Robert And Bessie Brown Summary

Robert and Bessie Brown, who are the paternal grandparents of the author’s wife, made their home in Bradley, South Dakota, a modest farming community and rail hub on the eastern Dakota prairie. Bessie grew up on a farm near Bradley; whereas Robert, a veteran of the Great War, arrived at Bradley subsequent to purchasing the town’s Ford dealership. Throughout their married lives, the civic-minded couple assumed active service roles in community affairs, often accepting leadership in their church and in various fraternal or civil organizations. Foremost in Robert and Bessie’s lives were their four children: Mary, Robert, Eldred, and Verna. They nurtured their children through the challenging times of the Great Depression and, as they matured …show more content…
By living on and farming the property, he acquired ownership of the land under the provisions of the Homestead Act. His future wife, Mary Keeley, arrived in South Dakota with her mother and two of her brothers. Mary’s mother and each of her brothers also homesteaded farms. Although numerous people used the Homestead Act to acquire farms for resale, Merritt planned on staying and, similar to most of the farmers in the area, raised wheat as a cash crop. Small grains grew well in the virgin South Dakota soil and bountiful yields came off his fields. During harvest-time, he shared a railcar with a neighboring farmer, George Johnston and, after filling the car with wheat, shipped it to the flour mills in …show more content…
This included a modest dairy, an enterprise which occupied the childhood of his youngest daughter, Bessie. Her early childhood chores included bringing the cows in from the pasture for milking and gathering cow chips for fuel. Since she performed these tasks while barefoot, Bessie, in her own words, “walked where the cows had been to find warm ground.” As she grew in age and competence, milking cows became a part of her daily routine and on cold days, she laid her head against the cow’s flank for warmth. In addition to working as a dairymaid, Bessie went to school in Bradley, where the schoolchildren identified the town kids by their white skin and the farm kids by their dark tans. Hoping to resemble the town kids and thus, elevate herself to a higher stature, Bessie covered her skin to retard the effects of the sun’s rays.

A memorable event in Bessie’s childhood occurred as a result of her friendship with the daughter of, John Scanlan, the banker in Bradley. At the age of ten to twelve, Bessie went with five or six other girls for a week of vacationing with the Scanlan family at their cabin on Big Stone Lake. The group traveled north by rail from Bradley to Bristol and then transferred to an eastbound train that conveyed them to Big Stone City near the cabin. Most likely, the bevy of young girls spent a blissful week full of laughter as they swam, played games,