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Fay Alice Vogt Erickson
Sister Fay
By Doug Boilesen 2018 (my aunt and half-sister
of Betty Ann Barr)
Fay Alice Vogt was born on March
22, 1904 at Elba, Nebraska to Frank and Anna Ellen Ender Vogt.
Fay had two brothers, Ray and Chris
Vogt, and twenty years later a half-sister, Betty Ann Barr.
Fay was enrolled in the
Cradle Roll United Brethern Sunday School Department on May 17, 1907.
Ray and Fay Vogt, circa
1906.
Fay, Chris and Ray Vogt,
circa 1908.
Ray, Chris and Fay c.1910.
Fay grew up in the Elba area. This 3.5"
x 2.5" card was probably made by Fay as a child (FAE - Fay Alice
Ender)
Fay's School Report for
Grade 8, May 28, 1919.
L-R Fay, and seated and
probably Sarah Ericksen Keller, Andus' sister - RPPC 1919.
Andus on RPPC unknown year
(circa 1913).
Unknown but probably Andus's brother
who stayed in Sweden since picture was taken in Furudal, Sweden by
photographer Thekla
Frankzon and Andus was born in Ore which is in Dalarna County
Sweden and Furudal is in same county.
Andus's Discharge papers
from the Nebraska Home Guard, March 15, 1920.
November 19, 1928 Declaration of Intention
by Anders (Andrew 'Andus") Erickson to become a USA citizen.
Fay married Andrew Erickson on June
28, 1922 at Elba, Nebraska. The couple farmed near Elba and later
in the Wolbach, Scotia and Cotesfield areas until moving into Elba
in 1966.
Fay and Andus had one daughter, Marjorie
Ann, who died when she was eight. Marjorie Ann was the world for Andus
and Fay and I have written a separate
story just for her. The memory of Marjorie Ann cannot be separated
from the life story of Fay or underestimated for its impact on Fay's
life. Unfortunately, however, I don't remember my aunt Fay ever talking
about Marjorie Ann (who died 25 years before I was born) and this
page is by definition limited to what I know and what I remember about
Fay.
Fay and Andrew 'Andus'
Erickson were married on June 28, 1922.
Fay and Andus Marriage
Certificate June 28, 1922.
St. Paul Phonograph,
July 5, 1922, p. 8.
Fay and Andus lived in what seemed to
me to be a very remote part of the country with rolling hills and
dirt roads that made it difficult to get to their house. Their farm
was probably only 10 miles from where my grandparents lived but it
seemed much farther and much more isolated. There were several years
where we attempted to get to their house during the winter but simply
couldn't get through on the unplowed roads. They had a phone but if
a line went down they were completely cut off from the outside world.
My mother often commented how lonely
Fay must have felt living out there with only her husband and few
neighbors. I also did not know at the time about how much of her loneliness
was because of the loss of their only daughter, Marjorie Ann, who
had died in 1935 when she was 8 years and 28 days after "an illness
of the heart of six weeks duration." It seems as though that
was a subject that was private. I remember once when I was 8 or 9
years old going into their 'attic' and I saw an old cast iron small
bed/crib. I came downstairs and asked whose bed that was. The response,
or lack thereof, made me think that I had asked something that I shouldn't
have. My mom would later explain to me that their daughter Marjorie
Ann had died as a little girl. Looking back I realize that I never
again asked my aunt anything that could potentially be about Marjorie
Ann.
Andus had a brother Eric Dahlberg who
had immigrated from Sweden in 1903 and according to the newspaper
lived with Andus at Wolbach for 11 years but I don't know those dates.
I remember seeing him at their farm and he may have been living with
them but I was very young. See The
Daily Independent Grand Island
newspaper report of his death on November 10, 1956 for more details.
One house guest that I know they enjoyed
was Andus's niece, Mary Ann, who came to live with them in the 1950's.
She was unmarried and pregnant and had moved from Sweden to live with
them until she had her baby. I'm not sure how long it was after the
baby was born when Mary Ann returned to Sweden but I know she and
the baby were always special to my aunt and uncle.
Fay loved to play Canasta and other
card games and I think her social circle was focused around her women
relatives of the family. Fay's mother Anna lived on a farm in Elba.
Anna had a sister Sarah "Tay" Ender Vogt who also had a
farm in Elba and the two sisters did alot of fishing together. Anna
and Tay had married the Vogt brothers, Frank and Ernest. Frank had
died in 1914 and Ernest in 1925.
