Janette Oke

by Laurel Oke Logan

  The years were profitable for Edward. He began a rise into political life that he continued to pursue after the family returned to Minnesota in 1894. This was the year that his eldest son, Archie, who was nearing fifteen, ran away from home to find work farther west, being joined shortly after by his younger brother, Sid.

  Edward opened a law office in the lakeside town of Osakis in 1898. The family prospered, and after just a few years of “trying their wings,” Archie and Sid returned to live with the family in their new home. Edward’s stature in the community had grown and his sons enjoyed the hopeful looks from many of the local young ladies who exclaimed at attention from one of the “Honorable Ruggles’” sons.

  A favorite community event of the time was a box social. Ladies from around the area brought decorated boxes filled with the best cooking and baking they could offer. Gentlemen then bid for the box of their choice and the money was used for a special cause.

  Archie Ruggles stood with a friend, surveying the possibilities and watching as a young man chose the box of Violet Gray, a young teacher at a local school. Though he had known her for some time, Archie could not help but notice how particularly lovely she was on that evening and made up his mind to find time to talk with her. Taking the next opportunity, he offered Vi a ride home and she accepted.

  Soon the couple announced that they planned to be wed. Edward and Amy were delighted at the news, but Violet Gray’s family had opposing reactions. They had heard the tales of Archie’s younger days and considered him to be too wild for their daughter. This may not have been fair to the young Mr. Ruggles, but the Grays’ protective feelings toward their daughter and their other three children were understandable. They had experienced great difficulties in raising their family to adulthood.

  Violet’s father, Burt Gray, was the youngest of thirteen children and the son of Quakers from Maine. During the Civil War, he went south with others from the area to fight for the Confederacy. On July 4, 1865, when peace had just been declared, he married Margaret Duncan and moved with her to Texas. He was twenty-eight at the time and, according to their birth years in the family records, she was fourteen.

  Burt and Maggie were able to make a good life for themselves under the hot Texas sun. In just a few years they had a home, land, and family of three. Then, suddenly, their years of fortune seemed to end.

  In a quick sweep of death’s crooked hand, all three children were stolen from them, leaving Burt and Maggie reeling with grief. For Burt, there were bouts of severe heartache, and on one occasion Maggie entered their room to find her shattered husband clutching the children’s clothing and sobbing uncontrollably.

  Soon he was even denied the opportunity to grieve when Maggie took sick with the same illness that had claimed their young family. Burt was warned to take her to a climate more favorable for her condition as quickly as possible, or she might be the next to die.

  The decision to move was made in haste. As soon as the few possessions that would fit into their covered wagon were loaded, Burt and his sick wife set out. The neighbor who had been given the trust of selling the land, house, and remaining belongings was soon far behind them—and was never heard from again.

  Their covered wagon rolled north in search of cooler weather. On one particular evening in Missouri, the story is told that Jesse James spent time with them at their camp. The infamous gunslinger had posed no threat, simply shared their fire and weak coffee, then left as quietly as he had come.

  Finally, the Grays’ wagon came to a stop on a farm near Osakis, Minnesota, where they settled and began their second family of four children—Lily, Violet, Irving, and Jesse. It was in Osakis that daughter Violet was courted by Archie Ruggles, the “judge’s son.”

  After overcoming her family’s protest, Violet and Archie were married under the trees on the Gray family farm near the shore of Lake Osakis in July of 1902. From there they went to live on various local farms where Archie could find work.

  It was not until several months after their wedding that Archie and Violet Ruggles were able to have a wedding photograph taken of them, and Vi was somewhat reluctant. When the cameraman instructed them to hold perfectly still, she held her breath and drew in her stomach, trying not to let her tension show in her face.

  When the photo arrived, she gazed at it for quite some time, uncertain if her secret was evident or not. Little Royal was, at the time of the photography session, already on the way. Perhaps it had been unwise to go ahead with what they would consider their “wedding picture” when the supposed bride was in such a condition. Vi would be absolutely mortified if anyone incorrectly assumed that the picture was taken on the wedding day and that she had already been with child.

