From an interview with Minnie Laughlin in Salt Lake City one year before her death.   The following is unedited and is extracted directly from the recorded conversation.  Interview by L.J. Ehrlich. 

Re: John Frederich Sr.

John Frederich Sr. was born in Russia around 1852.  Died in Heidelberg, Germany.  John married a young girl who had a little boy.  The boy was named Alex J.  She Was Alex’s mother but he was a stepson to John Frederich.

Re: Alex J. Laubhan

When Alex J. Laubhan was around 4 years old he was kidnapped from his home, possibly by his real father.  Alex grew to marry a young woman named Barbara Maurer.  They had a very large family with 10 or 11 children. Alex wanted to leave the country.  He knew he had an uncle living in America.  He wrote to him for money to help with the fare. Alex pretended to be Frederich’s real son.  His Uncle George Laubhan, my father, suggested to get on board ship pretending to be a painter so the Mafia would not know who he was.   This he did.  He left his wife and children behind temporarily. 

When Alex got to America, George couldn’t believe that Alex J. was a Laubhan.  He looked different.  He had dark hair and had no Laubhan resemblance about him.  We’re in the year 1915 thereabouts.

Well, to make a long story even longer, it seems that while Alex was in America, his oldest son, Alexander was taken from the family .  To make matters even worse,  John Frederich mysteriously disappeared.  Apparently this was in retribution for George helping Alex get to America.

George was very upset.  I remember him going to his room and crying.  I was around 9 years old at the time.  George kept insisting that something was wrong.  He felt Alex was not a real nephew and he was certain that Alex ‘s appearance  had something to do with the disappearance of his brother John Frederich.  George threatened to send him back.

Alex J. confessed that he truly was only a stepnephew and not a real Laubhan. He was truly sorry for the deception.  He promised George he would repay him for all the debt he owed him. 

The Seventh Day Adventist Church in Shattuck heard about all the controversy.  They started to pray.  During this time Alex J. was converted to Christianity.

George allowed him enough money for Alex’s wife and children to come to America.  They stayed at our house in Oklahoma.  We thought they were different and odd.  Dad found a house for them south of Shattuck about a mile east.  They all got jobs.  They came on boat from Germany to Ellis Island in New York.  From there they travelled on train.  I’ll never forget it when they arrived.  They had lice in their hair.  Momma had to put quick silver on their hair.  They were dirty.  All these people in our house!!  We had a 5 bedroom house.  When they got their own place the church donated furniture to get them settled.  We’re still in 1915.  I was 9 and Tillie was 11.

Re: Me & Tillie and Christmas Time

You know when we were kids, Tillie & I, we would play hide and go seek.  We made our own playing cards by putting numbers on old shoe boxes.  We would make our own toys.  But at Christmas time we always got beautiful dolls.

At Christmas we never had a real Christmas, cedar tree.  Momma would go out and cut a branch off of a tree.  It could have been fruit, locust or cottonwood tree.  She would wrap the branches in white tissue paper.  Jonah would make the decorations out of newspaper chains.  It was pretty.  I was 10 before I ever saw a cedar tree. 

To go back to the dolls - - I always got a blonde-headed doll and Tillie got the black-headed doll with blue eyes.  I always wanted the black-headed one with blue eyes.

The boys always got clothes for Christmas.

T.R. and Herman were home.  Carl was there.

Alec was married and living south of Shattuck.   I was so young I hardly knew my brother Alec.   That’s when Bea was born.  She eventually married Clinton.  Clinton died and Bea never remarried.  Alta Fae was born at our house.  Dr. Newman was the doctor in town.  He gave Louisa some pills and Momma put them in the china cabinet.  They were pain pills.  They were sure good.  I’d go in there and eat them! 

Re:  More Laubhans

TR, Herman, Carl, George, Jonah, Tillie and myself were home for Christmas.

George, my father, was in his forties.  He had 6 children by a former marriage.

They were all married and gone.  John Frederich,  a son of George’s by his previous marriage,  married Katherine Spadie.  Jacob Laubhan, brother of John Frederich, was married to Lillian Helser.  Back to John Frederich: after Katherine died to married again and had 2 or 3 other wives.  John Frederich had Albert, George and Jeanette, Johnny, Marian and Oliphia.  Robert  married Rhoda Lee Vandeventer.  They had a daughter.  They both  died young and Albert went ahead and raised that daughter.  That daughter’s name was Sidney Rene.  Albert had 3 children, Peggy, Douglas and Patricia.

