This continues a series adapted from the book, “A Port Oneida Collection,” Volume 1 of the twopart set, “Oral History, Photographs, and Maps from the Sleeping Bear Region,” produced by Tom Van Zoeren in partnership with Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear. Here we conclude a look at the Anderson brothers and their farm east of Lake Narada.
As described in the previous installment, bachelor brothers Henry & Ernie Anderson were extremely frugal, and hardly seemed to eat properly. One time Ernie was just “standing like a post” with his hands behind his back while the thrasher ran at a thrashing bee. Neighbor Charlie Miller, who was notorious for pranks, put an oil can on the fender of the tractor until it got just to body temperature. He then filled Ernie’s hand full of oil without Ernie noticing. “He’s the only man in the world that can sleep standin’ up,” Charlie observed. Ernie finally noticed the oil — but he never did figure out where it came from.
Dechow Family member Jill Baxter recalled that “The Ernie & The Henry (as they were known) ate with their knives . . . I remember them eating, ’cause my grandma used to have them for dinner. They’d help my grandpa sometime in the yard. And they ate with their knives . . . I think big jackknives. Sometimes they’d eat with just table knives if they didn’t have them—But they were really good with a knife. I mean, they could line peas up on that thing like nobody’s business. It was really something. I mean, I was amazed as a kid. I watched them, you know. Oh, they were good.”
