1. KATHERINE1 ROSENCRANS was born March 31, 1914 in Bismarck, ND, and died November 23, 1997 in Bremerton, Wa. She married CLEO PAYSENO. He was born April 08, 1895 in Mason City, Iowa, and died February 26, 1958 in Bremerton, Wa.
Notes for KATHERINE ROSENCRANS:
It must be true cause Emma don't lie
Katherine was born on March 30, 1914 to Dot and Rance Rosencrans. Her parents
were divorced before she was born and Dot married George Clooten. Katherine was delivered by Mrs. Trolley the fifth child of her mother. Dot, whose real name was Violet Dot, had given away Margaret, the oldest,
and Myrtle, James had died as a baby, and Samuel Daniels was the only child she kept. George Clooten didn't like the name Sam as it was Dot's fathers
name so he changed it to Tom. They kept Tom because he could work the fields. Dot was going to give Katherine away to a family, but George said no they could use her to work the farm also. The Clooten farm was northeast of Bismarck near Arnold which was a small town marked by a grain elevator. Dot was thirteen when she had Margaret and was now twenty-eight at the birth of Katherine.
Katherine was milking cows at age six and plowing at nine. There was always
work to be done. Soon more children followed. George Jr, Emma who arrived at twelve
noon, Josephine delivered by Josephine Ludeen, Benny delivered by Delia Clooten, and
finally in 1931 Oddessa, the only child to be born in a hospital and she was stillborn.
When Katherine was three a flu epidemic hit the family. All were sick except
George who was pretending to be so he wouldn't get drafted into the war. The doctor
knew he was faking and told him to get out of bed. When they were sick with colds they
used skunk and castor oil as a remedy.
The farm was three miles east of Arnold near the road. The kitchen was a log cabin
and the bedroom was framed. The roof over the kitchen sloped. There was a barn and a
chicken coop, There was a windmill that pumped up water from the deep well and a dam
that created a pond. The pond was seven feet deep. The walls of the house were
newspaper and cardboard with flour paste in the cracks. Later Emma would claim that
she had to tie herself to the windmill to save herself from the stampeding cattle.
When Katherine was four she was told to watch George and baby Emma while
cooking a dinner of sauerkraut on the stove. George tipped the whole pot over himself
and when her stepdad got home she got a licking. Katherine was baking bread by the time
Josie was born when she was seven. On the fourth of July they got watermelon and
lemons otherwise they never ate fruit. They got 40 cents a pound for the butter that they
made and they made 70 pounds a week, but they had none for themselves and used lard on
the table. Dot sold the butter in town to her customers. They were allowed some milk and
they kept it sweet by putting it in the well. They did make jelly from wild plums and
berries but Dot never canned anything. They also picked wild grapes by pulling the vines
from the trees, Bull and Buffalo berries, Chokecherries which really made you pucker if
they were not ripe, but they made good jam, and Juneberries which came on slender
loaded bushes and were black. These were also sold in town. They sold beets and
cabbage also. They grew corn to feed the hogs and they also hung seed corn and popcorn
on the windmill for it to dry. They never ate pork or beef they raised. They had goose for
Christmas and Katherine remembers that at one time there was no food so they had bread
and burnt flour gravy to eat. Every Saturday George and Dot took the eggs, milk, butter,
chicken and garden vegetables to sell. One time Katherine came home to find they were
eating skunk meat. They grew wheat and millets and sugar cane for the cows to give
sweeter milk. In the fall they bought a box of raisins and prunes and sometimes apples for
the winter to store in the root cellar and this was the only fruit they had.
One time Aunt Gay and Aunt Minnie came to visit and her Aunt Gay taught
Katherine how to make Lemon pie. Her Grandma Eliza Minor came to visit with her son
Sam who was eighteen at the time. She visited only twice and on one time she gave
Katherine her gold and turquoise bracelet which Katherine kept for years. Katherine never
meet her Grandpa Minor as he was drug to death by a horse when Tom was a baby. The
story that Grandma told about Ma was that when Dot was born she weighed two and a
half pounds and her dad put her in a shoebox for a bed. Dot always called her daughter
Katherine but the kids called her Kat. Grandma brought oranges on her first trip and they
were the first the kids had ever tasted and Katherine could always remember how good
they were.
