Claude Eddleman Farm (1938-1958)

Claudes Life before Marriage to Bertha Haub

Claude Eddleman grew up on a Eddleman Bend, a farm lying in a loop of Blue River a couple miles north of Milltown, Indiana. He was the youngest of 11 childern and by the time we kids arrived, all his siblings had migrated westward or died in their youth. During the 1910s, Claude cared for the old family farm on Eddleman Bend , his daughter Dorthy, and his parents. Around the time time of World War I, they traded the farm for a house on Blue River in Milltown. Soon the worst flood in history damaged the home and they moved to an old house on the hill. After the parents died, Claude remarried and four childern were born in the house on quarry hill.

Once as a youth Dad was riding a farm horse bareback without a bridle. The horse was moving too fast for him to hold on with just his legs around the belly of the horse. He leaned forward and held also around the horse's neck. He began slipping, but could get the horse to respond to "Whoa". Before long, he was dangling from the horse's neck and bumped by the legs of the horse. He knew he would not be able to hold on forever and figured we would soon fall under the trampling feet of the horse. When it happened, the horse lightly leaped over him without touching him. Dad suffered no injury and held the horse in especially warm affection after that.

Dad was one of the first people in Crawford County to work with radio. In those days one needed a high long antenna and a good ground for the few stations were distant and weak. That was a good route for lightning to strike ones house and most people had a outdoor disconnect to lessen the risk. One night back on the farm, he notice he could get sparks between the antenna and the ground although no storm was imminent. His mother called from the bedroom, "What are you doing out there?" His young daughter Dorothy replied, "Daddy's playing with lightning." The grandmother stopped that very fast.

Farming in those days consisted mainly of growing corn. After the corn was cut, wheat might be planted between the shocks of drying corn for a wheat harvest the following summer. Dad had been hearing about planting clover in February in the young wheat and wanted to try it, but his Dad refused to allow it. Curious, Dad bought some clover seed with his own money and broadcast it in the wheat field. He got a nice stand of red clover much to the puzzlement of his father. Dad suggested the clover might have come from the cow manure and let the puzzle go at that.

It was about 3 miles from Dad's home to the Liberty View one room school and the snow could be deep. His family did not force the kids to make the long hard walk and Dad figures he got only about 12 months of schooling total in his life. He quit completely in the sixth grade. While he claimed to not be able to work fractions "because they were just starting them when I quit," I never noticed him having any trouble with any kind of arithmetic. He was an avid reader, and subscribed to the Indianapolis Star during World War II to keep upon the war. I remember spending nights reading accounts of the South Pacific campaign and following the maps in the newspaper and wishing I had a good map of the area.

One day in 1937, Claude picked up a slip of paper that was blowing with the wind. It was a grocery bill for a family not larger than his, but the kids were older. Noting the cost of the bill, he decided he should move to a farm where he could grow some of the food. The Depression was still going strong, and there was little prospect of earning the money to rear a family in Milltown.

Much more is to be added and the whole page will undergo many rewritings.

Suggestions, corrections, and comments are appreciated: Contact Harold Eddleman indbio@disknet.com