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Theodore Detlef Schlotfeldt and Alvina Rasche Schlotfeldt, (Fay's Grandparents) lived in this farmhouse at Gambril, Butler Twp, Scott County, Iowa. Some buildings are gone. It is located just north of Eldridge and west of McCausland. It is possible that Ted's parents, Henry F. and Marg. Kroeger Schlotfeldt lived there at one time.
It was sold by daughter Leone Kruse after Alvina and son Adolph "Ottie" died, but is still occupied in 2002. Fay recalls that there was a single "orange" light bulb in the living room ceiling from the REA days, but when he was little, grandma only used kerosene lamps unless it was a VERY special occasion. Irons were heated on the stove, the best well was just outside the kitchen door, but there was some sort of small pump in the wash room. The outhouse (now gone)was large and Uncle Ottie was proud of it. It was a 3 or 4 "holer" with round glass windows and all.
At night, of course, it was chamber pot time.
Older relatives would tell of how they like to come here because Ted had "Polly" the parrot who would talk to them. (Picture taken by Sharon Schlotfeldt Rairdon of DeWitt.) Ted died in 1919 and Alvina lived in this home, by herself, or with son Adolph "Ottie" for many of the years before her death in 1942. There were people who lived in the "little house" to the west that had been sold off at some time before the 1930s,and neighbors across the road.
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