Dot and George used to fight all the time and call each other every name under the
sun. Katherine was blamed for everything that went wrong. They even said that it was
her fault Oddessa died. Katherine was picking potato bugs and putting them in a can of
kerosene when Tom started to wrestle her and tore her dress. Dot whipped her with a big
stick when she got done and came in for tearing her dress. They never bought clothes for
Dot would bring home used ones from her customers. One morning the coffee was hot
and George burnt his lip and threw it so Dot broke all the dishes on the table and in the
house and they ate on pie tins for a while. The fights would end with them not talking for
weeks to each other.
The also raised turkeys and her stepdad told her to put them in and she did, but
when he got home he saw the neighbors turkeys and without even asking her he whipped
her and she never forgave him for that. He also came and whipped her without asking
when Emma had reported that Katherine was in the outhouse with a boy at school but
never asked if it was true. Her mother said, "It must be true cause Emma don't lie."
Emma didn't lie all the time.
Katherine dug a man out of the snow once and got twenty-five cents and her
mother took it to buy kerosene. They would cut wood for the winter and her stepdad
gave her on purpose the broken tongued wagon and spooky horse and when a car went by
it scared the horse and the tongue broke and they went in the ditch but didn't wreck.
Another time they were going up a steep hill and the horse wouldn't go up for her
stepdad but Katherine got him to and the stepdad was mad. When she was nine and her
Ma was outside her brother George wouldn't get out of bed so she could make it. He got
mad and was going to kill her and Josie, but the gun fell when he shot it and went into the
floor.
Katherine went off to school and went through the eight grade. She had to stay home
when her stepdad wanted her to work the farm. The school was thirteen miles northeast
of Bismarck located in the Naughton township of Burleigh county.
It was a two mile walk to the school which started the first of March and lasted for seven
months through September. The school was one room with eight grades. The first
teacher was Madelyn Rue and later Helen Jiagers and Elsie Lundquist. The teachers
changed often and in the seventh and eight grades she ad a man teacher called Miles
Stanton. The teacher got forty dollars a week and had to walk to school and do the
janitorial work. Katherine's favorite subjects were Math, Reading, and Spelling. The
students could not fool around at school because the teachers were really strict and if you
got a whipping a school you got another at home. The school day lasted from eight in the
morning until four in the afternoon. They had a wood and coal stove for heat, and
outdoor pump for washing hands, and outdoor toilets. Hands were washed in a basin or
pan. The most children in the school was thirteen and the lowest five.
Right before Katherine was nine, their Ma was outside and she was inside making and she was inside making the beds. She told George Junior to get up so she could and he jumped up and said he was going to kill Josie and her. He grabbed the gun but it fell when he shot and the bullet went through the floor.
Every Saturday her Ma and Stepdad went into town and the kids stayed home and
played rodeo. The kids never went into town until they were older. Katherine was always
Tom's horse and she would either carry him piggyback or pull the cart with him in it. So
one day she pulled him down the hill and dumped him over into the Dam and then she ran
half a mile so he wouldn't catch her. Another time he was going to fly so he made wings
out of boards andthe gun but it fell when he shot and the bullet went through the floor.
Every Saturday her Ma and Stepdad went into town and the kids stayed home and
played rodeo. The kids never went into town until they were older. Katherine was always
Tom's horse and she would either carry him piggyback or pull the cart with him in it. So
one day she pulled him down the hill and dumped him over into the Dam and then she ran
half a mile so he wouldn't catch her. Another time he was going to fly so he made wings
out of boards and jumped off the barn. He came down like a ton of bricks and Katherine
laughed so hard she cried. Tom got mad and chased her but she outran him.
Tom ran away from home when he was thirteen and she was nine.
