BILL AND MARGARET MUSSON
Wilbur (Bill) Musson was born Nov. 4, 1925* on a farm south of Dows, Iowa, the third in a family of six children; His brother, Bob, four years older than he, had a stroke during by—pass surgery procedure and died five days later in 1990. Beverly McKinley, 18 months older, and her husband, Bob, are retired in Rogers, Arkansas. He had been employed in office repair work at Iowa State University. Ron, 20 months younger than Bill, and his wife Evelyn lived in California. He died as result of his second by-pass surgery in 1988. Bernice Herrington is six years younger than Bill. She and her husband Tom live in Pleasant Hill, a suburb of Des Moines. Terry, 15 years younger, lives with his wife Terry Ann in Keyport, New Jersey. He has had a heart attack and high blood pressure. Bill summarizes: It becomes obvious that the boys in the family have the same affliction that took our dad’s life. I was the first to have a heart attack in 1963 when I was 38. In addition, some of us have also had diabetes, which I live with.
I started to country school outside the town of Bradford, Iowa, but we moved from the farm the following March so I continued at another country school. I don’t recall the name of that school west of Alden, Iowa; but it was the best part of my education. Out of four students in my class three were at the top of the graduating class in 1943. I transferred into the Alden Public School at the 3rd grade.
At graduation I got the Activity award for four years for participating in the most activities, primarily in music and speaking. In high school I felt the call to the ministry. It came to me at Camp Okiboji. The next year we got a new minister and he talked me out of it. I still remember his saying, "You don’t want to do that" and probably he had salary in mind. I think we paid him $400 a year. Granted that was more in those days than now but ministers were poorly paid.
World War II had some influence, also, on that decision. In June of ’43, when I was 17, I enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. I was called up for service in August and took my basic training in San Diego. I completed boot camp and was assigned to the Quartermaster School of Administration where we memorized the Marine Corps Manual. We wrote up all the court marshall cases and manifest the ships for movement - each ship had to be loaded by weight and size and that was one of my jobs. The quartermaster corps is for supplying but we were also in combat. I was awarded a purple heart for having been hit with shrapnel.
I was given a corporal rating and transferred overseas into the South Pacific. I joined the 7th Regiment of the 1st Marine Division and went through two combat operations, Pelilu in the Palua Islands and the island of Okinawa. We ended up as occupation troops in mainland China. I was discharged in 1946.
While I was in service my parents moved from Alden to Osceola and two weeks later I went to work for J. C. Penney in Osceola. Margaret started work there the same day I did. One and one-half years later, August 31st, 1947 we were married by Rev. Lloyd Latta and transferred to the Iowa Falls store that same weekend.
Margaret was born Oct 8, 1925 at home in Clarke County. In her words: I have one sister, Edna Dunbar, four years younger than I; and our brother Bill was two years older. He died July 7, 1995. He had been in poor health for several years. Two infant sisters were still born.
When I was four we moved to Dr. Paul’s farm and were there for 11 years, but we had lived there just a year when the house burned to the ground. It happened at 2:00 am. Dad got us out but it was impossible to save anything. They tell me that Mom and Dad had just bought me a new red coat and hat and I wanted to go back into the house and get them. Dad had just sold his hogs in Murray and the check was in the old organ. He burned his hands and arms trying to get it. He couldn’t but they did replace the check. What was really hard on Dad was that we had Purebred Holstein that were all papered. On those papers the owner had to draw in all the markings and the long names of the ancestors. He had raised them from scratch so he knew a lot of that but it was hard to retrieve that information and replace the papers when they were destroyed.
It is at times like that when you realize how important neighbors and friends are. People were so good to give us many things we needed. We went to our neighbor Charlie Neff s home which was just about a city block from where we lived. Charlie and Gertrude had a daughter, Lois, who married E. W. Osborn, and whose children are Delaine (Glasco) and Deloris (Sutton). Lois was my teacher through kindergarten to 6th or 7th grade, at "Cornfield College", one-and-one-half miles from our home.
