My Grandmother, Leta Maude Stanton

Leta Maude Stanton-Stilwell-Lonn

March 30, 1901 to January 29,1982

debbie.storbeck@gmail.com

My Grandma Lonn was born Leta Maude Stanton in York County, Nebraska in 1901. She said being born in 1901 always made it easy to remember how old she was.  Her parents were 26 year old David Stanton and 21 year old Minnie Moyer.

Minnie Moyer and David Stanton
Nebraska 1900

In a letter dated June 16, 1978, Leta said, “I think being born in March in State of Nebraska was quite something for me.  Mother had 2 other children born in Nebraska.  They didn’t live long.  I was first and made it to Michigan in a covered-wagon.  We wer'e 7 wks coming.  My father drove a span of mules.  They wer'e 3 and 4 yrs old.  Some Highway men tried to steal them from us one night Grandpa and Uncle Ed Moyer stayed under the wagon with their guns.  I can remember our first snow I got up came to the door, there was mother standing in snow baking pan cakes on a laundry stove.  I imagine that was Mothers stove for awhile.”  The two children who were born and died in Nebraska were Nellie in 1903 and Charles in 1904. David and Minnie and their entourage came to Benzie County, Michigan between 1904 and 1907.

The Overland Route from Nebraska to southwest Michigan, likely followed by David Stanton Family.

Lilly Stanton was born in Michigan in 1907, son Burzell was born in 1908 and died in 1909.  In 1910 David & Minnie and daughters, Leta and Lillie, who later changed her name to Lillian, live on a farm that they have a mortgage on in Ireland Township, Benzie County, Michigan.  The family is living next door to David’s brother Isaac Stanton and his family.  In a letter dated June 10, 1965 Leta tells of her school days, “I started to school when I was 7 yrs. 4 mo. Old and was just 15 yrs. 2 mo. when I got through school.  Wasn't any high school where I attended school.  When I first started to school we lived on a farm near Bendon  I attended Bendon school and walked 1 1/2 miles a day.  Wasn't any cars or buses then, I wore leggins above the knees that had to be buttoned all the way.  Leggins we're black so was the buttons.  Then we wore a cloth like over-shoes that buckled up.  This was in winter.” 

The David Stanton Family.  L- R, David Stanton, Leta Stanton, Lillie Stanton, Minnie Moyer with Flossie  Moyer

In 1920 when Leta was 18 years old, David and Minnie Stanton were living in a mortgaged farm in Colfax Township, Benzie County, Michigan.  There were 4 children, Leta, Lillie, Flossie who was born in 1913, and who changed her name to Florence, and Harold, born in 1915.  Hard times were upon the family and David Stanton was living in a lumber camp in Haight Township, Ontonagon County, in Michigan’s northern peninsula.  In Colfax Township Minnie and the children were living next door to extended family, Henry & Goldie Dinger, whose son, Calvin was married to David’s sister Rosa, and Jerry and Ettie Timlick whose daughter Lulu would marry Warren Stanton, nephew of David.

On November 1 in 1922 Leta Maude Stanton and Albert Edward Stilwell, Jr. “Bud” were married in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, by Clergyman C.N.Babcock of the Bendon Methodist Episcopal Church.  Witness at the ceremony were Warren Stanton, Leta’s first cousin and Leta’s sister Lillie Stanton.  

Albert Edward Stilwell "BUD"

Leta Maude Stanton 

Leta and Albert "Bud" Stilwell, about 1922

According to the Muskegon, Michigan City Directories for 1924, 1926 and 1928 Leta and Bud Stilwell were living and working in the city of Muskegon.  Bud worked as a machinist at Continental Motors.  I remember Grandma saying that when she lived in Muskegon she sewed buttons on underwear.  She was likely employed by The Amazon Knitting Company that produced cotton underwear, gloves, hosiery, hooked rugs, and army shirts.

On April 3, 1924, a daughter, Arlene Leta Stilwell was born to Bud and Leta.  Yevone Alberta Stilwell was born on June 16, 1926; she died 2 weeks later on June 30^th.  Yevone is buried next to her great uncle, James H Merrill Jr., in the White Cloud Cemetery, White Cloud, Michigan.  On November 15, 1928, a son Roger Keith Stilwell was born. 

