Elmer (1916 - 1940)
Elmer Henry Pick, born May 1, 1916, was welcomed into the Adam and Mary Pick family by five sisters and six brothers. Elmer wasn’t the youngest child…a son born 1918 died that same year - a casualty of a worldwide flu epidemic.
The Pick siblings grew up on the family’s Alton, Iowa 438 acre farm. A busy and caring household…they were raised to look out for each other. Adam – very successful; well-liked and respected by all.
Gradually the children began to leave home. Henry had been away in seminary prep school for three years when his father died unexpectedly August 1922, the same year Elmer was to begin grade school. A month later a sister Mary left for the convent.
All of the Pick children attended St. Mary’s Grade School. Sylvester and Elmer walked to school together, two or so miles away and less as the crow flies if they cut through the fields. A farm neighbor told this story:
“I was 3 years younger than Elmer and my family was neighbors to the Pick’s. We drove a horse and buggy to school that we stabled at our grandparent’s house in town on school days. If Elmer and Sylvester were on the road walking to school they hitched a ride with us. The Picks were big into dairy so chores took up a lot of Sylvester and Elmer’s time.”
Four more children left the nest. Sister Anna and brother, Andrew were married, and sisters Loretta and Josephine departed for the convent. Six children and Mother on the farm in 1930.
Elmer went on to high school without Sylvester. The following was reported by Edith Minten Staab, daughter of the Sylvester Minten neighbors:
“My mother drove the car to pick up us children from school and sometimes we brought Elmer home too. He was in 11th or 12th grade. We liked him…he was funny.”
In spite of losing half his ring finger in a farm accident, getting burned from ignited gasoline and almost blown away in a twister, Elmer made it to adulthood.
Ethel Minten Heidesch, Edith’s sister, had this to say:
“When Peter Minten, Sylvester and Elmer Pick were in the twister, they came back home as black as the ace of spades. The dirt was ground into their pores. The barn on Sylvester Minten farm was resting against the house.”
While in high school, two of Elmer’s siblings left home - sister Regina joined the convent; and brother, Raymond, who decided to join the seminary but had not gone to high school enrolled at St. John’s Preparatory High School, Collegeville, MI.
His secondary education complete, Elmer graduated in 1935 and remained on the farm to help his brothers Frank, Lawrence and Sylvester.
It needs to be noted that farm troubles for the Pick’s had been brewing for years - exacerbated by Adam’s death. The family pulled together to make the farming operation work. However, money was almost nonexistent by the mid to late 1930’s making the outlook bleak at best.
Frank took on the engineer job at Briar Cliff College, Sioux City, Iowa in 1937. Lawrence, Sylvester & Elmer took over the farm operation bravely facing threat of foreclosure.
(Did I mention that the four younger Pick brothers Raymond, Lawrence, Sylvester and Elmer were well known for their beautiful singing voices and sang together as a quartet?)
By 1939, like a raging monster ready to swallow them whole, the Pick’s began to lose their land to foreclosure. The handwriting was on the wall. Elmer and Raymond enrolled as freshmen at Trinity College, Sioux City IA for the 1939-1940 term (their only term as Trinity students). Elmer borrowed money for school from brother, Frank. Mary, Lawrence and Sylvester remained on the home place. (Homesteads not included in foreclosures.) They had a roof over their heads!
Elmer - Photo Slideshow
Elmer - Newspaper Slideshow