We moved in with my father’s mother about two miles north of us until Dr. Paul built a new house. We had dairy cows and the stock was close enough to take care of. We milked by hand and I can say "we" because from the time we were big enough to sit on a stool and hold a bucket, we all milked. Dad took some prizes for milk and butterfat production and a lot of blue ribbons at the county fair. I also took baked goods to the state fair and got red and blue ribbons. Melvin Goeldner was County Extension Director when I was in 4-H and we girls showed calves at the fair. Now Melvin will often greet me in church making some reference to taking care of the cattle.
The folks bought a farm down by Weldon and we moved there in the spring of 1938. I finished elementary grades in a country school near there. We were just on the line between the Weldon and LeRoy school districts and I went to LeRoy High School. There were nine in our class. I graduated in 1943.
I stayed home and helped the folks the first year because of the war. Dad couldn’t do it all by himself - he still milked and had quite a few acres. After that I worked for Sam Windrath in the drug store that is now Osceola Drug. We had a soda fountain and were really busy. After school kids would line up for ice cream cones. I remember dipping all that ice cream. I worked there just four months and then got a job at Penney’s in the dress department. That is when Bill and my stories come together. Both of us couldn’t work at Penney’s after we were married so I checked out groceries in a store owned by Verla Gray’s husband.
The manager of the Penney’s store at Webster City had a heart attack and in the spring of 1948 they moved us to Webster City where Bill was assistant manager with a $10 a month raise. I worked at Smart and Thrifty, a little dress shop that sold a lot of hats. I loved to sell hats! Then I worked at the switchboard in the telephone office. We bought our first property, a little one-bedroom house, in Webster City. It was in the new part of town and we paid $3,500 for it.
Bill picked up their story at this point: About 6 months after we arrived the former manager died and a new manager was brought in. To hold my $10 raise I either had to move to Fort Dodge or manage the men’s department in the Webster City store. I chose neither. The new manager came in one morning with my pink slip and the next day I was working for the local funeral director and furniture store, with about a 33% increase in pay.
In June of 1949 I decided to go back to school and went to Boyles’ College in Omaha for business administration and telegraphy. While in school I also worked for the home office of Greyhound Bus Company in their bookkeeping department. We moved to Omaha and Margaret worked for Sears Roebuck in the catalogue department. I finished school in January, 1950. We moved back to Osceola and I worked for the CB&Q railroad as a telegrapher.
That’s when the moving started. They had what they called the "extra board" which meant that there were 12 extra employees ahead of us for a permanent job. If a senior employee got bumped from a job or they cut off a job, he could displace any one of the 12. So we moved on an average of every six months to wherever they assigned us. At that time they began taking off all the little towns like Woodburn, Lucas and others. Pretty soon I was #13 on the extra board. We were on that job for about eight years during which we moved 17 times.
Steve was born in 1953 while I was station manager at Afton. We moved back to Osceola and continued on the railroad until 1956 when my brother-in-law, Art Snell, and I bought the distributorship for Deep Freeze Company, covering 56 counties in Iowa. In about a year’s time they sold out to Amana Corporation and we were left with nothing to distribute.
I spent a year traveling for Keith Furnace Company in Des Moines and while I was with them Janet was born in 1957. The next summer I went back to work for the railroad and we bought a half—block lot on the corner of Washington and Kossuth and proceeded to build a new house. That year I went to work for the Post Office as a sub-clerk and carrier. I also was operating a real estate and insurance company. I worked a year and then was assigned a permanent job which meant I had to give up my real estate and insurance, so I resigned from the Post Office. It is no longer legal for an employer to control an employee’s job off hours, but in those days they could do that.
I followed Chuck Anama as Bankers’ Life representative, on the recommendation of both Chuck and Larry Hagie, postmaster. During the next few years, through the Federal Housing Administration, I was able to build a number of houses with small down-payments. In the meantime we bought and operated the Depot and Garner Hotels. The former was arranged as rental apartments; the latter had rooms for overnight guests. We acquired some rental properties and along with my Bankers’ Life contract I was pretty busy.
