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The Slagg Family of Wisconsin After the Civil War
By Jon S. Berndt
JOSEPH returned home for good in July of 1865. He was short one brother and one cousin, both having died of typhoid and/or dysentary, and himself having been very sick with these diseases in 1863. The war had also taken it's toll on his sight. Being in and around lots of sand and bright sunlight had caused pain in his eyes, and caused him to be unable to work a full year and a half after his return from service. According to Tom Slater and John Slater, he was not really fit to work much for many years after that period. [The Slaters were long-time friends of the Slagg family, John Slater married Joseph's older sister, Harriet. According to the 1880 Iowa census, the Slaters had emigrated from England about the same time as the Slaggs.] Joseph himself wrote in an affidavit filled out to receive disability benefits from his service in the Union Army:
" . . . I have not employed any doctor since I came to Iowa for the reason that they never seemed to do me much good, and I had not the money to pay for treatment. The only treatment I have had is that prescribed by Doctor Houghman for temporary relief. My eyelids droop so as to interfere with the eyesight, and to cause them to be more sensitive to the weather. The lids swell sometimes to incapacitate or seriously interfere with my work. The treatment prescribed by Doctor Houghman was to bathe the eyes with salt and water, or any remedy that would clean out the matter and keep the inflammation down. I am unable to state how much time I have lost since the first year which I lost entirely. I lost considerable time the first four or five years. Under my circumstances I have had to work while suffering with sore eyes. The heat, cold, dust, and wind affecting them so that I have had to draw my hat or cap over them to shield them. I am unable to read or write without injury to my eyes."
In 1868, Joseph's sister-in-law, Hannah Barton Slagg (Arnold's wife) passed away leaving Arnold to care for three small children. Her death deprived Arnold of some of his enthusiasm for choir work, and though he later dropped it, he remained active in the church.
Joseph left Wisconsin in 1875 at age 36 and headed for Iowa to find farmland. He may have visited Iowa earlier, having relatives or friends that lived there. In any case, Nette recalls that Joseph went to work for Robert Theobald. On March 27th 1876 he was married to Robert's 20 year old daughter, the "lively" (as described by Nette) Sophia Elizabeth Theobald. Nette wrote once that Sophia was asked why she married such an old man. Sophia's reply, says Nette, stated that: ". . . she wanted a good man and she got him, which was no mistake; he had six sons and they said they watched him for 25 years and never saw him do anything wrong." [Nette wondered if Joseph realized he was under such scrutiny.] They returned to Wisconsin for a short time to visit, then returned to settle in Iowa. Their farm was described as "a nice farm of eighty acres of rich bottom land. [This eighty acres of land was given as a wedding present by Sophia's father, Robert Theobald, who had over 1000 acres of land.] His house is 16 x 26 feet, a story and a half located on a natural building site." Their first child, William R. Slagg was born on March 5, 1877. Alexander N. Slagg followed on December 5, 1878. Ernest E. Slagg was born on November 10, 1880. In about 1880 Joseph's sister Margaret and brother Frederick William moved to Manilla, Iowa. His sister Harriet (Mrs. John Slater) and brother Henry also moved to Manilla. Frederick William Slagg lived with the Slaters.
The first daughter of Joseph and Sophia, Inez M. Slagg, was born on August 11, 1882. Earl W. Slagg was born on February 25, 1886. [Sophia joked in later years that Earl caused her more trouble than the rest of the children combined.]
Sophia's mother Isabelle died in Manilla, Iowa, on September 2, 1886. She had been sick for quite some time. The next year, Sophia's father re-married to a Miss Anna Holmes, a native of England. According to Nette's recollection of her mother Sophia's account, Robert may have been having an affair with Anna, who was the hired girl at the house, during Isabelle's sickness. Apparently, Sophia was the only child to forgive her father, and visited her father and her stepmother in Manilla when she traveled there.
