ESTHER COX
InteMewed
Sather
27 l4inutes
24, 197.3
M.ary; Speaking with I&stht~r Cox. The date is }lay 24th, 197.3• Participating in the recording is Ma:roy Sather. How long ago did you come to New Richtncmd?
You moved to New Id.ehmond from •• •
Mary: And where ... town did you come from?
Esthe:ro Sheldon, Wisconsin.
Mary: And did you come for a specific ... purpoee?
Esther~ We came to take over the Ford Agency t which we bought from :Er·nie Bell.
Maryt the agency was already established at that time.
Estherc Yes, uh huh. When we bought it it ·Was inactive and Ford Motor tusked us to take it over. t.ia.ry; Had you had an agency in Sheldon?
Esther: Yes, yes. It was a smaller town-a smaller agency,
Max•yt So this was a step ahead? (laughs)
Esther 1 A step ahead. l>1aryt AlthoUS}l reactivating .a business was maybe a little tough. Howu.what was a good week*s work at tbavtime? How
cars would
have hoped to sell in, say • a week o:r a month?
Esther: I suppose 10 new ears a month, p(n•haps was a good month, the first year we were here. Would have to be. Because there wasn•t any business. Wa had
Mary: Now did you sell just ears or did you sell trucks tmd ever}lthin.g else?
Esther: Cars and trucks.
Maryc Eva:r~hing put out by the Ford Motor Compa:n.y,
Esther: Yes, yes.
Ma.r.n
Were there any other cal'S in town. • •8nY other agencies. • •
I
.E8thert Yes, there was different ones, Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac was ax·onnd ther1..:.,
I suppose so.

Mar,rt
you were in a competitive business.
Esther: Oh yes. They were all established,
Maryi Now. where did you first·· start out?
Esther: In what is now Doboy ...
Mat'f# In the Elgin plant.
Esther i Is that Elgin? f-!a.rys Right
right across the street .from Krueger•
That Building?
Esthe:rt Yes. yes, that had been the Fo:x·d garage and.- .that's where we operated the first ••• eight years •• ,from that 'gal~age.
Mar.y: You had the trl-eountr agency plus the mechanic and .repair service thezh
Esther: Yes. Yes.
~iary: O.K. Now, you wex·e yourself involved in tht'hu
Esthert Yes, the boOkkeeper.
Maeyt The Bookkeeper• and. were right there all the time.
Esther: Yes. tong hours.
Mary: Now-well
1 that• s very intet·esting. ..1hat soxt of hours did you have to put in then? Has that changed much?
Ef3ther l Oh, we opened at seven and closed. unever earlier than ten.
Mary; All the time?
Esther: Including Sundays. f4axyt Oh, it was open on SuudaYth
Esther; That's right •
Mary: For Heaven sakes. l didn•t think that happened untU ... later years,
businesses stayed open on Sundays. Was that true of all the garages at ttiit time?
Esthe.N \ I would believe so. I'm not sure, but I would believe so.
Marya Oh well, th~~· s veey interesting. liow.uthe cars then were considerably
'different •
Esthel~~~ Yes. The t4odel A, of course, om· big selleJ." thert.

~iary: The Model A.
Esther; Yes. And we thought it was quite a car then.
Marya Do you
applooxblately how much a Model A sold for at that time? The approldma~e cost?
Eethert I·WOuld
300 dollars.
Ma;ryt Was that with all the attachments or did you sell extra ... extra things toot
Esther: Yes, we always sold extras then, yes. If we could get a stripped model, which was the be~at eelle:r 1n Dep:reesion years. l do:n•t :recall exactly, but
I believe it was somethine; like 300 dollars.
Marys That was a ... we•d consider it a good buy now. (laughs) :r•m eve it was ve:t'3rdi:f'ficult tor. maey of the people ....
That's right,
Ma:ryt Did you have a credit. pltm'f
Esther: Yes, F<n"d Motor had a credit plan. Andu.there was a credit company.
Mai'Y1 Did most of the people menage
make their p~ents Ol' did you have to take back ••• ?
Esthe:ra Oh.uduring llepr·ession years tnmy times you bad l!'epossessiona. Many times
was rather rougb, •• reposeeeeion.
!4aryt I'm
SU:t"(h
We., .were talking about caxts the other 4ey and we were saying that the early care
had
the long
Esther•: Yes. Not with the Mod.el A, but the Model T they did.
Maeyt The Model /! was an improvecl •••
Esther: It was an improved ••• a great improvement over the Model T. (both laugh)
· l often heat·d local people tell about the years and years they 'backed up the
Stillwater hill.
Maryt There was something about the. •,
Esther: It was eo steep.
Marya And there was no preseu:re ... no pump on the fuel tank or &omething ... worked by gravity, I guess.