Margaret had a large part in all these ventures. She agrees that these were busy times for her, also. In addition to having the little ones, she did a lot of painting in the houses, cleaning the hotels and working at the desk at the Gamer. The restaurant was part of the Garner hotel and we tried to lease it but time after time that proved disappointing and we would get it back, at significant out-of—pocket expense. Polk County Federal Bank had the mortgage — we were paying about $450 a month. There came to be so many regulations - some of them were impossible to comply with. We were approached by P.M. Place who suggested that if we would knock down the hotel and put up a cement building his company would give us a 10—year lease that would pay for the building. The president of Polk County Federal didn’t believe I was telling him the truth and he would not agree to the cost of knocking down the building and putting up another. I asked him, "How do I get out from underneath this load?" He said, "Quit making the payments? So I did. It cost him $12,000 to keep it in receivership for a year and then got his money returned when he sold it.
In June of 1965 we liquidated everything here and moved to Oskaloosa to take over Bankers Life estate analysis office. We spent about a year developing the business and in August, 1966 I was involved in a head-on car wreck that laid me up for about five months. It also destroyed my year’s estate analysis work. I continued to sell insurance but my heart condition was worsening all the time and I wasn’t able to spend nights working as I had done.
I went into the office of Clow Corporation as assistant sales office manager in 1971. The office manager had a heart attack and I replaced him until he returned in ’72; and two weeks later I had my second heart attack. I spent six weeks in the VA. Hospital in Des Moines, after 10 days in the Oskaloosa hospital. I was on disability from then until the end of the summer of that year -- the year we received a call to the ministry as we were serving as Youth Directors at the Oskaloosa United Methodist Church.
Dr. Merrill Summerbell was a true recruiter for the ministry. I was #10 of the young men he recruited. Rev. Bob Cumings who has just been reappointed from the Leon charge was another. Dr. Summerbell, his wife Grace, and we became very good friends. He was my friend, my advisor, my mentor and we stayed close until the time of his death. I did the eulogy at his funeral which is tough when you have become really close. Grace died the same year — that was probably 1994.
I received my first appointment in August, 1972 to Kosta, Ohio and Ladora — all three were small churches. In October I had a cardiac arrest and an angiogram. I was not permitted to take the appointment until June of ’73. We had Sunday night services at Ladora as well as all three churches having Sunday morning worship. There was a lot of pressure to keep everything moving.
At Annual Conference I was appointed to Dows, Iowa - at that time the charge included the Morgan church. After much thought and prayer I turned down the appointment. It would mean moving to my mother’s church, Janet was a senior in high school and there was lots of difference in the size of schools. They couldn’t offer any subject she had not already had in Oskaloosa. However, I discovered at that time that you do not turn down appointments. Rev. Lloyd Latta, who had married us, was the district superintendent and that didn’t make it any easier.
From then until December I filled in for pastors during vacations or in empty pulpits, never being in the same church over three weeks in succession. An appointment wasn’t made for me until the next annual conference. I was a hard one to sell to a congregation because of my lack of formal education.
In December of ’73 John McCallum called to see if I was still in the appointment system and if not he invited me to become his educational assistant at Grinnell. I had contacted the superintendent and before Christmas had an appointment for ’74 to be an associate pastor at Corydon until conference at which time I would be appointed to the Orient, Penn Avenue and Hill of Zion charge. That was a fantastic appointment! The film, "Cold Turkey" with Dick Van Dyke was filmed in the Orient church. It was one of the only churches I ever served that had fancy carpeting and air conditioning. Corydon was a student charge and a student became available in April. I made the switch then.
In November of ’74 I had a severe heart attack, was taken to Iowa City and scheduled for by—pass surgery in February of ’75. That was their first year of doing by-pass surgery. I had the surgery but was not allowed back in the pulpit and we had to give up the parsonage in June. We moved back to Osceola. In August I was contacted by the superintendent to fill in for Lorimor and Thayer. It was a good deal all around. I was still on disability so the church paid just our expenses. This helped them buy a parsonage.
