Recollections of A Busy Life

(Transcribed by Peggy Barriskill Perazzo, December 2005)

"Recollections of A Busy Life,"
By Eli Fayette Ruggles

H. L. Ruggles & Co., Publishers, (published circa 1904)

Chapter XII.

Freman and Family Arrive.

Yes, I know those horses as far as I can see them - Doll and Selim - and
here comes the whole family. They have been to Paw Paw to visit Aravesta's
folks and are on their way home and will stop with us to-night. They have
two little ones and we but one. But each was made to stand or sit as if on
exhibition. And you ought to have heard the comments of those mothers as
they would turn them over and around. But here is some red hair, don't you
see? No, no, that isn't red, that is only auburn. But with a good sleep and
a good bye, away they go to the farm and mill. A few weeks before Willie
Lincoln was born we bought at Dowagiac a large clock, which is still our
family clock.

Decatur was going to be a large place and having much of the trade clear to
Lake Michigan. Long strings of teams were passing our house every day, and
speculators were buying up lots fast, and some of my friends said, "Why
don't you sell your farm and invest in Decatur and make a living easier?"

That sounded well and tickled my pride, and most Ruggles have plenty of
that, so we talked that idea at home and soon had a buyer. We received the
forty-five acres in Hamilton, since known as the Almond A. Olds farm, and
two thousand dollars. We bought eight lots in Decatur just east and north
of the Union School-house on the corner; rented a house, cleared the lots
of brush, logs and oak grubs, built a square house, moved in and here
Myrtie was born. Went into the woods three miles north, cut and drew logs
to a mill there, got lumber home, began building another house on the
corner. Lewis wanted the forty-five acres to put a hop garden on, for
fortunes were being made in hops. His brothers-in-law were getting rich at
it. It was contracted to him and I helped financially to build the hop
house, etc.

The hops matured as nice a crop as one could possible expect to see. The
crop was gathered and beginning to dry, when the price began to lower, then
worth 45 cents per pound. Our anticipations were high. Lewis could pay for
the farm that year and money left in bank. I could go ahead and build more
houses. Next day price of hops lower, and so on day after day, lower,
lower, lower, lower. So Lewis held the crop till afraid it might mold sold
the crop at 7 cents per pound. Lewis lost all he had and I lost what I
invested. The large house on the corner in Decatur was then mostly
inclosed. We had joined the Methodist Episcopal Church when we first moved
into Decatur, and it was not long before I was chorister, then later
superintendent of the Sunday School. I was superintendent for nine years of
the fourteen that I lived there. The Sunday School grew from eighty or
ninety members to one hundred and eighty or one hundred and ninety.

At that time of building the large house and at the time of the hop
failure, Viola was taken very sick with typhoid fever. I did not leave the
house, but stopped the carpenters working. My dish was getting wrong side
up fast - yes, very fast.

The carpenters demanded their pay, and I said just as soon as I can leave
the sick I will get it for you. They knew of the hop failure, and next
morning a constable came and levied on all lumber to be seen. Soon as I
could leave the house I paid the carpenters. I did not know that my head
was being so terribly wracked till in combing my hair or run fingers
through it, comb or fingers were covered with loose hair.

J. W. Young came to me to trade a mortgage he had on a saw and grist mill
on White River for the forty-five acres. I went and saw the mills and the
man that owned them. He wanted then to let me have four span of horses,
wagons and harness, all complete, and offered them at a very reasonable
price. Said that he had lumber on the way to market to pay the mortgage. So
I exchanged with Young.

Then there was a farm for sale across the swamp. There was then a mortgage
on the farm. I could get possession by paying or trading in this mortgage
on White River. If land goes up, then I can sell and make. If it goes down,
I lose. I put the mortgage in there and tried hard for two years to sell it
and save something, but land went down and in that farm I sank the last
remains of the forty-five acres.

Doing much of the work myself, the house in Decatur was finally completed,
so that I moved in. How to live became a serious question. Sold sewing
machines, organs, sold one piano, sold farming implements, reapers and
mowers, threshing machines, clover hullers; sold one year nineteen reapers
and mowers. No I have a good thing and I'll just stick right to it. But
could I keep it? No, my dish was wrong side up and would not right. I was
generally notified when the agent would come to arrange for the next year.
First I knew the state agent had been in Decatur and had contracted with
Lyman Rawson. I learned later that Rawson had written the Champion Company
for the agency, stating that he would pay cash down for all machines sold
instead of their taking the farmers' notes. Rawson owned the grain and
warehouse, bought and sold wheat, and everybody knew him. They knocked me
right between the eyes, and what to do I didn't know. An agent came,
wanting me to take and sell the Russell machine. I took it and traveled and
traveled and finally sold just one machine at cost. Rawson sold just the
one machine he had. The Buckeye gained greatly by my loss. My whole year's
work was of little avail, save the garden and some slight repairs on sewing
machines. I was thoroughly discouraged.