The death of little Yevone was the beginning of a period of grief and sorrow for Leta and Albert.  In September 1929 Bud was diagnosed with cancer of tongue and mouth, he died on December 6 at the home of his Grandparents James and Edith Merrill.

Leta and her 5-year-old daughter Arlene, and her one year old son Roger moved into the home of James and Edith Merrill in the Beecher Platt of Thompsonville, Michigan.  In a letter written on April 30, 2008 Arlene says, “G-Pa & G-Ma Merrill were great to help relatives.  They about raised my Dad—then took your Dad (Roger), Me and our Mother in during my Dad’s bout with cancer and after.”

Arlene Stilwell-Isaacson told me that Benzie County gave her mother a widow’s pension after Albert’s death, but “busy bodies” complained that James Merrill was receiving a veteran’s pension and that Leta should not receive county aid.

James and Edith Merrill

The Merrill Home in the Beecher Platt in Thompsonville,     Michigan,Edith Merrill, Della Merrill Hamilton, John Hamilton    
abt 1923.

    

The 1930 U.S. census shows Leta Stilwell, Arlene and Roger living with James and Edith Merrill.  The home, in the Beecher Platt, Thompsonville is owned by James Merrill and valued at $500.  Leta cared for Edith in 1932 and 1933.  Edith died December 1933 of cancer.  

Leta Stanton-Stilwell-Lonn and Yalmer Lonn 1945

In St. Joseph, County, Indiana on October 3, 1934 Leta married Yalmer Isaac Lonn, an immigrant from Finland and WWI veteran.  Leta and Yalmer lived in the Merrill home. The first child born to Leta and Yalmer was Helen Beverly Lonn born January 1935.  

In 1936 Leta and Yalmer bought “The Farm” and the family moved. The description in Benzie Banner on July 31, 1958 said it was an “80 acre farm, 5 room house cinder block, basement, barn, 50 ft. x 36 ft . . . . 120 acre farm level, mostly cleared, good for tree planting.  The directions from Thompsonville to the farm were “4 miles north, 1 mile west and 1 mile south.” That is 4 miles north to Wallin Road, turn left (west) and go 1 mile to Haze Road, turn left (south) and go 1 mile to Landis Road. 

At “The Farm” Victor Elmer Lonn was born in June 1937, John Robert Lonn was born in January 1939 and David Wesley was born in June 1945.  According to John Lonn, during their time on “The Farm” the family raised cash crops of beans, corn, cucumbers, and potatoes.  They began their farming with 2 horses and later bought a John Deere tractor.  One year they raised 200 turkeys.  They milked 14 milk cows every day, selling the milk the family did not need.  For family use they also raised pigs and chickens.  There was a root cellar for keeping meat, milk and produce for the large family.  John and Victor went to town for 50 pounds of ice about every three weeks.  They put the ice in the cellar on some boards covered with burlap, then covered the ice with burlap, put the meat on, covered it with some sort of vinyl then more burlap.  Later someone gave the family an ice box, but the trips for ice continued to keep it chilled. 

The Lonn Farm

The farm never had indoor plumbing or electricity.  Leta wanted a corner cupboard for storage on the farm and one Easter week son-in-law Rudy Isaacson built it for her.  When he finished Leta had a cupboard in the corner, not a corner cupboard.  Nothing was ever said and that cupboard made the trip to the Beecher Plat when the Lonn’s moved back into town in 1958 and is probably still sitting in the house.  During the farm years Leta sewed her sons’ overalls and flannel shirts using the Singer Treadle Sewing machine that originally belonged to Edith Merrill.  Leta gave the machine to Arlene Stilwell-Isaacson who gave it to Debbie Stilwell-Storbeck in 1976.  My dad, Roger, used to say his Mom could go to bed with a ball of yarn and wake up in the morning with a finished pair of socks.  Leta’s daughters Arlene and Helen became proficient dressmakers, winning 4-H awards.

The Stilwell and Lonn children always joke about walking 4 miles uphill to get to the school bus and 4 miles uphill to get back home.  The walk to county road 669 and Wallin Road was actually 2 miles.  Once during the 1940’s there was a snow storm and hay for the animals had been ordered and paid for.  The county sent a V plow normally used to clear the railroad tracks, pushed by 5 trucks through the 7-8 foot drifts; the plow broke a mile from the house and that is where the hay was dumped.  The boys had to haul it from there.