The house they lived in had two room and there were four beds in one room. One
day one room caught fire and her Stepdad yelled at her for throwing water in the house to
put out the fire. Katherine went out to the barn one day to find one of the cats was frozen so she put it above the
barn door and when her stepdad came in it fell on him. He thought someone had gotten
him. He was always frightened that someone was going to get him and had his rifle ready.
Her Ma and Stepdad were always playing tricks on the neighbors. They would let
the neighbors cows through the gates and close them behind them so they couldn't get
back home. Another time they took the neighbors turkeys and shouldn't give them back
until the sheriff came out. He was always coming out and they were always in court for
something or other. The sheriff came out again when her stepdad threatened to shoot her
so she called the sheriff and while he was talking to George in the barn she took his gun
apart and hid the shells.
Little Johnny's hired hand
Katherine had spent the summer on a thrashing crew around Bismarck. Fall came with an
offer from Jack Payseno to harvest corn and board at his place. Corn was only ten cents a
bushel but they picked corn all through the fall starting with George Morse and working
the country north of Bismarck. There was no money to be had in the early days of the
Great Depression so the corn was traded for groceries to last the winter.
After having left home for good and boarding out all summer, Katherine was
happy to have a place to stay. She had worked hard with Jack all summer and his son
Harold had ridden behind her in a wagon as she drove the hayrack. She had met Jack's
wife Ruth at a dinner on the Will Morse farm. She knew that there were three more
children Lloyd, Joan, and Kenneth.
Jack drove her in the wagon across the rolling hills. His place was eight miles
from Bismarck and ten miles from the Missouri River. Jack talked of building a new barn
before winter set in for Lloyd and Harold had set fire to the barn playing with candles in
the straw. There would be no money for new lumber so old lumber would be reused.
Soon Jack's place was in sight. He rented it from John Damrod and farmed the 160 acres.
The house was a tarpaper shack like so many others that dotted the prairie. Katherine
could see the Model T out front as the came round the house. The well was halfway
between the house and the barn. The outhouse was back of the house. They stopped in
front of the house where she could see the door and window and to the left side another
window. The door opened and out came dark-haired Ruth Payseno saying, "Kenneth
fixed the headlights." The looked to see two shattered eyes in the model T and Kenneth
stood nearby with the hammer.
There was much to do before the long winter. The hay and the straw were hauled
for the livestock. Wood must be cut from the banks of the Missouri, ten miles away, and
hauled to the farm. The house had to be banked with manure to keep the cold prairie
winds from underneath. Katherine worked hard for her room and board by milking cows,
cleaning the barn, and hauling the manure to the fields for fertilizer.
Jack had fifteen to twenty head of cattle, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, and over
thirty pigs which ran loose on the open range. They butchered the hogs and sold then for
one and a half cents a pound. Katherine liked the horses the best. There were Buck, the
buckskin with a black stripe down his back, one white foot and a white blaze on his face,
Brownie and Frank, who were brown, Babe, who was iron gray, Dan, who was gray,
Lady, who was white, and Minnie. Katherine's team was Buck and Brownie and Buck
was the favorite of all the horses.
Buck was a wild horse and hard to harness. Jack told her to be careful, but she
went to harness him and cornered him to do it. The next day when she went to harness
him he put his head down on her shoulder.
Jack and Mom went into town with Grandma Sebray, who was visiting from
Canada. Katherine had Joan and Kenneth with her and they were all napping when she
awoke to find the bank in front of the house afire. She got the kids out and ran to the well
hauling buckets of water to douse the flames. Jack and Mom rushed in as she put out the
last of the fire. The house was saved but Grandma Sebray's trunk was burned and all her
dishes broken from the cold water. Jack said the green corn had started the fire.
Winter came and there were snowfalls and blizzards. There was never much snow
just about two and a half feet at most, but it was cold. When it was cold enough that the
Model T wouldn't run Jack hitched up the sleigh. Katherine could hear the team and
sleigh coming from miles across the prairie in the silence of the snowy winter. When it
was blizzard weather they stayed in the house huddled around the two wood stoves while
Ruth embroidered and crocheted by the kerosene light.
