“Come Hell or High Water”

 FOREWORD

I grew up not knowing much about my parent’s left before I was born.  I don’t even know exactly what house I was born in (or if it still exists?) - - - where the folks’ first cabin was located, etc.

I cannot understand why some of us in our generation weren’t curious enough to ask questions.  It didn’t seem to dawn on us that someday we might like to know more about our parents than what we have seen in life with them.

In 1983 my daughter Sharon and I wrote a genealogy book on my father, Adolf Fromherz.  We learned most everything that we wrote by delving into archives, public records, by visiting those that knew him many years before we were born.  We searched and searched - - - I nicknamed Sharon a “Bloodhound” during our search - - - and that she was, as she trudged through graveyards, found old homes, found living relatives, found pictures, etc.  She followed from one lead to another.  Some of the things we learned were very interesting and very revealing.

 I searched for pictures and found many very valuable ones and many that I could not use because someone a long time ago failed to identify the persons in the pictures; i.e. I traced down a beautiful album in Kansas that was chuck full of beautiful old pictures but the owner (A distant cousin of mine) could not identify a single one for me.   Other cousins provided me with very valuable ones and helped me identify some that my Dad had among his possessions.

I think my life has been very interesting and that my children have no way of knowing what life was like without telling them.  It is so easy to think that they would not be interested - - - BUT I KNOW BETTER - - - They will be interested after I am dead and gone.  So, here I bare my life before anyone that is interested.

I know my brothers and sisters lived in the same houses, moved as many times as I did, had many of the same experiences as I did but I would guarantee each one would come up with a different story of their lives in our home.  One child psychologist said that, “every sibling in a family is born into a different environment”.  Just compare myself  with my youngest brother Jimmie - - - He was born ten years later than myself.  I was born with only one sister and my parents - - - Jimmie had a “package deal” of eight older brothers and sisters.  I knew our mother when she was young and beautiful, full of fun and vitality and used her many talents,  Jimmie knew her only in the years that she was an ill older woman that no longer cared much for her looks, could be very crabby and harsh and displayed very few of her talents.  Then Mary came along six years after myself and between the six boys.  Her life is so different you would probably not recognize it as being the same family.

So, dear brothers and sisters, I will understand very well if my presentation of my view of our family life doesn’t jibe with yours.  Also, I hope that my revelations about our folk’s early life will cause you to respect and understand them as they were, even more.

And to my children:  You lived in a completely different era than we, your parents.  You did not have a depression of the kind that we had.  Your problems are far different than ours were, but we do recognize this generation has its own monumental problems - - - just as BIG and just as HARD to handle and cope with as ours.  You have concerns for your children just like we had.  You had two parents that wanted you to have things easier, and to have more opportunities than we had.  I am sure that we might have been too anxious, pushy or demanding.  None of us likes pressures and I’m sure that we have given you some (for which we apologize).  We love you just as you are and have turned out to be.  WE know that all of you KEEP FAITH in God and prayer and are living good lives.  WE ARE HAPPY WITH YOU!  I trust that now that you are older and some of you are parents yourselves, you may understand your parents much better.

THIS IS MY MESSAGE TO YOU ON THIS MOTHER”S DAY, MAY 8, 1988.

Your Mother and Mother-in-law, your Grandmother, your Sister and Sister-in-law, your Aunt, your Niece, your Cousin, your Wife, and your Friend,

Florence A. Gross

POSTSCRIPT

It comes natural for me to write as I speak

Sometimes in poor or incomplete sentence structure

And often interspersed with clichés

And quotes.

I am not trying to present

A work of any great literary value,

But rather telling my story as I would speak it

In a visit with you.

I hope I have painted a picture

That will help everyone to understand me

For what I am.

After you nave read this book

“Come Hell or High Water”

My “First 25 Years”

You will arrive at your own conclusions

WHY I AM,  WHAT I AM!

FG

IN MEMORY

This book has been written in Memory of my parents, Adolf and Lucy (King) Fromherz, and in memory of my deaf sister, Josephine (Fromherz) Reed. 

I dedicate it this Mother’s Day, May 8, 1988 to my children, Joan Marie, Claire Ann, Father David Henry, Gerald Louis, Sharon Louise, Patricia Josephine - - - to my sister Josephine’s daughter Jeanette Marie (Reed) Jackson,

And

To my Husband, Louis Henry Gross

So that they will know and understand my generation and how we “Grew Up” during the Great Depression of the Twenties and Thirties of this century.

Memoirs of my First Twenty Five Years

“Come Hell or High Water”

by Florence Agnes Fromherz Gross

I was born October 13, 1913

In Corvallis, Oregon.  I was married to Louis Henry Gross on June 5, 1939.  This narrative covers this span of time in my life.

The first home that I remember

Was on Kiger Island south of Corvallis, Oregon.  My parents, Adolf and Lucy (King) Fromherz moved to Kiger Island in 1915.  My brother Charles was born that year but I don’t know if he arrived before or after they moved to the island.  My older sister Josephine was four years old and I was two.

I must have celebrated my 3^rd birthday

In this cabin as I have a definite memory of the rough board interior and a window that was too high for me to see through without getting on a chair.  Also I recall Pop milking the cows in out-of-doors stalls and our old dappled gray horse, Dolly had a stall under a lean-to roof on the side of the cabin.  I played with a loving kitten and had an old alarm clock for a toy.  I also remember that Josephine and I played with rag dolls and left them out in the rain one time.  Our mother worried that we might fall into the slough - - - we got a spanking one time for getting too close to the water’s edge.  There was a footlog across the water which was a great temptation for us.  I walked across it one time with Pop and didn’t see why I couldn’t cross it by myself?

I remember very clearly that we went to town