Grandma Kalostos Tells Her Life Story

Mary Ann (Haran) Kalostos

BORN MARCH 18, 1888 IN IRELAND.  I was born in a small farm house in the little village of Kilbride, Ireland (March 18, 1888). My parent’s home had but three small rooms made of stone and covered with straw.  It was the common kind of home for the working class of people, which one finds throughout the British Isles.

The surrounding country was very beautiful.  A big lake lay immediately in front of our home and beyond that lay the remains of an old castle, which had been used as a fortress in the early days to ward off the invading armies.  It was a solemn old castle with its hideous walls and graves of heroes long since forgotten.

EIGHT YEARS OLD, FATHER DIES. I was eight years of age when my father went to England to work (1896).  He was a stone mason by trade.  This year he left home three weeks earlier than usual and the contractor for whom he was to work was not quite ready to start.  So, my father got a temporary job working for a farmer in the hay fields.

One day the boss told my father to get up on top of the hay wagon and stack the hay, while another man pitched it up to him.  But the other man was a drunk and the horses were restless.  The fellow lost his temper and stabbed at one of the horses with the pitch fork.  The mare was a very spirited one and gave a wild leap into the air. Everything happened so quickly that my father did not have time to react.  He was thrown from the wagon and about one hour’s time he had died.  All he said before he died was, “God help my wife and children.”  My uncle  sent us a telegram and I never will forget that day.  I can still see my mother throwing her arms in the air and crying.  My uncle buried my father in England as we were too poor to bring his body home.

It was then that my troubles began. I was the oldest of four children. Living in our house was my sickly grandmother, my two brothers and my sister. It was now up to my mother and me to support them.

My first place was a convent in the nearby town of Swinford.  I had light work to do in exchange for my school and clothing and a few schillings.  I was there until I was twelve years old (1900).  One day my mother came to me and said, “I have found a nice place with attorney Maning.  He will pay you one pound for three month’s work and you know I need your help as I have a hard time making both ends meet.”  I was glad to leave the convent with its gloomy walls. After a day at home I started to work for the attorney’s family.  Mrs. Maning had a cook and all I had to do was to wait on the table, answer the door and run errands.  The only thing I did not like about that place was the little cap I had to wear on my head.  It had long white ribbons that reached way down my back and no matter where I went I had to wear that cap.  I stayed there six months or so.

My mother was dissatisfied with the amount I was making, so she got me a job  in a store. The store also had a pub, and many a glass of stout and ale I filled and sold to customers.   I also helped with the house work.   I liked this job  much better for I didn’t have to wear a cap and I could go out in the evenings and walk around.   Every Tuesday the farmers and their families came to town to sell their butter,  eggs and wheat.   On the first Wednesday  of each month they came again to town as that was called the Fair Day.   This was the time to sell cattle and hogs.   The store sure does a lot of business on those days and in the evenings they had dances and good times.

Again my mother came and said, “I have a nice place for you out in the country, where they pay more money.”  Oh, how I hated to work in the country, out in the fields hoeing weeds, bringing home the peat with a donkey and taking care of the cattle and the little children.  The  lady I was to work for had been to America for one year and had come back home to get married. Now I have to laugh when I think of the way she talked.  She must have read every page of Webster’s or some other English dictionary, because the words she used were so big they hardly fit in her mouth.  Nobody knew what they meant and I don’t believe that she did either.  For some reason or other she didn’t like me.

OFF TO AMERICA, TO CHICAGO (16 YEARS OLD).  One Tuesday at the market the lady told some people that I had washed my face in the dish pan.   Well, I guess I did at that.   Then my mother said, “I will not let anyone talk about you like that” and so she took me home and soon found me another job  in a nearby farm doing the same kind of work.   I guess she was satisfied with the money I was earning for she left me there for a long time.

One day my mother came to me and said, “I must sell our home for I cannot make a go of it.” Our home was sold and after she paid all the back bills, she came to me again and said, “How would you like to go to America.”  Not knowing how far America was I said, “I’d like to go.” Then she said, “I will get you a traveling bag and some new clothing and you can go on the fifteenth of this month.”  The night before I left, my mother gave a party for me and I said goodbye to all my friends.  My mother went to town with me and got my ticket for America.  She put me on the train at Swinford and kissed me goodbye.  I had a long ride on the train, and when I got to Queenstown (now it is known as Cobh) I was tired and went to the hotel.  There I had supper and in the morning the boat sailed for America.

I was very seasick most of the way.  I had to travel as a third class passenger and the beds were none to clean.  I hated to go to bed on the ship.  After several days I arrived at Ellis Island and from there I went by train to Chicago.  I was met at the depot in Chicago by one of my cousins.  He was a red headed fellow and as I had never seen him before, I could not pick him out in the crowd.  But, he knew me at first sight, as he was able to pick me out of the crowd.  He told me afterward that he could always tell a greenhorn when he saw one.

After leaving the crowed depot, he took me to a street car.  It was the first one I had ever seen.  I was afraid to get on the thing.   I thought it rocked like a cradle and it seemed even worse than the ship.   It was a State Street car bound  for the South side.  That was where my cousins lived.  I was glad when I was at the end of my long journey,  as it was a long way for a girl of sixteen to travel all alone.  My cousins were very nice to me and I stayed there until I had rested. They took me on several street car rides to see the city.   One day my cousin and I went for a walk.   I must have looked awfully funny, for most all of the boys and girls about my age stopped to look and laugh at me.   One girl said to her friend, “Look at the pig tail, would you!”

My hair was short and I had it braided and tied with ribbons at the end.  My dress was so long it reached the ground and my hat and clothes were all old fashioned.  My cousin said, “I will have to get you a dress and a hat for the clothes you have are different from what the girls in this country wear.”  After I got my new clothes, my cousin said, “You had better look for work now. We will put an ad in the paper and you better do housework.  For in that way you will get your room and board besides your pay.”  I got a job with a family by the name ofLoebon.  They were Jewish people and it seemed they always had something for me to do.  They paid me three dollars a week.  When I had five dollars saved up, I always sent it home to my mother in Ireland.  I worked there several months until I got sick.  I could not stand it any longer, so I quit and went home to my cousin.

She took me to a doctor and found out that I was working too hard and I needed a rest. The change of food and climate in Chicago was very different to what I had been accustomed to and it would take some months before I could work again.  My cousin had to pay all my expenses for I did not have any money.  After six months I again advertised for work.  I wanted the same kind of \Nork I had before and I found it. Every week when my pay day came, my cousin was there waiting for me to get paid.  I earned four dollars and she had to have three of it.  She always had a hard luck story, some collector or something like that.  I got tired of giving her my wages each week and I asked her, “Why do you come every week?  Don’t you think I need clothes and that I have to send some money to my mother?”  She said, “Your board and room come first.

You stayed at my house six months and you will have to pay me three dollars a week until it’s paid.” And so I paid her.  She never missed a pay for six months.  She was the only cousin that was married and had a home.  At that time I needed a home as all girls do.  For that reason I paid my room and board in full, before I could send any money to my mother or buy myself any new clothes.  Then I changed jobs.  I did not like that place for I did not have a room.  I had to sleep in the hallway on a lounge.  The next place I worked for was very much better.  This time I had a room, but it was in the attic and had no electric lights, just a candle.

I liked the place fairly well.  The Planets were only a family of three.  Their only child was Jack, a boy of about eighteen.  One afternoon while his mother and father were away, he got  some of his friends and brought them home.  After raising the dickens around the house I heard them coming up the stairs.  I was in my room, as I always had a few hours to rest in the afternoon.  I did not pay any attention to them at first as the boy had his room on the second floor and I though that was where he was taking his friends.  To my surprise I heard them coming up the attic stairs and in a second I was at the door and locking it.  They tried the door only to find it locked.  Jack knocked at the door and said, “I want you to meet some of my friends.”  I told him he had better get away from my door for just as soon as his father and mother came home, I was going to tell them what kind of a son they had.  He was afraid of his father so they soon left my doorway.  About ten or fifteen minutes later I heard them slam the front door and I knew they were gone.  I was so nervous I could hardly serve them supper that evening.  As Jack was their only child, I didn’t want to hurt their feelings or make them lose faith in their son.  Instead of telling of their son’s unmannerly conduct toward me, I told Mrs. Plonet that I was going to quit the next day.  She asked me why I wanted to leave and also asked if Jack had said or done anything that would make want to leave.  I told the poor mother no, for when a mother loses faith in her only child it is very hard to trust him afterwards.