L-R Roger Stilwell, Victor, Helen and John Lonn

 According to an ad placed in the Benzie Record newspaper on October 6, 1955 Leta and Yalmer tried to sell the Merrill home and property, “For Sale—House with 8 lots in Thompsonville.  $1500 cash.  Yalmer Lonn, 4 miles north, mile west and mile south of Thompsonville.”  Then in 1958 there is an ad placed in the Benzie Record newspaper on July 31,  “For Sale—80 acre farm, 5 room house cinder block, basement, barn, 50 ft x 36 ft. $3000.  120 acre farm level, mostly cleared, good for tree planting.  $3000.  Yalmer Lonn, Thompsonville.” ( Benzie Record newspaper, 6 October 1955, page 10, column 4.)

 Leta and Yalmer moved back into the old Merrill home in Thompsonville in 1958.  In 1947 or 1948 the house had been covered with asbestos siding and the attached shed was torn down.  Before the move John Lonn and wife Mary tore out the wall between the second bedroom and the living room making the living room the width of the of the house.  The rest of the house was one bedroom and the kitchen/dining room.  The space that was to become the “indoor plumbing” was a pantry.  Burt Lemley and Dick Lafever wired the house for electricity, going into the attic through the front window, or maybe a hole in the ceiling in the bedroom.   Son-in-law Rudy Isaacson, a plumber, turned the pantry into a small bathroom that included a tub.  Victor Lonn and crew dug the septic and John Lonn dug the drain field.  The water was also brought into the house at this time.  Leta and Yalmer brought the fuel oil space heater they had been using on the farm.  Later a floor furnace from Don and Melva Swisher’s was added.  (Don and Melva were in-laws of John Lonn)  Eventually that furnace was replaced.  The house got a new roof.  In 1959 John Lonn and his wife Mary Swisher Lonn built a home across the street.

My Grandma' kitchen furnishings looked like these.

I remember when my sisters, brother and I walked from our maternal grandparent’s home to the Thompsonville post office we were told to walk uptown for the mail.  When walking from Grandma Lonn’s we walked downtown.  Our family spent many weekends and holidays in Thompsonville and my sisters, brother and I spent summers freely wandering from one set of grandparents to the other.  I remember Grandma Lonn’s pancakes, her brown sugar syrup and tall glasses of cold milk. There was always a contest to see who could eat the most.  Sometimes other cousins and uncles would be around to join in the challenge.

 The recipes are: 

Grandma Lonn’s Pancakes                             Brown Sugar Syrup

1 egg                                                                    2 cups brown sugar

1 cup flour                                                           1 cup water

1 to 1 ½ cup milk*                                              Boil good, don’t burn.

1 teaspoon baking soda

*Butter milk or sour milk or sweet milk with 2 teaspoons of baking soda.

Grandma and Grandpa had Sunday dinners.  My sister Beverly remembers once Grandma chopped the head off the chicken and hung it on the clothesline then plucked it. The chickens likely came from her neighbor, Belle Kessler.  Belle was scary, she dressed old fashioned, and always had a broom in her hand, leading us to believe she was a witch.  The Sunday family dinners were fried chicken, heaps of mashed potatoes with smooth creamy gravy, a necessary vegetable and pies for desert.  I liked Grandma’s venison mince pie best.  It was crowded when we all gathered around the big dining table.

When we were young Grandma Lonn made a lot of dresses for Beverly, Leta and me, and sometimes Roberta too.  The dresses were always exactly alike or the same pattern in different colors. 

Left photo L-R Deborah, Leta and Beverly Stilwell Christmas 1961.

Matching dresses made by grandma.

Right photo Deborah Stilwell

Dress made by Grandma.

Grandma crocheted a lot of fancy potholders.  I have one that she gave me for high school graduation.  Grandma taught Beverly and me to crochet and to knit. 

Pot Holders made and given to Beverly Stilwelll
and the sugar bowl from Grandma's table

The last time I saw Grandma was Christmas-time 1980 when Mike and I visited her at the Maples Nursing Home in Frankfort.  We took our 6 week old daughter, Sarah Jean Storbeck with us.