James Edward Catt
ell was born 76 years ago in Thorn Hospital in Hudson, Lenawee, Michigan, the first born son and second child of Louise Dora Hammond and James Harold Cattell. From the time he was born until December 1939, he lived in the area of Onsted, Michigan where my grandfather worked mostly at farm labor. As it was in the midst of the great depression, my grandfather took whatever work could be found. He would work all day husking corn by hand for .50 cents a day. They had a goat or two to supply milk for the kids. In December, 1939, they moved to the Ed Kelley farm, about three miles south of Hudson. His dad was paid $90 a month, plus two hogs each year and a gallon milk daily. They lived here until September 1947 until they moved to Mountain View, Missouri.
In the words of my dad..."we older kids went to Catholic Hill School which was the typical red-brick one room school. My teacher was Lucy Monahan Hartly. Lucy had begun her teaching career in September, 1939 after graduating from high school only three months before. I give her the credit for my love of reading and learning. After a break to raise four children of her own, she returned to teaching and was a very positive influence in many lives. I particularly remember our "field trips" which were really trips to the fields and woods near the school to visit Leland Parks' sugar bush to watch him make maple syrup, cut the school Christmas tree or study the wildflowers blooming in the spring. We walked about a half a mile to the school.
October 1947 was the BIG move to Missouri. In July, shortly after Patty (his younger sister) was born, Mom and Dad went to south central Missouri and bought a 150 acre farm about three and one-half miles northwest of Mountain View. Dad had had several heart attacks in the several previous years and they felt that a small subsistence type farm would be better for him than the demands of a large Midwest general farm. On their return, plans were made to end out large farming operation. Because of a heavy frost the night before, the crowd was much less than expected, so the income from the sale was only about half what we hoped for.
One event that stands out in my childhood was my entry into 4-H Club and the showing of livestock at fairs. When I was ten years old, Dad bought a registered Guernsey calf for my project. By late summer, that was certainly the ugliest pot-bellied, skinny calf in the county. However, my 4-H leader insisted that I take it to a show. There were twenty one entries in my class and I was ranked twenty one, mostly because the judge felt sorry for me. Things got better from there one. I had great success showing Brown Swiss cattle and fat hogs. In fact, I have many times bragged about sleeping with the hogs.
My first year of high school was at Hudson High, in the old building, which has since been demolished. Even though my mother was valedictorian in the class of 1924, my greatest accomplishment was in living through the year.
Attending school my second year in Mountain View was quite a change for me. The building in downtown now being used an as elementary school was used by all grades. Teachers did their best, but in many cases they were not qualified for the subjects that they taught or else they had been in those positions so long that they were stale and dull. I was totally bored and dropped out at the start of my junior year.
Since I was not bothered by school, I was free to roam through the fields and wood on the farm. The area changed with each season. I hunted with an old .22 caliber rifle and my companion was a three-legged mutt who had been hurt in a machinery accident. I don't remember his name, but I do remember that he loved to chase squirrels and rabbits. Since the farm had several abandoned homesteads and blackberry patches, there was lot of cover for game".
He continues:
"Evelyn's daughter, Linda, called March 24, 1993 to tell us that her mother had just died of breast cancer. She had had a radical mastectomy in August 1992. When she visited us at Thanksgiving she wasn't feeling well and needed a cane to help her walk. I called her on March 7 and that was the last time I was aware of the seriousness of her condition, so her death came as somewhat of a shock to me. Being the oldest of us children, she led us into mortality and has now passed through the veil we call death. With her visit at Thanksgiving and an earlier one in June 1991, we had really connected for the first time.
In order for her to attend high school, since it was in the days before busing, she went to work as a nanny and housekeeper for a family who lived close to Hudson. She was only home about every other Sunday or less. Then, in 1944, she married Robert Wayne Mills who was a very dominating person who would only allow occasional contact with her family. Our family moved from Michigan in 1947 and I enlisted in the Air Force in 1950 so in the next 40+ years we had only been together a few times. As we get older and realize the need for family, we realize the loss we have suffered.
On July 2001, Hazel and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary with a reception at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints social hall. About 175 friends and relatives were in attendance. Possibly the greatest part of it all was that 21 of my Cattell relatives were here to celebrate. Those who came from a long distance were Uncle Lorin and Aunt Mary, my brother David with Erma, Paul, Rhonda, Stacy, Jennifer and Tina; my sister Joyce with Bob, Ron and Brenda; Lorin and Mary's son Doug and wife Susan, daughter Laura and husband Joe; my sister's daughter Karen, husband and daughters Kelsey and Grace. Hazel was surprised to get the ring she wanted for several years. I made her wait until the reception to get it.
Carol and Susan decorated the tables and were responsible for our "memories". Susan handled arrangements for the food and servers and in general was the "right hand man". Nancy was in charge of lining up families for photos. Tara helped with the food and was a very gracious hostess while Jimmy got re-acquainted with family that he had not seen in many years.
David and his group arrived on Thursday with all the rest coming in on Friday, except Doug and Susan who drove down from Goose Creek, SC on Saturday morning. It was such a wonderful weekend! It seemed as though we all had lived close together all of our lives and were having a family party. All of our kids acted more like brothers and sisters than cousins. They especially enjoyed the swimming pool. Only problem - it all ended too soon.
Mom died quietly in her sleep about 2:30 a.m., December 22, 1994 at her home in Mountain View, MO. Dave called me soon after. We called Donald and Nancy in Jacksonville and since they were coming for a Christmas visit, they went with us to Missouri. All five of us remaining children were together from Friday until the following Tuesday. It was the first time we had all been together since 1949, just before I enlisted in the Air Force. Even though we buried Mom on Christmas Eve, it was such a warm and satisfying feeling that we enjoyed in each others company. A special treat was to have Uncle Lorin and Aunt Mary with us. They are the last of that generation. We were entranced by his stories of his early life, his work and of our older family members.
August 15, 2006...Several of my grand and great grandchildren have recently asked about their "family tree" and some of the events in my life so I have put together a "family tree" book with pictures of Hazel and my ancestors.
Other writings/thoughts of Dad's:
In the summer of 1958, my squadron of CK-97 tankers were deployed to Thule, Greenland for three months. While there, we flew reconnaissance flights, listening for Russian radio transmissions and monitoring their flights in the area. On one of these flights, we descended below one thousand feet and circled the North Pole. our magnetic compass went wild as we flew over and around the Pole. I didn't see Santa Claus or a red-striped pole, nothing but snow and ice with occasionally some open water, not even a polar bear.
I remember Pearl Harbor and many things from World War II. The Pearl Harbor attack was on Sunday. As was their habit, Dad's parents came out to the farm from Hudson. They told us about hearing on the radio about the attack, so we turned on our radio and tried to listen to the reports as they came. Of course, in 1941 long distance radio reception was poor at best. It wasn't hard to understand that this was a very major event. Dad was too old for the Draft and was also the father of five children and also a farmers, so he escaped the draft. Many family members (Uncle Lorin), friends and neighbors were drafted and some of them died in the war.
Sunday, September 23, 2001 - It is now twelve days since the attack on the World Trad Center in New York, the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. It has been a very difficult time. I had just arrived at Carol's house in Omega when she told me of the attack. We watched the second plane hit. I commented to Carol that this was not an accident, but an act of terrorism and that the world changed at that moment.
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The top picture is of Grandmother and Granddaddy Cattell and Aunt Patty. The other picture is of the barn that is on the property of the Missouri farm.
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Just remember that birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.
Umm, Aunt Carol?
ReplyDeleteHe's 76. ;D
Missed you at The Wall today.