MY STORY – IRENE LOUISE (NEE KUCKKAN) MUELLER
Written By Irene L. Mueller

To my loving husband, Missionary-Pastor Richard W. Mueller, Jr.
– And To Our Dear Children, –
Deborah Louise (Wilson), Richard John, Timothy Peter,
Susan Rachel (Weiland), Stephanie Ruth (Heitsch), and Steven Mark

EARLY CHILDHOOD – 1930-1936

Where do I start? Well, I was born on April 17, 1930 at St. Mary’s Hospital (later Welbourne Hall, and as of March 30, 2007, Swifthaven Community Assisted Living), Watertown, Wisconsin – cf. Page 94 – FACES & PLACES – WATERTOWN AREA. I was the first of five children born to Henry John Kuckkan and Frances Erna Bertha (nee Koplin) Kuckkan. I was told by my mother that when I was a baby, and she was giving me a bath, I was lying so still that she ran to get my aunt, Esther (who was a neighbor), because she thought I was dead! My aunt told her that I was sleeping! I was a very contented baby. My father lived from August 14, 1904 – July 3, 1983. My mother lived from June 3, 1914 – September 24, 2002. Herman and Mathilda “Opa and Oma” (nee Mechler) Koplin came from Germany. Herman came from Pomerania and Mathilda from Bavaria. Both of them came by ship, though at different times, and came through Ellis Island in New York. My mother, Frances Erna Bertha, said that her mother worked as a maid for a Jewish couple in New York. How my grandparents met I don’t know. They spoke a lot of German, and so did my parents. “Oma” called my sisters and me “dolls” in German, and taught her children German prayers which my mother taught us. Herman lived from February 8, 1870 – October 3, 1950. Mathilda lived from December 31, 1873 – January 27, 1947. They lived on a farm (all that is left is the house, horse barn, and a house built on the barn foundation) on a very high hill (east of the old Country Club) out north second street with their three children – my mother, Frances, her twin sister, Louise (Schlender), and her brother, Ewald. Herman and Mathilda (my grandparents), and Uncle Ewald are buried (also Ewald’s second wife, Ethel), in Oak Hill Cemetery, Watertown, Wisconsin

 My Kuckkan grandparents did not come from Germany, but my great grandparents did (cf. “Kuckkahn Lineage”). Carl and Johanna (nee Boje), “Opa and Oma”, had twelve children – Meta, Lily, Edward, Sadie, Carl, Nora, Clara, Henry (my father), Esther, Johanna, Herbert, and Arthur (died in infancy) – cf. Pages 31, 71, 84, 92, and 104 of FACES & PLACES – WATERTOWN AREA. Carl lived from March 3, 1858 – March 13, 1948. Johanna lived from August 28, 1865 – June 25, 1936. They lived on a farm (no longer a farm) east of Watertown, past Oak Hill cemetery. (I’ll never forget when “Oma” Kuckkahn died. They “laid her out” in the parlor which was hardly ever used in those days, so the door was usually closed. Many of the rooms weren’t heated then yet, and there was no air conditioning. My sisters, cousins, and I thought it was very weird that “Oma” was in the house like that.)

I had one brother, Henry John, Jr., who lived from September 23, 1935 – March 31, 1942. He was only six years old. My Kuckkahn grandparents, parents, brother, sister, Beatrice (April 27, 1931 – October 8, 2005) Nehls, and one of my father’s sisters (Clara) are all buried in St. Mark’s Cemetery, Watertown, Wisconsin.

Besides my sister, Beatrice, and my brother, Henry, who passed away, I have two sisters, Doloris, and Janet (eighteen years younger than I am). My sisters, Beatrice, Doloris, and I loved to go to our grandfathers’ farms. We were still very little. I loved to climb trees, even the silo on “Opa” Koplin’s farm to get birds’ nests until once, Beatrice, nearly fell down. That was the end of that. You can imagine what happened! I got a spanking! Also, I loved to ride the “work” horses, jump on the stone pile (stones which my grandfather had taken off his land with a “stone boat”), pick out the pretty stones, etc. I loved all the animals (horses, cows, pigs, chickens, cats, dogs, etc.) on both farms. At that time water for all needs had to be pumped (with a windmill and pump) from a well – there was a pail with a dipper in the kitchen for drinking. Water had to be heated in a “boiler” on the wood-burning stove for washing clothes, and the washing was done with a “washboard” in a tub. The drying of clothes was done by hanging them with clothespins on a clothesline with long poles to hold them up outside.

