W-1900-ETNL.DOC

Generation +1  #4 daughter of William Landau of Oberlin Ks

 

1900  Tally-Landau

 

born

1900e  Earl Talley  Oberlin Ks

1900-12-09  Nina Lucille Landau Kanona Ks

married

1933-07-21  Oberlin Ks

 

died

19xx             Oberlin Ks

1971-10-02  Oberlin Ks

parent F

            

1856  William Landau

parent M

 

1860  Nancy French

#1 child

1936  Norman Tally Oberlin Ks

193x  Glenva Liadig

#2

1941  Robert Tally  Oberlin Ks

193x  Sharon Sargent

 

 

                            Nina Landau                                                   Nina & Earl Tally 

 

  Nina (Landau) and Earl Tally

            Nina was the last of the nine kids, thus the name Nina. She was also the last to marry. Nina was first married to Glenn Vatopka and lived on a farm not far from Kanona. They were very happy and welcome participants at family gatherings. I once went to visit them and had a ride on Glenn’s beautiful light brown riding horse. Quite unexpectedly Glenn died of a ruptured appendix. Some thought the result was associated with bad fall he'd had when the horse slipped and practically fell on him a brief time before.

Nina subsequently met and married Earl Talley and they moved to his place about 2 mi north and 2 mi west of Oberlin, his parents living on a place near by. Neva & Nina now lived about 3 mi apart and Holden & Earl helped each other as was the custom of family and neighbors.

Recollections of Darrell Landau at Earl & Nina's:

Single Shot 22:       When about age 13 Santa filled my request for a rifle. I'd often go hunting on foot. Wearing an old felt hat, no shirt, pair of pants, a cartrige belt of 22 bullets, a canteen and knife. The canteen being a leather covered whisky bottle made for me by Dick Grice, the ex cowboy shoe repairman, and an old butcher knife in a sheith also made by Dick. Carrying my single shot 22 rifle I'd often choose to walk the four miles, following a pasture draw, to see Nina & Earl. Earl was usually in the field but I'd always have a good visit with Nina before hiking back. On one visit, walking with Nina to the NW pasture to round up the milk cows, I was carrying my rifle, Nina said, can you hit anything with that? Aspiring to be a good shot, I said, I try. Nina said, OK show me what you can do, pick something and shoot at it.  I looked about and all there was were fence posts, I started to aim at a near one and then decided I should at least pick one at a longer distance away. I said, that one, I'll hit that one. Nina said, that's fine but tell me where are you going to hit it. Ugh, I'd have picked a closer one if I'd known she was going to say that!  I said, the top barbed wire where it's stapled to the post. Nina said OK, go ahead.  We both stopped, I took careful aim and squeezed the trigger.  Twang...... Golly! I'd knocked the staple out and the top wire was vibrating like a violin string, I was startled! Nina said  Whow! I'm impressed, you really can shoot that thing. We said nothing more about it as we rounded up the cows, I was very careful after that to never shoot at anything when Nina was about; I could have only undone my unexpected success. She was very nice and didn't joke about my lucky shot, I sure she knew it was pure luck.

Previously I'd consume a box of shells just firing away at anything. After this incident I'd strive to make every shot count. There were many rabbits about then and everyone considered them fair game for target practice. I had not yet developed an aversion for shooting for the fun of it.

Gathering the Eggs:  Always wanting to help and have a Job when time to do chores, I'd gone along to learn how to milk cows. I was still to young to have much of a grip, after taking time for a lesson or two it was obvious that Earl & Nina would need to do the milking in order to get done. They were milking about 6 cows at the time. So I helped toss feed to the cattle in the coral, fed the chickens and gathered the eggs. They had a large chicken house to the north of the house with a large fenced in section but most of the chickens ran loose except for sitting hens, however they all gathered for an evening meal at the chicken house and would go in near dusk to roost for the night. Most were ready to sleep after chasing bugs and grass hoppers all day. Most were Leghorns & White Rocks, common breads of the time. I had gone through the Hen House searching each nest for eggs, sometimes moving an old biddy to gather other chickens eggs under her. I had about 1 1/2 milk buckets full of eggs which I then took to the back porch of the house and put the eggs into an egg case for delivery to town. By then Nina had left milk to put in the separator and gone back to milk some more while I turned the crank on the cream separator. The handle represented an infinite load as it slowly gave way transferring it's energy into more and more speed of the separator disks, you knew when you had it up to speed by the sound of it's high RPM.  The input separated into cream and whole milk. I took part of the whole milk to the chickens, Earl used the remainder for a calf and the hogs. I was trying to learn all and anticipate what needed to be done.

