Early Marriage Years

Early Marriage Years

Sept 1943 – Nov 1946

Present for all but the first 10 months of my parents’ married life obviously does not qualify me to write an accurate summary of their life, specifically for this narrative when in 1946 I was only two years old!  But I have firsthand information/memories from others who lived those early years with my parents, memories they shared with my siblings and me, documents, and archived newspapers.  I share with you the following.

To recap…Marvel (Hahn) and Pvt. Elmer Pick married Monday, September 13, 1943, at St. Catherine’s in Oyens, Iowa during semester break. Elmer’s mother Mrs. Mary Pick and brother Sylvester resided on a farm near Oyens where wedding festivities were held.

Apparently, Marvel and Elmer remained on the farm a week or so after the wedding before they left for Ames and housing for married students. A short but much-needed break for Elmer, in the Army and a graduate student in the Veterinary Medicine program at Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. His classes were held year-round due to the war. Elmer was back in time for the Fall term; Marvel returned to nursing duties at the Ames College hospital.  

Soon after her marriage, Marvel was pregnant with her first child - me. By July 1944, my due date, the growing family moved into a larger place - an apartment in a house on 5th Street.  Many years later Mom reminisced: I remember looking out the window at Elmer riding down the street on his bicycle with a baby bassinette balanced on the handlebars. *Please note…no car…no money. Dad got around on a bicycle…rain or shine. There was a war going on…rubber, metal, gasoline, you name it…all rationed. 

My pregnant mother continued to work and ate her noon meals at the hospital. She always attributed my good health to her “perfect diet” during her pregnancy. As was customary back in the day, Marvel worked up to the designated lying in period before giving birth. According to Dad, the day I arrived, July 9, at Mary Greeley Hospital, Ames - it was the hottest day of the summer and no air conditioning! 

Emmett Full, a family friend from Granville, Iowa, and my baptism sponsor recently reminded me how small and tiny I felt in his arms wrapped in a baby blanket.  Emmett, also a veterinary student and in the Army, was two years behind Dad. As I write this, Emmett is in his mid 90’s and lives in Mt. Airy MD where he moved after graduation. He remembers Dad and himself walking together from classes to the frat house (Phi Kappa/2110 Lincoln Way) where they lived on campus (pre-Elmer’s marriage). I digress…that’s another story.

Needless to say, the family was in need of wheels. And Fr. Henry Pick had just the ticket - a cast-off vehicle he was happy to pass onto his brother Elmer – a 1928 Whippet Six Coupe (Elmer’s first car!). What a beast but most welcome nonetheless. Never look a gift horse in the mouth?

Three big events in August 1944:

College of Veterinary Medicine graduation – August 26, 1944; Army of the United States discharge August 30, 1944.

Elmer H Pick, DVM announced the opening of his veterinary practice in Pocahontas Iowa: August 31, 1944. 

Elmer had a State of Illinois veterinarian license dated September 29, 1944. Could it be Iowa and Illinois had a reciprocal arrangement/relationship…if licensed in the State of Iowa, licensure in Illinois was automatic? 

When it was just Marvel, Elmer and Mary, John and Lucille Cox managed a grocery store in Pocahontas.  Marvel and Lucille were Hahn double cousins - their fathers were brothers; their mothers were sisters. Elmer and John went to the movies one night while Lucille and Marvel babysat.  The next night, Marvel and Lucille went and the guys babysat.  Sometimes they played cards together. 

July 3, 1945 - David Francis was born at Sacred Heart Hospital, Le Mars Iowa. Why Le Mars? Don’t know.  But it is a fact - Elmer’s sister, Sr. Lea Pick, OSF was a nurse at Sacred Heart at that time.  David and I - Irish twins.

Lucky me.  While Mom gave birth to David and in post-pregnancy confinement I was in the care of my Grandma and Grandpa Hahn on their farm in Cherokee County Iowa. On my first birthday, July 9th, Grandma took me to Salsbery Studio in Cherokee Iowa for the traditional “one-year-old baby picture.” 

In August I came down with a high fever, was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, Sioux City Iowa (110 miles from Pocahontas), and admitted for a few days.  The cause…not found. 

Elmer’s Pocahontas practice ended after one short year. A veterinarian who earlier in the war had left his veterinary practice to join the Army announced plans to return from the service to re-establish his practice after the war’s end. The handwriting on the wall was crystal clear (the Pocahontas area could not support two veterinarians). By September 16th Elmer closed his practice and was working for the United States Bureau of Industry as a federal livestock inspector.

(I never heard a word about Dad having a practice in Pocahontas until recently.  It wasn’t mentioned in either his and Mom’s 50th-anniversary “write-up” or his obituary…and Dad wrote his obituary!  Although two of my younger siblings knew the full story.)

The war ended (Sept 1945) as did rationing; travel slowly returned to normal. The Pick family welcomed their Pick and Hahn family visitors. (Marvel and Elmer’s children were the Hahn’s first grandchildren.)

June 3, 1946, welcomed Joan born in Fort Dodge, Iowa - the third Pick child. David and Joan - a second set of Irish twins.

In a newspaper article dated August 1st the Elmer Pick family was still living in Pocahontas at July’s end.

An October 3rd article reported the Pick family recently moved from Pocahontas to Fort Dodge, Iowa. Recently…September?  Or August?

In Fort Dodge, our family lived on the second floor of an abandoned Army barracks hastily converted into apartments to help alleviate the acute housing shortage that existed after the war.

According to Mom, we were cooped up in our confined living quarters with nothing to do. Joan was an infant; David and I were too young to go outside unsupervised.  We sat on the sofa for hours on end, rocking back and forth…Mom called it “bouncing.”  How much time did Dad spend in Fort Dodge? I doubt very much if his Remsen veterinary practice was ready to open the week of October 17th. 

Seventeen days later: October 17th, page one, Remsen Bell-Enterprise:  “…Dr. Pick will have an office in the Kellen Produce building beginning this week.”  

Until Elmer found suitable housing it is assumed that Marvel and the children stayed in Fort Dodge and then with her parents in Cherokee County until finally settled in Remsen by year’s end. 

The Early Years In a Nutshell:

Ames, Iowa: 1 year

Pocahontas: 2 years

Fort Dodge: Approx 2 months