STEARNS COUNTY MINNESOTA BIOGRAPHIES ****************************************************************************** File contributed for use in Stearns County Biographies by Name: Nikki Abbott Email: mnqa@aol.com Date: ? *********************************************************************** The Dr. Alois and Cecilia Mahowald Home Albany, MN (As told by Dorothy Mahowald Quirk) The house in which I was raised, is not the house in which I was born. My Father delivered me in an apartment above Kroker's store on July 12, 1927. We lived there and my Father had his practice there for about 4 or 5 years after I and my sister arrived on the scene, also a brother, I believe. I remember the place well, though. Your father remembers the "ice man" coming to his home in Milwaukee. We had a refrigerator long before anyone else did even people in large cities. I remember that all the rooms were in a row. I suppose that was because each room needed a window and the front of the store had lots of windows upstairs. I remember a round dining room table in the dining room which I never saw again after we moved into our final house. But we moved once more before that, into a house big enough for my Father to practice medicine and for all of us to live. We were there for maybe three years. I know that my twin brother and sister were born in our final house. They were born August 16, 1934. It was the oldest house in town, but on Main street where my Father needed to be. Before we moved in, when I was about 6 years old, much renovation was done. A front porch was enclosed to make a larger living room. Another porch was enclosed to enlarge the dining room. All the windows there were left in place. The kitchen was remodeled also and many other features changed. This was the house in which 1 was raised and was (is) located on Main Street in Albany, Minnesota which is also Highway 52, in those days a very busy highway. Next to it, on the same side of Main Street, is a railroad track, which, in those days was also well traveled. It was the Great Northern, which carried both passengers and freight. In the summer, the "Hobos", who were homeless people who lived on the "rails" would stop at our house for a handout. My Mother always gave them a meal (they seemed to arrive at dinner time, which was noon at our house) I think they had a code which told them where to stop and be received as they traveled around the country. One day I was in the living room cleaning the floor when a dirty old man walked in the front door (which we never locked) and without hesitation went up stairs, used the toilet walked back down and without a word left again. It all took just a few minutes. Hobos must even have known where our bathroom was. Our home was white clapboard with two front doors. One door was used by the family and the other by my father's patients He was the only Doctor in a circumference of 20 miles or so, and probably brought most of the people in the hamlets of the area, into the world. Our yard had beautiful old trees on it and a tall hedge along the front sidewalk. There was a white trellis which we were ordered to keep painted about every other summer. It separated the front yard from the back yard for privacy, there were also several patios because my Mother loved beautiful things. We also had 2 small pools which held goldfish in the summer. In those days, my father, always resourceful, also installed bee hives which we hated and were afraid of. He loved honey! I was stung one day right under my nose. I had just washed my long hair and was drying it when a bee got into it. I was supposed to sing a solo that night for graduation and was afraid that the sting would swell, But it didn't and the song was sung. Inside, our house was divided into two halls, the long way. The left side had a stair case immediately going up to 2nd floor in the living room. Following the living room was the dining room with a built in china cabinet. All the woodwork was white throughout the house. There was a door and many windows in the dining room. Beyond the dining room was a half bath/laundry and small hall with our telephone and then the kitchen which was very modern for the day. It was a U-shape which is still popular today. My Mother designed it. Beyond that was a summer porch where we took all our meals in the fine weather Also the root beer we made and bottled rested there until it had fermented. Beyond that was a small patio and then a big garden which had flowers and vegetables. Everyone in Albany had a garden. There was a "shed" backing up to the alley which was sometimes another garage for the second of our two cars. My Father built a 2nd floor above it to be used as a sort of play area for his seven children. He acquired a pool table for payment of a bill from a pool hall owner which my brothers really enjoyed...Next to the "shed" was another patio which also had an outdoor fireplace! But I don't remember that we ever used it very much. Maybe it smoked. We also had a large garden of both vegetables and flowers. My mother won many prizes for her beautiful bouquets at Fairs and Carnivals. The other half of the house was where my father had his practice. The 1st room was a waiting room which had a door to our living room. There was a door through a short hall which contained a small X-ray room and a bed for patients. On the other side was a "dark room" where my Mother developed the X- rays of broken bones. My Mother was a nurse and capable at all this. This room was followed by the "office" which held my Father's desk, an examining table, instrument case and dispensary. All drugs were handled originally by my Father. I believe he gave more of them away than he charged. There was also a file cabinet which held records of his patients. He was careless about sending out bills until his seven children needed money for their education. Then he began to send out monthly statements. My brothers and I were called into the office regularly to help him do the statements. He did not like bookwork and his desk was always a mess. Upstairs there were 5 bedrooms. One was very small and sometimes was occupied by a maid who would be sent to us from a farm nearby to help pay a doctor bill. Sometimes we even had two "hired girls" as they were called. A larger bedroom belonged to my parents but through the years most of the bedroom belonged either to them or to my 4 brothers or my two sisters and me. In other words, we didn't keep the same bedrooms all the time that I was growing up. But all the boys would share two double beds and we girls would have one double bed and one single bed which would be mine because I was the eldest. There was one bathroom at the top of the stairs. There was also a porch over the dining room and what was sometimes my parents room. We girls had the room a year or two but we learned how to climb down the trellis at night and meet with friends outside, so we were moved to a back bedroom and my parents had that room from then on. There are many other stories about our two years on the farm. Most of us did not enjoy that at all but my Father needed to get away from the office sometimes. People would come in at night for a box of pills. He almost never got to sleep in his bed, what with delivering babies, accidents etc, and of course he had no office hours. Anyway, another day for another story.