Maryt The Model A was an enclosed car wasn•t it?
Esthert Yes.
Marya And the Model T' s were open.
Esthert They were open, with side cuxtainlh
Marys So you didn't get quite so dirty in the t~del A• (laughs)
Etathei'I No• not qUite eo dirt~, .. they were great.
Mary: Now, they had a eelf'•sta:J:i:.er on these too, didn't they?
Esther& Yes.
Marys \'las it the Model T that had to be cranked?
! lJfary: And someone was telling me there were many broken arrruh mlcyl Because they would backfire and,,.
Esther: Some of them would start hard and the:t•e were times that ... one thing I neve:r did . was c:rank one 1 .
Marys Oht didn't you?
Esthert No, (both laugh}
Mary; You eat in the .cax· and waited, huh?
Esthers That's 1-ight.
Mary: O,K, We were talking .. ,just a couple of minutes ago you mentioned the Depression a couple of times, 1934 would nave been right in
middle of
Esther: Yes, it was,
Maeya Can you tell me a little bit about your reeollect1ons of' the Depression years? The ••• prices were very very
money was very hard to , get •
Maryt Can you remember the,.,comparable price on a dosen eggs or something like that?
Esther t
On a what?
Mary: Ott a dosen eggs? Of course you p:t'Obably didn•t buy eggs from the $to:res then, did you?

-;-
Esther: We usually bought them from farmers and like that. I
recall the p;dee of
howevel' I x·ecall the
of meat which wathupez·ha.pts.utwenty cents a pound for what we pay a dollar-and-a-half for now. But i.t seemed as
to.,.harder
buy
then
in
Mary: Do you
the •••
Eeth<::u:·: I can remember all of us going out to Opal's which all the old-timers would
getting
beautiful steak
C«nts •••
Macyt 'that \"las the whole meal.
Estbert That wae the entire meal,
cents.
Marys And eve;cything with
Esthe;N ·Everything with it-salad• french friee• coffee• all fox· 60 cents.
Mary: Not bad, (laughs) Do you recall what you would have paid in salary for one of your mechmdcs per month at that time? Could you figu:·e ... could remember but I'm just trying to figure out, •• a comparable wage, •• what would have been
I really csn•t
l4ary$ You think it's hard to
that,
Esther; Yes. it is ••• I haven•t even looked at the books for so many years. what sort o:r living corlditions would you have run into dur·ing the De-
years? Were there
Esthert Rents were vf!lry lqw, as well &fll evtlrything else. We paid like 25 dollars a month rent for a four-bedroom home.
Marya The whole house.
Esther: The whole house, The entire house for 25 dollars a month, so things were was cheap. t4aryt Yes, you be.rl:.. Do you recall that tbe:re were many people out of' wcn:·k in New
Richmond? isthert Very tnanJ• Yes, very many. It was easy to get help,

-6-
Mal--yc How d.i.d they handle the situation to take aare of tbeae people who didn't wave an;r wo:r·k?
Esther: ~lell* it was of cou:rse much hax·der to get Relief in those years than it is now. It wa.a quite di:f'!'icu.lt. There always were &ofl,le who did get it ... there was much red tape to get
and there was unemployment also, but that was only .a pe:t·eent of what they were earning so it was pretty bard for a whole family to live on .unemployment in those days too.
Mary: Do you recall the banl<:s cloed,ng? That must have happened when you wex·e in
Sheldon.·
E$the:r• Oh yes, yes. Yes, I well :remember the banks closing. toia:ryr··-'was that ••• ?
Esthert And that created quite a difficulty .f'oz~ everyone. It was quite some time bei"o:re ~ from your mos1ey. Tightened up for· quite a while
th!At made all husiness poor~
Mary: ,'fheH.that must have been quite .a .shock to everybody. Did you kind of wake up one monw1g . tmd the be.nka were closed?
:Esther r That t s right, that • s right • We bad no wa:rning • mary~ No. warning.
Esthert ,.,that. I r.eoall. tfo, we didn't•
Mary: Did you
a radio at
time?
Esther: Yes, we did., But as I :·ecall we didtl•t get too good of reception and perhaps only a few stations. tlEi didr1't get r~e
Marys Was the px·ogratnming on 24 hours a day J.il'e it is now, or did they Just run certain hours?
Esther:; Just certain hourth I don't think we had any afte:t" perhapts.ueleven or possibly mi,d,night, until morning. f4ary: Uh huh. You :~trere talking about it was easy to get help.
Esther t Yes.
Mary; Did you have household help as long as you were wol•kizig?