The next day I left and in a few days I had work again.  I was in my new home only a few days when the lady said to me, “We are going to have some house cleaning done and the painters will begin work tomorrow.”  If I had known about this cleaning up after the painters, I would never have accepted the job.  Cleaning up after painters means an awful lot of work.  After a few days one of the painters, a young fellow, asked me to go to the theater with him.  I met him at the comer of our street and we went to the show.  After that evening he was a steady caller and after a year we were engaged to get married.  In the mean time my brother Michael and sister Ann had come to Chicago from Ireland.  My brother was boarding with a family by the name of Brown in

Chicago.  One time I went there to visit my brother and Mrs. Brown said, “Who is that fellow that you are going to marry?”  I told her, “his name was Mr. LeRoy.”  She said that she had heard that he was already married and had two children in Milwaukee.  I said that I would ask him, but I could hardly believe her and the next time I met him I told him what I had heard.  He denied it and said he had never been married in his life. After all of this I never could really trust him again and so we did not marry.

FINDING WORK IN NEVADA.  After all that I left that job for the work was very hard and I thought I would like to take care of children.  So once more I went home to my cousins for a few days rest and to advertise for a new job as a child’s nurse maid.  In a short time I had a number of answers to my ad and I selected a job close to Washington Park on the South side of Chicago taking care ofthree children.  I was paid five dollars a week and it was very easy work compared with my previous jobs.  Most every afternoon I took the children to the park.  The youngest child was only two weeks old when I went to work for Mrs. Lynch and I stayed until her baby was walking, but I had to find a place where they would pay more.  It seemed five dollars was all she wanted to pay for a nurse maid.

I found house work again as there was more money in that and I did not mind working hard if the pay was good.  There were a lot of rich people that expected a girl to work for very small wages.  Anyway, I got six dollars a week and fairly good people to work for.  I cannot remember their names, but I stayed there a long time.  In the meantime my cousin became the mother of a baby girl.  After three weeks the baby was baptized and my cousin asked me to be the baby’s godmother.  I said, “Sure, it would be my pleasure.”  Her husband Charlie had a fellow picked out to be the baby’s godfather and on the following Sunday the baby was baptized.  The godfather’s name was Dennis.  He was a few years older than myself and we became friends.

After the baptism we met at my cousin’s house nearly every Sunday and from there we would go to the White City Amusement Park or to a picture show.  I liked my new friend immensely.  He was a very pleasant sort of a fellow and from our friendship we soon became sweethearts.  But during this time my cousin’s husband, Charlie, began calling me on the telephone and telling me how much he liked me.  He asked me to go to the show with him.  Once, he had the nerve to come to the place where I worked, wanting me to go to the show with him. Charlie was much younger than my cousin, but I did not like his looks and besides I would never go anywhere with a married man unless his wife was along too.  Still he kept on telephoning and bothering me, so I quit my job and took a place out of Chicago in a small town called Le Grange, Illinois just to get away from him.  I did not want to tell my cousin what a good-for-nothing husband she had.

Before I left, I called and told Dennis where I was going.  In the new job I was working for a doctor’s family as a nurse maid for one child and getting very good money, but oh how lonesome I was in that small town away from my sweetheart, my brother and sister and all my friends.  I was glad when the doctor’s wife said to me one day, “We are planning to move to New England.” “Would you like to come with us?”  I told her no that I did not want to go.  After they left for New England, I moved back to Chicago.  I bought a newspaper and answered several ads for housework.  Most all of them had engaged a girl already, so I answered ads for a nurse maid. The first place I went was a family by the name of Flanigan and Mr. Flanigan was a doctor.  Mrs. Flanigan told me to come to work at once, if I wanted to.  Not having any place to go, for I would not go near my cousin’s house anymore, I sent for my trunk and started to work.

After I had been there a few months Mrs. Flanigan said, “The doctor and I are planning to go out West to Goldfield, Nevada.”  “We will be leaving in a few months.  If you like us and want to come, we will treat you just like one of our own family and pay you ten dollars a week.”  I told her I would let her know in a few days what I was going to do.  I met with Dennis and told him about the job offer.  He told me he did not want me to go, but I hated to always be looking for work.  Dennis was not making enough to support a wife yet, so I decided to go West.

I thought I was going to some big city and so I told Mrs. Flanigan that I would go with them.  I packed my trunk and went to say goodbye to all my friends and to my brother, Michael, and sister, Ann.  My sister was doing the same kind of work as I was.  My sister and brother and my friends all went with me to the train depot.  They tried in every way to keep me from going out west.  They were all saying it was such a wild place and something would surely happen to  me.  They talked so much I nearly missed the train.  By the time I reached the depot the doctor and his family was no where in sight and I got so excited, I did not know what to do.  As I called out, “Goodbye, I am going to look for the doctor and his wife.”  Then I became lost in the crowd and was looking all around when someone grabbed me by the arm.  He said in a loud voice, “Are you the girl that is going west with Doctor Flanigan?”  I said, “Yes.”  Then he half-carried me and put me on the train.  In less than a minute the train pulled out and I could not see my people anymore.

I must have fainted, for when I came to I was sitting beside Mrs. Flanigan and the same fellow that put me on the train was standing nearby holding a large glass of lemonade.  He was the porter on that sleeper car of the train.  We had a state room on the train and the scenery along the way was very nice until we came to the Nevada desert.  In the desert all one could see was sage brush and the high mountains in the distance.

We stopped over in Reno, Nevada to rest and Mrs. Flanigan got rooms at the Overland Hotel near the depot.  After we had rested for a while, Mrs. Flanigan told me that I could have a few hours off to go see the town, but to not get lost.  She wanted to be sure that I was back in time for the five o’clock train to Goldfield.  It did not take long to see all of Reno for it was not very large.  While I was looking at one of the stores and some pretty things in the window, a woman came and stood looking at the same window.  I could hear a baby cry, but could not see any child at first.  Then I looked at the woman again and noticed that I had never seen a woman like that before.  The crying baby was all tied up in a basket and she was carrying it on her back.  I was so interested in her that I followed her all over town. When I went back to the hotel I told Mrs. Flanigan what I had seen and she said that the woman must have been an American Indian, for that was the way they carried their babies.

At five o’clock that evening we started for Goldfield and arrived there the next day.  We were met at the depot by Mrs. Flanigan’s sister and her mother and a fellow named Jimmy.  He was an express man and a good friend of theirs.  He carried the suit cases to his wagon and every step he took he looked back to see if I was coming.  He wondered if I belonged to the Flanigan family.  Mrs. Flanigan’s mother, Mrs. O’Connell, had a big dinner for us and we all sat down and ate a big meal.  They invited Jimmy to stay too and after we ate I went outside to look around and see what kind of a place Goldfield was.  From what I could see of it, Goldfield was a small place with half the buildings being either tents or tent houses.  I had never seen a tent before and it made me feel lonesome for Chicago.

I wished I had never left Chicago, but it was too late for I promised Doctor Flanigan that I would stay with him for six months.  If I quit before that time, I had to pay him back the money he spent for my railroad fare and my board on the train.  So, lonesome or not I had to stay for I had no money to pay my fare back to Chicago and to pay Doctor Flanigan too.  That would take a few hundred dollars and the only way to get it was to work for them.  I went back up to the house and helped Mrs. O’Connell with the dishes and to get into the routine for the next six months.  I thought about saving money for the next six months and with that thought in mind, I felt better.

The next morning I started to work for Mrs. O’Connell.  She had our home all ready for us when we arrived.  The three families lived next door to each other.  To my surprise Mrs. Flanigan said to me, “Mary, I am paying you ten dollars a week and you know that’s big money for a girl your age, and my little children do not need as much care in this small town.  You can do all of our house work, washing and all.”  I said, “I thought you would have a cook here like you did in Chicago and all I would have to do is to care for the children.”  She said, “Oh no!  You misunderstood me. You must do all that work and when you get through in my house, you will have to help my mother and sister for they have no one to help them.” So that was the way it  was, one servant for three households. My! How Mrs Flanigan had changed. It was all her mother’s doing. I was sure of that and her sister was none too kind. She was one of those kinds of people that never think of anyone, but themselves. I had to wash and iron for all three families. I was a regular slave. I also had to look after the babies. There was one three years old and one six months old. I was so tired and sore. When night came, I could hardly sleep.

Things went on this way for nearly three months.  One day Mrs. Flanigan was taken ill and the doctor told me, “My wife has contracted scarlet fever and you will have to take the children and some of their clothing, along with your clothing, and stay with my mother-in-law until my wife gets well.”  He got a nurse for his wife and a sign was put on the door.  I started taking care of the children.  The little baby was not well and the doctor told me to take good care of the baby, but Mrs. O’Connell always found something for me to do.  She hated to see me rest one minute and I was awake night after night with the baby for it seemed the change in the climate did not agree with it.  One afternoon I was out on the porch rocking the baby to sleep in a buggy and Mrs. 0’Connell had the other little girl in the house and she was beating her.  I just could not stand to hear that child cry and so I left the baby in the buggy and went in the house.  I said to Mrs. O’Connell, “Why are you beating that child.  Leave her alone.  Don’t you know her mother is sick and might die any day?”

