27. april 2023 Stories of the Palms: Part 4 Tragedy

Stories of The Louis Palms: Part 4
As told by Raymond Palm  1937-1982
Composed chronologically and edited by Wannaskawriter/SR)

    Forty years ago, Janet Strandlie, of Thief River Falls, Minnesota acted as a caregiver for a week, starting on February 26, 1983, for my uncle, the late Raymond Palm, of Roseau, Minnesota, who at the age of 20 became paralyzed from the waist down as a result of a tree-climbing accident in 1932. Raymond became a successful jeweler, watchmaker, and gunsmith. He had an adjoining living space and shop in a house on Center Street East, in which he lived with his sister, Irene, and her 2nd husband, John. 

    A spinal cord injury survivor, Raymond ‘walked on’ in 2002, at age 91, after surviving 71 years in a wheelchair. Janet writes: “These are Raymond’s words, written as fast as possible as he wove the tales and brought up story after story. He'd laugh so hard at times, then sometimes shed a tear. This was done over one week in 1983. I think he really enjoyed it.”

    “In 1937, I was along with Dad to the Lundquist Sale and a man with a stallion was there. Dad asked him to come because we had a horse we wanted to breed. He came by, stayed overnight, and in the morning Dad and him got up early.

    “I remember Ma telling how Dad had gotten up and swatted her on the butt and kidded her about her getting up to fix breakfast. That, was their last bit of communication...

    “They had put the stallion up with the mare in the barnyard. Somehow in the commotion of the breeding, one of the horses kicked Dad in the base of the head. He was unconscious right away. We got a hold of Martin some way or another and he came down and took Dad and Ma in the car to the hospital in Roseau."

This was the horse that dragged Clinton -- and killed Willie.

   "Ma stayed with him. Dad never came to and died about four or five o’clock that afternoon. The funeral was in the Palmville Church; Rev. Lundeen was the minister. Violet and Guy came up. This was July 23, 1937. Dad was fifty-three years old."

   Janet wrote: "At the time when Grandma Annie Palm lost her husband at such an early age and so tragically, she had Raymond at home completely paralyzed;  Clinton, who had been so badly hurt the year before; her elderly father Amund Berg, and her two brothers, and a sister there too. All the boys were yet at home, and kept the farm going.

    "Clifford enlisted right after Pearl Harbor, but was rejected for the Coast Guard because of bad teeth. In June of 1942, he was drafted into the army and went to Fort Leonardwood. He went overseas in the fall to North Africa. As a combat engineer, he served 5 years in Africa and Europe with the 36th Division, 111th Engineering Battalion. (THE RAVEN: Volume 7 Issue 3, 2004) I can imagine how Grandma worried and prayed for him. Clifford married a local girl named Delores Jesme, in 1946. Clifford went to Chicago and took a course to become an electrician. Clifford and Delores were parents of two daughters and a son.

      Ervin was exempt for farming. He remained home to operate the family farm and take care of Grandma and Raymond. In 1948, he married Audrey Jensen of Wannaska, and they became the parents of four sons, the first born in 1949, then 1951, 1953, and 1955. In 1957, they moved to Aurora Minnesota where he worked at Erie Mining Company,

     Clinton was exempt for farming throughout the war. He enlisted in 1945 after the war, and served overseas on Occupation Duty in Germany. After returning, he came home and went to the Kansas City School of Watchmaking. He worked around the home and in Middle River awhile.

    In 1950, Clinton, Grandma, and Raymond moved to Twin Valley and rented a building and set up a family store to get Clinton started in business, where we lived in the back of the store. " ... and give Ervin and Audrey a chance to raise their family alone."

"Ma and I bought a house next to the Eastside Grocery in Roseau where I set up my watch repair business."

 

    "In 1955, Clinton went to Fargo and worked. Ma and I bought a house next to the Eastside Grocery in Roseau where I set up my watch repair business and hung out my shingle. Ma was yet able to take full care of me, but in about 1962 Irene began to take over many of the duties and spend more and more time there. 

    Raymond told the story of, "Back in 1946 or '47, Martin, Irene, and I went to Des Moines, where Violet and Guy lived; it was the first time for me. Clinton and Ervin were home alone. Both were in their 20s, so old enough to know better. They'd gone down to Helmer Davidson's (Martin's brother) place in Holt, and bought some dynamite from him. 

    "Well, they were coming home, and here was Sam Dahl's mailbox ...So they stuck in a stick of dynamite ... "'Goodbye mailbox!'"

A 'Before' facsimile of Sam Dahl's mailbox

 

   "Sam didn't know and called the sheriff, and that kind of scared the boys. Anyway, the sheriff went around the country and somehow got the idea to question the Palm boys, finally Clinton and Ervin confessed. They were fined about five dollars apiece. A good lesson.

    "When I was a kid, I had heard that if you put oats in a bicycle tire and added water it would expand and make a hard tire, so I tried that and it worked until it started fermenting and the geese started following me around the yard! Anyway, the oats finally dried out and the tire got flat again.

     "In the fall of 1962, when Jack and Janet were moving back from the cities, Martin, Irene, and Karen officially moved in with me, and Jack and Janet moved in on the farm. Martin spent a lot of time on the farm with them the following summer.

    "In 1964, Ma had to have her right leg amputated up at high thigh because of the ulcers on her ankles and leg which wouldn’t heal. She also had diabetes quite bad. When she left the hospital she went directly to Sheltering Oaks Nursing Home.

    "In April of 1969, Ma died. In the late part of 1968, Martin and Irene moved their house from the farm into Roseau and put it on a city lot, at 910 Center Street, that I had purchased just three doors east of 808 Center Street of where we had lived by the Eastside Grocery. We built an addition onto Martin and Irene's house and added a shop and a bathroom on its west side for me. I moved in on September 1969.

    "In 1974, Martin had a massive stroke and was in Roseau Area Hospital. In February of 1975, he suffered another stroke and died. Ervin Palm died of a heart attack in April that same year. Two years later, Clinton was accidentally killed in a street, in St. Cloud, where he was living, working at Fingerhut. 

    "In September of 1979, Steven Reynolds moved to Roseau from Des Moines, Iowa; he had bought Irene and Martin’s farm in 1971.

     "In June, 1979, Irene married John Reese and lived at 910 Center Street with Raymond operating a thriving jewelry and watch repair business.

     "In 1982, Violet died of an enlarged heart which she had many years. She was buried in Des Moines.

    "In 2004, at age 88, Clifford died and is buried in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin as is Delores.

    "Irene died in 2008 at age 91, in at Green Leaf Nursing Home in Thief River Falls.

     "Martin and Irene, Jack, and Karen are buried in the Palmville Cemetery; Dean is buried in Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Adel, Iowa.

    

     Raymond’s story of how he became paralyzed is known to many, but I don’t know of any story about the incident and his life thereafter, written purely in his own words. Read the conclusion of "Stories of the Louis Palms: Part 5 next week.