The Callans and McClarys, by John Edward Callan - Callanworld

The Callans and McClarys
them up to wait for the next day.
They were stored overnight in
wicker baskets with oilcloth
liners. On Clinton’s arrival home
at the end of his day’s work at
the Boonville laundry they would
share the evening meal before
Clinton left for his second job at
the bakery. Then Helen would
wash the dishes and afterwards
she would often help the children
with their homework
lessons.
Over the years she has
acquired many modern appliances
which have taken over
some of the muscle work of
housework. Nevertheless, Helen
chose to do additional work to
bring in more money and improve
her family’s status.
In 1947 Helen started
performing services for other
families. She would take in
curtains to wash, which included
the washing, starching, stretching,
and ironing of the curtains. In
those days they were made of
cotton and subject to shrinkage,
so the stretching was important
and exacting work. This work
was done mostly in the spring
and fall when people did their
major housecleanings. When
Jane, her youngest, was five years
old, Helen started taking in
ironing to do for others while she
was babysitting. Three years later
she opened a day nursery in her
home. It was the first licensed
daycare facility in Boonville.
Helen (and Clinton) chose
to work hard. She advanced
from being a farm girl to being
the proud mother of two nurses,
two pharmacists, and a medical
transcriptionist. When asked
how she feels about her four
daughters all working at something
other than housework, she
says, “It’s a different world.” She
remembers that it only cost her
fifty dollars to have a baby,
including prenatal care and
delivery. Rent was ten dollars per
month. She always tried to buy at
sale prices and explains, “We
didn’t make much, but we made
it do.”
The The Gerhardt Gerhardt and
and
StegnerFamilies
StegnerFamilies
August August Gerhardt was born
on 27 Feb 1894. He died on 2
Feb 1927 in Cooper County,
Mo. He married Flora Elizabeth
Stegner on 11 Jul 1915. Flora
Elizabeth Stegner was born on 9
Nov 1893 in Cooper County,
Mo. She died on 30 May 1988 in
Boonville, Mo.
August was the father of
Bert’s mother. He was born near
Pilot Grove, one of nine children
of Joseph and Catherine Krumm
Gerhardt. He lived with his
family in the Pilot Grove, Pisgah,
and Billingsville-Speed areas of
Cooper County, attending school
and church there. He lived at
home and farmed with his father
until he was married in 1915 to
Flora Elizabeth Stegner. August’s
brother Albert had married
Flora’s sister Bertha in 1910.
They had six children: Elmer
August, Helen Kathryn (Bert’s
mother), Daniel Hubert
(Hubert), Edgar Herman,
Rudolph Feodor (Rudy), and
Hillard Frederick.
August and Flora first
rented land south of Speed to
farm, and later purchased 120
acres east of Speed. The last four
children were born there.
On a Sunday morning in
1927 August was starting a fire in
the kitchen range using corn
cobs soaked in kerosene. There
was an explosion that burned
him over most of his body. He
died early that afternoon at the
hospital in Boonville. His wife,
Flora, would live more than sixty
years longer.
Flora Flora Elizabeth Elizabeth Stegner
Stegner
Gerhardt Gerhardt (1893-1988) was born
in the Billingsville community to
Feodor and Louisa Back
Stegner. The Stegner family had
lived in the same home in
Billingsville since Feodor’s
father, John Peter Stegner,
arrived in the United States in
1853. She married August in
1910 and their first two children
were born at their first home
south of Speed. When August
died in 1927 she was left to raise
six children, with Elmer, the
oldest, being 11 years and the
youngest being less than six
months old.
Flora was a strong woman,
and with the help of her children
and her extended families she
continued to operate the farm
and send all of the children to
school. The fire in 1927 had not
destroyed the house but had
damaged it.
By 1932 the family had
become unable to keep the farm
~ 78 ~
near Speed, and moved to a
farm closer to Billingsville owned
by August’s brother Albert. The
house was on a bluff with a long,
steep, rutted, rocky drive from
the main road, which was all but
impossible for a motor vehicle to
climb. The “improved” drive
that exists today is still a challenge
without 4-wheel drive.
Transportation for the
children was difficult to arrange,
but she managed to get all of the
children through grade school
and high school. She suffered
the additional misfortune of
losing her second oldest son
Hubert after Elmer had left
home. Helen would soon move
to Boonville, the next oldest was
Edgar, at 14 years, Rudy was 12
and Hillard was only 10. In 1944
Flora and the three boys moved
to a more accessible and more
pleasant home near Prairie Lick,
northwest of Billingsville. Rudy
and Hillard were in the military
service, and Edgar began a dairy
farm operation.
Flora was a quiet, taciturn
woman, but was very much loved
by her grandchildren. It was a
real treat for Bert at five or six
years old to go to the country
and stay with Grandma and
Uncle Edgar. He got to “help”
with milking the cows and got to
“drive” the tractor, a huge old
rusty yellow Minneapolis-
Moline. Bert offered to work for
Uncle Edgar when he got to be
old enough and “drive the tractor
for a dollar a day”.
Even the out-house, unpleasant
as it was, did not bother Bert.