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Two
eras.....
Ehrlich Brothers,
Independent Ehrlich
families....about
1938-1953.
By Maurice Ehrlich
2007
Asaph and Ezra went
their separate ways, and it is the beginning of a recovery period
for their complete lives. Ezra to
California and a new
job....Asaph staying "put" in hopes of salvaging a family's life
gone very questionable at best.
The goal was to produce a livelihood for a family with
no working capital and few resources.....but that is part of my
story. I was about a fifth grader when the urge began for me
to drive. My first driving experience came as Dad had me steer
the cattle feeder truck loaded with bales of hay, as he distributed
them from the back of the truck. It was a big help
because otherwise the cattle feed would not get evenly
distributed.....I felt good about knowing how to drive. I was
also learning to drive the tractor. We had a small Fordson row
type tractor, and somehow it seemed a small boy would be able to
handle it, and I did drive it up and down the rows of sorghum
cultivating three rows at a time. I never felt anything but
pride in being able to do so much to help out.
Dad did not spend a lot of money buying
machinery....I know it was because he knew he had to produce with
little expense. He bought some very antique horse drawn wheat
drills....wooden storage boxes that had seen better days...We
reworked them, stuffing their leaks with rags. They were made
for horses with a wooden pole for a hitch, but we tied them behind a
steel drill and planted three drills wide. We planted wheat
before the ground was dry, so as to form crusty ridges that would
protect the plants from the wind. And in 1942 we raised
several thousand bushels of wheat....the first crops on that farm
in decades. I assisted him to repair the old wooden
windmills that still existed, some with blades missing from the wind
.....and we pulled the jet-rods and replaced the leathers and checks
so that they would pump water.
He would be described in the cattle trade today
as a Cow and Calf man.....He bought thin mother
cows, fattened them up, and took care of them until their
calves were weaned. We then had the proverbial round up,
horses and all, but no roping or that kind of stuff....Just gathered
them up, pushed them into a pin, and methodically vaccinated,
castrated, de-horned, and branded. My job was always to
be the crowder....meaning to push the calves into the crowd pen and
on into the chute, where Dad did his thing. We had two old cow
horses...one was Peanuts....docile and old....the other named Joker,
for obvious reasons...sorrel and waspy. I always rode
Peanuts, and rode him a lot for pleasure as well. Dad was not
one for conformity.....we did not have a horse trailer, but we did
have a 1940 Ford 2 ton truck.....We loaded the horses on that flat
bed, no sideboards, and the horses would ride.....People would ask
Dad how it was that he could get the horses to do that....His
response....."they don't lean against the sidewalls anyway....so
they probably don't need them".
There are quite a few incidents that I am reminded of
from time to time......some of them involved harvesting wheat.
Ehrlich Brothers sold Oliver Farm equipment and one of their
products was Nichols and Sheppard threshing
machines. Threshing machines are large straw gulping
machines that are made to stand in place while the harvest hands
feed it bundles or forage for grain separation. The machines
were sometimes called The Red River Special Line, and the
manufacturing engineers must have thought if they put wheels and a
header on them, they could call them combines...At any rate, we had
one.....the header was balanced with a 12 foot timber sticking our
behind loaded with large steel weights....sort of a fulcrum
balancing act.....Dad could make the thing run, and did so from his
platform a few feet above the header. It was my job to pull
the beast with the tractor. We were almost finished
harvesting one Summer when the tractor motor crashed.....the
replacement, a smaller Ford tractor was too light for the load,
and would raise off the ground when the tongue of the
combine was placed on it's hitch. We were stymied....but
what they called A.E. Ehrlich ingenuity came into play....take
the hitch off the tractor and chain the beast to the rear
axle......And just get on and drive.....but you cannot turn a tight
corner because the tires will catch on the tongue, so make big
circles to turn.....It took a few minutes to make a big circle for
every corner, but we did finish harvesting in a few
hours....
Lots of stories about that old combine, and what it
took to make it perform.....Another piece of equipment was an IHC
binder he bought down at Shattuck....it was about 1945....we pulled
it home behind the 1940 Chevrolet car tied to the bumper. It
was like a jig saw puzzle with a sack full of bolts....We put it
together after a few days, and proceeded to bundle feed for the
winter. Putting that thing together taught me quite a lot
about how something complicated could work....I was particularly
interested in how it tied the twine around the bundle.
It was soon thereafter, Dad called from Kansas where he was feeding
cattle, and said it would probably be a good idea to cut the feed
crop that was growing west of the farmhouse.....Joanna was standing
close by, and she volunteered to ride the seat, and dump the
bundles, and together we did the job......We were an unusual duo to
say the least, but we were effective.