I started to take the little girl away from her.  Then she became angry and raised her hand to slap me.  I was afraid she would so I went outside and sat down on the bench again.  In the meantime Mrs. 0’Connell told her other daughter what I had said.  Her name was Mrs. McCormick and she must have weighed at least two hundred pounds.  She came out and sat  beside me on the bench.  She said to me, “You little impudent thing, what have you been saying to my mother?”  Before I could say anything, she scooted closer and gave me a push.  She did this so quickly that I fell to the ground.  She said, “Don’t you ever come into my house again.”  Then her mother came out and said, “You just wait until I lay my hands on you.  You will never talk like that again to me.  Don’t you ever dare to come into my house again.”

Then I was out.  What was I to do?  Where could I go?  As I walked away, I looked all around me and up on the hill about a block away from me I saw a sign on one of the buildings. While I could not be sure of the words so far away, it looked like an employment office.  I went there and it was as I had thought.  I went into the office dressed just the way I was with an apron, for I could not go into either house to get my clothing.  I asked the lady inside for work and while I was talking to her, Mrs. O’Connell walked in and told the lady not to give me any work.  She said I had been brought all the way from Chicago by her daughter, who had paid my way and now that her daughter was sick, I had refused to work and had even given her back talk and insulted her.  Then she left the office and the lady said to me, “Don’t pay any attention to her, for I know her well.  She has had several girls working for her and not one of them ever liked working for  her.  I have no work for you at present, but you can come to my home and stay there until I find you a job.”

I went back to pack my trunk, for my clothing was in all three of the houses.  Mrs. 0’Connell would not let me in her house and her daughter, Mrs. McCormick, would not let me into hers.  I could not go in the doctor’s house on account of the sickness they had.  So, I went to the Chief of Police and he sent an officer with me and a search warrant.  Believe me, that old lady let us in without saying one word and I packed my clothing.  Then I called Jimmy, the express man, and he picked up my trunk for me and took it to the employment lady’s house.

After a few days the employment lady said, “I will have work for you in a day or so, for there is a new restaurant opening up.  I will get you in there, for the lady that is going to run it asked me to get her four waitresses.  They pay three dollars a day.  That is for eight hours work, but you must join the union.”  I said, “I am not a waitress and I have never worked in a restaurant in my life.”  She said, “You will learn.  I will ask one of the girls to teach you.”  In a few days I went to work at the new restaurant called the Oasis Cafe and I sure was a dumbbell when it came to waiting on tables.  It did not take very long to learn.  After a week I joined the Union and I was getting along fine, but the place did not do much business.  After three months they had to close up, for it didn’t pay to run it.

By this time I thought I was a waitress and I went to work in a big restaurant where they fed about 300 miners a day.  I got the orders all mixed up.  One that ordered hot cakes would get ham and eggs and someone else would get biscuits and gravy.  I had a hard time remembering who had which order, for all the miners looked about the same to me.  So, I got fired that night. The restaurant lady said, “You better learn to wait tables better before you look for work again.” I got angry and said, “I am a waitress.”  She said, “Sure you are and a first class one at that.”

After thinking over what the lady had said, I thought I would do housework for a while.  I found a place with a family by the name of Cook.  Mr. Cook was a building contractor and he said he would pay me by the month.     When payday came, Mrs. Cook said, “My husband is a little short of money this month, but we will pay you in a few days.”  The days went to weeks and then I went to Mr. Cook and said, “I need my money.”  Mr. Cook said, “I will pay you on the first and give you the two months pay together.”  Well, the first came and no pay.  I resigned and tried to collect my wages, but Mr. Cook had no money and his home was mortgaged.  So, there was no way to get paid.  That meant two months gone and no pay.  Then I knew why Mr. Cook always had a black eye, for if I was a man he would have had both of them black.  His name should have been Crook, instead of Cook, for it seemed he never paid anybody.

I had to take the first job I could find for I was in desperate need of money.  I found a job in a boarding house working for a Mrs. Harrison.  I worked there quite a while.  She was a queer kind of woman, who sometimes drank beer out of the beer bucket along with the miners.  One day while she was in a drunken condition, she told the boarders that she was missing some money from the cash register and she was sure that I had taken it.  She also told them that when they came in for supper that they were going to have a free show, for she was going to undress me and search me for the money that was missing.  So when I heard of her plans for that evening, I did not go back to work.  I was afraid she would try to carry out her threat.  I was out of work again.

Although I was sick and tired of being a waitress after my prior experiences, I thought I would try it again.  So, once more I found work in an eating house.  This one was called Maggie’s Place and here like the other fed about 300 miners a day.  One had to be pretty lively to get around in that place.  I was not a good waitress and it was only two days of working there before I was fired.  I again found myself needing money and work badly and had to take the first thing that came along.

I found a job washing dishes in another boarding house. I worked there quite a while and it was hard work. I had to carry all of the dish water outside to empty it. The dishes were all washed in big tubs, instead of sinks. The landlady complained several times that I was slow and she would say, “A young girl like you and you cannot wash dishes any faster than my grandmother.” One day one of her boarders, by the name of Joe, caught his clothing on fire. He was carrying matches in his pocket and they ignited. All of his clothing was on fire. It happened just as I was on my way out of the house with the tub of dish water. I saved his life by throwing the dish water on him and putting out the flames. He and I became good friends. He was like a brother to me.

The boarding house job did not last and I was out looking for another job.  I found a job doing housework for some very nice people by the name of Marshall.  Although I did not want to have to take a job like this, a person has to take what they can get in a small town like Goldfield, Nevada.  The household was just Mr. and Mrs. Marshall and Mrs. Marshall’s bachelor brother, a man of about 50 years of age.  I worked there about five months and had a few dollars saved up when my friend Joe received a letter from a friend of his in San Francisco.  The letter told him to come to San Francisco and he and his friend would work as partners in a drug store.  He decided to go and when he told me of his intentions, I felt like I was lost, for he had been so good to me for all of those months since we had met.  Mrs. Marshall asked, “Why don’t you and Joe get married here, then you can go with him?”  Joe wasn’t ready to get married yet and so he said, “She can come with me any way.  She can get work in San Francisco.  After I get the drug store business going with this friend of mine, we can get married.”  I believed him and so did Mrs. Marshall.

ON TO SAN FRANCISCO.  I decided to go with Joe to San Francisco and get work there until the time came for us to get married.  I got my things together and we left Goldfield early one morning on the train for Oakland and from there we crossed the bay by ferry.  Joe had lived there in San Francisco before, but for me it was a new experience.  When we got off the boat at the ferry station, he showed me all the pretty flowers.  I had seen very few of them in Goldfield.  He bought me a bunch and suggested that we have some dinner.  After dinner we went to a hotel to engage rooms for the night.  Once at the hotel he got as far as the office, when he turned to me and said, “Shall I get  one room or two?”  For the first time in all those months I found that Joe was not the kind of man that I thought he was.  I responded, “Two rooms of course.”  I made sure that my room was locked good and tight that night.  In the morning we ate breakfast and then went to the employment office.  I filled out some paperwork and Joe left to meet with his friend.

I was not there long when a Jewish man by the name of Berg came in and selected me from the crowd.  He had me taken to his residence on Green Street.  His wife engaged me to come to work the next morning.  I had all my things in the room at the hotel and so I went there and paid for my room for the night, as I was going to going off to work in the morning.

Joe met up with me at the hotel and said, “Let’s take a street car ride and I will show you the city.”  We traveled around the City and changed street cars several times.  He suggested that we get off the street car and take a walk down the street.  He said, “There are some friends of mine living on this street and I want you to meet them.”  I had my eyes open for any surprises as I did not really trust him anymore.  I was trying to be very careful of where I went with him.  We came to a beautiful two-story building with a small park and a few benches opposite the building. He said, “This is the place where my friends live.  Let’s go over and see them.”  I said, “Let’s sit here a few minutes and rest,” as I wanted to take a good look at the place before I stepped inside. It was a wonderful looking building.  In fact it was too nice a place, I thought, for any friends of Joe to be living there.  I made up my mind that he was not going to get me into that building that night or any other night.  While the building was beautiful in appearance, it looked like a prison to me.

I found out later that it was a prison of sorts for any young girl that might have been foolish enough to have listened to some beast of a man and gone in there.  For I am sure that once inside those doors there would be no way to get out.  I made up my mind that after I went to work the next morning, I would have nothing more to do with Joe.  A few days later while I was at work, Joe sent a man with a note to me, as he did not have the nerve to come himself.  The note asked me to meet with him the next Sunday at the post office.  Needless to say I did not go.

BACK TO NEVADA.  I did not stay in San Francisco very long after that, for I did not like my new job very well. Mrs. Berg was a very sickly woman and her husband, a fellow of about fifty, was inclined to be of a flirty nature.  I had to fix his breakfast every morning, as he left for the office long before his wife got up from bed.  One morning while I was making his toast and had my back turned toward him, I felt his arms around me and I turned around and slapped him viciously across the face.  If his poor wife was not so sick, I would have told her what he had done.  Instead, I told her I was going back to Goldfield, Nevada again.  I stayed long enough for her to find another girl and then I left San Francisco.