One day Jack left for his job on the road crew and Mom heard that there was a big
storm coming from the north. Katherine hitched up Buck and Brownie to go get wood as
they were low. She traveled the ten miles to the river in the bitter cold, chopped wood
and then started back. It was so cold she could barely go on and she tied the reigns
around her waist and the team led her home. Jack was there when she got back and
helped her down. He had been sent home from the road crew as it was thirty-five degrees
below zero.
Ruth had a hard life. She had to make do with very little but she never
complained. She cooked, cleaned house, mended the clothes, and looked after the kids.
They had very few clothes and they had to last a long time so she mended them as best she
could. Ruth had one good dress she wore to town. She washed the clothes in a tub, hung
them out to freeze dry on the line where they became stiff as boards and them she'd heat
the flatirons on the back of the wood stove to iron them.
The animals had to be cared for every day no matter the weather and sometimes it
was so cold that the cattle would not leave the barn. It was so cold that the water had to
be hauled into them. When the work was done there was enough time for the kids to play
in the snow.
In March the snow was gone but the winds were strong and blew dust across the
sky and it was hazy for the whole month. Prairie fires got out of control and whipped
across the land.
Jack and Mom went into town one day and the kids were playing in the straw.
Harold was teasing Lloyd who grabbed a butcher knife and took after him. Katherine got
the knife and hid it when Jack and Mom went to town after that incident. When the kids
weren't fighting they were playing cowboys and Indians with homemade wooden guns.
Kenneth had a few trucks he played with and sometimes Katherine would take them all to
look for crows and hawks nests.
Jack was gone to town one day and Joan ran in with her eye cut open and blood
gushing out. Ruth said, "What will we do?" Katherine broke open and egg and took the
skin from inside putting it over the cut to hold it together. It healed and there never was a
scar.
Jack planted corn and wheat and the had a vegetable garden as summer came.
Ruth made buns that took her one day to raise the yeast, one to raise the bread, and one to
bake the bread. She made the best beans that Katherine had ever tasted and a poor man's
cake that was made with raisins and water and no egg. It was really a treat. In the late
summer Ruth began to can. Katherine had never canned before, but she helped Ruth to
put up tomatoes, corn and pickles.
That fall brought the start of a drought, not much snow came, but it was cold as
ever. The new year came and Jack and Mom were moving to the old Sebray place that
had three rooms, but Katherine was not moving with them for she was going to be married
and leave behind forever the rolling hills of North Dakota for a life in the Red River
Valley of Minnesota with Jack's cousin Cle Payseno. Buck would be sold because
nobody but Katherine could ride him. Katherine cried for three days, but there was
nothing to be done and Buck was traded for Beauty. When she looked back she would
say that the times with Jack and Mom were some of the best days of her life. She said we
didn't have anything, but nobody else did either so we didn't know better and we were
happy. Many years later long after Mom and Jack were gone she still dreamed of themand those days and they were never far away
You Stole My Boy
Jack brought hiscousin Cle out saying he had thrashing for him to do and introduced him to Katherine.They went for walks in the fields and he brought her Whitman Samplers when he came tovisit. Cle was in the Civilian Conservation Corps and stationed in South Dakota where he worked on Mt. Rushmore as a stonemason. That winter he was supposed to stop in Bismarck on his way home to Moorhead for Christmas but he didn't so Katherine wrote to him and he stopped by to see her. They decided to get married but his family was against
it for they expected him to take care of his brother Will and the rest of them. When he asked Katherine to marry him he said,"Will you come to cook for me and my brother Bill?" His family tried to talk him out of getting married but he told them he was going to get married.
The wedding took place on March third in the priest's of ice of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bismarck. Ruth and Jack stood up for them and at seven in the evening Katherine stood there in the wedding dress Ruth had bought for her and Jack's sister Tess had altered and became part of the family she had adopted as her own. It was hard for her to leave Mom and Jack, and the kids and the knowledge that her horse Buck would be sold because Jack said nobody but her could handle him. Cle put a white gold wedding
band on her finger. It had cost thirteen dollars and she'd never spent that much money in her life. She told Cle it cost to much but he said it didn't. The ring never left her hand while they were married.