Andus had a sister Sarah Ericksen Keller
who lived on a farm with her husband in Elba so I'm sure Fay visited
these core relatives and some neighbor women as often as she could.
But there was much work on a farm and houses were pretty far apart
so I imagine for Fay that Sunday morning church and other social gatherings
seemed relatively infrequent, especially in the winter.
Fay quilted and did embroidery on tea
towels and pillow cases and had craft projects like Christmas decorations
and table decorations but they lived a simple life. Not a lot of furniture,
a few pictures, no indoor plumbing until the late 1950's, a dry (wooden)
sink; a wood burning cookstove replaced in the late 1950's with an
electric stove. They had a large nickel-plated parlor stove that sat
in their living room to provide heat along with their kitchen stove.
Fay's kitchen sink was similiar to this
pump and dry sink (their base was painted white and its countertop
was longer). No drain so the pan (like the one on the wall in this
picture) placed in the dry sink had to be emptied outside after any
use. Water was boiled on the cookstove to get hot water for dishes
and baths. The kitchen had a linoleum floor and a light bulb hung
over the kitchen tale.
When you drove up to their two-story
white framed house you entered their kitchen through their porch.
There was no fence around the house and like many farm houses of the
time there was a 'front' door on one side of the house that went directly
into the parlor/living room. This was considered the formal front
door, however, I don't think anyone ever used that door. You always
came through the front porch door. They had a cream separator in that
enclosed porch that we always walked past as we entered their kitchen
which I thought was an odd looking thing to have on their porch.
There was one bedroom on the main floor,
the main living room with an oak round table and chairs at one end,
the parlor stove at the other end and the kitchen on other side of
the house. The attic upstairs was used for storage by the time I was
around in the 1950's. In the late 50's an indoor bathroom was added
next to the kitchen.
On their kitchen wall was a small framed
lithograph of a man on a pennyfarthing high-wheel bicycle (aka bone
shaker bicycle) riding on a road (original would have been the Currier
& Ives 1869 print "The Velocipede.")
The "Last Supper" lithograph
was on one of the walls in the parlor/living room. (Note: Both Betty's
and Axel's parents also had the "Last Supper" print by Leonardo
da Vinci in their parlors.)
The Velocipede. Currier
& Ives, 1869 (Source: D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts).
The "Last Supper"
lithograph was also on one of the walls in the parlor/living room.
(Note: Betty's and Axel's parents also had the "Last Supper"
print by Leonardo da Vinci in their parlors.)
Fay and Andus's wedding photograph hung
in a large oval frame in the main living room. Brother James now has
this in his guest bedroom. In the main room there were a mission style
dark oak and black leather couch and a mission oak buffet.
Their sofa style was similiar
to this. I don't think theirs could be converted to a bed
Their parlor sideboard was very similiar
to this one. It was the place Fay put greeting cards and photographs
and also where I remember they always had their traditional Swedish
horse out for Christmas (perhaps it was even displayed all of the
year).
.
Fay and Andus 1947
Christmas 1951 with Anna
Barr's children and grandchildren
Front L to R: Manley, Anna with Doug
on lap, Edna, Fay with baby on lap, Gary V. in front of Fay, Frank
V. with Linda Holechek on lap, Dorothy Holechek.
Back L to R: perhaps Mary Ann (niece
of Andus), Betty B., Ray V., Chris V., Hilda V., Andus E., Elmer Holechek
When I was very little Uncle Andus liked
to ask me in his broken English "What'll you have?" and
if I'd respond "Pabst Blue Ribbon" he would then give me
a quarter. Fay and her mom had been active in the Women's Christian
Temperance Movement and my mother had grown up watching their involvement
in the WCTM meetings. Since Mom seldom drank alcohol I think this
reward that I received for my "Pabst Blue Ribbon" answer
was a little controversial. I have a feeling that for Uncle Andus
this was an added incentive besides seeing me smile when I received
my quarter.
W.C.T.U. Elba News,
The Phonograph, St. Paul, January 11, 1928
In this W.C.T.U meeting Fay (Mrs. Ericksen)
"gave each member an article to read" regarding her presentation,
"The Efficient Life," which "exemplified what an efficient
life is, and should be."
For one of my birthdays Fay and Andus
gave me a subscription to Dell Comic's "Donald Duck". I
thought that was a great gift and I looked forward to receiving each
new issue in the mail.
