Ralph Hiram Dexter 1905-1995
Ralph
Hiram Dexter was born April 11, 1905, five miles south of Home City, Marshall
County, Kansas. The present town of Home, Kansas is located eleven miles
east of Marysville, Kansas. His parents were William Hiram and Hettie
Alice (Hewitt) Dexter. He was christened in the Baptist Church.
(most of the following information is from Ralph's personal recollections shared with his daughter, Carol in 1979)
Ralph remembered the family farm, 160-190 acres. He and his brother, Fred each had one row cultivators and they were cultivating corn. Fred always wanted to go in early, Ralph always wanted to do one more round. So they had words and each would do the thing he wanted. (editor's note: I wonder how Fred would tell the story)
When he was younger, he used to hide occasionally under the corn crib when he had done something wrong. His Dad caught on to that.
Also when he was little, he'd crawl up into the threshing machine to fix them because he could and he was small enough.
He fell asleep on a hot day in the shade of the horse he was supposed to be plowing with. His Dad found him and woke him up by throwing dirt clods at him.
They had a lot of alfalfa and cut it round after round. It was a dirty job. Sometimes they would cut snakes.
One summer, Ralph had quite a few jobs. He was 15 or 16 years old. He was paid more than anyone else around for shocking, $5.00 a day. He shocked for two or three neighbors. Got at least $1.50 a day more than anyone else. He bet a cousin a 15 cent malt that he could catch up with the binder. He had run the binder for 1 1/2 hours and gone in for the horses. He won.
They had to milk 12 or 13 cows. Most they ever had was 16 or 17 cows. The barn had stanchions for 13 cows. Sometimes they milked more. Ralph remembered herding cows over a rain swollen stream, 30-40 feet wide. He loved his horse. She was trained to bite the rear of the cows. He hated to leave the farm because of the horse. (His family moved from the farm to Marysville in his junior year in high school.)
It wasn't all work, as this picture shows. Ralph is halfway up the post. His brother, Fred is clinging to the top of the basket ball backboard to the right. A friend, John Sanderson is perched on the left.
Santa would come and leave toys and give him a kiss. He would tell his Dad all about it later. His father's generosity with poor neighbors at Christmas time was hard on Ralph and Fred.
Ralph told about riding down a hill on the buggy using ropes to steer by. They went to the Baptist church 2 1/2 miles away from their home. They only had a horse and buggy. His uncle, Ed Dexter had a car. Ed lived up the road 3 miles and a 1/2 mile south.
His father was always away doing other things. President of the school board. He made adjustments on insurance, Pres of Farmers Insurance Co. So when they were old enough, he and Fred did all the chores.