developed headaches. We didn't ask for our $1.00 back. We drove to Grand Forks that day and had a nice room, $3.00, and a bathtub and we both really soaked. From there to Sark Center and spent the next day with Dad's sister, Aunt Ettie, who was matron of a girl's reform school. President Coolidge was speaking in Mpls. that night and Aunt E. said she was glad one Cornwell could say she had seen a President. We didn't care less and didn't go to hear him. There was the Norsk Centennial on in Mpls. and St. Paul and we had room trouble again. It was late when we found one...then to McGregor Minn for the last two weeks...we had such a good time, boating and fishing and I learned to swim. This is the first time I have written that all down and hope you survived reading it. I don't think Dolph should attempt it. I had a "knicker set',--blousy pants and jacket, I wore on the trip. I had oxfords with wide soles and when we left I found a bedbug squeezed in close to the shoe.

This is a picture of the Cornwell family on the same day. I've had these pictures for years, but never connected that this one was taken at Aunt Beth's wedding.
Back row: Uncle Royce & Aunt Kate Cornwell, Uncle Bill Raftery, Uncle Ted and Aunt Beth Carlson, Sarah (Birdis) and Charles (my grandparents) Cornwell.
Middle Row: Aunt Marie and Uncle John Cornwell, Alice Cornwell (my mother), Aunt Helen Raftery, Uncle Percy Cornwell.
Front Row: Byrl and Darrell Cornwell (Royce's boys), Charles (Pat) Cornwell (John's boy) and Allen Cornwell (Royce's boy). (I think!)

My cousin, Charles (Pat) was 5 years old, and this is what he remembered about the wedding...

"I was there and remember it well--Took place in "front" room on the family farm. I had a ringside seat on the floor in living room. Uncle Royce made Beth cry--I thought (underlined) because he acted silly and made funny faces at her during the ceremony. I was impressed because they painted the house and everything in it. Aunt Alice painted all the kitchen chairs and cupboards--grey with bright red trim. They wouldn't let me sit on or touch anything. When they told me not to sit on the sofa--I asked if it was painted too and they said "yes" but I didn't believe them. Never told anyone about this event before. Love, Pat"

Flapper!

This is my mom and my Uncle Percy taken in the late 1920s. Mom was 17 in 1929. Uncle Percy was 7 years older.

My Mom and Dad



This is my mom and dad, Alice and Elmer Kofoid. It was probably taken about 1932 when they were first married. (I think I have dates on the original pictures, but didn't add them to the scanned pictures)

Love my Dad's haircut! I wonder if my Aunt Emma did the haircutting for her brothers!

Just Married?

I think this picture was taken in 1928 when May and Adolph were newly weds. They were married on August 25, 1928 when Adolph was 27 and May was 21.

Adolph never changed much. He always looked about the same age.

May, Dolph and Adolph Lundholm

This is Dolph with his mom and dad, May and Adolph. It was taken about 1946 when Dolph was a freshman in high school.

May was born in Sweet Home Oregon on July 17, 1907. Adolph was born on August 29, 1900 in Oakley Idaho. Dolph came along on January 5, 1932 in Lebanon, Oregon. I have been trying to remember how they met...I think there was some land dealing between the Browns and the Lundholms (who had moved from Hamer Idaho to the Sweet Home area). Dolph thinks that Adolph went with his dad to see the Browns about "something" and his mother and dad met then. This is a lesson for you...ask questions before everyone who knows the answers is gone!

May had 12 brothers and sisters and Adolph had six. I'll get to the family stories on some later post.

 Dolph helped me with this post…and he wrote “Mom was a school teacher and started her teaching career in Agnes, a one room school in a community so remote she had to get there by boat.” (Agnes is 20+ miles up the Rogue River from Gold Beach Oregon…there is now a road!) “She lived there with a local family, since she was a single woman. She taught in several other one room country schools, then in Waterloo (7 miles from Lebanon) and in Sweet Home Jr. High School. She retired after teaching seventh grade in the Lebanon School System for many years.”  Dolph's mom was a good teacher, but she struck fear into the hearts of many of the kids who were entering her classes. She demanded the best work that the student was able to give. We still hear comments from people who were her students and they almost always end with, "I really liked her. She was a good teacher"

May had really beautiful dark brown hair and brown eyes. When Karen was little, she said to May, "Grandma, you have such pretty eyes...just like Bella's". Bella was our Airedale! After Dolph was born, May couldn't have more children and she absolutely doted on Karen, which was probably lucky. She wouldn't have thought this was so cute coming from someone else.

May passed away on January 29, 1972 in Eugene Oregon at age 64 from heart problems.

Adolph worked his adult life at Crown Zellerbach paper mill in Lebanon and retired from that job. Adolph was a great story teller and an all around nice guy. An example of one of Adolph’s stories.

Dolph was a little boy and it was summer time with the windows open. It was evening and he was in bed. He heard a “sort of a whistling noise” outside his window. He called his mom and asked her what it was. Well, May didn’t know, so she called Adolph. He came in and listened and said “Oh, that’s nothing to worry about…that’s a Mileormore Bird”.  Dolph said, “What’s a Milormore Bird”. His dad replied, “That’s just a bird that’s sitting over there on the fence. He whistles through his butt and you can hear him for a mile-or- more”!!!!

One of Dolph's cousins interviewed Adolph when he was about 90 years old. In later blogs I will add some of his stories that he told.  Adolph died on October 6, 1991 in Lebanon from causes of old age.

Wow!

Thank you for the encouragement...I wasn't sure anyone would want to read this.

Karen asked about learning to light the gas stove. My mom was teaching at Sandridge (about 6 miles out of Lebanon Oregon). She taught all eight grades in a one room school. We lived in a 30' trailer. The people that owned the farm next to the school house let us park the trailer on their property...about 50 yards from the schoolhouse. My dad had built a garage sized building next to the trailer (we called it "the shack") and we used it for sleeping and the trailer for our kitchen. The trailer had a small gas range that used Butane (a close relative of Propane). We must have eaten a lot of potatoes, because I remember peeling a lot of them. I guess my parents decided that if I could peel potatoes, I could learn to cook them too. The first hurdle was striking the match! That was scary enough. I definitely wasn't cut out for arson...but with much practice, I finally could light a wooden match without dropping it. Next was the really terrifying part...to light the gas stove. I had to light the match, then turn on the gas and wait for the "POOF"when the gas reached the burner and ignited. Needless to say, I still dropped the match, but on top of the stove.  I was scared to death of getting burned...but that didn't happen until I was in a high school chemistry class. My lab partner turned on the Bunsen Burner and waited to light it...It definitely went "POOF" and singed my bangs and eyebrows.
He thought it was terribly funny. I never did like him!!!!!