Two diehard Democrats were born in Barton County, Missouri in the year of 1884. One was Harry Truman, who was later to become President of the United States, and his birthplace is now a shrine at Lamar Mo., the other is your humble servant whose birthplace was destroyed before he could ever remember seeing it. I was born on the 15th day of September, the third son of Steve and Bettie Crouch. My mother named me "Meredith," after her brother, but my father called me "Demmy," after the Democrat Party. That name, being the easier one, stuck pretty fast in my younger days. I was born north of the village town of Nashville, about three-fourth of a mile. I lived in various places around that town, wherever my Dad could rent a farm. I remember living in six different places. Steve and Bettie Crouch were born at Willisburg, Ky., and grew up in the tobacco fields, that being the only cash crop there. As a boy I attended Nashville School, and that was the extent of my education. I grew up to be a baseball fanatic as did my four brothers. At the turn of the century, I played a few seasons with the old Nashville Blues. One of my old schoolmates, Vada Sample, was the girl I married. Her parents operated the Nashville telephone switchboard for ten years.

After renting for twenty years, my dad finally bought a tract of land about a mile west of Nashville. It was a 220 acre patch of raw timber land that he cleared off and improved. It was part of the Judge Main estate, sold at auction in Lamar at $4.00 per acre, which was cheap, even in the year of 1900. Judge John Main was the first citizen of Nashville, and the only really wealthy one it ever had. The place was improved in 1901, and we moved into it that fall. Getting the land in shape to farm was a big task, and we burned a lot of big log heaps, just to get rid of them, and then we had to farm in the stumps. It was a slow process, but the land was fertile, and produced good corn.

At the age of 21, with other brothers coming on, I left the farm and sought adventure. Decided that I should get out and see some of the world, and my first trip was a train ride to the Pecos Valley of New Mexico, where I worked in the towns of Roswell and Carlsbad. This was in the fall of 1905. 1 later returned to Nashville, and early in 1906, 1 left for Southern California, stopping at Corona, 60 miles west of Los Angeles, in the heart of the citrus groves, I worked in the orange groves, mostly plowing with a team of horses. Also hauled cement clay from the foothills to be shipped to a nearby cement plant. After a few months there, a buddy and I went to Los Angeles, my first experience in a big city. It has grown some since then, as the population was only around 200,000, but that was big in those days. I got a job with the Edison Electric Co. They were enlarging their power plant, and that job lasted for a year, then I decided to go home for a visit. Went back about July 4th and two months later I went to Kansas City, and worked for the Kansas City Belt Railroad. They didn't run trains, but did freight switching for other railroads. I didn't like the work too well. Had to help keep the steam engines cleaned, and they got very dirty. It was night work, the first I'd ever done, and I couldn't stay awake. Came back home in January to wait for spring, since winter work was scarce.

Early in 1908 I went to Denver for the first time. Liked it better than Los Angeles or Kansas City. It was such a beautiful city. Took a job with the Colorado and Southern Railroad, in the bridge building dept. It was mostly handling heavy timbers, and was quite a hard job, but sometimes I went on the road with the bridge carpenters and liked that job much better. During the winter they laid me off, and I went back to the farm to see the folks, Went back to Denver early in 1909, but my job still wasn't ready, so I went up in the mountains to work in a saw mill. Went to the town of Bailey, 60 miles southwest of Denver, high up in the hills. The sawmill was making railroad ties, and I liked the work, but the bunkhouses were dirty and smelly, and I soon found a better job on a ranch and summer resort. I fell in love with the mountains, and spent three years there, 1909-10-11. In the spring of 1912, 1 went back to the old farm home, intending to help with farming that summer, but it was a rainy spring, and the farm ground in the creek bottoms kept flooding until the corn farming was ruined for that year.

When June came, I went to the Kansas wheat fields to help in the harvest. That was a common practice in those days when folks needed work. I worked first at Great Bend, then went on west to Larned, Kansas. They harvested by heading the wheat, then stacking the heads in great long stacks to be threshed later in the fall.

Pitching those heavy heads by hand on a high stack wasn't easy, but I was still in my 20's and I didn't mind it.

Didn't want to stay for the threshing though, so found a buddy who wanted to follow the harvest on north, and we grabbed a train to Kansas City, another to Omaha, then on to South Dakota to the towns of Watertown, in the northeast corner of the state. There was lots of harvesting there to do and the farmers were mostly from the old country, Norway, Sweden, Germany and other small countries. They bound their wheat, shocked it, then hauled it right to the thresher. The work was easy, and the people were nice to work for. Help always got four meals and sometimes five a day. Wages were $2.50 per day, and all you could eat. Everyone was happy, and the snow was flying when we finished in late October. My pal left me, but we kept in touch for years after that. I went from Watertown to the twin cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, for some sightseeing. Was wanting to get south, so I went to southeastern Iowa, where the tall corn grows. They were needing men to husk corn, and I was an old corn shucker, but not a fast one. Lots of fellows could peel 100 bushels per day, but I did well to get 75. Was busy there through November and December, then went back to the old Crouch homestead.

