Memories of Ernest and Anna Jaehde

MEMORIES OF ANNA JAEHDE
by: Joyce Ross

Anna was born at Ransom, but her parents moved to Modoc when she was five, and she graduated from Scott City High School. Anna was a school teacher, teaching at Shallow Water, Kansas, and in Ness and Trego counties. Anna also taught her brothers, Bill and Albert (Bud).

Anna married Ernest Jaehde on June 7, 1927, and never had any children. They lived on a farm south and east of Ransom. They had cows, chickens, and guineas. They always raised a big garden, and Anna always had a large flower garden. Anna and Ernest were constant companions, and you always saw them together. She was faithful in the Mennonite Church in Ransom, teaching Sunday School, active in the Missionary Society, and Christian Endeavor.

She helped out at the Ransom Telephone Company at the switchboard when needed. This was in the days when you called someone that wasn’t on your party line and every call went through the "central" switchboard, and they would have to ring the person you wanted to talk to.

Aunt Ann and Uncle Ernest and my parents, John and Carrie Yost, would play cards. As a small child I loved going to their home and staying with them. My mother told this story to me. This one particular time when I was about 1½, they were going to take me home with them when they finished playing cards. It was long past my bedtime, and I would not go to sleep. Finally Aunt Ann said to me, If we promise to wake you when we are ready to go will you lie down and go to sleep?" I immediately lay down and went to sleep. They woke me and took me home with them.

When I was about four, I had my appendix taken out and was in the hospital. Aunt Ann brought me some red Jello and some green Jello that were made in molds that looked like a mountain. I liked the red, but I didn’t like the green Jello. Imagine taking Jello to the hospital today!

Aunt Ann would have her neighbor girl over to spend the afternoon with me, and Aunt Ann showed us how to make hollyhock dolls. We could only have so many flowers each day. The hollyhock dolls were so elegant and dainty, and our imaginations were unlimited as to what it might have been like in the 1800’s. The neighbor girl and I played with paper dolls which we cut out. The newspaper would sometimes have paper dolls in it, and Aunt Ann would save them for me. I remember Tillie the Toiler as one.

In the early 40’s Ransom had a movie theater. Aunt Ann and Uncle Ernest went nearly every Friday night to the movies. Whenever I visited them, they would take me with them. One particular movie was "I Woke Up Screaming In the Night." A girl whom they knew asked me to come down and sit in front with her. I went down, but I was scared so she suggested we move back farther. We kept moving back until we were sitting with Aunt Ann and Uncle Ernest. There wasn’t anything in the movie to be afraid of, but the title had really scared me.

Aunt Ann's house was probably not as large as it seemed as a child. The front of the house faced north, but they never used the front door. Everyone drove to the side of the house facing east, and it had a screened in porch. She had potted plants and geraniums on it. Then you walked into a large room that was the kitchen. At one end was a table and the other end was a kitchen cabinet and a coal oil stove on which she cooked. A walk-in pantry was by the stove. To the right was the living room and a "back" bedroom which was where I slept. In back of the kitchen was a bedroom in which they had a big wardrobe, bed and dresser. To the side of that was a small room which had a cot and Uncle Ernest always took a nap there in the afternoon. To the left of the kitchen was a long narrow room which was called a "milk room". On the south side was the cream separator. On the east end of the room there was a table where you washed the separator. At the west end was a small partitioned area which had a toilet. The toilet was only used at night or in the winter. All other times you went outside to a "two-holer."

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