Esther• Yes, ! did. Yes, I did. And that was ... that wasn't bard to get eitbtu:·.
Mar·yc Was this he:Lp that moved in or did they used to come in?
E$thez·• Both ways I bad it. I had some that came every day and I had some that lived with
Maryt Can you z·ecall how much you had to pay to get ... (laUihs) ... numbei'fhu
.
. these numbers are veey difficult
1 aren't'' they?
~
Not at Ill. After all the
.I just forget.
Marys Tha.t•s :right. lnas it usual for women to be world.ng full-time then,
Esthert Not no, it wasn•t. There were very few women whO were working full-time then• There .were many women that perhaps helped out a few hO\U's a day • but there were very few that worked a full day.
Mary: You said that were on.-.that 't«>men that were on salaries during that time ... had to quit if th61 got mat"ried.
Eathel'l That•e right. There were vecy few married women that kept their jobs
Ma:ryrafter they wereu.f.IIost o.f them quit and stayed home.
Was that just ... that a law or was it just a sort oi' ... a. standard policy?
Esther: It wasn't a law but it was a policy, I thir1k
1 and a rew stayed on hut not manY-just a ,very very few women that worked tull-time.
Max·y: What have you noticed since you•ve lived 1n New aicb1nond., a lot of changes are gradual, but what have you par·t:i.cularly noticed over the years?
Esthe:rt I've always enjoyed living in New Richmond. I thought New Richmond was veey 1dnd to us. Vet.7lovely peopleu.and I've always call~
homth ),
Mary: Youu .you have noticed that there has been some growth.
Esthert Oh, very much so, yes. Therefore, as
! i f,
J
grew ... and would bring other peopJe,
;
{:\
:in. • ,it expanded in many ways, ae far as social functions and everything elsef\f: waan*t as many cliques as there used to be, so to speak, f .
P'
~··
J,,
! ••• thoroughly enjoyed living here. Well,,.way back before my time there were ~rimarily
nationalities ••• or three nationalities here.
Macyc And
wathu
'
' '

Esther; That was the Irish and the Norwegian and. the Swede· and they were ••• there
W$.S always a li.ttle ... a little feud going on-mo:re or lEHss-espee:ta.lly with the )'O'Ullgtu.~ yo'UngeterfLin school;; like
But as years
on &nd more people moved in • tha.t k.Uld of., •
It sort
faded
Mt.U7J
yeah, when you first came, t·bese three nati~ties pretty much kept
;.:' distinctly to themselves? Flldrly mueh ao?
Esthert Fairly much
$0•
However, they were all very kind to us and we didn*tu• didn~t exactly belo:n.g to arq of
Marys But
awhile for everybody to get integrated.
that•s
t>taey:
when
bQys were growing
in
Riel':lt:nond~un•did.uthex•e
quite as many things for the kids to do. There wasn•t a swimming pool ...
Esther~ They swam in. the Widespread•
Marys night up in the Widespread.
Esther; Right up in the Widespread. (both laugh)
~larys Did they have the swimming beacb organized th$1? Did they have the ropes and tbit:tge? n ,or did your kids just go right up end. u
Esthe:rt No, ub uh. When we originally came there was nothing. Along 1n the
~:r, later summer, then it was alwars a difficult time because o£ wh$t the;y used to call "Dog D&)'ls•• and the . green on the ri. ver and you had to insist ·
·that they not go swimming for a certain length of time, which was hard on
.j,
..
! yoqsters, because they loved it.
Marys !he Widespread ha.s been turning green tor many years.
Esther: Oht yeth Nothing like it is now. But it would get gx-ee;n and just wasn't
Max·yt 5o what did. the ldda do during. u?
Esther: Oh, they skated. They'd take their brooms and their shovele and go up and!·