Due to blood pressure problems I was not able to take an appointment in ’76. We traded some land we had in Oskaloosa for a model home and wintered in Oskaloosa. Margaret’s mother lived with us there as well as in Lorimor.
In February we received a call from Bob Erickson in Des Moines asking if we would house-sit his apartments in Marshalltown until he could find a new manager. Everything was furnished for us. We stayed there about six months and from then until June of ’79 we continued to fill in as apartment managers in Toledo, Marshalltown, and Des Moines while the owners were looking for new management. That year we were appointed to the Eddyville-Columbia charge. We were there a year when I developed blood pressure problems and had gall bladder surgery. I performed one wedding doped up on codine I had taken for the gall bladder pain but I think the marriage lasted.
In the spring of ’80 we moved to Guthrie Center and took over the management of a 15—unit motel that we had purchased. By October we had upgraded it enough to sell and we moved to the funeral home at Hartley, Iowa. That was quite an experience! We took care of the funeral home, answered the phone, and if needed picked up or sat with the bodies. I also was back up for the ministers of the Methodist and Congregational churches in Hartley.
We had one funny experience — the funeral director was gone, both ministers were gone, and I filled in for all of them. They called from the nursing home asking for Bill and Eileen Tomlinson saying, "We have a Methodist who died.“ I explained his absence so the caller said, "Do you know where the Congregational minister is‘?" I explained that I was also filling in for him. Then she said, "Will you tell Elmer to come get the body?" I filled in for him, too, and met with the family. I didn’t embalm the body.
At that time there was a little church in Gaza, Iowa about 15 miles from Hartley. It had been officially closed but three little elderly ladies were trying to keep it open for the children of the town. The town was full of children and goats. The parents would still be home in bed but when we drove into town it was like the Pied Piper of Hamlin. All the kids came running out, wanting to help carry something into the church. We served that church for the 18 months that we were there along with the other churches I was substituting for. We kept the Gaza church open. The times of service were arranged so that if I needed to I could serve all three any Sunday.
In April of ’82 we moved back to Guthrie Center into the funeral home in the same capacity as previously and proceeded to build our house at Lake Panorama. The minister at Guthrie Center was in trouble with family affairs, so I filled the pulpit a number of months, sometimes at the last minute. I was in the pulpit nearly every Sunday until ’S6. That year they asked me to take an appointment again, which involved getting releases from doctors.
We were appointed to Ross and Gray churches north of Audubon. Both churches were preparing to close because of the farm crisis. Ross is the center of the cattle feeding area and they were having a bad time financially. The churches had been in the E.U.B. tradition and this was the time when they were merged with Methodists. The transition was not easy.
Our ministry there, however, was an immediate success in both churches. Within two months of our going there they had changed their minds about closing, all their bills were paid, and some of the parishioners are still our good friends.
My lack of education has sometimes made me self-conscious but Dr. Summerbell assured me that experience had given me all the education I needed - all I had to do was go into a community and circle the people with my love and they would give it back. It certainly proved true in that charge. They were always doing something for us. It was there that we had our only experience with "poundings". It was like a shower for us every Christmas and at appointment time. Two fellows kept us supplied with pork and beef the whole time we were there. One lady kept us in rabbits.
In June of ’88 they needed that appointment for a student so they moved us to Bayard and Wichita which we served from our home at the lake. In ’89 I had another heart attack and the superintendent retired me. That didn’t stop my pulpit work, however. I was able to continue to take calls for Sunday services which wasn’t the pressure of a full—time charge. We were instrumental in two men taking calls for the ministry. Both have turned out to be strong servants of the Lord.
