| BUSINESS
DIARY OF |
|
Edited
in 2007 by grandson Granddaughter
Chris Miller typed this text from the original diary volumes. All text notes in brackets were added by
George Rafert at later dates, which he usually indicated.
I have sometimes added a word or two to make
the meaning of the diary more clear.
Numbers in brackets indicate the page in the original
diary. Volume 1 begins on page 3 and
covers the period
from I
have
entered major topics in bold type.
These are not in the original, but are added
for convenience. Jan
lst l9l2 The following is a record of the more
important events
of my life, particularly as regards their effect on my success or
failure as a
business man. I am keeping this record
first for the sake of the advantage I may derive from a more careful
analysis
of each situation on the result of putting it before me in black and
white, and
second for the sake of the pleasure I may derive from its perusal in
latter
years and in order that my children may have a record of their father's
life,
which I am sure they will be interested in reading and I trust that it
may be
profitable to them as well. I know that
if my father had kept such a record it would be of tremendous interest
and
advantage to me now. I will give a brief
record of the events preceding the above
date. [I
was] born Oct. 26, l883 in the city of
Indianapolis, Indiana in the house now known as ll3l N. Delaware St.,
my father
Christopher Frederick Rafert at that time being forty-five years of age
and my
mother Christina Manche Rafert forty-three years of age. [I]
entered the Indianapolis Public
Schools in the Fall of l889, attending what was then known as School
No. 2, now
called Benjamin Harrison School, located at the northwest corner of
Walnut
& Delaware Sts. Continued here till
the last half of the 8th year, when the whole class was transferred to
School
#3, at that time located on During
the summer of l90l-2 I got my first
job collecting for the Central Union Telephone Co. at $7.50 per week. The next summer before leaving for college I
worked in the contracting department at $50.00 per month or ten dollars
more on
the month than I got at my first job after leaving college. Entered
the Entered
Returned
to Returned
to I
first tried to sell Real Estate on
commission in connection with the firm of C. F. Sayles and Co. Needless
to say
I didn't sell any and after six weeks succeeded in getting a job
soliciting
want ads for the Indianapolis Star at $l0.00 per week. During this time I made frequent trips back
to [Here
follows the first of a number of notes George Rafert added to the
margin of the
text later on. All will be bracketed
like this one. SJR]: [Feb.
l2, 'l4 My
parents had no real understanding of my
state of mind at this time. They made
the mistake of openly and urgently opposing the young lady. Would not meet or have anything to do with
her. In consequence they failed to see
that I was entering a business proposition for reasons of sentiment. If my father had said “This ice plant
proposition is risky at least for a number of reasons,” which he could
have
given. “Now if you borrow money and lose
it you can probably never marry the girl.
Let me loan you the $l000 and you keep it in bank till we
find a
proposition my experience will approve.”
Approached in this manner, I think I would have waited. However, it has all turned out for the best.] We
incorporated a company to be known as
the Bloomington Ice & Fuel Co. [5] We
advertised in the local paper our
intention to relieve the town of its suffering from the gouging of the
established local concern, paid two prices $3500.00 for a location on
the
representation of owners that sufficient water could be had for our
purpose. I enjoyed the society of my
girl and Griffith and I both had a great time socially.
It was like getting home again. I
endorsed Hubbard’s note over to the
parties, Ed Showers & Sanford Teeter, from whom we bought the
ground and
shortly we returned home to contract for machinery, etc.
This was a fine move too, though nothing came
of it even if Hubbard did try to make out afterwards that he had
intended
merely to loan me the money. With
In my dealings with Hubbard, Showers, &
Teeter I
learned more of real value to me in my future business life than I had
in all
my four years of college. I learned to
take nothing for granted, to feel that every business man, whether a
social
friend or not, was out to get what money I had.
I have thought much of this deal and feel that it was at
the heart and
center of my business education in its beginnings.
I wouldn't go through the mental distress of
that period again or give up what it taught me for a large sum of money. Among the lessons, derived from it, is the
ability to feel a keen sympathy for the young man just out of college. [l/27/40.
It is likely true that these experiences and background of
thought
account for the fact that I did not urge my boys to go to college, but
rather
undertook the personal responsibility of teaching them wisdom &
sound judgment. Stewart is now 22 &
Frank 20 and most
certainly under this program they are both far ahead of where I was at
their
age.] The
ice plant project was abandoned. About a
year later I sold my interest in the
real estate of the company to Mr. Hubbard for five shares of stock in
the
Indiana Consolidated Canning Co. of a par value of $500.00. I turned this stock and $85.00 my share of
the treasury balance to my father. I
again took up my work at the Star
of $l0.00 per week. [6] In March
l907 after being with the Star
again for several months, through the help of Lewis Hoffman, the father
of my
friend and former roommate in Bloomington, Harry A. Hoffman, I
succeeded in
getting a position in the purchasing department of the Atlas Engine
Works of
this city at $l5.00 per week under Mr. Beeler, the purchasing agent.[1] The work consisted mainly in checking
invoices and doing routine buying. I
learned a great deal of how business was conducted in a large plant,
much
general information, etc. but my pride continued to smart, for I felt
any child
could do the work I was doing, the confinement irritated me, and I
concluded
that beginning at the bottom of a large concern was no place for a
young man of
my ambition and temperament. I saw too
many around me who were mere cogs in a large machine, left where they
were for
the reason that they did their small duties well. All
this time I was having trouble with
Hubbard and had one more illusion exploded when I received a letter
from
Barbara Voyles to the effect that she was engaged to a Mr. Hornaday. I had little faith in human nature left to me
at this time. I was promised a week’s
vacation the first of September, l907 and when the time came for me to
leave,
Mr. Beeler informed me that conditions were such in the business that
it had
been decided to cut down the purchasing department and my services
would no
longer be required. [ [July
l5, 'l6. It is ten years since I
last
saw Barbara Voyles. As much as I love my
wife & babies the truth is I have never recovered from the shock of
this
experience. Parents should let their
children do their own love making as long as the other person is
serious
physically & morally. My parents
objected to Barbara because her people were poor financially. They did to Ethel's too, for that matter, for
the same reason. I wish I didn't have
this hurt in the back of my mind.]
Our
family had planned to spend my
vacation week on a trip down the [7] Our
trip down the While
soliciting want ads for the Star
I became acquainted with a number of real estate men, particularly Mr.
W. C.
Day, who had desk room in an old building at the northwest corner of The upshot of the matter was that shortly
after our
return from the He meets
Ethel Stewart Before
returning to one of these [deals]
which meant a great deal to me in many ways during the ensuing four
years, let me
digress long enough to say that the Miss Ausinbaugh referred to above
invited
me to be her company to a dance given by the Phi Kappa Theta's, a high
school
sorority, Dec. 2l, l907. It was there
that I met To
return to the real estate
business. Mr. Pritchard had built
seventeen cheap houses in Beech Grove, an industrial town a few miles
southeast
of Shortly
after concluding this option
arrangement with Mr. Ellis, I invested about $600 of my real estate
commission
earnings in a pressing and cleaning establishment in connection with a
man
named Gross and two brothers. To cut the
story short, the brothers absconded & Gross & I lost all we had
in the
proposition. Day
& I were the best of friends, but
we came to the conclusion in the early part of l909 that we could do
better in
single harness. He wanted to start
building operations along the Pritchard lines and I wanted to sell
something
which people had to have and which they bought readily.
In other words, in view of the fact that I
was thinking of the possibility that I might want to get married within
the next
few years, I wanted something definite in the way of an income and more
dependable and less irregular than the real estate commission business.
In
consequence we severed our partnership in February, l909. [9] I
felt at the time that I was leaving the
Real Estate field only temporarily and I wanted to get back into it
just as
soon as I could arrange to do so. I
wanted mainly to establish a business which went on every day and from
which I
could make a regular profit. He goes into
the grocery business An
opportunity came to my attention
through the impending failure of Mr. Thomas O’Conner who was running a
grocery
business in a very small way at 249 East llth Street in a building
owned by my
father. He was several months behind
with his rent and owed my father this money besides.
At my father’s suggestion I bought him
out. The stock of merchandise amounted
to only $329 so I found I could take over the whole proposition on a
total
investment of $l,0l5. I had a little
money left, assumed O’Conner’s debt to my father besides a couple of
hundred
dollars that he loaned me in addition, and borrowed $300 at the Indiana
National Bank. I hired a Mr. Joseph
Eisen at $l2 per week and a delivery boy at $3 per week and started in
March
lst, l909. Our first day’s sales
amounted to only $l5.42 cash and credit together. I
knew nothing of the grocery business, but
by the end of two or three months had the detail well in hand. I enjoyed the management of that little store
immensely and it proved profitable right from the start.
I bought nothing but the best goods, saw that
the customers were promptly and courteously served, and the business
grew. By the end of the first year the
business was
running over $50 a day. I put all my
profits except a little pocket money back into the business. The net assets of the business June 2nd l9l0
amounted to $2,330.86. During the eleven
weeks preceding this date my average net profit was $43.l3 per week. I now ran a small automobile which I had
bought second hand for $375 for delivery purposes and employed a
bookkeeper -
Miss Rankin - at $l0 per week. Let us
leave the grocery business here and go back to the farm deal. He enters
farm management
Mr.
Ellis returned to Indianapolis the latter part of August l909 and on
August
29th we entered into a contract under which he agreed to purchase the
property
under the terms of the option which he had held for the past year. He allowed me $40.00 per month & expenses
for looking after the place during that time, this having been part of
the
option agreement. While building up the
grocery business I had managed to spend a week or so whenever necessary
on the
farm and had made a number of needed improvements, such as a large corn
crib,
additional ditching, etc. I got the
crops for this year but the proceeds all went to pay my interest and
other
expenses.[5] [10] On
the same date that the purchase
agreement was entered into I entered into a separate contract with Mr.
Ellis
under which he agreed to retain my services in looking after his
interests in
the place till such time as he could sell it and get his money out. He agreed to pay me $25 a month &
expenses during this period and the additional sum of $300 as a
commission
whenever he sold all or any part of the place.
It was understood that he would carry out the contract of
purchase not
later than the 20th of the following Oct.
He had not yet succeeded in making his arrangement but
asked my father
& me to come down to In
the meantime I continued to run the
farm and the grocery as I had been doing.
I wrote Mr. Ellis vigorously from time to time but the
only explanation
I could get was that he did not yet have money enough to close the deal. This was still the case the 4th of March l9l0
when the 2nd mortgage of $6,500 became due and we were forced to borrow
the
money to pay it off. However in the mean
time we had collected some twelve hundred dollars from the sale of the
crops
and held it to apply on Mr. Ellis' account continuing in the hope that
since he
now had about $3000 in the deal including interest charges on the first
mortgage and taxes that he had paid, he would make every effort to
close the
deal. We did not want the farm and were
anxious to see him succeed for his own sake for we had learned to think
a great
deal of him personally and did not want to see him lose any money if we
could
help him avoid it. However this was a
time of considerable worry and stress for all of us. During
this time I had been going to see
Miss Ethel Stewart with great regularity.
It seemed that I couldn't be happy unless I saw her every
day and Feb.
l0, l9l0 we became engaged to be married.
The next day I went to see her father at his office and
obtained his
consent to our plans and bought an engagement ring of J. C. Sipe, the
Jeweler. I paid $l58.50 for it giving
Mr. Sipe, if I remember correctly, $68 down.
I paid the rest with the $25 per month I was receiving
from Mr.
Ellis. Our intentions at the time were to
be married the following October, but shortly after our engagement we
changed
the date to August l0th, l9l0 as we wanted to take the trip down the
Kentucky
River as our wedding trip and the boat left Louisville on the llth. 11] Sometime
in March, l9l0 a Mr. W. E. Crates
of His Father,
Christopher Rafert, dies And
now I come to the first great sorrow
of my life. My dear father who had been
such a loyal friend took sick and died May 25, l9l0 at [12] At
the time of his death he left a fortune
of about $l00,000. [As it afterward
developed, $60,000 is nearer the correct figure.] [In
2007 dollars, about $1.6 million. SR]
Probably half of this was earned in the contracting
business in
connection with a lumberyard he owned on the south side of My
father left no will so the estate was
settled by law, through the probate court of Dealing with
Family on Estate Business [13] On
June l6th, l9ll I completed an important
deal for the estate. The estate had now
been held open more than the required year and during all this time I
had
insisted that it was to our best advantage to hold it together. I especially wanted this done on account of
my mother. Her share of the estate would
not have produced sufficient income to maintain the old home place at
ll3l The
only opposition to this plan came from
my niece and her husband Benjamin P. Alexander.[6] They insisted that they must have some money.
The estate had no money on hand except for current expenses and as all
the
property was of [14] such a nature that
it couldn't be sold readily without loss and making it necessary to
rearrange
the whole business, I did everything I could to get them to change
their
views. They could offer no business
reason in objection to this course and their reason for opposing it did
not
develop till I learned that they had given their note for $l,200 for an
automobile
very shortly after my father’s death and as they did not immediately
begin to
roll in wealth as they seemingly contemplated, they had no money with
which to
meet the obligation and it had become urgent.
To meet this objection I agreed that if they would join
the corporation
with the rest of us I would personally loan them $2,000 taking an equal
amount
of stock as collateral. [They were both
mighty young at this time, my niece 20 and her husband 2l.
I did things just as foolish at their age as
this history shows.] Upon this
proposition they removed all objection and entered into an agreement
with the
rest of us to incorporate. The estate was now ready to close. I made my final report to the court March 2nd,
l9l2 and was allowed $l,000 for my services.
It wasn't the money that gave me this satisfaction, but
the feeling that
I had developed from an [15] impetuous
boy of 23 years into a man of good reliable business judgment at the
age of 27
and I felt that after all I had been through and the thought and
scheming &
planning and diplomacy that had been necessary to bring it all to such
a
successful conclusion, that I had earned this feeling of satisfaction.
He and Ethel Stewart get married To
go back, along in the early part of May
l9l0, while my father was apparently in perfect health and when we had
no
intimation that he was going to be sick at all, my sweetheart and I had
planned
to be married August l0th following. My
father’s death made an awful change, but we felt that nothing ought to
be
allowed to interfere after we had set the day, so we were married Aug.
l0, l9l0
at Setting Up
Housekeeping It was finally decided (before our marriage
of course)
that we would live in the flat at l022 N. Alabama Street and when we
were
married we had it furnished very simply but with substantial things. Our total investment in furniture was a
little less than $600. At the time we were
married I had about $600 on hand and was out of debt except about
$400.00 that
I owed on my furniture. Before this was
due sixty days later I had collected about that amount from the sale of
some
corn belonging to me on the Newton County farm so that we started with
$600 in
bank, our furniture paid for and had an income of about $l50 a month
beside the
earnings of the grocery which at this time was running well, enough for
us to
live on all by itself.[7] We started saving right from the start. Our
wedding
trip to We
never felt exactly at home in the flat
as both of us had always been used to living in a house but we
continued to
live there till the following March when we were expecting our first
baby and
knew that the flat would be impossible, so we gave it up, stored our
furniture
at my mother’s and went to live with Ethel's parents till the baby
came, as
Ethel wanted to be near her father at this time. First Baby,
Jeanne Belle Rafert That
was a beautiful spring. We drove way out
in the country every
afternoon and stopped to wander around and pick violets, etc. We wanted our baby to have every advantage
that good health and proper living, mental and physical on our part
could
give. She was born on Sunday morning at
20 minutes after l2 o'clock While
living at Stewarts’, my mother
continued to urge that we make our permanent home with her. I felt for her keenly and joined in her
solicitation till my wife agreed against her better judgment to give it
a
trial. We felt that we could live at
less expense and Ethel could give Jeanne her undivided attention. Consequently I fixed up two rooms at my
mother’s to suit us at an expense of $65 & furnished them with our
bedroom
and living room furniture. But we never
went there to live. Ethel worried more
and more about the prospect till I could see that it was making her
very
unhappy. Finally my mother-in-law and my
mother while visiting together one afternoon got to discussing the
matter, [17]
failed utterly to agree, and as a result do not speak to each other to
this
day. I never hope to have anything
baffle me like this situation does. The
upshot of the matter was that we decided to move into the house where
we are
now living at 239 East llth St. This
property is owned by the estate and I have all the advantages of both
landlord
& tenant. Our two mothers are both
the best women in the world and I sincerely hope they will come to
understand
and appreciate each other before our babies are old enough to have to
suffer
for it or to censure either or both of them.
I came firmly to the conclusion which my wife had held all
the time,
that the primary object of getting married is to establish a new,
separate and
individual home. This we have done and
we have been mighty happy in the doing of it.
The only cloud in our happiness is that our two mothers do
not
understand each other, but we have never permitted this to come between
us
though neither of us can help but be partial in our views.
l9l2 In
all essentials this brings my story up
to the first of January, l9l2. However,
during the fall of l9ll I became dissatisfied with Mr. Eisen’s
management of
the grocery. I had had to be away a
great deal in connection with the estate business.
He had a great many good qualities, but
labored to a disadvantage under responsibility while giving the
impression
freely to others that he was the whole show.
His figuring was often inaccurate and it finally reached
the point where
his cash continually refused to balance.
It worried me a good deal. I
concluded to solve the problem by getting a multiple drawer cash
register which
I had made to order. While awaiting
delivery we separated by mutual agreement.
I didn't discharge him neither did he quit - we simply
separated. I
hired a man who had been with Buschman
Co. for seven years, Charlie Carper, at $l8 [a week] and after trying
him out
for sixty days entered into the following arrangement with him Jan lst
l9l2. We invoiced the net worth of the
business and he was to pay me $l2 per week in addition to $l0 per month
as a
fixed sum out of the earnings of the business.
[18] This
left me with a contract in my hands for
a $480 cash register for which I had no use.
The National people refused to accept a hundred dollars I
offered them
to relieve me from the contract and keep the register, so I bought it
for $452
net cash taking all discounts. At this time I had control of the meat market
next
door to the grocery. The butcher Bert
Saffell furnished his own fixtures and paid his own rent and I
furnished him
with delivery service and telephone service and gave him a check once a
week
for all his credit business less l0% which I charged for the service. In this way the meat market paid me a
definite profit of about $40.00 per month. This arrangement had been
running
successfully since July l9ll and I turned it over along with the
grocery to
Carper as I wanted to be relieved of all detail and be given a chance
to go
after bigger game. I felt that the time
had come for me to get back into the real estate business, without a
partner
this time and in a way that would make the agents work for me. The grocery arrangement started off
fine. Jan. l9l2 was the biggest business
the store had in one month running over $2,500, meat included. I felt I was free to look around. First
Property Purchase [19] March
llth, l9l2 I bought a piece of
ground on the north side of Problems
with the Grocery Store [20] I
had realized since March that things had
not been going right in the grocery.
Carper and his wife could not get along well enough to
work that close
together. He felt his importance too
much and she worried him by being nervous and excitable so when we
invoiced the
first of May I was not surprised to find that he had lost his $l25
guarantee
and a little besides. Some men can work
all right when someone else is over them taking the responsibility, but
they go
all to pieces when the responsibility is on their own shoulders. I immediately concluded to sell the store and
did so May 27th to Mr. W. C. Evans. I
kept the bills receivable amounting to about $l,200 and took $400 cash
and the
assignment of a first mortgage for $l,500 and accrued interest on a
hundred
acres of land in Washington County Indiana.
[21] Evans
didn't seem to know how to handle
the grocery and before he had it a week he wanted to sell out. Finally the 5th of July l9l2 he brought a Mr.
W. E. Young to me having first said he would give me $25 commission if
through
my help he succeeded in selling the store to Young for $l,l00 cash. Four
days later on the 9th of July, Well,
I had the store back. The first thing I
did was to gather together
all the unopened case goods and sell the whole bunch at a slight
discount to
August Buschman Co. for $l60, thereby getting cash to run the business
for the [22] time being and making
it unnecessary to draw
on my other resources. He Quits the
Grocery Business Carper
& I ran the store just a
month. Aug. 9th, l9l2 I traded it to Mr.
John C. Allison for his equity in a house at l04l I
took the house and painted it, put in
electric lights & new fixtures, hardwood floors, new paper
throughout, etc.
for a little over $350 and just three months from the day I got it on
Nov. 9th
l9l2 I entered into a contract with one Harry F. McNutt and his brother
James
S. McNutt under which they agreed to rent the property for $25 per
month till
June lst, l9l3, beginning at that time to purchase same at $40 per
month for
$3,900 which included $75 I advanced McNutt so he could get moved in. This contract is now being fulfilled and
unless my judgment of McNutt is badly wrong he will carry it through. My combined profit in the sale of the grocery
after buying it back from Young to the selling of the house to McNutt
will be
about $l,000 presuming that McNutt completes his contract, besides some
$600
interest he will pay in the course of the same. Details of all these
transactions
will be found in my [account] books.[8] Elsa, second
child born [23] November
l3th, l9l2 at exactly one o'clock
p.m. on Wednesday the second great event took place in our family. Our daughter Elsa was born.
We had done everything we could for her
before her birth the same as we had for Jeanne.
Ethel’s health had been perfect and Elsa had the
additional advantage
that during the nine months preceding her birth, her mother had been
entirely
free from worry of any kind. I refer to
the fact that we were now entirely settled in our home and way of
living and
had learned to adjust ourselves to the differences between our own
mothers so
that while we recognized it as too bad, that it had to be that way,
still it
gave us no cause for immediate concern.
Of course Ethel could not be out of doors quite as much as
she had
before Jeanne came on account of Jeanne’s care and her increasing
household
duties and we were a little afraid that coming so soon after Jeanne she
might
not be so robust physically. However, my
fears in this direction have been allayed, for though Elsa weighed only
six
pounds when she came, she will be three months old in three days and
weighs
over l4 pounds and has been in perfect health as has her mother. [l/27/40
Trip to [24] During the latter part of June of this same
year,
l9l2, we left Jeanne with her Grandma Stewart and went to Earnings for 1912 During
l9l2 I kept an exact record of my
earnings as I had always kept of my expenses.
The total for the year was $5,75l.98 or an average of
$479.33 per month.[9] June was my best month amounting to
$20l0.20. Our living expenses amounted
to $2,4l5.45 which included $279.l9 which the machine cost during the
year. [We had added] a great many things
to our household furniture such as a bookcase, an oriental rug, our
music
cabinet, a large rug for the dining room, and innumerable small things
which we
found we needed, one thing demanding another.
We kept help during nearly all the year besides the
additional expense of
a nurse for two weeks and the attendant expense when Elsa came. The above amount does not include the $595 we
invested in our piano via the cash register.
I was 29 years old the 26th of Oct of this year and Ethel
was 24 the
l5th of June. All in all this was the
best year I have had to date.
l9l3 This
brings me up to the present year
l9l3. I entered it with about a thousand
dollars cash on hand, owned about $l,700 worth of household goods, the
equity
in the [25] Purchases
First Multi-unit Apartment Buildings However I increased this [income] by the
first deal of
the year January 8, l9l3 when I bought two small double houses from the
Reliance
Realty Co. for $4,435. The houses
brought $50 per month or net about $25 after paying interest and then
charges
against them. My first intention was to
hold these houses, as they were excellently located at the N. W. corner
of l9th
& Ralston Streets within two squares of the old Atlas works where I
had
once worked and which had been sold and was now being used to
manufacture
automobile parts. However, I decided to
sell again rather that wait till I had saved enough to make another
deal. I succeeded in selling them through
Hall
& Hill Agents April 8, l9l3 to Huldah Webb McColl, a colored woman,
for
$4,900 cash. In
March of this year I made a deal with
the Glen's Falls Insurance Co through their local agent Mr. Harvey
Martin under
which they had me appointed a special agent for the company on a 20%
commission
basis. [4/l5/54 - I am still a [26] February
26th preceding I sold
my canning stock for $504.67. On the
same day I bought a 4 passenger 1912 model second-hand Buick from the
Buick
auto people for $600.00. I had it
painted, etc. and added some equipment making its total cost $666.97
and I had
a machine just as good as new for $500 less that the new 1913 model
would have
cost me. I sold my little machine March
19 to Dr. Cass of He Decides
on the type of Rental Property he will build May
3, l9l3 The l9th Street deal which I
have told about in preceding page crystallized my thoughts on a point
concerning which I have done a good deal of thinking during the past
months. It started with the idea of
securing good
corner lots on which I could build two, three or four double houses as
the size
of the lot would determine. Thus the
ground value per house would be made very low to what it would be
compared
with, building one house on an inside lot.
I next came strongly to the conclusion that a double house
renting from
$l5 to $20 a side offers the best possible investment and at the same
time a
very attractive profit in selling. I
reached this conclusion along this line of thought.
Cheap property such as small doubles for
Negroes renting from $5 to $7 per side I dismissed because, though they
pay a
high rate in the investment necessary, you are bothered a good deal in
the
collection of the rent and are sure to lose some of it as the tenants
are
absolutely irresponsible. Also when you
wish to sell you have to do so on a basis of not less than l5% on the
rental
income so that the actual margin of profit is low.
Also this class of property not being
standard does not command a ready market and since it is intrinsically
cheap in
every way offers no opportunity for an increase in value from unearned
increment. [4/l5/54 Today
$50 a month is cheap rent. Everything
is relative. However, this sheet gives
the fundamental thinking which was absolutely sound as the years have
proved in
my later building programs.] On the other extreme we have the high class
double
renting from thirty to forty or even fifty dollars a side.
These I dismissed for the following
reasons. A house of this character must
be located on a high priced lot in order to get it where it will bring
that
much rent. This makes the proportion of
ground value excessive and cuts down the percent of income. The tenants who live in this kind of property
feel they are doing you a favor to live there and are often
unreasonable in
their demands. They demand new [wall]paper
if they tire of the color of the old, though it may be perfectly good. Also the man who will pay $50 rent is liable
to be living beyond his means unless he is a transient which makes him
an
undesirable tenant. (He could better
afford to live in his own home and if his income was sufficient to pay
$50 rent
he should have arranged to do so unless transient.) [27] This
class of property will sell in a ten
per cent basis which means six percent or less net.
Again the assessment for taxation is usually
proportionately higher than on cheaper classes of property. On account of the quality of everything
installed in such a house and the excessive proportion of ground value
the opportunity
for profit in selling is small. As
regards the flat proposition, I do not
like it because of the amount of management required and after you have
paid
for coal, high insurance, janitor, screens, shades, furnished stoves,
ice
boxes, etc. and done about everything except rocked the tenant to sleep
at
night, the actual profit left is small either to hold or sell. The flat of small apartments renting from $20
to $25 offers a fairly attractive field largely on account of the
difference in
the kind of people with whom you have to deal, but in order to get a
plant
large enough to sufficiently pro-rate the expense of service the amount
of
capital is large. Of
real estate investment proposition this
leaves the medium priced double as the most attractive field in which
to
work. As a class they meet all the
objectives I have enumerated against the other kinds of rental
investments and
at the same time retain their virtues besides having other advantages
entirely
their own. In the first place you can
build two of these houses on a corner lot costing as much as a thousand
dollars
which means a good middle class neighborhood and at the same time your
ground
value per house is only $500. I set this
as a maximum for this kind of property.
