| Summary: | cents a day. I did some traveling with threshing crews hauling bundles. Grain was hauled from the field by a four-horse wagon. We ate in the cook car and slept where ever we could find a soft spot — haylofts being the favorite spot but sometimes in hayracks or even on the ground, in those days many of the straw piles were burned and on a still night you could see the fires from these straw piles for miles around and it looked like the whole prairie was on fire. I joined, the National Guard in 1930 and got out in 1933. I then went to California and worked for Standard Oil drilling for oil. I went to Alaska in 1938 and I also worked for Standard Oil there drilling oil wells. I quit working for Standard Oil and rented a 20 acre island from the government for $2 a year and began raising blue fox. I hunted sea lion to feed the fox and one time my boat was nearly capsized in deep water by a wounded sea lion as I was coming to shore. I worked in the canneries and also did some commercial fishing in and around Kodiak while raising fox on my island. At this time the Navy was building a base at Kodiak and with the many planes flying to and from Kodiak and over my island it disturbed the daily living habits of the fox and I was forced to sell my fox farm. I then worked for the government building a school house for the Eskimos at Pilot Point. I spent the following winter hunting caribou and fishing for salmon with the Eskimos. The Eskimos in the Pilot Point area lived in frame houses. Caribou and salmon was a major part of their diet. The younger people spoke English but the older ones spoke broken English. The Eskimos had learned to play monopoly and we spent many a long winter evening sitting on the floor playing the game sometimes until three in the morning. I then went to work for the Navy building their base at Kodiak -and when World War II broke out I was inducted into the army at Kodiak and was sworn in at Ft. Greeley. As I was well acguainted with most of the islands and the bays around this area I was stationed here in the Anti Aircraft Coast Guard Artillery until '1944. We were attacked once by Japanese planes but the bombs fell in the open sea and no damage was done to the base or the ships but we had a good scare. I was sent to El Paso, Texas in 1944 then to Camp Polk, La., and was discharged in Camp Chaffee, Ark., on September 14, 1945 — with my discharge papers and a plane ticket I was again headed for Alaska. I stopped in North Dakota enroute to Alaska to visit with friends and relatives and ended up staying here and I never did get back to Alaska. I came to Medina in 1945 to visit my sister, Mrs. Albert Mayer. I went to work for C. F. Giesler in 1949 on his farm northeast of Medina and after leaving this job I worked for Johnny Robinson who farmed south of Crystal Springs. I worked as a farm laborer in Edgeley in 1967- 1968 and then returned to Medina to retire. I now do odd jobs and still do some farm work. I live in the Fred Timm house at the present time on the northwest side of Medina. MR. AND MRS. JOHN S. (JACK) JABLONSKI John Stanley Jablonski was born January 23, 1866 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He homesteaded in Peterson Township northwest of Medina in 1902. He planted the first crop ever seeded in the township, farming with a team of three oxen and one horse. His first crop, flax, froze out in July and he worked for his room and board and feed for his oxen the next winter at the Leonard Peterson farm. He returned to his farm the next spring and continued farming for nearly fifty years. In February 1909, he married Mary Leopold who had come from her home in New York in 1907. She taught school for one year in Peterson Township before her marriage. They were the parents of three children: Maynard and Jack of Medina, and Dorothy of Monroe, Wash. Mrs. Jablonski passed away August 30, 1963 and Mr. Jablonski passed away March 28, 1964. MR. AND MRS. ALBERT SCHMALLINGER Albert, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Schmallinger, and Helen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Reinhold Kannen- wischer, were married in 1946. Albert has been employed by Northern Pacific and Burlington Northern Railroad since 1951. He received his seniority rights in 1956 and is still in their employment. The Schmallingers have made Medina their home since their marriage. They are members of the United Methodist Church. GOTTLIEB DOCKTER SR. Gottlieb Dockter Sr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Dockter, was born at Neudorf, South Russia, October 7, 1839, and in 1864 he and Christina Stroh were married. They immigrated from Russia to the United States in the 130 Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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