I went to Mrs. Marshall’s house, but she had hired another girl in my place and as she was a nice girl, Mrs. Marshall did not want to let her go.  She told me, “You can stay here until you find yourself a place to work.”  I think I had worked in about every restaurant and boarding house in Goldfield.  Almost all the private houses did there own housework, so I was about two weeks without work.  One day I read an ad where a waitress was wanted.  I answered the ad and the  boss hired me and told me to come to work the next day.  It was a good sized place.  He had three other girls along with me working as waitresses.

MARRIED HERMAN NELSON (OR WAS HE AUGUST RUDORF?).  I worked there a few months when the boss’s little boy, who was about ten years of age, asked me to go with him and his father for a buggy ride.  The young boy’s name was Roy Nelson and his mother had died during his birth, leaving him to the care of his father, who was very cruel to him.  I told him I could not go, so the boy told his father to ask me.  I did not go that time, but on a subsequent occasion I did.  His father, Herman Nelson,  and I became good friends and after a few months, he asked me to marry him and I did.  While he was mean to his boy at times, he was very nice to me.  That kindness only lasted one week after we were married.  Then he told me I had to go back to work in the restaurant.  He said, “It will save paying out three dollars a week  to another girl, and besides I didn’t marry you to let you sit around here.  You must go to work the same as I do.”

So I went back to work and it seemed there was no end of work to me.  I waited on the customers, attended the cash register and anything else that he wanted me to do.  I had to do as he said, because if I didn’t, he would give me a beating.  He treated me just the same as he did his boy.  I was only married to him one week when he hit me in the face and made my nose bleed. After that it was nothing new to get a beating once a week at least.  As he was older than I, he thought he could treat me like a dog instead of a wife.

One day he told me to clean his two trunks.  While I was cleaning them, I came across some letters addressed to August Rudorf   This seemed odd to me as I was married to Herman Nelson.  Seeing those letters made me suspicious and I wondered if he had married me under a false name.  One day I went to the post office for the mail.  When I opened our postal box, there was a letter there for August Rudorf   Now I was more suspicious than ever and instead of taking the letter to the restaurant, I took it home and steamed it open over a kettle of boiling water.

After getting the letter open, I could not read it as it was written in German and as you know I am a native of good old Ireland. I resealed the letter with the whites of eggs, as I did not have any glue.  After the letter had dried, I took it to him.  I said, “Here is a letter for you.  Maybe it is from your mother?”  He then looked at me and said in a nervous voice, “This is not for me. It is for a friend of mine in San Francisco. I will send it along to him.” I said, “I can do that now as there is nothing else for me to do at present.”  So he handed me the letter and I took it back to the post office and told them to forward it to San Francisco.  That night he came home crying and I asked him what was the matter with him?  He said that his father had died.  I asked him how he found out and he said that he had received a letter.  I told him the mail came in and there was no mail for him, only the letter for his friend in San Francisco.  He said, “I got a letter and do not bother me now.  Some other time I will tell you how I got it.”  After that letter he became meaner day after day, until I just hated the sight of him.

Like all young girls of nineteen (she camefrom Ireland in 1904 at the age of 16, so this is now 1907) looking for sympathy and kindness from anyone that happens to give it, I became acquainted with one of the boarders, by the name of Moffit.  He knew how I was being treated  and so he asked, “Why don’t you leave that villain?  You can get along without him.”  As I was being treated worse than an animal, I decided that I would leave.  I took a small amount of money from the cash register.  As I was leaving, I saw Mr. Moffit, he was a barber.  Moffit said, “You better be careful and don’t take the train for he will wire ahead and have you brought back.”

Then I asked him what I should do and he said, “Walk to Tonapagh.  It is about twenty-five miles and after a few days you can take the train from there to Los Angeles.” I did not know as Mr. Moffit was giving me instructions that he wanted to go with me, but he did.  For he said, “I will go with you, as you cannot walk twenty-five miles alone along a railroad track as there is no road.”  So we started out and by the time we had walked to Tonapagh, believe me, I was tired.  I had the small amount of money and we both got rooms at a hotel.  I was afraid to go out and eat in a restaurant.  Moffit brought my meals to the hotel for me.

I was there two days when I read in the Tonapagh newspaper where I was missing and could not be located.  After four or five days, Moffit said, “You had better come out with me and get a good meal.  You cannot live on sandwiches.”  I went out to eat and Tonapagh is just a little mining town, the main street was about four blocks long.  On one side of the street there was a crowd of people and on the other there were just a few people.  My friend, Mr. Moffit, said, “Let’s go on the side the crowd is on.  People won’t notice us so much.”  We had not gone one block, when we met face to face with the man we were trying to avoid (my husband).

He had heard in some way that I was in Tonapagh and he had been there three days steady looking for me.  He shook hands with Mr. Moffit in a sneering way and said to me, “I am here to take you back home and if you refuse, I will have you both arrested.”  Rather than go to jail, I went back with him and back to work.  And so things went on just as before, until one day a few months later when two men wanted to buy his restaurant.  They offered him three thousand dollars in cash and he sold it to them.

He then said, “I am going on a trip to Germany and you can go and visit your mother in Ireland.” I said, “I thought you were Swedish, as Nelson is a Swedish name.” Well, he said, “I am not a Swede and Nelson is not my name. When we get to New York, my sister will tell you what my name is.”

REMARRIED TO AUGUST RUDORF IN NEW YORK.  We started on our trip and we both went together as far as New York.  We stayed in New York City with his sister for a week.  I asked her, “What is your father’s name and where does he live?”  She told me that her father’s name was Rudorf and that he lived in Germany.  She asked, “Why do you ask such a question, when you are my brother’s wife.”  I told her, “Because, he had married me using the name of Herman Nelson.  She said, “If that is the case, I will make him  marry you tomorrow using his right name.  She did and we were remarried in New York.  He told me that evening how he received the letter that I had taken to be forwarded to San Francisco.  He went back to the post office and told the postmaster that I had mailed a letter by mistake.  After a considerable amount of trouble on the part of the clerks, the letter was found and given to him.

TRIP TO IRELAND.  Before I sailed to Ireland, August Rudorf took me to see Niagara Falls in New York.  It was a very nice place to see.  We returned to New York City and I prepared for my trip to Ireland.  I sailed to Ireland in second class.  I was awful glad to be on my way to see my relations. After eight days at sea I did not waste much time in Queenstown and immediately got a train to take me to Swinford in County Mayo.  After I was there a few months, I found that I did not like it as well as I did in my childhood days.  Europe is all right in a way, but after one sees and lives in the United States of America, they do not as a rule care for their native land.

I for one wanted to go back to America as soon as I could, but August wanted me to stay in Ireland until after the baby was born, but I could not stay.  I stayed there three months and that was enough for me.  As I did not have quite enough money to pay my passage back to New York, I had to borrow some money from my mother.

WILLIAM (BILL) RUDORF BORN DECEMBER 15, 1908.  Once again I sailed from Ireland to the United States and after several days at sea I arrived at the Port of New York.  My sister-in-law lived in Port Chester, Connecticut and I bought a train ticket for there.  The ticket cost was 55 cents to travel from New York City to Port Chester.  If it had been one penny more, I would have been in a bad fix, for that was all the money I had left.  I arrived at my sister-in-law’s house unexpected.  She said, “I thought you were over in Ireland.”  I said, “Well, here I am.”  I stayed there until after my son William was born (December 15, 1908) and after he was born, she was just as mean to me as she could be.  I think she was one of the meanest women on earth.  She was divorced with two children she worked to support and seemed to have no heart for anyone but herself.

When my baby (Bill) was five days old, she came upstairs and told me to get up out of bed.  She said, “You have been there long enough.”  So, I had to get up and go downstairs. Every step I took I thought I would fall, but I finally got to the bottom of the stairs and to a chair. As I was very weak, she said, “You can take it easy today, but tomorrow you will have to take care of your own baby.  You are just as strong as I am.”

BACK TO NEVADA.  August Rudorf had sent his sister over a hundred dollars to take care of me and pay the doctor.  He was some doctor too.  I forget his name, but he sure wasn’t much good.  After a few weeks we had the baby baptized and when the baby (Bill) was six weeks old the baby and I left Port Chester to go to my husband in Ely, Nevada.  I was glad to get away from my sister-in-law, although I knew I was going back to August and he was just about the same.

After five or six days of travel by train we arrived in Ely, Nevada.  August worked in a boarding house as head cook.  After the baby was a few months old, I went back to work putting up lunches for the miners and helping to wait on tables.  For a while I also peeled vegetables and took care of the furnace, as the old man who did that work had become sick.