They took the train from Bismarck to Moorhead. It was her first train ride and her first trip away from Bismarck which would never again be her home. Her new life awaited her in the Red River Valley. The got off the train downtown and walked up eleventh street north to his parents house where they would live in the back bedroom. Camille hugged her and welcomed her to the family. Cristie said Hello. Katherine settled their things into the back bedroom. In the morning she met Will. She later met another brother Frank who lived with Norene upstairs. At a party Cristie said,"You stole my boy." Katherine replied,"You can have him back."
Katherine began to cook and clean. Cristie kept an eye on her to make sure she did
it right. As Katherine cooked she remembered Ma's words," The man that Emma marries
will say she's a good cook and the man Katherine marries will say she can't." Cleo took
different jobs to make money. He worked a grater doing road construction, followed by a
job on the WPA as a stonemason. He cut the stones for the American Legion Hall in
Moorhead. Later he worked on the sewer plant while doing carpentry work on the side.
The happiest time of Katherine's life came with the birth of her children. Clifford
Camille was born on June 5, 1934 in the back bedroom with Dr. Duncan attending at
12.20 P.M. Cristie didn't want Camille as a middle name she wanted Neal. Delores Irene
was born on May 11, 1935 at eight in the evening also in the back bedroom. She was
named for Katherine's childhood friend Irene Couch and she had seen the name Delores in
a book and liked it. Cleo had wanted to name her Florence after and old girlfriend. Dr.
Theissel charged eleven dollars for the delivery. Cleo was off working on the road and
didn't see her for two weeks. Clifford was eleven months old but he picked up his sister
and carried her around. Delores slept all the time as a baby Katherine had to wake her to
feed her.
In 1936 when Katherine was expecting again they decide to try their luck in
Washington State. Cleo and Will built a homemade trailer with no brakes and they loaded
it up and headed west. On the way out Cliff stepped out into the road at a rest stop and
was almost hit by an oil truck. Katherine was never so scared in her life. They came out to
Seattle but Will and Cle cold find no work so they went and picked apples in Wenatchee
and ended up returning to Moorhead. Cleo decide to build their own house next door to
his folks. The house was sixteen by eighteen with one room. They had a stove, cupboard,
washstand, table, sofa, rocker, crib, and two beds. A radio was on the shelf above the
sofa. This was where William Franklin would be born at twenty to four in the afternoon
again by Dr. Theissel. He was named for his Uncle Will and for the President of the United
States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he was a distant relative of Katherine's on her father's
side of the family.
Cleo Charles Payseno had been born in Mason City, Iowa to Camille and his wife
Cristie. She was educated and religious where he was not. Cleo was baptized Charles Cleo
in the church With his one year old brother Will in attendance and two years later they
were joined by Frank. When he was in school he was called Clifford and went to the eight
grade. When he was little his family moved to Blue Earth, Minnesota where his youngest
brother Jay and only sister Pearl were born. His father bartended in a saloon across from
Grandpa and Grandma Leonard's house and the family lived above the saloon. Around
1900 they moved to Goodrich, North Dakota and built a house, barn, and outbuildings in
the middle of the desolate Prairie. When his brother Will was twenty-one he was injured in
a team and wagon accident and the injury became infected and he developed gangrene and
had to have his leg amputated above the knee, because of this Cleo was expected to take
care of Will for the rest of his life.
Cleo went to France as an army cook during World War I. When he returned he
and Will took up homesteading together. Cousin Maymie had come to live with them and
one night Will ,Frank, and Pearl decided to go to the dance and take Cleo's car. They went
out and tried to start it but he woke up and caught them. They tried again after they
figured he was asleep and this time they found him sleeping under the car. His parents
Auctioned off their farm and moved into Moorhead. Will and Cleo would take their other
cousin Norene out to the movies and to town. Cleo took out a loan and built a house for
them on Eleventh Street North. This was the house where he and Katherine lived for the
first years of their marriage. Sister Pearl and her husband Tommy Rue built next to Cleo
and then Frank next to them. Brother Jay lived across the street with his wife May.