Next morning it was time to do chores again. Earl & Nina went out to milk first and we'd all have breakfast after chores were done. When chores started it was not yet light, but we'd gone to bed shortly after sunset, a novel experience for me, as I grew older I'd been permitted to stay up late. When I realized they were up I got up too and headed out to the chicken house to do my part of the chores. My gosh I searched and searched but only found one egg! I figured if the cows were ready to milk in the morning the chickens would have laid their eggs too.

Nina got a big kick out of telling the other cousins some of whom lived on farms about how Darrell had learned that chickens don't lay eggs at night. Nina had an engaging laugh causing you to also find humor in the tale and join in the laughter.

Fixing Fence:

Earl was an energetic hard worker. They had a lot of pasture as well as cultivated land and there was always lot's of fence to fix. On one visit I went with Earl to Fix Fence. We drove his old 1933 Chevy Truck. I'm not certain about the model year but that's close enough as they didn't change much for a few years then. Earl had previously dumped loads of tree limbs he'd cut on his South Section of pasture. That pasture was indeed a section of buffalo grass which encompassed a draw extending to the south of the Sappa Creek. This pasture was about 5 mi SW of Holden's place. There were trees in the multi branched pasture draw, Earl had trimmed these for fence post material. Our task of that day fixing fence was to split these logs as each would produce from two to four fence posts, then set these in place replacing frail or deteriorating ones.

Earl had brought along a hand auger, a bag of sugar and a glass jar of Potash plus, a rag. a string of for fuse and matches. We augured a hold mid length in the log 3/4 through. Then Earl carefully mixed Potash and Sugar and poured the mixture into the hole in the log. He then poked in a fuse & stuffed in some rag to hold the charge in place. He'd then light the fuse and we'd go a safe distance away. The charge would go off splitting the log apart. This method had probably been in use since Colonial days. This was one of many things I was leaning on every visit with relatives, some things you couldn't learn in town.

After replacing a string of posts we would string barbed wire, we stapled four strands to each post, equally spaced to chest high. After a string was in place a rope pulley Earl called a fence tightener was used to pull the barbed wire taunt, then it was wrapped about the end post and stapled fast. Later I was to use a Fence Tightener to pull a flat belt tight when driving a flat belt on a Wheat Blowers. In last half of High School I'd gone to work for the Oberlin Milling Co applying what I'd been learning.

Learning to Drive:

Earl's folks and his Bachelor Brother Raymond lived with them near by. Earl and his brother often helped each other. Raymond & I got along very well he taking an interest in helping me learn how to be of help about the farm. He took it upon himself to teach me how to drive the Chevey Truck. He drove out into one of the pastures stopped, turned off the engine and asked if I'd like to drive? I said sure, I was probably 14 or so at the time and had to really sit up to operate the controls and see out. He gave me some brief instructions and I asked question. I started the truck and we moved out. I killed the engine once by letting the clutch out too fast be I learned fast. After a few times of starting & moving the truck on the job I was considered checked out and a qualified hand for operating the truck or machinery on the farm. At that time I was also working part time for the Sproul Creamery. Earl Sproul aware I was driving Earls truck soon had me driving his Chevey Car pulling a trailer hauling large cream cans of buttermilk from the Creamery to his hog feedlot. Only that was more difficult as I had to back the loaded trailer to get it in place and lift the 100 lb cream cans to dump their contents into mixing barrels to make bran-buttermilk slop for the hogs. Thus when Earl Tally had a need I had learned enough to know how to manipulate equipment about to do farm tasks. All kids on a farm knew how to operate equipment with skill before considered old enough to be licensed to drive on a highway.