Robert died when he was 30 and his wife died when she was 21.  So Albert took in Sidney Rene and raised this little girl as his own.

Jacob Laubhan died very young.  He was a coal miner.  He died during the flu season in Colorado. 

Re:  More About Tillie

There’s  so many good things to tell about Tillie.   We had a lot of fights.  She had a strong hand.  Boy could she pull hair!  One time when we were living east of Follett, I was outside milking.  Often I did the chores.  One day I came in with two buckets of milk.  I said out loud, “Boy did those cows give a lot of milk.” Momma hauled off and slapped me!    She thought  I said “boys”.

She said to me, “That’s all you think about is boys, boys, boys.”!!

We had a lot of fun.

Re: School and a name change to Minnie:

School?  We went about two miles west of our home Shattuck.  That’s when my name Minnie came about.  My Dad wrote my name on a piece of paper.  It was Minah.  The teacher couldn’t pronounce it so she changed it to Minnie.  I was about in the first grade around 7 years old.  Dad saw my name changed on my report card and sort of had a fit.  He said, “Your name is Minah, not Minnie. You tell your teacher to change it to Minah.”   I said I didn’t like to talk to her.   She didn’t understand me.  I couldn’t speak English at all.  I spoke only German.  Tillie was like me.  She spoke very little English.  So Dad told me to tell Jonah.  I told Jonah.  He laughed and said forget it.  So I became Minnie.

Dad was very insistent.  But when WWI broke out, I didn’t want to be no German.  It was in 1917.  So I became Minnie.

Who went to the war?  Immanuel, who was Dad’s son by his first marriage. Immanuel didn’t die in the war.  He died in Colorado about 10 years ago.     Immanuel never married.  He had no children.  He was a professional gambler!

Jacob’s son Vernon also lived there.  I wrote to him.  Tillie gave me the address and told me to send a donaton

Re: Life during WWI

We were very patriotic during theWar.  We went to school very little because flour and sugar was rationed.  Mom and Dad had a lot of pictures from Russia and Germany.  Dad said we’re not going to get stuck with all this German stuff in the house.  He took it out in the yard and burned it.  The most gorgeous pictures you ever saw!  There were pictures of Kaiser Wilhelm.  He said, “We’re not going to have that trash around here anymore.  We’re Americans now and we’re going to live like Americans.”

You know, you couldn’t speak German in the drug store.   There were big signs up that read No German Speaking in Here and  No Germans Allowed.

It was Crump’s drug store.  No one else remembered.  But one day Momma and I went into the store and Mamie Clifford worked in the store.  We came  in and there was a big sign that read No Germans Allowed behind this Sign.  We couldn’t go around and look at the material.  It was terrible.  Momma wanted to buy some bay leaves andI didn’t know how to say “bay leaf”.   She kept saying it in German.  I couldn’t speak but a little English.  I tried to explain to the clerk that it was spice to make pickles.  It was about 1918.  We just couldn’t by the signs. 

Re: Life at School

I  graduated from high school and I also played basketball.  I was good.

We played Higgins, Darrouzet, Booker.  We beat Higgins in track.  We even won a blue ribbon.   I still spoke very little English.  My brothers didn’t go to school.  Tillie played a little basketball but she wasn’t into it like I was.

I don’t remember how many points I scored in basketball but in track I won every event I entered.  I played basketball on an older team.  I must have been in the 5th or 6th grade.  They needed me on their team.  They must have been high school girls.

We didn’t have cars.  We drove horse and buggies.  On the farm we raised all kinds of crops.  We had broom corn, wheat, capricorn.  The broom corn was pretty tall.   I’ll never forget the time when me and Tillie took the horse and buggy and went to Higgins to a track meet.  We didn’t tell anybody.  Dad comes into town, sees the horse  and buggy and no girls!  Tillie had a check blank.  My first date was with Cecil Walker.   Cecil Walker was Dorothy Schoenhals father.  He was a little guy.  Tillie dated George Travis a lot.  I was 13 and Tillie was 15.   Cecil was my age.  I went to Higgins with Mrs. Markley and Bob, and Mrs. Cross and her son.

I also dated Pete Travis.  He’s been dead a long time.  I dated Lloyd Harrelson.  Alta Fae didn’t know that at the time.  She ended up marrying Lloyd.    

I dated a lot of out-of-town travelling men because I worked at the hotel.