  In the year of Archie and Vi’s marriage, Judge Edward Ruggles gave up his bench with the encouragement of his wife, because Amy was afraid that he was making too many enemies. Instead, he purchased a local summer resort from a woman named Ida Wilde. Amy, being a creative person, dubbed the resort “Idlewilde,” and the couple, then in their forties, threw their efforts into making the posh resort profitable. Their wealthy guests stayed in the hotel and surrounding cabins and ate in one central dining room, enjoying the quiet of country life and a wonderful view of Lake Osakis spreading out before them.

  Soon their grandchildren began to arrive. Idlewilde was a place to run and play while parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents worked to keep the resort in order, the guests happy, and the scurrying children out of their path. Royal was the oldest of Archie and Vi’s family. Then followed Burt, named after Vi’s father. And, on July 30, 1906, a sweet baby girl, Amy Marie, who would be Janette’s mother.

  In 1906, Edward was given an opportunity to serve as secretary to Congressman Buchman, and he and his wife soon found themselves preparing for a winter’s stay in Washington, D.C.

  At the train station, Amy kissed the tiny granddaughter, whose name she shared, and her two growing grandsons good-bye, fighting back tears at the thought of how much they would change before she would see them again. The long winter months in the Capital would seem like an eternity away from these children, and it was difficult for her to turn and walk away.

  Archie and Vi gathered the children together and headed for home. There was work to do. Chores waited and laundry had to be washed and ironed; dinner would be needed soon, and then the children would be tucked under the covers of their straw-tick beds.

  Vi discovered that her family was to increase again. This time there was a special surprise. Twin girls were born, Laurine and Leone. And, of course, with the two babies came multiplied responsibilities. A kind older neighbor noticed the struggling mother and came often to help Vi hang her laundry. It was a welcome change to have another woman to talk with and the two became close friends.

  The neighbor, soon known simply as Grandma Riley, was a solid Christian who prayed regularly for Vi, Archie, and their family. When the next baby was born, Grandma Riley was allowed to name him, and Ross was welcomed to the home.

  Not long after the birth, whooping cough spread through the area. To the horror of their parents, the toddling twins both fell ill. Upon the recommendation of a doctor, the family would spend the winter in town. Archie moved them to one of the cabins of his parents’ Idlewilde resort, and Vi settled in to nurse the youngsters back to health. To their great relief, both recovered.

  Word came that Edward was to spend a second two-year term in Washington with Senator Clapp. So his sons and their families continued to run Idlewilde during his winter absences. Again, Amy was far from her growing grandchildren.

  Then Vi’s brother, Irving Gray, announced that he had decided to move to the province of Alberta, in Canada. It was difficult for Vi’s parents, Burt and Maggie, to see their son travel so far from them. After they watched him drive away, Maggie hurried back into the house to shed her tears in private, but Burt stood for quite some time watching the dust settle back onto the road. Perhaps, he thought, someday he would follow.

  The aging
couple decided, instead, to move into town where Maggie took in boarders. Now Vi was able to see her mother often, and there was the added advantage of a baby-sitter whenever the young mother needed to work at the resort.

  So when Maggie was in her late fifties and Burt seventy-three, they suddenly found themselves with young children under foot again.

  Burt, now “Grandpa Gray,” found it easier to leave the youngsters to Maggie’s care and meet with his Civil War buddies at the local jail. In the clubroom they played cards and reminisced about the “good old days.”

  Maggie, alone with all six children, often was forced to muster all the stamina her small stature could offer. She was not above using unexpected means of ensuring that her charges did not take advantage of her. Stories of her eccentricities abounded.