During harvest I drove the old Chevey Truck to town with a load of wheat before I was old enough to have a drivers license, not unusual at harvest time for a work related farm task. That was a memorable experience as the engine had a struggle pulling the heavy load and the brakes too weak to be very effective. Thus it was necessary to know how to use the engine to brake as well as pull. Earl & Nina had taken on a lot of work as they were farming rented land as well as their own, Norman had not been born yet so they were glad to have me to help & I was eager to do so at an early age.

Busting Lister Ridges:      Earl & Nina asked if I'd like to go to work part time for them in the summer of 37' when I was leaving grade school and starting high school. I drove Earls Allis Chalmer crawler (track type) tractor north of the house busting open Lister Ridges. The tractor was connected to a three bottow plow (Lister) with double sided plow blades; ie, they folded dirt over each way. This kind of plow had been used to furrow the field and now Earl wanted to plow into the ridge and cause the dirt to fold over into the furrow, in effect reversing hills to furrows and furrows to hills. My task was to keep the tractors tracks riding on top of the furrow ridge. This was not especially difficult but it did keep one awake else it would drop off into the groove. I don't believe this method of summer fowlow is used any more but it was common practice in those years close after the dust storms. 

Keeping on the Road:    After they and I thought I knew how to drive the tractor Earl asked if I'd drive the Cat to the South Pasture which included a small segment of cultivated land. I started after chores were done and Earl went ahead in the truck. All was going fine, I'd been warned it would be a long slow drive, when I came upon the first signicicant down hill grade. The section line road was all dirt with little gravel, typically the graded ditches at the edge of the road had eroded into channels about 3-6 feet wide and 3-10 feet deep. The road had a crown which sloped to the sides. I came down the road headed more and more down hill. Under load & on the flat the tractor was readily steer by pulling on one or the other of the large clutch handles. Now the effect of these was becoming anemic? For a while it would respond as if reluctant then not at all? I was pondering what was wrong when the tractor began an accelerating drift toward the deep gully at the side. Earl had started the cat and set the throttle, I'd released the main clutch peddle & was off at a fast turtle pace. I became aware I had to do something, but what I only knew how to turn on/off the ignition, set the throttle and wiggle the side and main clutch's. I figured I could turn off the engine but there had to be a brake. There didn't seem to be a brake peddle by the clutch peddle, my glance was from cockpit to the ditch and back to the cockpit estimating distance and time. I then noticed two peddles never used before, one on each side. I decided to try it. It was a long reach for me but I pushed. Thankfully I pushed the correct one, one side slowed and the other advanced correcting my aim down the road. The outside track had come close to the edge, it was a good thing the road was not muddy and the edge unstable. I thought my gosh it would have helped if Earl had told me about how to run it, but since I thought I knew he'd taken my word that I did. Several years later I was to use what I learned about driving that tractor to back a B-29 into a wind break when it became necessary to walk the tractro sideways alternately using brake & clutch.

Not Worth Cutting:      I was going to help him by driving the tractor for harvest but the wheat was lousy. We pulled into a field that belonged to his father making a swath about the field. Earl waved for me to stop, running his hands through the wheat and biting the grains with a look of consternation said, this is terrible. Let's cut up through there which looks like the best there is and if it isn't any better we'll quite and just feed cattle on it for what they can get out of it. We made the pass & Earl wave me to head to the edge of the field and shut down. Earl said we were only making 11 bu. to the acre at best and it wouldn't pay to cut it. He tried not to show his disappointment but we didn't talk much going back to the house.