I worked at Cortney’s Hotel on Main street in Follett.  Tillie an I both worked there.  I was a waitress.  We lived in Shattuck.  Tillie stayed with the Burnetts and I stayed with my Aunt and Uncle Weiss.  When  I was 16, after my Dad died,  I was doing housework in Shattuck for room and board.  I worked for Weiss, and they didn’t give me one penny.    We worked hard.  We cleaned house, scrubbed and butchered and who knows what!   I told Tillie I was so homesick.  She said we’re going to quit.  We planned to go home. 

Home was west of Follett.  I didn’t know what we would do but Tillie said, “I’ll find a job.” 

We each a little suitcase.  I had Emmanuel’s.  The one he gave me when he got back from the war.  That’s all I had was the satchel he gave me and my clothes.  So we got on the Doodlebug (the little train) and went to Follett.  It cost us 64 cents.  The Doodlebug was a small train that went to Shattuck to Follett by way of Spearman.  It went to Shattuck every day.  

When we got off the Doodlebug we went to Alec’s.  Momma was living with Alec.  After Dad died Mom never had a house.  She lived with them.  Alec’s house was that big house where Velma Frasier lives now.

On our way to Alec’s we passed by the Cortney Hotel.   Mr & Mrs. Cortney were sitting in the lobby.  Tillie said, “turn around, we’re going in here.”

Tillie said, “We’re looking for a job.”  He  said, “You’re hired, two girls just quit.”  Because Tillie was the oldest, she got $1 a day andI got $6 a week  plus room and board.   After nothing, that was heaven!   Tillie, being the oldest always got first pick on everything.    I was taught to respect age.  By the time it got to Jonah, he practically got nothing.  I always did what Tillie wanted.

My husband Hugh would nag me about it.  When I think about it, she was like my Momma. 

The job at Cortney’s lasted until Tillie got married in June.  It was February

when  we got hired right after Valentine’s Day.  We worked until the 18th of June.  Then Tillie broke that up when she got married.  Tillie was 19 when she got married.

1923

They moved to Canada.  Tillie bought a trunk.  She put all her things in the trunk.   They went to the World Series on their honeymoon in Kansas City.   She ate so much popcorn, she thought she was going to pop.   I was 17 and she was 19.  

Once, TR had bought a new Chevy.  Dad, TR and Asaph went to a ball game.  TR got stopped so many  times because everytime he would turn a corner he would run over the sidewalks.  They had a blanket and slept out in the park.  It was the World Series.  They were each married.  Gene, Jo and Bernie were little at that time.

Re:  Jury Duty in Lipsomb

There was Jack Schultz, Dave Helfeinbein, Asaph, TR Laubhan.  They took their blankets and slept on the grass.  There were no hotels.  They didn’t get much pay.  Most likely, they didn’t get anything at all. 

Back to Asaph and Tillie:  Tillie didn’t write too much from Canada.  They had a little shack.  She scrubbed it every day.  Washed everything with lye soap.   The next year she had Gene.  Just to keep busy she would wash clean diapers just to have something to do.  She enjoyed it.  She didn’t do anything.  They went to the horse races with the Ehrlich boys.  They were Ezra, Carl and Johnny.  They went to the fair.  Carl was going to drive the work horses in a race.  But Asaph got behind those work horses in the race and he won the race. They played ball with the boys.  Mr. Ehrlich sang.  That’s Asaph’s father George.   He used to sing When You Wore a Tulip and I Wore a Big Red Rose.  He was married to Katherine Elizabeth Wunder.  She didn’t like Tillie.  She gave her a rough time.  I told Tillie I wouldn’ t take that.   She would come to the house uninvited and open up all the cupboards.  Tillie would be cooking at the stove, with lots of pots on the stove.  She would open the lids and criticize Tillie about the food she was serving.  She couldn’t get along with anybody, not Teresa or Mary, her own daughters.  She was a mean one on wheels. 

I was scared of her.  I didn’t want to have anything to do with her.  Linda, Ezra’s wife, treated George mean also.  George had children also with a a first wife.  Her name was Mary Gross.    He had Con, Amelia and Rosa.

Con was Asaph’s half brother.  George liked a drink when he came home at night.  His wife Katherine wouldn’t let him sleep in the bed.  He had to sleep behind the stove in the kitchen all night. 

Tillie and Asaph lived in Canada only a year or two.  They came back to Oklahoma to Follett.   They went to work for Alec and Carl in the meat market.  The meat market had a little room and they lived there. 

1924.

Asaph  bought out the meat market from Alec and Carl.  Then Ezra came and they opened the store.

