Believe it or not, I remember a lot about my two Grandpas. To start with, I started calling my Grandpas by their first names after Grandpa. For example my mother's dad I called Grandpa Rich and my dad's dad I called Grandpa Ben. Grandpa Rich's full name was Theodore Richard Niemand. My Grandpa Ben's full name was Benjamin Franklin Logan.
Likewise my Grandmothers I called Grandma Rich and Grandma Ben. Since I decided to concentrate on the Grandpas in this blog, I will talk about the Grandmas in another blog.
First I will tell you as much as I can remember about Grandpa Ben and I only seem to have one picture of him in all my archives of photographs.
I knew Grandpa Ben as a very quite man that liked to rock in a big over-stuffed chair in his living room. He would occasionally leave the chair for one of two reasons: One, to go to the refrigerator for some buttermilk or cheese or Two to go to the back porch where he would spit his tobacco in the same spot at the base of a big tree close by.
Grandpa Ben would always tell us (the grand kids) the same story time and time again. It was about Horse Eggs. Believe it or not, I don't remember enough about that story to even try to tell it here. One activity that I remember doing with Grandpa and Grandma Ben was taking our car and going out to visit my dad's brother, Russell and family who lived on the Logan family farm West of Spencer. I recall that when we got back home Grandpa always said, "Home again, Home again, the old horse is dead!" Don't know what meaning it had, but he always said it as the car stopped.
I remember when I was about 13 and had a paper route that took me to stores and businesses on both sides of Main street in Spencer, one of the businesses I delivered a paper to was a taven not too far from where Grandma and Grandpa Ben lived. Grandpa Ben was always in there playing card and (I think) having a beer. I remember I always liked going in there (the tavern) because I usually had 1 or 2 extra newspapers and his friends always bought them from me for a nickle each.
I remember some stories that my mon told me about Grandpa Ben, but it took me a while to put the stories all together to form a conclusion. From the time I can remember, Grandma and Grandpa Ben owned a rooming house with about 6 apartment rooms. My Greatgrandma Austin Lived in one of the apartments. (that was my Grandma Ben's mother) Mom told me that Grandpa had to quit farming because of his health. He and Grandma had moved to town, bought the rooming house and Grandpa had taken up painting as his job. I never saw him paint, but I do remember a lot of cans of paint and paint brushes out on the back porch.
I remember later when Grandpa got sick( I was a teenager then), my dad would drive to Spencer from where we then lived in Sac City, Iowa (about a one hour drive) to visit Grandpa Ben until he died at the age of 72, I think. He had heart problems I was told.
Much later, actually after I was 50 something, my cousins and I were talking the one's that had lived on the family farm) and we determined that Grandpa had a drinking problem. That was why he and Grandma moved off the farm. It also answered the question we always had as to why Grandma was so against achohol and was at one time president of the local chapter of the WTCU (Women's Temperance Chapter......)
My mother also told me that before they moved to town, Grandpa held my dad out of his last year of high school so dad was never able to graduate. Grandpa made him work on the farm most of his last year of high school.
Well that is about all I can remember for now...It ended up being more than I thought it would be so I will end this blog and begin the next blog about Grandpa Rich who was a very great influence in my life....see you soon, Dave
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