We had a room on the ground floor and we were making good money.  We had everything free, but August was not satisfied unless he was beating somebody.  This one day he came into our room and found the bed was not yet made and he asked me, “Why isn’t the bed made and the room cleaned up.”  I said, “I haven’t had time.”  He said, “Go and do it now!”  I got angry and told him to go and do it himself  For those few words, he knocked me down to the floor and every time I got up, he knocked me down again.  Finally, I stayed down.  I did not get up until he left.  My one arm was very sore and I thought it was broken.  I asked August to go and get the doctor, but he would not.  In a few days it felt better, I guess it was just badly bruised.

About that time the old man was back on the job taking care of the furnace and the vegetables and I went back to work in the dining room.  Things went along pretty good for a few days until one evening the water was cold.  August knew there must be something wrong with the furnace.  He went down to see and there he found the poor old man sitting on one of the steps that led to the furnace.  He was so old (he must have been 65 or older) and tired that he must  have fallen asleep.  Then August showed his animal temper again and instead of calling the old man, he hit him across the face.  After he did it,  he knew he had made a mistake.  It was close to five o’clock and the miners were all around the bunk houses getting washed up for supper.  When the old fellow was hit, he let out a scream that was heard all over the boarding house.

Some of the other cooks and the girls that waited tables all came down to find out what was happening.  They helped the old man up the stairs and out to his bed in one of the nearby bunk houses.  One miner told another about what had happened until the news was spread all over the boarding house.  As the old man had heart trouble, they thought he was going to die.  The queer part of it was that the miners, about 300 hundred of them, ate their supper and never said a word until after they were finished eating.

August and I had finished all of our work and were in our room getting ready for bed. Then there came a knock at our door.  We had two doors to our one room living quarter, one door lead out to the road and one lead into the hallway.  August had always installed a chain on every door to any room or house that he ever lived in, so that he could open it just enough to be able to see who was at the door.  So when I opened the door as far as the chain would allow, there stood a bunch of angry miners.  One of the miners said, “We want to see your husband.”  I said, “He is not here.”  He wasn’t either.  I guess he got so scared that he went as fast as possible out the other door.  The miners went back upstairs.  I could hear their loud talk and I knew they were looking for blood that night.

I had my little baby (Bill) in my arms and I went to look for August around the laundry.   I found him there hiding behind the laundry stove.  He peeked out and I told him that the miners had all gone upstairs.  He went back to our room and loaded his shot gun and his six shooter. He then put on his boots and got ready to go, for he was scared to death.  Then someone knocked again on the door and I still had the baby in my arms.  One of the miners said, “Lady, I want your husband and I want him fast.  If you will take my advice, you will take you and the child out of that room.  If you don’t open the door, we will break it in, for we are going to get that man and hang him by the neck before this night is over.”  I told him again that my husband was not in the room.

The minute that August heard that second knock on the door, he knew that the miners meant business.  While I was talking to the men at the door, he went out the other door that led to the street.  It seems the miners had forgotten about that door.  August had hardly gone, when the miners came around the house and found the other door.  I opened it up wide, as August had gone was now hiding in one of the freight cars that were close by.  After the miners found that he was not hiding in the room, they searched all around, but could not find him.

August was lucky that he did not go back to the laundry room and hide behind the stove again.  For if he had, he surely would have been a goner.  The miners hung around my room all night and you could hear some of them were getting drunk.  I could hear them all night long. There were some of them outside of each door.  The old man did not die, but he was still very hurt even a week later.  He swore out a warrant for August’s arrest, but still they could not find him.

HIDING IN UTAH.  I did not hear from August for a week after and every time I went outside the building, someone was sure to follow me.  They thought I knew where he was.  Finally, after a week I got a telegram from him.  It was sent to a friend of his and the friend gave it to me.  It read something like this, “I am in Cobree, Utah.   That is on the road to Salt Lake City.  I will meet you there.  Pack up and come at once.”  I packed  my bags and headed for the train station.   I thought  the miners would be watching me, but I guess they didn’t for nobody bothered  me.   I got off the train in Cobree.   After looking around I could not see August  anywhere.   After the train pulled out of the station, I heard  someone whistle.   I looked around and there about half a block away was my man, hiding again near some freight trains.   The baby and I went to meet him.

ON TO SACRAMENTO.  I gave him some money, as he had left in such a hurry that he didn’t have time to take any money with him.  He told me to take the next train for Sacramento.  He would also be going to Sacramento, only he would stay in a different car.  I bought the tickets and gave him one and  when the train arrived several hours later we both boarded, only onto different cars.  We traveled separately until we were close to Sacramento.  He then came into our car and pulled his hat down over his face.  He said, “I am afraid to get off in Sacramento.  Let’s go on to San Francisco and come back to Sacramento by river ferry.”  I paid the conductor for the extra to get to San Francisco and he did the same.  When we arrived in San Francisco, we made our way to the ferry office and bought tickets to travel back to Sacramento.  All of this seemed to work, for he was not  caught by the law.

TO LOS ANGELES.  He rented a house and went to work.  He was a pretty good husband for a short time.  He was still nervous about the law and he headed for Los Angeles.  He left me and the baby in Sacramento for a while.  After he had been in Los Angeles for a short time, he sent for me.  I had to go to work in Los Angeles, as he claimed he could not get work there.  We had a quarrel and as a result he left for San Diego.  Meanwhile, I worked in Los Angeles for several months.

Finally I heard from him.  This time he was in Reno, Nevada.  He asked me to come there. He said he had work and was doing well.  Before I could leave for Reno, I became sick with the mumps and after that I got food poisoning from some chili I ate at the place where I worked.  I was feeling pretty well discouraged.  It was quite some time before I finally went to Reno.

GEORGE (GUS) RUDORF BORN APRIL 10, 1914.  Somewhere in this time frame  she gave birth to her second son, George Rudorf, on April 10, 1914 in Susanville, California.  She would have been 26 years old at the time.

TO RENO.  I took the boat from Los Angeles to Sacramento and then by train to Reno.  August met me at the train depot in Reno and he took us to the rooms he had rented from a private family.

All went fairly well until he lost his job and could not find any more work in Reno.  He left Reno for Winnemucca, Nevada.  He was able to find work there and after a few weeks when he thought the job was steady, he sent for us.

It was Christmas day and August had a two-room cabin rented for us in Winnemucca and things looked pretty good. He had a little candy and fruit for the boys as Bill was then five years old and George was about six months old. But, after we had been there only a week he lost his job. The boss said he was too extravagant and being only a small town there was not much work for a cook. A couple of days later he left us again to find work in another town. He was gone a week before we heard from him and to my surprise he was back in Goldfield, Nevada. He then went to Tonapagh and then on to San Francisco. He was there in San Francisco during the 1915 World’s Fair.

After San Francisco we did not hear from him anymore.  He said he could not find any work and he had no money as far as I knew.  The landlady, Mrs. Bonniefield, came to me and said, “You know your husband only paid two weeks rent in advance and now I would like to have the balance.”  I asked her to wait.  I was sure my husband would soon find work and send me some money.  She waited one week and came again to ask for the rent.  She said, “If you cannot pay your rent, you will have to move.”  She seemed such a heartless woman.  She was not in need of money, as her father was the judge of the town and she was pretty well off   I tried to get work, but I could not find anything to do, as few people in Winnemucca ever hired help.

I went to the post office every day, but no mail came from my husband.  The month was up and I didn’t have a cent.  The landlady came again and said, “You will have to move at once.” That did not seem as bad as the pangs of hunger my children and I felt.  The children and I did not have a good meal in over a week and we were slowly starving in that strange town.  We had nothing in several days but a little flour mixed with water for one meal and a few potatoes with the skins on for another meal.

I was getting desperate and I made up my mind, after looking in the cupboard and seeing nothing to eat but two potatoes, that I would get something before the day was over, even if I had to steal it.  My little boy (Bill) said, “Mama, When are you going to cook those two potatoes?”  I told him, “When I get some thing else to cook with them.”  I told him that we needed to get dressed and go once more to the post office to see if there was any mail from his father.  If there was nothing at the post office we would go to the grocery store and ask them to give us some thing to eat.  There was no mail.  I went to the grocery store and looked around, but did not have the nerve to ask the grocer for anything.  We went back to our cabin and outside I found the evening newspaper thrown there.

By the hand of fate the newspaper was accidently delivered to our doorstep.  I could not have afforded to subscribe to the paper.  I cooked up the two potatoes for the two boys and I. After our supper I looked over the paper and saw where the Ladies Aid Society was going to meet at two o’clock the next day at one of the ladies houses.  I forget her name, but I decided that I would go there and ask them for some help. I could not stand our plight any longer.  The next morning came and there was nothing to eat.  There was the small quantity of flour, but it was of no use to us without lard or baking powder.  There seemed nothing to do but wait for the meeting at two o’clock.  Billy was crying for some thing to eat and by the time it was 12 o’clock I could stand it no longer myself I went to the lady’s house that was shown in the newspaper story and rang the bell.  She was a nice woman.  One could see that by looking at her.  I told her my story and she told me to come inside and sit down for it was very cold outside.  It was January and Nevada is very cold during the winter.  She gave me a big loaf of home made bread, some butter and some tea.  She said, “You better go home and fix the tea and bread for you and your boys and come back here at two o’clock.  You will be better able to talk to the ladies.”