Asaph also worked on the railroad.  Hilda, Asaph’s sister, needed new teeth.  Asaph agreed to pay for Hilda’s new teeth because he was making good money on the railroad.  When Tracy was visiting Hilda in Canada, in 1995,  she showed him that set of teeth.  She was still using them.  They were gold crowns.

I remember when she cried and said she had to lose all of her teeth.  She didn’t want her children to know she didn’t have any teeth.  She had beautiful teeth and a beautiful smile.    Asaph suggested that she go to a photographer and smile to show her own beautiful teeth.  She bought a new dress and posed and had the photograph taken.  But when she got the picture, you couldn’t see the teeth.  (This was after she got her false ones.)  That night they hurt so bad, she took them out and threw them on the floor!  Of course they broke.  Oh how she cried.   Now she needed new teeth again. Who was going to pay for them? Asaph agreed to pay for another set.  They went to Perryton to get another set of teeth. 

About Gene Growing Up:

He was so kind to Jo.  I was living with Tillie and Asaph.  When I would come home for lunch I would see them playing together.  He was always so agreeable.  There was always old cars and tractors sitting around.  One day Gene went outside with some matches.  He  wanted to see if there  was some gas around in the tanks.  He took the lid off of one of the gas tanks and stuck a match in it.!!  There was gas alright!

It was terrible. You should have seen him.  There was flesh hanging from his face and arms.  He could have lost his eyes.   Gene was 6 or 7.  His hair and eyebrows were singed.  The Byars boys,  Earl Jr. did it all the time, so he thought he could do it too.

What about Joanna and Bernie? 

They were a lot of fun.  Jo used to bring me little baskets with flowers on May Day.  She used to say, “Aunt Minnie I brought you a May bastard!”  Tillie was telling me once that Bernie loved marshmallows.  She sent the kids to town to get marshmallows.   Bernie  stuck her hand in the sack and got her handful.  Gene was after Bernie, so she climbed up a tree.  Gene wanted some of those marshmallows because she took almost all of them and climbed up the tree.  She stuffed them  all in  her mouth and got all choked up.  When she coughed, marshmallows flew everywhere. Tillie thought she would die laughing but she was afraid she was going to choke up on those darn marshmallows. 

About Joyce: 

Joyce was a pretty thing.  Her name was Joyce Claire.  She had the most beautiful complexion.  We called her peaches because her face was like a peach skin.  Poor thing sure did suffer.  She suffered for 6 months with Scarlett Fever.  They took her to a hospital in Kansas City.  The doctor gave them bad news and told Asaph and Tillie there was no way she would survive.  Her heart was enlarged.  She died at home.  It was a blessing. The SDA Church had her funeral.   All of the other kids had Scarlett Fever but not so bad.  Asaph and Tillie made sure that any children that came along would have shots to prevent it.  I remember when they took you, L.J., to get shots. 

More about Bernie:

Tillie was always telling me “blue-eyed Bernie” was the quiet one.  I took a picture of her in Emmanuel’s pigskin satchel he gave me.  She’s got it.  I saved it for her. 

About Maurice:

I don’t remember much about Maurice because we moved. 

1927.

I married Ted Riffel.  We lived in a little brown house west of the school house and north of the old Walker house.  May 7, 1927 was our wedding date.  I told Merlin and Maurice. They said something about the Royal Hotel.  TR built the building of the Royal Hotel.   It had opened up on May 1, 1927.    We moved in there.  Pete had a room there.  John and Lillie were living there. That’s where they were married.  They had a beautiful dining area there.  When she came out from Shattuck she worked for Mary and Herman at the hotel.  She couldn’t stand the Laubhans but she came out to work.  She told them, ‘I’ll be out with bells on. Thank you for hiring me.’ She worked in the hotel dining room as a waitress.  John worked with Pete for TR in the Chevrolet garage.  TR had built this building along with the Chevrolet building.  He rented the hotel building  to Mary and Herman.  Pete and I lived at the hotel for quite a while.   After he had moved out of that Chevrolet building, John Laubhan put the Dodge dealership in there. 

1929

After the hotel we moved into the little brown house west of the high school.  Then we moved into another house south of Tillie’s.  It was a newly remodeled house.  At this time Milton got terribly sick with his asthma and Mary and Herman had to go to Arizona.  They went to Arizona in September and Pete andI moved back to the hotel and ran the hotel.  At that time it was called the Royal Hotel and we rented it from TR.  We rented it until the next spring.

