Edward Jacob Lorson, my grandfather, was the third child of Anthony and Julia Lorson. He was born August 4, 1875, in Bastress, Pennsylvania, and died February 9, 1959, in Salina, Kansas at eighty-three years of age. Edward Lorson, known by most as Ed or E.J., married my grandmother Mary Elizabeth Feeney in Elmo, Kansas in 1898. Mary died July 28, 1952. He and Mary are buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery in Chapman, Kansas. The following stories about E.J. and Mary Lorson were written by my aunt Margaret Lorson.

E.J.'s family moved to a farm near Elmo, Kansas where his father expected him and his nine brothers to be farmers as he had always been. With this idea in mind, he gave each of his sons 160 acres when they became young men. But E.J., as he was called, just didn't like farming.

He became very much interested in Mary Feeney, a pretty little Irish girl with the bluest eyes he had ever seen, and they were married in 1898. They started their married life living over a store which they ran. When a customer would come in the store, he would ring a bell and E.J. or Mary would run down stairs to take care of his needs. Since this always seemed to happen when they were having lunch or dinner, they decided that there had to be a better way to make a living.

In 1905, they moved to Salina, Kansas, where E.J. became interested in tools and machinery. He alway was eager to try anything new, so he had the distinction of being the first owner of an automobile in Salina, which was a town of about 5000. He bought a Buick Touring Car.

The car had a few disadvantages because roads in the country were built for horse drawn wagons and buggies. Ruts and mud made no difference for them. Also, the car scared the horses. When he and Mary went to Elmo to visit, someone would run up and down the street and yell, "Hold your horses everybody. Here comes Ed and Mary!" If it should rain while they were there, they had to take the train back and leave the car until they could come back for it. But gradually, progress caught up with them and more people admitted that the automobile was here to stay. Even the horses got used to them and ignored them.

E.J. was ambitious, and in Chapman, a town 35 miles from Salina, he found a large native stone building that he could buy. The town served a large farming community so he thought it would be a good place for a hardware store. He was right. Then he added plumbing, a tin shop, furnaces, a harness and leather shop-anything needed on a farm except food and clothing.

His leather shop was an instant success because he had leather of extra quality. He had two experienced men who bought hides, tanned them, then cut them into leather for harness. He even bought a special machine that would put fancy designs on the harness.

Soon, he was ready to expand and he became one of the first dealers for John Deere Implement Co. When electricity became more available, he added electric appliances.

Making a good appearance was always very important to him. He wore a complete suit every day even in the hot Kansas, summer. He had boxes of stiff collars and cuffs which he had cleaned every week. A well trimmed mustache was part of his grooming and there was always four King Edwards Cigars in his top coat pocket. He smoked 15 cigars a day because he said he "got started late in life and had to catch up."

E.J. believed in getting everything for the best possible price. When he bought washing machines, furnaces, pipe, tin, etc. he would buy a freight car load, which would entitle him to a discount. He would also save money on freight. The big store and basement made storage no problem.

His financial business was conducted very simply. If he was getting in a load of machinery and ran short of money, he would call up the bank and say, "Emory, I need $50,000.00" or whatever amount he needed. Emory would say, "OK Ed, I'll put it in your account." E.J. would answer, "Thanks Emory, I'll be over in a couple of days."

Lorson Hardware sold more DeLaval cream separators than any other dealer in the state. E.J. had his own method of salesmanship. When he would drop in to see a prospective customer, he would carry along a new separator, He would leave it for a week and ask them to keep track of the difference in cream production between their old separator and his new one. He would come back at the end of the week and they would compare records to see if the new one would pay for itself. He never had to pick one up to return.

Following his usual custom of being "FIRST", he had the first radio in town. It had two boxes, one, 2 feet by 8 inches by 8 inches and the other was 8 inches square. The antenna was like a clothes line, running from the house to a tree. It was equipped with ear-phones which they divided up so more people could listen at the same time. They always had lots of company to enjoy this marvelous invention. The only bad thing about it was that every time they would turn up the volume, a tube would blow out and tubes were expensive, $5.00 each to be exact. So E.J. improved the situation by buying tubes by the dozen so it wouldn't interrupt their listening pleasure.

In the middle twenties, E.J. got the first two John Deere tractors ever made. The company made him a proposition. They would give him the new tractors to place on one of the largest farms in the community at no cost to the farmers. The only thing they asked was for the farmers who had them to show them to anyone who wanted to see them and explain how they worked, and tell how they liked them.

The tractors had two cylinder engines. They started on gasolene, then burned kerosene for fuel, The farmers were surprised to see how much power a two cylinder engine could provide, The tractor was chain driven with long chains with a three gear ratio.

E.J. knew two brothers named Wiley who were good customers of his. They farmed 1900 acres of wheat on river bottom land. They even had two elevators of their own to store their wheat. The tractors were put on their farm, The John Deere Company advertised these tractors in the newspapers and they attracted a lot of attention. They were a big success. In a few years, every farmer thought he needed a tractor to farm.

One spring day, Clem was "watching store" when the front door flew open. An angry farmer stomped in with a coil of rope over his arm. "Where's your Dad Kid?" he yelled. "I'm going to hang him!" A scared Clem ran toward the office in the back of the store, "Dad, Dad, there's a man here to see you!" The farmer was close on Clem's heels and when he saw E.J., he yelled, "Damn you Ed, I'm going to hang you!" E.J. got out of his chair and slowly knocked the ashes from his cigar and looked at him. "OK, OK Charlie, but first, I've got to ask one question." Charlie growled, "You get ONE question!" "Charlie," E.J. drawled, "I see you've got a new rope there. I just want to be sure that you bought that rope HERE." Charlie stared at E.J., then started to grin. "Yeah, I got it here Ed." Then E.J, said, "Charlie, come on in and tell me your problem." Charlie did, and they talked things over and when Charlie left, they shook hand.

In the late 1920's, John Deere Company shipped a ship load of tractors to Argentina, When they got there, due to some law about the structure of the engine, Argentina wouldn't accept them and they sat crated on the docks for over a year. Because of the ocean air, they acquired a fungus and John Deere Company had to have them shipped back to the company. It was a big financial blow to the company.

In order to make some of their investment back, they wrote to their dealers in the wheat area and offered to sell them all the tractors they could use at a very reduced price. The tractors would be accompanied by several company mechanics who would completely overhaul them and put in any new parts that they might need. Of course, they wouldn't be the latest model, but they would be good tractors and the dealers could sell them at a very low price. E.J. took twenty-five and they made a good bargain for his customers.

Most of the roads around our community were made of gravel. They were straight along township lines and the corners were 90 degree turns. Most people took these circumstances into consideration when they drove. But E.J. only knew one speed- FAST!

I'll never forget one ride I had with him clear to Wichita about 150 miles away. I pushed the smoke from his latest King Edward aside as I got in, and off we went. I could hardly concentrate on his conversation, we were going so fast; and when we came to a corner, I really "pulled leather!" When we got there I congratulated his guardian angel and thanked mine too. After that, I took the bus.

In 1927, he became a Chevrolet Dealer. The family has all been driving Chevrolet ever since for business and pleasure. He made a good choice.

Business was done almost entirely on credit in the farming communities. The accounts at the store were large because farm equipment and automobiles were expensive. The farmers usually paid in full at harvest time or when they sold a herd of cattle. This method worked well until the big depression. The prices on crops and livestock fell and continued to fall till they could hardly afford to operate.

They all did the best they could. E.J. had always carried his customers on his books, but more and more of them couldn't make their payments. His credit had always been good with the manufacturers he bought from and they helped by carrying his accounts as long as they could. It was HARD TIMES for all.

One example we remember was one of E.J.'s good customers named Henry. He bought a new car and a new tractor just before harvest, expecting to pay with no problem.

Just before they were ready to harvest, calamity struck! A killer hailstorm struck that part of the community. All of Henry's beautiful ripe wheat was laid flat on the ground. The next morning Henry drove his new tractor and his wife drove their new car to the store. "You'll have to take them back Ed, I'm wiped out. Can't pay you a cent." E.J. took a few puffs on his King Edward and said, "Well Henry, that tractor and car won't do me a damn bit of good sitting around here, just take up room. I know you need both of them. You and Mary just drive them back home. There's another year coming."

It took a few years, but Henry and Mary and most of E.J.'s other customers eventually paid their accounts in full.

When the depression was the deepest, E.J. startled everyone in town including his own family by announcing that he was going to remodel their house. Their home was nice and comfortable and money was so tight that they wondered if E.J. had lost his marbles.

He went ahead and drew up his plans for a large and beautiful house. He knew some excellent stonemasons out south of town whose accounts were in the red. Several carpenters were friends of his and they needed appliances and equipment that were sold in the store. Painters and bricklayers also were out of work, so were glad to exchange their labor for what they needed at the store. So a beautiful house was built.

Several others got the idea too and thought, "If E.J. can do it, I can too." It didn't cure the depression, but it helped.

In 1946, Clem and I and our children had to leave the family, the store and our own home. I had a very bad allergy to the dust of Kansas, especially, the wheat dust. Our doctor made the decision for us. We Had to leave and head for clean ocean air. So we came to Oregon and loved it.

I couldn't keep track of E.J. and his adventures any longer. But I know he had a lot of original ideas left, and the courage to use them. He was always eager to try something new.
 

The Lorson family used to like potatoes and ham, and one day after Mom had been operated on, Mrs. Schults, who was helping around the house, made the ham and potatoes, but she cut the ham in such small pieces that they couldn't find it, so Mom told her that she would have to fry some more ham... because HER family liked meat in their potatoes.

Dad and Mother said the Rosary every night and sometimes Dad would doze off, and one night Mom "nudged" him so hard to wake him up that she broke one of his ribs.

Mom told Dad one day that she thought it was "stupid" that she had to always ask him for money when she wanted to buy something. They were from the old school when the men always ran the business and decided what was needed in the home too. Anyway, Dad said "Ok, I'll open an account for you" and he did. The next day Mom and Joan went to Junction City for shopping and found a pretty suit and dresses she liked, so Joan said, "well, write out a check for them." But wise Mom said, "Oh, I don't want to use my money... I'll bring Dad over to see them." So she did and he bought the clothes for her, just as she had planned.

When the kids were sick, she would make a fire in the fireplace and the sick would lie in front of the fire. She said the heat would cook the sickness out and what really happened was that she made them so comfortable that they didn't want to get well.

Tuesday was "doughnut day" and Mom usually made lots of little doughnuts for the kids friends. They would pull their fingers in and out and she would make a ring for each finger.

They lived a full life, and if Dad Lorson was the "head" of the family, She truly was the "heart" and much loved by everyone.

E.J. and Mary were known to their grandchildren as "Bommy and Pa".  Many other stories were told by and about them.  A story which Pa told me was about a man who regularly came into his hardware store and asked for a small hardware item such as a single screw or nut. When he asked how much he owed, PA. would say, "nothing, that's ok, keep it". This went on for years. One day the man came in and asked for his usual small item. When he asked how much he owed, Pa said "five cents". The surprised man exclaimed that "the price of hardware had certainly gone up!"

John Feeney, my mother's cousin, told me that when the telephone was introduced to Dickinson county, Hope was the closest telephone to Elmo where E.J. and Mary had their store. It was nine miles from Elmo to Hope. E.J. felt he needed a phone for his business so he laid his OWN line from Elmo to Hope, stringing it along the fence posts and trees! The story didn't surprise me since E.J. always seemed to want to own every new technological invention that come along.

E.J. was a constant cigar smoker. Berniece Scanlan said his nieces and nephews could always tell when he had come to call at their home. The smell of his cigar lingered long after he left. Berniece saw him as a family man who loved all of his children and grandchildren to be at home at Christmas and who enjoyed the fuss of unwrapping Christmas gifts with his grandchildren. He was the mayor of Chapman and was involved in Democrat politics. One time he even tried to run for state representative, but was soundly beaten because he was Catholic.

During the Depression unemployed men would sometimes stop at the Lorson house and ask for work. Mary Lorson never turned anyone away hungary, always providing them with a hot meal, usually two scrambled egg sandwiches, a large piece of cake and a mason jar of hot.coffee.

Tap water in Chapman was fairly hard, so Mary did her laundry using rainwater that had been collected in a cistern. Every Saturday Mary's daughters would get their hair washed with the soft water from the cistern. This was followed by a vinegar rinse. The Lorson girls would create such a commotion each week that the neighbor girls would come over to watch the show.

Chapman was and is still a small Kansas town with the traditions often associated with small towns. "Grandpa" Williams and "Uncle" Williams, brothers and Civil War veterans, lived across the street from the Lorson family. On Veterans Day the two men would put on their uniforms and would march in the local parade. My mom said the community was very proud of their Civil War veterans.

Irish accents were commonly heard in Chapman as many of the residents were from Ireland and many were Catholic. My mother once described how the Klu Klux Klan held a rally on Indian Hill west of town in order to intimidate the residents. She said she and her siblings crawled on their stomachs in the dark as closely as they could get in order to watch the Klan gathering.

E.J. and Mary raised seven children. Two other children died in infancy.  Daughter Mary J. Lorson (Mamie) (1899-1900) died within her first year. She is buried in Mt. Calvary cemetery south of Elmo.  Son Joseph James Lorson (1901-1962) married Dorothy Irene Dodge (1901-1990) and had two children.  Son Thomas Edward Lorson (1905-1958) married Diama A. McKiernan (1909-1958) and had five children.  Son Lawrence Anthony Lorson (1909-1990) married Marvel M. McKinsey (1910-1994) and had two sons.   Son Clement William Lorson (1912-1993) married Margaret Lenora Fiedler (1910-1995) and had two children.  Daughter Gertrude Margaret Lorson (1915-2001) married William Franklin Hayes (1912-1991) and they had two children.  Son  died as an infant (1917-1917).   Daughter Monica Catherine Lorson (b. 1919) married James Ward Robertson (1913-1992) and they had four children.   Daughter Joan Marie Lorson (1921-1996) never married.