The tenants you appeal to are first class people of
moderate means who
pay their debts promptly, earn their living honestly and make no effort
toward
display. These people do not demand
changes of wallpaper to suit their taste and are satisfied with the old
paper as
long as it is clean and good. Practically
no management of this property is required as compared with flats and
you are
never worried because the janitor overslept or failure to keep hot
water in the
pipes every minute. Also there is a very
ready market for this kind of property and, because it appeals to the
greatest
number of people, the amount of time you have from vacancies is
exceedingly
small. In my estimates I figure l0 days
per year per house. Again,
since the kind of property stands
in the middle between the extremes of high and low rent they are most
likely to
remain rented under all conditions. In
good times the man who has been paying $l2 per month rent will move
into a $l5
house because he feels he can afford something better and during panic
times
the man who has been paying more will move into the cheaper house as a
means of
retrenchment.[10] [28] The
houses on l9th street were not entirely
modern. They had simply inside toilet,
electric lights and city water in the kitchen & rented for $l2.50
per
side. I can see that by spending just a
little more on their cost a house could be made entirely modern with
furnace
& complete bath, built a little better and with the location
carefully
chosen be made to bring in proportion to their cost much higher rent
which
means a margin of profit increased to over twice the amount of the
additional
cost for these things. For these reasons
I have concluded to explore this field next and have determined to
build double
houses modern in every respect that I can rent for from $l8 to $20 per
side. [Dec. 6, l9l3 I
have since concluded that this rental
margin should be placed between $20 & $25 per month.]
[ Real Property
more secure than stocks or bonds I much prefer any kind of a real estate
investment in
any of the classes mentioned above to any stock or bond proposition if
for no
other reason because you have the absolute control of your investment
in your
own hands and are not subject to the mismanagement or manipulation of
those in
control. If you remember that you have
to make your money when you buy rather than when you sell you cannot go
far
wrong. Incidentally you are paid for
your time in connection with your capital with a fine speculative
opportunity
free from the risk attendant to speculation dependent on the activity
of others
for their successful conclusion.[11] With the above thoughts in mind, as soon as I
had sold
the l9th Street home I started looking for a location where I could
build such
houses as I had determined upon. Knowing
the city as I do I knew I would have to look either east or north east
and
after covering this territory thoroughly in my machine, looking up
corners and
studying plats at the court house and consulting with agents, I found
what I
wanted at the N. E. corner of East New York and Bancroft Streets in a
lot 47
feet on New York and l42 feet on Bancroft.
Side walks are all around the lot, a l5 foot ally on the
north, [29]
I propose to
build three double
houses on this lot fronting I
am very anxious to learn something about
building and what I do not know now I'll find out before I get through
with
this deal. I would like to go ahead
immediately but on account of the troubles in Europe, the tariff
situation and
financial conditions in general I have decided to wait a few weeks at
least
till I can make up my mind as to how things are going to go. If we are
going to
have a panic, even an artificial banker’s affair because underlying
conditions
do not warrant it, I would sooner know it before hand and incidentally
I can
save enough on the cost of the buildings during a money stringency to
justify
the wait. I will need a loan of $6,000
for this deal and expect to arrange it for 5 years with a first
mortgage on
these houses. He Begins
his First Apartment Project July
22, l9l3 Since
writing the above I have been building
the houses and already it becomes interesting to read my suppositions
of May
3rd as outlined above. I started
excavating the cellars May l9, l9l3 and the carpenters began work on
the north
house May 3lst while excavation & foundation work on the other two
were
still in progress. The plasterers are
now at work, and if not delayed by anything now unforeseen such as
strikes,
etc. I ought to complete them in 30 days.
I decided to start building at once upon the assurance of
a $7,000 loan
from the German Home Building & Loan Association and successful
arrangements for $6,500 with which to complete the houses from the
Continental
National Bank, prior to placing of loan.
With conditions as they are, I realize I am taking some
chance in building
on so narrow a margin, but could not bear to be inactive.
The banker and Trust companies are making no
new loans at present, though I do not expect any trouble on account of
my prior
arrangements. Instead of $2,500 each,
the houses will cost me about $3,l50 each as near as I can now figure. $800 of the difference was due to an error in
making out the lumber bill and for the rest of the difference I decided
that
since it was going to cost me more than I had first figured I had
better go the
whole hog and get it all back in increased value based on increased
rent so I
added hardwood floors, etc. toward this end.
I now have the corner house rented at $22.50 per month
& expect the
sale value to run $l3,500.[12] 30] Today
I closed a deal for the purchase of
lot 5l in Layman & Casey's Irvington Park Addition, same being
located one
square west of the Bancroft property at the N. W. corner of Riley &
New
York Streets. The consideration was
$800, which sum I obtained from Joseph G. Brannum for on or before one
year
giving deed to lot as security. The
details relative to closing this purchase will be found in the Caption
of the
deal in my Real Estate Record Book so I will not repeat them here. I expect to build two more doubles on this
lot as soon as I can get to it and this will probably depend on the
sale of the
Bancroft property. These Bancroft houses
& the ones I propose to build here are just a little bit above the
class of
doubles I described as most desirable, but I also realize that the rent
I propose
to start them at is high and I do not expect to be able to hold them at
that
figure. If I can keep them there long
enough to get my loan on an appraisement based on that rent and sell on
the
same basis I will be lucky. Sudden
Problems in Borrowing Money Aug
l, l9l3 During the last few days I have
been having a
financial storm. It started with the
refusal of the German Home Building & Loan Co to carry out their
agreement
which was that I could absolutely depend on them for a loan of $7000 or
approximately
that amount. As soon as I had the houses
completed I was to let them know and they would then make the
appraisement. Several days ago I went in
to see Mr. Fechtman, the secretary, and told him I would have the
houses [31]
all
ready in about three weeks, [and] told him I
was ready to go to Bank for enough money to clean them all up and I
wanted to
know how long to take out the loan, as I knew they would want to get
their
money out as soon as possible, and I did not want to be paying interest
in two
places on money for the same deal at one time.
He waited till I got through and said with a smile, "We
can't do
you any good on the proposition".
Naturally I was very much dumbfounded as it was the first
time in my
experience that I had had a man go flat back on his promised word. I remonstrated & he simply replied that
he did not care to argue the matter that they didn't have any money.[13] I took the matter up with Indiana National
Bank, and
to cut the matter short, they discovered that I had placed an account
with the
Continental and said that that was the place for me to go for money. It was the first time I was ever turned down
in my life when I ask for a loan. I
simply said all right and walked out. I
went over to the Continental and ask Mr. Quick, the President, if he
could let
me have $3,000 now and then in 30 days $2,000 more. He
was very pleasant and agreed readily. This
provides me for everything for 5 months
to come except the lumber bill and circumstances will have to determine
my
plans. [32] Five of the houses [at Sun.
Aug l0, l9l3 Ethel Rafert
breaks wrist starting car Ten
days ago today Ethel tried to crank
the machine while I was in the house.
For some reason it kicked and broke her right wrist
causing her intense
pain. Since it has been mending nicely,
though it is extremely hard for her to handle little Elsa.
I have been keeping Jeanne home with me
nights while Ethel stays with her mother who helps her with Elsa.[14] Oct
22, l9l3 [33] Have
had to change my financial plan
again. Next
Sunday Oct 26, I will be 30 years
old. Elsa will be one year old the l3th
of next month. The houses are all rented
& bring $l25 a month. The tenants
seem entirely satisfied. I am asking
$l2,500 for them. Trying to
Borrow Money From Wealthy Family Members [34] Nov
25, 'l3
I have been out to see
uncle
John [Manche] again in regard to getting a $3,000 loan from him and
learned
that the money he had expected in about the first of the year would not
only
fail to come in, but that in order to protect it he would have to let
the man
who owes it have more money as there seems to be no hope from that
source. At Uncle John's suggestion I took
the matter
up with my cousin Ben Faut in his capacity as vice-president of the New
Palestine bank at New Palestine, Indiana.[17] I received a very nice letter from Ben
stating money was so tight that they could not supply the needs of
their local
customers, and while the directors felt that the loan was a good one,
they also
felt that under present conditions their first duty was to their local
customers. I could not help but agree
with this. I also took the matter up
with C. O. Fenton Co. of Logansport, a private firm loaning money. I had been of service to them at one time and
I knew that they would favor me if possible.
They replied to my letter that the banks in Logansport had
stopped
loaning money for the time being and that as a result they had had
three times
as many applications as they could care for and were loaned up. I also advertised under a box number in the
Indianapolis News but received no answers except from one loan shark
who said I
could have the money for l5%. I let the
matter rest then for a couple of weeks and then hit on this idea which
I will
put into execution tomorrow. [35] Since my last writing I received a letter
from Mr.
McNutt who is buying the [36] Dec
6, l9l3 I let A Summary of
the Year’s Earnings [46] A brief summary of what I have accomplished
during the
year may be timely. My
total net earnings for the year l9l3
from all sources have amounted to $5,694.
As this is not a cash profit I am not liable on it for
income tax under
the new federal law which has just been passed.
[4/l5/54 Little did we then
realize what this Federal Income Tax which started in l9l3 would later
come to
mean. It started with l% after exemption
of $4,000 and now is 22% on the lst 2,000 after an exemption of $600
and goes
to a top of 9l% of income.] My
total living and household expense for
the year amounted to $l,63l.49 and my total automobile expense amounted
to
$272.52 or $l,904.0l in all.[18] Upon
the following page I present a
conservative invoice of any business to date of Jan l, l9l4. I am sorry I did not keep such an invoice a
year ago so that I would have it to compare with this one.
Undeveloped properties I have invoiced at
exactly what I have in them. (Jan 5,
l9l4 See Page 48) l9l3 has been my best year to date and I
expect l9l4
to be still better. I feel as if I am
just getting started. [47]
INVOICE JAN l, l9l4
Assets
Bancroft
Street Property, $l2,000 l04l
Note
- Laurence R. Alexander, $2,000 Hiatt
Note, $l25 Household
furniture, $2,000 Diamond
ring, $250 Automobile,
$500 Cash
on hand, $9l.72 Rafert
Estate Stock, $25,000 Riley
corner lot 5l, $8l0.6l Loan
value Life Insurance, $500 Interest
paid in advance, $26.75 Miscellaneous
accounts, $50.00
[Total
Assets] $56,308.l9 [2007
dollars,
$1,689,245]
Liabilities
Ind.
Trust Co.-Note due Mortgage
l04l Congress Avevnue, $l,950 Note
J. G. Brannum due July l8, l9l4, $800 N.
Continental
National Bank 3 notes due Jan 6, l9l4, $7,500 Mary
V. Stewart note due Oct l0, l9l4, $300 Frank
C. Stewart note due Feb. 23, l9l4 balance, $300 New
York Life Ins. Co. note due Dec 9, l9l4, $405 Undue
interest accumulated to Jan l, l9l4, $69 Barrett
against
[Total
Liabilities] $l9,58l.59
[2007, $587,448]
Net
worth
Net
worth
*Net
gain for year l9l3, $3,32l.75 [2007,
$99,653] [Page
48 of the original diary has been omitted-it contained the Invoice for
Jan. l,
l9l3 constructed Jan l, l9l4 from records.
Chris Miller, typist] [49]
l9l4 Jan
7, l9l4 I today completed the making of
the new loan on the [50] [ [51] .
. . my
sister owes $2,000 to the Indiana Trust Co
which she borrowed when she bought her electric machine.[21] [52] . .
. Have
been spending nearly all my time getting in bids & estimating costs
on my
four new doubles. As near as I can
figure they will cost me about $3,300 each [about $100,000 today, 2007]. I could cut it below this, but I believe that
this is just about the lowest point consistent with getting their
highest
income. Just
closed a deal with a [53] Feb
l9, 'l4 I
today took out permit for the four double
houses to be built at Riley & East New York Sts. Contracting
the I
have let the following contracts for the Riley houses: Brannum-Keene
Lumber Co - all lumber &
mill work including hardwood floor lumber, per list I hold, mill work
not
guaranteed, $4,760. A.
Luke painting complete inside and out -
2 coats outside, including bath rooms, kitchen wall, floor upstairs to
be
painted & varnished, also including labor of putting in glass, $400. Donald
Graham - Architect $l00 paid. Goldstein
Bros. Electric fixtures complete
- $l26.35 Vonnegut
Hardware Co - All hardware
complete except nails $l38, including window cord. August
Buschman & Sons - Plumbing
installed complete except tile sewer for down spouts, $l400 Frank
Rafert[22]
-
Carpenter work complete, $2040 J.
Oscar
Day - agrees to put blocks in
foundation for 2 l/2 cents each. I am to
furnish all material. Building
permit, $l2.90 paid. Irvington
Coal & Lime Co. agrees to
furnish all blocks necessary for foundation for 8 cents common & l0
cents
panel face. I paid them $200 in
accepting contract and agreed to pay $l50 additional April first, l9l4
and
balance when actual count could be obtained.
Will take about 5000 blocks. This
contract dated Feb. 20, l9l4. Long Term
Goals in His Business and Family Life [54] Feb
26, l9l4 I
have some spare time this afternoon and it
will eventually be interesting and possibly profitable if I jot down
some of
the more general plans which have been shaping themselves in my mind
for some
months past. I shall attempt to show the
larger goal toward which I am endeavoring under the continued sting of
an insatiable
ambition. This ambition is so keen that
at times it fairly hurts one. What I want is financial success based on
honest
effort and absolutely fair dealing.
Nothing short of this will satisfy me.
By financial success I do not mean the mere accumulation
of money. By it I mean the ability to
maintain a
standard of living which would recognize all the solid comforts of
life,
aesthetic & spiritual as well as physical, as necessities. "Security" expresses it. Now
I live on a fraction of my income because
I must save the balance to protect what I have already acquired and to
enable
me to increase my resources so that I can obtain other things I want. To this end to illustrate, I shave myself to
save time and the l5 cents per and I get my own breakfast, and whenever
I can,
help Ethel with the dishes to save the expense of a servant. For the same reason Ethel does all her own
work in the house. We watch every
expenditure. We maintain an inhibitive
frame of mind toward every expense of a personal nature which does not
have a
direct object. I do not mean that we are
parsimonious or that we never spend money foolishly.
But if on the other hand we see something we
particularly want as in the case of an oriental rug we bought the other
day, we
buy it, but after we have made the purchase we have an instinctive
feeling that
we ought to offset it some other way. [55]
I know we will never spend money lavishly
without
reference to value received no matter how great our income may become,
but I do
want freedom from that inhibitive instinct as regards our standard of
living
and personal comforts of all kinds.
First I want the satisfaction of knowing that if anything
happened to me
my wife and babies would be amply provided for.
Then I want the feeling of security against the ordinary
vicissitudes of
life over which we have control through money and protection as far as
we can
protect ourselves against the results of those happening, over which we
have no
controls. Then I want the feeling that I
can easily afford anything I want which is consistent with sane and
wholesome
living from a good cigar to a fireproof home.
[7/23/40 - This date is over 26 years later.
I am now 56.
I can honestly say that I have never varied from the
doctrine I set
forth in this entry of over a quarter of a century ago and I have
surely seen
and realize in great measure all that I looked forward to when I wrote
this
entry at the age of 30.] – [4/l6/54 I say this again at age 70.] The
pleasure of scheming and planning and
progressing toward these things is what makes life worthwhile. A man is a fool who will poison his
satisfaction in the final result, in the results, or as far as he may
reach by
stooping to do anything of which his innermost conscience and sense of
what is
fair and right will not approve in order to attain them.
If you cannot have these things and also the
knowledge that you can look every man and every woman square in the
eye, they
are not worth while. It is alright to be
keen and shrewd but it is never worth while to take an unfair advantage. It is awfully hard to draw the line. .
. . It is
hard to express these things. I want all
I can get fairly and honestly and for purely selfish reasons if no
other, I do
not want my satisfaction in these things spoiled by a guilty
conscience. Life
is too short. [56] All
things are relative and our ambitions
change with our tastes and any goal we obtain simply gives us a new
point of
view from which we can see other goals.
I never expect to reach a point where I can say "Now I
have
everything I want" for that would be the beginning of retrogression
&
decay. I never expect to retire from
business if I keep my health. I do want
more & more to know that I can pick and choose or go faster or
slower as I
may desire. . .
. [dots mean a brief passage
was
omitted] [57] My estimate
of the income capacity of the [Expenses:] Annual
interest on $ll,000.00 @ 6%
$660 Allowance
for vacancies per annum
$l00 Average
upkeep per annum for a 5 yr period $l50 Ins.
Fire l2,000 Cyclone l0,000 per annum $
40 Tax
estimates . . .
per annum
$200
[Total expenses]
$l,l50
Net
per annum, $l,250 [$37,500 today] On
a similar comparable estimate my
Bancroft houses are now netting me about $750 [$22,500 in 2007] per
annum. One half the gross is a pretty safe
estimate
for the net on the equity or after mortgage interest is paid.[23] [From
page 58 of the original to page 65 are a lengthy set of thoughts on
business
conditions which are omitted. The
summary of economic conditions he gives at the end on page 65 (on the
next page
of this text) is straight money and banking history and reflects his
training
in economics at Indiana University and his “hands on” business training
from
his father as well as personal experience.
Worldwide over-production and under-consumption and war
clouds in the
Balkans had shut down the world economy, leading to the labor
disturbances he
mentions as well as the need to create the Federal Reserve System. I might mention that the massacre of over 100
miners and their families occurred in [65]
The
World-wide Economic Situation A
book could be written and would be necessary to give anything like a
conception
of the reasons for this condition. Briefly,
they fall under these headings: 1st,
A tendency toward over
expansion prior to 2nd,
Waste due to war,
particularly in the Balkans 3rd,
The increasing cost of
living, in itself partly a result, and consequent social unrest
expressing
itself in strikes and labor troubles 4th,
Contraction and loss due to
over capitalization of many lines of industry in the past, and a
multitude of
evil outgrowths of this crime in the last 25 years 5th,
In the [66] I might add
considerably to this list, but
these are sufficient to convey what I mean by fundamental conditions. Naturally, my progress will depend largely on
freedom from disturbing conditions of a fundamental nature. The outlook for general business prosperity
seems good. The war clouds are either
passed or dropping to the horizon. Even
if the The The
currency question is settled in a way
remarkably satisfactory to everyone. The
rediscount privilege and reserve bank plan will go far toward giving us
a more
elastic currency and ought as a result to put a stop to such
stringencies as we
have been experiencing which are due to national conditions. The
Wilson Administration has three years
to run and as everybody seems pretty well satisfied, it will probably
continue
four years after that. The
country is bare of merchandise which
should give impetus to immediate production.
These improving conditions are reflected in the money
market which is
much easier than it was even 30 days ago. All
signs point toward a period of great
activity in the business world. For
these reasons as far as fundamental
conditions are concerned I feel that I am starting my program at a very
fortunate time. .
. .
My own health is perfect. I
never have any aches or pains. I had
typhoid fever when I was l3 and this is
the only serious illness I ever had. I
used to have colds frequently but have not been bothered except at rare
intervals in the last few years. I have
never had a contagious or transmittable disease in my life. I live simply. Our
food is substantial and very plain. We
rarely have deserts and frequently make a
meal off of mush & milk or some simple dish. I
eat more or less candy as I am very fond of
sweets but I have yet to learn that I have a stomach.
I [67] have no habits except smoking and I do
smoke a good deal and have ever since I was seventeen.
I cannot see that it has hurt me, though I
would fare badly if I attempted to run a mile.
On the other hand, I know that at any time I could start
out and walk
twenty miles in five hours without stopping.
I know that I am considerably above the average in
physique and I feel
that I have nothing to fear in the score of my health.
I have trained myself not to worry, though I
have a tendency in that direction. [68] March
2, l9l4 I hope to see my debts
contracted for business and productive purposes increase tremendously
during
the next ten years.
Consumption debts as opposed to production debts I handle
on a 30 day
basis with the people from whom I buy, as a matter of convenience but
pay all
these bills immediately when presented by mail or otherwise. I have never been asked to pay a bill in my
life after the same had once been presented. [69] However,
when money gets tight, no matter
how excellent ones personal credit may be it is sometimes impossible to
get
money for long time real estate loans.
For example I know a man in this city who is close to
being a millionaire
who found it impossible to borrow $40,000.00 at 5% on the In
regard to securing locations, I may
have some difficulty in obtaining just what I want at a price I want to
pay. As the city grows and streets and
sidewalks and other improvements are extended, new locations will
become
available from time to time. I may have
to pay something over an average of $375.00 per house but if the
location is
worth it I would be justified in doing so, within reasonable limits say
$500.00
a house. . . . [70] This program is also based upon the premise
of using
double houses exclusively. I have
already given my reasons for using this medium.
They are the best bet now I am sure, but if at any time
something else
presents that seems better I will use it and reorganize my whole
program
without hesitation. I am aiming at net
worth, not double houses. They and in
fact this whole program is simply a means to that end.
If I see a shorter road, consistent with my
ideals I will take it. [26 years later, [71] In my estimate as set out I have allowed
$2,300 a year
to cover our living expense including automobile expense.[26] .
. .
This average includes over $l,000 worth of
additions to our household furniture, and as in addition we have spent
more or
less money for pleasure and had two babies in this period, I think my
allowance
of $2,300 a year will be sufficient not only to cover this item but to
allow us
greater freedom than we have been accustomed to exercise.
I expect to spend more and more in this way
as long as I feel we are getting value received. It
pays for the same reason that it pays me
to wear a handsome diamond ring.
Everything is relative, and should be kept in proportion. [72] March
3, 'l4 I
believe the new girl will be alright. A
new broom always sweeps clean, however,
Ethel is easy to get along with and as we will do everything in reason
to give
her a pleasant home with us I hope she will prove alright and stay a
long time. In
line with this better standard of
living program we are doing much to improve the inside of our home. The home we are living in at 239 E. llth
Street
belongs to the Estate. It will be three
years the l0th of next August since we moved in. We
have gradually improved it, and while I
have always been careful not to get to much money in it, we have done
much to
make it more pleasing and livable. . . . At first we thought we would live in this
house only a short time, but Ethel & I have talked it over and
decided that
the wise course will be to stay here till we are ready to build the
kind of
place we will be satisfied with. With
our increasing prosperity our standards are rising rapidly and there is
no use
putting $5,000 or $6,000 in a home now when in six or seven years we
have a
pretty good prospect of being able to build a much better place. [73] March
l0 l9l4 I
today completed purchase of [74] Construction
on After
this I immediately began work,
starting excavating March 23rd. Then
came a week of bad weather which filled up the cellars and caused them
to cave
more or less, but finally I got under headway again and things have
been
humming ever since. Have kept from l2 to
l5 men on the job right along. Three of
the houses are completely framed. The
corner house is not yet started as the men needed the room to work in
till they
could get some stuff off the ground. I
will begin excavating it day after tomorrow.
The weather has been fine all this week and I have
completely regained
my optimistic outlook, which I am free to admit I lost for a week or so
when
everything was hung up. Household
help and family sickness This was due partly to the fact that we have
been
having our first siege of sickness.
Jeanne took the grip which culminated in an abscess in her
ear which
finally broke and is still running, though she is feeling alright again. For ten days my sleep was all broken up. Maggie, the hired girl I spoke of a while
back lasted
just two weeks which with Jeanne’s illness made it very weary for Ethel. Elsa too has been very fretful off and on
with "toofies". To cap the
climax Ethel took to her bed where she has been for a week and where
she still
is with a trained nurse in attendance at $25 a week.
I escaped with a severe tooth ache which did
not add any to my optimism. [75] On the other hand we have our old girl Jesse
back. Also I have a pretty good prospect
of selling the April
29, 'l4 In my last entry I forgot to
mention that Mary V. Stewart who is Ethel’s step-grandmother, told me
she had
more money to loan if I wanted it. April
7th I took up the $300 note and executed a new one for $420 for one
year from
date. I
today started excavating for the corner
house at Riley. The other three are
practically
ready to shingle. The weatherboarding is
on. The
Bancroft deal still looks good though
it has not progressed any further. Ethel
is up and around again and she and
the babies are all feeling much better. All
these things are extremely encouraging.
. . . [76] . .
. I am trying to get
control of
three lots at the corner of De Quincy & Ground
values are increasing so rapidly in
the [77]
Rounding
Out Purchase of Land for May
25 l9l4 I
today definitely contracted to buy the lot
at the N. W. corner of (59) De Quincy & At
the same time I also definitely
contracted to purchase the lot next (60) west of the above lot for $750
upon
practically the same arrangement. This
gives me a corner, 85 [feet] on [78] May
30 l9l4 This
is Decoration Day. My old roommate Harry
Hoffman came home from [Business
details from remainder of 78 to 83
omitted] [83] .
. . Last
night the Brannum-Keene Lumber yard
at [85] Ethel was 26 years old the l5th of this month. I gave her a $20 gold piece for a birthday
present. This morning she and her mother
and Jeanne & Elsa went up to [86] The Riley houses are coming along fine. I have an open space in the rear 76 x 86' and
the thought has occurred to me to build a small garage facing the alley
on the
rear of lot 43 which is clear of encumbrances.
According to my present idea it would have five separate
spaces for
machines so that each person could lock up his machine by separate,
independent
doors. Each space would be 8' wide by
l6' deep. I could build it for $850
complete and it ought to bring at least $l7 a month which would be
practically
net. I could thus use ground otherwise
unproductive and help the rental of the houses.
.
.
. June
28 I just
returned this afternoon from La Fontaine, I
left last Wednesday & went to the
Newton Co. Farm. It looked fine. The new tenant is O. K. His
corn is the best I have seen
anywhere. .
. . [87] July
14 .
. . The
Riley houses are coming along fine. I will
have two of them ready to rent in
about l0 days. . .
. Aug
2, 14 .
. .
We have been having extremely hot & dry
weather. The crops over the country are
good, but in Indiana they are all shot to pieces. I
just returned from another trip to Newton
County and while we had an excellent oat prospect of 60 bushels to the
acre, we
will be lucky if we get 30 bushels. The
corn will have to have rain in the next ten days or the crop will fall
far
short. It
looks as if all Europe would be plunged
into war. If the Balkan war affected us
as it did there is no telling what this would do to us.
The stock exchanges are all closed now.
This is a time to trim sails, I feel
sure. . .
. [ [88] [89] Aug
l8,'l4 Things
have been going pretty slow of
late. I have rented three sides of the
Riley houses and two of the families have moved in, but though I have
been
advertising heavily on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays I cannot get any
replies. I am not at all uneasy as this
may be due entirely to the hot weather and to the fact that it is a
little
early in the season. However, it makes
me restless. It will be 30 days at least
before the houses are all finished and I am not crowding them very fast
since
they are not renting readily. I have two
more sides ready to occupy and I don’t want to finish up and have too
many
waiting for tenants. .
. . The war situation in Sept l, 'l4
Since the last entry have been busy pushing the houses to
completion and
in another ten days or two weeks I ought to be through. Four
families have moved in the Riley houses. .
. . [91] As
near as I can figure the summer’s work will increase my net income
about $l700
a year.[29] Have just arranged to take two more parties
out to the houses in the morning and with the prospects I have on, I'll
have
them all completed and occupied in two weeks and then I'm going
squirrel
hunting and forget there ever was such a thing as a double house. . .
. [94] Sept
24 I today
completed the building of the five
double houses at . .
. [95] .
. . This
year like l9l2 has been very heavy [in terms of household expenses],
due in
part to the fact that I spent at least $250.00 in additions to our
household
furniture. Also we have been reasonably
liberal with ourselves all year. For example we have set a better table
and
have had help practically all year.
Since our old girl Jesse has been back with us the running
of the
household has been smooth as silk. She
lives with us though so inconspicuously that she is never in the way. I pay her $5.00 a week and she does the
washing & ironing. I could hardly
save much on this even if we had no girl.
She is entirely satisfied as she couldn't get a better
home and for she
and Ethel together the work is easy while it is entirely too heavy for
one
person. Also Jesse takes care of the
babies for us sometimes of an evening when we want to go out and this
is mighty
pleasant. I won’t save on this item for
Ethel’s sake. . . . [96] .
. .