Food was kept cold by getting ice for the “ice boxes” (before refrigerators or freezers) in the kitchen from the “ice house”. The ice was harvested from the Rock River in winter and kept in sawdust (to keep it cold) in the ice house. Some vegetables were kept in the “root cellars” to preserve them. There were no bathrooms in the houses, but an “outhouse” away from the house, where one used catalogue paper for toilet paper. Brrrrr, it was cold in winter! At night there were pots under the beds for one’s needs during the night. We kept warm in our beds with “feather tick (or corn husk)” mattresses, featherbed quilts and pillows, homemade with down from goose feathers – cf. John Denver’s “Grandma’s Feather Bed” on the Internet – or woolen quilts (homemade with wool from the woolen mills).

The grandparents planted wonderful big gardens from which they received, thanks be to God, all kinds of delicious fruits and vegetables which were canned. Animals – pigs, cows (milked by hand), ducks, geese, and chickens – were butchered right on the farm to provide meat which was eaten right away or smoked in the “smokehouse”. Homemade sausage (it was so good!) was made in the kitchens. Food (corn, hay, wheat, etc.) for the animals was grown on the farms. My “Opas” plowed the fields with a single plow, cultivated them, seeded them, cut the corn, etc. – all horse drawn. I’ll never forget riding on the top of the hay wagon. The hay was thrown up with forks onto the wagon, taken to the barn, and then taken up by a huge hay fork (it was ominous!) into the hay mows. Hay was cut with a “scythe”.

Threshing day was something! – cf. Page 91 – FACES & PLACES –WATERTOWN AREA. The threshing machine put the wheat into bags on one end for the men to carry to the granary. They carried the bags on their shoulders. My sisters and I loved to eat the fresh kernels of wheat in the granary. The chaff from the wheat flew out of the threshing machine on the other end onto a huge pile for the animals’ beds. How am I remembering all this? Ah, but the food on threshing day! The neighbors all came together and pitched in, the men working outside, and the women inside. You guessed it! The women were cooking and baking, and what delicious meals they made – plenty of homemade bread, meat, potatoes, gravy, vegetables, and the most mouth-watering pies (Opa Koplin had cherry trees on his farm) which have ever been eaten!!!! Yes, threshing day was quite something!

When I was about three or four, I stepped on a nail on “Opa” Kuckkahn’s farm while climbing barefoot on a wood pile. I screamed so loud that everybody came running – with iodine – saying it wouldn’t hurt. Then I screamed louder when they put it on – it hurt! A neighbor girl, Mary (nee Neuman) Bankert, remembers it to this day, and I surely do – will never forget it. Another thing I remember on “Opa” Koplin’s farm is when Pa put me onto a horse when I was also about three or four (had never been on a horse), and slapped its behind. It took off, but I hung on, even when it went under a low-hanging branch of a tree. It took me for a wild ride, but it was fun. I love horseback riding!

My parents, sisters, little brother, and I lived on a farm (no longer there), smaller than the Opas’ and Omas’ farms. Highway 16 is right next to where it used to be on North Second Street. We, too, had a well, outhouse, wood-burning stove, no electricity, etc. I remember when my sister, “Beatie” and I would sleep very closely together in one bed to keep warm because there was no heat in the bedrooms. We survived! One of the things which is indelible in my mind is when my sister and I were running around the dining room table which had a tablecloth and KEROSENE LAMP on it, and the lamp fell down! The tablecloth was on fire! My father picked up the whole thing and threw it out the door, saving all of our lives. “Ma” told me that when I was very little and we lived down the road from my Aunt Esther and Uncle Emil, I pushed my little “buggy” with my doll in it dressed only in my petticoat!!!!

We were visiting neighbors down the road when there was a terrible storm. My sisters, neighbor’s children, and I were playing in the middle of the living room floor when the chimney fell down. Thank God my mother and the other mother grabbed us in time so that it didn’t fall on us. That night electric wires which had fallen down during the storm were snaking across the road.