The Frontier Kid

My age at ten years was a hectic time in my life. I think it was on a Sunday when Rainey and I were playing on a neighbor's old barn frame. I ran out on an old beam that was resting on the barn wall at one end, but all that was holding it up on the other end was a 4x4 timber in the center. The beam was at least 40 feet long. When I ran out over the center line, it was over balanced and dropped to the ground with me under it. My left leg was under the beam and it broke in three places. The beam pinned me down. It was too heavy for Rainey to lift, so he had to run down to my place to get Dad. Fortunately, my uncle Will (mom's brother) was visiting this Sunday, so they came with dad to get me. I was loaded into my uncle's car and taken to Ransom, MI, about eight miles, to the doctor's office (Dr. Hanke). He gave me chloroform and set it and put it in a cast. It was in a cast for two months. I couldn't go to school, so I went to Battle Creek to my sister's where school was only a small distance. But, luck all bad struck again. The cast had been taken off, and I slipped on ice and broke it over which really put me behind in school. But, that wasn't the worst of it. My knee where the break was kept swelling and bursting. They took me to many doctors and as I understand it, some said it would have to be amputated. However, one doctor (old Dr. Grubbins) in Ceresco, MI, came up with an idea of his own. He made a cover, not unlike a covered wagon, that would fit over my knee and leg. He put an electric heater inside and advised me to put a potato poultice twice a day on my knee under the cover that he made and keep it as hot as I could stand it day and night. You know, in less than three weeks, the swelling went down and started to heel. (Bless that doctor.) I went home to fully recover, which took most of the summer. I remember our neighbor to the north; Charlie Sturdevant and his sister Helen were very nice to me when I was recuperating. Helen brought me cookies and other things, but especially I remember a little glass cup with my name on it that she got at the county fair. I still have it. Altogether, I lost almost two years of school.