| Marshall County >> Other Index HARRIETT "HATTIE" MABLE CRAMER
Hattie traveled back and forth from Iowa to Kansas with her parents by horse and wagon, camping in tents along the way. She received only a third grade education. Eli S. BRUCE and Hattie may have met as children when their families were neighbors. They could also have met when both Hattie’s father, Charles, and Eli Bruce were working on the Keokuk Dam. Eli Bruce’s family farmed in the same area as Hattie Cramer’s family and she was friends with his sisters, Ella (Sarah Ellen) and Belle (Rachel Belle) BRUCE. She lived with her future husband’s parents for a time, too. After having been sent out to work with a farm family, Hattie returned home at the age of 12 (about 1903) when her father, Charles, left the family. (It appears Charles “wandered” a lot but came back to the family off and on.) Hattie took over the responsibility of caring for her younger brothers and sisters while her mother cooked and took in washing for construction crews in order to support the family. Hattie’s siblings included four brothers and three sisters, however, one brother died at age 13 in 1891, another at age 17 in 1901 and a sister also died at age 17 in 1903. Hattie was third from the oldest in the family. Hattie Cramer married Eli S. BRUCE on February 10, 1898 in Marshalltown, Marshall, Iowa. According to her daughter, Elizabeth, Hattie's mother (Emma Lytle Cramer) did not like Eli Bruce so when the family went to visit, he stayed in the car. She did not know why Emma didn't like Eli but Elizabeth said that some of the Cramer's had red hair and the hot tempers to go with it. She also said that Emma lived down by the railroad tracks in Marshalltown and took in washing to support herself and her children. At the time of her father, Charles L. Cramer’s, obituary of August 1914 Mrs. Hattie Bruce was listed as living in Marshalltown. Hattie and Eli had five natural children, three girls and two boys, and one adopted daughter. After the birth of her last child, Elizabeth, in 1917, Hattie’s health was never very good, but she still worked hard every day. Wash day was Monday, rain or shine. The children would pump the water, carry it into the house and heat it on the stove. The water was then put into the washing machine, which was worked by hand. The clothes were run through the wringer into two tubs of rinse water and after wringing the clothes out a second time; they were hung outside on the line to dry. In the winter the clothes would freeze stiff on the line. Tuesday was always ironing day and everything had to be ironed, even Eli’s long underwear. Cooking, baking, canning, pickle-making, everything was done at home by hand. During the catastrophic flu epidemic of 1918, Hattie went to other households to help nurse the sick. No one at the Bruce household contracted the flu. Hattie claimed that was because she cut onions in chunks every day and placed them on all the windowsills to keep sickness away. During the Depression years (late 1920s and early 1930s), Eli was fortunate enough to have a job and the family also had a small war pension from their son Leslie having been killed in France in World War I (1918). Because the Bruce’s considered themselves lucky during these difficult times, they were always helping others out with food and sometimes brought other families to live in their home for weeks at a time. Hattie often took in children to care for also. She took in a mentally retarded girl for nearly a year and taught her to walk and talk. When the child’s father remarried, he came to take her home. The father hadn’t believed his daughter could be taught, but after seeing Hattie’s results, he sent the child to school. In about 1929, when Elizabeth was 10 or 11 years old, Jeanette came to stay with the family. Jeanette’s mother, Helen Liebsch, was a single mother and had to work, so Hattie soon took in both mother and daughter. Later, Helen married Hattie’s son, Eli, Jr. Eli and Hattie Bruce adopted Jeanette. Since the Bruce family lived close to the railroad tracks in east Waterloo, hoboes often came for handouts of food. Sometimes they worked for the food and sometimes they didn’t, but Hattie never turned them away. The Bruce’s had a large garden so Hattie canned a lot. They also raised chickens. At that time there was no refrigeration except an icebox with a chunk of ice that was delivered once a week. Fred ELDRIDGE, a neighbor who later became father-in-law to two of Hattie’s daughters, made the icebox for them. The icebox was wood, lined with sheet metal and worked very well for keeping the milk and butter cold. After Eli retired from the W.C.F. & N. Company in Waterloo in 1934, he decided he missed the farm life and moved the family onto a small acreage near the Cedar River in Janesville. The family at that time included Eli, Hattie, and their two teenage daughters, Elizabeth and Jeanette. Elizabeth in particular did not care for the move from city to rural life at all and felt her parents were “too old” for life on a farm. On the small farm they raised chickens and pigs (although according to Elizabeth, the neighbor kept stealing their pigs) and had a team of horses for the farm work. One winter they ran out of coal and had to burn corn cobs for heat and cooking. Their son, Eli Jr., with the help of two of Fred Eldridge’s grown sons, managed to get through the deep snow to bring them some coal. By 1946 Eli and Hattie had returned to Waterloo from Janesville and lived at 38 Webster Street. Hattie Cramer Bruce died at Allen Memorial Hospital in Waterloo, Iowa on May 15, 1954. Prior to entering the hospital, she was living with her husband, Eli Bruce, at 1020 ½ Chalmers Avenue in Waterloo. She was buried May 18, 1954 at Fairview Cemetery, Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa. An observation written by her granddaughter, Phyllis Eldridge Friesner, says that “Grammy Bruce” (as all her grandchildren called her) had brown eyes and dark brown hair. She stood 5’2” and was a Baptist first baptized in Christian Church in Marshalltown. Later, after changing to Methodist, she was a charter member and founder of the Reformed Church. She was an active and strong Christian person; a Wesleyan Methodist. Submitted by Mary Eldridge |
Harriett Mable Cramer was born April 3, 1881 to parents Charles Lorenzo Cramer and Emma Rhoda LYTLE. Her place of birth is given as both Kansas and Iowa, but her death certificate lists her place of birth as LaCrosse, Rush, Kansas. She was known as Hattie and may have been named after her father’s mother, who was also named Harriett. Family stories say she was born in her parent’s covered wagon during one of their many trips between Kansas and Iowa.