My Grandparents were German Immigrants. They were peasants on my grandmothers side of the family and my grandfathers family would be called middle class by today’s standards. They came to Sutton, NE because they had heard that the Burlington-Northern Railroad was building a line there thru Nebraska and a new depot in Sutton. The railroad never built the depot. My grandmothers father was a butcher and opened shop there. When she was 14 years old she married my grandfather at the disapproval of his family as the butcher also happened to be the “town drunk”. My grandfather’s parents gave my grandfather $1000 and a team of horses with a wagon and told them to leave town. My Grandfather bought land at Wolbach, Ne and farmed the land. My father left home at age 13 and was a hired hand on different farms. He went to work at BN railroad later and was laid-off just at the Great Depression. He then farmed and supplemented his income by working in the packing plants in Omaha, NE. There he joined the Union. When I started working for Northwestern Bell and was ask to join the Union, I told my father and he said “If you are lucky enough to have a Union where you work then you need to join”.