We sold out to Holly Borth.  He had 5 daughters.  He’s the one Polly married to Hershell Teter.  Marie married Slim Teter. 

We were just married a year and lived in two different houses.  Pete and I went to Arizona.  Then we went to California because he always  wanted to go there.  On the way we stopped and we saw Mary and Herman.  Then Mary and Herman  came too to Los Angeles.  Mamie and Jake got married and they came out.  They lived with Pete and I.  We had an apartment together. We lived out there for a while.  Then we all came back to Follett.  Mary and Herman couldn’t get the hotel because it was rented. They opened a little  hamburger joint in Follett and then they got back into the hotel again.  Herman had a sign on his cafe that read “Home of Poor Service and Weak Coffee.”  Sounds like Herman doesn’t it? 

1930

TR whipped the H---- out of that Freeman guy.  The Freemans were a respectable family.  Farman, one of the Freeman boys walks into TR’s place and wanted to order a brand new Chrysler convertible.  TR ordered it for him.  TR had taken over the Chrysler agency.  They had a ball with that convertible taking out their girlfriends.  He charged it with TR and told him he would pay for it after harvest.  TR agreed.  After harvest came the kid didn’t show up.

TR kept after him and couldn’t find him.  He went to his father and his father reassured him his son would pay for it.  He never did.  TR wrote him letters.  The next morning TR went to work and behind the garage was the convertible all  beat up!!  They took hammers and beat that car up.  They broke all the windows and made big dents.  TR tried to locate him but couldn’t.  He spotted this Freeman guy  eating at this little place of Herman’s.  I was eating a hamburger.  TR came from the back and starting beating him up.  He  pulled him outside.  The Fraziers, the Crump guys they showed up too because their friend was getting beat up.   Even Bob Searcy was out there beating on the Laubhans.  This could make a great movie!  They had a big big fight.  Jonah, Jake, John and Pete and TR and Herman - they were all fighting.  The other guys were beating on the Laubhans because the Freeman guy had a lot of friends - and they all hated the Germans.   Merlin  remembers even though he was little.   There were bones crunching and blood everywhere.  (TR denies there was a fight in his article) 

There was a gypsy guy, a gambler came to town.  There was so much of that in Follett at that time.   Bertha, Bea and Alta Fae liked that gypsy boy.  He was a good looking kid.  He wore a scarf around his head. Alec didn’t like him.  He was winning all the poker games.  Pete, Jake and John and Jonah planned to hold him up.  They were going to set him up. They were going to jump him.   They set up Mamie to sit in the car to flirt with him. When he would come close to the car they would jump him.   They  wanted me to do it.  I said I wouldn’t do it.  Mamie  Kellen did it.  I said you lost your money.  I think Jonah had lost several hundred dollars.  Mamie got him over to his car.  The guy  jumps into his car and drives away.  He kind of suspected something was going on.  Bertha , Bea and Alta Fae came with the gypsy boy.  He got away.  They were mad at me.  Pete was really mad.  I was scared.

1933

When George  Royce was born:  Dec., 22, 1933 in Follett.  Tillie was there all day long.  He was born at 4:30 in the afternoon.  Dr. Markley was the doctor.  He drank all night long sitting up. 

About Harry George Laubhan,

He was the son of George Laubhan:  He had Botie Laubhan.  His wife’s name was Mamie.

George, my Dad, always encouraged his children to own their own land and own their own business.

Frieda Moore was John Schafer’s daughter.  He had 7 or 8 other children.

Momma raised her.  She was a good girl.  Lydia was a teacher and so was Frieda.

About Lydia and Martha: 

They were the twins.  They came over from Russia.  Their parents didn’t get to come.  They were Ehrlichs.  They had a huge family.  George Ehrlich in Canada went over to Russia and brought back the twins to America.  Lydia and Martha, 16, never got to see their parents again because the war had broken out.

Con was Asaph’s half-brother.

Carl married Martha Schick. 

Asaph was a singer.  Songs like Under the Sycamore Tree, Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet. 

Laura Branch had a big growth on her arm and died at an early age.   She is buried in the Follett Cemetary.   He sister,  Teresa Florine is alive and lives in California.  She married Mr. Hemmings.  Her brother, Lyman is still alive and lives in California. 

Carl Ehrlich married Martha Schick.  They had Harold, Carl J. and Myra.  Her mother was Carl’s half-sister.    Harold  married Irene Winbender.and passed away at the age of 64.