  She is said to have wielded a hoe as she chased a neighbor girl away from baby Ross. The girl had whooping cough and Ross was a sickly infant, likely to catch whatever came along, so Maggie defended him with whatever she happened to be holding. On another occasion, she scolded young Leone with the threat of hanging her on a roller towel, and she chased eleven-year-old Amy with a pitchfork after the young girl firmly declared, “I won’t do chores for anybody when I’m sixteen, not even my dad!” And when two of the boys climbed up the windmill to escape a spanking from her, she stubbornly sat at the bottom until they came down.

  Grandma Gray was clearly not a woman to be trifled with, but there are an equal number of stories told about her total selflessness and generosity. She gave freely of all she had.

  Finally, Archie and Vi were able to build their own little house on an acreage that Edward purchased shortly after returning to Osakis in 1912. It was small, with only one room, but Archie was proud of his accomplishment and his own ingenuity. There were built-in beds that folded against the wall during the day—a marvelous space-saving idea—and Archie had soon dubbed it the “dear little shack.”

  Vi had different feelings toward it, and as much as she appreciated the efforts of her husband, she found it humiliating to bring guests there. She was pleased that winters would still be spent in a cabin at Idlewilde, since the “dear little shack” could not be kept warm enough to live in.

  In 1916, Vi’s sister Lily and her husband, Jasper Root, decided to follow brother Irv’s example, and they struck out for Champion, Alberta, to work with Irv on the Guess Ranch. The ranch was owned by Harry Guess, a millionaire from New York, who had purchased four sections on the Canadian prairie. Vi felt the loss of her sister’s company deeply. Even the new three-bedroom home that Archie had recently built did little to ease her sorrow.

  Since Archie was also feeling the draw to settle on the Canadian prairies, it was decided that the family would board the train for the new “promised land.” Burt Gray decided to go north as well and plans were laid for him to go on ahead while Maggie stayed to help Vi with the children on the train trip. Baby Wayne had now joined the family.

  One after the other, the clan was moving into Alberta and leaving Osakis behind. Idlewilde was left in the care of Edward, Amy, and the sons who remained. Then the resort suffered a difficult setback. Edward had hired a young mentally handicapped boy from a needy family in order to provide him with employment. The lad was injured in an accident on the property, and Edward, the lawyer, had let his insurance lapse. The boy’s family sued, and Edward was forced to mortgage the property to meet the debt. He was unable to recover, and when he died in 1936, the other sons signed their shares of Idlewilde over to the remaining brother, who continued to work the resort. Soon after Edward’s death, his wife, Amy, died as well.

  After a three-day train trip, Archie’s family arrived in Champion, Alberta, and drove the remainder of the way to Guess Ranch. It was March—and cold—and the roads were so bad that their two loaded cars had to be repeatedly pushed up the hills. When they finally arrived at the ranch, excitement seemed to burst from inside them.

  At last Archie and Vi were together again with Jasper and Lil. Cousins, who had missed one another dearly, raced through the small home, shouting greetings and embracing. Jasper and Lil, Archie and Vi hugged and cried, laughed and danced around the small kitchen, the happy noises spilling into the cold night air of the Alberta prairie.

  For three years the families worked side by side at the Guess Ranch. Then, the wander bug bit Archie again, and the Ruggles clan moved away from the area. In 1922 they returned to the prairie, having saved enough money to be able, at last, to purchase their own section of land.

  Section 35 held a two-bedroom house and a granary. Into these two buildings Archie and Vi’s seven children and Jasper and Lil’s eight were squeezed. Small bodies lay crosswise on beds at night, some even sleeping in the granary. They came to be known as the “thirty-five kids” after the land’s section number—and it must have seemed to a neighbor passing in his wagon as though nearly that many children were swarming over the farmyard.

  Living together provided many challenging times, but also plenty of opportunities for laughter. One evening when a child was noticed to have sleepy, drooping eyes, his mother told him to “go sleep with Gordon,” a young member of the Root family. After this child had gone, another was sent along in hopes that there was still some room in the bed.