We sure did feel better.  We ate the big loaf of bread in just  a few minutes.   At two o’clock we went back to the lady’s house.  It took all the nerve I had to go back there again.  But, I had to go, as it was the only way I could see to get help.  I arrived at the lady’s house about two thirty.  All the ladies of the Society were there and after I had told them of my troubles, they took up a collection.  They gave me about $5.00 in cash.  Then, each one of them gave me some different grocery item.  I recall receiving butter, milk, potatoes and bread from different ladies and one of them sent some coal in a little wagon pulled by one of her children.  The minister of the Methodist church sent a load of wood.

The rent was the only problem I was not able to solve that day.  The landlady, Mrs. Bonniefield, again came for the rent and when I told her that I still could not pay, she told me to go see a Mr. Hawkins.  Mr. Hawkins was one of the City ofWinnemucca’s Council members and he took care of all the charity work.  I went to see him and told him of my circumstances.  He asked how much I paid a month for my cabin and I told him $15.00.  “Well,” he said, “I cannot let you have that much, but I can let you have $10.00 a month.”  He told me to ask Mrs. Bonniefield if she would accept $10.00 a month for the cabin.  But, no! She would not.  I had to go out and look for a place and the only places I could find for that kind of money were tent cabins.  I took one that was a one room with a little kitchenette.  The place belonged to a German woman by the name of Adrien.  She had about an acre of land with lots of trees and a nice house.  She rented out about half of her house and of course the tent cabin that I had rented.  She depended on the rent from her house and the tent cabin for her living.  She asked, “Can you pay me in advance?  If you can, you can have it.”  I told her that the City was going to be paying my rent.  The next day we were able to move into our new home.  It was January and snowing very hard.  I fixed a good fire and prepared some thing to eat.  The boys and I were settled once more.

Mr. Hawkins gave me $10.00 a month on a grocery bill and paid my rent to Mrs. Adrien. The $10.00 a month for groceries for three people was not very much, so I took in laundry, washing and ironing.  I had done fairly well and Billy, who was about five and a half at this time, delivered the laundry in a baby buggy.  I could have done better if it not been so cold.  It took most of my money to buy coal, as it was always cold inside the tent.  Many times I had to put the boys to bed in order to keep them warm and shovel the snow off the tent to keep it from caving in.  Otherwise, we were getting along pretty good.  My husband, August, had been gone almost six months and he had not written or sent us any money in all that time.

One day, August came back.  He went to the cabin where we first lived.  Not finding us there, he hunted us up and found where we had moved.  He came to us with a hard luck story that he could not find any work in all the towns that he had traveled to.  He sure looked the picture of distress.  I fixed him some thing to eat.  He said his feet were frostbitten from riding on the freight trains.  He stayed in our tent for two days.  When Mr. Hawkins found out that my husband was back, he came around to see me.  He said, “If that man sticks around and doesn’t get to work, I will stop your grocery allowance and rent payment.  We will not pay rent for a big man like him. Let him get out and hustle.”

There was no cook work there in that town for him.  He asked me if I could give him $5.00 and that he would do his best to find work.  He headed out again on some freight trains.  I did not hear from him again for a month.  I got a letter saying that he had a job in a small mining town and he was going to rent a house with five rooms and all the furniture (the furniture turned out to be a stove and one bed).  He also said that he was going to fix some wash tubs for me, so I could take in washing.

I thought, if I had to take in laundry for him, I would stay where I was and support the children and myself.  I answered his letter and told him that I was not going to move to another small mining town and go hungry again.  I told him, “Furthermore, I am through with you.”  I asked my landlady, Mrs. Adrien, for her advice.  “Supposing  he should come to Winnemucca, what would I do?”  She said, “If I were you, I would go across the street and see Mr. Bonniefield. He is a retired lawyer.”  He was the uncle of the lady that owned the cabin we first lived, when we arrived in Winnemucca.  I did as Mrs. Adrien told me to do and found him to be a very nice man. After hearing my story, he advised me to get a divorce and not let my husband inside my door again.  I told him that August had always threatened my life if I should ever try to leave him.  He said, “You should be able to protect yourself.  Have you a gun or anything that you could use in case he should come and bother you?”  I said, “No, I have not.”  He then said, “I will call up Sheriff Lamb and see what he says about this.”  He called the sheriff on the phone and within half an hour the sheriff arrived at Mr. Bonniefield’ s house.

After hearing what Mr. Bonniefield had to say, he turned to me and said, “Did you ever  use a gun before?”  I told him, “No sir, I never did.” He pulled out a big six shooter from his pocket and said, “Take this gun, and if your husband should come, you can scare him away. Remember, do not pull the trigger unless your life is in danger.”  I thanked them both and went home.  I met my landlady in the yard and showed her the gun.  She said, “My God in hell, you will shoot yourself.”  I told her not to worry, that I would be careful.

I sure was nervous that night, as I was almost sure that when August got the letter he would come to Winnemucca to make me goes with him.  Sure enough, the next night about twelve o’clock I heard someone outside and soon there was a knock on the door.  I knew it was August, for I could see him plainly as there was a street lamp on the corner and there was a glass piece in the door of our tent house.  The window was just big enough for me to see outside.  The two children were asleep and although I had been in bed, I was too afraid to sleep.  He knocked again.  This time I said, “Who is there?”  He said, “You know well who it is and if you don’t open the door I will break it in.”  I grabbed the gun Sheriff Lamb had given to me and said, “If you try to come in here, I will blow your head off.”  He laughed as loud as he could and then started pushing against the door.  The small piece of glass that was in the door was knocked out and fell inside the tent.  I thought one more push and the door would bust open.  I figured I had no time to lose and my hand was trembling like a leaf.  I raised the gun, aimed and shot twice.

SHOOTS AUGUST RUDORF.  One of the bullets hit him, but the other went into the door casing.  He started to scream and holler, “I am shot.”  He managed to get out of the yard faster than a rabbit, for by the time I found the key that had been knocked from the door and opened it, he was three blocks away still hollering for help.  It seems that no one came near him until he had run six blocks to the main street.  There he met up with a policeman and was taken to the doctor.  His wounds were dressed and later he was removed to the County Hospital.  He was very weak from the loss of blood, as the bullet had gone through one arm and on into the chest where it hit a lung.  I was still standing like a person in a dream by my front door, dressed only in my night clothing with the gun still in my hand, when the sheriff, the lawyer and about half the people of Winnemucca came to see what had happened.  They were attracted by the shots and all the hollering.

Sheriff Lamb asked me why I had shot my husband.  I said in a shaking voice, “I shot him in self-defense.  If I had not shot him, he would have beaten me to death and I already have had several beatings from his hands.”  I thought it was my turn to play the villain.  The sheriff said, “I did not give you that gun to shoot anyone with.  I just gave it to you to protect yourself and your children.”  I assured the sheriff that I was only trying to protect myself.  He then said, “I will not arrest you tonight.  You can go back into your tent and I will see you tomorrow.”  I went back in the tent and locked the door.  I sat on the edge of the bed until the new day dawned.  I was afraid my husband was not hurt bad and he would come back and kill me.

In the morning I read the newspaper and found that he was hurt very badly, although he was not in critical condition.  Nobody came by the tent to comfort me.  It seemed everyone was afraid to get mixed up in this mess.  I think that if the sheriff had arrested me that night I would have felt better or at least safer.  I sure was nervous that night, for you know a wounded beast always tries to get revenge if possible.  But, nobody came to see me until after breakfast.  At that time I saw Mrs. Adrien out in her yard.  She said, “Mein Got! What did you do mit that gun last night?  I was so scared.  I wanted to look out the window, but I was afraid you would shoot me. I know you can’t shoot straight.  If you could, you would have finished him.  Mein Got!  What will they do with you? Oh!  Why did you do it?”  Well, after I had pointed out to her what he did to the tent door (you could still see the broken glass lying on the floor inside), she knew that I had to shoot to save myself.  I did not clean up a thing, as I was waiting for the police officers to come.  The sheriff and his officers came and began looking around.  They measured the door and wrote down all the evidence they could find in their book.