Sept 26
I just rented the last of the A Trip to
the [97] Got home [98] I
will probably hear from him
tomorrow. The trip will give Ethel a
chance to see something of the southwest and we ought to have a good
time and
make a satisfactory deal. So much for that. To
go back, - A few days after I returned
from the farm a Mr. Leonard Estes of Livingston Ill. called me up and
asked if
I was the owner of a mortgage on the l00 acres in Washington county. I told him I was and that I remembered some
correspondence I had with him in regard to it about a year ago. He said he would like to see me in regard to
buying it. I asked him $800 cash for it
and finally agreed to take $760. He has
agreed to give this and we will close the matter up tomorrow. I am glad to sell it and get the money out of
it as it wasn't bringing me anything. .
. . Hard Negotiations
in Oct
2l Instead of the wire assigning the
crops I received a wire from . .
. [100] Vanderslice
promised to come East with . .
. [101] Ethel
& I had a very pleasant trip and
I am mighty glad we went. We got home
Sunday afternoon Oct l8th. The babies
stayed with their Grandpa and Grandma Stewart and we were sure tickled
to see
them again. Dr. Stewart
gets a new With
part of the money I paid back to Dr.
Stewart he traded in his old machine and bought a new l9l5 model
Overland. I am mighty glad he did for he
needed it
badly and deserves the comfort & pleasure the new modern machine
will give
him.[30] Mr.
Moorer, attorney for Miss Quick, is
out of the city so it will be the first of the week before we can close
up the
deal. I don't mind the delay for every
day I hold the property means $5 or $6.00 additional profit. The more I think of that deal the luckier I
think I am on account of the opportunity it gives me to clean up my
rather
large floating indebtedness. I think too
I have a good customer in Miss Quick and I expect this to lead to more
business
in the future. [l/l3/40
As much as I realized the importance of the
sale of the Riley Ave. houses at the time I can realize it even more
now for as
conditions developed due to our later entry into the war, if I had not
made
this sale at this time I could not have gone ahead and built both the
De Quincy
& Sherman Drive properties which became the back bone of my
dependable
income.] Reflections
on turning 31 years old Oct
26, 1914. I was 3l years old today. I was born Oct 26, l883 on a Friday at 4
o'clock a.m. I feel I have everything to
be thankful for, good health, a dear wife, the two sweetest babies in
the
world, a prospering business, good friends, established credit, a clean
heritage from my parents of a good name, a sound body and a keen mind a
purpose
in life, and a feeling of quiet contented happiness.
What more could a man ask. .
. . [102] Oct
27, 'l4 I today sold the five double
houses I built
this summer to Jeanette Quick of this city for $24,650.
.
. I
paid off the $5,000 I owed the
Brannum-Keene Lumber Company and also the $2000 I owed the Continental
National. Thus at one crack I got rid of
$22,000 indebtedness. They can't come to
me for the mortgages till both the properties and Miss Quick are
exhausted. I still have plenty of money on
hand to clear
up the De Quincy corner, etc., but have not yet shaped my plans. This is the best deal I ever made. It puts me in shape to go right ahead
building next year. I am ready now for
that matter and in stronger shape than ever. Nov
3,'l4 One thing I have been neglecting
to put down, partly in the hope that I would know the outcome of the
matter and
that is the situation as regards the sale of the mortgage I hold on the
Washington County farm. I have not only
not made the sale, but to date am out $l0l.05 and I feel pretty sure I
am
stung. Leonard Estes of Livingston, Ill.
agreed to buy the mortgage. He claims to
be the owner of the farm. While I had
never met him before I had no doubt as to his identity on account of
his
familiarity with some correspondence we had in regard to the matter
about a
year ago. . . . Devastating
Effects of World War I on Business [104] In
the middle of page 67 of this record on
Feb. 28, l9l4 in discussing the possibility of my being able to carry
out the
plans I had out lined on the proceeding pages, I said "The thing I must
fear is some unforeseen calamity such as might arise out of fundamental
conditions of business or nature, fire, flood war or social upheaval. Out of a clear sky with no warning, such a
condition is now a fact. Half the
civilized world is at war. [105] The
map of I don’t know what my next move in the
direction of
making money will be. I think the best
thing for the present is to sit tight and stay close to shore. Next Tuesday Nov. l0th if nothing unforeseen
occurs I am going to take Ethel and go down in [106] .
. . Tomorrow
morning I will take Ethel and go
down to Moods’ and shoot quail and forget this ever was a note or a
house or a
tenant or a bank or a buyer or a telephone or a newspaper or anything
else
except recreation. Nov
l7 ’14 I returned yesterday morning
from Moods’. Ethel & I had a dandy
time. The weather was perfect. Rabbits were very plentiful.
I must have killed fifty or more, giving them
to Troy Mood and Ira Parker who hunted with me, to sell.
Quail were scarce and I only got ten.
I had my eye with me and I don't believe I
wasted five shells. We also gathered
hickory nuts, persimmons, etc. and had a generally all round good time. I am back full of vim and ready to take up
business with renewed vigor. The old
Winchester shotgun I’ve got I bought when I was fifteen years old,
saving it up
in pennies and nickels which I accumulated in various ways. I wouldn't take anything for it, for I have
used it so long that it is a part of me and I can just naturally put
the shot
where I want them and never know that there is a sight on the gun. I have never hunted with anybody who could
shoot quicker than I can. There is
nothing that will absolutely make me forget everything else and
entirely free
my mind like picking up that old gun. I’ve
got Donald Graham at work on plans
for a four apartment flat building of which I propose to build four on
the De Quincy
corner next year if further investigation proves that the kind of
building I
want can be built for what I think it can.
You will remember that I passed up the flat idea for this
corner (See
Page 92) for the reason that the flats would be all tied together with
one
heating plant which would mean that they would have to be handled as
one unit
for loan or sale. My idea now is to make
them independent by placing a large furnace or small hot water plant in
each
building. This will make them
independent units. It is a whole lot
easier
to get four loans of $5,000 each than one loan of $20,000.00. I could put five buildings on the corner by
crowding but have concluded on four instead which will give plenty of
room. [107] .
. . By
giving a nice front porch these flats will
be just as desirable to live in in the summer as in the winter and by
building
only four buildings on the corner they will all have a nice front yard. When I get the rough plans I will begin
figuring costs and gradually work the thing into definite shape. Just as soon as I can get some idea of the
details of the proposition but before going very far in this direction
I will
take up the financial end of it with the bank.
I want to hit them for a $20,000.00 line of credit just to
see what they
say if nothing else. If upon further
investigation this plan proves feasible so that I am satisfied in my
own mind
as to its being practical etc I will write Mr. Quick a letter. .
. . So far as I am personally concerned
everything looks
pretty good just now except that 3ll Bancroft is vacant and 305
Bancroft went
vacant today though their rent is paid up to Dec 4th.
The house formerly occupied by the family I
had to bring suit against to get out of 306 Riley is still vacant and I
told
Miss Quick I would pay the rent till I found another tenant. I am going to get busy now and rent these or
bust. In
the Estate property I had five flats go
vacant during the past month but have them all rented again I also
filled up
the vacancies in the [108] Nov
2l After getting my regular detail work
in hand which had piled up while I was away I started figuring on my
flat
proposition in earnest. I haven't gotten
far enough yet to be sure whether it is the thing to do or not. It will depend on what the buildings
cost. If they estimate too high I won’t
build them. . . . This morning I
saw Mr. Quick at the bank and
told him what I was doing. .
. . He
said "If you decide to go ahead, I
don't think there is any doubt about your getting the money." He added, "You are careful and
conservative in your business and are making good and I do not think
the board
will hesitate any more than I would."
. . . [111] Dec
l, l9l4. I just closed the account with
the Riley Ave. houses. I find that my net
cash profit on the transaction from start to finish amounted to
$3,260.l2
which is by far the best profit I ever made on one deal.[32] . . .
I
cannot expect to escape unscathed, but when I see the number of houses
and
flats vacant that rent for $30 & up I feel that my theories are
standing
fire. In this connection it is
interesting to note that the l6 apartment Griffith building which I
have charge
of on Cornell Street renting from $l5 to $l8 is staying solidly
occupied. This building rents better in
hard times than
in good times. I am going right ahead
with my flat plans for even if conditions continue as they now are I
think
these buildings will rent readily. I
might fail to make a big profit but at least I can't loose anything and
I'll
buy material & labor at least l5% cheaper than I paid this summer. . .
. Harsh
Business Conditions due to World War I [112] Dec
6 l9l4 That we
are experiencing the hardest times
just now that this country and this city have known in years and years
is
beyond all question a fact. Even in this
county, as the result of the upheaval in Europe, thousands of people
are
practically destitute and dependent on charity.
Business is all upset and no one knows just what to do or
what to
expect. While I have made more money
this year than any year before, at the same time I feel that our
expenses
should at all times be rigidly inside our dependable income so that all
building profits and unforeseen profits go into our savings. .
. . I
think I will have the plans for my flats
completed this week. I can then figure
definitely and decide just what is best to do. [113] Dec.
l9, l9l4. Yesterday afternoon I received
the completed plans for flat buildings for the De Quincy corner from
the
Architects, Graham & Hill. Their
services cost me $l25. There are still a
good many questions remaining to be answered before I decide to go
ahead with
this deal next spring, but as the result of having the definite plans I
can now
go after exact information. Dec
23 l9l4. Since receiving the above plans
I have been figuring on them. One thing
I have concluded and that is not to build them out of stucco as I had
first
planned. They will be either frame or
brick
veneer. I want to use brick if possible
as it will prove a much more solid and standard proposition in every
way,
easier to borrow on & sell. If I can
get the buildings up inside of $7,000 each I will use brick and figure
on a $25.00
rental basis. . .
. [114] Dec.
28,'l4. The year’s business is for all
practical
purposes closed. As I have a little more
time now than I may have then I will close my books for the year, make
up my
invoice and see what I have accomplished during the last l2 months. Looking Back
at This Diary 26 Years Later [January
l6, l94l I wrote the preceding pages
almost 26 years ago. Our daughter Jeanne,
now almost 30 years old and the mother of my grandchildren Steve &
Christie, asked me about reading this diary.
This pleased me a great deal. I
have kept it up consistently throughout the years and there are now
seven
volumes like this. I get a big kick out
of going back a good many years and reading what I then wrote and again
getting
the point of view of my then age. Before
turning this first volume over to Invoice of
all assets and debts, INVOICE Congress
Av. Property, $3,800 Note
- Laurence R. Alexander, $1,925 Household
furniture, $2,000 Diamond
Ring, $275
Automobile,
$400
Cash
on hand, $721.64
Rafert
Estate Stock - Par $22,200.00, value $25,000 Loan
Value life insurance, $553
Interest
paid in advance, $19
Oscar
Day note, $50
G.
Actual
investment lots 59,60,6l, Value
unexpired fire insurance, $109
Total Assets: $5l,960.93 [2007, about $1,560,000]
Liabilities Mtg.
l04l Congress Av. due Jan 7, l9l9 $2,000 Richard
B. Griffith Mtg.
30l-3 N. Bancroft due Jan l9, l9l9
$2,300 Mary
M. Dinnin Note
to Mary V. Stewart due Apr.7, l9l5
$420 Mtg.
Lot 59 L&C Ad due June l0, l9l5
$650 John
E. Phares Mtg.
Lots 60&6l L&C Add. due June l0,l9l5
$558.64 Layman
& Carey Mtg
305-7 N. Bancroft due June l7,l9l9 $2,000 Geo.
T. Blue-Trustee Mtg.
309-ll N. Bancroft due June l7,l9l9 $2,200 Geo.
T. Blue-Trustee Note-Nathan
H. Kipp due July 22,l9l5 $l,l00 Note
New York Life Ins. Co. due l2/l9/l5
$405 Paving
Oct. 8,l9l4
with J. Quick due l/4/l5 Allowance
for carrying out other agreements $90 with Jeanette
Quick Undue
interest accumulated to date
$l8l Barrett
Congress Ave. & Roadway on Total
Liabilities: $l2,420.60 [2007, about $373,000]
Net
gain for year l9l4 over and above all living expense, automobile expense & all
depreciation
$2,8l3.73
[2007, about $84,000] See
Page ll6 for further explanation of this invoice and other notes on the
year’s
business. [116] I
sustained no actual losses during the year
except the bad checks from Leonard Estes amounting to $l0l.00 and the
rent I
paid Miss Quick for Household
furniture I have invoiced at the
same value as last year though during the year I added probably $300.00
to it
in new stuff. A sewing machine at $45.00
and an oriental rug at $65.00 were the largest items. I
also put in a new furnace in the house I live in at a cost to me of
$l30.00. . . . My
total household and living expense for
the year not including life insurance premiums was $2,389.33 or $757.84
more
than last year. Automobile expense
amounted to $235.87 or $36.65 less than last year.
This is rather surprising. Living
expense and automobile together
amounted to $2,625.20 this year as against $l904.0l for the same times
last
year. [about $78,750 in 2007 dollars] .
. .
As the result of this year’s business my
credit has more than doubled and I am in much stronger positions in
every
way. Over and above my living expense,
automobile expense, depreciation and losses I made a clear net gain of
$28l3.73. Taking the year by itself the
net cash earnings of my business amounted to $5964.09 or $497.99 a
month. [today, 2007, about $180,000 or
$15,000 per
month] 1915 [117] In
every way l9l4 has been a very
profitable and satisfactory year. It is
my best year to date. The outlook for
l9l5 is uncertain in many ways but I am going ahead just as if there
were no
clouds in the sky. Such clouds as there
are I have no control over. If I sit down
and wait a year for times to get better I know I won’t make anything,
while if
I go ahead I may not make a lot but at least it is unlikely that I will
loose
anything. When you are in the clear as I
am now it is sort of trying to jump back into the middle of the swirl,
but I
would sooner be in the middle of something anytime than sitting still. I'll get some exercise anyway.
I can not reasonably expect to build the De Quincy
corner and sell it all in l9l5 as I did the Riley corner in l9l4, but
on the other
hand I know I will not unless I build it first.
That will be the big job for this year.
(l/l6/4l - Little did I realize at the time how wise this
was.) .
. . Tues.
Jan l2,'l5. I have been a bachelor for
the last few days. Ethel went to Chicago
last Saturday to visit relatives. She
has never been in Chicago before and I know she will have a good time. She will be home about day after tomorrow. The babies are at their grandma Stewart’s. The say their mama is in
"Chuck-ca-ca-go." I
have been very busy working on estimates
and developing my ideas regarding the proposed flat buildings on the De
Quincy
corner. .
. . [118] Fri.
Jan l5,'l5. I left with the Continental
National a letter stating my flat proposition in detail and asking for
a credit
of $22,000.00. I told them they need not
be afraid of turning me down, for if in their judgment it would be
unwise to go
ahead with the proposition this year, I would be glad to abide by that
decision. I also sent a copy of this
letter to Mr. Brannum. .
. . Tues.
Jan l9 'l5. I have succeeded in renting
305 Bancroft which still leaves 309 & 3ll vacant.
Family moved in today. A
reliable estimate places the number of
vacant houses in [119] So
used have we become to reports of huge
numbers of human beings killed and injured in war and so calloused to
tales of
suffering that this disaster has caused very little comment. After all what is it in comparison with the
fact that over five millions of people are on the verge of starvation
in
Belgium. I regret that these occurrences
should happen to interfere with and possibly make impossible the
carrying out
for some time of the plans upon which I had set my heart, but on the
other hand
I am so thankful that we can live in peace and that I have enough to
keep my
family from want of any necessity that in the balance the mere earning
of a few
dollars more or less counts as nothing. .
. . Tues.
Feb. 2, 'l5. Everything has practically
been at a standstill the last two weeks and I never felt more restless
or less
certain of anything than I have lately.
Business conditions look worse now than they did 30 days
ago. Mr. Quick advises me to wait 60 days
at least
before deciding definitely whether to go ahead or not with the flats. I
have a deal on with my cousin Henry
Lantz to trade him the Griffith building for l20 acres he has adjoining
the
land of another cousin of mine, Ed Ruschaupt, to whom I expect to sell
it if I
get it.[33] My plan is to buy the Griffith building
myself & make the deal if I can see where I can make something out
of
it. Ed Ruschaupt told me a while back he
would give $ll7 an acre for Lantz's land.
Don't know if anything will come of it or not. With
the consent of Miss Quick I have
turned the agency for the houses I sold her over to Richard Griffith. [120] They
were more bother to me than they were worth with times as they are. Griffith lives in one of the houses and can
handle them to better advantage and with less effort than I could. While this change cuts off something from my
income, on the other hand it relieves my mind a whole lot. Wed
Feb. l0 'l5. I have succeeded in renting
the rest of the Bancroft houses though I had to make some concessions. #3ll which has been vacant since Oct 20, l9l4
and which had always brought me $22.50 a month prior to that time, I
let go at
$20. #309 on which I had lost rent since
Dec l5th l9l4 I rented again Feb 4th for $20, its regular rent. On the other hand #305 which had been vacant
since Dec 5th I rented Jan l9th for $l8.00 to a very nice couple whom I
knew. They agree to keep this under
their hat. As it stands the property now
brings me $l20.50 a month instead of $l25.00.
However, all things considered, I am pretty fortunate and
$l20.50 is a
whole lot better than $62.50 to which it dropped for a while when three
sides
were vacant. My
business with Mr. Brewster has
continued satisfactorily. The earned,
and un-earned, or uncollected, profit on the business to date since Jan
lst, is
$296.00 for the 40 days. [123] Fri.
Feb. l9, 'l5. The plan outlined on Page
l2l won’t work. The building inspector
won’t let me by with it. He insists that
it comes under the tenement law, which demands at least l5 feet behind
each
building with all yards separate. I
believe I could bull it through, but can’t afford to antagonize him and
besides
I have hit on the following plan which he does approve and which in
many ways
is better and just as profitable on the money invested.
I plan to use the ground as follows unless I
think of something better. [Page 123 of
the diary shows a 1/16 inch to the foot scale drawing of three
four-unit
buildings] [Note
dated ( [124]
A decided advantage is gained by the fact that the units are smaller. Thus it will be much easier to get a $5000
loan on one of these buildings than it would have been to get $8500 on
one of
the others. All
the apartments face the street. Six of
them get light from three sides and
each one has its own individual rear yard.
All this makes it a solid rental investment. When
I get through with this proposition,
after securing my loans I will have $5,000.00 of my own money invested
upon
which the net income l68l.60 for the first two years will be 33 6/l0%
net. . .
. On this second
proposition I
have left unused a piece of ground 60 x 80 facing the alley which I
could
improve with a garage or sell separately.
It ought to be worth $400 or $500. Another
advantage is that I have
eliminated all need for janitor service. [125] .
. . For
all these reasons I feel I have hit upon
a much better plan than the first one.
Time will show how near right my calculations have been
and that is the
reason I have set them out in detail. (Feb.l5, l9l5)
(July l6, l923, I have collected almost
$36,000.00 out of this property to date and it is probably worth
$45,000.00
today. It now brings $500.00 a month
rent.) Tues.
Feb. 23, l9l5. . .
. Graham
wanted $l25.00 to draw the plans
for one of my terrace buildings. I
decided I would save this and do it myself.
I am not an architect and I may be as foolish as the
lawyer who acts as
his own client. On the other hand no
architect can have the practical sense of the problem from all angles
such as I
have. By the time I have the plans
complete I will have the whole proposition threshed out from every
angle with
the result that no doubt I will save myself a good deal of money beside
the
architect fee. At any rate, what I don't
know now I’ll find out before I get through.
That is the only way to learn anything:
start something first, and by the time you have waded
through you will
learn all kinds of things that otherwise you would not have even
thought
of. I bought an outfit of architect
tools for $7.50 and while the work goes a bit slow, even if it takes me
ten
days the architect fee alone would about to $l2.50 a day.
As I do the work mostly in the evening anyway
this by itself wouldn't be bad. [126] I
saw Mr. Brannum and he offers me a
discount of 25% from list for my lumber as against ll l/2% last year. This will result in a big saving in itself. If this deal is the success I think it will
be I will
have by far the best year in l9l5 that I have had yet. When
I get through with these buildings,
and get my loans I will be in an independent position as regards
whether I sell
or keep them. I am going to add to this
independence by building them just as well as I know how.
I will have the plans completed in a few days
and feel that I have a straight road ahead for this year. Begins Tues
March l6,'l5 I secured my building
permits March l2th for the three double-doubles at De Quincy & New
York St.
so the deal is a go. I am buying much
cheaper all along the line than I did last year. I
should say an average of l5% cheaper. I
finished my blue prints several days
ago. Expect to start excavating Thursday
morning the l8th. Mon.
March 22. Started excavating first
cellar March l8th and foundation men began work this afternoon. [127] Bought
my lumber from the Capital Lumber
Co. Their bid of $l,2ll.00 per building
figured on the three just $997.00 less than Brannum figured it. I hated to break away from Brannum, but I
couldn't afford to give him that much money.
Though one of these buildings is over l/3 larger than one
of the Riley
Ave. houses, the lumber at this price is costing me less than it did
for one of
them. All material is wonderfully
cheaper. I sure ought to clean up on
this deal. I
have also broken away from Frank
Rafert. He wanted $900 each for the
carpenter work. I made a deal with a Mr.
R. L. Castle to do it for l/2 the cost of the lumber and hardware,
which will
make it run about $700. This job will be
all non-union. I am through with the
union proposition, too. Let
contract for l2 furnaces installed
complete to Rybolt Heating Co. for $900. Have
contracted with the Gibraltar
Concretile Sales Co. to put in cement tile roof for $l0.00 a square
less 3% for
cash. This roof is absolutely guaranteed
for 20 years to be of permanent color and to be proof against all
weather
conditions. The cost will aproximate
$250.00 per roof. Oscar
Day will put in all foundations and
cement work at the following prices. Lay
blocks at 2 3/4 cents including mortar, cellar floors 6 cents, walks l0
cents,
steps 40 cents, porchs l4 cents per sq. foot respectively.
Concrete work $4.50 per cu. yd. Blocks
above 5th run above grade in garage 4
cents including mortar. Bought
cement blocks, lathe, plaster etc.
from Davis Coal & Block Co. 84 concrete blocks & l0 cents for
face. This price is a cent below the
market and to get it I advanced $500.00 on contract at time we signed
up.[35] . .
. Sat.
April l0, l9l5 Haven't
made an entry for some time because I
have been so busy that I have hardly had time to eat.
Have practically all my arrangements made for
my De Quincy Street buildings and have the frame work all up on the
first
one. Hope to have it ready for
plastering in a week. Will start foundation of 2nd building Apr. l2th. On the following page is an estimate of what
it will take to put the deal through and how I will stand. [128] .
. . Fri.
Apr. 23, l9l5 Made my appointment at
Berryhill’s office and everything went smoothly. He
has the $5000.00 check which I will
receive this morning after completing some details.
This loan is dated Apr. 23, l9l5 and runs for
five years without privilege of pre-payment.
The mortgagee is Samuel Clark.[36] .
. . [130] I
feel certain my De Quincy corner will be
a winner. The double-double house is my
own idea. It is the best investment
proposition ever worked out in this town.
I think I can sell the completed corner for close to
$30,000.00 which
will show me close to $8000.00 profit on the deal.
The first building is now ready to plaster
and the second has the frame work up. I
will begin excavating for the third this week.
Good fortune seems to be coming my way and I have lots to
be thankful for. Louise
Stewart, Ethel’s cousin, married
Tracy Ellis several weeks ago and have rented one of the De Quincy
houses. [131] .
. . I
have rented two more apartments and two
garages in the lst building @$25.00 each including garage.
In one of these, the family wants to move in
May l8 and I will come pretty near having it ready. Since
my finances have gone so much better
than I had any hope for, with my loans all arranged for on the De
Quincy corner
and my bank credit practically untouched and with the possibility of
completing
the De Quincy corner by the middle of July I am beginning to figure on
the
possibility of some additional building yet this year. Ethel’s step-grandmother Mary V. Stewart died
recently
after an operation for gallstones. I
have paid off the $420.00 I owed her.
She was a splendid woman and everybody loved her.[37] . .
. Tues.
May l8, 'l5 It is two months today
since I began construction work on the De Quincy buildings. The carpenter will complete the inside finish
of the lst building this week and I hope to have the first apartment
ready to
occupy a week from today. With any luck
the entire building will be ready by June lst.
[132]
Three apartments in this building are rented.
I had them all rented but one family went back on me. The tenants in this building took two of the
garages. The second building will be
completed as far as plastering by tomorrow.
The 3rd building is up to the 2nd floor joist. The garage building will be practically
completed this week. This is a lot of
work to get done in two months. At the
same rate I ought to finish the whole proposition in another two months. My finances have certainly gone fine, I could
not have hoped for my loan arrangements to have gone any smoother. One apartment in the 2nd building is
rented. I am getting splendid work all
the way through on this job and feel entirely satisfied with it. .
. . His mother,
Christina Manche Rafert, dies Sun
June l3, 'l5 Early last winter my mother
was taken sick with a growing condition of Bright’s disease.[38] She was never confined to her bed but had to
stay in her room. My sister took
faithful care of her and for a while we had a nurse till she became
better. Dr. Boaz who attended her at
first said she could not live 30 days and under his care she seemed to
get
steadily worse till she could not eat anything and became very, very
weak. At this time about 90 days ago I
insisted
that Ethel’s father, Dr. Stewart, take charge.
Mother did not want to hurt Dr. Boaz’ feelings, but
consented. Under Dr. Stewart’s care she
seemed to mend
steadily till she was able to go up and down stairs, take rides with
Jennie in
her electric machine and once about a month ago went with me out to the
buildings and enjoyed the ride. I went
to see her twice every day as I had always done when at all possible. Mother was born in Hancock County, May 30,
l84l. The house in which she was born
stood on the north side of the Brookville road at the top of the hill
which you
come to after crossing the bridge on the other side of New Palestine
going
East. Her maiden name was Christina
Manche and her mother’s maiden name was Lang.
Her parents both came from [133] Her
improved condition continued up to
June l0th. On the morning of that day
Jeanne & Elsa were over at her house and she played with them in
the back
yard helping them make mud pies. She
also held the low branches down so they could pick cherries. The afternoon of the l0th I was very busy and
did not get home till almost 6 o'clock.
As we were going to Stewarts’ for supper, I called mother
up and told
her I would not get over till after supper.
She always expected me and I never disappointed her. In the evening while at Stewarts’, my sister
called up
and said mother was complaining of a slight pain in her face and
suggested that
I bring some medicine with me from Dr. Stewart.
I started at once getting there about 7:l5. Mother was
sitting downstairs
and said she was feeling alright. She
talked and laughed as usual. I had an
appointment at my home at 8 o'clock with Mr. Brewster so I stayed till
that
time talking to mother and took her arm while she walked upstairs. I then went to meet Brewster.
I finished with him about 9 o'clock just
after Ethel & the babies returned from a ride with father Stewart. At 9:30 while I was reading a little while
before going to bed my sister called up and said mother had undressed
and gone
to bed but was not feeling so well. She
wondered if we had better ask Dr. Stewart to come.
We did not want to startle mother as he had
not been there for two weeks. I thought
best to call him and did so and started for the house myself. Before I could get there Jennie called Ethel
and said mother was much worse. By that time I was there and realized at once
that her
condition was serious. We called Dr.
Stewart again. Mother was having more
and more difficulty in getting her breath but seemed to suffer no pain. I had my arm around her all the time and
sister was right there. Dr. Stewart had to dress first and got there at
4 minutes
of ten. Mother died at ten o'clock. The day was Thursday. She
was conscious to a few minutes before she
died. She could talk little but I knew
she realized she was dying. She said
"Good God, don't forsake me now"
"My end has come". As I
sat with my arm around her, her last words were "My sweet son". We buried her beside her dear husband whom
she loved so well at l0 o'clock Saturday morning June l2, l9l5. As I write this there have been tears in my
eyes, the first since I was a baby. We
have brought my sister home with us but
our plans for the future are not yet determined. [134] Laurence
Alexander is here and some time this
week we will open mother’s will. Fri
June l8, 'l5 Monday afternoon Mr.