The next summer they asked me to come back and drive the tractor for harvest again. This time the wheat was great and we worked from early morning till late each night. One summer they hired Harold Dyer a recently graduated Sr to drive the truck, another summer Wayne Lohefner to help during the peak cutting period. We cut Earls, then a neighbors then Edna Loctor's wheat. We went full out till there was no more wheat in the area to cut. This was a period before anyone had heard of Custom Cuters.

Gentleman Cow:   Edna was our next door neighbor in town and had a farm south of Earl and just north of Holden. Edna was quite a character, she had some milk cows on her place which was operated by a tenat farmer. One of her cows needed to be bread so it would come fresh again and bring milk. Earl had a beautiful looking bull to service his and Holdens heard. Edna wanted to obtain the services of Earls Bull for her cow but didn't know how to ask. In a very lady like demeanor she approached Earl who was then cutting her wheat, there was something else on her mind. She said she had a very nice milk cow and wondered if Earl thought he could let his Gentleman cow come visit with her lady cow for a while, he wouldn’t need to stay for long just so it was long enough?  Earl & Nina would get to laughing when Earl would tell of Edna's request to let his Gentleman cow come for a visit.

Overhaul:      One summer just before harvest I was again running the tractor when Earl came out to the field and studied the exhaust. He was having a mental struggle, he was concerned that the tractor might not last through harvest w/o an overhaul and time was running out. He had previously gone into town and arranged with Walt Sauvage to overhaul the tractor. Walt was the one who delivered gas to him and who sold Allis Chalmers tractors. However Walt had become swamped with work and was not getting at Earls tractor Earl was more and more concerned. He finaly got Walt to start on it but when they broke it down they found they needed certain parts and didn't have them in stock. Some people had already started to cut wheat and Earl was very impatient, when he found they didn't have the parts Earl made an uncharacteristic very high speed run to Neb first to Mc Cook then to Hastings to find the parts. When he got back with the parts he convinced Walt to provide him a loaner as Earl didn't feel the delay was his fault. Walt provided an equivalent Allis Chalmers except with rubber tires. We used this tractor to start harvest and a week later changed to the repaired one which Earl liked better anyway.

Riding the Cat:     I wore an old felt hat, a pair of trousers and no shirt when riding the cat. The tracks churned up the dirt and it was much more dusty than the rubber tired one. On each side of the bench cushion seat were two steel plates. These plates became very hot with the heat of the sun superimposed on heat from the engine, I took great care to not burn my legs on the sides. I always wore glove else blisters would have formed from the constant pulling on the two large clutch levers which extended up from the floor. Earl got after me about going bare back, he was right, I acquired a severe sunburn before I was aware I'd left my shirt off too long. Nina brewed some strong tea which contains Tanin and applied it to my beet red back. The brew did the trick turning my hide dark brown and toughened to the suns rays. I continued the summer without a shirt. In those days we didn't know about the dangers of skin cancer, a deep chocolate tan was considered a mark of distinction by kids of all ages.

Wild Dogs:

Dogs from town would sometimes roam out into the country, team up with country dogs and start running as a pack. They would sometimes attach & cripple livestock confined in a coral. Earl had a large beautiful male Police dog breed and his folks a large half Collie half Shepherd female dog. The two had a batch of about 5 pups. These pups now full grown became part of one of these packs, nice domesticated pets during the day, doing uncontrolled mischief at night. One night about 3:00 am Nina woke me up and said grab your rifle and join Earl. I quickly slipped into pants, shoes, gun in hand went out into the farmyard with Earl. Earl had heard dogged among the cattle in a coral south of the barn & had gone out to look. From south of the house he was looking at the horizon to the west saying I think I can see a dog or two on the horizon, it's not my dog as he's here beside me. I looked carefully and could also make out a silhouette, and said yes I see one but it's a long way off. Earl said yeah, do you think you could hit it? I said I think it's about the end of the range, do you want me to try? Earl said the only way we can stop them is to shoot one, I don't believe any are older farm dogs, they don't generally join a pack. Go ahead and try, your eye sight is probably better than mine. I took my time and set the sight for max range. I squatted down rested my arm on one knee to fire & did. The silloet moved off and we could hear a dog yelp. Earl said it's sure hard to tell but I think you hit it. It's probably wounded, come get in the truck and we'll go see. We got in the truck and drove to the spot, there was nothing there but there was an abandon road a bit to the north with a dip and tall weeds, an obvious place for an animal to hide. Earl was convince the dog had been hit, he was also convinced it was a large dog. We got on the old road and started into dip lined with the tall weeds. Earl said roll your window up, if that's a large wounded dog he could attack. I with drew my gun from leaning out the window and rolled the window part way up, Earl had done the same. Sure enough the dog was there! It was one of the Police/Shepherd dog pups now full grown. He was crippled in the back right leg but obviously ready to fight anyone coming out after him. Light from the head lights revealed his teeth drawn back, his eyes flashed with pain driven fear & hate. Earl said he thought it might be those full grown pups turned wild. Earl extended the barrel of his rifle through his particle opened window, took aim and fired. It was close range and the animal fell dead, out of it's misery. I most certainly would not want to go after that dog on foot, I appreciated Earls being cautious, perhaps he'd had similar experience before.

Wheat Fire!!          It was one of those summers just before harvest when I discovered the value of a Party Line phone. Earl and I were out in a field south of the hous when Earl called out to me to stop, I looked up to seen Nina in the distance waving a blanket. This was the Emergency Signal and we made a made dash to the house. Nina yelled to Earl Wheat Fire Wheat Fire pointing to the SW and calling out the farmers name. Nina had gathered some Gunny Sacks (Burlap Bags), Earl tossed these into the back of the truck pulled over by the garage to toss on an empty barrel, in the mean time Nina had gone to the water tank with large milk buckets and the three of us quickly bucketed water into the barrel, Earl tossed the Gunny Sacks into the water and we took off at high speed trailing a cloud of dust. In the distance we could see smoke rising, as we continued zig-zaging our way to the fire we could see dust trails of the trucks headed the same way.  All seemed to know exactly what to do and fell into place to man a fire break to stop the fire.  A near by neighbor had connected a One Way behind his tractor and was cutting a swath through the beautiful ready for harvest wheat ahead of the flames. This span of dirt in the path of the fire was widened with a return swipe as persons ran toward the flames to stop them where they were. Most like us were armed with wet gunny sacks, one in each hand, which were flailed into the burning wheat blotting out the flames. My but it was an awesome sight, it would have made a magnificent movie. The broad vacant expanse of prairie with waving heavy laden wheat turning more yellow each day, had been suddenly transformed to a row of men in dynamic motion vigorously putting out the rapidly expanding circle of flames that had erupted and gone amuck carried by the wind. One could feel the money burning from afar, the initial few there could not be everywhere and had lost the battle of containment. The crackling sound of burning wheat put vigor into every fire fighter. Everyone had a stake in this. If they didn't get it stopped it would soon be larger and in other fields, each person knew cooperation was essential to survival in the battle with nature's whims.

We were pooped and drove back at a leisurely pace. I don't know what was on Earls mind but I couldn't help think; that rapid accumulation of help seemingly out of nowhere was due to that Party Line Telephone call, that Emergency Ring caused every house wife to rush to the phone and signal her man no mater where he was.

Hail Stones:     Conditions and weather changes. Once bare back on the tractor after harvest it changed from hot to cool, from dry to a rain shower, the abruptly to hail!  The hail pieces began small and grew to the size of marbles, enduring the pelting changed to seeking protection. I stopped the tractor and sought shelter under the engines meager comfort, the pelting continued for some time before passing on as quickly as it came. I continued while seeking warmth from the engine to counter the cold wind on my bare back.