Many of the Payseno relatives came to visit. Uncle Joe came to see his favorite
niece Norene. He thought the sun rose and set over Norene and would take her side in all
the family arguments. When Cliff was learning to walk and Joe would kick Cliff over as
he toddled by. Uncle George came in drunk and everyone said that he didn't let anybody
put him to bed but Katherine got him to go. Uncle Johnny and Aunt Sade came also but
didn't stay long as Cristie and Sade did not get along.
The family were Catholic and it was during the depression. The priest wanted
Cleo to pay ten percent of his income to the church when he was only making forty dollars
a month and supporting himself and his parents. Katherine told the priest they couldn't
afford it and he came out to the house with the envelopes and Katherine wouldn't take
them. This turned Cleo against the church.
The family would all gather together and play pinochle, sing songs, or listen to Jay
play the fiddle. Niece Gen played the guitar and she and Katherine would sing songs
together like Barbara Allen.
One morning Jay and Tommy were going off to work and Jay was in the garage
pumping up a tire when the doors blew closed and he was overcome by carbon monoxide
and died. Everyone was shocked by the loss of such a nice man. On the day of his funeral
Cristie came up behind Katherine with a pair of scissors and cut off her long hair. After
that Katherine kept her hair short.
The Red River Valley
Eleventh Street North was close to the river. The cousins would go fish in the river
and play there. Delores was outside one day and Katherine went to look for her and
couldn't find her. She was scared to death that she had fallen down a well or into the river
because she didn't answer when she called. They found her hiding in the ditch in front of
the house. It was so hot in the summer that the ground would crack. The mosquitoes and
flies were just thick. Then it was bitter cold in the winter. They had to put in a big supply
of wood for the whole family.
One day in 1940 a taxi pulled up in front of the little house on Eleventh Street.
Katherine was in baking and listening to the radio when a tall man got out wearing a
cowboy's hat and as soon as she saw him she knew who it was. He came up to her and
asked her," Do you know who I am?"
She replied,"Yes, you're my Dad." Katherine had never seen Rance Edward
Rosencrans before nor any of his relatives, but Ruth Payseno had seen a clipping of her
aunt and uncle's fiftieth wedding anniversary and sent it to Katherine who wrote them and
eventually got in touch with him. They had written several years before he met her. Rance
stayed with them for seventeen days. He wanted to see Dot again so they sent a telegram
saying Katherine was sick and needed Dot's help. She came on the train and Rance wanted
her to come back to him.
Katherine baked break for all the family and they would come over to her house to
eat it. Norene said she didn't bake because Frank didn't like baked goods but he was
always over when there was fresh bread. Norene had the whole block and family in an
uproar going back and forth between houses saying that someone had done or said
something about one or another of the relatives. She told Cristie that Camille had said a
two bit whore was better than she and Cristie never spoke to Camille again. Norene told
Pearl that Katherine was planning to steal Pearl's canning jars to cause a big uproar and
she turned Mae into the welfare for having a sewing machine. When Katheirne was in the
garden she walked by and said, "Katherine ain't nothing but a workhorse." Cle would go
over to Frank's to read the paper and reported that Norene was telling everyone Katherine
was wasting his money because she bought Cliff a snowsuit and it cost three dollars.
Katherine had enough and she was headed for the door saying, "I'm gonna mop the floor
up with that bitch." Cle stopped her and said if she did he wouldn't tell her what Norene
was saying anymore. Katherine calmed down but boy was she mad.
Camille would take his grandson's Cliff and Wally downtown with him to get a
bottle which he called "Charley" and they were not to tell Cristie, but as soon as they got
home Wally said,"We got Charley."
Clifford said,"We did not get Charley."
Wally stated,"We did too. Then what's in the bottle?"
Clifford replied,"That's not Charley. That's horseshit."