Ma'ryi '!'hey skated up at the Widespread too,
Oh yes. They
swimming. They played l:'tall as they do now,
sure there wasn't an.vwhere neu the x·ecreation that•a offered now but it seemed to me they kept buS, •
Marya These were i l l unorganized things,
Est herr Only unorganized, that • s right •
~~ary. Just
out and ...
Esther;
A
Esther: A group of their f:t'iends and. • .I think ••• I think they were perhaps as happy as you.ngsters are now-maybe more so, than they are with the orgmlized.
Mary• I'm inclined to agree with ,.Ou. {laughs) Now one thing we do have to finish wM,t yea:i.' then did you move out of that building? l~twn. ••
Esther I You meanu • t4arys When you started out you were in the building aeross from
Esthert' Yet:;. We moved out oi' there irl • 40. uin '41 and then we were building a.."ld we moved into that in
Ma.cyt The build:ing in the ... the.--.
Esther& Well; we moved out in
and we moved up there in '42 is \'lhat we did.
M~cy1 Youu .you built
building behind Standard Oil.
Esther t Standard Oil, uh huh.
Macyt And
:t•efetted to
the !·f & L? Building?
b\:cl.lding
it •
t-4 &
Mary# Oh, u.':t huh.,
Esther~ But
was our building.· \~e built it andu .leased it to ~1 &
:r,. nave for . ye&l~$ and years and yea:ra.
\
1
Mar71 Oh, I see. I didn•t even realize that was a CO.ll: building.

Esther: uthad to do that.-.was too small. But 1n wartime JOU Just couldn't get material.fh
Mar;yt So you put up what you could.
Estbert Uh huh• And we got by in
but~ it was much much too small $rid we mew we had to do something different
M&.t7$ And then you put up the present building.
Esthert·. We moved in
in 'lt/J•
Maryc In 1949•
built
Maryt What is the address on that.uthat's South Knowles. almost down past Somerset
right
and
Knowles isn't
Maryt Oh, so.-.well
1
I think that
locate it for ow:· purposes it• a one building
JayCee
"Esther t '430.
Mary: 430 South I(nowles.
Esther# Uh huh, yes. . lilaeyt When you mentioned that ~~,. was tough to get materials during the. • .w()l,~ld War
:;-:~;;·~:\:··
II, that sort of reminds me of another subject. You people &ll went th:r·ough difficult times in the Depression and then rou had World War II.
\!Tar II.
MaX7t And what do ,.ou ree~l about ~~orld Wa:r· II? I vaguely remember rationing.
"~~_(·
Esthe:t"# Uh huh-that was rough• we had rationing and of cour" we were ehort of help. Wade had been with us eve:r since we eeme to New Riehmol+(i. ena. ••• was alw31s yQur right-hand man, ~ust always web._ a wonderM person, and he went
.....
_
Ma:ry• !his was Wade ~J'ohnson.
Esthert JohntJOn, uh huh.
Maeyt He•s back world.nshutook hirn backu•

lsthert Came back f:rom
1 came back to work for us and is still with us. You can imagine-be 40 years if he*d worked for
U$ outside of the wartime, you know.
Mau·yt Uh huh.
Esther: :But it· was veey herd to get good h~p in wartime. It was hard to get etn"a and you knowt for a while they didn't make ears.
Ma.eyt The Cal' business was mayb~t not the business to be in during the war· years.
Oh,. it was tough because you eouldn*t get any
earai you
They wer~
had
and
was
And of course, used ears tl!Gl.d f~r a premi:um which. • .,ou were out of used ears in a short tim.-you eoul.dn
get 'em. And they were ratioriitle; new ew:·e so-..
Mw:•yt Did they ratio11 tix•es and gas?
Esther I And· car~; too.
Ma.r~n And gas•
Esthera Oh, gas. l'Je don•t mention that! (both laugh)
~iary: We're back to it asa.U1•
Esther: Oh, it• e a terrible thing.
Dad,
$0 generous • .,.it he knew you well and you came in and said naee, I just don't have wny ticket left and I have to go all the way to Amery-and could I get by with two gallons of gas-." "Yeah, yeah.•• Do you know that the dq they · called it off we didn't have enough tickets in our place to buy 100 gallons of gas? We would have just had to close if it had lasted any lor~er • And you see gr&duaJJ.y-everfbody comes. And somebody comes and wants 20 gallolls end only have tickets enough for l.O or 12, and he never could say no, so we were short and short and short and short and.-.three days bef'o1·e it was called off I said
"Wellt I don't know what y-Gu•re going to do for the next load
gas, you just don't have any tickets•" "I don•t either, but I guess it•s easier to close the station than to say no•" So tha:t.• s what probably we would have done.
Marys You were saved by ·the beU;,

