From Single Life to Benedict - Part 2 - Big Events in 1922

The second year of marriage for Alfred and Helen (Bovenschen) Moehlmann is very eventful, as Alfred tells it:

"About this time, I got a promotion at Tower Hill – I was on a steady monthly salary of 240⁰⁰ a month and was the weigh boss and general bookkeeper.  I rode the miner's train from Linton to Midland and walked from there to the mine a distance of a little over a mile.  The train left Linton at 6 o’clock and we got back about 5 pm.  Had to leave home about 5:30 in the morning and it was a common sight to see fire spouting from chimneys where the soot had caught fire.  In those days we had coal stoves, both kitchen and heating and usually to start a fire, kerosene was used and a liberal charge of “coal oil” generally started the soot burning.

Our first Big Event was or rather happened on Jan. 15, 1922 when Harold was born.  Shortly befor the event Mrs. Bovenschen asked me if I had some good whiskey in the house and I told her I didn’t have any.  She simply said, “Get some.”  I didn’t ask any questions but I wondered where I could get some since prohibition was the law.  I finally went to Avery Murray who had a Drug Store and of course he said he would have to have a doctors prescription.  When I told him my story he sold me a pint.  I think one of the ills of today is that fathers don’t witness child birth.  The idea of pacing hospital floors has its anxious moment to be sure but to witness a birth is frightening.  You see the pallor of death and the birth of a new soul in the form of an infant child.  After the anxiety was over I still wanted to know what the whiskey was for.  I soon found out, Mother Bovenschen put some warm water in a teaspoon, put a few drops of whiskey in it and that was the first nourishment the baby got.  Then she told me that it was what her mother did, that all of her own children got the same start and none of them even had the colic.  There must be something to it for I can’t remember that we ever had to walk the floor with any of our children with the colic and they all got the same treatment except possibly Helen M. who was born in the hospital, but I did tell the nurses I would appreciate it if they would follow the same procedure.

Alfred, Harold, Helen Moehlmann, 1922
Moehlmann Family  Collection

In 1922 we had the long Coal Mine Strike – from April 1^st to September.  I guess I was holding my luck for being a monthly I received my pay straight through the strike – But that year we experienced some anxiety.  We first had a painful experience with Harold; he was crawling on the floor and ran a needle with a black thread in the fleshy part of his hand and the needle broke off somewhere in the hand; when we tried to pull on the thread it “gouged” deeper in the flesh.  We took him to the doctors and 3 doctors and a nurse (Drs. Craft, Fleetwood & Thayer & nurse Mrs. Hubert Heston) had to cut the needle out – Mom about passed out and I had to go down stairs for fresh air. 

Then on Thanksgiving Day we were at Uncle Karl and Aunt Annie’s for dinner and all the Bovenschen family was there.  Harold was sick and cried constantly & Mrs. Bovenschen said we had better take him home and get a doctor, which we did. At first the doctor thought it was a cold but he seemed to get worse and on Sunday morning Dr. Porter said he had pneumonia. I think it was the Sunday that Aunt Tress & Uncle Paul were married; anyhow Mrs. Bovenschen came that afternoon and her help was a big reason of his recovery.  Also in January of 1922 I was elected as secretary to the Consistory of Saron’s Church.  This was the first office I ever held and with such devout men as Mr. Bovenschen, Herman Schloot, & Jake Hahn;- elders; Hubert Bredweeg, Otto Harting & Wm. Kramer Jr. – deacons; and trustees Fred Strietelmeier, Wm. Harting and Ernie Steward.  I learned a lot."

Boy there were lots of ups and down during the couple's first year of marriage.  A promotion, then Harold's needle accident.  Our daughter, just prior to her first birthday, fell and had to have stitches. I remember how my husband said "No problem, I'll hold her while they sew her up."  Except just moments later they were bringing him to the waiting room - white as a ghost. So I can sympathize with my grandparents.  

The two articles below announce the beginning of the miner's strike.

                                                                               

The coal miners strike had quite an impact on the area as it lasted six months. The strike was called by the United Mine Workers of America and impacted more than 500,000 miners nationwide. 

I found it interesting that during prohibition you could get alcohol at a drug store with a doctor's prescription. Although Alfred managed without one.
This is an article in the Linton Daily Citizen on July 22, 1939 about the remodel of the Murray Drug Store. The article states that the store has held a prominent spot for the last half century. It is located at 69 North Main Street and the proprietor is  Avery Murray. The building was first owned by Henry Haseman and purchased by Murray and Dr. Berns in 1921.  In April of 1937 it became a Walgreen's agency selling Walgreen's products. Avery Murray remained the proprietor and says that it is strictly a "home-owned" store with "quality merchandise at cut prices."





















 Another Bovenschen sister is married. There are just three of the seven children left in the home of William Bovenschen. It's apparent that they are a close family. Alfred has mentioned many gatherings at his in-laws home.




Alfred mentioned being elected to the consistory in 1922.  It appears he did a good job as he is re-elected in 1923, along with his father-in-law who was elected deacon for another three years.