Conflict: Strand v. Strandt

 This week's prompt was "Conflict." I can think of no bigger conflict in my family tree than the court case of Carl Strand suing his parents William and Mary Strandt over ownership of the Strandt farm. Sources for this post come from a summary of the final case before the Michigan Supreme Court, personal remembrances from family members, newspaper articles, and city directories. This is by no means a complete story of the case. Hopefully that will come later with more information.

William Strandt and Mary Pulsipher were married June 8, 1898. The 1900 census finds them living in Watson Township with William's parents, Karl and Wilhelmina Strandt. Oldest child Eva is one year old. Carl and Ruth are born in Michigan. Youngest son Howard is born in 1909 in Illinois. Soon after though the family moves back to Michigan. The 1910 census finds the family living in Trowbridge Township. William's father Karl lives with them but William is listed as the Head of household. In 1920 the family is listed as living in Watson Township again. There are no addresses listed on any of these census records so I'm not exactly sure WHEN William and Mary came into possession of their farm. I DO know that the farm was given to William and Mary by Mary's uncle Charles Brownell. Charles was involved in the lumber trade and made a lot of money. He moved to Louisiana and was QUITE successful there. He'll get his own blog post one day. Here's a picture of the farm from the early 1900's. 

Here's a picture of William and Mary standing by the well.

Fast forward to 1926. William and Mary are living in Kalamazoo, Michigan with Carl and his wife Mildred. According to the Kalamazoo City Directory, William and Mary and son Howard are living at the same address as Carl and Mildred and their three children, Howard, Viola and Marylaine. Ruth has married, but she did graduate from Kalamazoo Central High School, so I'm guessing she may have lived with Carl and Mildred too? This surprised me as I didn't know the two families had previously lived together.

William and Mary go back to the farm. The Depression hits and everyone is facing financial hardships. William falls into debt and is in danger of losing his farm to the bank for failure to pay taxes and bills. A deal is struck with Carl and Mildred. Carl and Mildred will move in and take over the farm. William and Mary will move out. If William and Mary become unable to care for themselves they can move back to the farm.  An agreement was entered into on November 3, 1933. Carl took possession of the farm on February 1, 1934. Carl secured a loan of $2000 from a bank. He spent $1800 paying off the mortgage, liens, and back taxes. He spend the other $200 to make improvements to the farm. Putting up fences, fixed the roof, bought 2 cows and a manure spreader and made the farm workable again.  All parties agreed that Carl's hard work saved the farm from going under. However, William and Mary, who had agreed to move out, didn't, and therein lies the rub. 

On October 24, 1935 Carl filed suit to have William and Mary leave the house, as they had agreed. William and Mary, and Carl, Mildred and their now 5 children were all living in one small house. Each occupying different parts of the house. William and Mary's claim was that they needed help and support and couldn't live on their own. They filed a counter suit against Carl and Mildred. Carl had agreed that if his parents needed help they could return home, but they had never left in the first place, and the house was simply too small for all of them to live there peacefully. Carl and William argued over farming techniques and property. Supposedly Mary didn't help Mildred much with the housework. 

This is taken from the testimony.

We quote from the cross-examination of Carl Strandt:

" Q. Your parents have always treated you pretty nice, haven't they?

" A. I never had much complaint up until we moved down there.

" Q. The trouble is now that two families can't get along in that house?

" A. That is the foundation of it."

The court found in favor of William and Mary in the first trial. Carl and Mildred appealed and the case went to the Michigan Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court threw the case out, saying that neither party had proved their part. Even though neither side officially won, William and Mary DID move out of the farm after this case. During the trial, Carl's brother Howard and older sister Eva apparently sided with their parents and thought Carl should just let them live at the farm. Because of this, Carl grew mad at them and decided to stop talking to them. He never spoke to either one again, and forbid other family members to speak to William and Mary. From what I've heard though, other family members, including Mildred, DID speak to William and Mary after the case. Even visiting them. they just made sure not to tell Carl. ;)

When Carl passed away, Raymond Henrickson, husband to Carl and Mildred's daughter Viola bought the Strand farm. I believe one of Ray's sons owns the farm today. So, 100+ years later, the farm is still in the same family. 

This is a complicated story to tell. Every time I research the Strandts or find new family members I seem to get a few more pieces added to the puzzle. If you have anything to add, stories, comments, corrections, please comment below.

Thanks for reading!

PS. This is from the Strand family Bible. It contains hand written history of the Strand family, coming to America, and of the court case. It's very cool because this is first person testimony. I've tried to make the picture as big as I can so it can be read. The part about the court case is near the bottom.