  Then it was discovered that both mothers had been sending youngsters to squeeze in with poor little Gordon. When they realized what they had been doing they shared a good laugh, not sure just how many children were now crowded obediently into the small bed. “Go sleep with Gordon” quickly became a family catchphrase, repeated often, and “Gordon” came to mean anyone who had a little room to spare.

  The fifteen children from teens to tots soon expanded to twenty-three, but the two families had finally put down roots. Archie took over the manager’s position at Guess Ranch and added three more sons—Bob, Dorn, and Harry—making a total of seven sons and three daughters for him and Vi.

  As these humble years passed, Janette’s mother, Amy, grew from a young girl to an attractive and assertive teen. We are told that she always possessed a cheery attitude and a great compassion for others. And it seems there was more than one young man in the neighborhood who had his eye on her. After due courting, she accepted the proposal from one of her suitors—even though another young gentleman stood shyly on the sideline wishing he had been more courageous. But, for reasons she has not divulged, Amy’s first engagement was broken, and she was soon accepting calls from the quieter youth.

  Amy Ruggles and Fred Steeves were married on November 26, 1925, in the dining room at the Guess Ranch, and the whole community was invited. Her father, Archie, provided his best turkeys; then Vi and her helpers prepared the dinner.

  At the last minute an elderly neighbor lady let it be known that she had no transportation to get to the “gala” affair, and so the wedding was delayed while Vi, big-hearted as always, sent one of her sons over the dusty prairie miles to bring back the woman, while the bride, groom, and all the wedding guests waited patiently. When the son returned, he was alone. It seemed the woman had decided to stay home. So the wedding finally proceeded.

  Fred and Amy Steeves were given a fine celebration for the start of their marriage—and also lovely wedding gifts from those who loved them. The Guess Ranch’s millionaire owner himself sent Amy and Fred a card with a generous sum of $50 as a wedding gift. In those days it went far toward helping the young couple get started.

  Fred and Amy spent the earliest days of their marriage in the community where they had been wed. Family surrounded them, as well as neighbors they had known for years. Among these delightful friends were the McCombs, who knew the Lord and often attempted to share their faith. This family prayed faithfully and diligently for their Ruggles neighbors, and their prayers were eventually answered. Over the years, one by one, the family members made personal prayers of commitment. Archie and Vi, along with their children from Royal to young Harry, at some point made his or her peace with God.

  And so it is that even Ja
nette’s earliest recollections are of a family where God was honored and served, and individuals were concerned about sharing Him with others. One of her treasured memories is of Archie and Vi, her elderly grandparents, having their daily Bible reading and prayer time together.

  Never has she known of anyone who seemed to know, pray for, and host more missionaries than her Grandmother Vi Ruggles. After her passing, a scrapbook filled with the pictures of her many missionary friends was found among her possessions.

  As for Janette’s parents, Amy realized her own need for a relationship with God while her children were very young, but Fred allowed many precious years to slip by him before he offered his heart to the Savior.

  Chapter Three

  New Life

  In the first years of their marriage, Fred and Amy Steeves moved frequently from one prairie location to another. And their family began to grow, first with the birth of Betty, then Jean, followed by June, and finally in 1931, a first son, Jack. Amy was delighted at the arrival of her second son in the fall of 1933, but it soon became evident that Kenneth was not well, and there was an aura of suspended fear in the family home. Grandma Vi and Grandpa Archie, as well as Aunt Lil, arrived to help.

  Amy wept with them, fighting the hopeless feeling inside her and the realization that she was powerless to stop her worst fears from occurring. Kenneth was with the family for only eight days before he died. His tiny coffin was buried in the Lomond cemetery and was soon joined by that of great-grandmother Maggie Gray, who died the following month.

  Dealing with the death of her infant was a very difficult process for Amy. For many days she struggled with her own emotions, trying to bring her life back into focus and drive away the hopelessness that she could not overcome.