Brainerd
Brainerd, Minnesota
Stories set here
- A Remembered Visit to BrainerdBarbara once accompanied Mom and Dad to Brainerd to visit relatives. She remembers little except her impression that everyone seemed very poor and that the cousins were cute.
- Minnesota Visits, Grandma's Sandwiches, and Northern LightsBernard recalls visiting Dan Guild's Minnesota grave, where aunt Myrtle seriously suggested digging him up. He remembers attending Dan's funeral at eleven in 1947, Grandma Olive's kindness over a fried egg sandwich, and visits with his father's relatives around Brainerd. His memories include attic sleeping, fresh warm milk at Uncle Clarence's farm, glowing swamp gas, brilliant Northern Lights in 1947, fishing, and mosquito bites.
- Songs, Dancing, and Days Outdoors with DadIris recalls singing with her father in the car, especially on long trips to Brainerd. His favorite songs included Red Sails In The Sunset, which brings back a happy image of him singing beside her. He taught her to dance and, when she was about twelve, to shoot. She remembers using a twenty-two rifle, though she acknowledges the uncertainty of memory. He proudly praised her shooting, took her hunting without her shooting anything, and took her fishing during visits to relatives in Brainerd, where she caught fish.
- Gus Falk's Friendship and a Fresh Start in MolineGus Falk met Daddy, Uncle Clarence, and the other sons through stops at Grandpa Dan Guild's radiator repair shop in Brainerd during his annual Minnesota hunting and fishing trips. He offered to help them find jobs at John Deere in Moline. Upset by Grandpa's decision to cut down and sell the black walnut trees, Daddy left for Moline at sixteen. Gus secured him a job at John Deere Plow Works, where he worked for thirty-nine years. Iris also recalls Daddy driving a truck for a WPA road-building company during some early Great Depression years. He jokingly claimed his inexperienced crew built a particularly bumpy road section on the way to Chicago, but the family never believed him.
- Fishing with Gus and Fried Fish for SupperGus Falk often visited the family home and hunted deer with Daddy. He sometimes rode to Brainerd with the family. Iris remembers fishing with Dad at a lake on Gus's family's property, with Bernie and Bob joining later. They caught plenty of fish, and Iris delighted in eating fried fish instead of mutton stew.
- Inventive Hands and the Fortunes of an InheritanceNewton’s mills, repair shop, patents and royalties illustrate what the family calls the Guild tinkering trait. The account also credits Thaddeus Fairbanks and Mr. Morse with scale and engine innovations. After Newton’s death, Dan supported his family with his inheritance, Bernal became a traveling salesman, and Frank Beckman lost most of Adah’s share in a failed furniture store venture.
- An Unexpected Inheritance and a Granary HomeAn elderly bachelor left his wooded 160-acre property and operating sawmill to the poorest family in St. Mathias Township. The township elders chose the Dan Guild family. Floyd and Clarence saw a hopeful future, while Olive feared Dan would ruin their good fortune. Dan, Olive, Floyd, and Clarence made the windowless granary livable by sealing its open slat-work. Bessie had already left home to marry Ira Ringering, recently returned from World War I, and Pearl had died of diphtheria at 16 a year earlier.
- From the Old Farm to a New Start in MolineFamily memories follow Dan and Olive on the Falk property, the mysterious driveway inscription, Myrtle's minnow sales, and Bessie's diphtheria quarantine and marriage. After Dan lost the property, Clarence moved to Bessie's home and Floyd stayed with Uncle Bernie, learning horse care and practical jokes. Gus Falk helped Floyd move to Moline and find work in 1921. Relatives admired his success, and visits and reunions continued through his parents' later years. The passage preserves contradictory dates in Olive's calendar account and the boys' refusal to admit writing the inscription.
Events here
Once
Visit to relatives in Brainerd
Barbara traveled with Mom and Dad to visit relatives, remembering that everyone seemed very poor and that the cousins were cute.
other
Visits to relatives and fishing in Brainerd
Iris sang with her father on long car trips to Brainerd. During visits to relatives there, he took her fishing and she caught fish.
other
Adah’s inheritance lost in a furniture store venture
Frank is said to have squandered most of Adah’s inheritance in a failed venture with two crooked partners.
Family corrections
Notes sent in by the family and approved on review. They sit alongside the original record — the book's wording is never changed.
No corrections on file for this record yet.
Suggest a correction