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LEAVES "A GOOD HOME" AT
17 Born in Solon, Maine, on March 22, 1873, to Peter and Margaret McCollor, Claud Conland McCollor was the 7th child of 11. We don't know anything about his early childhood - before the family moved west. Later, when he was older, we do know that he was active on the family farm, alongside his siblings and parents. When he was 17, he left the farm, and apparently not on the best of circumstances. Pictured to the left is a family photo taken in Summer of 1922, courtesy of Kevin McCollor. Sitting is Claude's wife, Edith. The children are Sherman, Edith, Macie, Avis, and Earnest. Earnest McCollor, Claud's eighth child, wrote in the Stigman/Nelson book*, that Peter McCollor's journal entry of May 25, 1890 states: "Sunny cool and windy me and Maggie went over to Bjerkes. Claud picked up his things and left without saying word to me so he has left for good he left a good home and I hope he will have good luck". It appears older brother Alfred left with him, as Peter writes on May 28th: "was on the jury all night I advertised (sic) Alfred and Claud I have them their time". I'm not sure what he meant by "I have them their time" but it sounds like he put word out to the boys that he has pay he owes them? A RESTLESS YOUNG MAN In his journals, Peter makes no further mention of Claud for more than ten years. On December 28, 1890, the father reports Claud returned home for dinner. We don't know if this was Claud's first time home in all that period, but hope he would have stayed for more than dinner if it was! We do know, by Peter's journals, that after that, Claud came home at fairly regular intervals over the next year. A January 1892 entry indicates that Claud had moved back home, and for the next five months Peter reported regularly on Claud working on the farm. On May 26 of 1892 Peter seems to indicate Claud had again moved away, when he reports: "We all went to Morris and fixed the grave Jean Day and Claud ate dinner with us in the graveyard". On June 2nd, he writes, tongue in cheek: " Claud came home from Rodays and broak the corn planter for luck." A month later, Claud, feeling his father was not paying him adequately, and left once again, but only for four days. He "ran off to" a family apparently close to the McCollors, the Gene Day homestead. Gene Day, according to Peter, could only endure the young man for that short time, and sent him home. According to Earnest, "Claud was having job problems". He stayed home, this time, for awhile. We can assume he and his father came to some agreement regarding pay, and an understanding between them. Peter tells of attending a ball game with his son on May 20, 1893. On September 1, 1893 Peter reported that Claud had been shot while hunting with J.F. McQuillan. Although several entries are made in the next couple of weeks about visits to and from Doctors, it appears the injury had no lasting effects. By the 22nd of that month, Claud was back at work. That November, he left home again, headed for St. Paul. Claud stayed in St. Paul for eight months, during which time he "may have worked as a driver of a street car team". He returned home in August of 1894, and stayed until mid November, made one more move to St. Paul, but was back home again, just after New Years. This time, he stayed put -- for three years. A long time for Claud! EDITH It may have been love that stilled his restlessness, as July 14th, 1895, Peter mentions a particular young lady, Edith Boerner, visiting. More and more over the coming months we hear of Edith in Peter's journals. By the end of 1896, Claud was working for Edith's father, Julius, and his having moved to the Boerner home is confirmed on February 13, when Peter writes "Claud went home to Burners". From then on, Claud is not often mentioned except in conjunction with Edith. The two were married after a long courtship, on the 3rd of January, 1898. Wallace Willford McCollor was born in the middle of the winter, January 5th, in 1900. By that time, the young parents were renting their own farm, somewhere close-by Peter's farm, and busy with a routine farming life. Much of the McCollor's infamous (or famous?) partying took place during visits to and from the two farms. Not that drinking is all the McCollor boys did! They went "a fishing", or "a hunting" "as Peter would report from time to time". It became a tradition to hold a particularly big hunt on September 1st every year, even attended by Claud's brothers who had moved to St. Paul. Called "the big prairie chicken hunt", it marked the annual visit by those siblings. TRAGEDY Sadly, the young family lost a child in mid March, 1902. Peter writes in December of 1901 that his wife, Claud's mother, went to attend to Edith, who was ill after giving birth the night before. Little Harvey Maurice lived for three months. On March 17, 1902, Peter makes a sad entry in his journal: "I went to Herman Ulay went with me Clauds little boy died I went over to Clauds Maggie is there I stayed all night". The last we hear of Claud and his family in Peter's diaries is on March 18, 1902: "I went to the funeral Claud and wife came home with us". The baby was buried "east of Herman on the Marth farm in a small fenced-in plot". A NEW CENTURY and A NEW LIFE Although we don't have a lot of information on the family's activities over the next few years, we do know that Claud received a U.S. Government patent for a belt tempering device for threshing engines on March 15. 1904. At some point the next year, the family moved off the farm and into Herman where Edith's parents (Julius and Ellen Boerner) had given them a house to live in. It is said that Edith was the one who wanted to move, that Claud would have stayed if not for her yearning for a less solitary lifestyle. Around the same time of the move, Ray Robert was born. They moved into a home given to them by Edith's parents. It was here that they raised their two surviving boys, as well as their subsequent children. Once off the farm, just as many McCollor's before him and since have done, Claud adapted easily to new trades. He drilled wells, and, by the end of 1911 was practicing as an unlicensed vet as well. He was often referred to as "Doc McCollor" by his friends. He also worked butchering farm animals, erecting windmills, and practicing carpentry. Reportedly, he did very well at almost anything he attempted. Edith worried for his welfare often, especially when he used dynamite and blasting caps while drilling wells. Much to her dismay, no doubt, he stored his bountiful supply of both, together, in a shed not far from the house. Claud registered for the draft for WWI on Sept. 11, 1918. From his registration form, we find that he is 45, living in Herman, and spells his middle name "Coland" (if he did indeed fill in the form on his own). He is listed as an Engineer for a threshing machine, an employee of Ulay McCollor. His nearest relative lists wife Edith, and he is described as medium height and build, with brown eyes and graying brown hair. All this time, the family was growing quickly, and the little house became quite cozy as one can only imagine. WHEELS! In the early 1920's something historical happened for the McCollor family. Claud bought a Model T truck! It was by no means a brand new vehicle, (it had been used by a circus and was painted a bright yellow!), but it was a happy time for the family. Suddenly, the world became smaller, and Claud's sibling's families seemed closer, and they visited much more often. FAILING HEALTH In the mid 1920's, around '26 or '27, Claud went to the Dakotas, "presumably on a threshing expedition". While there, he fell seriously ill and was hospitalized for a period of time. His brother, Ulay, rove Edith and the youngest son when word came that Claud may not survive his illness. It is possible, but not confirmed that he suffered from diabetes or pneumonia, or perhaps both. He did live, but it was a turning point in what had been a very active life. He would be forced to slow down. In 1936 Claud, closing in on 60 years old, went to work on WPA projects which were set up by the government to assist those in need. His failing health, especially the progression of his diabetes, would not allow him to work long, and he soon gave in and quit. Not surprisingly, as all McCollor (and Boerner!) women are extra-ordinary, Edith took his place. His diabetes had progressed to the degree he now required regular injections of insulin, and he now used a cane. Still, he refused to stop working altogether. He would get up every morning and go down to the Anderson Hotel downtown, to open it. He would fire up the furnace and "putter around" cleaning and making "the few wake up calls". In 1937 he was forced to stop even this activity, and was bound to the house, bedridden by February of 1938. Edith was still working for the WPA, so his care fell upon daughter Avis, who, with her husband, moved into the house. Soon, round-the-clock care was required, and, sadly, he spent his last days in "a tremendous amount of pain". Even so, Earnest reports "he remained cheerful to the end which mercifully came the 21st of May, 1938". he was buried in the Lakeside Cemetery, East of Herman, near his daughter, Edith, who had preceeded him in death two years earlier. Edith, his wife, survived him by almost twelve years, passing away February 18, 1950. Grace Boerner supplied some photos of the Boerner family which are interesting (Thanks Grace, sorry it took me so long to get them up). The first is a photo of the "Boerner Band", standing in front of the Pullman Hotel in Herman, MN. Grace writes that this photo was taken in the late 1880's. Left to right: Albert Boerner, Herman Boerner (Jerry's gg grandfather), Bill Keohntop (brother of Annie Koehntop Leatherman, Jerry's gg grandmother), Unknown, Wilhelm Boener, Godfrey Leatherman (Grandma Marie's stepfather), Helmuth Boerner, Julius Boerner (Edith's father) and Fred Ziemer. The second photo is of Ellen and Edith along with a whole group of people at the Herman Fair of about 1890. Edith and Ellen are the ones in the back, sort of to the left. Edith is the small girl, Ellen is sitting to the right of her as you face the photo.
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