In the spring of 1913, I decided to go back to Denver, and got a job with the railroad once again. It was a job in the water service, and there was a lot of pipe work around the shops. I had charge of the big water tanks and the old steamers used a lot of water. I liked this job real well, and it took a lot of running around.

Had been on the job a year and a half, and expected to stay on, but in August of 1914, a death message from home told me my brother Blalock had been struck and killed instantly by lightning, along with his team, while plowing on the farm. There had been hardly a cloud anywhere, and it was like a bolt out of the blue sky. Since Blalock was the "main stay" on the farm, the folks urged me to stay home and take it over. I never returned to Denver to work again. I had made six round trips to Denver, but didn't see it again for 28 years. Came through it again in 1943, as we came to Idaho. In October of 1915, my father, Stephen Douglas Crouch, passed away in a Kansas City hospital where he had gone for an operation. He had been in ill health for many years, but was always able to be up and around.

In the fall of 1916 the old household was breaking up. My only sister, Emma, married Aris Parker. I married at the same time. My girlfriend had moved away that spring, but I had her meet me in Kansas City on Thanksgiving Day, and we were married by a minister of one of the Christian Churches there. We settled down to married life at the old Crouch farm home. Emma and Aris moved to a farm south of Nashville, and mother went to live with them. The other brothers, Palmer, Carl, and Arch, were soon married and had homes of their own, so Vada and I had the farm to ourselves, though not for long, On our first wedding anniversary a pair of twins, Helen and Howard, were born to us, and eighteen months later we had another "bundle from Heaven," a baby girl we named Mildred, It was almost a regular occurrence from then on. Two more were born in the early 20's, B.J. and Geyne, and in 1928 we topped it off with another set of twins, Lonnie and Dixie.

We lived on the farm for nearly 27 years, and they were the best and busiest years of our lives. Vada had her hands full with the children to care for, and my farming and stock kept me busy, but we still found time for community work, and were active in the work of the school and the church. We were happy on the farm, knew everyone for miles around, and enjoyed a warm friendship with them. Vada and I both taught in the Sunday School at the Christian Church. She was active in the Ladies Aid with their quilt making, and helped them serve at farm sales. While my father was alive, he had been very active and prominent in all kinds of community affairs, such as serving on the school board, jury duty, served as elder in the Church, clerked farm sales, and served on election boards. He looked after the McCarty land tract of 400 acres east of Nashville and helped to run the cemetery affairs, sold insurance and served a term as a Judge of Western District of Barton County. After he died, I inherited some of his jobs. As school director I sponsored a two year high school for Nashville, the only high school it ever had, and it did a good job there for five years, then we no longer needed it because buses were sent in after the students and took them to a four year high school. For several years Vada and I had all seven of our children in school at the same time. We were very lucky with our large family, a normal healthy bunch who were obedient and always got along well together. They have been life's greatest blessing. We were proud of them and had a right to be. They grew up all too soon, and the old home was soon to break up.

Howard and B.J. were called to the Army during World War II. Howard serving on the European front, and B.J. in the South Pacific. Helen was married and living in Coffeyville, Kansas, Mildred was teaching school, and Geyne was employed in Joplin, Missouri. Just Vada and I and the younger twins left, and in March of 1943 we sold our household furnishings and farming equipment, and moved to Kuna, Idaho, where Vada's sister, Mrs., Ethel Ziegler, lived. Her husband found employment for me at the irrigation company where he was working as a ditch rider. I started as a crewman for this project company which has four divisions and hired about 100 men. I was 58 years old when I began work there, and worked steady until 1 was past 70, then took my Social Security and worked part time, 3 days a week, during water season, until I was 80. This year I will be 87. In September of 1946, we moved to Meridian, where we have lived for nearly 25 years. I had the misfortune to lose my life's companion early in 1970, but my health is good, and I hope to be able to stay alone here for a few more years. My youngest daughter Dixie lives close.

I did considerable traveling last year {1970} and visited all my children, Geyne in Portland, Mildred, near San Francisco, Lonnie at Bakersfield, and a grandson and my only great grand daughter - Larry Crouch and Ruthann, I went to Missouri in October and visited in Neosho and Springfield with sons Howard and B.J. and in Miami, Oklahoma, with daughter Helen. Also visited my sister Emma, at Nashville, and brothers Carl and Arch in Joplin and Lamar. I will probably do a little more traveling this year, but have made no definite plans yet.

So much loving kindness has been bestowed upon me by my family, and others, that I'm a very lucky, grateful, happy creature. So much to be thankful for,

Meredith Crouch

Meridian, Idaho

1971