Berryhill read mother’s will to us at my house.
In brief she left l/3 of her estate to me in fee-simple. The other 2/3 she left to me as trustee for
my sister Jane B. Rafert. During her
life my sister receives the income of this 2/3 and at her death it
comes to me
in fee-simple. To my niece, after
stating various reasons, she left some furniture and incidentals. My sister & I told Laurence she could
have anything she wanted in the old home.
We have decided to sell the home place.
I have given Spann & Co. an exclusive agency for 60
days. My mother owned l/3 of the stock in
the C. F.
Rafert Estate Inc., 333 shares worth
about $33,000.00 Have priced the home
property at ll3l Bradford
has been in Chicago for a week or
more trying to sell the farm. He writes
encouragingly
and I am in hopes that he will close a deal that will wind this matter
up. My
De Quincy St. buildings are coming
along fine. 4 apartments are occupied, 7
rented in all. I expect to have this
deal entirely completed by the lst of August. I
have obtained a judgment in my suit foreclosing
on the Washington County farm and have a deal on to sell same to one
Charles
Queen. . .
. [135] Fri
July 9, 'l5 I got my new machine
[car]
June 26th and we have enjoyed it immensely.
The 3rd of this month we drove down to Bloomington and
spent three days
with the Kinsers, friends of ours who live about a mile and a half
north of
Bloomington. I went on to Moods’ and
spent one night there and two days squirrel hunting.
The babies and all of us had a grand time. . .
. [136] July 18, 15 We have decided to move into
our old home
place at ll3l N. Delaware St. till we can sell it rather than let it
stand
idle. I do hope I can sell it soon. I am not at all pleased with the
prospect. The main advantage is that the
babies will have a yard to play in. I
hate to give up our sleeping porch, electric lights etc. but have it to
do.[41] My sister is with us and while we are glad to
have her, at the same time it upsets our home to a considerable extent. I have agreed to give my niece $20.00 a month
as rent for her part of the home. I am
under no obligation to do this but I didn't want to be put in the
position of
tying up her money for my apparent benefit if the place does not sell
soon, as
it probably will not. Tues
July 27, 'l5 Last Tuesday the 20th we
moved into the old home place. I am
really liking it much better than I thought I would.
The babies enjoy the big back yard. We
carried over all the small stuff and there
were three big truck loads of furniture besides. As
the home was already completely furnished
the big problem was where to put the furniture.
Though mother left my niece only a few pieces we told her
to take
anything she wanted. This she did though
she has not yet gotten her things. We
gave her mother’s diamond earrings, her diamond ring, mink furs, some
silverware, and probably 40 rugs & pieces of furniture.[42] . .
. [137] I
will soon be through with the . .
. [138]
Sun
Aug lst l9l5 I just rented the last two
of the De Quincy apartments. This deal
is sure a winner. I suspect I spent
$40.00 advertising the A Week’s
Vacation tour on the Great Lakes Mon
Aug 2, 'l5 My sister left for Mon
Aug 30 'l5[43] We returned yesterday morning about l:00
o'clock from the above trip. We
certainly had a dandy time. .
. . [139] We
spent the balance of the week up to Aug.
2l visiting friends Mr. & Mrs. Walt Turner who live in Aug
2lst we took the boat and in the course
of the week visited Mackinac [Island], the Soo, Duluth, Penetang, from
there
taking a smaller boat the “Waulic” through the 30,000 islands and
rejoined our
boat at Parry Sound from which place we started back to Mackinac and
arrived in
Chicago at 8:30 Sat morning the 28th. I
again saw Mr. Bradford and we started to drive home at noon. Harry Hoffman was with us on the boat and
drive home. We met a lot of fine people
becoming particularly acquainted with a Miss Peters of Washington D. C.
a Mr.
Tozer & family of Cincinnati (Mr. Tozer is Purchasing Agent for the
Big
Four R.R.) and a Mr. & Mrs. C. L. Stevens ll0 Clifton St.
Springfield,
Ohio, Mr. Stevens is manager of the Woolworth 5 & l0 cents store at
that
place. In all we traveled 66l miles by
machine and 2,275 miles by boat. The
whole trip cost me $ll4.72. I found
everything in good shape when I returned home and have been busy
picking up the
loose ends. I was certainly glad to see
Jeanne & Elsa. I never realized
before how much I love them. Sun
Sept l9 l9l5. My friends the Moods came
up for the State Fair on my invitation last Thursday a week the 9th. We showed them the best time we know
how. They especially enjoyed the
machine. I drove them back home the
following Sunday
and stayed till last Thursday the l6th.
Had a good time squirrel hunting.
When I see how simply and happily they live I wonder if
all this
striving is worthwhile. Their son Troy
and his wife Lulu live in a little 2 room log cabin way down in a
hollow and
back a l/4 mile from the [140] road.
They have 80 acres that fairly stands on edge. This is in another small place called “ Family
Problems with the Family Estate I
have been having lots of trouble lately
and I do not yet know the outcome of it all. Ben
Alexander, my niece’s husband, has
written several insulting letters and threatens to bring suit to break
mother’s
will. He claims that my sister & I
influenced mother in the making of her will.
As a matter of fact we never discussed the matter with her
and she never
mentioned it to us. I am going up to
their house at Roll, Indiana, next Wednesday the 22nd and see if I can
dope out
the situation. Last
Friday the l7th we took little Jeanne
to St. Vincent’s hospital and had her adenoids and tonsils removed. It was an awful ordeal but I know she will
thank us for it later. She had a
tendency toward ear trouble and caught cold easily and one of her
tonsils was
diseased. She cannot eat yet but is
feeling lots better. Our
household is upset. It seems impossible
for my wife and sister to
live under the same roof. It is against
nature for two families to live together.
The only solution I see is to sell the roof and that is
what I am trying
to do. That will give my sister enough
money so she can live independently and she will be happier that way,
though
she does not realize it now. I want to
do my duty, but it is pretty hard to know sometimes just what it is. My wife & family come first, that is sure,
but at the same time I am the only one my poor sister has to look to
and I want
to do what is right by her too. Time
will show the way. It is a pretty safe
bet that when you are uncertain what to do, don’t do anything. Stand pat and wait.[44] . .
. [141] Fri
Oct 8 'l5 Instead of going up to Roll as
I had planned my niece came down here to see her grandmother, Mrs.
Stafford,
who was in poor health. Later she had
her husband come. We talked some of
compromise, that is the Alexanders and I did.
I took the position that as it did not make any difference
to me
financially except in regard to my fee in my sister’s life estate that
I was in
position to be neutral and would try to save trouble for everybody
concerned. Laurence feels she ought to
have her 3rd of my mother’s estate but Ben pulled in his horns when I
ask him
if he really thought that my sister & I tried to influence mother. My sister feels that since she is by herself
in the world with no husband and since her mother saw fit to provide
for her as
she did that there is no good reason why she should give any of it away. Laurence & Ben went home and the
situation remains unchanged.[45] . .
. [143] One thing that worries me like everything is
our
household arrangements. My sister and
wife simply can’t get along under the same roof. They
are simply incompatible. It has me up in
the air most of the
time. What the solution is I don’t yet
see. I wish to goodness I could sell the
house. Fri
Nov l9, l9l5 Well,
I have taken a very decided step
which I hope will solve our household
troubles. My sister has taken a room in
a house on . .
. [152] Mon
Dec 27 l9l5 Well, another year has almost
rolled around and the time has come for a casting up of accounts. An invoice of my present net worth will be
found on the following page. Net
worth Jan lst l9l6
$53,342.76[46] Net
worth Jan lst l9l5
39,540.33
Net gain for the year l9l5-----
$l3,892.43 (Pages
l55 thru l60 omitted)
l9l6 [160] Wed Jan
26, 'l6 I just
received a letter from Laurence & Ben saying that it would be
alright with
them to proceed with the above matter as outlined. An
Interesting Trip to [161] About
two weeks ago I received a letter
from my old friend, Dr. Edward J. Kemper, who is a physician at the
Government
Hospital for the Insane at Washington D. C., inviting me to take a duck
hunt
with him on the Chesapeake Bay and asking Ethel to visit his wife in
Washington
till we returned. I hated to take the
time but at the same time felt that this was an unusual opportunity and
wired
him that we would come. We left the
babies at Stewarts’ and started at We spent our time on a houseboat out in the
bay. It had a fair sized living room four
state
rooms with two bunks in each, a dining room and kitchen even a little
bath
room. The crew consisted of four guides
and a cook, and he was some cook. They
had complete equipment, three launches, a big flat scow and four push
boats not
to mention a sink box, about 800 decoys, and both live geese &
ducks. We would start out with the launch
towing the
scow & boats to the various stations from which we shot. There were thousands of ducks & geese on
the bay and I got a good bunch including black ducks, red heads, blue
bills,
sheldrakes, etc. One of the boys got a
canvasback and cub-head. There were many
brant but we didn't get any though the party got l7 geese and all told
about
l00 ducks. . . . Ed & I left Saturday night and by staying
up all
night and traveling by auto & train, reached [162] I was
particularly interested in the l4"
guns. They are 60 feet long, cost
$l00,000 each, will penetrate l0 inches of the best steel plate at l2
miles,
cost $800 per shot and can only be fired l50 times before they have to
be
relined. This plant covers about 60
acres. We went up in the [The
trip cost $123.06] Preparations
to Build at [163] Tues Feb
l, 'l6 I took up the question of
duplicating the De Quincy
corner on the Sherman Drive lots with Mr. Kilkenny, the building
inspector, and
got his permission and assurance of a permit without differences. I was loaded for bear and was very agreeably
surprised after all the argument I had had last year when I was
figuring on the
Wallace corner as to whether these buildings classified as flats or not. This pleases me immensely.
On the strength of this assurance I at once
went to
Spann’s office and signed a proposition for $3,000 cash for the three
lots at
the N. W. corner of .
. . Probable
actual construction cost of 3 buildings....l9,500 Cost
of ground...................................
3,500 Cost
of improving Market &
sidewalks.....................................
500 Cost
of garage & cement court.....................
l,000
Total
24,500 Probable
rental at least $300 per mo. Probable
loan at least $l5,000, possibly l6,500 Probable
Probable
building profit $5,500 [2007, $165,000] [164] On this
estimate I am allowing $230.00 more
cost per building than the De Quincy buildings ran, and on account of
the
excellent lay of this piece of ground, etc. I can see where I can save
over
$l00.00 per building under the cost of the De Quincy proposition. I find I can actually save on my plumbing
supplies for example as well as on ice boxes and stoves.
The only thing that is likely to cost me very
much more is lumber and I hope to get around that.
I now have a set of plans with the North
American Construction Co. of Bay City, Michigan, and they are figuring
on
furnishing me lumber direct cut to size to fit, thus saving carpenter
work and
eliminating waste. Fri
Feb 4, l9l6 I
today entered into a contract through John
S. Spann & Co. in which I agree to purchase Lots l2, l3, & l4 in Hartman's Addition subject only to
the taxes for l9l6 payable in l9l7 for the sum of $3,500.00. . .
. This property is the Fri
Feb 4, l9l6 Since
writing the above I have secured my
building permits duplicating the De Quincy corner, including the
garage, so I
guess this deal is a go. . .
. The numbers on these new
buildings will be l02-4-6-8, ll0-l2-l4-l6 Grandpa
Stewart’s illness and financial condition Feb
9, 'l6 Yesterday,
Ethel's father had me come to his
office to talk over his business affairs.
He has not been well for about a year.
The trouble started in his spine and he found that he was
gradually losing
the use of his right arm. He has been
unable, for instance, to put on his overcoat unassisted for some time. He and grandma returned a few days ago from
Chicago where they went to consult specialists.
These agreed that his condition was a sort of palsy akin
to infantile
paralysis.[49] Yesterday he told me that at the most he
could not expect to continue [165]
his practice more than four years and as he has no income to speak of,
he was
very blue and worried. I tried to cheer
him up in every way I could, but the situation is really tragic. He has devoted his whole life to the service
of others going any time of day or night.
He was never a businessman and has never had the least
conception of how
to use money as a tool. We went over the
situation carefully and on a fairly liberal estimate including $2,500
life insurance
he has about $20,000 of assets [2007, around $600,000], the great bulk
of which
is unproductive. He owns an undivided
interest in the old Stewart farm in Wabash County 4 miles west of La
Fontaine
worth $3000, 40 acres in . . . Building
Supplies and Contractors for I find that furnaces have advanced in price
about 35%,
but I can get l2 more from the Rybolt Heating Co. at the old price of
$75.00
each, same as last year. The Capital
Lumber Co.'s bid is over $l,600 higher than last year but I will be
surprised
if I cannot cut this difference down 50% before I get through. I have a plastering bid of $l,l00 from Mr. J.
M. Cross whom I want to do the work.
This is $65 less than last year including the blocking off
of bath
rooms. [166] Electric
equipment has advanced 50%
amounting to about $60 on the job. This
I see no way of getting around. Plumbing
supplies I will buy from the Van Camp Hardware & Iron Co. at a
saving of
about $l20 over last year. I am using
Paragon brass goods instead of Mueller goods.
It is of equal quality but has less copper in it. Tile,
plaster, lath mortar color etc. are
about the same as last year. Cement will
cost me about 30 cents more on the barrel amounting to about $67.50
increase,
unless I buy 300 barrels, which is about 70 barrels more than I will
need. However, I think I will do this
anyway and
save $40 which would go some ways toward paying for the extra 70
barrels. It will be good property. I
have made a deal with Mr. Castle to pay
him 65 cents an hour as carpenter foreman, though he is to work right
along
when he can. Considering that I will
have the same carpenters as last year, I expect to save at least
$l50.00 on
carpenter work due to their knowledge of these buildings. I
expect to save another $75.00 on
plumbers’ labor as I will use the same man again as head plumber. I expect by using the same men all the way
through wherever possible to cut down the time the job requires at
least ten
days or two weeks. If these houses rent
as readily as De Quincy did, this would mean from $l00 to $l50 gained
in rents
besides the saving in labor time. I
can buy refrigerators @ ll.75 against
$l8 last year. This is a plenty good box
and the saving is $75. Again on stoves I
can save $2l. Glass will cost me $25
more on the job, but paints and oils will be about the same. Nails & Hardware will run about $30 more. This
ground is level with the street &
sidewalk, and while my excavating will cost me more, I expect to save
at least
$300 in grading, cinders, cement step work and on the general
efficiency of the
job as the result of having clear ground to work on not messed up with
a lot of
dirt that you have to keep to fill in with and that is the way of about
everything you have to do. My
present judgment is that when I get
through the net increase in the cost of the buildings will be about
$l,200. The ground is costing $l,l00 more. This I will equalize by an increase of $2.00
on the rent of each apartment which I think I can easily get as
conditions are
much better than last year and this location is over a mile closer in. [167] Cement
blocks will cost me the same 8
cents & l0 cents. The concrete tile
roof on the De Quincy buildings cost me $9.70 a square.
They are now quoting 8.50 a square. This
is on sheeting set l2" on
center. The tile has been entirely
satisfactory and puts up a splendid appearance, but if I use it again I
will sheet
the roof solid and lay the tile on stripe over staten felt. The felt & stripe would add 95 cents a
square and the extra sheeting about $2.00. In
place of tile I may use Neponset shingles
which would cost me about $7.50 a square put on the roof. .
.
. [168] Sat
Feb. l9, 'l6 I will leave the rest of
this sheet and enter from time to time prices at which I close on
material etc.
for the Van
Camp Hardware & Iron Co all plumbing supplies
787.80 (fixtures
except pipe for services) (rough in) Sat.
Feb. l9 Western Electric Co-All
electrical
628.49 supplies except
garage which I will not wire
this year. John
Cooper - Contract price for installing wiring etc.
75.00 Davis
Coal & Block Co Cement -
Carload on track @l.49 per bbl
From yard delivered on job l.80
Blocks - 8 cents & l0 cents
Sewer tile per list
Flu lining @ 35 cents Plastering
- J. M. Cross, including blocking bath room
l,l36.00, including lathing & all material Vonnegut
Hardware Co.-all hardware guaranteed 3 bldgs., 200.00
Brannum-Keene
Lumber Co. - common brick @8.50 per thousand
Van
Camp Hardware & Iron Co - Base 2.55 Nails Rybolt
Heating Co-l2 furnace-installed complete
900.00 2/2l Van Camp -
Stoves @l2.75 - 2% (#58 2/21 Van Camp -
Ice boxes @ll.75 - 2% (#8l0l) 2/22 Indiana
Plaster & Roofing Co.
Ml4l0-l6 rolls Myroid 3 ply with cleats
for
garage @.25 - 2% 2/25 Capital
Lumber Co. -Bought: Garage, 355.00
Lumber & mill work one
building, l,590.00
2/26 Gibralter
Concrete Tile Sales Co. three
buildings
roofs complete - open work, 790.00
3/9 A.B.
Meyer & Co - Denison Interlocking
tile, 6300 @44.l5 net per M on job
3/ll Century
Heating Co-all tin work except
garage 3l3.00 3/l5 F. W. Alday
Co 4500' Stucco board (l500 to
bldg) all for 98.00 3/l5 Columbia
School Supply Co., l2 bathroom
cabinets
@ $2.l5 3/l5 Campbell
Smith Richie Co-Lebanon-l2 special
kitchen cabinets @ $l7.50 each 3/30 Retherford
Bros -
for 3 bldgs, 270.00
3/3l John Cooper
- wiring & hanging fixtures, 40.00
. .
. [170] Sat.
Feb 26 'l6 I
effected another considerable saving
today. Last year I paid $865.00 for my
tile roofs. This year (today) I closed
the same deal for $790.00 with the Gibralter Concrete Tile Sales Co. This is $85.00 actual saving on last
year. This year I first figured on
sheeting my roofs solid instead of placing 4" of sheeting l2" on
center and my lumber price above includes 6,000 ft. of sheeting
necessary for
this work @ 25.00 per thousand. This
will be a further saving of $l50.00 on my lumber bill besides another
$60.00
that I will save in labor. All these
items count up. .
. . Construction
of [171] [172] Tues.
March 7, l9l6 I
sure
haven't got time to write any. Got
staked out yesterday and began work on garage and first excavation
today. Weather is fine. Thur.
March 9 Weather
turned cold yesterday and had to stop
work except excavating. Are going again
today. Mon.
March l3 'l6 Have
made a contract with Ray W. Bowman
renting him the l5 acres on E. l0th We
are putting on the roof of the garage and
have started work on the first foundation this morning.
Weather is elegant. . .
. [173] Sat.
April lst We
have been having some fine days and some
rainy days. The work has been delayed
some but we have worked every hour possible.
The first building is all framed, floors in, frames set
partitions in
and ready for the tile roofer to begin Monday.
This is Saturday. We got
rained
out at noon. The 2nd foundation is up to
grade except cross walls. . . . [174] Wed.
April 5, 'l6 The
new buildings are sure coming along
fine. The lathers will begin on the
first building next Friday - day after tomorrow. The
carpenters have begun work on the 2nd
building. Have been doing a little
insurance business lately, by that I mean fire insurance commissions. Made three deals in the last week netting me
$58.75. Buys 15 acre
Askren Farm at 10th & Arlington Avenue Yesterday
April 4th I completed the
purchase of l5 8/l0 acres of ground at the N. E. corner of Arlington
Av. &
East l0th Street from Samuel C. Askren who now lives at . .
. [l/20/4l
When this page was written I could of course not foresee
the limitation
of building and high prices that were to follow the war.
These conditions delayed the use of ground
and increased the value of property already built.
While I finally sold the ground at over
$l,000.00 per acre I would have been better off to have held the houses
which
are still in good shape, now 25 years later.
It does not pay to take on unproductive ground unless you
know you can
use or turn it right away.] . . .
Wed
April l2, 'l6 Started
excavating for the third building at
Sherman Drive this morning. The work is
certainly going along fine. I bought my
porch brick this morning @ l9.00 from A. B. Meyer & Co. This is $2.50 less per thousand than last
year. I now have everything bought for
the buildings except, screens, shades, & linoleum and expect to
close on
them within the next few days. . . . [178] Sunday
April 23, 'l6 The
buildings continue to progress
nicely. The plasterers will be out of
the first building by the middle of the week and they can go right
ahead with
the 2nd bldg. as it will be ready for them.
The lathers have been working in it this past week. The roof is on the 2nd building and the
carpenters have about a day’s work weatherboarding, etc. left. The 3rd foundation will be ready for the
carpenters tomorrow evening. . . .
. Sat.
May 20, 'l6 I
have certainly neglected this record of late
but have been so busy that I simply had to neglect something. Everybody seems to think I am making
wonderful progress with the buildings. I
have been driving them hard, that is sure, but have been hampered
considerably
by not being able to get enough of the right sort of men and because
some of my
regular men have had to be off more or less.
As matters stand now, the carpenters have finished with
the first
building except porch work. The inside
finish is completed. They are about l/3
through the 2nd building on the inside.
The lathers will finish in the 3rd building in a couple
more days. I will start the plasterer
right back of
them. The first family moved into #ll2
last Tuesday. The 2nd family will move
in ll6 next Tuesday and the 3rd family will move in #ll4 next Thursday. There are no front or back steps in this
building yet but we will get them in next week.
Ten out of the l2 houses are now rented.
With any luck I ought to be through with the whole job in
another seven
weeks. [179] .
. .
Had a
flare up at the job this
morning. I canned my foreman Mr. Castle
and six of my carpenters. This leaves me
four good carpenters and I will finish the job with them. The
2nd building is finished and as far as carpenters are concerned, except
some
porch work and the plasterer will be out on the first.
I expect to have the whole deal completed
before July first. [180]
If I can complete it by July first, I will
have been just l6 weeks on the job and lost one of these due to rain. Last year it took over five months to build
the De Quincy property. That means that
I am to the good an extra $300.00 rent on this property in the saving
of
building time. . . . Tenth Year [184] Sun June
ll, l9l6 Ethel
& I are going to drive down to The babies will stay with their Aunt Jennie. I love those little kids more every day, if
that is possible. To watch and train their
development is surely worthwhile. Elsa
will be four next November and Jeanne was five last month.
Their characteristics are very
different. Elsa has a sunny, cheerful
irresponsible disposition. She never
knows where her dolls are because when she is through playing with
anything she
will give it a toss and does not think of it again till she wants it
and then
she doesn't know where it is. For the
same reason she is very generous, too much so, for she is imposed upon. This does not disparage her spunk, for on
occasions she can be stubborn. Most
always she is acquiescent, cheerful and lovable. She
is a regular little flirt. Can wink one
eye in a most fetching way. Life will be
easy for her I think. That little wink and
fetching manners will
take her through and her shortcomings in the way of irresponsibility
and
possibly carelessness will be overlooked.
[185] My effort
shall be to train her in these things which she lacks.
She is a healthy little animal that is
sure. She sleeps well, eats lots and is
brim full of life and fun all day except when she gets sleepy and then
she can
be very cross indeed. She has no sense
of relative values, no trading sense.
She will want to eat all the jelly on the table and I’ll
say, "Now
Sweety, you eat all your good ‘tatoes’ first and then you can have some
more
jelly." She can't get the point,
she wants to do what she wants to do directly.
She will not do one thing for you so that you will do
something she
wants for her. My
big girl Jeanne is almost the
antithesis of her little sister. She is
careful, reliable and couldn't wink one eye to save her life. She always knows where her things are. Her things are her things and she doesn't
want anyone else to monkey with them.
She is not at all ungenerous when properly approached, but
the point is
she must be approached properly, as her first instinct is to refuse. As she gets older she will learn that the way
to get what you want is not to insist upon it too loudly. She has a
keen
trading instinct and will always do something for you on your promise
to do
something for her. She also sees to it
that you make good on your promise, whether it be a walk or an
all-day-sucker. I am afraid that Jeanne will not find life as
easy as
her little sister as she will stir antagonism by being too assertive. However, her keen sense of relative values may
save her from this. Her reliability and
sense of order will make her satisfying to live with even if she is a
bit
insistent at times. She will make a good business woman or a good
housekeeper. She may miss something of
love and sentiment of which Elsa will always have plenty, but on the
other hand
such friendships as she does form will probably be deeper as she will
wear
well. Jeanne has an iron will. You cannot force her though she is susceptible
to persuasion. Both my little girls are
pretty much this way and they come by it naturally. Some
day they may read this, 20 years from
now possibly. Jeanne will have commented
before now on the number of misspelled words she has found. "Honey, I couldn't spell straight with a
dictionary hung on my arms." 20
years from now I ought to still be in my prime at the age of 52. They will be grown young ladies, 24 and 25
years old. I hope they are both married
and have given me some grand children.
They may think their daddy didn't think much of them but
was all for his
business. If so they are wrong for they
are the whole motive for my life.
Business is incidental as a means to an end.
I love them dearly, that is sure, and I want
business success so that I can do for them the things which success
brings. I'll not spoil them either if I
can help it. [Well, Well, this is Sept
l8, l940. Over 24 years later. I will be 57 next month. Jeanne
& Elsa are both happily married. Jeanne
has a son and daughter and Elsa a
son. Steve Thomas, my oldest grand-son,
started to school this month. How time
flies. When this page was written,
Stewart, Frank & Harriet were still unborn.
Stewart will be 23 tomorrow and he and Mildred are
expecting their first
baby any day now. I am not quite so
peppy as I was 24 years ago, but am a pretty good old wagon yet.] [186] Thur June
l5, 'l6 Ethel & I made our trip to We found time to see the Kinzers and attend a
private
reception in the afternoon. At 6 o'clock
the classes had their dinner at separate tables on the campus. There were 206 members in our class when we
graduated. Including about l5 who live
in Bloomington we had 44 attend this reunion.
After the dinner we arranged our chairs in a circle on the
campus and
each told his experience for the ten years.
I was called on first but didn't say much except that I
was building
houses and had had more than my share of prosperity.
This certainly seemed true as I looked around
the circle and heard the various stories.
Most of them are school teachers or lawyers and I do not
believe that
they would average $1,200 a year in earnings.
Only one other man really seemed prosperous.
His name is Wildermuth, of Gary Ind. . . . [186] Fri June 16
I want to make another estimate of where I will be at the
end of the Advance to be
refunded by Gas Co. for main
75.00 Cement porch
work
15.00 Copings
20.00 Labor on brick
work, porches
45.00 Walks
75.00 Rear steps
30.00 Cellar steps
40.00 Coal walks [?]
12.00 Lumber
750.00 Carpenter work
150.00 Tile roofing
90.00 Plumbing
350.00 Plastering
135.50 Wiring fixtures
work
32.00 Wiring garage
20.00 Papering
175.00 Tin work
135.00 Fences
270.00 Painting
100.00 Hardware
210.00 Hardwood floors
213.00 Grading
50.00 Sodding
100.00 Walk on Garage floor
and flag in court
300.00 Curb around
property
40.00 Stoves
85.00 Fixtures
20.00 Front steps, 3rd
building, balance
30.00 Screens
25.00 Tuxedo Coal
Co., sand, etc.
40.00 Miscellaneous
50.00
Furnaces,
600.00 Estimate
of all items yet to be paid to
complete Deal,
4,542.50
Total amount paid out to date
19,445.42 $300
shades & linoleum omitted above Estimated
total cost of property when completed, $23,947.92 [188] I
have decided to build 16 garages on lots
62 & 63 in two buildings of eight each just like the ones already
built. This will keep things in better
proportion and will probably care for the demand. Sat
June l7, 'l6 I
took out permits for the double-double
dwellings and the l6 garages on Lots 62 & 63 this morning. This will make a dandy little deal I am
sure. I rented the last house on Sherman
Drive last night. This will surely be my biggest year’s business so far. Each year it gets bigger. Ethel’s
first cousin Bessie Bloomer’s Wedding Thur
June 28, 'l6
Yesterday noon I took Ethel & Grandpa
& Grandma Stewart and drove up to Wabash, Ind.
Made the run in 3 hrs & 45 minutes.
We attended Ethel's cousin Bessie Bloomer's
wedding.[53] Drove back this morning. The
babies stayed with Aunt Jennie. . .
. [191] Barbara
Voyles and a long meditation on marriage Sat.
July l5, 'l6 I
have just been glancing back through my
notes and have just finished a notation on the margin of page 6. I feel that more ought to be said of
this. I can't get over the scar left by
the strong affection I once felt for Miss Voyles. When
we were down at our class Reunion last
month I heard of her. She is living in
Duluth and has no babies. Her husband is
a salesman for a local firm and can’t be making very much.
I know Barbara loved me as dearly as I did
her and I don’t blame her for breaking off.
My mother raised the very Dickens every time I spoke of
her, though she
never even saw the girl. This was not
just. I loved my parents and did not
want to go against their wishes. They
once offered me $l0,000 if I would have nothing more to do with her. This I refused. They
would not let me receive her letters at
home so she wrote me care of General Delivery where I called for them. I told Barbara I loved her, but I couldn't
ask her to marry me till I was in shape to come for her.
I didn't have a cent except $l0.00 a
week. The motive of the whole ice plant
deal was to be near her and naturally that failed.
I was almost in despair. My
parents failed to see all this. [192] What
should have been one of the happiest times of my life was one of the
unhappiest
times. Tears never came to my eyes but
twice, when Barbara wrote me that she was engaged and when my mother
died. The girl was proud, as she had a
right to be
and she resented my parents’ attitude. I
was making $l0.00 a week and didn't look like a very good prospect,
Hornaday
asked her to marry him and she did. I
hope she loves him dearly and that he has made her a good husband and
that she
has made him a good wife. Mine was a
driving passion for this woman. I could
have fought for her, right or wrong, through thick or thin, if I had
had a
chance. She was a perfect woman
physically and we always had something to laugh & talk about. [2/l5/21 In
reading these two pages after the passing
of 5 years I am afraid they might give a wrong impression.
I want to clear this up by saying that the
"said scar" is gone for good.
No two people could be more compatible or more happily
married than
Ethel & I are. We have had five more
years of happiness & prosperity since this was written and our two
fine
boys, Stewart & Frank have come to us in this time.] [7/l2/24 Barbara
Voyles & her husband are now
living in When
my girls grow up they shall have the
men they want for their husbands. They
will not choose a weakling or a man lacking in moral character. Sweethearts, you are babies now but I am
talking to you as if you were l5 years older than you are now. These written pages will last.
Life is uncertain and I do not know what the
next l5 years will bring to me. My love
for you is different from what it is for your mother or what it was for
my
mother or Barbara Voyles, but it is limitless and fast & true. It is for you that I would sacrifice
everything if necessary. "The test
of life is Love and the test of Love is Sacrifice."
When the time comes for you to choose a mate
it will be harder for me than I can now realize, but that is just what
I want
you to do and I will not interfere. A young person’s instinct is as good or
better than an
older person’s judgment. Test your man
this
way. Are you proud of him?
Not merely proud of him in your conscious
thoughts or as you speak to others, but are you really proud of him? Do your instincts, your deep lying instincts,
approve? Is their anything about him
that you apologize to yourself about in your deepest inmost thoughts? Be careful, don’t fall in love with love, but
if he rings true, if he is sound physically and if he is honest, if he
meets
the approval of your deepest instincts, if he does these things, take
him, in
spite of Hell and High water. Don’t
expect him to be a blessed saint as regards women he may have known in
any
relation before he asked you to marry him, for if he is worth a
tinker’s damn
his passions run high. You can’t expect
a man to be brim full of energy and be otherwise. If
I am alive, I'll make him show me a clean
bill of health. After you are married,
it will be your business to keep him satisfied.
It isn’t necessary to feed bait to a fish after he is
caught, but a
husband is not a fish. If he loves you
he will crave your body and absorb your mind and you must give both
freely. [193] Now
honeys, get this straight. The things I
have written do not mean that I
do not love your mother dearly, for I do.
She has been a good wife and a good mother.
How close our relations are is proved by the
fact that I do not have a single guilty thought in writing about
Barbara Voyles
as I have, nor would I feel the least hesitation in letting your mother
read
anything I have written. She would
understand. When I go home this evening
I will take her in my arms and kiss her and I will not be thinking of
anyone
else when I do it. I have been square
with her always and she has been square with me. There
is never a doubt in my mind as to where
I will find her on any proposition and she knows that she can always
rely on
me. We have been very happy together
both working for our babies. They are
everything. Other things matter
little. Barbara Voyles and I had our
love affair three years before I even knew your mother and the fact
that it has
left a deep scar on my mind does not for a minute mean that I would be
otherwise than absolutely true to all the relation and duties I assumed
when your
mother & I were married. [9/4/l6 Your mother’s love and mine for each other
has been one of quiet contentment and happiness. This
is what constitutes a real
marriage. I could never have had that
kind of a life with Barbara Voyles, I know.
My idea in writing all this was partly to keep me from
being a fool when
you choose your own husbands. I’ll let
you do that.] . . . Sat.
July 29 'l6 There is still a little odd
& end work in the way of painting up, foundations, painting garage,
etc. to
do at Sherman Drive, but as far as earnings go, the property has been
completed
since about July 7th. Just four months
from the day I started excavating. A
young married couple, Watsons, at ll0 Next
Thursday Ethel & I are going to
start on another honeymoon trip. We will
drive to Chicago and visit the Turners in Evanston where we were last
summer. We will probably spend close to
a week there and will then take the boat and go up to the L’Horeaux
Islands and
spend a week or so there. The babies
will stay with their grandma & grandpa & Aunt Jennie. I feel guilty to leave them behind, but know
that our trip would be no fun for them and their mama needs a vacation. I'll sure be glad when they are big enough to
go with us. It
has been awfully hot for two
weeks. The temperature has been over l00
degrees almost every day. However, every
evening we take a long ride in the country and cool off.
Last night Elsa stretched out in the bottom
of the machine and slept for an hour and a half while we were riding. Our
wisdom in moving from the big house to
De Quincy St. has been proved. My sister
now seems pretty well acclimated to living by herself or rather away
from our
house. She comes out to see us
frequently to take a meal or spend an afternoon and she and Ethel get
along
fine. It is certainly a source of
satisfaction to me. [195] Monday
Aug 7, l6 Ethel & I drove up to Sat.
Aug l2, 'l6 Well the old home is
sold. I signed a contract of sale this
morning for $l5,500. This is the best I
could do. I feel satisfied that I did
the best I could, and yet I feel sort of blue as if all old ties had
been
cut. I was born there and that old home
was home till I was grown. No word in
the English language means more than that simple word “home.” However, I am glad the deal is made. It relieves us of a considerable burden and
expense and we were getting no good out of it whatever.
It had served its purpose well. It
stood four-square to all the conditions of
time and weather for 4l years. It was
substantial and rugged and honest like the man who built it. My father was just four years older than I am
now when he built this house. It was my
mother’s wish that she could live there as long as she lived. Through my efforts this wish was
granted. I am certainly glad that this
could be.[54] Discovering
the New Bethel Home (residence 1916 to 1923) [196] Sat.
Aug l9, 'l6 We expected to close the deal
selling the
Delaware St. house yesterday, but some unexpected details arose and it
will
probably be next Tuesday before we finish it.
Well it is sure funny how quick things will develop
sometimes. I made a deal or rather entered
into a
contract this morning which will mean a big change to us and certainly
kills
several birds with one stone. I was
glancing through the paper last Thursday evening and I saw advertised a
country
home. The proposition looked good on
paper and I investigated with the result that I contracted to buy it
this
morning. We will fix it up and make it
our home and the babies will sure have some place to grow up in. It
is located down the Michigan road about
a quarter mile southwest of New Bethel.
There are four acres in the tract.
It has some magnificent forest trees a good deal of
shrubbery, etc.,
some of which could not be produced in a lifetime.
It fronts the road 432 feet and runs back
square about the same distance. A hedge
is clear across the front. A driveway
winds back to the home which is about 200 feet back from the road. The home has a big porch clear across the
front and about half way back on each side.
You enter a very large living room, back of which is a
large dining room
with built in buffet and off of which is a breakfast room.
The kitchen is also large. Upstairs
are four bedrooms, a sleeping porch,
and a tile bath room. The house is of frame, cypress siding of
heavy boards
stripped and stained. It has a Peck
Williamson underfeed furnace, electric lights from the traction
[interurban
line] and a gas engine water system from a deep 200' well and gravity
soft
water system. City phones are available.
The only thing we give up is gas and this place has an
acetylaic plant
if we decide to use it. It is about a
l/4 mile from the traction line with a 20 cent fare to the city. By next year I will have concrete road all
the way into town, which is 9 miles, or about a 25 minute drive.[55] Also it is within a half mile of a
commissioned high school and grade school.
It looked good to me from every angle.
The owner, Robert B. Allison, asked $l0,000 for it. The property had $3,000.00 against it. I have been wanting to get rid of the Tues
Aug 22, 'l6 I
closed up the deal selling the . .
. [199] Sat
Sept 2, 'l6 I
closed the deal with Robert B. Allison
purchasing the 4 acre tract and house & improvement in Franklin
Township of
Marion County this afternoon. The deal
was closed in accordance with our contract of Aug l9, l9l6. I also deeded the property at l04l . .
. [203] [He
traveled to Renovations
to the New Bethel Home As
soon as I got home I started work on
our new home and this is progressing very nicely. It
will probably be at least a month or 6
weeks before we get moved in. Sat
Oct 7, 'l6 Have
been crowding the work on our new
home. Am sure going through it with a
fine tooth comb and am putting everything in absolutely first class
shape. Have added on a breakfast room,
sleeping
porch & laundry room. Will put on a
tile roof and am redecorating outside and inside. Am
changing the plumbing all around putting
in a double electric motor system and new fixtures including shower
bath. Am also rewiring the home complete
with every
wire in iron conduit and am putting in all new electric fixtures. This will sure be some place when I get done
with it. This work will cost at least
$3,000.00 as I am not sparing any expense to make it right. .
. . [204] Sat
Oct l4
I today paid off a $4000.00
note
due at the Continental National and executed a new note for $6,000.00. .
. .
My gross dependable income now amounts to
$9,666.00[58]
per year in addition to which I have my building profits and such
incidental
profits as I make from time to time. .
. .
[205] Sometimes
when I don't get quite enough
sleep or something of that sort I feel a little worried when I think
how much money
I owe, and sitting down and figuring up and writing out things like I
have just
done is a wonderful help. My credit is
certainly gilt edge and I see no reason why I cannot keep it that way. The more healthy loans I have, the more I can
make. I am developing a structure which
will either make or break me. However I
am taking no serious risk, as I am all the time developing real values
which
are worth more than they cost me. My
next invoice will show my gross worth, conservatively estimated to be
over
twice my indebtedness and by keeping down my floating [loans] at the
bank and
using the bank only for short loans I am not likely to get caught in a
"Pinch". .
. .
As my business continues to get more and
more complicated it takes more & more watching but I have built it
from the
ground up and I have every detail at my finger tips all the time. I hope to see it grow to where I cannot
handle it personally but will have to work through an organization. This is entirely possible though I am a long
ways from that point yet. [206] Fri
Oct 20 'l6 I
have
a little time and I want to say a word about general conditions. The country is choked up with
prosperity. Every body is busy. Our exports are greater than ever before and
we are piling up an enormous trade balance.
Foreign exchange is cheap. All
the gold in the world seems to be headed toward this country. Result, cheap money and the highest prices
this country has ever seen since the civil war.
The war abroad continues to rage with no prospect of
stopping. The chances are it will last for
two years
yet.[59] Commodities are getting scarce in many
lines. Some things are off the market
and have been for some time. The
following is a brief list of building material prices for last spring
& now. Last
Spring
Now 6
l/2 cents per lb. white
lead l0
l/2 cents per lb. l.49
per bbl.
cement
2.00 per bbl. 44.l5
per M.
interlocking
tile advance 40% - lumber
advance 25% -
glass
advance l00% 8
& l0 cents
cement
block l0 and
l2 cents -
hardware
advance from 25-l00% last
year 9 l/2 gasoline
l8 l/2 cents per gal -
electric supplies advance
from 30-l00% The
above is enough to give an idea of how
things are going. Foodstuffs are scarce,
as we have had a poor crop and are trying to feed about half the
civilized
world besides ourself. Bread is 6 cents
[8/l2/l7 - Now l0 cents] a loaf and a smaller loaf at that. Butter is 43 cents a lb. Eggs
40 cents a dozen. Our largest packing
plant is repricing
further orders for canned goods including beans, pears, corn &
tomatoes. Just where this situation will
lead is the question. The only thing
that is plentiful is money. The banks
are all full. A dollar as compared with
last year is not worth over 75 cents in what it will buy.[60] I
think it is a good time to lay low. What
comes up will come down. It is a time to
sell & not to buy. If conditions do
not change I will not build
any next year. Neither do I want to sell
either the Sherman Drive or De Quincy St. properties, as I could not
begin to
replace them for what they cost me. I
would like to discuss this matter more but will have to wait till a
later time. . .
. [207] Fri
Nov 3 'l6 I
had a birthday last Thursday the 26th of
Oct. I was 33 years old.
By George! That begins to sound sort of old
but as far as feelings go I feel younger now than I did when I was 23. I had a lot to worry about when I was 23 that
I don’t have now. I have settled a lot
of things in the last ten years that were burning, open problems. I didn’t have a cent then, wasn't married, no
established way of making any money and taking care of a family looked
like a
trip to the moon. I remember that at
that time I used to comfort myself when I was walking down the street
by
looking at the houses on each side set close together.
I'd say to myself, somebody is certainly
getting by with this proposition of getting married and supporting a
family or
they wouldn't need all these houses and I will certainly get the hang
of the proposition
before long. Three years later I got
married and have been giving my family about everything they could want
ever
since. My business is pretty well
established and I have a reasonably fair chance of becoming fairly well
to do. Other things being equal the next
ten years
ought to show a much bigger advance than the last l0 and I am well
satisfied
with the last l0. [208] We
are still working on the home. Have just
decided to put in hardwood floors
all over it and that will take two weeks.
We think more of it all the time, but the test will come
after we have
lived there for a while. I killed two
rabbits in the back yard this morning. . . . Am
planning to spend a few days shooting
with my old friend John Marxson next week.
He lives about three miles west of Sun
Nov l9 'l6 I
returned yesterday [211] Fri
Dec l l9l6 Yesterday
was Thanksgiving Day. The Stewarts &
my family went to Greencastle on the traction & spent the day with
the
Greggs. We had a very pleasant
time. This was the babies’ first ride on
an interurban car. They have been on the
"choo-choo" but never on an interurban as we usually drive short
distances. This
morning about 3:30 Jeanne woke us up
with croup. She was barking in a
frightful manner. We gave her some
medicine however and her mama got in bed with her and warmed up good
and after
a bit she went to sleep again. Friday
Dec 8, 'l6 With
a little luck it looks as if we might get
moved into our new home during the next ten days. The
electric motor we have been waiting for
has come. The stove is the only thing
left to come. It was shipped from They Move
into the New [212] Sat.
Dec l6 [1916] We
started moving into our new home today and hope inside of the next week
to get
settled. It certainly looks fine. Our stove has not come yet, but we got a coal
cook stove from the Stewarts. They
bought this the year Ethel was born [1888].
I brought the babies into Aunt Jennie’s this evening and
will leave them
there till Tuesday. By that time we
ought to have the worst of it over with.
From now on those kids will certainly have plenty of room. . . . [213] I
have decided to move my desk from llth
& Thurs
Dec 2l We
finished our moving last Monday and are
pretty well settled down by now. It
certainly is fine. Had about l0" of
snow yesterday so we got in just in time.
Stewarts spent last night with us. Tues.
Dec 26 Yesterday
was Christmas and it was certainly
the finest Christmas we ever experienced.
The little fellows are just big enough now to enjoy it
thoroughly. We had a big Christmas tree
and Grandpa &
Grandma Stewart and my Sister were with us.
Not the least of my pleasure rested on the fact that my
sister seems to
be entirely herself again. She is
spending the week with us and fits in fine.
She and Ethel seem to enjoy each other and understand each
other. In this respect things are quite
different
from a year ago. On top of all this we
are in our new home which is the attainment of an ambition we have been
driving
at for some time. It came a good deal
quicker than we would have thought possible even a year or two ago. All in all we had a most happy time
indeed. Ethel’s sister Jeanne is in . . . [214] I
have also begun work on my annual
invoice. Getting the figures together in
exact shape is quite a job. The
following is an invoice of what I consider the actual conservative
value of the
property belonging to the C. F. Rafert Estate, Inc.
I want to give this so as to show how I
arrive at the value of my stock in the Corporation. Wed.
Dec 27, 'l6 Assets of C. F. Rafert
Estate - Inc. Value
of entire corner at llth &
Alabama St. 37,500.00
"
" "
Pratt & Arch St. Property
l7,500.00
"
" Due
from me (loan)
l,000.00 Cash
on hand
482.00 Value
in Newton Co. farm mortgage
l6,000.00
Present net worth-------- 80,482.00
Liabilities None [l/l6/4l
- The llth St corner later sold for $30,000.00 as I recall. I have never been able to move the Pratt St
ground. It is today worth not over
$4,000.00, the houses having been torn down because they could no
longer be
rented.][64] As
the year is practically closed I will
start at once to getting this invoice together on the following page
where I
will have more room. [There
follows on page 216 and 219 a complete listing of assets, showing a
total of
$117,071.55 and liabilities showing $59,809.45, the difference being
$57,262.10
(He cut out pages 217-218 in the orginal ledger)] Net
Worth Jan lst l9l7
57,262.l0 Net
Worth Jan lst l9l6
53,342.76 Net
gain for year of l9l6
3,9l9.34 . . . See
next page for net earnings, etc. of the year 1916 taken by itself. .
. . [220] [There
follows a listing of income and
expenses showing net earnings for 1916 of $9,698.39.
This is the 2006 equivalent of about $243,000] In
the little day book which I always carry
in my pocket the total of my net earnings for the year 1916 figured
from day to
day and totaled monthly is $9,670.01 as against the above figure of
$9,698.39. Thus the day to day totals
and the yearly estimate figured separately and independently and by
entirely
different methods agree very substantially. l9l7 [225] Sunday
Jan l4, 'l7 We
have been enjoying a quiet day at home.
In fact we don’t go anywhere unless we have to. I cannot begin to express how thoroughly we
are enjoying our new home. We have had a
good deal of company and we have certainly enjoyed it, as we had to
forego
entertaining in our small quarters at De Quincy St. except an
occasional couple
for a meal. [226] We
will have been here four weeks tomorrow
and are pretty well settled and feel thoroughly at home.
I have my desk and all my office papers &
books here. It makes my work ever so
much easier to have it here with me as I can work at it at odd times
which
would be wasted as far as that kind of work goes if I had to go down
town to do
it. The
babies have just been in to kiss me
good night. In fact they usually come
several times before they finally get to bed.
Jeanne cut her first second tooth today and has been
trying to get the
baby "toofie" out all day. It
is loose but stubborn. I offered her a
penny for it if she got it out tomorrow, but she held out for a nickel
and I
had to "come to it". I
had to stop long enough to hear their
little prayers and tell them a good night story. (Jeanne
is calling for a mirror to see how
loose her tooth is). They sleep together
now, quite a liberal education in a way itself.
They learn to stay on their own side of the fence and not
kick too
much. We have been having rather cold
weather the last few days and have about 4" of snow on the ground. They were out kicking around in it this
morning. I took several pictures of them.
I have been so thoroughly enjoying myself since we moved
out here that I
have found it hard to get my mind down to business.
I suspect that is a good thing, too, in a
way. Yesterday morning, for example, I
was intending to go to town and one of the neighbors came in and wanted
to know
if I would join in a pigeon shoot. Said
they wanted to kill them off for fear of their spreading hog cholera. I had the most fun I have had in a long
time. It was as good as a duck
hunt. The weather was murky and snowing
and the birds wild. There were three of
us and we fixed ourselves blinds around the barn lot.
The pigeons would fly over & circle just
like ducks, sometimes one or two, and again in a bunch of ten or twelve. We killed ten of which I got seven. One of the other fellows got one and the
other two. These are, of course,
domestic pigeons but they forage from one farm to another and have been
shot at
till they are very wary. Mon.
Jan l5,'l7 Jeanne
got her tooth out today and collected
her nickel. I have tied the tooth up in
a piece of paper and will put it in the envelope in the front of this
book. .
. . [227] Sunday
Jan 22, 'l7 Ethel
& the babies were over to Greencastle yesterday where they "helped
Aunt ‘Nomi’ get married'. Aunt Nomi is
Naomi Gregg who married Mr. John Emmison of New York.
She is an old friend of Ethel’s. Elsa
carried the ring and Jeanne was a ribbon
bearer. They say the babies attracted
more attention than the bride and Naomi is a mighty-attractive girl. I would have liked to have gone, but had to
stay home on account of the furnace as
the weather has been pretty cold. . . . More
and more it looks to me as if I
cannot do any building this spring.
Prices are simply too high, and things will have to change. Mon.
Feb 5,'l7 Well
it is sometime since I made an entry and
not much of anything has happened in the mean time. We have certainly
had some
severe changes in the temperature which in the last week has varied
from 65
degrees above zero to 8 degrees below.
However, our home has been very comfortable.
It is 2 degrees below this morning. . . .
War in [228] It
looks as if our foreign situation would
become more complicated than ever with the possibility of war for this
country
with Germany nearer than ever.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries were broken
off last Friday
by President Wilson. I
have practically decided not to do any
building this year. As things stand now
prices are simply too high. I hope that
by fall there may be a change. . . . We are liking the place more and more. It is so fine for the children.
I feel that I am giving them the very best
there is. Feeling
that we were settled in our home,
Ethel & I made preparations for another heir. We
expect this person to arrive about the lst
of next October. We are both mighty
tickled as our two girls have a fine start and if we are going to have
any more
children we ought to have them now so that we can enjoy them and they
can know
us as comparatively young people when they are grown.
My mother was 43 and my father 45 when I was
born so that they were getting along in years when I reached maturity. .
. . [229] Tues
Mar. l3, 'l7 There
certainly seems to have been very little to write about so far this
year. I have been simply looking after
routine
matters and staying at home when I did not have to go into the city. Conditions are very unsettled.
It looks as if we were on the verge of war
with Germany. Diplomatic relations have
been broken off, Germany has declared for unrestricted submarine
warfare and
the U. S. has replied by arming all vessels. Things look bad. Food
and commodity prices are at levels
never known before and a great deal of suffering is resulting. On account of supplies I bought ahead in
considerable quantities and because of our living in the country where
we can
buy a good many things direct from the producer we are not feeling this
much. However,
it has put me out of business so
far as doing any building is concerned.
I am simply following a policy of lying low and seeing
what will happen. To
change the subject, for some time I have
intended to note cute things the kids say.
The other morning at the breakfast table the following
took place: Occasion
- Elsa spills a glass of milk all over herself and surrounding area. Her mama (very much provoked)
Elsa! I do wish you would be careful when
handling liquids. Jeanne
- Mama - What's a liquid? Mama - something that runs. Daddy to Jeanne - You run so you must be a
liquid. Jeanne - (Rather reproachfully)
I run alright but I don’t drip. [230] I
thought that was a pretty good one. My big
girl is not usually given to repartee. Just
this evening I overheard a conversation
between Jeanne & Elsa. They were
discussing Jeanne’s dolly. Jeanne
advanced the sad information that the dolly had been drowned. Elsa – She must have been trying to play like
a boat. .
. . The Sat.
April 7, 'l7 Yesterday
the United States Congress declared
war on the German Government. Every
great nation of the world is now at war.
No one knows where this will all end.
My own guess is that that it will not end till there is an
internal
revolution in Germany overthrowing the Emperor.
Congress began by appropriating $3,400,000,000, which as
war goes now is
only a drop in the bucket. This sum
would have put a checker board of concrete roads all over the United
States.[65] I
have neglected this diary of late but as
it is a business diary and as I have been doing nothing except routine
business
there has been nothing much to write. I
have been fairly busy, however, and have spent all my spare time at
home
working on the place. We are all in love
with it. . . . The New
House Catches Fire [231]
Last Wednesday afternoon the l8th I took
. .
. Ethel
and the babies and we all went in the machine down to Buck creek on the
chance
of catching some fish. We returned a
little after six. . .
. .
[We] were out in the yard setting out some
elderberry bushes we had dug up in the woods.
All of a sudden I heard a neighbor scream "Look at your
house!" I looked up and the smoke was
simply rolling
out of the attic. I ran as fast as I
could, grabbed a Pyrene fire extinguisher and started for the attic. I could only get up the attic stairs part way
and from what I saw wouldn't have given l0 cents for our chances to
save the
house. Worse yet, when I tried to pump
the extinguisher I found it was gummed up and wouldn't work. I started down stairs with it and by that
time the neighbors began to arrive. In
less than ten minutes there were at least fifty men on the scene with
buckets. We had plenty of water but
couldn't get to the fire with the water on account of the gas and smoke. (We had a bucket brigade too.) By
that time I had gotten a hat pin and
opened up the fire extinguisher and passed it up to the man farthest up
the
stairs. It did the work and put out the
fire. I can’t express the gratitude I
feel toward the neighbors for their timely assistance or how thankful I
am that
we were able to save the house. We got
the fire before it burned badly. The
insurance companies allowed me $309.00
on the building and $255.75 on the household stuff in the attic.[66] As the rafters were not weakened I will not
have to remove the roof . . . If it had not been for my tile roof, the
fire
extinguisher, and an extension ladder that I had on the place the house
would
have gone sure. In gratitude to the
neighbors I am buying some more extinguishers which I will present to
the
community to be placed in a public place ready for the next fire that
happens. [232] .
. . My
chickens are sure doing fine. I have 48
hens and 4 roosters. Am getting 30 eggs a
day, have l90 eggs in my
incubator and have 6 hens setting on l5 eggs each.
The first will come off the 27th of this
month. I wouldn't go back to town to
live for anything. Walt Turner & his wife and baby will
spend this
night with us. They are the folks we
visit in Evanston. Am sorry they
couldn't stay longer, but Walt is on a business trip and cannot stay.[67] [233] May
7, 'l7
We have about l50 little
chickens
now. Two hens and the incubator have
hatched. One hen had ten chicks and the
other l2 and the incubator did the rest.
Another hen will come off today. Wartime inflation
becomes a serious problem The
war situation looks serious and prices
are soaring. [234] About
three weeks ago I bought one barrel
of flour for ten dollars and two more for $ll.20 each.
Flour is now worth $l6 & $l7 a barrel.
Potatoes are worth $8.00 for a bag of 2 l/2
bushels. Sugar is worth $20 per barrel
of 200 pounds. Hogs are selling for over
$l6 per hundred on foot and lard is worth 30 cents per lb.
Canned goods and everything else is in
proportion. Fortunately I have a big
supply of canned goods still on hand. I
also have several hundred pounds of rice and other staples. Corn is worth $l.65 per bushel & wheat
over $3.00.[68] The
coal situation is serious. I bought
Pocahontas coal last year for $3.90
per ton delivered in the bin. The other
day I was tickled to buy a [rail] car @ $6.90 per ton on track and
arrange to
haul it myself. I am only hoping that
nothing will happen to it on the way. It
is now worth $8.50 per ton. The
coal situation will be serious with
the flats at llth St., I am afraid, as it is impossible to get a
contract
now. I am going to gamble on the
situation and wait 30 days before buying for the flats.
Some of this is manipulation and [rail] car
shortage. We
are expecting a universal service
conscription bill to pass congress daily.
I will not have to go on the first call I know as I am
married with
dependents and almost 34 years old.
However, I expect to do my part in full when the right
time comes. Now is too early to tell what
that part will
be. [235] Monday
May 28,'l7 I just closed my books
for the month of May
and have been casting up my accounts for the first five months of the
year as
compared with the first five months of last year. Figuring
to date of June first, I find that
last year my living expense was $l0ll.48 as against $84l.54 this year,
or a
saving in favor of this year of $l69.94. [236] .
. . This
is very pleasing as we are living on a
much bigger scale and so much better that there is no comparison
possible. Here we employ two servants all
the time, but
the difference between servants in the country and in the city is that
the
labor of the servant in the country is largely productive so that
really they
cost nothing if their time is properly used.
For example, with any luck at all, we will produce enough
foodstuff on
the place to go a long way toward wiping out the grocery bill. Just now with a condition of unparalleled
food
shortage and high prices this is particularly important.
Potatoes for example cost $l.00 a peck just
now. Our crop should amount to 50 or 60
bushels, enough for our own needs and some to sell.
Cabbage for example is worth l2 cents a
pound. We expect to produce enough to
run us all through next winter in the form of Kraut, etc.
Dry beans are worth l5 cents a pound,
tomatoes 30 cents a can, eggs just now 40 cents a dozen. Pear &
corn 25
cents a can. We should have enough of
all these things from our own place not to mention many others besides
fruit,
etc. Flour is now worth $20.00 a barrel,
but our living expense for this year includes flour bought at $l0.00 a
barrel
to last us the rest of the year, besides many other items.
Taking it all together, living in our fine
new home under ideal conditions will not cost us any more than living
at De Quincy
St. did, and as we get better organized and the place becomes more
productive,
it will cost actually much less. The
experiment of moving to the country is a success.[69]
So
far this year the auto has cost me $l65.40
as against $l04.67 for the same period last year. The
increase of $60.73 is due largely to the
increase in the cost of gasoline, which is now worth 23 cents a gallon
wholesale.[70] .
. . Building
anything is out of the question
this year and may be for several years to come.
It all depends on the length of the great war. This no one can tell. I
shall figure out some other way of making
some money when the situation clears a bit and mean time am very
thankful that
everything is as satisfactory as it is.
All in all I am in very snug shape, but it is impossible
to tell what is
ahead of us just now. [237] Fri
June l, 'l7 I
entered into a contract yesterday with Sam Askren in which I agreed to
trade him
my l00 acres in Washington County for three acres adjoining my
Arlington Avenue
ground on the east. I think this is a
pretty good trade. The l00
acres for 3 looked so good to Askren
that he did not even go to look at the l00 acres. I
told his agent Lee Dove all I knew about
it. .
. . The
other day I notified the tenants at De
Quincy St. of a raise of $l.00 per month per house effective July first. They all paid their rent as usual this
morning and all seemed to be satisfied just the same.
This increase will add $l,200.00 to the value
of the property whenever I go to sell it. Tues
June l9, 'l7 Tuesday, June 5th,
two weeks ago today, was registration day for all men between the ages
of 2l
& 3l both inclusive under the conscription act for the army as
recently
passed by Congress. If the war lasts
much longer, I fully expect that the age limit will be increased from
l8 to 40
which will include me. Naturally, I have
no desire to shoot anybody or get shot, but when the time comes as I
hope it
will not, I will be ready to go. I think
I have my fair share of patriotism, but so far I have been unable to
get
"all worked up" over our entry into the war and as I have met and
talked to people here and there, I find that their attitude is serious. They regret the necessity, but are ready to
do whatever there is to do. There is a
good deal of fireworks in the newspapers but very little among the
people. [2/l/4l - Now almost 24 years
later it is the
same thing over again though we are not yet actually in this 2nd world
war. A new generation has come and must
learn all over again itself.] [238] Our
help is doing fine, but I am afraid we
will have to lose them. They are expecting
a baby in January it develops, and it is doubtful if Mrs. Whittaker
could
handle the housework. Everything
is going fine. Our gardens are fine and
the place is
beautiful now. Yesterday I had to appear
in police court and got fined $l5.00 for parking my machine in the
wrong
place. I failed to see the marker on the
curb.[71] Thurs
6/28/l7 .
.
. . . . As
far as I can see, it will be impossible to do any building for some
time to
come on a profitable basis, and having all my detail and routine work
closely
organized as I have, I am able to keep completely busy hardly half the
time. [239] For
the rest, I have been having a whale of a
good time developing our home place and enjoying it.
For example, for supper this evening we had
peas, new potatoes, strawberries, lettuce, radish, green onions &
turnips
on the table, all produced on the place.
The bread was home baked. That
left only the meat, butter, etc. bought outside. I
expect to produce these a little
later. (We have over 250 spring chickens
and some ducks coming on and later we will keep a cow and produce our
own
pork.) This is fine as far as it goes,
but I want greater activity. Also, I
realize that while to a considerable extent there is strength in
playing lone
hand in business, that on the other hand, cooperation is necessary for
my
larger growth, especially under our present modern conditions. . . . Bringing
Democracy to I find my attitude toward the war and my
understanding
of it is changing and becoming clarified.
It is now almost midnight and too late to enter into a
considerable
discussion of this. I will say only that
I find that my attitude has changed from one of shock at the
contemplation of
such a sacrifice of life and property and from an attitude of
individualism as
applied to myself individually and as applied to the United States as a
nation
in its relation with other nations to a realization that we must
cooperate in
every way possible to make "the world safe for democracy" as President
Wilson states it. We must crush the
Prussian autocracy and military caste and crush their ambition to rule
the
world and we must free the German people themselves from the domination
of this
military caste and all it stands for. [2/l/4l We now look back 24 years.
"We made the world safe for
Democracy" by wrecking every Democracy in the world and now the war is
on
again and we hear other catch phases of clever propaganda. I was 33
when I
wrote this page and am 57 now.) .
. .
[240] Tues.
July 3, 'l7 Tomorrow
is the 4th. The Stewarts, the Atens and
my sister will spend the day with us. . . . [241] The
Turners of Thoughts on
Abortion, Use of Condoms and Abstinence The
Whitakers left today also. They were
expecting a baby next February but
it seems that Mrs. Whittaker chose to induce abortion and put herself
in a bad
way in consequence, so that she had to start for a hospital today. He intends to go back on the road as a
fireman. He was a fine man.
I’ll tell you, this self abortion business is
bad, morally & physically. Life is
life whether before birth or after. It
is only good common sense to regulate the size of one’s family and this
can be
done with proper care, but if conception takes place the deal should go
through. If a man will use what are
commonly known as "fish skins" which, by the way, are the appendix of
a hog or sheep - conception can be regulated with but little
inconvenience. If we did not regulate
our families we would be but little better than cats and dogs and we
have no
right to invite a child into the world with out we feel confident that
we can
care for it properly in justice to itself and the other children. [242] I
presume that a strict moralist would say
that we should simply desist, but nature and love and happiness are too
insistent. The beauty of the fish skin
method is that in
the first place it is the surest, in the second place if anything does
get by
it will be healthy. This business of
using various things to kill the germ is too likely to not quite
succeed and
then you have a child which may be an idiot or deformed.
Well this is some digression sure, but I
don't mind expressing my views on this important but little discussed
subject
as it comes up for decision in the life of every married couple. I hope to see my girls happily married some
day and I
don’t mind them knowing what I think about this when the time comes. I will sure want some grandchildren but I
don’t
want their mothers to be merely brooders.
Said little mothers are now age 4 & 6 respectively, so
I guess I'll
have to wait a while for grandchildren, however time sure flies. [2/l/4l
Time sure does fly. Now I
have
four grandchildren and I now suspect that their parents know all the
"facts of life". Stewart has a
son and he wasn't born yet himself when I wrote this page.] Thurs
July 26, 'l7 I today completed deal in
which I deeded the Washington County land in even exchange to Sam C.
Askren for
3 acres adjoining my other acreage at Arlington Avenue & E. l0th St. .
. .
The 3 acres is planted in corn and rented
half & half to a Mr. A. H. Estell - Indianapolis R.R. #l, [244] The
examination would indicate that we are
to have another little daughter. I would
like to have a boy, but that does not mean that I do not want another
daughter
too. I wouldn't trade Jeanne or Elsa for
any boy I ever saw. We are prepared to
welcome either. Our sincere hope is that
everything will go right and that mother and baby will both be well and
strong. I don't see how this can help but
be true, considering the healthy, simple life we lead.
But you can’t get away from the fact that
life and death are at that time held in most delicate balance. I can't begin to express my admiration for
Ethel’s nerve & courage or the love that I feel for her. Our
little Jeanne starts to school next
Monday. This is some event itself. I will take her the first day.
She is such a brave, dependable little thing
that we have the greatest confidence in her.
It surely doesn't seem over six years since she came to us. Elsa
is the worst kid to venture and fall
down and into things I ever saw. She is
so sunny and light-hearted that even bitter experience seems unable to
teach
her forethought. Day before yesterday I
was picking tomatoes in the lower garden when the awfullest yowls I
ever heard
split the air. I ran toward the creek
and found that Elsa had fallen in. She
was sure scared. The water was less than a foot deep and there was
really no
danger so I couldn't help but laugh at her.
She looked like a pussy cat that had been dipped in a
bucket of water. Yesterday
she fell down the front steps
and this afternoon part of a pile of boards fell over with her. The pile wasn't over a couple of feet high
and five or six boards across and I had told her to keep away from it,
but she
had to dance a jig on top of it.
Fortunately she was not hurt. The
little sweetheart. I could eat her up. [245] Sun
Sept l6, 'l7 .
. .
Have
been pretty busy of late getting in
my crops and helping to can some of them.
We have over 400 cans of all kinds of stuff on hand now
besides
potatoes, beans, flour, etc., enough to more than take us through the
winter. This means something now days. Last
Monday, the l0th, Jeanne started to
school. I took her over and stayed for
about an hour. She has a dandy teacher,
Miss Hoffman, who seems to have a special knack of handling children. Jeanne seems to like it fine, though she
looked forward to Saturday. I took her
picture before she started and hope it turns out well.
[6/l0/25
We attended Jeanne's graduation exercise at School #60,
33rd & The
time begins to draw very near now when
we expect the little one. Ethel is just
as well and happy as can be. We really
do not expect the event till the 2lst, next Friday, but the nurse Miss
Hand
will be here tomorrow so as to be on hand if things should develop a
little
sooner than expected. I
have had several changes of tenants
lately, but have everything rented except the bakery on Eleventh St. I had one change at De Quincy St and three at
Sherman Drive since the first and three at Eleventh Street. The draft is causing a good deal of shifting
around. The first 5% of the drafted men
are now in camp and the next 40% leave next Wednesday.
I hope Son Stewart
born [246] Wed.
Sept 26, 'l7 Well, our big boy will be a week old this
evening, and he is surely doing fine.
His mama has not done quite so well.
She has had a little fever.
Yesterday grandpa curetted her and this morning early her
temperature
was normal, but the fever has come up again during the day. She seems to feel pretty good considering
what she has gone through and she has the very best possible care. I sincerely hope and pray that she will soon
regain her good health.[72] Sun.
Oct l5, 'l7 Ethel is all alright again
and the baby boy doing fine. The nurse
left last Tuesday. Purchasing
Niece Laurence Alexander’s partial interest in 640 acre [There
follow a two pages, 247 and 248 of
the original diary, of financial estimates on the farmland. The conclusion follows.] [248] Cost
as shown on preceding page, This
would be $53.84 per acre for 640
acres.[73] In
this even I would be in possession of a
now self-supporting property which I had obtained by adding about
$30,000 to my
obligations and on which I would have to pay interest, which would
hamper me a
good deal. This is, however, a first
class gamble if it turns out alright. I
might make some money and if it does not, I might let myself in for no
end of
worry and trouble. [ [Another
paragraph of complex financial musings
is omitted here.] I
do not doubt but what I will eventually
work out the farm matter in good shape and make a profit, though with
conditions as they are it tests my nerve a little to take it on. [Nov. 1941, age 57 – Wish I had half as much
nerve now.] Had
another birthday the 26th of
October. It
was my 34th. The
baby son is doing fine and his mother
is herself again. This makes me very
happy. Jeanne is getting along nicely in
her school work too. I had a $1,000.00
life insurance policy I took out a few months ago changed so as to be
payable
to the boy the same as I have $1,000.00 each for Elsa and Jeanne. It is New York Life Policy #6,136,649. Wed.
Nov. 28, 'l7 I have been neglecting this
diary of late, but the truth of the matter is that sitting down to do
any kind
of work at the desk is irksome in a way that it never used to be. I have had to be in town a good deal and when
I am not there I have more than I can do almost around the place here. There are so many things I want to get done
and I thoroughly enjoy doing them. I was
in the city this morning and this afternoon finished making a corn crib
in one
end of the big chicken house. My half of
the corn on the 3 acres I got for the Washington County land amounted
to about
75 bushels. I went up there and helped
shuck it out and am having it hauled down here for chicken feed. 250] Last
night I read a paper before a guest
meeting of the Century Club in We
have the farm matter all agreed to and
it is in process of being closed. I am
paying $l4,000.00 for the certificate. I
will give these details of the matter in this book when it is closed up. Have a deal on to sell the Pratt St. property. I would sure like to get rid of it as the
houses are becoming old.[74] Tomorrow
is Thanksgiving Day. The Stewarts & my
sister and Mr. &
Mrs. McGuire of Kokomo will be with us.
We sure have lots to be thankful for. Young
George Stewart Rafert is coming
along fine. He was ten weeks old today
and now weighs l3 pounds. He has more or
less colic but is certainly coming fine.
It is a pleasure to see him and his mama together. There never was a baby that received better
care. Ethel is well too and the girls
the same as always - so full of "pep" they don’t know what to do
next. Jeanne is rapidly learning to read
and is getting along fine. Elsa is still
all play. My! My! how I love them all. We are so happy in our little family circle
that sometimes I feel as if I would "bust". Two
weeks ago I drove down to Moods’ &
Maxsons’ for my annual hunt. I took our
next door neighbor John Sheimer with me.
We had a dandy time. The
war still gives no hope of coming to
an end. If it wasn't for Ethel and the
babies I’d like to get into it. It would
be the greatest shooting trip a man ever undertook, but when you think
of all
the sorrow and suffering, it is awful. Fri.
Nov. 30, ’17 Laurence and Ben could not
come down here to attend the meetings of the stockholders and directors
of the
C. F. Rafert Estate called to pass on resolutions in which the Rafert
Estate,
Inc. agrees to accept my offer of $14,000.00 for the Sheriff’s
Certificate
served by the estate in the foreclosure suit against the Newton County
land. I had Berryhill draw up the
resolutions in blank and also draw up proxies for Laurence and Ben to
sign
giving my sister the right to vote their stock at these meetings for
thse
resolutions. All these papers I mailed
to them several days ago. I received
these papers back properly signed in this morning’s mail.
This afternoon we held the meetings going
through the prescribed form. The
resolution state that the certificate should be assigned by the vice
president,
(Benjamin F. Alexander) and attested by the Secretary, Jane B. Rafert. [251] This
evening I wrote out the estate’s
checks for the distributive shares of the $14,000.00 due each
stockholder. Amounts and shares as follows: 999 shares into $14,000.00 = $14.014 per
share. Geo.
O. Rafert, 332 shares,
4,652.65 Ethel
S. Rafert, 1 share,
14.01 Jane
B. Rafert, 222 shares, 3,111.11 Geo.
O. Rafert, trustee, 202 2,830.83 Benjamin
F. Alexander, 1 share
14.01 Laurence
R. Alexander, 241, 2 cks 3,000.00
377.38 All the above checks I dated Dec. 5th,
‘17 [There is further detailed comment on page
251 of the
original diary] All this takes time, but is all according to
Hoyle. . . . I am taking on obligations in large gobs, not
to
mention the $18,000.00 first mortgage ahead of the certificate, but I
feel
sanguine that [252] it will turn out alright.
I was in for the responsibility of the thing, anyway, and
handling it
individually puts me in much free position to and decide quickly
whatever is
necessary. I want to get out from under
this farm as soon as possible and hope to make a deal with either
Forbes or
Bradford in the spring. As an
individual, I can deal with them in a way with terms, etc. that I
couldn’t as a
representative of the corporation. This
transaction
will immediately increase my sister’s income about $30.00 per month and
I
believe is a good deal all around. It
makes the interest with all the rest I’ve got pretty heavy on me, but
unless
something entirely unforeseen comes up, I ought to get through all
right and
niggle a profit out of it justifying the risk. [254] .
. .
Tues Dec ll, 'l7 Since
last Saturday we have been having the severest cold weather I have ever
known
in December. According to the newspaper,
the coldest for this month in 40 years.
I know it is colder than any weather we have had at any
time during the
winter for several years. My thermometer
hangs on the south side of the house and when I looked at it this
morning at 6
o'clock it registered l4 below zero. One
of the neighbors told me that at 4 this morning it was l7 below. Also we have about 5" of snow on the
ground. I drove into town yesterday and
as I was fixed for it, it didn't seem bad at all and we are keeping the
house
snug and warm. They have closed school
till the weather moderates. The coal
situation is pretty bad. At the flats I
am running from hand to mouth already. I
stored every pound I could (about 90 tons) but it is gone.
A [rail]car I ordered 30 days ago has not
come in. Yesterday I was promised 30
tons from the yard. As a means of
economizing coal, they are talking of closing the schools, prohibiting
electric
signs etc. etc. I hope I can keep the
flats going for it would hit the estate pretty hard if I can’t get
enough
coal. However, there is no use crossing
bridges till you come to them. We
have changed our boy’s name. Ethel readily
fell in with my suggestion that
instead of calling him George Stewart Rafert we change it to Stewart G.
Rafert,
the G. for George. I had several reasons
for this. The chief of these is that I
think every man is entitled to his own name and his own personality
without
having a Junior, or Little, attached to him or have his personality or
business
life overshadowed by his father. [l/30/4l
- Stewart's birth certificate in Marion County, Indiana, has his name
George
Stewart Rafert.] .
. .
Neither Ethel or I have any brothers, of
course, so this little chap is the only one to carry forward both the
name
Rafert and the name of Stewart in our end of both families. My! how I wish his grandpa and grandma Rafert
could have seen him. [255] This
afternoon I moved my office from the
room I had been using to the little one the girls had had.
They took my former room. It
makes an improvement all round as they
have a larger room and this little room is more to itself so that when
I get
there, the kids can make all the noise they wish in the rest of the
house when
I am at work. Thur.
I
have the time now and will start work on
my annual invoice and then wait till the last of the month before
finishing it. .
. . Invoice [Pages
256-257 of original diary] [Note,
SR: I am listing only properties] Property
at Property
at 18+
acres at New
Rafert
Estate stock, 21,494.00 Lots
62 & 63 Layman & Core’s Irvington Park Addition
1,800.00
2007
dollars Total
Gross Assets, Total
liabilities, Total
net assets
$64,546.92 $1,936,000 Net
worth, Total
Net Earnings for 1917 9,961.08
$298,000 . . . As the year closes I feel that we have very
much
indeed to be thankful for. We have our
boy, and Ethel has her usual good health again.
We have all been well and happy all year.
We feel settled in our home and are thankful
to be out of the city for a number of reasons.
The year has brought us nothing but those things which are
good and in
these war times that is certainly something to be thankful for. 1918 [255] Jan
l8, l9l8
The whole country has been
having
an awful time lately on account of a shortage of coal.
On top of this we have been experiencing the
coldest weather in 33 years. Our
thermometer
on the south side of the house has showed 20 below zero several times. Mere zero really seems quite pleasant. Last Saturday was the worst day I have ever
seen. Temperature at l8 below and the wind blowing 50 miles an hour. The day before we had about l0"
snow. The wind drifted this till all
traffic was blocked. The next day we had
4 or 5" more snow.[75] Going
into effect today, the government
has ordered a shut-down for five days of all factories east of the
Mississippi
River to save coal for domestic use. I
have been having an awful time at the llth Street flats, but have
managed to
get enough coal to keep the fires going though at one time it was all
in the
boilers. All churches, schools etc. are
closed till further notice and the next ten Mondays will be treated as
national
holidays to save fuel. At the home here
we have been getting along fine. Our
baby boy will be four months old tomorrow and he is surely doing fine. Weighs about l7 lbs now. (This
entry should be on Pg 259.) [259-263] Mon
Jan 28
This is a business diary and I
have confined myself pretty much to business matters, however, from
time to
time other things of equal or greater importance force themselves in. These things are hardest of all to say. It is hard to feel sure, when you get through
saying them, that they convey the exact thought you intend. The babies and their mamma all went to bed
early tonight and I will have an opportunity to do a little
uninterrupted
writing. A Tribute to
the Children’s Mother And His
First Impressions of Her This
thing I am trying to say I will
address to Jeanne & Elsa & Stewart knowing that at some time
their eyes
will chance upon it. I might entitle it
a "Tribute to their Mother".
When I first met your mother at a dance in December l907 I
was still
smarting internally from two causes. [260] First I felt that after spending the time I
had in college, etc. that I was not making adequate progress in the
outside
world. Of course like any fairly young
person I lacked perspective and was inclined to be impatient as I can
now
see. Second, although some considerable
time had passed since I had given up all hope of marrying Barbara
Voyles as I
had wanted to do, (She was then married) nevertheless the memory was
more than
keen and I felt pretty generally blue & defeated.
But even with these things in my mind I can
remember
the first sight of your mother as clearly as if I had it actually
photographed
in my brain. She was standing facing
away from me but turned her head and looked over her shoulder as I
approached. We had several dances
together and a few evenings afterwards I called for the first time. There was no love at first sight or anything
of that kind about it all I feel sure, and the first night I called on
her, her
house was filled with the fumes from an undiscovered gas leak and
smelled like
a glue factory. She says I did all the
talking and whether this was literally true or not, I do remember that
she was
pretty quiet. She was too bashful to
explain the terrific odor permeating the house and I was too polite to
ask even
if it did smell like a combination of skunk & ammonia.
What with the smell and all I don’t know that
I had
any definite idea of going back after I left that first evening. However, it wasn't but a very short time till
I did go back and continued with great regularity.
There was something so encouraging and
comforting about her. I may horrify her
daughters, but I think it was only a few months later, that we were
sitting on
the piano bench together when suddenly I blew up and grabbed her and
gave her a
great big kiss. She has claimed for a
long time that on this occasion I maneuvered for position and acted
deliberately. I can honestly say that
this is not the case. The whole thing
was so spontaneous and sudden that it surprised me as much as it did
her. She was hurt and tried to act "more
hurt" and I felt like a fool. Your
mamma was a pretty prim young lady and no one had ever kissed her or
tried to
before and got away with it. She wouldn't
kiss me and never did till we were engaged but has since admitted that
she was
disappointed if I didn't do my part from that first time on. (If I remember rightly she had little cause
for disappointment) (I
have started too big a subject to cover
it in one writing but will come back to it next time.) Thurs.
Feb. 7, 'l8 I
had expected to return to this before now
but what with one thing and another I did not find opportunity. Can't write much this evening, for it is late
already and I want to be up early. Falling in
Love Well
things continued along and without
realizing it I was falling in love. Your
mamma says she knew she was all along.
My intuition told me as much at the time and it worried me
a good
deal. I hardly knew what to think of
myself. There was nothing hot-blooded
and passionate in my attitude toward her as there had been toward
Barbara
Voyles, at least not in anything like the same degree and yet I found
one thing
to be sure and that was that I couldn't stay away.
I know it often happened that I would tell my
father I would spend the evening with him and would tell Ethel that I
would not
be up that night and in an hour later start up as usual (She has always
been
fond of onion and says I always did this stunt just after she had eaten
some). During this period I know I blew hot &
cold
alternately. I wanted to be square. I knew I was monopolizing her time and yet I
couldn't get away. The mere thought of
it took my breath away. On the other
hand I felt that in fairness to her it was up to me to stop coming
unless I meant
seriously. I wasn't making very much
money yet, though by this time I had the grocery going pretty good. Finally I began to wonder if I was really in
love or whether, smarting under my last experience, I was merely
seeking solace
which one girl or another might supply.
Acting on this thought, without saying a word, I stayed
away from
several weeks and went to see other girls, rushed one girl in
particular,
Josephine West, now Mrs. McKinstry. I had about concluded that it was a case of
solace. However, I was sitting at my
desk in the rear of the grocery one afternoon when a messenger boy came
in with
a small package. I don’t know what it
was now, but I do remember the shock he gave me. I
knew my mind then and there. I thought “By
George, I’ve done it now.” A year or so
before I had given your mother a
Phi Psi bracelet (cost $9.00 and I had to dig up $2.00 to make the
check
good). I was morally certain that she
had heard how I had been acting and had returned the bracelet etc. The
relief I felt when I found it to be
something else sent me hustling to the phone to see if I could call
that same
evening. She seemed glad as usual to see
me and gave no evidence of pique at my recent conduct.
(Your mother never got up and stood on her
dignity like a lot of girls would have done).
We took a walk and when we returned were sitting there
talking. I don’t know just how it came
about, but I
took off my fraternity pin and pinned it on her with the statement that
it
looked well. According to custom, a girl
wearing a fraternity pin is supposed to be engaged to the man who owns
it. I knew this, of course, and yet I had
no
exact realization of what I was doing at the time. A Sweet and
Timeless Moment I don’t know exactly what she said, but she
expressed
the thought that as we were not engaged she couldn't wear it. I told her I meant it that way.
She choked up and got up and walked to the
middle of the room. I followed and took
her in my arms. We stood there a
moment. I said "Sweetheart are you
my girl?" She said "I guess
so". I knew then I had done
something. My knees came as near shaking
as they ever did. I was frightened and
happy all at once. The day was Feb. l0,
l9l0. [Jan 27,l940 - This is almost 30
years later and I am still certain that on Feb. l0th l9l0 when I asked
your
dear mother to marry me, that I did the best day’s work I ever did. Our two fine sons & three fine daughters,
not to mention our three fine grand-children & 30 years of happy
married
life all attest the importance of the day of Feb l0, l9l0.] [page 261, original] As
I look back I cannot but marvel at her
forbearance and kindness, for I must have seemed like a very cad a good
many
times, and yet the things which worried me most all this time was the
fear that
I might not be playing fair & square.
When a man sits down and tells the truth about himself he
realizes that
he is a funny proposition. Well, so much
for tonight. Engagement,
February 10 – Tues
Feb. ll, 'l8 We
did not set our wedding day right away, but
in a general way expected to be married in the fall.
However, we later determined on August l0th,
3 pm. as the time, as things went better with me than we had reason to
expect. During the six months we were
engaged--on May 25, l9l0--my father died.
This was an event of very serious input for us and is
fundamentally
responsible for our first troubles.
Father’s death left my mother & sister alone and
mother insisted
that we come and live with her. I feel
sure that I have told all about this elsewhere in this book. We were not married yet when we had to decide
this and in my mother’s sorrow I felt mighty keenly for her. Ethel insisted that in getting married we
must establish a separate, independent home.
