Hazel Copus Taft

Hazel Agnes Copus was the sixth child of Leroy Copus and Julia Miller. She was born 16 March 1914 in Gays Mills, Crawford, Wisconsin. She was three years old when her father died. Leroy and Julia had seven children when he died. Julia married Royal Marlette on 19 August 1918.

Grandma wrote her life story some time ago...I wanted to share some things you probably never heard of before...

We used to pick berries and get a few blue berries and cranberries. We didn't go to the back of our first farm as it was a marsh...think cranberries grew there but probably not many.

Dodd (one of her brothers) and I used to hunt on Saturdays, would wade snow clear to our waist-got rabbits and partridges - it all helped. We'd really be wet when we got home. He was only 13 and shouldn't have been hunting.

Millie (a sister) and I stayed with Alf (a the oldest of the 7) and Amelia (his wife) on the first farm the folks had. Dodd had been down to the place 3 miles south to see about it and didn't come home when Amelia thought he should so she sent me to look for him on horse back. It was below zero and I was afraid to get off and walk because of wolves. It was night-I went 4 miles and didn't see him, so went back home. He had cut across and was there when I got there. I frosted my feet-had big blisters on them for a few days. They bothered me for many years.

Finally in January (year?) we all went to Madison - the folks were living in two rooms so you can imagine what it was like - Alf and Amelia went on to Iowa then. There was a fair sized closet and us kids slept on a cot in there.

Theda got pneumonia and then I did. I didn't go back to school that year. Anyway I was suppose to be in 8th grade and the school near us only went to 6th grade so guess where I went.

I didn't get over the pneumonia like I should have so the doctors thought I should go to the country. i went to Aunt Cora Whiteakers - near Soldier's Grove. She had had an operation and wasn't supposed to do heavy work, so I did the scrubbing, etc. I got there on a Saturday, went down on the trail to Boscobel, and Sunday morning at 5 o'clock they got me up to teach me how to milk. I milked my 4 cows night and morning. They were good to me, but I didn't get the rest I should have had.

On March 1, 1928 I went to Rocky Knoll San at Plymouth, Wis. Went on the bus and they met me from the San. March 16th I was 14 years old. At the San they had entertainment every one . If a church or school put on a play they would bring it out for the patients to see - had band concerts some in the summer.

One Christmas the patients put on a play and the big shots were invited, trustees, etc. I gave a reading and others acted out the birth of Jesus. They always had a banquet at Christmas - really put on a feed. The dining room was filled - it was a pretty room with a living on one end.

The first Christmas I was supposed to go home to Madison but the folks decided they couldn't afford it so I had to stay. Anyone what was up was allowed to go home for a week. There wasn't anyone to eat in the dining room so I had a tray in the ward. There was twins there about a year or a year and a half - they let me play with them while everyone was gone - otherwise we weren't allowed near them. The mother was a patient there so they had the children for awhile to make sure they didn't have it too.

In the two years I was there, Mother was there twice....