The Schlenkers of Parmer County
BY DON & GLADYS SPRING
The small woman stood in the doorway of the wood frame house wrapped snuggly in a quilted robe. She shivered from time to time in spite of the heavy garment. “Winter mornings in Texas were just as cold as the ones in Des Moines,” she thought. Her eyes took in the great flat expanse of blackened prairie.
The great prairie fire of 1906 had raked the land bare from New Mexico to Oklahoma some time before and the still black sprigs of a former grassland made the land even more desolate. She had ridden the train from Des Moines a week or so before with her nine children to join her husband, Charles in their new home in the Panhandle of Texas. Her mind drifted back to the rolling hills of Iowa and the streams and trees she had always took for granted.
She also very much missed the churches and stores there, and the friends she so much enjoyed. Even as flat as the land here was she couldn’t see a single other home no matter which direction she looked. Christmas was just around the corner and she would surely miss the songs and parties and the church services. Oh well, the children were stirring and Charles had the fire going so it was time to busy herself with breakfast. She didn’t go to town for seven years.
Charles Schlenker had left Des Moines with the words from his wife, Amelia, ringing in his ears. “Now Charles, don’t buy any land out there, you hear?” But the lure of cheap land and fertile soil was just too great a lure. In just a few days he had written to her, “Dear Amelia, Today I plowed a row over a mile long and never hit a stump or a rock. And the soil is very rich.” She knew that the deal had already been sealed so she just got the children ready for the trip.
When he returned to sell his holdings in Iowa, he was full of stories about the new land. Charles, like his kin for many generations, reaching back to Germany, was close to the land. He was only happy farming and raising farm animals and he knew that this country was made for raising wheat and hogs and kids, so he brought his eldest sons out to the new farm and they built a frame house for the family and then the others followed on the train.
Nine children from Floyd at fourteen to Louisa a babe in arms made up the trainload of Iowans moving to Texas. Oscar, Willard, Esther, Mabelle, Florence, Bula, and Harold were the other children. After coming to Texas, John (Chick) and Helen were born. Also one child was stillborn.
The Schlenker family soon learned that the weather cycles on the plains could be very severe and unforgiving, and some years were very lean. After a period of drought and low prices, Charles decided to quit and move back to Iowa. He went to his banker in Bovina and informed him that he just couldn’t hold on another year. The Banker said, “Charles, we need good men like you here. Why don’t you buy a good herd of cattle and graze them on the Rhea Brothers free range? It won’t cost you anything and I’ll loan you the money. Just go over and buy some of those low priced yearlings and try for another year.” Charles did just that and it worked out well for the family.
Farm life back then was much different because there was not the daily sojourn to town. Everything that the family needed was pretty much provided by the land. Butchering was done mostly in the fall and hogs, cattle and any other butcher animals were strung up on the windmill and became the table fare for the family. The lard and other rendered products were used for the necessities of the family.
Soap was made using the hog lard and a little lye and a lot of delicacies of the day such as pickled pigs feet and “cracklins’” were all part of the living process. Amelia baked twenty-three loaves of bread a week for the brood and a certain day of the week was set aside for the tremendous washday. Charles and the boys tended the crops, animals and the outdoor chores. The trip to town every four or six weeks was not a pleasure trip although I’m sure the children counted it as pleasure, but the wagon ride alone took almost all the day.
As time went on the boys began to get jobs and eventually met and courted local girls. Three of the Schlenker boys married Reeve girls. Floyd married Malinda Reeve, Oscar married Alice Reeve and Willard married Frances Reeve. Of course the same was true of the pretty girls of the family and in time all the children moved away from home and some moved out of the country. Oscar and Alice moved to California, as did Bula and Florence and Willard and Frances. The rest scattered over the lower 48 except for Floyd, Chick, Mabelle, Helen and Louisa. They all stayed around and in fact Helen has lived all her ninety plus years within a few yards of where she was born.
Charles suffered a massive heart attack in 1939 and died suddenly. Grandmother Schlenker lived on the farm until the late 1950’s when she moved to Friona and lived with Mabelle. She died in 1963. Only two girls remain of the children, Helen and Louisa, but the far strewn cousins, second cousins and etc. remain tight knit today. They celebrate a family reunion every two years and usually over a hundred interested “kith and kin” attend the functions and they have a great time.
This year on the 14th thru the 16th of July over two hundred Schlenker relatives will grace the great city of Friona, Texas to mark the centennial celebration of Charles and Amelia’s arrival in Parmer County. Mayor John Taylor has proclaimed July 15, 2006 as Charles and Amelia Schlenker Day and a parade has been planned down Main Street at 11:00 AM on that day.
Charles and Amelia Schlenker gave their progeny much more than life. They imparted a deep love of family, friends and country to each of them and it still kindles very warmly today.
This is probably the home that Charles and the older sons built before Amelia and the rest of the family came to Parmer County in December 1906. The date on this photo is 1914. It was after Floyd and Malinda Reeve married in 1912. Malinda is in the photo with the rest of the Schlenker family.
ron carr photo
Friona Mayor John Taylor signs a proclamation designating July 15 as Charles & Amelia Schlenker Day. Present at the Prairie Acres signing were sisters Helen Schlenker Potts, left, and Louisa Schlenker Wilson, residents of the nursing home. Helen will be 94 on July 17. Louisa will be 100 on September 25. She was about two-months-old when the family came to Parmer County in 1906.