Torn between two fires as I was at that time I agreed with
her very
grudgingly. I want to say right now that
she was everlastingly right. Mon
Feb l8,'l8 The above lesson was pretty
hard for me to learn at that time under the circumstances then
existing, and I
want to pay tribute to your mother's strength of will & character
which
made her insist upon it and hold fast to it with everything she held
dear in
the balance. Beginning
Marriage We
were married and stayed overnight at
what was then the Grand Hotel, starting on our honeymoon trip to Lake
Wawasee
the next morning. I hate to put these
next things down, but if my children read this when they are old
enough, in the
spirit in which I speak, it will be worth while. I
feel a quiver of regret as I think back on
that night. I had no intention of being
unkind or inconsiderate and I heard no word of reproach and yet your
mamma has
told me since that she cried that night when I was asleep.
Stewart, you will be only 5 months old tomorrow
and yet I want to tell you now. You are
a healthy little animal and when the time comes your blood will run hot
and
fairly burn in your veins, but by all you hold sacred and dear, do not
touch
your wife the first night you are married.
You will probably think as I did that Solomon showed his
greatest wisdom
in having a thousand wives, but if you can control yourself at this
time it
will be a source of everlasting satisfaction to you all the rest of
your life
and you will gain your wife's undying respect for your kindness and
consideration. Jeanne & Elsa! I wish you no greater
happiness
than strong virile men for husbands and if they ever [do] as I did, do
not hold
it against them, for the error will be due to lack of understanding and
an
excess of love which has not yet learned to control itself. [l/27/40
Stewart was married the 5th of last Nov. & I
remembered to emphasize
this to him. Jeanne & Elsa are now
both "old married women" and have just the kind of husbands I prayed
for for them. They are all happy and
that sure makes old "Grandpa" happy.
Frank and Harriet were not born yet when I wrote this
page.] When
two people are pronounced man &
wife they are not yet married in the true and full since by a good deal. They have to learn to live together. The corners will have to wear off of
both. If they really love each other
this will soon occur, though if the circumstances are difficult as they
were in
our case, it may take time. We both
experienced many a heartache before our love blossomed out into full
bloom. As our difficulties were solved,
your mamma and I have learned to love each other more and more. There were times since we were married when
without any disloyalty to your mother I thought a great deal of Barbara
Voyles
and what I thought she might have meant to me.
There were times when I would have given anything to see
her again. That thing weighed on my mind
at times to
such an extent that it made me fairly savage and I feared it, but I can
truly
say now that it is gone absolutely and will never trouble me again. I could meet her on the street and tip my hat
and pass on without turning a hair. I held your mother’s hands Stewart, when she
was going
through her great labor of love to bring you into the world, and as I
helped
her and felt for her and prayed for her at that time, I knew that our
love
blossom was full blown and that in the future nothing would detract
from or mar
its beauty. Diary
Resumes with everyday life [263] Sun
Mar l0, 'l8 . . . I
do not believe that I have mentioned yet
that Ethel's parents & sister have been in Florida for the past ten
weeks. They went down for Dr. Stewart’s
health. His condition has been getting
steadily worse and the change has been more rapid of late.[76] [264]
Six months ago he could still drive his machine and make
his calls. Then Jeanne drove for him till
they went
away. By the time they left he found it
difficult to get in and out of the machine or to arise from a chair. When they first got to Dunedin, the little
town in Florida where they are located, he could play croquet and
walked about
a good deal. Our last letter said that
he could only walk to the front gate. He
is now finding it difficult to talk.
They had intended staying till May, but with Grandpa
growing so much
worse so rapidly have written that they will take the first reservation
they
can get for home, so we expect them any day.
It is certainly very sad to see a strong, useful man go
down that
way. He might linger on for a good while
but my guess is that he will not last another sixty days.[77] We
had a 66 mile-an-hour gale last
night. It did some damage, for one
blowing off tile on several buildings and blew off quite a few shingles
at
Arlington Avenue. Quite a little damage
was done all over the city and in northern Ohio some small towns were
wiped out
and over a score of people killed. . .
. Sun
Mar 24, 'l8 Grandpa
& Grandma Stewart and Aunt Jeanne
came directly from the train to our house two weeks ago yesterday and
have been
here ever since. Grandpa will not go
home, but wants to stay here. He has
reached the point where some one has to sit up with him all night every
night
but still while he cannot turn over in bed he can go up and down stairs. It is our duty to take care of our old
people. At the same time I wish we were
to ourselves again. This cannot last
very long as it is. We
plowed two of our three gardens last
week and I have planted some early six weeks potatoes & onion sets. Had our first hen of the season come off with
l0 little chickens this morning. World War I
Enters the Final Stage It
looks as if the war were nearing a
crisis. The Germans have started a vast
offensive on the West front in France, and have forced the British back
at
tremendous loss of life on both sides.
Last nights’ paper reported that the Germans were shelling
Paris at a
range of 62 miles with some new gun. The
maximum range before has been about 22 miles.
I am anxious to hear tomorrow’s news, for heavy fighting
must be going
on today. He decides
to get rid of the [268] Acquisition
of Apartment Building in I
am on a deal to trade [the .
. . The
subject of general business conditions
is a large one but I want to give a brief summary of how I have it
doped out in
a few words if possible. Money
is tight now and if this war
continues very long as seems likely it will get so tight as to make it
almost [270]
impossible for the private borrower like myself to get money except at
a high
rate of interest maybe 8 or l0%. I have
a good many large loans maturing in the next three years and I want to
prepare
for this situation. On the other hand
whenever the war ends, considerable prostration is bound to follow. All the firms now working over time on war
contracts will suddenly find their business shut off.
The longer the war lasts the greater will be
the reaction. This country will have a hard time finding a
market
for its normal surplus. Europe will be
bled white of money and will buy nothing it does not have to have and
will have
to pay in goods for what it does buy.
These goods will displace just so much American production
here. The result will be stagnation,
unemployment
and tight money and fallen prices. Now
if my theory is right and I cannot see any other logical hypothesis to
work on,
I must get my loans in shipshape order.
[2/l5/4l I sure had it
figured
right as this record later shows in l932-33, etc., but it took longer
than I
expected and the crash did not come till after the postwar boom due to
replacement of depleted normal inventories.) .
. . [271] Mon
June l7, 'l8 I made the trip to Chicago
referred to a few
pages back and saw some flat properties offered me in trade for the
farm. The trip amounted to absolutely
nothing as
all these properties were encumbered for about all they were worth. .
. . [272] Mon
July l, 'l8 .
. . (Later site
of Sears, now O’Malia Market) Today
I signed a contract selling the
corner at llth & Alabama Sts. A few
days ago I went up to Roll, Ind. to see my niece. She
and Ben wanted to make the deal. They
certainly are just as nice as they can
be. They also want me to borrow their
share of the money and handle it for them the same as I do for my
sister. This I will be glad to do. As
accepted the estate will receive $3,900
in cash, $6,600 par value liberty bonds, a mortgage back for $l7,000,
80 acres
in [273] Figuring
the 80 acres at 500.00 and the lot
at 3500.00 and the bonds at 6,300.00 which is about there actual market
value
make a total consideration of $3l,200 for the property [2007, about
$936,000]. This seems pretty cheap but
when I mentally
put myself in the other fellow’s shoes, knowing all I know about the
property,
I would rather sell than buy at that price.[80] .
. . This
will be a long step in the right
direction surely. The deal will result in
an increase in income for both my sister and niece and a loss in income
to me
as I propose to cut my estate salary in half, but on account of the
much
stronger position in which it places me I feel that I can afford to
take the
loss in income. I will give the exact
details of the deal when it is closed. Children’s
sicknesses and doings Mon
July 8, 'l8 Our
little Elsa has not been feeling right for
the last ten days. She has had
considerable fever at times. We were
very much afraid of typhoid and have had a trained nurse for her since
Sat.
evening. However she is now greatly
improved and while she will have to stay in bed for a while we feel
greatly
relieved to know that she does not have typhoid. Blood
tests for malaria & typhoid were
both negative and I guess the trouble is no more serious than an
irritation in
the colon which caused a [274] disproportionate amount of fever. Her temperature was practically normal all
day today and we have every reason to hope that she will soon be her
sweet sunny
little self again. We will keep the
nurse for a while anyway. Jeanne
is her own responsible, vigorous
little self all the time. She is growing
like a weed. Young
Stewart is sure a
"beaner". He has certainly
developed fast. We put him in the baby walker for the first time today
and he
makes it scoot. . .
. [275] Tues
July l6,'l8 Elsa
is all right again for which we are mighty thankful.
We were afraid she was going to have typhoid
fever, but it turned out to be merely some kind of intestinal
disturbance. Let the nurse go last
Saturday morning. .
. . Active
Management and Work at the Sun
Aug ll,'l8 I
returned last Thursday evening from another
trip to the farm and to We
are threshing. Expected to start last
Monday but machine
didn't get set till Thursday afternoon.
I had to come home on account of the llth St. deal which
we expected to
close Friday. However it has run
over. Now we expect to close it Monday
morning. I expect to go to Lafayette
Monday evening and reach the farm early Tuesday morning in time to be
in at the
finish of the threshing anyway. Oats is
turning out fine and rye pretty fair. Fri
Aug l6,'l8 I
arrived at the farm again last Tues. morning
and did not get back home till Wed. mid-night.
Finished threshing Wed. I
have not yet heard from Wiggins in
regard to contracts I sent him, but I know he received them as I have
the
registered letter return. We only had
309 bushels of rye which was very disappointing. The
frost hurt it much worse than I
expected. Corn prospect seems very good
but I don’t care to count on it till it is in the crib at least. Last
Monday Aug. l2th before I went to the
farm I closed the llth [and The
N.E. l/4 of the S.W. l/4 and the S.E.
l/4 of the N.W. l/4 of Sect 3, Tp 6. N. Range l East containing 80
acres more
or less in Also
a part of Lot ll4 in Ovid Butler’s
College Corner Addition to the city of Indianapolis described as
follows to
wit.: Commencing at a point on the west line of said lot 50 ft. North
of the SW
corner thence East parallel to the South line, to the East line, thence
North
with the East line of said lot 40 ft. thence West to the W line, thence
South
40 ft. to place of beginning a plot of which addition is recorded in
Plat book
2 Pg 7l in the Marion County Recorder’s office.[82] This
lot is on the E. side of Central Av. between l2th & l3th Sts. It is probably worth from $3,000 to $3,500 The 80 acres in The
mortgage referred to above for %l7,000.00
is for 5 years @ 6% semi-annual with privilege of prepayment in
multiples of $500.00
at any interest date. I had it executed
on American Mortgage Guarantee form as I expect to sell it to that
Company. I left the bonds with the bank
to sell yesterday. All of which is in
line with my program as outlined on preceding pages. During
the past 30 days I paid off the
$l,l00.00 I owed Nathan H. Kipp. I have
also paid off all I owed the bank and have taken up a $500.00 note due
the 22nd
of next May on the home. Returning
to the llth St. deal - They also
paid us the sum of $45l.00 in the net adjustment of water, insurance,
janitor
& rents. All properties were turned
subject to the taxes for l9l8 payable in l9l9.
All abstract & title difficulties were over same &
corrected for
all properties except in regard to our lot 22.
We find it necessary to bring a suit to quiet title on
this lot. The matter goes back over 20
years so it will
probably be merely a formality. We
executed an agreement to do this and they completed the deal subject to
this
agreement. They would have completed it
several weeks ago but I held it up as we were getting the rents. In
adjustment
of insurance I made a commission of $l22.90 off of them. We
hold all insurance ($l7,000.00 fire
& $l4,000.00 cyclone) and abstracts with the mortgage. I
thought it best to write to Laurence
again. They seemed very anxious for me
to keep their money and use it, but I don’t want any misunderstanding
about
it. I told them I would take it @ 6% per
annum payable in monthly installments on the basis of a l0 year note,
the $3000.00
I already owe them to be included in the arrangement.
As soon as I hear from them I will proceed
further in regard to arrangements for taking up the Arlington Avenue
loan, etc. Sun
Aug l8,'l8 Yesterday
I bought a new Buick six same as my
old car, except it is much improved in minor details.
It sure is a peach. Paid
$l,340.00 for it. It goes to l575.00 the
first of the
month. I really did not have to have a
new car yet but as they are getting hard to get on account of curtailed
production due to the war and as the price will go up very rapidly in
the near
future due to increased cost and new taxes at the factory I thought I
had
better get one while I could. I expect
to use my old car this winter and on account of above conditions expect
to sell
it in the Spring for about as much as it cost me over three years ago. If I can come any where near doing this I
will not have much net cash outlay in the new machine. Thurs
Aug 2l,'l8 Just returned this afternoon
from a trip to Moods’ with my neighbor Frank Kimberlin.
We left l o'clock Tuesday in his car.
Killed a bunch of squirrels and had a dandy
good time. I found Mr. Mood very much
interested in a mining venture.
Essentials Producing [2/15/41 I
only went party way in paying for this
stock and as I remember, I only lost what I paid in.
The war stopped soon after and the market for
zinc went out.] [Brief
section on selling of $6,600 in bonds that uyielded $6,271.57 from page
278 of
original diary omitted.] Tomorrow
our whole family will go in the
new machine to visit Quicks in their cottage at Lake Wawasee. Ethel and I will be glad to see it again, as
we spent our honeymoon there. With the
three kidlets, new machine and all, we will go back some differently. We expect to stay there a few days and then
stop at Wabash a night and also stop with Lawrence and Ben a night on
the
return trip. In associating myself with
the Continental National Bank some years ago I didn’t realize that I
was also
gaining a warm personal friend in its president, Mr. George Quick, who
has
certainly been a great help to me as this record shows from time to
time. He is certainly a fine man. Tues
Aug 27,'l8 We
had a delightful visit with Quicks. Went
fishing Sat & Sunday morning and caught some good bass. Harry Quick landed one that weighed 3 l/2
lbs. We left Monday and drove to Roll
and spent the night with Laurence & Ben.
I came home on the traction this afternoon leaving Ethel
& the
babies & machine. She will stay
another day with the Alexanders and then go back to Wabash and probably
spend
the rest of the week visiting relatives.
Laurence & Ben have a deal on and may want their money. I am figuring now on paying them their share
of the distribution in cash and also paying off the 3,000.00 I now owe
them. This will still leave me enough to
pay off Blue and clear the Arlington Avenue ground if I cash the llth
St.
mortgage. I was anxious to get back home on account of
the farm
deal. I sent the contracts to Wiggins on
the l0th of Aug and gave him till the 20th to sign and return them. I have heard nothing at all from the
son-of-a-gun. I have concluded to go to
Minnesota and look over Dawson's farm and deal for it myself if it
shows
up. I have wired him and will probably
start tomorrow or next day depending on what I hear tomorrow in reply
to a wire
I just sent him. Mon
Sept 2,'l8 The
next morning I received a wire from Tues
Sept 3 Just received a letter from
Forbes stating that Mr. Wiggins had been very sick but that he knew it
was his
intentions to accept the farm proposition.
Mine expired Aug 20 and the one from Dawson Sept lst. He wanted extensions. Knowing
the state of mind Dawson had reached
I just sent a straight wire to Forbes as follows. "Have
Wiggins or some one with power
of attorney accept both propositions as of Aug 20th and mail all papers
to me
today. Otherwise deal off.
Write me letter explaining delay." If
this goes through Dawson will surely
blow up but it will serve the old goat right.
After dragging me all over the country he went flat back
on his verbal
proposition simply because I had not tied him up to me same as the
proposition
he signed to Wiggins. He would have
refunded the $50.00 on my rail road expense if he hadn't wanted some
kind of a
receipt nominally acknowledging that there was no deal and purporting
that no
deal had been made. I gave him a written statement stating that there
was no
contract between him and me, which there was not, as both his former
written
proposition and mine were made to Wiggins.
I had arranged the three cornered deal this way as I
wanted Wiggins on
the paper I took. I told Dawson distinctly
that as it was then the 30th day of Aug. and as his proposition to
Wiggins did
not expire till Sept first that it might be that I would find the
accepted
papers from Wiggins when I returned home and in that event, as I could
not
speak for Wiggins, the deal would have to go through.
However, the paper I gave him stating that he
refunded 50.00 on my expense agreed to be refunded in the event no deal
was
made between him and me seemed to satisfy him.
As this was certainly the case I did not hesitate to give
it to him for
the $50.00. He thinks he is some foxy
old devil. He is an old devil alright
anyway. If I had one foot in the grave
and the other on a banana peal at the age of 76 I would sure reform. The
last time before this that I was in
Kankakee, he tried to drag me in as a witness when the parents of a l6
year old
girl were raising Cain and had him scared out of his wits.
He wanted me to go along with him to see them
and talk it over. "Not for Uncle
Dudley." No indeed. Geo.
O. Rafert, 333
shares @ 9.50 per share
3,163.50 Jane
B. Rafert, 222 “ “
“ “
“ 2,109.00 Geo.
O. Rafert, trustee 202 “
“ “
“ “
1,919.00 Laurence
R. Alexander, 242
“ “
“
“ “
2,200.00 I
am borrowing my sister’s share, having
executed a demand note bearing interest @ 6% per annum payable in
monthly
installments on the 15th of each month.
Note is of even date. The
trustee money I will pay her 6% for in
the same way as formerly. I
am today sending my niece my personal
check for $3,010.00, which is in full principal and interest to date
for the
$3,000.00 note she held against me out of the farm deal of last
December. This cleans up everything I owe
her. The
$17,000.00 mortgage we have concluded
to hold for a while, as it seems likely that it will be taken up within
the
next six months. The Dorfmans, who
executed it on the Have
received letter from Forbes stating
that Wiggins was much better and had said he would sign papers and mail
at
once. If he registered them, they ought
to reach me today. I also received a
letter from Mr. Dawson, wanting to know why in the world the deal
between
myself and Mrs. Dawson did not go through, that he had written her that
I had
gone home made and she couldn’t understand it.
I am waiting to reply till I have a chance to hear from
Wiggins. I
raised De Quincy and Sherman Drive rents
$1.00 per month effective Oct. first.
All the tenants seemed to think they were being fairly
treated except
one. He blew up and went down to the
Marion County Council of Defense and lodged a charge of profiteering
against
me. As the cost of everything I have to
buy in the upkeep of the buildings has increased upwards of 50%, I
can’t see
how he can prove his charge on the basis of a 4% increase in rent. I have written the Council a letter stating
the facts. Thurs
Sept l2, 'l8 I
just returned from registering under the new
draft law which includes all men from l8 to 45.
The former draft law in operation to date since we have
been in the war
included men from 2l to 3l only. We have
close to 2,000,000 men in the army
abroad and probably more than l,000,000 more in training in this
country with
more being called every month. The Kaiser
will sure find he started something when he dragged this country into
the
war. The Germans made some awful drives
in March to June of this year and came mighty near to taking Paris and
the
Channel ports. Since then the Allies
under General Foch have gained the initiative and have been driving
them all
steadily back. It seems possible just
now that they may be driven back to the Belgium frontier and out of
France
before snow flies. Peace will come when
they are absolutely licked and ought not to come before that time. Mon
Sept l6,'l8 I
want to say a word about our little
boy. He will be a year old next
Thursday. If ever a little fellow had a
fine start he surely has. We haven't
weighed him lately but I am sure he will tip the scales at all of 28
pounds. He has seven teeth and is
beginning to talk. He says
"boo-cow" whenever he sees a cow or picture of one.
This was his first word unless it was
"daddy". He calls his mamma
"Nana". He says
"gedap" quite plainly for horse and has several other known
expressions of his own manufacture which we understand but which are
not in the
English language as "she is spoke".
He has been perfectly healthy right from the start and is
as full of fun
as a kitten. He neither walks nor crawls,
though he can maneuver very rapidly by a means of locomotion peculiar
to
himself. He sits down and draws both
legs toward him together, first on one side and then on the other. He makes his walker scoot and all he really
lacks to actually walk is confidence and the first step alone. He will have experienced both in another two
weeks I feel sure. We are surely
enjoying him. He is "some"
boy. Elsa
has begun her second week of
school. Last Friday noon she came home
because "she thought she had been there long enough.”
I took her back, which was agreeable to her
after she had seen her mamma. I
am very much impressed with the quality
of Jeanne's mind. She grasps things very quickly. I
spend an hour or so with her every evening
helping her with her studies and it is a great pleasure to teach her. About next week Elsa will be bringing her
primer home. Jeanne is very much
interested in her school work. Elsa has
the same teacher that Jeanne had last year, Miss Fern Hoffman, and I am
very
glad, as she has a wonderful knack with children. A
good start means so much to them. It is
beyond me to express how much I am in
love with this little family and their dear mother. Sun.
Sept 29, ’18 In connection with the
draft, for which I registered Sept. 12th, I received my
“Questionnaire” last Saturday, the 21st.
It was some job to fill it out and took me
the best part of three days. I turned it
in last Wednesday, which was in good time, as I had seven days from the
time
received. By the time you have filled
out one of these questionnaires, there isn’t anything I can think of
that you
haven’t told. About 10 million men
between the ages of 21 and 31 registered under the first draft and
about 13
million under this draft, so the magnitude of the task of sorting all
these men
and assigning them to classes is evident.
You are placed in one of five classes, each of which has 4
or 5
subdivisions. The
classification is made according to
your occupation, dependents, etc. It is
certainly a very fair proposition all round.
Your number in the class or your order of liability to be
called inside
the class is determined by lot, the drawing being held in Washington
tomorrow. I have not yet received word
as to how I have been classified. I
expect to be put either in class 2 of class 4, depending on how the
draft board
views my dependency.[84] The
4th Liberty loan drive
started Saturday. The government is
asking for six billion dollars from the loan.
Ethel is acting as lieutenant in this sector
in sale of bonds, together with six other
women. Aunt Jennie is staying with
“brother” [i.e., baby Stewart] while is momma is out.
I gave her my subscription for $500.00 worth
of bonds this evening together with my check for $50.00, being an
initial
payment of 10% under the government plan of puchase. The balance is due
20%
Nov. 21, ’18, 20% Dec. 19th, 20% Jan. 16 and 30% Jan. 30,
’19.[85] [The
remainder of page 284 and all of page
285 in the original diary is taken up with a review of financial plans
and
circumstance. He gives a one-paragraph
narrative summary at the top of page 286, then in what follows explains
his
business plans for after the war.] Since
selling the 11th Street
property I have been figuring on various ways to so organize my
business as to
get my time comparatively free with the idea of taking on something
else till
after the war, when I can get back to building again.
I don’t want to figure on anything requiring
investment for obvious reasons and because I want to work into the
clear as far
as possible so as to be in position to take on a considerable building
program
when conditions make it possible again.
If I could do this and line up for a job with some kind of
concern
[i.e., business organization], even if I didn’t make over a couple
hundred a
month out of it, I would be just that much to the good while I am
waiting. Of
course, there is the possibility of my
being called into the army, but I feel at the present time that that
possibility is rather remote. Class 1 is
made up mainly of single men without dependents, though one subdivision
provides for men whose families are independent of their labor for
support. This might include me if the
draft board can so figure it out. For my
part I can’t. As to enlistment, a draft
man 18 to 45 can not enlist, though a man between 45 and 55 can enlist,
subject
to passing physical examination. If
I can make some such temporary
arrangement as above indicated, I would not only be to the good by the
amount
of my salary, but would be a whole lot more content to be real busy for
a
change. Brewster
paid $95.00 more on the principal
of his note today and $25.98 interest to Nov. 1st. This leaves him owing me $1,200.00. The
tenant at Arlington Avenue also paid
his rent in advance to March 5th today.
All these items will help in the program
outlined a few pages back. I
have been appointed a lieutenant in the
Liberty Loan Sales organization in this sector.
Ethel and I go to Acton to a meeting this evening.[86] Oct
7, 'l8 I saw
Mr. Strathman, who is the head man for
the Bedford Stone & Construction Company, in connection with the
proposed
government building at Ft. Harrison. He
told me that if the government gave the final word to go ahead with the
work
that I could depend on the job of general labor superintendent. He didn't go into details either as to salary
or as to exactly what my work would be, but left this for me to settle
with Mr.
McGaughey. The
proposed work involves the
construction of over 300 buildings at an approximate cost of 5 million
dollars. As near as I can get at it I am
to have charge of all labor foremen on the work and through them all
laborers. He wanted to give me the job
of general carpenter superintendent, but said he was afraid to do this
as, I
did not use union carpenters he was afraid it might cause trouble. The whole thing is tentative till we hear
from the government but Mr. Strathman said this word might come any day. The
whole country is suffering with a disease
called Spanish Influenza. All schools,
picture shows, etc. are closed. No
public gatherings are permitted. A great
many deaths have occurred and every precaution is being taken to avoid
its
further spread. Thurs
Oct l0 I drove up to I
sold the rest of my oats except those
kept for seed. All told I have sold l,85l
bushels, bringing me $l,l53.22. I also
collected $82.48 for some rye. Rush, the
tenant, still owes me $200.00 for pasturage.
The corn is out of danger and I feel sure will turn out
much better than
I have hitherto calculated. It will
bring me upwards of $l,500.00 I feel sure. Yesterday
while I was away Stewart started
walking by himself and now he doesn’t want to do anything else. He was one year & 20 days old. I
have with the farmer something like l50
bushels of oats on the place for seed. I
also have my half of 254 bushels of rye left, some of which we will
sell. It
looks as if I would run well ahead of
my cash program as outlined a few pages back.
By the first of the year it looks as if I would be a
thousand dollars
ahead of it at least. This is very
gratifying. In
that program my cash on hand for Nov.
first was estimated at $6l0.75. The
other day I loaned my neighbor Everett McClain $200.00 and I have now
left on
hand $l,l42.00. Fri
Oct 25,'l8 I
received notice yesterday from the Draft
board that I had been classified in Class 4A. Tomorrow
I will be 35 years old. Nothing has been
heard as yet from the
government in regard to the construction work at Ft. Harrison. If anything comes of it I hope it will wait
till after the middle of next month as I am planning to go down to
Moods’ for
my annual hunt Nov. l0th. My neighbors,
Everett McClain, John Shimer and Frank Kimberlin plan to go along.[87] We ought to have a great time.
I have a beagle pup "Bob" who is
just beginning to hunt good. I bought
him last spring for $3.00. He will be
worth $50.00 next year. Schools,
churches and all public
gatherings are still closed on account of the influenza epidemic. There have been over 4000 cases to date in
Marion County alone and something like 300 deaths.
We are all well as can be and being out in
the country are not likely to be affected, though you cannot tell. Mrs. Mumford, formerly Elsa Frenzel for whom
our little Elsa was named, died within the last ten days of pneumonia
resulting
from influenza. The epidemic is world
wide in scope. Mon
Nov 4,'l8 I
have advised the Bedford Construction Company
that I had decided not to accept their offer in connection with the
government
buildings at Ft. Harrison. The
government has given the word to go ahead and they are now getting
material on
the ground, but after figuring the matter over carefully, I concluded
that I
could not afford to give it the time necessary for $2l5.00 a month. Several things entered into this
conclusion. For one thing it looks as if
the war were about over.
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey have surrendered,
leaving Germany
all alone. It is probable too that
Germany will surrender in the very near future.
If my judgment is right there will be a great fall in
prices within a
year after the war ends so that it might be possible to get back to
building
again some time next year, surely by a year from next Spring. For another thing I have a number of deals on
which it would not do to neglect. I made
a proposition today for a l2 apartment flat on I
also have several deals stirring for the
farm. Fri
Nov 8,'l8 It
looks as if the war were about over. Yesterday
the whole country went off at half
cock in a premature celebration of the end of the war.
I was down town at noon when a [Indianapolis]
Times extra came out stating that an armistice had been signed and
hostilities
had ceased between Germany and the allied countries.
The city simply went crazy. People began to
march, machines were going every way blowing their horns.
