General Notes

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BIOGRAPHY
[UL:George and Eva Smith:UL][BO::BO]
George Jacob Smith fi rst met Eva Mable Goodale when they were both
students at Moorhead State Teach er's College.  While going to school,
Eva earned some of her spending money by babysitting for Harry
Halvorson, who would become her second husband many yea rs after the
death of George Smith.  George and Eva were married on June 8, 19 23.
After George received his teaching degree, they moved to Holt,
Minnesota. Eva taught at that time with a two-year teaching
certificate from Moorhead S tate College.  One of their favorite
pastimes in those early years was working difficult math problems
together.  In 1926 they moved to Birchdale, Minnesota with their
infant daughter Virginia.  Their house was a teacherage just acros s
the schoolyard from where George was teaching.  There were times when
Ginny and Viv, as young girls, would sneak up to the school and peek
in the windows where their Dad was teaching.  At one time he got so
upset with Eva for not w atching them more closely that he had them
tied by long ropes to a tree near t he house.
In 1930 they accepted teaching positions at a little two room schoo l
in Mina, South Dakota, near the town of Aberdeen.  Dorothy and the
twins, D on and Donna were added to the family during that time.  It
was very dry durin g that time, with many dust storms and Eva often had
to hang wet bath towels i n the windows to keep the dust out of the
house.  It was also a time when many bums traveled from door to door
begging for food and bands of gypsies roamed the countryside.  The
gypsy women wore long skirts with many pockets and stole many items
from local stores, hiding their stolen goods in the pockets.  In 1 933
they returned to Birchdale, Minnesota to live in the same house they
had left three years earlier.  George taught at Indus High School,
where he was Pr incipal, with four teachers under his supervision.  The
little house was actua lly built as a one bedroom home, but George was
able to partition off part of the living room to make room for the
five children.  They used gas and kerosen e lanterns for lighting and
had no running water.  The well, with a hand pump, was two blocks
away.  In the winter they would often melt snow for doing dish es and
washing clothes, but drinking water still needed to come from the
well .  Dorothy had a vivid memory of one very cold, subzero day when
her older sis ters dared her to stick her tongue to the pump handle.
It stuck firmly to the frozen metal and in a panic she pulled away,
leaving the top surface of her to ngue painfully behind.  The toilet
was an outhouse in the back yard.  The hous e was heated by wood, which
was provided as part of George's salary.
In 1941 they moved to Littlefork, Minnesota and lived in a house that
had been the fi rst hospital there.  This was the first time that they
had a home with electri city.  George was Superintendent of Schools and
also taught some classes.  Whe n he needed a teacher to fill a vacancy,
Eva began teaching after 19 years of being a housewife and mother.
In 1943 the family moved to 506 Stanton Ave. in Fergus Falls,
Minnesota.  This was a small home that George had inherited fro m his
father, Jacob Smith.  The house next door was owned by Jacob's
brother, Jackson.  George's mother, Tina Smith, lived upstairs with
his uncle and aunt .  At that time George accepted a job in Alaska,
working with his younger brot her Jake as an electrician at the Air
Base near Anchorage.  He sent home check s of $700 - $800 which was big
money in those last years of World War II.
Wi th the money that Eva was able to set aside, Virginia attended
college for two years at St. Cloud State College.  While going to
school, she worked at Montg omery Ward and the Atwood Book & Gift Shop.
She then repaid the school loan an d the money was used to send Vivian
to college for two years.  At that time tu ition, room and board cost
only $420 each quarte