June 15, 1986
Last week I wrote about the huckster wagon days in Oakley where my parents were in business. Here is a little more. The day Father made the deal for the business someone came and said a fight was going on under the loading dock. Most store had such a dock for wagons to back up to with steps at each end. Father said to the former owner, “Are you going to stop it?” The man said “No, the business is yours now.” Father stopped it and lost his shirt. It was torn off. The day he sold the business the same two people were fighting under the dock again. The new owner said, “What do we do?” Father said, “The business is yours, now. You stop it.”
When the folks moved to Chariton the huckster wagon came along, as the new owner didn’t want it. It was put in our barn and rested there for years. Our family used it once a year for a picnic to Swede Hollow at Wheeler Bridge. Father also loaned it to others for picnics. They had to be responsible people. He never loaned our horses as he trusted them only to himself in such cases.
One Fourth of July we were going on a picnic to Swede Hollow. The Ruben Tinder family was along as guests. It was time to leave and brother Bill couldn’t be found. Mother saw Mumford James coming in his buggy. She asked him if he had seen Bill. He had seen him early going by his house riding our white family cow. Mother called Laurel Boss who had a phone and lived on the Oakley road where you turned in to Swede Hollow. He had seen Bill go by riding the cow. We took off and Bill was there when we got there. He said he just couldn’t bear to leave the cow at home all alone. The folks didn’t scold him. He stayed all night at Mace Wheelers and rode the cow back the next day. Ice cream was made out there. We took ice along that was taken from the ice house that stood where Kum and Go stands now. It was put up in the winter from the fair grounds’ pond which is still there. The boys all went swimming as the creek was right there. No bathing suits. John was the hit of the day as he stood on his head in the water and the water wasn’t deep enough. Captain Black of the National Guard came out in his buggy with his wife. Some neighbors out that way also came over to hear Captain Black give the afternoon sermon. It was dark when we got home. Fireworks were part of the day too, and were used that evening.
A very nice tribute was paid to Charles Wennerstrum in the local paper, written by John Baldridge. However, I want to touch on the more personal side of him and also little-known things about him. We were true friends. He told me one time, if I repeated what he had told me he would be out of a job. By the same token if he repeated what I had said I would be in jail. We never gossiped, just heart-to-heart talks.
Way back he talked me into being teacher of the men’s Sunday school class. I wasn’t qualified but he and my Ruth said they would be my helpers. Ruth knew the Bible from beginning to end and Charles was well read. When I got stuck which was often, I would pass a question to Charles and he would take over and start a discussion. We had learned Bible scholars there such as Frank Lunan, Gifford Tuttle, Leland Brownlee, Frank Spencer, Frank Stevenson, A. B. Pond, Hank Henderson and others. It was effortless for Charles and he enjoyed it. He worked at building up the Sunday school as a whole. He did a good job. He was a great friend of the little ones. Whenever he entered a room there was respect in the air. He didn’t want this to be but it was just natural.
The church was having a dinner. Helen Wennerstrum made rolls, and buttered them. The Wennerstrums had been painting their kitchen and the butter tasted like paint. Charles rose to the occasion and said Helen had created a new thing in food. It brought the house down. In things like this he was at his best. One time he went over to the Methodist Church to hear a guest speaker. The man talked on and on. Charles had to make a train. As he left he heard the man say some people’s cup got full quicker than others. Charles saw the humor in this and told it often. Another time there was a big dinner at church. Charles had been injured in an automobile accident in Indianola some months before. His knees were injured and it took a long time to recover. It didn’t seem possible for him to get down the stairs. Just as the dinner started, here he came walking out of the kitchen to everyone’s surprise. It seems Scott and Roger had used some thick law books on the back steps to make little steps instead of one big step.
Another time he was in Des Moines at Younkers. He met the walking preacher of the Ozarks, Guy Howard, who came from out around Newbern, Iowa. He talked him into coming to Chariton to talk at a church dinner. We had a huge crowd. In the Ozarks as he walked his route he learned many of the secrets of the people: who killed who, which ones had a still. This was brought out in his book. People were somewhat disappointed as he preached a gospel sermon. He did mention that all these things were told to him in confidence and he wouldn’t dare go back there if he revealed anything. Bill and Elgin Stuart first learned of Charles’ death when they read it in a newspaper in London. Remember Charles was one of the judges in the Nuremberg Trials in Europe. This is how I remember Charles. Just a great guy. He also had a marvelous wife.
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