John Ferdinand #2

John's brother was known to the family as Uncle Ernest. He lived in Appleton, Wisconsin and was two years older than John Ferdinand. The family remembers that Ernest spelled his last name "Armge".

John was known to his family as "Pa". He hunted ducks and geese in the Horican Marsh near his home. He was a good hunter and told of times when the ducks would rise up into the sky and be so thick that you could hardly see the sun. He trapped muskrats with a spear and would put the skins on boards to stretch them. He was able to sell these for 5 to 25 cents each. He knew old wives' tales about muskrats that he loved to tell. He also loved to fish. The family relates that on one occasion, he was asked to take the governor of Wisconsin, Govenor Nelson, out in a boat to go fishing.

As a child, John Ferdinand played with Indians.

He talked about sitting on the side of the house opposite the wind. I never could get enough clarifying information from his daughters (Viola and Eunice) to understand why this was important. I think perhaps they also didn't catch any real significance to it, but they knew that "Pa" talked about it frequently.

John Ferdinand voted Republican "and so did everyone else in the family." He always bought and drove Fords. He liked to sing "The Love of God" (http://biblestudycharts.com/SH_The_Love_of_God.html
and at Christmas sang "O Tannebaum".