WANDA MC CLELLAN KUDERA
Since the family histories are actually being written for future
generations, it is with the thought of writing for my grandchildren
and great-grandchildren that I am writing the histories of our
family members. While our daughter, Wanda, did not live here as long
as our son, Jerry, still there is a very definite part of her
history included in our farm and home here in Knox County, and she
along with the rest of her family, shares the memories of those
days.
Wanda Faye McClellan was born at home on the outskirts of Beaver
Crossing, Seward County, Nebraska. She was the first born child of
Thomas H. and Evelyn (Trunnell) McClellan, arriving on a Wednesday
evening, living, after a long and very warm day. The home was
lighted by a kerosene lamp and held none of the modern-day
conveniences. The small acreage on which we lived and gardened lay
along the Blue River on the south edge of Beaver Crossing.
In 1938 at the end of the gardening season, we went back out into
western Nebraska. First, Tom went to Wyoming and picked up potatoes
in the harvest. Then we went back to a farm west of Imperial and
stayed in an empty house and picked corn for the same farmer we had
picked corn for the year before. My brother went with us and he and
Tom picked corn while I cooked for them. There was an old cook stove
and table and the bare necessities of furniture. We furnished our
bedding, cooking utensils, food, etc. We were neither farmers, nor
were we town residents. It was sort of like being neither fish nor
fowl. Many town residents were getting government help by being on
W.P.A. or P.W.A. while many farmers were getting grants. We got
neither and none of the food commodities that the government
distributed to many families.
[pg 312 PHOTO Wanda McClellan Kudera]
In the spring of 1939, we moved on to Turkey Creek in Gasper County.
The landowner said we could live in the buildings and have some
small plots to plant garden. Around June 1, he decided they had too
much ground to farm so he let us farm 160 acres. But by the time we
managed to round up old machinery and horses to farm, the hoppers
that were in the weeds ate the new crops at once. We applied for an
F.A.S. loan and it was finally approved, but they had run out of
funds by the time they got to our loan. They told us to raise feed
and they would loan us money to buy some cows.
By late 1941, they finally came through with $1,000 and we bought
six cows and four horses in 1942. These were the hardships we
endured in Wanda’s early years. While she was deprived of much that
she should have had, still the things she remembers most are the
swing she enjoyed in the old box elder tree while I worked in the
garden, or playing in the shallow cool water in the creek.
Often we did have some cows, and like most small farmers, we milked
about every cow and Wanda got tired of waiting in the barn while we
milked, yet she didn’t want to stay at the house alone.
In March of 1944 we moved to a farm about four or five miles west of
Elwood, and in the fall of 1944, Wanda went to school in Elwood.
There were just two families and we took turns taking the children.
In the spring of 1945 we moved to the farm adjoining the farm on the
west where we were living. By 1948, the same man who had bought the
farm on the east of us, also bought the farm where we had moved; so
we went up into the Sandhills looking for a ranch. We rented a ranch
32 miles northwest of Burwell and paid part of the rent down.
Wanda went to a country school about 1 ½ miles west of us while we
lived on the farm from 1945-1949. In May of 1949 we made the long
and difficult move from west of Elwood to 32 miles northwest of
Burwell in Holt County. Here Wanda helped care for her little
brother, Jerry, while I helped outside with milking, haying, etc.
She went to a school taught by the mother of the other two children
in the district, so as not to have to board them in town. She took
sixth and seventh grades there.
In 1951 the landlord wanted part of the ranch for his son, and he
and his wife moved onto part of it. In the fall of 1951 and up until
the time we moved, his son’s wife taught Wanda her eighth grade
education in her home. We moved on March 6, 1952, to the Cuhel farm
23 miles northwest of Verdigre. This was the first time we had
electricity in our home. She finished the eighth grade in District
46 on Steele Creek.
Wanda began high school in September of 1952 and had to stay in
town. Niobrara was the closest school and she graduated from there
in 1956.
She entered WACS at Fort McClellan, Alabama, in July of 1956, but
didn’t get to take the technical training she had been promised. She
was granted an honorable discharge in October of 1957. She worked as
a nurse’s aide in the Neligh hospital, Lutheran Hospital in Norfolk,
and Convalescent Hospital, Norfolk.
She married James Kudera of Leigh on October 8, 1966, and they have
one son, Terry James, who graduated from Leigh High School in 1985.
-Written and submitted by her mother, Mrs. Tom McClellan
Pages
311, 312