Joseph and Sophia's next child, Leo W. Slagg, was born on January 27, 1890. Frank V. Slagg was born on May 24, 1893. He died at the age of three of diptheria. Harold Slagg was born on March 8, 1898.
On August 21, 1900, Sophia's father Robert died.
In 1902 Joseph's brother Arnold remarried, his new wife's name was Mary Clabby (It was in this year that Joseph and Sophia's daughter Nette Belle Slagg was born on February 14th).
In 1903 Joseph, Sophia, and family packed up and moved to Central North Dakota, probably taking the train which passed through Manilla on it's way from Chicago to Aberdeen, North Dakota. The accepted reason they left Iowa was so that Joseph and Sophia's children could each have their own land. When they got to where they were going, a few miles outside of Washburn, they homesteaded on government furnished land which had just opened up and lived in an existing log cabin as a temporary shelter - a one room cabin for eleven people! They began construction soon on a much larger and more refined house.
Nette recalled that there were still Native Americans living in the area when she was growing up. She recalled seeing tepees set up, line strung between them, and beef drying on the lines.
On July 12, 1909, seven year old Nette was watching her brother Ernest at the farm, and said at one point she guessed that she could help by pulling the feed down from between the cogged wheels of the feed grinding machine, which was an old contraption with horses hooked up to it and going round in a circle, driving the grinding wheels. Ernest, who was reading a book at the time and thinking that there was no chance of her getting hurt allowed her to do so. Her right arm got stuck when she pushed it too far up in the machine, and was crushed and nearly severed. She recalled in later years that everyone seemed to be making such a fuss over the incident at the time, and that they should all stop crying and feel better, and that she didn't feel much pain. They loaded her up into the wagon and raced to the doctor in town, where her arm was removed. Nette was angry that her arm ended up being buried under a tree on the farm (reportedly after a small ceremony) before she could see it one last time. Within a week she was home from the hospital and, coming into the house with several crying children from the neighborhood, asked them, "Want to watch me lace my shoes?" She quickly learned to do everything left-handed including playing baseball, tennis, the piano, and riding horseback (causing her mother much consternation).
Aunt Maggie was visiting at the time and no doubt her presence as a much loved aunt helped little Nette recover a little quicker. Aunt Maggie was very English. Some of her favorite expressions were "By crackey", and "Oh, gash". Nette's brothers teased Maggie constantly, but she loved them anyhow. They teased Nette, too, that she wouldn't be any bigger than Aunt Maggie . . . . but, "I fooled them," said Nette, "and Aunt wouldn't any more than come to my shoulder". Maggie lived in Iowa, and died of cancer at close to 90 years of age. Joseph and Sophia were with her in her last days.
Nette's older sister, Inez, had a daughter by the name of Beulah. She was born about the same time as Nette, and the two grew up almost like sisters. Beulah came to Washburn in the summer by train from Manilla. Beulah's uncles met her and Inez in Washburn when the train arrived and took them out to the farm by team and wagon. Nette and brother Harold were always excited to see them coming over the hill when they arrived. Beulah recalls how the Slaggs always had a houseful of relatives and friends where everyone was welcome. Sophia and Joseph had such a big garden, and everyone worked, picking and preparing food. Often in addition to relatives staying at the house, the minister and his family would stay at their large home when they came to the area to preach to the villagers. There were often large Sunday school picnics held on the banks of the Missouri river which were memorable events.
