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It must have been in 1906 that we had the big year at the farm. Carrell must have been 14 and Mark 12. Father rented 160 acres adjoining, bought another team of horses and raised crops enough to pay off the mortgage. The following spring he was run over at the elevator by the wagon in which he was hauling corn and severely injured. He had already made one trip to a near-by college town, to prepare for a move to educate the children. He visted Nebraska Weslayan, at University Place near Lincoln, Grand Island College, the Baptist College of Nebraska, and I think, Doane College, at Crete, which was close enough to the farm, that we might continue to farm, while they attended there.
At any rate, the decision was to move to Grand Island, which we did in the fall of 1907. We kept the farm, which we called, "Home" thereafter, and father had enough for a year's living to purchase about two blocks of land and build a home, which we thought nice, tho its appointments were not modern. This was the realization of my mother's dreams, and the fulfillment of my father's promise.
This was the first time my father retired. He had always said he would rather wear out than rust out. He was busy the first year building the house. Then he had about an acre of onions which, he said were more work than 40 acres of corn. The next year came the strawberries, planted the year before. By Christmas time my parents decided to go to California for the winter, and because I was too small to leave home, they took me too. This was the second time he retired! He bought an orange grove in California, and went out earlier the next year to pick the oranges. This he greatly enjoyed. I picked enough to pay for a pair of clippers. They did not pull or twist the oranges off then as they do now. Then he sold the orange grove. That was the third time he retired.
This was about 1910, then father came home to Grand Island and sold the home and rented, while he built a new house. This was a smaller one than the first, designed for resale. He sold it soon after we moved in and then built one like it for a colored man who had looked at the first one. By the time we finished that, we had retired again to an acreage at the edge of the city. My older brothers were still at Grand Island College, but getting restless, wanting to study according to their future plans of life. In the fall of 1911, Carrell enrolled at the University of Nebraska, in Lincoln expecting to take Mechanical Engineering. This took him into Chemistry, and there he stayed. He later received a P.H.D. in Chemistry. In the fall of 1913, Mark enrolled, at the University of Nebraska, in the College of Agriculture. After Graduation he taught Agriculture for a year and then moved on to the farm at Beaver Crossing, where he has lived for 55 years.