Death: John Clemans, died in a fire in Franklin, WI, at the home of the Hamericks, while
playing in a hay fort with Rick Hammerick and ? Olsen. Olsen, brought a
candle into the fort and the boys couldn't push a bale of hay away from
the door, John didn't get out and they never heard him cry out and thought
he was behind them, I jim was at home watching Planet of the Apes, Mom was
having her hair done by Auntie Betty in the kitchen when the call came,
mom screamed and ran out the door. It was on my sister Connie's B-day. (As told by James Clemans 8-20-99)
Marriage: Marriage via personal knowledge Harold Clemans
Biography: From personal memories of grandson, James Clemans. 8-28-99 I remember grandpa had a little motor scotter that when we got bigger we got to ride. Easter was always at their house and easter egg hunts in the house.
We used to climb trees and swing on a rope swing in the trees in the front yard. Even saw deer in the yard and across the street. Two gardens on both sides of the house. One with raspberry bushes and strawberries. It was our job to pick them. Also our job to take and bury food scraps after meals. We woke up on saturday mornings, up in the attic converted to a room where us kids slept, to fillied fish with flour in the frying pan, frozen or fresh berries, cold cereal and sometimes bacon and eggs. Can still smell and see them through the upstairs vents. Drying or washing dishes and taking out the garbage as well as helping clean the fish and stock the fire stove downstairs that heated the house were our jobs. Grandpa loved to take long walks. I can remember walking to town, several miles and visiting grandpa where he worked as a mechanic in Medford, WI downtown. We used to also walk to the lake and fish or up the river. Grandpa stopped at the corner market for treats for us also. One year my dad and I used our fiberglass canoe Dad built to go down the river, Little Black by their house. Water was low so it didn't always go so great. Lots of fishing. Bluegalls, crappies, perch, bass mostly, and a few bullheads. Grandpa also built a smoker and smoked fish. Grandma was a great fisherman, just didn't like to mess with the worms. It was kids job to go out at night or in morning to get worms. Zebco fishing closed face reels and worms and a bobber. Grandpa drove us in his Oldsmobile(s) to the lakes with his row boat on top, wheels on the bottom so one person could handle it. Grandpa smoked cigars and more than once I had to plead for him to close the window when I sat in back of him as he was flicking ashes. Played cribbage, chinese checkers and golf tee puzzle with grandma and grandpa. I remember one morning grandpa shooting out the kitchen window with grandma hollering at him as he was shooting birds in his berry patches. Also used to go pick wild berries. Many happy memories. Grandpa and grandma liked and made pies, my mother made great breads. Grandma always dressed up to go to town to shop or out to eat and grandpa wore his his hat. Always wore hats. Cap at the shop but a nice one in the Olds. Grandpa used to take a nap after lunch and snore in his lounge chair. He took good care of my grandma for many years before she died. A stroke laid her up for maybe her last 6-10 years. Grandpa took over doing everything. Grandma was strict, made us do chores but always loving.Biography: (Preface: As told to James Clemans, Lillian Clemans and William Clemans at the Harold Philip and Lydia Clemans home in Medford, WI. July 1985 by Harold and Lydia Clemans. Lydia Edna had had a stroke and was home for the weekend from the nursing home. I was going through the old photo album with Lydia (grandma) and she was telling me about the pictures and I typed this on my Notebook computer. Grandpa was commenting to my parents in the kitchen while they did the dishes. First time he had ever talked to them or me about his life story.)
My grandfather, Harold Philip Clemans left home during high school, 16.
He was big for his age. His father (Eugene, Frank, Percy, Mytrle's also) Luther Henry Clemans was an alcoholic and his mother Edna Louise Himebauch was abusive. Kids got beat, and all the money they made taken by Edna. While in school Harold was befriended by a teacher who helped him get work and keep some money for himself. Everything else his mother took.
Harold took some clothes to school and one day with his savings, he left home from school and fled to northern Wisconsin and the Lumber camps. A large boy for his age, Harold, passed off as 18 and did a number of jobs. Cook, logger, and teams driver.
He worked on the public road crews and just before the depression and went to Great Falls, Montana with the Baehler boys who he had become good friends with. (My grandmother, Lydia's brothers-Art,Walter and Herman who had followed William "Billy" Wyss.) My grandfather, Harold Philip Clemans and my grandmother, Lydia Edna Baehler had been dating and Lydia wouldn't let him leave without her. Harold and Lydia were married before they left for Great Falls, MT and took a Model T and drove out to the wilderness, dirt roads, few freeways then. Both worked on a sheep ranch, both doing jobs.
Later returned to Medford where Harold eventually worked for the Oldsmobile Car Dealership as a mechanic in Medford, WI and made their home there. ---------
John Herman or Johannes
Birth: Birth Certificate, Ruth Eleanor Nichols, Vol 11 page 86
Marriage: Eleanor Ruth Nichols, Marriage certificate 7/358 Vol/page,
need to review as their is some discrepancy on birth name being Ruth
Eleanor or just Eleanor and that her marriage date was April 4, 1934?batch 7200027, ser. sheet 32, film
#M437. Mom says her name was Eleanor Ruth.