Kandiyohi County, Minnesota is in the southern-central part of the state. Their motto, "Where The Lakes Begin" is very appropriate, since there are more than seventy named lakes in the county.
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| The beautiful countryside of Kandiyohi County, Minnesota |
Harold's letter is unusual because he lists so many of his relative's names. With such a large group of family living nearby, I was surprised to find that Kandiyohi County was not the family's permanent home.
Harold's father, Charles, was born in Illinois and his mother, Vivian, came from Iowa. In the 1910 census when Harold was four years old, he and his two older sisters Viola (7 yrs. old) and Bessie (6 yrs. old), and parents were living in South Dakota.
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| Viola, Harold, "Carlo," and Bessie |
A small excerpt from Harold's letter reads, "A short time after we got 'Carlo' and he wasn't accustomed to being away from the other ponies, we left him loose in the yard at night and he started back to the pony farm. Uncle John found him 13 miles from home the next morning, so you see he is some traveler. We went to the circus the other day. My, but 'Carlo' did feel proud, because he was just as nice as any pony in the circus..."
In the 1930 census we find Harold and his wife Helen, living in a boarding house in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. However, this was not the last move for Harold and Helen. I found death records for both of the them in Los Angeles, California. Helen passed away in 1982 at the age of 70, and Harold was 65 years old at the time of his death in 1971.
Harold's complete letter and another family photograph can be found on pages 36-39, of The Farmer's Wife Pony Club Sampler Quilt.