Katherine, Gen and Cle's cousin Maymie would sit out on the back stoop of
Katherine's and they would talk and sing songs while Gen learned the guitar. Katherine
loved the Carter family songs and among her favorites where "Bury Me Beneath the
Willow" and I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes. Gen had a beautiful voice and would
later sing on the radio in Moorhead. Katherine would sing or hum her songs as she
cooked, washed, and gardened. Years later Maymie would say to Katherine that those
days seemed like it was only yesterday not fifty years ago.
Katherine got a cookbook from the Jewel Tea Company as a premium and from it she learned to cook such things as sugar cookies, taffy
and divinity. The Jewel company had coupons that could be redeemed for merchandise
and Katherine got a sugar bowl which she kept her entire life.
Notes for CLEO PAYSENO:
Fall came to the Dakotas and thrashing time was at hand once again. Jack brought his
cousin Cle out saying he had thrashing for him to do and introduced him to Katherine.
They went for walks in the fields and he brought her Whitman Samplers when he came to
visit. Cle was in the Civilian Conservation Corps and stationed in South Dakota where he
worked on Mt. Rushmore as a stonemason. That winter he was supposed to stop in
Bismarck on his way home to Moorhead for Christmas but he didn't so Katherine wrote to
him and he stopped by to see her. They decided to get married but his family was against
it for they expected him to take care of his brother Will and the rest of them. When he
asked Katherine to marry him he said,"Will you come to cook for me and my brother
Bill?" His family tried to talk him out of getting married but he told them he was going to
get married.
The wedding took place on March third in the priest's off ice of St. Mary's Catholic
Church in Bismarck. Ruth and Jack stood up for them and at seven in the evening
Katherine stood there in the wedding dress Ruth had bought for her and Jack's sister Tess
had altered and became part of the family she had adopted as her own. It was hard for her
to leave Mom and Jack, and the kids and the knowledge that her horse Buck would be
sold because Jack said nobody but her could handle him. Cle put a white gold wedding
band on her finger. It had cost thirteen dollars and she'd never spent that much money in
her life. She told Cle it cost to much but he said it didn't. The ring never left her hand
while they were married.
They took the train from Bismarck to Moorhead. It was her first train ride and her
first trip away from Bismarck which would never again be her home. Her new life awaited
her in the Red River Valley. The got off the train downtown and walked up eleventh street
north to his parents house where they would live in the back bedroom. Camille hugged her
and welcomed her to the family. Cristie said Hello. Katherine settled their things into the
back bedroom. In the morning she met Will. She later met another brother Frank who
lived with Norene upstairs. At a party Cristie said,"You stole my boy." Katherine
Replied,"You can have him back."
Katherine began to cook and clean. Cristie kept an eye on her to make sure she did
it right. As Katherine cooked she remembered Ma's words," The man that Emma marries
will say she's a good cook and the man Katherine marries will say she can't." Cleo took
different jobs to make money. He worked a grater doing road construction, followed by a
job on the WPA as a stonemason. He cut the stones for the American Legion Hall in
Moorhead. Later he worked on the sewer plant while doing carpentry work on the side.
The happiest time of Katherine's life came with the birth of her children. Clifford
Camille was born on June 5, 1934 in the back bedroom with Dr. Duncan attending at
12.20 P.M. Cristie didn't want Camille as a middle name she wanted Neal. Delores Irene
was born on May 11, 1935 at eight in the evening also in the back bedroom. She was
named for Katherine's childhood friend Irene Couch and she had seen the name Delores in
a book and liked it. Cleo had wanted to name her Florence after and old girlfriend. Dr.
Theissel charged eleven dollars for the delivery. Cleo was off working on the road and
didn't see her for two weeks. Clifford was eleven months old but he picked up his sister
and carried her around. Delores slept all the time as a baby Katherine had to wake her to
feed her.
In 1936 when Katherine was expecting again they decide to try their luck in
Washington State. Cleo and Will built a homemade trailer with no brakes and they loaded
it up and headed west. On the way out Cliff stepped out into the road at a rest stop and
was almost hit by an oil truck. Katherine was never so scared in her life. They came out to
Seattle but Will and Cle cold find no work so they went and picked apples in Wenatchee
and ended up returning to Moorhead. Cleo decide to build their own house next door to
his folks. The house was sixteen by eighteen with one room. They had a stove, cupboard,
washstand, table, sofa, rocker, crib, and two beds. A radio was on the shelf above the
sofa. This was where William Franklin would be born at twenty to four in the afternoon
again by Dr. Theissel. He was named for his Uncle Will and for the President of the United
States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he was a distant relative of Katherine's on her father's
side of the family.
