I am the eldest of four daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. Quiznee Farnum Lambert. My given name is Ruth Lucile. I was born one mile east of Palmer and attended Palmer public schools until I was Fifteen years of age when I moved with my family to Fullerton, Nebraska. After I graduated from high school I entered the University of Nebraska. There I had part time work in the school cafeteria, a tea room and other odd jobs. I graduated, taught Home Economics at Randolph, Nebraska and Albion, Nebraska, Lansing, Michigan and substituted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
During my first year at the university I met Ross Virgil Baumann from Doniphan, Nebraska. We were in several of the same classes. July 2, 1938 we were married in my great-aunt Ruth Fishel’s home at Marion, Iowa. There were thirty relatives and friends present.
While studying at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts my husband had worked for the United States Department of Agriculture during the summers. He was to continue with them for a total of forty-two years before his retirement in September, 1977. During this time we were located in several interesting places: East Lansing, Michigan; St. Paul, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Ames, Iowa and Washington, D C.
In December, 1943 he was called into the United States Navy Reserves as a Lieutenant (jg). He was away from home for twenty-five months. In September 1944 he left Houston, Texas with a full crew on a ship called, L.S.M. #39. After the war he resigned his commission as a Lieutenant and took up his old work as an economist. He wrote his thesis, took his oral examinations at Harvard and was granted a Ph.D. in Economics.
We have three daughters: Theil Elizabeth born at Lansing, Michigan July 16, 1939. Nancy Ruth born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin May 26, 1941 and Edith May born in Ames, Iowa February 29, 1949. We have seven grandchildren.
We have participated in the Methodist Church. I also enjoyed the organization within the church called “Mother’s Jewels.” I think Mrs. Greenway was in charge.
Memories:
- Following World War I, the celebration, when the school children marched to Main Street in Palmer to see the “Kaiser” burned in effigy, in celebration of America’s victory.
- The Opera House with its many stairs, where Civic affairs were held, especially school Christmas programs like the year “Miss Jo” (Copeland) coached her room in the singing of the season’s songs. Dressed as angels we stood on series of raised platforms. Then there were July 4 and the Memorial Day programs and many others.
- Chautauqua, with its big tent and family oriented entertainment, in session for a week or more.
- Stories told by my grandfather Lambert about early times, drought, dust storms, blizzards, also swarms of grasshoppers that would devour a farmer’s crop in the field in a very short time. We once had a blizzard that drifted so much the men had to go out a window to scoop a patch so we could walk out the front door. The drift between the buildings was so high we couldn’t see the barn from the house.
- My grandparent’s summer kitchen that had been divided into three sections by partial partitions, for winter usage, the storage of coal for the base-burner, cobs, etc. As soon as school was out in the spring we cleaned and scrubbed it. With the addition of curtains and doilies made from flowered feed sacks, a few rag rugs and old furnishings we had a fine place for us girls, the neighbor children and some of mother’s piano pupils who were invited to spend the day to play.
Submitted by Ruth Lambert Baumann
Source: Merrick County Historical Society, History of Merrick County, Nebraska (1981), Volume I, Dallas, Texas : Taylor Publishing Company, 1981.