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Source: Found in the Lake City Library, Lake City, Michigan Written by Russell VanBrocklin In 1930, we moved from Muskegon County to Missaukee County. There was no work in Muskegon and my wife's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kern, lived here. We moved in with them and weathered some hard times. There was very little work that first year. While bussing wood for Mr. Mac Mogg, I had the misfortune of cutting my foot quite deeply. We had no money for doctors, so my mother-in-law treated it with horse liniment and bandaged it with adhesive tape. At that time there was a considerable amount of state land available for homesteading. We scraped enough so that in the spring of 1931, we homesteaded 120 acres with a fairly good house and small barn. This cost us exactly $12, or ten cents an acre! It was located seven and a half miles east of Cutcheon. One had to live on it for five years to get the deed. Fred Mitchell had a large dairy farm across from the Sunnyside School. He raised from 20 to 40 acres of corn each year and hired Pat Wagner and me for three years to cut it to fill his silo. We used a horse-drawn sled with sharpened crosscut saws on each side. The saws were sharpened like knives. Pat and I rode the sled and grabbed the corn as it was cut. We dropped it when we had an armful. This kept four teams and wagons going all day. Mrs. Mitchell set a table fit for a king, with all you could eat -- oh, yes, and our dollar a day. 1932 was not as bad a year. We had a garden, chickens and a couple of cows. My wife's grandfather, Force, gave us a two-year-old heifer and I leased a cow for three years. We could keep all the increase except the first calf, and at the end of the three years, we were to return the cow and calf to their owner. I remember I had exactly $65 in actual cash money that year. We drove an old Model T, when we could get gas, and paid 15 cents a gallon at Bert Hake's Gas Station at the north end of Lake City. By 1935, W.P.A. had started and things got some better. We moved back to Muskegon in 1937 and I finally got back to steady work. We traded the farm for a place there and were allowed $300. Those were what people called "the good old days." I would say they were "the bad old days," and I hope people never see them again. You had to live through them to know what they were like. Written by Russell VanBrocklin |