The Asaph Ehrlich Starting-Over-Turn-Around was very
evident because by 1945 the Jackrabbit farm was now the home place,
and included the Green Section next door, and a 440 acre
farm north of Darrouzett.
The cattle business
now included cattle grazing in Kansas....and the annual
shipment of cattle from the little ranch in
Texas to
Kansas
City via the
railroad. Asaph would accompany the cattle riding the
Santa
Fe caboose, all the
way. On one occasion we drove the cattle to the stockyards,
loaded them onto the cars, and the train was already in place to
hook up and haul the cattle to Kansas
City. All I had to
do was take the horses back to the farm, while Dad jumped aboard the
caboose......Peanuts and Joker....I was riding Peanuts and leading
Joker....to shorten the trip a little, I pushed them to a short
gallop......I mean a big gallop.....I could not control them as they
galloped over 4 miles to the farm....I thought for sure Peanuts
would die...but I walked them for awhile and locked them up without
too many consumables, and the next day they were
okay.
The next years saw big improvements in our farming
capacity.....We now had two self propelled combines, and two newer
tractors......but, without realizing it....we probably would not
experience anytime soon a farming situation with the profit margin
equal to those prior few years. In fact, by the time I
was graduating from high school, Dad was buying a little farm in
South Dakota.....He seemed to sense the Texas farms were not as
profitable as they needed to be, and perhaps farming here would
minimize the risk. I was present when the little farm was
purchased. He bought if from a very old real estate agent
named Falcon.....the man was almost blind.....but he told Dad he
could rent the place for $20 per acre, and if he wanted to buy it
later, the $20 per acre would apply......He planted it to barley and
made a really good barley crop. A gutsy move because the
growing season was almost gone when he
planted it.
We
made a trip to South
Dakota hauling our weed
sprayer on the truck. We were going to S.D. in the early
summer to spray our Spring Wheat for mustard weed. We had
sleeping bags, and slept under the truck somewhere in
Nebraska......After we had
driven a few hours that next morning, we discovered that Dad's
billfold was not where it was supposed to be. We went
back, and looked in vain....we were nearly out of gas, and now no
money. We stopped at an implement dealers lot, and Dad
talked, and that guy loaned us money, and we went on and finished
our job, even though the wind blew so hard, we could not spray for
several days. Dad would buy machinery from that dealer
later, his name was J. Ray.
I
took my bride in 1951, and we rented a small apartment in Canyon
Texas.....Bobbie Ann started to school, but decided that she would
be happy working and did so at an Amarillo Insurance Agency....I
worked part time at the Gulf station, and Dad came and stayed with
us one night.....sleeping on our little couch. He was on a
cattle buying mission to Amarillo, and we were
surprised when he arrived unannounced, but we found out a little
more about him that brief visit. He was unflappable, and
mentioned to us how he appreciated our efforts....He said he
appreciated Bobbie because she was not afraid to work.
We had spent part of our first married Summer in
South
Dakota working. We
kept thinking he had something important to tell us, but if he did,
he changed his mind. That was the Fall of 1951.....less than
two years later, he would be gone.
I
treasure these and many other memories....little anecdotes that tell
so much.....One little final story, and it occurred in the
spring of 1951. He had purchased a blue 1949 pickup from his
nephew car-dealer Merlin Laubhan for $1100......and the South Dakota
operation could use another......He went to Merlin, gave him a check
for $1100 and told him he wanted another one, blue would be
fine.....He let me use that pickup for a few months at school.....no
radio....just a heater....but I loved it....Merlin on the other
hand, was not quite as happy......
The family during this
period of time was busy, busy. Jo and Bernie had a
responsibility to go to college.....it was expected of
them. Gene was away for the duration of the war.....L.J.
and Tracy were both too young
to participate, although they did participate very well
when the time came.....L.J. was also helping in
South
Dakota in 1953 when Dad
died. Bernie had graduated college in 49', and was helping out
at home.
I
always thought Mom's dining room table was the testament
to the tenacity and endurance of that family....That table
in the dining room had some wooden braces underneath for
strength. Those braces after witnessing six kids scraping
their feet for 25 years, were worn as slick as
London cobblestones......yet
that table seemed as good as ever.....a short story....a load
of living....
Two eras.....Ehrlich Brothers, about
1925-1938....Independent Ehrlich families....about
1938-1953.
Sincerely, Maurice
Ehrlich
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