From:      Kathleen Brandt

  Date:       Tue, 23 Mar 2004

In the one listing, I recognize the names of Carl (Charlie), Martha, and Frank, but there is no Ernest, Jr.—or could his name actually been the Averail (sp?) and the family just called him Ernie?  I believe that the gravestone reads “Ernest”.

I have such wonderful memories of Ernie and Charlie.  We used to have them over to join our family for Christmas dinner when we lived across the road from them.  One year, my parents were so financially strapped that they were afraid they would not be able to buy us Christmas presents.  Ernie and Charlie gave my mother shoe boxes full of “Gold Bond” or “S & H Green Stamps” which my parents used to buy us a toy wagon.  Every birthday and Christmas they would give the birthday child a dozen “Bing” Cherry

Candy bars—I think of them every time I eat one!

From:        Kathleen Brandt

Date:         Thu, 25 Mar 2004

Kathleen Brandt contributes childhood memories of Ernst & Carl Krayenhagen

I may have missed it before, but I do see on the family tree listing That there is an Ernest, Jr. and the year 1978 (death) would be correct.  I remember going to his funeral and it was after I had graduated from college and was working away from home.

No, we were not related to Ernie and Charlie. We lived on a farm across the road from them from 1960 or ‘61 until 1969.  They were like “grandpas” to us and we children (my sister, brother and I) were often over there, playing and visiting.  When I look back at the whole thing, I guess it is pretty astounding that these two old men were so willing to put up with the antics of rambunctious kids—to the point of not just tolerating us, but having an open door policy that we could come and go any time we wanted to!

My dad rented some of their farmland, I believe, and I remember we rented their barn to house baby calves once until the calves grew up enough to put to pasture.  I know that they thought of us as family—even after we moved to Chandler, which was probably about 20 miles from them, they came over a time or two, I believe to visit us.

Charlie died on Christmas Eve of 1972--he had been outside (maybe to the outhouse or to get a pail of water) and fell over as he stepped into the door.  Ernie tried calling us at home, and when he couldn’t get us, tried calling my uncle’s house (by then, my uncle was renting their land).  As luck would have it, we were all there, and we were the first to get the word.

Ernie was pretty flustered, and I believe that Dad had to talk him through the steps to take and who to call.  I don’t know if they ever had a phone—Ernie may have had to go to neighbors to call, or they may have gotten a phone after we moved, since they no longer had near neighbors that would look in on them.

They lived a spartan existence.  They had electricity, but that was all.  They had no indoor plumbing, no running water in the house (I believe Dad may have put a pipe from the pump to the barn and maybe a cold water pipe into the house—I don’t recall.)  They used the old outhouse every day of their lives and didn’t care that there might be something else available!

Their tiny 5 room house was furnished with antiques—not because they were collectors, but because that is what they inherited from their parents.  They had a morris chair that I remember being fascinated with—to make it recline, you had to fold the back of the chair slightly forward, move a stick to the selected notch on the back extension of the armrests and then let the back of the chair down properly.

I will be very happy to get pictures from the cemetery the next time we go to Pipestone, as we drive right past the Woodstock cemetery.  I will have to check with my mother to see if, by some chance, she has pictures of Ernie and Charlie, taken in the years we lived by them.  If she does, I would be very glad to make copies and send them to you.

We never knew any of the other family members.  Frank, who was also a bachelor had died many years before, and Martha was the only living sibling left, I believe.  She had moved to Appleton, MN when she married, where she and her husband owned a hardware store.  E & C often talked about her and their nephew, who took over the store when his father died.  However, I couldn’t tell you what her last name would be, or even her son’s first name.  I don’t recall ever meeting her, although my parents might have.

Sorry to ramble on so, but it is so much fun to remember Ernie and Charlie, and share with those related to them just how much they meant to me!