Life on the prairie in the heartland of North Dakota was hard. It required of its inhabitants hard work, and a hearty character. In an interview with one of her many grandsons a few months before she went to her heavenly home, Nette recalled that her mother was one to give people a piece of her mind, and she often warned her mother that if she kept on she wouldn't have any mind left. But she was a very wise mother. Nette joked that she depended on her mother, who always seemed to have a solution to any problem, more than God sometimes. Sophia was a gifted seamstress, a wonderful cook, a good housekeeper, and a natural born nurse. She made a good home-made chicken soup, and canned her own grape juice - which was only given when one was sick. Nette recalled when she saw someone getting the grape juice she had wished she were sick, too. She made excellent butter from a butter churn, using the cream which was taken from the top of the milk given by their cows. Nette recalls her mother's banana cakes with whipped cream: "Oh, could she make pies!" remarked Nette. Saturday nights the stores were open until midnight, that was the night Nette got to stay up late. There were lots of children to play with on shopping day. They had to take the wagon into town, ten miles away. Sophia made the boys coveralls just like the ones that could be bought in the stores. Many nights she could be found sitting up until midnight, sewing by kerosene lamplight and working the old Singer sewing machine. She often took on sewing, ironing, and cleaning work to bring in extra money. She laundered all the white clothes in the household by boiling them. She also ironed everything, even the boys white work socks. Sophia was the "manager" of the household as well. Some of that had to do with Joseph's eyesight, and some of it was because Sophia was such a perfectionist. She may have gotten this from her mother. A favorite story is that when Sophia's mother Isabelle was looking for a household maid she would drop a broom. If the woman being interviewed picked up the broom she might get the job, otherwise she would certainly not.
Sophia was the disciplinarian in the house, as Joseph tended to be of a gentle nature. Nette could only recall two times when her father scolded her, boxing her ears once when she was asked to stop humming at the table - and didn't stop, and once when she was twisting a towel and asked to stop - but didn't. Nette's brother Harold told a story once that the washing machine had broken, and that Joseph was working on it. He asked Harold to fetch some tools from the barn, which was some distance from where they were working. Harold was trying to tell his father how he could fix it without those tools when he became aware that he was about to be on the receiving end of some discipline. It is said Harold was halfway to the barn before Joseph's foot was in the air. This was one of Joseph's common methods of discipline.
Sophia used a different approach. For example, there was an old mud puddle her children used as a swimming hole. She forbade them from swimming in that old mud puddle, but they went ahead, anyhow. She caught them many times, and doled out many spankings, but it didn't seem to do any good. One day the kids came home from yet another day at the swimming hole, only to find Sophia crying. That was the last time they went to the swimming hole, "That finished it!" said Nette.
The Slaggs were by nature farmers, and had descended from farmers for as long as anyone could remember. The boys would plow up the soil and Joseph would yearly plant a huge garden which was the envy of the neighbors. Joseph made straight rows with string staked out along the length of the garden, and he kept it weed-free. Sophia put flowers out, as well. Often, Sophia would have seven different vegetables on the dinner table. In the fall they slaughtered a cow and a pig for beef and pork over the winter. Sophia made tasty sausages. She buried the patties in a pot of lard, and Nette admitted that it might not have been very healthy, but it sure was good. [Nette said that's why they all got so fat, because Sophia fed them all so well - Sophia herself at one time weighed 216 pounds.] They used salt at times to help preserve the beef. They also kept lots of chickens, which supplied too many eggs for the family to eat, so they gave away and sold eggs.
Sophia was an early riser, making breakfast, baking bread, and doing laundry. She had everything done by noon, said Nette, and would take a short nap in the afternoon before preparing for dinner. Often she would do things like knitting or crocheting later in the day, as well. The family was so big she often hired a girl to help around the house. The farm got so big they had to hire a boy to help with the farming. Sometimes a teacher from the school would board at their house. The dinner table at times like this would be quite full.
Joseph was very active in the church in Conkling. He was the superintendent of the Sunday school for many years. He was described as a pure and sincere man who gave Christian encouragement to all who knew him well. He was a Republican, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Joseph Slagg Passes Away
"Taps was blown for the last of the Civil War veterans in this community Wednesday afternoon when Joseph Slagg, 90, pioneer of this county and of other states in the Union, who died at the home of his son, Wm. Slagg here Tuesday forenoon, was laid to rest in Riverview cemetery here. Death came as a result of the infirmities of age."
The announcement came in the Friday, August 9, 1929 issue of the Washburn Leader.
