Joyce was ready to graduate from high school, but had no plans for college.Not many girls went to college back then.Home economics was the main study for girls,to prepare them for married life.She and Harry had started dating in her junior year and hoped that he wanted to get married.He did,and in June after her graduation,they did.It was a small wedding,just her folks and his mother,her best friend was maid of honor,his brother was best man.
They moved into the little house with second hand furniture and dishes donated by his mother.The house had a combination kitchen-eating area.A little booth from an old out of business diner.The cook stove was from the Salvation Army Store.It burned coal or wood for heating and cooking.A good sized living room and two small bedrooms upstairs.There was a well with good water, but it had a hand pump at the kitchen sink and out back was a little two holer.Nothin fancy,cardboard tacked to the walls and door for insulation.
Joyce got a part time job at five and ten cent store and they saved her pay.Within two years they had enough for a down payment on a used trailer.With help from his brother and his father-in-law, they got it moved to their land next to the house.In his spare time,Harry built a room on the back.Then they had another well drilled and installed a pump and hooked it to the trailer.
A few month's later Harry and his brother Joe dug a septic by hand,which is unheard of today.Of course the laws were not as strict then,most systems were made of several fifty gallon drums and a lot of gravel.Two months after they moved to the trailer,Joyce discovered she was pregnant.She worked into her seventh month and then Harry got a second job.
The baby was born on New Year's Day at one minute after midnight.She was a beautiful little girl, with no hair, but her mother didn't either when she was born.Harry fell in love all over again.
He said,"This little angel is going to have anything she wants."
There would be no ordinary name for this girl, Joyce said "She will be Angelica."
Ten years went by and Angelica grew into a beautiful blonde haired little girl.She was not only intelligent,she was smart.Harry had several promotions at work and Joyce reveled in being a stay at home Mom.They had no thoughts of moving from their humble country home.They saved what they could, Joyce and Harry didn't go out much, but they were happy staying home.As the years passed Angelica was a very popular girl at school and at church.She had more boy friends than girls, but that was fine with her parents.She studied hard and had good grades.
Angelica graduated with honors,third in a class of forty-three.The class went to Washington on their senior trip after graduation.The first night during dinner in the hotel dining room, Angelica excused herself, saying she had a headache.When her roommate,Jeanne, got to the room, Angelica wasn't there.After waiting an hour Jeanne called the teacher who was one of the chaperones.They immediately called the hotel desk,who in turn called security.Not any of the seniors had seen Angelica after she left the dining room.The D.C. police were called.A search was made of the hotel and surrounding area.The search went on all night long.In the morning Harry and Joyce were called.They immediately left for Washington by car.In those days it was a nine hour drive.Joyce was close to hysterics by the time they arrived.Other parents had been called and the remaining two days of the trip were cancelled.
Harry and Joyce stayed in D.C. for a week.No trace was ever found of Angelica.They returned home and Joyce had to be hospitalized.Harry wasn't much better, he started to drink.He refused to go to work, staying home waiting for the phone to ring with good news.It never happened.Harry's friends tried to get him back to work,but he refused.His boss pleaded with him, but finally had to let him go.Joyce never went home again, she went to live with her aged parents and eventually had to be sent to a mental hospital.Harry finally left the house after three months.His whereabouts are unknown to this day.
...A happy dream turned into a nightmare.....
With money Jason had saved most of his life, and with Julia's dowry,he purchased a team and wagon, loaded with furniture and tools.The land he staked out was near a small stream,with the mountain on the oposite of the stream.The land on the south bank sloped slowly to a valley with rich soil two miles away.
The first two years the Muellor's lived in a large lean-to with a huge fireplace on the lee side, with the back of the shelter to the prevailing wind which blew towards the valley.They had arrived there in the early spring, around the middle of the nineteenth century.
That first spring they planted a small vegetable garden which Julia tended.Jason built snares to catch small animals,mostly rabbits.The stream yielded trout and small crayfish.The Muellor's ate very well and shared with anyone passing through the hills to settle further on.
After the first year they converted the lean-to into a two room log cabin,with the fire place in one end of the main room.The cabin served them well for many years.Once the cabin was built, Jason started clearing more land.He envisioned a large farm with a small herd of milk cows and more horses to sell to travellers planning on going further west.Shortly after building the cabin Jason took the wagon and returned to Albany,leaving Julia to mind the garden and keep busy making clothes.In Albany he found work as a laborer and also sold some mink and skunk pelts.With a month's pay and his money from the furs,he purchased a cow and two yearling colts.He started for home with his new posessions after the fourth of July.
On the trail,on the second day out of Albany, he was joined by two young men.They were on horse back and had a pack mule with food and supplies.He was happy for the company and soon took a likng to both men.He told them of his wife and his land.He told them of his plans for a small dairy farm and trading store.They were very interested and asked if he would need help.They had planned on going to Buffalo to find work on the railroad,but if he was willing they would come back in a year to join him and Julia.
Jacob and Gerould were cousins, their mothers were sisters who came to Americe when both boys were babies.As the boys got older they wanted to see as much of the country as they could and decided the way to do it was by working on the railroad.They also had a deep love for farmimg and thought working for Jason would be a good place to settle down.
Julia was very happy to have her husband home.It had been very lonely, although there had been travellers who stopped and camped for a few nights.Julia had welcomed them and shared food and conversation, happy for the company.She was aprehensive at first, seeing the two young men with Jason,but their manners and friendliness soon put her worries to rest.They helped Jason build a small enclosure to keep the animals out of the weather.Staying for two weeks and then leaving for Buffalo or where ever they could get work on the railroad.They assured Jason and his wife they would return in a year if they were welcome.
The boys returned in the fall of the next year.They had saved a little money and wanted to invest it with Jason to help with the farm.He gladly accepted their offer and sent them to Albany to purcahse a bull and another heifer.He had many more mink pelts for them to sell to augment their savings.Along with the bull and heiffer they got a mare.They also got a present for Julia,a butter churn.Julia was very happy and thanked them by fixing the biggest meal she had ever cooked.They were all happy with their lives and all worked hard.It was a hard life and the boys yearned for female companionship.After seven years, Gerould left for Albany to work again for the railroad.He eventually met a woman and got married.His dream ended happily many years later.
Jacob stayed with the Muellors for thirty years and Jason gave him half of the two hundred acres he owned.Jacob built his own house and married a woman from the small town that had grown up twenty miles away.They were very happy and had two boys...Jacob's dream ended happily.
Jason and Julia lived into their eighty's.They never had children,but were happy and content with each other.Their dreams ended happily.
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