Soon after selling the farm and just before moving to Decatur Viola, self
and baby Will went on a visit to her people in Pennsylvania and New York
State. When we were nearly ready to come home Willie was attacked by
indigestion and came near dying. When he was better I cam home, leaving
Viola to come later.

Father and Mother Transferred to J. W. Young and Wife.

I should have stated that previous to my last writings that Westley's
wife's health failed and father and mother went to live with Sister
Lucretia, then living near White River, near the saw and grist mill that
were later wrecked by water. I took father and mother with horses and
sleigh to White River. On my way home I experienced the hardest storm of my
life. The wind blew a hurricane - snow flying everywhere and covered the
fences part of the way; and some of the time no road at all. I had to stop
till the storm subsided.

Mother Goes to A Better Country.

Within a year after they came to Decatur mother was taken sick. We often
called to see her and bring something she might like. One Sabbath day,
instead of going to church, we went to see mother. I was greatly surprised
to see how much she had failed, and she was near her time to depart.

We all sat in silence as she rolled her head from one side to the other and
was unconscious. The motions grew fainter and fainter, till life went out.
Father had asked questions about her, but now all was still. Father came to
the bed, put his hand on her brow, then her hands, then again her face,
forehead and eyes.

"She's gone; she's gone!" and then cried aloud, as only a strong man can,
who seldom cries, and then realized that he was left alone.

J. W. Young and family moved to Farwell, Michigan, with father some time
later than the death of mother. Six years after the going home of mother I
received a telegram saying, "Father is dying."

I took the next train to Kalamazoo, then changed to G. R. & I., passed Big
Rapids, then changed east to Farwell. Found father a little better.

He said: "I want to go home with you, Eli, and die where mother died."

And I said, "You shall go, father, to my house."

I was then living again in the large new house. We made a cot for him to
lie on on the road, and left with father the next morning.

I sat or stood by his cot in the baggage car all the way and made the jolts
as easy for him as possible. Had water and a stimulant to help keep him
alive. Arrived home at 4 p.m. and that evening I told him of his being in
my house and the room that he was in, and it seemed he understood by the
joy that is in expression but not told. The children were playing around
and he would turn to listen to them.

I slept while others watched that night, and at early light of day was
called. Yes, too true, father was going from us. His sightless balls look
up as though sight were given them; then raising both arms as though
clasping some loved form, then a smile crept in, even in the presence of
death, then his arms fell at his sides - and father was at rest.

Myrtie and Harry were born in the square brown house and Lena and Iva in
the large house.

I have stated that we moved to Decatur to speculate and make money easier.
We didn't do it, but lost all we had. Soon after going to Decatur the C. &
W. M. L. S. R. R. was built through Hartford. That stopped all the travel
from towards the lake. Then the air line from Niles to Jackson - that
stopped the business from the south. Then one from Lawton to Paw Paw and
Lawrence. Decatur was then left with but little territory to support it.
Property went down almost equal to the drop in hops. Houses and lots could
be bought for a song. After losing the reaper and mower trade and running
in vain for one year after that, I then bought a set of tools to move
buildings and used those for two or three years. This was hard work, but it
paid expenses.

Very unexpectedly here comes John Young, that I have not seen for years -
not since I went after father at Farwell. But he moves around quick and
seemed a little excited, and soon told me in a business way of how I could
make some money. And he had come from away up north to tell me all about
it. At Houghton Lake was a farm of 200 acres on a state road in a pine
lumber region; a very large double log house; all the boarders that we
could take care of at good prices, and all I could raise was wanted at big
prices; and I was just the man with my family for that place; and we would
have to go soon, so as to go on sleighs, as the snow would soon be going up
north. Like the old maid praying at the foot of the tree for a husband, and
the owl hoots in the treetop - hoo, hoo - and she answers, anybody, Lord,
I'm not particular," so we, in our dissatisfied condition, said, "Praise
the Lord for any deliverance."

So I talked to everybody and tried every way to sell our home. Finally I
sold it for enough to pay debts and move us to Houghton Lake. Mr. Edee
wanted me to take him and family with me. I should need both his help and
also his very amiable wife. So it was arranged for them to go with us.

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