-12•
:Esth(!lrc Yes.
can
of all your other work, had to hmJ.g
those silly old tickets and not only collect your credit card and take your
and give your slip and all that crap, you still had to hang onto those· tickets and
you
Mary: You had to
in your tickets,
they would give you ...
Esther: !es, we had to turn them
before the oil man would give you f!J1J.'! gas.
any gas. Food was ratie>ned too, wasn•t it? Certain things.
Meat •• ,
Esther; Oh, sure,
t•ieat • .
Eethert Butter. Oh, just evecyth:hng.
was exceptiomuJ.y fortunate. My sister, by the ·way is comin(g todq, .lived With me.
husband was in s&•vice., .m1d she was a :nurse ·and she had a little bo;r.-ubab;r.uand she came and lived with me about three months• In the meantime, both my parents were still li'Ving,
They were both sick and they came to live with me, When
have that big a household ~u get by much easier on rationing than with just two or three
Mar;rr people.
tor
H$8.VM sakes.
like for instance, you bake a eake-wel.l, you bake a cake if there • s two people, but if there • e a fifth or a sixth ;yot. • d still bake a cake
And then-everything goes i'arther when there•
larger fmnily. That t
·my redeeming feat\U"e in wmime when I had this house.ttal.
Ma..ry# Each person was alotted so many papers or couponlh••
El!ri:.hers Each person, uh huh, yes. You got tokens and all these tokens-when you bought you had to tum in
you
for meat, or for sugar, oh ever,Jt.hinthuMust be
~fax-yt· Now..,.clothing was not rationed ae I X..ecall, but you just simply couldn't get certain thingat•• lsthert No, you couldn't get certain things, But no, it wacm.•t rationed.

Maey1 It Will impossible •
Esthert Yes,
was hard. I learned one leeeon then that I never forgot~ (coughs)
I hope
isn•t on.
Ma:ryt tee, it's on.
Est-her's story was real :interesting and we didn't reall;y have to turn off the mae~~ at
Now, tell me what you were Just eqing ab()ut charge acco\lllts.
Esther& Well, I lea:med then that it was ase to have a charse account and,..,.
was rationed and stores couldn't get it.
saved it for their charge cust-omers. If you didn't .. have a charge account ther wouldn't sell it to
So therefore I opm1ed sewral c~ge accounts.
Maeyt Opened •em all over, huh?
Opened thfml
ever. (both laugh)
Mary; I'll haw to :r~bcu." to
rq huebar1d•
Esthet>t It is cond.eal., you know, t<>.uis it off?
Maryt ~Iot it•a still on and we a.x·e $till tal~. .,.Another thing I :t?eraember
Esthet't t~o, that was hard too,. Very hard.
Maey-c Ju.&t certain things on
t!lQse
tough times and • .-
Eetbel~t . They were hapPY time£h I guess everybody was sort of in the ll!lame-.. predicatnent 8lld ·SO everybody got •lone;.
Mary:i When everybody is in something together it's easie,r.
Eather: It's easier, much easier.•
Maryt Then you•
odd
·.··~
Esther: And smnetimes l think it ·was good for young people.
M$l7: The•.•
tough
l&the:N 'fo bout! don't
they l'etnem'ber
I dGn*t think young$ters like

-14mine :ree.~w what it was aU about and ·1et I believe they remember a certain amount· ot
which is-which is good:.
children
than
~~ay'be.
wouldn't mu:'prise mth
Maryc Well, this hae b$en a 1/eey pleasant visit
and thank you very much,