Sheriff Lamb left and his officers left and still did not arrest me.  However, the next day they came with a machine and a warrant for my arrest.  I had to go to jail.  I packed my suitcase and took my two children and went with the officer to the courthouse.  When Mr. Bonniefield heard of my arrest, he rushed to my aid.  He told the sheriff  that, “If this woman goes to jail, then her children will go in there with her.”  He and the sheriff then had an argument, for the sheriff was the one that had given me the gun in the first place.  After a few minutes the sheriff decided  he would let me go, if I furnished a $2,000 bond.  Mr. Bonniefield lost his temper again and said, “How can a woman that takes in laundry for a living, has the county paying her rent and has to live in a tent during the winter ever expect to get that amount of money?  She will either have to go to jail or you will have to turn her loose.”  That old sheriff, seeing the wisdom of Mr. Bonniefield’ s argument, agreed with him.  He told me to go home and behave myself.  He also told me to not try running away, for if I did, I would not get very far before I was caught.  I guess he knew I couldn’t go very far with the few dollars that I had.

I went back to my laundry work again.  I was afraid to sleep in the tent cabin at night and Mr. Bonniefield’s wife told me that the children and I could sleep in her house.  I soon rented another place across the street from the tent cabin.  The rent on the new place was $12.00 a month.  The City of Winnemucca still paid $10.00 a month and I paid $2.00 from my wash money.  I knew that my husband’s condition was improving, although they could not find the bullet, and I did not want to live in that tent cabin any longer.

One day a message came from him saying that he was dying and that he wanted to see the children and me before he passed away.  I asked my lawyer, Mr. Bonniefield, for his advice, as he lived just across the street from our new tent house.  He told me to call up the hospital and find out how he was before I went.  When I called, the nurse told me that he was doing fine and would be out of the hospital soon.  I knew then that I did not want to go anywhere near that hospital.  I felt sure that he would try to escape as soon as he could.  I called the nurse again a couple of days later and told her that if Mr. Rudorf should ever sneak away to call the sheriff the moment he was missed.  Things went along all right for a few days, until one afternoon while I was standing in Mrs. Adrien’s backyard.  We were talking along with some other women, when I happened to look toward the old tent cabin and there stood August Rudorf with a bundle of bloody clothing in his hand.  He looked so pale and crippled that I had to look twice to be sure that it was him.

My friends said, “For God’s sake, go and go fast!  We will tell him that we have not seen you.”  They told me later that he knocked on the door of the tent cabin and when nobody answered, he tried the door.  When he found the door locked, he went to the back of the place and put his soiled and bloody clothing in a box.  He then came back around to the front of the place and upon seeing my friends, asked them if they had seen me.  They told him that they had not seen me.  He left them and crossed the street where my new landlady’s son was working outside in the yard.

When I left my friends, I ran as fast as I could and when I came past the boy, I told him, “My husband is looking for me and if he comes here, don’t tell him where I am.”  So when August asked the boy if he had seen me, the boy answered in a very shaky voice, “No, I haven’t.

I don’t even know her.  You see, I am a stranger here and this lady just hired me to dig up her garden.”  My husband said, “All right” and started off down the street looking for me.  Before he could get to the end of the street, he got an awful surprise.  There was Sheriff Lamb looking for him.

It seems that while the nurse at the hospital was getting his tray for lunch down in the kitchen, he slipped on his clothes and got out of there as fast as he could.  The county hospital at Winnemucca was about a mile outside of town and a person would have had to travel fast to get out of sight of the hospital in a short amount of time.  There was no place to hide between the hospital grounds and the town, only wide open land.  When the nurse came back with his lunch and could not find him, she looked out the window and saw him crossing the railroad tracks on the way to town.  She called the sheriff and told him that August Rudorf had slipped away and was on his way into town.

The sheriff had caught up with him just as he was about to turn the corner and go back to the tent house, as he thought I was still living there.  The sheriff said to him, “Where do you think you are going?”  He told the sheriff, “I’m looking for my wife.”  “Well,” said the sheriff, “Come with me and I will see that you find a nice bed at the county jail.  You should be in bed instead of running around like a wild man.”  August told him, “I’m not going with you.  I must find my wife, first.”  The sheriff grabbed him by the collar and pulled out his gun. Believe me, August walked  to that jail like a lamb.

The next was the hardest part for me.  I had to swear out a warrant for his arrest, otherwise, they would not keep him in jail.  I’ll admit that I was afraid of him and that seemed to be my only choice.

My preliminary  hearing came up for trying to kill my husband.   The next was the hearing for August’s arrest.   I had to face him in court.   The sheriff brought  him into the court room and he sure did look wild.   The first thing he did was to ask the sheriff if he could talk to me for a few minutes.   But, oh no!  I did not want to be near him.   It was bad enough to be in the same room with him.   Every minute in that courtroom seemed like so many hours.   I hated him so much that I could have killed him then and there, if I only dared or if I didn’t have those two small children to live for.

His hearing was soon over and he was kept in jail until my trial date came up.  During my trial he was asked if he knew who shot him.  He had never admitted to anyone that it was me who had done the shooting and besides it was a hard thing for him to swear to as he did not see me do the shooting.  He told the judge that he did not know who had shot him and as there were not any other witnesses.  I was cleared of the attempted murder charge.  I was very glad as I was sure they were going to put me in jail for a while at least.

August was still in jail when he once again sent a messenger to me and the children saying he was dying and wanted to see the children.  This time I called the sheriff and asked if Mr. Rudorf was very sick and about to die.  I told the sheriff that he had sent me a message to come and see him before he died.  Sheriff Lamb said, “Your husband has tried all day to borrow a razor from the other prisoners.  He has been telling them that he wanted to shave and not finding a razor, he asked to borrow a knife to trim his finger nails.”  The sheriff went on to say, “I see now why he wanted the razor and the knife.  If you are foolish enough to come see him, he will cut  you to pieces.  He is not dying and is just about the same as before.  Take my advice and stay away from this jail.”

After a couple of weeks in jail the sheriff took August to the train depot and put him on a train to Battle Mountain (that was the name of the little mining town where August had rented the five room house).  The sheriff told him to never put his foot in the town of Winnemucca again or it would cost him $500.00 and six months in jail. A few weeks later I read in the local newspaper that he had been found in that house he rented almost dead. During his travels he had lost the key to the house and when he arrived there he had to climb in through the window.  He had been there five days without any food.  He was taken to the local hotel, as there were no hospitals in that town.  Someone was hired to nurse and fix him up until he felt better again.  He later had the bullet removed by a Doctor Martin in Los Angeles.

DIVORCE GRANTED.  I started my suit for a divorce from him.  The papers were made out and sent to him in Battle Mountain.  He had already left and had gone to Los Angeles.  From Los Angeles he had gone on to Salt Lake City, but there was no trace of him there.  I took out an advertisement to find him and after three months I got my divorce from him.  I was happy to be free from such a man.  For although he always said there would be no divorces in his family, he believed in beating his wife and having her work if he was working.  He had always taken mining camp jobs where they wanted a man and wife together to cook and wait tables.  My life was hard from the first day I met him to the day the divorce was finally granted.

EARTHQUAKE!  After I felt he was finally out of my life, things were good for me and the boys.  However, one day all the dished in the cupboard started to rattle.  I thought at first that I was seeing things and the incident passed.  I did not say a word to anyone for I did not want them to think I was crazy.  A few hours later things started to rattle again.  This time it was worse than before.  This time the whole house was moving and everything was shaking.  I hunted up the landlady and asked her what was the matter with the house, for it was shaking all over like a leaf   She said it was a slight earthquake.  She asked, “Haven’t you ever been in an earthquake before.”  I said, “No, I haven’t.”  It only lasted for a few seconds and there was no more until we were getting ready for bed.  Then there came a series of quakes with each more violent than the one before. This time the dishes not only rattled, but fell to the floor.  I was able to get to the coal lamp in time or the house would have been on fire.

People that had gathered in the street in the street went to Mrs. Adrien’ s house.  She was old and living alone.  The chickens were cackling, the cattle were restless and the dogs were hollering.  It was an awful night.  About midnight there was one terrible shock that knocked down five chimneys and some other small damage.  I fainted from the fright.  I was told afterwards that I had fainted five times that night.  They moved me out in the middle of the road on a mattress and there I laid the rest of the night.  There were 50 of the neighbors around me that night.

Two of the men went for the doctor, but he said he would not leave his home and family that night for anyone.  After they returned from the doctor’s house, I had one more fainting spell. After that fainting spell, four men went to get the doctor and they made him return with them.  He examined me and gave me some white pills for my heart.  I felt very much better after that.  By  that time all the people of Winnemucca were out in the street were out in the middle of the street. If there was going to be a more violent earthquake, the buildings would probably fall in and everyone decided therefore that the safest place was the street.

I never want to be around another earthquake.  I found it to be very terrifying.  After that incident and regaining my well-being, I decided to leave Winnemucca.  I wanted to go back to Chicago, but I did not have enough money to go.  I was beginning to hate Winnemucca and was continually thinking of how to get out of there.  There seemed to be no way out for me and the children.  I went over to see Mrs. Adrien.  She had lived in Winnemucca most of her life and she could answer most any question one could ask concerning that “wonderful city called Winnemucca.”