Fay and Andus with wall
phone at their 'wash-out" region farm (in the hills between Cotesfield
and Wolbach) circa 1958
Their telephone was a wooden wall model
similiar to what I also saw at both of my grandparents' Nebraska farmhouses
in the early 1950's. Made by Western Electric it hung on the parlor
wall. It was a party line so you'd hear it ring even if the call wasn't
for you. I think their number was two longs and a short which means
you didn't dial a number, you turned the crank to make its bells ring
sort of like sending a Morse code dah-dah-dit. When they got their
rotary phone they gave me that 'antique' phone as I was always interested
in turn-of-the-century technology and had already started "collecting."
Circa 1956 Dad tied four or five long
pipes to the side of his car, drove from Lincoln to their farm and
assembled these pipes on the side of their house to make a long antenna
pole. He had also previously delivered them a TV but it needed a tall
antenna to really work. I remember thinking that Dad was on a really
high ladder when he attached the antenna to the top of their roof.
I never have liked heights.
It's easy to underestimate now how much
that TV and antenna changed my aunt and uncle's world. The George
Gobel Show, The Lawrence Welk Show, The Bob Cummings Show, The Red
Skelton Show, I Love Lucy, The Jack Benny Program, I've Got a Secret,
Art Linkletter's House Party - these were some of the shows I know
Fay enjoyed and ones my Grandma Barr also watched as my dad had installed
a TV in my grandparent's Elba home sometime earlier. Many of these
shows were like old friends to them since they all had previously
enjoyed listening to their favorite radio shows since in many cases
these early TV shows featured the same stars from the radio shows
that they had enjoyed in the 1930's and 1940's.
Fay passed on March 16, 1967. My dad
came into my room to tell me that he had some "sad news"
about Fay and at the same time gave me the other news that I had a
new brother, James, born on March 16, 1967, and that my mom was doing
fine in hospital.
July 1965 - Betty, Chris,
Fay, Manley.
Andrew "Andus" Erickson
was born in Sweden on February 20, 1893 and passed in Elba, Nebraska
on April 5, 1983.
Andus left the bulk of the estate to
the Jehovah's Witnesses. They had become frequent visitors to his
Elba house in his last years and although I never knew what his religious
beliefs were Uncle Andus apparently liked their company and their
message. My mother, as the only surviving relative of her sister,
did receive a small bequest which she would later designate as her
"fun money" fund and my sister got about $6000 as she was
Andus's "favorite". My sister did, however, end up splitting
her inheritance three ways with me and my brother as we didn't receive
anything (I believe my mother encouraged my sister that this would
be the 'right' thing to do). Overall, I don't think my mother was
very happy with Andus's gift to the Jehovah Witnesses since Fay had
been a life-long member of the Elba EUB Church and it got nothing
from 'his' estate.
Marjorie Ann Erickson August 23,
1927 - September 30, 1935
Marjorie Ann Erickson, who was born
on August 23, 1927. Marjorie Ann passed away on September 20, 1935
after "an illness of the heart of six weeks duration."
For photographs and ephemera from Marjorie's
brief life go to Niece Marjorie Ann
Erickson.
Marjorie Ann c. 1929.
Fotomat photo found inside
"Treasured Memories" 1935
Fay Alice Vogt Erickson
May 22, 1904 - March 16, 1967
As I review what I've written I know
that the memories are only partial and are from my own perspective.
I love that Marjorie Ann's story and photographs now have their own
story in this online scrapbook. And of course it doesn't matter that
there was a cream separator on their porch or that Fay gave me a subscription
to Donald Duck comics for my birthday. Those details cannot make up
for the overall gaps in Fay's story that is ultimately random because
I know so little about Fay herself.
Since we didn't visit Fay and Andus
very often this story is based on memories of more than 50 years ago
and my limited contact with her.
Additionally, Fay was my mom's older
step-sister with twenty years separating them so that Fay's early
life for my mom was a generation away and basically unknown.
Nevertheless I have written this because
I believe stories matter. And in this case I wanted to include as
much as I could because my aunt Fay and Marjorie Ann were important
to my mom and I'm one of the last in the family that can document
anything about them.
My mom loved my Aunt Fay and Marjorie
Ann and she loved family stories. For me those are reasons enough
to share what I can.
And at the very least, today in this
moment of time regarding Fay Alice Vogt Erickson, I can speak her
name, say there is a connection and say that her life is remembered.
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