Cleo Charles Payseno had been born in Mason City, Iowa to Camille and his wife
Cristie. She was educated and religious where he was not. Cleo was baptized Charles Cleo
in the church With his one year old brother Will in attendance and two years later they
were joined by Frank. When he was in school he was called Clifford and went to the eight
grade. When he was little his family moved to Blue Earth, Minnesota where his youngest
brother Jay and only sister Pearl were born. His father bartended in a saloon across from
Grandpa and Grandma Leonard's house and the family lived above the saloon. Around
1900 they moved to Goodrich, North Dakota and built a house, barn, and outbuildings in
the middle of the desolate Prairie. When his brother Will was twenty-one he was injured in
a team and wagon accident and the injury became infected and he developed gangrene and
had to have his leg amputated above the knee, because of this Cleo was expected to take
care of Will for the rest of his life.
Cleo went to France as an army cook during World War I. When he returned he
and Will took up homesteading together. Cousin Maymie had come to live with them and
one night Will ,Frank, and Pearl decided to go to the dance and take Cleo's car. They went
out and tried to start it but he woke up and caught them. They tried again after they
figured he was asleep and this time they found him sleeping under the car. His parents
Auctioned off their farm and moved into Moorhead. Will and Cleo would take their other
cousin Norene out to the movies and to town. Cleo took out a loan and built a house for
them on Eleventh Street North. This was the house where he and Katherine lived for the
first years of their marriage. Sister Pearl and her husband Tommy Rue built next to Cleo
and then Frank next to them. Brother Jay lived across the street with his wife May.
The Grapes of Wrath
Work was scarce in the early 1940's and on January 26, 1942 Cle came home on
his mother's birthday and told Katherine he was going to Seattle to find work and he left
the next day. Tommy went also and they found work in Bremerton. Cleo wrote that he
was starving to death on the food out there and wanted Katherine to come out and cook
for him.
It was decided that Camille and Cristie would go Camille with Will and Katherine
in the Model A and Cristie with Pearl and her children. The Model A was packed and a
trailer pulled behind it to carry the washer and the bedding. Katherine had finally gotten a
washer and she wasn't going to leave it behind. Will and his father were in the front and
Katherine , the children, and seven quilts in the back. Pearl loaded down her thirty-four
Ford with a trailer and they started west. They hit Bismarck the first night and stopped to
see Katherine's mother. Her stepfather said he hadn't got paid yet so they couldn't feed
them. They then went to Emma's and she made a small pot of spagetti for supper.
Katherine got bread and some more food to go with it. They stayed in a motel that night
and left early the next morning.
Back in Moorhead Fred and Maymie looked after Cristie's house. Katherine had
left behind her canned goods and most the furniture because there was no room. She
realized she had forgotten the baby clothes in the attic when they were on the road. Pearl
broke down so they shipped her belongings and Cristie on the train to Seattle. Camille
then road with Pearl and when they were going through Kellogg he told Pearl to look
down at the pretty scenery, but then said no don't look for he was afraid they'd go into the
canyon. The road was like a ribbon and would lull a person to sleep so they had to be
careful for there were many curves along the way. They left May 1st and got there on
May Seventh and stayed in Seattle with Rosabell Denis a cousin of Cristie's who made
them sleep in the basement except for Cristie who was allowed upstairs. There was an old
couch which Katherine made into a bed for Camille and the rest slept on the floor. The
next day they went over to Port Orchard and to a house so far out in the country that they
had to tie ribbons to trees to find it. It was full of mice and there was a bobcat in the attic.
After to weeks they built two houses at the top of Mile Hill and moved closer to town.
Children of KATHERINE ROSENCRANS and CLEO PAYSENO are:
