Grandpa Glen and family were homeless and living in a 10x20 Mexican Beet Shack? Say it ain't so Dave! But it was!

They were living on a farm known as the ‘F. P. Kelley’ farm, which is actually located about a mile straight east of where Steve currently lives.  It was a Friday night and the family was getting ready for bed about eight o’clock, and a fire was discovered in the wall.  Their five room home eventually burned to the ground before help could be summoned at a neighbor’s place (Glen didn't have a telephone) and before fire fighting equipment could be brought there.  Almost all the household belongings were saved except for some canned goods in the basement which were forgotten about.

It was reported that Glen had just finished cleaning, papering and painting the interior of the home.

Neighbors put them up for the night, and Harry Brodt lent the use of his 10x20 Mexican Beet shack to live in.

The following Wednesday a benefit dance was held at the ‘Pavilion’, I assume that this was likely at Interlaken Park.  The family was in a “destitue condition” as a result of the fire and they were asking for surplus clothing, food stuffs, and seed corn (their’s had been stored in the ceiling), and other household and farm paraphenailia.

How long they were in this situation I don't know.

I do not have the date of this event yet, as I’m still searching, but I suspect it was in 1938.  There was a reference in one article that “the tornado” took the barn and several outbuildings two years earlier. In April 1936 there was a record tornado that devistated large portions the county (and my material grandfather’s place) and killed several people.  Also based upon no telephone was available to them and where they had been living around that time.

Assuming the 1938 date is accurate, their ages would have been, Glen 42, Sophia 40, Elaine 17, Ardith 13, Donald 11.