She thought about my problem for a while and then she said, “Why don’t you go see Mr. Hawkins?”  “He’s paying your rent and allowing you $10.00 a month for groceries.”  “I’ll bet he will be glad to send you back.”  “Then he won’t have to pay out that $20.00 a month for you.”  I went to see Mr. Hawkins that same day and sure enough, he was glad to get rid of me.  He told me to come back the next day and he would have tickets for us on the Southern Pacific.  I lost no time.  I went home and packed my few belongings.

BACK TO CHICAGO.  The next day I and the children left Winnemucca for Chicago.  We had a sleeper on one of the tourist coaches.  We had a good lunch that some of our neighbors gave us.  After a couple of days, we arrived at Union Depot in that big city of Chicago.  There was no one to meet us, as I did not have time to tell them that we were coming.  I took the State Street car to Sixty Third Street and after walking a block or two, we were ringing my cousin’s door bell.  That big, good­ natured Irish woman came to the door and said in a loud voice, “Oh!  It’s my cousin from Nevada.  Come on in.”  She made us some tea and while we were drinking the tea she asked, “How did you happen to come to Chicago?  Where is your husband?  Is he coming, too?”  I told her about what had happened and that I was now divorced.

I could see the expression on her face change.  First of all, she was a good Catholic and she did not believe in divorces.  Second, she thought that I was probably going to impose on her. After some conversation she asked me what I was going to do.  I told her that I would find a good home for my children and then I would look for work.  She said that all the things that happened were all too bad and to get the divorce was the only thing I could do.

A couple of days later I found a place for my boys in a private home for $7.00 a week for the both of them.  Next, I had to find work, but that was easy.  I found work the next day with a family doing house work.  Everything was fine, only I did not get very big wages.  I got $8.00 a week and after paying out $7.00 for the children, there was only $1.00 left for clothing and car fare.  The people I worked for gave me some dresses.  I had quite a good deal of clothing given to me for my children, as I had my sister and a brother (Ann and Michael) in Chicago and both of them were working.

I was working for a Jewish family on Fifty First Street and Michigan Avenue.  They were very nice people and I worked there for nearly one year.  I had to quit when I became sick and had to have an operation.  I was not able to work again for a long time.  During this time I was getting letters from a man in Sacramento.  His deceased wife was a cousin of mine.  That is, her father had remarried to an aunt of mine when she was a little girl.  While she wasn’t a blood relation, we called each other cousins.  She had died several years before.  Now, her husband (Michael Marren) was writing to me there in Chicago.  At first his letters were just friendly, but as time went on we became more serious about each other.  After some time, he asked me in one of his letters to be his wife.  I knew he was a good man.  I answered his letter and said that I would want to be his wife.

MARRIED MICHAEL MARREN, MOVES TO SACRAMENTO.  He sent railroad fare and once again the children and I packed up and headed west.  He met me in Truckee, California and we went on from there to Reno, Nevada, where we were married.  After a couple of days we returned to Sacramento, where he had his home.  We were very happy for four or five years.

2 CHILDREN BORN, THOMAS AND MARY.  We had two children of our own (Thomas Michael Marren born in August 10, 1917 and Mary Katie Valentine Marren born February 14, 1919).

When my daughter, Mary was only about one year old, Michael got sick.  He was sick for two years. My mother was living in Chicago at this time.  My brother Michael had sent money to her in Ireland to come to the United States and live with him.  I wrote to my mother and brother about the health problems that my husband, Michael was experiencing.  My mother came to Sacramento to help me care for him.  (See the copy of the letter that Michael Marren wrote at this time and how the “old lady” was not much of a comfort to him.)

MARREN DIES.  Michael was a fireman with the Sacramento Fire Department.  I think the firemen of Sacramento are the best hearted men on earth.  The fire chief gave Michael his pay, even when he knew that Michael would never be able to work again.  Michael had heart trouble and a few months before he died, he lost his mind and had to be locked up in a cell at the county hospital. After Michael died, the firemen of Sacramento paid to have him buried and gave me $500.00 for myself and the children.  My mother was with us at the time my husband died.

Shortly after the funeral I went to work for a Mr. Harris, who was a lawyer in Sacramento.  I worked for him for a few months and my mother took care of the children and our home.  While I was uptown one afternoon to pay some bills, it began raining.  I decided to go and see a show until the rain stopped.  There are two movie picture theaters on “K” Street.  They are close together and I was undecided which one to go to.  I finally decided to go into the Capitol Theater.  I was there for ten to fifteen minutes when a stranger came down the isle and stopped in front of the row of seats where I was sitting.  There were a large man and woman in the end seats. Instead of me standing to let this stranger pass, I moved over a seat and let the man have my seat. Of course, he thanked me.

MEETS GEORGE A. KALOSTOS.  After a short time we began talking about the show.  When the show was over, we left the theater together.  He had said he had to be at work at 3:00 p.m..  Once outside the theater he asked me if I was a married woman.  I explained to him that I had just buried my husband a few months before.  He expressed his sympathy and said, “If I can help you or do anything for you at any time, you will find me at 810 “f’ Street.  Ask for George.”  I said all right and went on home. That evening I was wondering who that man was and did he really work at the address he had given to me.  I decided that some day I would find out, as I liked his appearance and he seemed to be a perfect gentleman.

The following week I went to town and had not forgotten the address on “f’ Street.  I decided to check out this address he had given.  When I got in front of the place, I found that it was a cafe.  I thought that was just so much the better.  It made it much easier to go into a place like that.  I ordered some coffee and a piece of cake.  I realized then I wasn’t sure if he had said his name was Joe or George.  I asked the waiter if there was a fellow working there by the name of Joe.  The waiter said, “No, but we do have a fellow named George working here.”  I asked the waiter if I could see him.  He said, “Sorry Ma’am, he is out now, but he will be in at three.  He is our evening chef.”  I left the cafe and took care of my other business.

MARRIES GEORGE KALOSTOS.  I came back the next week at around one o’clock and George was there.  I wondered if I would recognize him or if he would recognize me.  But the minute I saw him, I knew that he was the same fellow that I had met in the show that afternoon.  From the cafe we went to the show again.  From that day on we met once a week and after a few months we met more often.  After six months we got married.

5 CHILDREN BORN, KATHRYN, PAULINE, GEORGEANNA, THOMAS, JOHN.  I had four children when I married George.  Now we have two more children (Kathryn Kalostos born May 15, 1922 and Pauline Kalostos born November 7, 1924). We have a nice home out on “T’ Street in East Sacramento.  We are getting along fine and love each other today just as well as we did the day we married.  (They had three more children: Georgiana Kalostos born Apri/24, 1927, Thomas Kalostos born August 11, 1930 and John Kalostos born March 30, 1932.  George died in an automobile accident in Roseville, California.)

GEORGE KALOSTOS DIES IN AUTO CRASH IN PLACERVILLE, CA.

Written by:     Mrs. Mary Kalostos

840 43rd Street Sacramento, California

Written around 1925 or 1926 when she would have been 37 or 38 years old.

 

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LETTER FROM MICHAEL MARREN TO WIFE, MARY MARREN.

June 18th 1921 Sacramento, California

Dear Wife,

I received your letter and glad to hear that you and Mary arrived safe at White Hall (Chicago). Well, Tommy took it terrible to heart, when you left that night.  He cried all night and was sick two nights after.  He was so sick Wednesday I had to give salt and water to make him throw up and I believe it was the only thing that saved his life.  My Mamie, if you seen what he threw up, you couldn’t imagine how he lived and the only consultation I got from the next room was to give him a slap and make him sleep.  (The consultation would have been from Mary Ann Forkan/Haran, his mother-in-law.)  I never saw him look so bad as when he was a baby.  I was up three nights with him, so you know I was not in the best of temper, but he is all right now.  I got $3.00 worth of Juss and that surely fixed him good.  I made Billy to get a bottle of  “White Pine and Tar” and that cured his cough.

I asked your Mother for some money to get some letter paper, when I was eating my dinner to go to work. She went upstairs and you could hear her talking over at the Stockton Road to herself  So, I did not take it from her.

Well, Mamie I would like it if you could stay there at least three weeks.  That would surely do you good and the baby.  If the old woman was out of here, we could get along fine, but when there is a continual buzz saw in your ear all the time, it is not nice.

The two boys (Bill and Gus Rudoif) were promoted Friday and are pretty good. Last Thursday, I gave a touch of high life. I told Billy to clean the toilet three evenings. He cleaned the three evenings quick, but otherwise they are pretty good.

Well Mamie, I never heard any talk from the neighbors.  For I never trouble then or look for information, but the old woman has a special trail over to F  .  So she knows it all.  So don’t worry and try to enjoy yourself and if anything goes wrong, I will let you know.

Tommy said he would not talk to you when you would come back. He said you don’t like him anymore. You always bring Mary. So try and send him some little thing to keep him in good humor.

So I will finish with best wishes to you and baby.  Kiss the baby for me when you get this letter.  Goodbye from your loving husband.  M  J. Marren

 

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