In ‘90 we sold the house at Lake Panorama and purchased one in Osceola. We bought it because it didn’t need anything but we have done extensive work remodeling to suit our taste. We continued to serve pulpits nearly every Sunday or when called until my heart attack June 14, 1995. The doctors warned the family to expect the worst but I had a dream that made me sure I wasn’t going to die, I may have been in a coma at the time.
In my dream I was in my home town and, along with a bunch of people, was rounded up and told to go to the funeral home, where we were going to die. Everybody around me was dying and I couldn’t even get to sleep. Early in the morning a man came to me, I remember now that the man was faceless. He called me by name and wanted to know what my problem was. I told him I wasn’t able to get to sleep, let alone die. He said he would check, which he did, and said I wasn’t ready to die at this time. Evidently there is something more I am supposed to do.
At one point during the recovery I reverted back to my stroke stage that had paralyzed my left side in 1992. I was home at that time and Margaret dialed 911. It was on a Saturday evening. I was taken to the emergency room where the doctor called it a mini-stroke. I was in Des Moines in the hospital four days, came home and had another one which left me completely paralyzed on the left side. Through therapy I made progress both in ’92 and ’95, but after five weeks I still cou1dn’t dress myself. The doctor would not release me until I could do that so the therapy continued. After two more weeks I could feed myself.
After I survived, the doctors and nurses said that I couldn’t make a full recovery. In fact, neither doctors nor nurses anticipated that I would never be able to take care of myself and would have to be taken to a nursing home. I have made a full recovery. We’ve been to seminars for recovering stroke patients and some are much younger, much more incapacitated than I, so we are fortunate.
Steven Alfred Musson graduated from the Oskaloosa Public School, Oskaloosa, Iowa in June of 1972, and graduated from Iowa State University in August of 1975 with a degree in economics and a minor in French. He spent five years in Ames at the University Bank and World Wide Travel which were owned by the same people. On December 17, 1977 he married Dori James originally from Clear Lake, now a recent graduate from Iowa State University with a degree in art and a teacher’s certificate. They are presently located in their beautiful home in Chatham, New Jersey. Steve is presently comptroller for a company called Biz Travel after spending 11 years with American Express. Dori has security licenses and works in sales.
Janet Musson Schoenwetter graduated from the Oskaloosa Public School, Oskaloosa, Iowa in June of 1974 and graduated from Patricia Stevens Finishing School at Milwaukee, Wisconsin in June of 1975. She spent three years with Malum Shoes and then moved to Aetna Insurance. She has continued her career in the insurance field and is presently employed with Time—Life as Training and Quality Assessment Officer. On August 17, 1976 she married Randall Schoenwetter. Randy originated in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and is a graduate of Milwaukee School of Engineering with a degree in electrical engineering. He works for a company that makes transformers for power companies.
On August 1, 1990 Janet delivered us our only grandchild. Amy (6), and her parents live in a beautiful home west of Waukeshaw, Wisconsin, overlooking the Pewaukee Lake. Amy was our retirement gift and the joy of our life. Her parents had been married 14 years when she came along.
In June, 1993 Janet had a terrible accident. Her jaw was broken in four places. She had almost perfect teeth but eight were damaged and dental work is continuing. She still has some dizziness and headaches.
We have enjoyed living in the area of our 22 greet nieces and nephews. Our lives have settled into kind of a busy routine. We have benefitted from having so many family members around — they and many friends have supported us during our crises. Our philosophy and a code we try to live by:
BE THE BEST
— Author Unknown —
If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill If you can’t be a highway, then just be a trail
Be a scrub in the valley - but be If you can’t be the sun, be a star;
The best little scrub by the side of a hill, It isn’t by size that you win or fall -
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. Be the best wherever you are.
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew Margaret’s favorite scripture: 1 Cor.
There’s something for all of us here. 13:13: Now these three remain: faith,
There’s big work to do and there’s lesser to do. hope and love, but the greatest of these is love
And the task we must do lies near. Bill’s favorite scripture: John 14:1-12.
Return to main page for Recipes for Living 1996 by Fern Underwood
Last Revised April 29, 2012