Letters Written To Hubert Kleiboeker

The following 66 letters were written between July 1944 and April 1945 from various members of the August Kleiboeker Family.  They provide an incredible insight into life in the 1940's in rural SW Missouri describing the large amount of labor required to maintain and operate a farmstead at that time.  Keep in mind that this farm family of 10 children still had no electricity or running water in 1945.  Most of their community members, who lived in or near the town of Freistatt had had electricity since 1927.  The remote Kleiboeker farm was located near neighbors who did not want to spend the money for electricity as it took multiple neighbors to agree to fund a new electric line.  Without electricity, their only way to pump the well water into the house was with the pump handle and lots of buckets. This also meant use of an outhouse on a regular basis even in winter.  All of this is mentioned in the letters.  Luther, their hired hand digs a new outhouse. Lorene writes of hauling water to get ready to do wash on Mondays. Evelyn writes about Lorn hauling and chopping firewood which was used to cook and heat the house.  Lorene struggles with the gas powered washing machine that would not start.  Lorene writes of listening to the hand cranked Victrola, and Evelyn writes about her favorite radio shows.  The letters describe butchering hogs in the winter, selling cattle, and what prices they get at the market.  Mama Hulda writes about the 350 new chicks she will soon receive and without the help of Hubert she was worried how she would manage.  Hulda's two letters, March 5th and 20th, are written in German (which didn't seem to bother the US Army's letter censors) and are translated in the files below and especially interesting to read.

In 1945, 4 of the older children, Elda, Alvin, Martin and Meta were already married and no longer at home.  Elda (37) was in Kansas City with her Husband Al operating a funeral home, Meta (28) was in California as her husband Vic was stationed there and off fighting in the Pacific. Martin (33) and Alvin (31) were both farming nearby and helping out when they could but they had their own children too.  Vera was working at Camp Crowder and living in Neosha, MO, traveling by bus from Neosha to Pierce City on the weekends to see her family.  Leona (35) had been working as a nanny and household help in various families in Kansas City, but was between jobs at the time and came back home to help out. Lorene (25) had been working in Washington DC since late 1941, but came back home in the summer of 1943 to help with all the chores at home.  Papa August was not that healthy, and could not put in a full days work, so the family desperately needed more labor at home, with only Evelyn (17) and Lorn (20) there now that Hubert was off to fight in Europe.