Here is a letter addressed to J. B. Dick, my Grandfather. His full name was John Barkman Dick. (Forgive me if I repeat some of this stuff. I can't remember what I've said and what I haven't.) It is post-marked Hillsboro, Kansas, 1951. I wish I knew when the family moved to California from Kansas. What I do know it was during the dust bowl and for the same reasons that everybody else moved West. Hillsboro was a destination point for Mennonite Brethren people. They were the whole town. Many of my relatives, and we were probably related to 3/4 of the town, were very wealthy, but not my Grandpa. They had a small ten acre farm which was not able to sustain the family in any way. So, one of my Grandma's rich relatives gave them $2,000 for it. With that money, they made their trip to California. They bought an old Chevrolet and a trailer and moved all their worldly goods to Reedley, the other mecca for the Mennonites. What a story. Anyway, this is a beautiful little letter to my Grandpa. I have no idea what it says or who it's from, although it is in tact inside. Interesting, half the letter seems to be in German and the other half in English.
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I was told by Dad that when Grandma married Grandpa, she came with a "dowery" of a section of land. I think Dad told me that Grandpa wanted to be a preacher, and they sold the property to promote this, i.e., Tabor College.
This really did not work out very well, because Grandpa was kind of an outsider at Hillsboro. The powers in the church, years earlier, had immigrated to Hillsboro from Russia, and Grandpa was a "Johnny-come-lately" and his ministry never really worked out.
This is what I recall Dad telling me, though, I may not be remembering well. I do know for a certainty Dad had a real resentment for the Church in Hillsboro for the poverty the church allowed them to endure.
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