The factories, and stores and schools all
closed and everybody joined in a wild unorganized carnival. Everyone was happy. It
was a sight to see. I saw a florist wagon
go down the street
throwing out flowers. People in the
upper stories of the office buildings tore up newspapers and apparently
everything else they could get hold of and threw the strips out of the
windows
so that the air was full of the fluttering particles.
The celebration in Indianapolis was
indicative of what took place in other cities.
Then late in the afternoon came word that it was all a
mistake. How it all occurred is yet to be
explained. The next few days will bring
out the information as to whether Germany will accept the Allies’
terms, thus
bringing the war to an end or whether she will try to fight a while
longer. Sat
Nov. l6,'l8 The
war came to an end last Monday the llth by
the signing of an armistice the terms of which are so stringent upon
Germany
that in the peace conference to follow she will have to accept anything
the
United States and the allies see fit to enforce. This
means the beginning of another chapter
in world history. The problems of peace
will be almost as great as those of war as I think we shall soon begin
to see. My
neighbors and I returned from Moods’
last Thursday evening. We sure had a
fine time. Sun
Nov 24,'l8 Last week a Mr. Ed Taylor
of
Montmorenci and his agent Mr. Maupin of Lafayette went up to look over
my
farm. The deal came to my attention
through Mr. Will Evans who is an agent here, the same Evans to whom I
once sold
the grocery. He answered an ad of mine a
while back. Mr. Taylor owns a section of
land in S.W. North Dakota. He sent a
proposition down here offering to trade his section clear for mine
subject to
l3,000.00. I left here last Friday
afternoon to drive to the farm and stopped in Montmorenci to see Taylor
on my
way up.[89] I told him I would go look at his land if he
would offer it to me clear for my farm subject to $l8,000.00 and
$500.00 road
and ditch assessments. He wouldn't do
this at first, but I saw him again in Lafayette yesterday evening on my
way
home and secured his proposition to this effect. I
also got him to agree to pay $50.00 on my
railroad fare whether the deal went through or not. While
up at the farm I sold my corn to Mr.
Hillis for $l.00 per bushel in the crib.
It will take them two or three weeks yet to finish
shucking. I think I will have l500 bushels
alright. As soon as it is all shucked I
will go up and measure it up with Hillis.
This arrangement suits me fine, as I will get the money in
a lump before
the first of the year. I also arranged
to sell the balance of the rye except seed and ought to get the money
in yet
this week. I also expect $200.00 from
Evert McClain, as he has arranged a new loan which ought to finish up
before
the 30th when I have $540.00 interest due at the State Life. Brewster will probably pay a hundred too. I
got home last night about l0
o'clock. Expect to leave for Chicago
tomorrow noon on my way to see the North Dakota farm.
Hope to be back by next Friday. Sun
Dec l,'l8 I
left here last Monday as planned and spent
the night in Chicago catching an early train over the Chicago,
Milwaukee &
St. Paul. I arrived at Mott, I
left Mott Thursday afternoon arriving in
Lafayette yesterday evening at 7:40. I
had wired ahead an appointment with Taylor and Maupin.
To cut the story short, I offered to close
the deal on the basis of $l5.00 an acre additional consideration, or
$9,600.00. I asked for $2,600.00 of this
in cash and offered to carry back the remaining $7000.00 in a second
mortgage
for one year on the Indiana farm. Taylor
scratched his head quite a bit and finally offered $l0.00 an acre or
$6,400.00. We split the difference at
$8000.00. $4000.00 cash at time of
conveyance and $4000.00 in one year secured by second mortgage on the I
am going to try and get cleaned up and
arrange to drive the family down into Florida and spend January and
February
there. It would be some trip.[91] School
has been closed again for several
weeks on account of the influenza epidemic and we have decided to keep
Elsa out
of school entirely the rest of the year.
It will be next April before she is as old as Jeanne was
when she
started anyway. Jeanne is getting along
so fine that it won’t hurt her to miss a couple of months and I will
help her
while we are away and keep her abreast of her class in her studies. It
will sure do them all good to get down
there on the sea shore in the sand. With
the machine we will be independent and can go and come as we please. I hope to rent a cottage and hire all the
work done as I want Ethel to have her time as free as possible. We have thought of this every year but this
is the first time everything has combined to give us the chance and I
sure hope
we get to go. I
have decided not to sell Lots 62 & 63
that I own on New York Street, as I have figured out a new way to
handle them
to good advantage. Under normal
condtions, an investment net of $3,500 will ad $1,200 a year to my net
income
under this plan. I can build an 8
apartment building arranged as the De Quincy houses next to it, running
long
ways of the lot. I expect suitable
building conditions to arrive by the Spring of 1920. The
money I will get out of the farm deal,
etc. will put me in good shape to clear the Arlington Avenue acreage of
incumbrance next year. That is sure a
good deal. I
expect the following moneys in between
now and July first of next year: [293] Cash
from farm deal
4,000.00 Sale
of remaining crops including rye,
corn, etc. 1,700.00 Pasturage
money
200.00 Brewster
300.00 E.
McClain
200.00 Rafert
Estate
190.00 Sal
[?]
375.00 Rents
from Sherman Drive, D.Q., Arlington
Ave., etc. 4,300.00 Griffith
50.00 Interest
(my share from $17,000 mortg. 11th
St. prop.
170.00 Interest,
$4,000 mortgage, Newton County
120.00 Miscellaneous
100.00
$11,705.00
Obligations to Meet Living,
7 months @ $225.00
1,575.00 Interest
due in the period
3,168.00 Property
expense
350.00 Liberty
bonds, remaining payment
350.00 Taxes
& Barrett
450.00 Commission
on farm deal
200.00 Miscellaneous
350.00 Life
Insurance
60.00
$6,503.00
5,202.00 This
leaves me $5,200 to meet the $2,300
note in Juanauary and $4,200 in June, or not enough by $1,300. On the other hand, I will have $500 worth of
paid for bonds, and my old machine to sell in the spring to cover this
difference, if necessary. The above is
not accurate, but it is substantially correct and fairly conservative. I estimated living high enough on the average
to cover the Florida trip and while not trying to be exact, I figured
expense
items plenty high. If I shouldn’t quite
cover, I will have $4,000 coming in again from Newton County the last
of next
year and my crops from Dakota and the months of July, August and
September free
of interest. The chances are that before
this time is up, I will make some other deals which will change the
whole face
of the matter again, but it is always well to figure on the basis of
the status
quo and that is sure a whole lot better than the last time I figured. So much for tonight. [294] Wed.
Dec. 11, 1918 I want to begin work
on
my invoice for January 1st 1919.
I expect to get in my corn money and close the farm deal
before the
first of the month and that will make a considerable difference, but I
know now
what most of the items will be and can finish up later.
First, I want to figure the present value of
the Rafert Estate stock. The estate
invoices at present as follows:
Pratt & Arch St. property
$15,000.00
11th St. mortgage
$17,000.00
Alexandria building
$10,000.00
Note owed by me
$1,000.00
Cash on hand
648.81
Note against C. A. Chambers
145.00
Undue interest accrued to 1/1/19
371.13
Unexpired insurance premiums
131.60
$44,296.54 Allowance
for taxes, dividends to Jan. 1,
’19 and undue fee To
J. S. Berryhill
303.00
Net assets
$43,993.54 This
would be $44.04 per share, or the
value Of
my 333 shares would be 1/3 of the above or
$14,664.51 [One
paragraph of figures on lower value of
11th Street property
and depreciation on Pratt & Arch St. properties, plus
$2,000 increased value on the follows
and is omitted here] It
just occurs to me that in the above I
forgot to include the 80 acres in Lawrence County and the Central
Avenue lot
which we got out of the 11th [295]
Street deal. The two items are probably
conservatively worth $4,000. In
consequence, the net assets of the estate will be increased to
$47,993.54. Value
per share, $48.04. Value my interest
(round), $16,000. [Two
paragraphs concerning the value of his
sister’s share of the estate and details of his share of the estate
follow and
are omitted here.] [296]
Invoice, Jan. 1st, 1919 Value,
333 shares stock Rafert Estate
16,000.00 Lots
59, 60, 60 L & C PK Addition, De Quincy corner
28,500.00 Lots
62 & 63 L & C In. PX Add., Sherman Drive corner
1,800.00 Entire
acreage, Arlington Ave & E. 10th Streets
18,000.00 Lots
12, 13, 14, Hartman’s Addition, Corner
28,500.00 Note,
G. S. Brewster (balance)
1,200.00 Note,
E. McClain
200.00 New
Bethel property (home place)
12,000.00 New
machine [car]
1,200.00 Old
machine
700.00 Household
goods & miscellaneous supplies
2,250.00 Diamond
ring
300.00 Loan
value, life insurance policies
850.00 Investment
unexpired fire & cyclone policies
405.16 Stock
in Essentials Producing Company
250.00 Liberty
bonds
500.00 War
Saving stamps
50.00 Cash
on hand
3,867.22 Interest
paid in advance of date
19.13 Rents
due & unpaid
24.00 Deposit
with State Life Ins. Co. for abstract 15.00 Due
me from Frank Rush
200.00 Mortgage
note by Edward Taylor
4,000.00 640
acres @ 27.50
17,600.00 [297]
Forward total gross assets,
138,430.51
Liabilities Note
due, Note
due, Note
due, Note
due Note
due, on demand, Rachel Blue
4,000.00 Note
due, Note
due, Paid
12,31/’18 Note
due, Note
due, on demand, Jane B. Rafert
3,111.11 Note
due, on demand, “
“ “
2,109.00 Note
due, Note
due, Note
due, on demand, Jane B. Rafert
266.03 Note
due, on demand, C. F. Rafert Estate
1,000.00 Note
due, on demand, Mrs. Elnora Elton Stewart
1,550.00 Trustee
Fund, Jane B. Rafert
7,256.95 Barrett
Law liens
439.97 Undue
interest accrued to date
427.24 Note
due, Paid,
1/2/’19 Note
due, Paid,
Note
due, Undue
payments on Liberty Bonds
250.00 Paid
Total Liabilities
67,215.30
Net
Assets Jan lst l9l9
7l,2l5.2l Net
Assets Jan lst l9l8
64,546.92 Net
Gain for year l9l8
6,668.29 Living
& Auto expense for year
2,5l9.29 Net
earning for year l9l8
$ 9,l87.58 Net
depreciation allowed as compared with
last
invoice
2,470.50 Net
earnings for this year considered by
itself $ll,658.08 [298] Dec.
3l, l9l8 Before discussing the invoice
just completed on the preceding page I want to note the closing of the for
the Some
ten days ago I went up to the farm
and measured up the corn which I sold in the crib for l.00 per bushel. I was very much misled in my calculations for
it only figured to 825 bushels. I received
a check for the corn from Mr. Hillis several days ago. I
have already given the facts of the
contract with Mr. Taylor on Pg 29l-2. We have
been delayed by the fact that his
abstract was lost in the mail. In
closing I took his contract under date
of Dec 30, 'l8 in which he agrees to furnish an abstract showing clear
merchantable title within 60 days from date and agreeing to pay me a
penalty of
$l0.00 per day for any delay beyond that period. In
closing all papers were dated Dec. 30th
l9l8. He executed deed to the He
paid me the following amounts in cash. Cash in consideration
4000.00 Cash for my unexpired insurance
l2l.32 Cash for seed oats 75 bu @ 66 cents
49.50 Cash for seed rye 30 bu @ l.45
43.50 Cash & expense my trip to N.D.
50.00 Cash for l/2 taxes due in l9l9 N.D.
72.03
Total
4336.35 Mr.
Edward Taylor is unmarried and lives
at The
Dakota land is all of Sect 25 Tp l33 N. Range 92 W in Hettinger Co. Figuring
this land at 27.50 per acre which
is entirely [299]
conservative, my account of this deal figured up exactly shows a net
profit of
$9,352.58. As
the result of this deal I end up the
year in pretty strong shape. I have more
clear property and more liquid assets and more cash on hand than I have
ever
had at this time of the year. Yesterday
I paid the remaining balance on my Though
I did no building this year I have
been able to show a larger net profit than for any year yet recorded. Considered by itself, the net earnings of the
year’s business amounted to $ll,658.08, which is $l,697.00 better than
last
year, which was the best up to that time.
After charging off living expense and depreciation against
the year's
net earnings, I have remaining the sum of $6,668.29 as the net gain for
the
year. The depreciation occurred entirely
in the Rafert Estate stock due to our selling the llth The
farm profit of $9,352.58 named above
is the net profit on the deal from start to finish beginning with my
cost of $l4,000.00
for the certificate. This was bought in
December, l9l7 and I invoiced it Jan first l9l8 at $2,000.00 more than
it cost
me, so that the $2,000.00 of the farm profit was included in the l9l7
profits
and only $7,352.58 of the total amount credited to this year’s earnings. This
year was not so important in direct
profits as it was in clearing the way for future undertakings when the
time
arrives for them. At the beginning of
l9l8 I was not hardly [300] in shape yet to undertake additional
building even
if conditions had been ripe. As a result
of the cleaning up processes of this year’s business, I am in excellent
shape
to go ahead on a much larger scale than ever before whenever the right
time
comes. I have paid off a number of
loans. I will shortly have The
section of land in Dakota is clear and
can be used as the basis of another considerable loan when the time to
expand
comes again. Through the sale of the
llth Street property, the Estate has a liquid asset share of $l7,000.00
in the
mortgage on that property. My personal
share of this would be $5,667.00. To
this would be added the trustee share of $3,434.00 and my sister’s
share of
$3,774.00 on which I could probably borrow a long time. In
addition I have $4,000.00 due me Dec
3l, l9l9 from Edward Taylor, and cash and other notes amounting to over
$2,000.00
additional. Thus I have in all in the
neighborhood of $35,000.00 available in liquid assets or in assets
which will
serve as a basis for long time loans.
This will margin a whole lot of building.
I can stretch it to cover over a hundred
thousand dollars worth of construction when material prices come back
to somewhere
near normal. I think the time is not far distant now when
I can
look for net earnings in excess of $20,000.00 a year and from that
point it
should climb pretty fast. While
it covers a longer period this book
has been written during the past 5 l/2 years, since May, l9l3 which is
a
comparatively short period after all.
Things have seemed to go pretty low at times, but when I
look back and
compare my outlook of that time with my present prospects and hopes, I
realize
that the development has been considerable.
The keeping of this record has proved to be well worth
while and it has
helped me a good deal. I find that I
turn back its pages for exact information quite frequently. As I grow older I find that my point of view
on many things changes. When my little
son is at the age I was when this record began, I can turn back to my
viewpoint
of that age and sympathize with him and get close to him.
When he starts to pull off a "bone
head" play I will likely be able to show him a written record of its
duplicate in my own experience. [301,
written on unlined inside cover sheet] [2/l5/4l The last page of this book was written
December 3l,
l9l8. It is volume #
one of my diary. Six other volumes of
equal size have been added in the years that have passed since this
first
volume was completed. This volume was
for the most part dashed off at odd times during very busy years. I have just gone through it and tried to make
the writing a little more legible by crossing T's & dotting I's
&
closing O's. In a few places the ink had
faded and I again wrote over the original lines. When
this book was completed I was 35 years
old and still in my twenties when I began to write it.
I was 57 my last birthday.] [A
photo of Rafert in a hunting outfit with a shotgun in his right hand, a
pipe in
his mouth, and wearing a hat. Under it
is this note: My
youngest daughter Jesse entered Inside
the front cover of volume 1 is a photo of George Rafert’s mother,
Christina
Manche Rafert. The caption reads, “This
picture was taken in July of 1914 in Pasted
nearby is an obituary from the weekly bulletin of the Roberts Park
Methodist
Church of Indianapolis under the date of The
obituary reads, “Mrs.
Christina Manche Rafert, the widow of
Mr. C. F. Rafert, died at her home on Thursday night, “On Thursday evening, after spending an afternoon with a friend, she retired for the night, but growing suddenly worse, realized that the end had come. With her daughter by her side, and in the arms of her beloved son, George, she quietly fell asleep in Jesus, to await the resurrection of the just.” [1] The dollar of 1907 was worth about 30 times
the
dollar of today, so he was offered about $450 a week, or $22,500 a year
for
this beginning job. [2] Multiplying by 30, Christopher Rafert lost around $45,000 in today’s money. $1,500 was enough to by a modest house in a working class neighborhood in those days. [3] Going into real estate seemed like a new and
idea to
him, but his father had been engaged in buying and selling properties
for
decades. The complex business deals of
the diary tell how much George Rafert had learned from his father. [4] A section of land is a square mile, or 640
acres. [5] This is the beginning of his direct interest
in not only
managing a farm, but in doing work on a farm.
He was always an outdoors person, and this was another way
of being
outdoors and working physically. [6] His niece Laurence Rafert was the only
daughter of
John Lawrence Rafert. He died in 1889
before her birth in 1890. She was the
only first cousin of Jeanne, Elsa, Stewart, Frank and Harriet Rafert. She married Benjamin Alexander.
[7] $150 a month sounds like a pittance, by
multiplied by
30 to get our value, he was making $4,500 a month or about $54,000 a
year, plus
whatever income the grocery brought in.
The cost of the wedding in today’s funds would be about
$9,000. [8] There are many “deals” in the diary, some of
them
very complex and covering up to ten pages in the original.
I am omitting the detail of most as they
don’t tell us much. [9] In 2007 dollars, the $5,750 would be about
30 times
as much, about $170,000. [10] He followed this property investment
philosophy the
rest of his life, building rentals for the middle class.
It worked well through the Great Depression
of the 1930s as well as in the 10 years after World War II until his
death, at
which time he owned all the properties he had developed from 1914-1924,
except
the first at [11] In a world full of corporate fraud, insider
trading,
and grossly overpaid executives, this remains true.
Investing in a corporation is like investing
overseas. There is too much you don’t
know. In addition, managing one’s own
properties is enjoyable. SR [12] Relative values have not changed much. The $22.50 per month of 1913 is in 2007 about
$675 per month. [13] There was a sudden tightening of credit in
the summer
of 1913, which probably caused the bank to back out.
This sudden shock to the [14] Cars at that time did not have starters. You hand cranked to start, and as this event
shows, it could be dangerous! [15] Mary Stone Stewart was Ethel Rafert’s
step-grandmother,
her grandfather Stewart’s second wife after Elizabeth Stewart died in
December,
1885. She lived in La Fontaine, Indiana,
in [16] Uncle John Manche, born in 1845, was a Civil
War
veteran and led the building of the present [17] Ben Faut was
the son of Mary Manche, Christina Rafert’s sister born in 1843, died in
1904. Ben Faut died in 1957 at age 90. His
sister Julia Faut Ruschhaupt was a favorite cousin of Aunt Jennie
Rafert, who
used to visit her often. After moving to
Fortville, George Rafert also enjoyed visiting favorite cousins Ben and
Walter
Faut, Julia Ruschhaupt, and Fannie Faut Schilling who all lived near
New
Palestine. They are all buried in the
New Palestine cemetery. [18] Around $57,000 in 2007 dollars. [19] Richard Griffith was a life-long friend and
the rest
of us older family members knew him well. [20] This comment is “pure George Rafert”. He planned the expense of land, borrowing,
and materials to the penny while also making a sharp estimate of the
rental return. I have business papers from
several
properties that show the supply estimates.
Before the Federal Reserve Bank was set up, the money
supply was very
rigid, calling for this extremely cautious planning. [21] The family has a much-loved photograph of
Aunt Jennie
at the wheel of this electric car with her mother sitting in the rear
seat
taken about 1914. [22] Frank Rafert was a first cousin, some of one
of
Christopher Rafert’s six brothers. The
Brannum-Keene Lumber Company, by the way, furnished many building
materials for
the family home in Fortville, which was also built in 1914. Joe Brannum became a good business friend of
George Rafert. [23] Today this would be considered a rich
return. During World War I, which began in
August,
1914, urban building slowed world wide because high interest rates and
uncertainty ended this boom. In [24] This was the reason for creating the Federal
Reserve
Bank. When private companies held back
reserves, the Federal Reserve could furnish the reserves to keep the
economy
going by issuing government bonds. In a
note added on [25] The [26] Today, $69,000 a year. [27] I remember, and I am sure other older
members of the
family remember stopping by this property at [28] Grandpa attended the first [29] This would be an increase in income of about
$51,000
in 2007 dollars. [30] Frank Stewart traveled with daughter Jeanne
and her
cousin Grace Stewart to [31] The photo of Aunt Jennie and her mother, Christina Rafert, in this electric automobile is a family favorite. It hangs in the Rafert house at Fortville. [32] Today this would be a profit of about
$98,000. There were not capital gains
taxes in those
days. The price we pay for a more
flexible money supply and greater business stability is a variety of
taxes. I prefer our flexibility to the
rigidity of the old money system based on gold. [33]
It was Henry Lantz who in 1926 alerted him to the home in Fortville
that he
bought and moved into with the family on June 12 of that year. Henry Lantz was a first cousin, the son of
Elizabeth Manche Lantz who was the older sister of Christina Manche
Rafert. According to my Aunt Hazel
Ashcraft, Henry Lantz was once visiting the Rafert house on [34]
These were the core rental properties along with the [35] These materials lists with the various companies still exist. SR [36] This was a typical five year mortgage of the time. Twenty and thirty year mortgages were unknown. These short mortgages which had to be renegotiated or paid down each five years caused huge problems during the Great Depression. [37]
Mary Stone came to [38] Chronic nephritis, or inflammation of the kidneys. Robert Stewart, Ethel Rafert’s grandfather, died of the same disease in 1906. [39]
Christina Rafert’s parents were John Manche, born in 1808 and died [40] I have the will, which became a problem because Laurence Alexander was left out except for furnishings. SR [41]
Apparently the Rafert home did not have electricity, which is
surprising,
because there had been electric service in [42]
Four generations down the line, a number of Rafert descendants have
various
items from this house. The largest
number today are with Aunt Hattie Anderson at her house in Fortville. Aunt Jennie gave my parents, Stewart and
Mildred Rafert, the silverware for their wedding in November, 1939. Each piece is engraved with “C.F.
Rafert.” I also have a pewter water
pitcher
and two pewter cups. We use this silver
service with every holiday dinner for extended family here in [43] This perhaps the longest break in the entire diary. GOR didn’t like being away from business more than about two weeks at most. [44] This was a typical saying and probably good advice. The diary itself is remarkably consistent. Our grandfather (or add “greats” as necessary) was remarkably mature at an early age. Despite his complex business activities he never seemed rushed or hurried to those of us older grandchildren who knew him. In fact, he often seemed to have time to visit with us, share stories, or to take us on trips. [45]
Of course, there is no way of knowing the truth of this matter. No matter who was telling the truth, it led
to difficult relations with the Alexanders the rest of my grandfather’s
life. In later years, our families kept up
visits. I had a pleasant visit with
Laurence Alexander and her daughter Juanita Young in [46] Translation with a multiplier of 30 into approximate 2007 dollars, the net worth today would be about $1,600,000. [47] This was known as St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and was located on East Capitol Street in Washington, D.C., just south of today’s Convention Center and along the Anacostia River. It closed sometime in the 1980s. [48] I have all the ledgers. SR [49]
This was the onset of what we used to call “shaking palsy” and today
Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Stewart died [50] My father, Stewart G. Rafert ended up with this property. It was all woods with a large rock shelter just west of Shoals, in Martin County, Indiana. we visited in 1979. Dad sold it for $12,000 or $300 an acre in the mid-1980s. Soon after Larry Bird, the professional basketball player, purchased it. Doctor Stewart acquired the land in trade for medical bills in 1898. [51] Frank Stewart was solidly middle class and prosperous, but not a “businessman” able to make money from money. His love was medicine! [52] This tract was also known as the Askren farm. He sold lots there until near the end of his life in the late 1940s. [53]
Bessie Bloomer was the daughter of Ellis Bloomer and Julia Ann Stewart,
born [54]
The house at [55]
This was part of an early move several miles from the city, facilitated
by good
transportation. The main highway is now [56] The family lived in this beloved home for seven years. There are many photos of them around the house. Talk springs up to this day of “New Bethel.” [57] Dr. Gasaway lived in the home a few years, then it was sold to a member of the Lilly family who added a large sun room to the south side and an elevator. In 1945, the home was sold to the national Gold Star Mothers organization. The state highway department bought it from them in 1966. [58] The dollar of 1916 was worth at a minimum 30 times the 2007 dollar, so he had “gross dependable income” of around $290,000. The renovation of the house with a new breakfast room, new tile roof, etc. would cost at least $90,000 in today’s money. Of course, income taxes were negligible in those days and there were no state or social security taxes. [59]
This is a rather amazing prediction, written [60] This kind of inflation eventually comes with every war. Only a brutal price drop in 1921 brought prices back to their pre-war levels. [61] This is the oak desk that he kept his whole business life. [62]
Aunt Jeanne Stewart was 26 at the time and was attending a “finishing
school”
in [63]
This property was a city block of commercial buildings in the small
city of [64]
The 11th and [65]
Concrete roads were a great boon to someone like GOR who loved to drive. In fact, the first modern highways were just
under construction at the time he wrote this.
The [66] The “stuff” included some antiques from the Stewart grandparents dating back to the 1840s. Some has survived. I have a small two drawer table which Robert and Elizabeth Stewart bought when their were married in 1846. Many letters remain from the Stewart family. [67]
Walter and Ladella Turner were lifelong friends. Late
in life they moved to [68]
During World War II price controls and extremely high taxes were used
to try to
control wartime inflation. Speculation
in commodities became rampant. Staunton
Fletcher, one of the richest men in [69]
These lessons were well learned by World War II, 25 years later. In Fortville, the garden was huge and fruit
trees planted in 1936 began to bear.
Horses were brought back to work to save gasoline for
tractors, and a
cow was bought for milk. Mexican
Americans and Mexican “nationals” as we then called non-citizens
replaced the
poor whites from [70] The 23 cents a gallon of 1916 would be nearly $7.00 a gallon today (2007). [71] Cars were still for the wealthy and a fine of $450 in 2007 dollars was strictly for the rich. The $20 gold coin of those days equaled an ounce of gold, now over $600. Three fourths of $600 is $450. [72]
My father was the last baby delivered by Dr. Frank Stewart before
symptoms of
the Parkinson’s disease that killed him on [73] He’s off a little. I used a calculator and got $54.125 per acre. [74] Christopher Rafert built these houses on the lumberyard property for rental to African Americans when he retired in 1894. [75] This became known as “Black Saturday,” a deathly cold and windy day that was still talked about forty and fifty years later. My mother’s father, James Hawk, mentioned it to me on more than one occasion. [76]
These were the growing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
Several photos and letters from the [77]
[78] After moving to Fortville in 1926, he bought over 200 acres of surrounding farmland in the fall of 1929 and began one of the most enjoyable phases of his life rebuilding the rundown land and starting a cattle business in conjunction with the grain elevator he bought in Pendleton. [79]
[81]
All of this hands-on work with the [82]
This lot was in the original area of [83]
This lot near in downtown [84]
Among George Rafert’s papers was an 8 x 10 book about Camp Zachary
Taylor
located south of [85]
A
[86] Acton remains a tiny town in the southeast corner of Marion County, only three or four miles from the equally tiny town of New Bethel [also known as Wanamaker], where they lived. [87]
John Shimer worked as a manager at “Lost Freight” warehouse on [88] The value of money is so different 90 years later that $2,500 net doesn’t sound like much. In our dollars, it would be around $60,000 net per year, or $5,000 net per apartment. [89]
Montmorenci is a tiny town a few miles northwest of [90]
The farm was in southwestern, North Dakota.
Mott is around 75 miles southwest of Bismarck. It is well west of the [91]
By “cleaned up” he means to settle business loose ends. |