Pulling the Combine:    The primary crop in Western Kansas was wheat, the names of the wheat strains planted then have long since disappeared. One of the most common then was called Wichita, however Earl had planted Black Hull, though it looked just like the others. Cutting wheat with a Header and hauling it to a Trashing Machine had dissapeared by then. The combine had taken over, initially pulled by horses and powered from it's forward motion, it now had it's own gasoline engine to run it's own machinery. A header extended to the right side. A real of rotating boards pressed the heads of the wheat into cutters on the leading edge of the header tray. The wheat fell on a canvas conveyer which carried it to the main body and into the thrashing apparatus. The wheat was elevated to a bin on top and the chaff was dispersed by a rotating dispenser in back. The combine rested on two large steel wheels with broad flat rims. The frame extended forward to hitch onto the tractor. The mechanisms of the combine were driven via linked flat open link chains. The mechanisms were low speed. It would take quite a few years before these mechanisms were engineered to run at higher speeds under remote controls. Earl chose to ride the combine standing by the Hercules engine where he could control the height of the header and thus the amount of straw taken in to pick up the heads of wheat. If wheat was down due to wind or hail progress was slow as there was much straw. There was no cover over the combine or tractor thus both crew members were exposed to the elements. After WWII self propelled combines came into use along with enclosed cabs with radio and air conditioning. However that was after much of the work went to custom cutters. Such a machine would have been too costly for use by one farmer for what he could cut locally during harvest.

My job on the tractor was quite simple, I kept the tractor moving at the pace Earl wanted and at a constant distance from the prior swath cut. Around and around from outside in progressing clockwise till finished at the center. When driving down wind the chaff would often be lifted up from in back of the combine and shower down on the tractor driver. It tested the drivers disposition and self control to endure the chaff dust penetrated the nostrils and slithered down a bare back. In this mode there was no cooling breeze flowing over the driver. The only shade was from the brim of your hat. many farmers wore large rimmed straw hats which were a very pragmatic solution. I wore an old felt hat from my days at the Sale Barn where cattle men wore felt hats.

We often kept going through lunch stopping only to eat a sandwich lunch Nina brought to the field. At such times Nina often wore the classic western woman’s bonnet and large apron. These were time proven practical items of apparel. The bonnet encompassing a woman’s hair and blocking the sun from eyes and face. The large aprons used as carrying baskets as well as handy towel and protection. We drank water from a large crock jug with corn cob cork & water soaked gunny sack for a degree of evaporative cooling. There was no ice for ice water and such would have not been good for us in that heat. We didn't know to take salt pills then but I guess we took in our daily needs with salted pork for breakfast and ham for supper.

Another person drove the truck which would pull up on the left side to unload the bin of wheat while we were still on the move. Some times it was necessary to off load onto an old wagon to keep cutting when the truck didn't make it back in time because of being backed up in line at the Grain Elevator. Scooping wheat from the wagon into the truck was something no one enjoyed having to do.

Just before harvest everyone was checking their wheat to see if it was dry enough to cut always alert to see if any others had started. Once it was ready it was a dawn till sunset affair, with chores still done before and after while it was still dark. We didn't try to operate at night as sometimes it would be too damp but mostly because we needed the sleep for the next very long day. Both of the two years I drove for Earl, excluding the year it wasn't worth cutting we cut about 800 acre of Earls wheat then cut about that much more for others.

It was during this time that  I began to appreciate how much money a farmer could have tied up in equipment that was used for only a brief time. I've always been very glad for the chance to have worked on the farm for those few years as a kid, and very much appreciated the company of relatives and all they thought me including courteous behavior, they were all wonderful people & I was very proud of them.

Darrell on tractor, Earl on combine, unknown man talking to Edna Locter who’s wheat we were cutting

About 1939  Driving that Allis Chalmers cat was a hot dirty job – and it was stupid of me going without a shirt. The following year I worked at the Oberlin Milling Company, spending all day at heavy manual labor lifting heavy sacks and shoveling wheat.  From what I learned her, I was later able to back a B-29 into place by walking the Cletrack “cat” sideways.  From what I learned moving box cars full of wheat I was able to use to back a loaded B-29, 70 ton, up an incline out of the taxi strip where it was blocking traffic.