Xmas on the farm, 1950

 

Here is what my great-grandmother, Annie Hicks, wrote:

When we came to Michigan, we worked on a farm in 1941 and 1942. In the fall of ’42 we got jobs in the shops and the children went to school at Bridgman, and we drove to Benton Harbor to work. In the summer of 1943, we rented an apartment at 120 Sixth Street in Benton Harbor and stayed there six years. In the meantime, in 1945 we bought a 20 acre farm about 20 miles south of Benton Harbor. We rented the farm out for three years, then we moved on it and Ulys quit working in the shop but I kept working till 1953. Ulys worked in the shop till 1948. He got so disabled that we sold the farm and bought a house in Benton Harbor at 602 Empire. He didn’t work any more, but I worked about two years more. We bought the house in Benton Harbor the fall of 1951.

Photo: Annie (center) and 5 of her 6 daughters (L-R): Ruby, Cleffie, Evalee, Vernell, Bernice. 

Here is the house in Benton Harbor at 602 Empire. This is where Grandma and Papa Hicks lived when I was growing up: